-Sonic-

For the first few seconds after seeing her, all I can do is stare. I hardly recognised her at first, but now I'm seeing more and more similarities to the girl I once knew. Or thought I knew… sort of. She's very different now; I don't know if I ever knew her all that well any more. I guess I was mostly occupied with other things… or maybe I just never paid her much attention; maybe I never looked past her annoying crush on me. But still, she's obviously changed. That hardened toughness, as if there were a second skin right under her real one, made of steel. She's not the soft little Amy Rose I remember, she's something very different now. She's changed with age, too, doesn't look so childish any more - like Tails, she's very different, and it's disconcerting. Still, Tails was easier to recognise.

"Amy?!" I realise I must sound daft, but it's too late now. At least she seems equally surprised.

"S-Sonic?!"

Her spikes are longer than before, I think, perhaps a little darker. Her eyes hold both sorrow and a steely resolve, and somewhere along the line her features have changed, just a little, so she's not cute any more, she's… I guess I should say beautiful, but it's hard to apply that to the Amy I remember.

"What - how - what are - Tails, how…" She sounds like she thinks she's dreaming.

"Well, to tell the truth, Amy, I'm not sure," Tails answers, a little nervously almost, and I hear echoes of his old self in his voice. "After the impact, I rushed in to have a look at Sonic, especially when I noticed the power was fluctuating. He should have been dead, but instead he was awake!" That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. I remember the sudden pain, the inability to breathe, in that strange place, the ocean-that-wasn't, with the previously-broken ice at the surface.

"But, Tails, I mean, why? Why now? We've done so much, tried everything you could think of - and that's a lot - and all this time, he's never so much as stirred!"

If I don't listen closely, she almost sounds afraid. I notice myself swaying slightly and sit on a nearby chair - presumably Amy's - before they spot it, too. I think Tails has seen, but he doesn't say anything. He seems to be thinking about what Amy's just said.

"Maybe… no, that's not right…" He's just thinking aloud, I realise, so she can listen. "Maybe… You know how Sonic's always so… alive… you know… how he never gives up… Sonic always holds on to life… remember that time, on the ARK, when we all thought he was dead… when things get desperate… he always finds a way… maybe… maybe that's what brought him back. See, for a long time now… he hasn't had to wake up… he's healed, slowly, and nothing's ever happened… we were so careful… but when things get hard… Sonic never gives up! So you see, he came back!"

"Are you saying that, all this time, he's never woken up because he never had a good enough reason?!" Now she sounds almost… angry. I don't quite understand.

"Sort of. See, I think that, maybe, he's been… trapped… in his mind. But when you're about to die, you fight back with everything you've got, unless you've given up, and Sonic never gives up!"

"Yes… when you're about to die, you fight with everything you've got, often more than you thought you really had. I understand that." For a moment her voice sounds completely out of place, her tone almost impossible for who I thought she was - she talks like she knows very well what she's talking about, like she's felt it herself. Where did little Amy learn that? She's changed a lot, I think again. Tails turns to me.

"Sonic? Did you… feel anything, before you woke up, I mean?" I don't know quite what he wants, slowly start to tell him about the strange dream, if that's what it was.

After a while, Tails exclaims "So I was right! Sonic's been trapped on the wrong side of consciousness, and never had the impetus to try and break free 'til now!"

Amy nods. I think she understands exactly what he means. It's strange, Tails not talking to me, talking to her instead. He always spoke to me, almost always, even when he was supposed to be telling someone else sometimes. When I was there and he'd figured something out, it was usually me he'd talk to, not even realising he was shutting the others - when there were others - out. I suppose with me gone, he turned to Amy for support… and she helped him put his life back together. And after that, I guess he stayed with her. Tails needs companionship. He can go it alone, and he does pretty well, but he still needs a friend, and I wasn't there to be it. For the first time, I know what it's like to be on the outside. I'm not sure I like it.