Amy's scream broke Sonic apart inside. The gag now utterly ineffective, she looked like she was trying to dislocate her jaw to sound out her cries of distress. The effect chilled – the gaping mouth, bits of black coming out, vibrating and hollering. The screams alone would have been enough to make Sonic upset, but what really got his attention was that she was crying.

Oh, how she was crying.

Her tears streamed down her face in ugly rivers, leaving shiny red trails under her eyes. She struggled harder against her restraints. Her chair wobbling without tipping. Her own body shook. She gasped for air every second or two, the exertion of it all seeming too much to bear. In fact, Sonic couldn't bear it – he rushed over, smashing her restraints open and giving her an embrace before destroying the devices that were causing her pain. Screw the danger, screw the mind controlling nanites, she would be free!

…or at least he would have done those things, if it weren't for Shadow.

His boyfriend's grip on him, originally one of comfort, was now strong as steel. Sonic's own thrashing and struggling did nothing against it, as it held him fast in place. He darted his eyes around the room, looking for something that could distract or disarm him, but all he could see were the statues bearing witness to this whole affair. "What are you doing?" he yelled. "Let me go! She's hurt!"

Shadow huffed, trying to keep still. "She isn't hurt. She's trying to get you to let her loose so she can get away from the signal!"

"Because it's hurting her!"

"Because it's the only way the nanites can stop what is happening."

Sonic turned to look at Amy once again, her breathing heavier than before. She wasn't screaming anymore, but not for lack of trying. Her mouth gaped open, small hoarse sounds coming occasionally. Sonic felt his own eyes gathering tears, despite himself. "Shadow, you need to let me go," he said. "I don't want to hurt you to do it, but if you're too stubborn to listen-"

If anything, Shadow tightened his grip. "I'm the stubborn one?" he said. "That's rich."

Sonic closed his eyes and, trying to be controlled, felt his spines sharpen behind him. Not too much – he didn't want to impale Shadow, after all – but enough to cause some sharp cuts. He knew nearly immediately that he overshot. The cry and loosening of Shadow's grip happened quickly, just a moment. That moment, though, was all Sonic needed to shift his weight and throw Shadow off of him, breaking the hold and sending him crashing to the floor. He tried not to look too closely at his boyfriend's sprawling form, or on the small trails of red that sprinkled down the path he fell. Instead, he rushed to Amy's side, starting by undoing her gag.

"Sonic?" she whispered; her voice hoarse. "Everything's blurry. I feel so tired…."

A smile came on his face, the dried remnants of his earlier tears cracking on his cheeks. "Amy, you're going to be alright." The words felt empty when he said them, but her own smile – a real smile, from actual emotion instead of hollow delirium – told him that he said the right thing.

"Where… where am I?"

"Sonic, don't answer her!" Said hedgehog snapped his head to the voice. His eyes widened at the sight of what he'd done to Shadow. Gashes up and down his torso still bled from the cuts made by his spines – not heavily, but strongly enough to draw his attention. He was sitting up, aggravating his injuries, but didn't seem to be concerned about that. Instead, he was concerned about the two of them. "We don't know if she's acting, or what she's telling the others?"

"'The others?' I'm confused. What others?" Amy started to cough, flecks of dried black coming out of her mouth. "Ugh, that's disgusting," she muttered to herself. Sonic gestured at her with both hands.

"I don't think any of The Taken would call their lifeblood or connection or whatever 'disgusting,' do you Shadow?"

"We can't trust her!"

"And what exactly was your plan for when we got this far? You said something about being able to vet if Amy was in control of herself, right? What was this great plan of yours?"

Shadow grunted as he stood up, pressing his hands to his wounds. He shuffled in his step closer to the two of them, until he was just outside of her range. He looked at her straight in the eyes, unwavering. "What did you tell me back on the ARK? Back when it was just the two of us?"

Amy sighed, then blinked a few times. "I told you that you should save the people of the earth, even though they can be trivial and selfish."

"Why?"

"Because if they tried their best, and never gave up on what they wished for," she said, a sideways glance towards Sonic, "that they always had a reason to be happy. That that's part of what made them good."

Sonic had never heard about this encounter. He guessed nobody had other than the two of them, which had made Shadow so confident in this answer. The other fell to his knees, the tension holding him up seeming to vanish. He tried to picture in his mind how that would have gone – Shadow, consumed by rage and a desire for vengeance, faced with Amy's hope in the very ambition that was now falling apart around them. "It's really her," he said. "Sonic, let her go. Tell her everything."

Some food, water, unbinding, and explanations later, Amy was pacing up and down the stone floors of the building. "It still feels uncomfortable when I hold still," she said, "like my insides are all… grainy." Shadow still eyed her warily but was more focused on patching up his own cuts and bruises. Sonic offered to help, of course, but Shadow only glared at him in response. So instead, he paced next to her, also grateful for the ability to move around.

"You're still feeling okay?" he said, the shock from earlier having fully worn off.

She looked at him with a tired expression. "I'm still processing, Sonic. You said that this has been going on for…?"

"Four months. Well, almost five. You kind of lose track of time when stuck indoors, so I don't know how long exactly."

"Four months! And I only half remember it. I have dreams that I remember more clearly than that."

"Well, if I were you, I don't think I'd really want to remember it either," he said with a small laugh. She joined him, and for a moment, Sonic felt happier. How long had it been since he could do that? He'd joke with Shadow, sure, but their senses of humor were one of the few things of theirs that didn't really mesh. Some things were easier with Amy, he had to admit.

She pursed her lips, then winced. "My mouth tastes terrible. All metallic-y."

"Hehe, sorry, I don't exactly have a toothbrush on me Ames."

"You don't have to apologize, Sonic. You're doing everything you can."

The air in the room seemed to grow heavier. "Why do I get the feeling you're talking about more than just dental hygiene, Amy."

She rolled her eyes, but grinned. "You saved me. You always do. And I still want to thank you." She leaned in to kiss his cheek, but he leaned backwards and away.

"Amy, there's something I should tell you. Something that happened while you were… gone, I guess."

"Oh no. What else is there, other than robots taking over everything from the inside out and society crumbling?"

"I… well, it's about me and Shadow."

She crossed her arms, her mind obviously shifting into problem solving mode. "What about you two? Some new Chaos power? Or some curse from another enemy at the same time? Oh, are you the chosen ones in some other prophesy this time?"

"No, nothing like that. It's just.…" Sonic looked away from her. "Amy, we're dating." He stopped, taking a look at her to see how she reacted. "We have been for a while now. I think… I think you should know that."

Amy stopped in her pacing. She looked at Shadow. She looked at him. She looked at Shadow again. "Really?" she said.

"Yeah, really."

"For how long?"

"Pretty much since this whole robot situation started." He winced. That didn't sound very good; it made it sound like the two events were related. And now that he thought about it, they kind of were – would he and Shadow have gotten together if they hadn't been on that first mission from GUN together? If they didn't have helicopter rides through star filled skies, road trips down the coast, nights hidden together in dark caves hiding from their former friends?

"But… how? You two have never really gotten along. I knew he stopped by when the thing with your leg was happening, but so did everyone else, and you didn't start dating them!"

"Amy?"

"No, no, I'm sorry, it's only… would I be a terrible person if I said that's one of the most upsetting things I've heard today?" Her voice cracked on those words, and something in Sonic's chest plummeted.

Sonic wanted to fool himself. He wanted to think that her voice cracked because she needed more water, or that her throat was still sore from giving up the nanites to unsuspecting victims from before the cure, or from a million other completely innocuous reasons. But he knew that wasn't true. He knew that she was trying to hold it together and feeling herself lose grip on her emotions. She had followed him across the world, over years and miles of territory, through thick and thin. The fact that she cared for him, loved him, wanted to be with him… that had never been in question. She had grown up, learned to control her feelings better, became a strategist and fighter in her own right, but he knew that deep down, that was what she wanted. And now, after years of her loyalty and efforts, to be told this news? It would be crushing.

He didn't owe her anything. He knew that. She had always known that he wasn't interested in dating her, that he said he never would be, that while he thought of her as a good friend and teammate, she wouldn't be anything different than that. He knew that being with Shadow wasn't a betrayal, and that nothing between Amy and him had changed. In her eyes, though, to have had a wish for so long that her unrequited love could one day be returned and the two of them could finally have their romantic happily ever after… only to discover that someone who actively fought her beloved less than half a year ago swoop and make him fall for him during a time that she literally had stolen from her? It must not seem fair. It must seem cruel.

She shook her head, and her eyes seemed to shine a bit. "No, I'm sorry. That was a mean thing to say. I just want you to be happy, Sonic." Her wobbling smile didn't stick on her face well, nor did it meet her eyes, but Sonic knew that she making an effort "I promise. That's all I really wanted."

He thought about saying something else to make her feel better. Tell her maybe if circumstances were different, or if it had been Shadow Taken and not her…. But he knew that would be a lie, and he couldn't lie to her. Instead, he took her hand in his own. "Thank you. I'm glad you understand."

Those words were what lead her to finally break, actual tears coming down. This crying was much quieter than before. This wasn't a cry for help, or a draw for attention, but an outflow of frustration and exhaustion. She wiped away at the wetness with the backs of her hands, then gasped out in exasperation. "Oh, I don't have gloves anymore?" she said, huffing. "That's just great. Fantastic." She shook the wetness off her hands.

"Amy, I-"

"Please." She said, curtly. "I just need to be alone for a bit. Okay? Just a minute." She stepped away, not with the aimless pacing of earlier but stronger this time. Sonic looked at his own hands, trying to think if he should offer his own gloves to her. They were torn, bloody, wet, and dirty – not in any condition to give away. Not wanting to add insult to injury, he took his gloves off and tossed them away. He could go without for a while, and maybe she'd feel better if they were in the same boat.

He looked over at her, thinking if he should ask her about it. Amy was talking to Doctor Eggman in a corner, standing up straight and tall. He couldn't hear a lot of what she was saying, other than her tone – calm and analytical, probably asking more questions about what she had missed. Sonic remembered her taking charge back during The Rebellion against the Doctor, and she carried herself with the same poise now. Relief began to creep back in. She'd be okay, he knew. She had lived through worse. She had grown up through worse.

A question had grown in his mind, like a weed in a sidewalk crack. He couldn't get it to go away, no matter how he tried. This whole time with Shadow, their whole romantic relationship… it only happened when they were pursuing a cause. The two had been preoccupied with a mission to stop Doctor Eggman, then to run from the infected, then to cure the virus, and now… now he wasn't so sure. Would Shadow and Sonic still be happy together without the distraction of some Big Bad around the corner to serve as a common enemy? He knew that he liked him, even loved him, but after this was all over and the two of them were in their relative calm, would they still be okay together? What was it, really, that made them work well for each other? Was it really a shared connection, or just a shared goal?

The thought festered, and whenever Sonic tried to shove it down it would come back with a vengeance. Amy was right about one thing; before all this happened, they had only sparred and raced. He came by when injured to ensure Sonic would get back to fighting form, but that could have been only to ensure that he could have help defending the planet again as soon as he was injured. Shadow lent him books, but seemed annoyed in their encounters even at their most charitable times. What if Sonic had pushed Shadow into something he hadn't wanted? What if, when Shadow had said he wanted to protect him and be close to him, he hadn't anticipated this kind of thing? What if this whole thing had been a mistake? Sonic's stomach turned at the thought. He never wanted to make Shadow uncomfortable. Not for something like this.

He sighed to himself, dropping to a seated position. He'd write about it in his journal later. That normally would calm him down – a document for all his worries, to let everything flow uninhibited. In fact, maybe he should just do that now, while Amy wasn't talking to him and Shadow was still calming down from the attack earlier. Something told him that there wouldn't be a moment of calm like this again for a while. As for him and Shadow? They could talk about this later – the latest in a growing list of uncomfortable conversations they needed to have. He was sure of it.

When reaching for the journal, he came out with a handful of air. Puzzled, he patted down his sides. He tapped his spines. He dug through his carrying bag. He rushed around the room, looking around. His chest tightened, a deep panic beginning to show. He rushed over to Shadow, the worry plainly showing on his face. Once he told the other what was wrong, he would be in for it, but Shadow had to know and had to know now.

The journal. The one Shadow gave him. The one he told him to guard and trust with everything he had. The one he had been documenting every detail of the Individuals' whereabouts, every lesson that he learned, every personal detail and weakness about Sonic and all those close to him.

It was gone.