-Amy-

Staring at the maps spread out in front of me, I'm trying to correlate the information here with what Tails managed to download earlier, but I've reached the end of my concentration and now all I'm getting is a headache. I shake my head and look down again. Robotnik has a Chaos Emerald in base #25J, and probably one at #3H, then we're not certain where the others are. Both those bases are heavily guarded. I look up at the sound of footsteps; it's Tails, an odd expression on his face. I'm afraid I know what he's going to say even before he opens his mouth, and a hollow, sick feeling starts to form somewhere inside me.

"Amy? I was trying to get into the network again, and… and it's a - a hive of activity. Couldn't stay on, but I found out what it was."

He sounds afraid, unhappy, and the feeling just gets worse.

"It was - it was centred about a disturbance… where Blaze and Crossfire were looking," he continues, voice sounding as though he's about to break into tears. I don't feel so good myself, either.

"Was there any mention of deaths or prisoners?" My voice comes out a little harder than I'd intended, sharpened by fear, but Tails knows me well enough by now not to mind.

"N-no, not that I found, but… there wasn't time…"

They can't have died! They can't! Blaze always knows what he's doing, there's no way they could have been - killed. Dead. Blaze and Crossfire. Surely not? Who am I trying to fool? It comes to all of us eventually, like Crossfire said… just like he said.

I suddenly realise that I'm shaking, that there are tears trembling in my eyes. Tails steps forward and just rests his hand on my shoulder as a kind of silent consolation. The little gesture almost makes me break down completely. I rub a hand across my eyes and pick up the transmitter microphone, keying in Sonic's frequency.

"S-Sonic… please, you and Shadow must come back now. I -" I break off before he can catch the choked sob in my voice. For all that Sonic's returned to us, we're still on the run, on the defensive, losing ground with every day. I knew that sooner or later this would happen, would have to happen. I thought I could take it… I guess I can't as easily as I'd thought.

"Oh Tails, why? Why did it have to happen? Blaze said - he said he knew…" I can't carry on, start crying uncontrollably into Tails' shoulder. He just holds me, lets me stay there, trying to give me what comfort he can, though I know he feels no better himself.

A short time later, a loud crash echoes through the building, as if someone pushed a door open hard enough for it to hit the wall with a bang. Tails and I jump, survival instincts taking over, automatically separating and looking at the doorway, I with gun in hand, he ready to tailspin into the intruders. Scant seconds later, Sonic and Shadow run in, looking at me. Sonic's first to speak.

"We came as fast as we could. What is it?"

"Tails says there's a disturbance… around where Blaze and Crossfire were searching. They - they're dead…" I bow my head and stare at the floor on the last part, unable to look up. Perhaps if I hadn't…

"A 'disturbance'? Did they actually catch anything?"

"I - we don't know. He didn't have time to find out…"

"Then in that case, they probably didn't, or it'd be all over the network. Besides, unless Eggman's got a lot smarter since I saw him last, used to be you'd be more likely to get hit by a car than one of his robots! You didn't use to give up so easy, Amy. If anyone can avoid those robots, however good they are, it'd be Blaze - right?" He's right, and he's daring to hope far more than I have in a long time. His words fire me with new hope, and I can tell they've affected Tails, too.

"We'll have to just wait for them, at least for now. Everything's on high alert, so the more of us out there, the worse our chances'll get," Tails says, but his voice is suddenly brighter, like his expression. Sonic's given us hope again, by refusing to give in, just like he used to. Why hadn't I even really considered the possibility that they could have survived? Have I become so expectant of defeat that I'm losing before I start to fight?

You didn't use to give up so easy, Amy. Maybe that's why we keep on losing… because we've forgotten how to win.