The two flew off down the highway in Amy's car and made it to the hideout in minutes. Amy was quiet as she exited the car. Riko stretched her bones with an evil smirk on her face. "Ready?"
Amy didn't answer as she tied her hair up. "As I'll ever be. When this is over-"
"I'm gone. As promised." Amy stared at Riko hard. "Not what I was gonna say."
Amy walked off into the cave and riko followed.
Once inside Riko led Amy directly to Jessie. He was passed out against the ice walls. Probably from being so tired. Riko kicked him in the stomach, startling him and knocking the wind out of him.
"Wakey wakey! The guest of honor is finally here!"
Jessie looked up with blurry eyes and saw pink. Once they cleared, he saw Amy fully. "You!?
Amy looked at Jessie with cold eyes as she looked down at him. The weeks he's been in here made him look rough. He smelled, his clothes were bloodied and torn, and he had residue of food over his face.
"Oh happy reunion. You see, my friend here didn't get to talk to you the way she wanted. All of this is for you! I'll leave you two to talk." Riko smirked and backed away from them.
They glared at each other but Jessie kept his senses on Riko in case she pulled any surprise attacks again. "You look like shit." Was the first thing Amy said low and clear. Jessie clicked his tongue. "Ri told me what she did to you, but damn.. I didn't think you would look this.. Pathetic."
Jessie growled at her. "Bitch! You weren't acting like this in court! So what's changed now?"
Amy summoned her hammer instantly. It was bigger than normal and it had spikes at the ends.
"Nothing. I've changed a long time ago. The moment you took my innocence, was the moment I fell. And today, I'm getting closure. Real closure." Amy raised her hammer above her head, and once she did Jessie eyes grew and jumped out the way when she brought it down. The force of the hammer left a small crater in the wall of ice. Jessie got to his feet quickly and was ready to fight but.. Amy turned around towards him. And her hammer burst into flames.
"Oh... Fuck.." Jessie ran down a random maze trail but Amy was hot on his tail; smashing through the ice walls like paper thanks to her new upgraded flaming hammer. Riko wasn't too far behind Amy as she dodged the chunks of ice flying around.
Jessie was met with a dead end of the cave and he couldn't turn back. Amy stood behind him and Riko stood blocking the exit.
"This is it, Amy. He's done for." Riko smiled. Amy walked towards him and Jessie backed away. His back hit the cave wall. "Wait.. wait! Look I know I did a very.. Very awful thing to you.. but.. But you don't have to do this!"
Amy swung her hammer and Jessie dodged out of the way just barely.
"You didn't have to do what you did to me. But you did." She swung her hammer again but Jessie dodged again.
"You're better than me! Are you a freedom fighter?! What would Sonic think if he saw you like this?"
That was a mistake. "He.. HE WOULDN'T THINK ABOUT A THING IF HE SAW ME!" Amy's hammer collided into Jessie's arm as he used it to block. Tumbling across the cave floor, his vision was doubled. His arm was broken with holes from the spikes. Blood tinkled down to the ground.
"You took everything from me.. You took my chance to be happy like a normal person..!"
Amy dragged her hammer in the dirt as she walked to Jessie. Jessie slowly crawled away; ears were ringing.
"My own friends couldn't even touch me because I was so traumatized by men. I was afraid of my own friends! Cause all I could see was you."
Riko was twitching with excitement watching the show play out in front of her. Beads of sweat rolled down her face. "Fuck it's getting really hot in here. Finish him Amy!" Using her ice powers to cool off, Riko was ready to cross this job off her list.
"P..ple..please...do..don't.." Jessie managed to say.
"Funny. That's the same thing I said to you." Amy's eyes were full of hatred. The flames of her hammer grew bigger, feeding off her emotions.
"Do it Amy. Drop the curtains on this punk!"
"Pl..please..I'm sor..sorry.."
"Kill him. He doesn't mean it, he'll just do it again to another poor girl if you let him go."
"No.. please.."
Amy picked up her hammer. Raising it up high. The spikes grew larger, the flames grew brighter. "This is it for you. Lights out."
Before Amy could bring her hammer down on Jessie's body, Riko's walls of ice were blown to pieces. Knocking Riko back a few feet with Amy and Jessie off a few inches.
"What?!" screamed Riko seeing her beautiful ice melt and crumble away. "No one can melt my ice.. How?!"
Once the smoke cleared, half the team was standing there. "That would be me." Blaze stepped up with hands held in a tight fist. Blue flames covering them. "I've leveled up over the years."
Shadow stepped out towards Amy, who held her hammer against Jessie's thoat. That stopped Shadow in his tracks. "Rose.. Don't do this."
"Don't try to stop me Shadow! I have to do this. It's the only way."
"No it's not. You don't have to do this! I understand, you've been through alot and you can't just go back to everything being normal but killing him isn't gonna make it better. As much as I would like to see him 6 feet under, I don't want it to be on your hands."
"No. No! You don't understand! None of you do! You can't change the way I feel!"
The group tried to get closer but Riko covered the floor in ice.
"Oh no you don't! No one is getting close to her without going through me. She's getting her revenge."
The crew glared at Riko as she stood between them and Amy. Thanks to Blaze the whole cave was open to alot of battle room.
"This has nothing to do with you Riko so step aside." Sonic ordered.
"I'm afraid not Sonic. You see, I don't take orders from you. I was hired to help Ms Rose get her revenge and you better believe I'm damn sure gonna see it through. So unless she tells me to stand down I'm not moving."
Shadow glared at Riko but looked at Amy. Her eyes looked cold and dead but deep down he saw fear. It broke his heart. She didn't look this scared since the day she woke up in the hospital and Sonic touched her.
"If you haven't noticed you're outnumbered 5 to 1." Knuckles declared.
"Numbers don't mean shit. You won't get close enough. I guarantee it."
Rouge, Knuckles, Sonic, Blaze and Shadow stood together ready for anything.
Rouge's voice softly called out to her. "Ri..I thought we were friends after how well we clicked and got along. Was it all an act."
Riko was quiet, her expression didn't waver. "Maybe not all of it. But sorry Bat Babe, It's just business. You understand."
"I know; you gotta do what you gotta do. So I need you to step aside and let me help you, friend."
"Can't do that. You'll have to beat me first."
Shadow huffed. "That can be gone."
Jessie wheezed for air as Amy tightened the pressure against his throat. The stand still was driving her crazy. She was afraid something like this would happen and now she didn't know what to do. She didn't want them to see her like this. She just wanted this to be over.
"I just want peace..I want to be in peace.." Amy choked out.
"You can be Rose! Just.. put the hammer away and come to me. Please. I got you."
"I can't…"
"Rose."
"No.."
"Rose.."
"No…"
"Amy!" Shadow took a step closer towards them and reached out to Amy.
"NO! RIKO!" Riko sent a wave of spikes of ice towards the group. Rouge grabbed Knuckles and flew back. Blazed just her powers to put up a firewall to protect Shadow and Sonic. Sonic grabbed Shadow in time to get behind Blaze.
The battle had begun. "Lets see what element is better Blaze! Your flames or my ice."
Blaze glared. "Bring it!"
Riko's eyes glowed and spread her hands out. A mist of cold air came out her mouth; and the temperature dropped. "Black Ice." The entire cave began to be covered in ice spikes. It turned into a dodging game as spikes sprung from every and any direction.
"Rouge, you and Knuckles get back!" Sonic ordered as he and Shadow ran around the cave dodging spikes while Blaze held her own. More so Shadow pulled Sonic across the floor since he hovered and Sonic can't run on ice very well.
Blaze's blasted fireballs at Riko but she dodged and returned fire with shards of ice.
"Enough of this. You're just running away, face me head on!" Blaze sent a rush of fire towards Riko.
"I'm not running!" Riko sent the same amount of blizzard ice back. Shadow got Sonic out towards the entrance. The force of power from the two pushed them out.
"Damn it, tell me again why we didn't bring Silver with us?!" Sonic cursed shielding his face from the heat of the flames and rushing flow of the cold.
"Because he didn't recover fully from the gas. But if Blaze can keep Riko distracted maybe one of us can get by." Knuckles suggested.
"Thats a high possibility. I can't get close; she'll see me in an instant." Rouge huffed.
"AHH!" a crash of thunder and a bright flash of light left the cave. Blaze was on the ground flinching slightly.
"Blaze!" Knuckles ran to her and scooped her up. Riko didn't attack, she only watched as surges of lightning surrounded her body.
"Is she..?" Rouge asked.
"No..she's still breathing." the group was relieved. "She'll live, but if I was you would get her out of here so you can fight. We're not finished yet. Who's next?" Riko got in a fighting stance watching the four carefully.
Knuckles passed Blaze's body to Rouge. "Get out of here. Contact Tails and tell him where we are and if Silver is okay, we need him." Knuckles kissed her forehead and flew off.
The three glared at Riko on high alert. Amy looked like she was having a panic attack and Jessie had passed out.
"I never got to ask. How did you find us so quickly? I didn't expect you to wake up for a few hours." Riko watched Shadow and Knuckles. Sonic wasn't a threat if he couldn't run on ice and she had something very special for him.
"I put a tracking device in Rose's car just in case." Shadow answered.
"Should have known. Sounds like something you would do for a Black Ops agent." Riko rolled her eyes.
"As for your knock out gas. It would have worked but someone left the door open and fumes leaked out."
Riko turned to Amy and glared knowing was the last out of the house. That was their opening Knuckles grabbed Sonic and threw him at Riko and Shadow hovered run up the walls towards Amy. Sonic spinned dash and collided against her as soon as she turned around catching her off guard. Riko was knocked back against the cave but recovered and grabbed Sonic by leg before he could move back.
"Frostbite."
The cold numbing sensation ran up Sonic's leg. He yelled out, he couldn't move his leg. Riko smashed his body against the wall then threw him away towards Knuckles. Knuckles caught him as sonic crashed into him but was shocked by a flash of lightning that followed. Knuckles and Sonic fell to the ground. Riko looked and saw Shadow was almost to Amy.
"NO!" Riko shot ice shards at Shadow but he countered. "Chaos Spear!" The spears broke through her attack and was heading her way. Riko backflipped out of the way.
"Blizzard!" The rush of snow headed towards Shadow. He couldn't dodge a wide range attack like this. If he could get to Amy and Jessie he would Chaos Control them out of the cave. Amy was sobbing as she slowly had her hammer over her head. Wanting to bring it down on Jessie's fainted body but something was stopping her from doing it. This is what she wanted right?
Shadow couldn't do anything as he got pummeled with snow. "Amy don't!" The snow stopped suddenly. Shadow looked up to see Silver made it to the fight. Silver had kicked Riko on the side of her head and sent her flying.
"Go! Stop Amy! I can handle Riko!" Silver teleported after Riko got up and tried to hit him with flashes of lightning and shards of ice. As she tried to run towards Amy to keep Shadow away from her and attack him, Silver would teleport and punch and kick her away to keep her distance. Not giving her a chance to attack Shadow again, Silver teleported in all different directions attacking Riko from all sides. She couldn't touch him and she couldn't dodge. The only thing she could do was try to block. But she couldn't block everywhere.
From behind, Silver sent a shock wave at Riko, sending her crashing into the wall and knocking her unconscious.
Meanwhile back to Shadow and Amy…
Shadow slapped the hammer out of Amy's hands and crushed her in a hug. "Let me go Shadow! I have to finish what I started..! He has to die!"
"No..I'm not letting you go, Rose. You've been holding all this in for years and.. I understand why you want to do this but it's only gonna make things worse. You would be a criminal.. And I can't bear to see that happen to you."
Amy shook in his arms. "But.. Riko said.."
"Whatever she told you was a lie. In thought, revenge is sweet but think about it. What would you have done with the body? What story would you tell everyone? You knew I would piece everything together once I woke up. So going back to our normal wouldn't be possible. I would always love you no matter what you do but what about the rest of our friends? The public?"
Tears ran down Amy's face and she choked back her sobs.
"You never wanted to do this didn't you? That's why you left the door open. You wanted me to come find you and stop you from going too far."
"..At first..when I met Riko..she told me..she could help me...and it was what i wanted..I wanted nothing more than to cause him as much pain as he caused me..he took my life away so...I wanted to take his away...I was too weak to go through with it.."
"Don't say that. You are far from weak Rose. You are strong in your own unique way and that's what makes you, you."
Amy dropped her head, she couldn't look at him but Shadow lifted her head. He gazed into her eyes and saw so much pent up emotions locked away. "I miss how much your eyes sparkled. But they can't because you're holding so much inside. I realize what you really needed all along."
Shadow brought Amy back into his chest and held her tight. "You needed someone to be with you to help soak up all the pain you've feeling. And I'll gladly take the burden off your shoulders if it means I can have my Rose back. So please, let it all out."
Amy shook and trembled. She gripped shadow's chest fur and let out the loudest cry she could. She screamed and cried in his chest while hitting his shoulders. But Shadow took it. He held on to her and let her get all her emotions out.
The scene itself was heartbreaking as tears fell down Silver and Shadow's faces. Knuckles and Sonic, who were still on the ground, couldn't move but were awake for a while; they cried silently as Amy's bounce off the cave's walls.
After some moments where Amy felt like she couldn't scream anymore and she didn't have anymore tears to shed, she laid in Shadows embrace quietly before saying softly. "I want to go home…"
Shadow kissed the top of her head. "Home is waiting for you."
Silver helped Knuckles and Sonic up after they got themselves together. The frostbite on Sonic's leg was gone but it still hurt to move it. Saying he'll have Tails and Cream check him out when they got back. Shadow scooped Amy into his arms, deciding to carry her knowing she was emotionally exhausted.
"So, what are we gonna do about Jessie and Riko?" Sonic asked. Jessie was still unconscious from damage he took from Amy's mighty hammer.
"Well we call the police and they'll take Jessie to prison where he belongs. Riko will be charged for kidnapping a criminal." Silver explained. When they turned to the place where Silver knocked Riko out, she was gone.
"What?! Where did she-" Sonic asked
"I told you. I will finish what I started when you hire me! Hope has no place here." She stood at the cave's entrance, beaten and clothes torn. Raising her foot and glaring daggers at the group.
"Riko no!"
"Black Ice." Riko stomped on the ground and a mass of ice shards swung up from the ground traveling past them and penetrated Jessie's body. Amy covered her mouth as she was shocked along with the guy's eyes widened in horror.
"Avalanche.." the others turned back to see Riko sealing the entrance with snow.
"Riko!" Amy called out to her again as they tried to race out but the snow stopped them. Trapping them inside.
"Silver!" Shadow looked at him.
"On it!" Silver teleported out the cave. "CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow teleported him and the others out of the cave. Once out he saw Silver hovering around in the sky before he dropped beside them.
"She's gone! It's like she vanished into thin air!" Silver growled.
"She couldn't have gotten too far!" Knuckles yelled.
"Riko is trained to get out of situations like this. I don't know how but if she's gone..then she's gone." Amy said softly. The guys clicked their tongues in frustration.
"I'm so sorry about all of this everyone...If i had just stayed and tried to work things out. Like going to therapy, none of this would have happened."
"No Ames, we're not blaming you." Sonic sighed.
Knuckles nodded. "Yeah. We can't change the past but we can always look towards a brighter future."
"So.. Now what do we do?" Silver asked as he looked back at the cave covered in snow.
"We lost Riko and have a dead body of a criminal on our hands. The media is gonna wanna know what happened."
"We tell them nothing." Shadow states, causing everyone to look at him in confusion.
"I"m not having Rose go through hoops and hurdles with the media about her trying to get revenge on Jessie. Yeah he was a criminal and deserved to die in my opinion but the public will see Amy as a criminal and a crazy person. G.U.N. owes me a lot of favors so.. I can get this covered up. But we can never talk about this ever again. Ok?"
Sonic crossed his arms. "So sweeped under the rug basically."
Shadow nodded. Sonic shrugged after some thought. "If it's for Amy then fine. I won't say a word of this." The others agreed and Amy thanked them and Shadow again. Shadow called G.U.N. and told them the situation. Within minutes black vans drove up and agents flooded the scene. The GUN commander appeared and looked at all of them then at the cave.
"Dig an opening and retrieve the body!" He ordered the soldiers and they got to work immediately. He turned to Shadow and signed deeply. "Ok now tell me what happened one last time. In the van."
The group got in the van and Amy told the GUN commander everything from the very beginning and Shadow finished it. After what felt like hours, the commander told them that from this day forward this was not to be spoken of ever again. Just as Shadow said. The commander already had a story for the news and told them to go home. He told Silver and Shadow he'll see them early in the morning next week. With that the group teleported back to Shadow's house where the others were waiting.
Blaze was treated from the electric shock and was laying on the couch. Silver went to her side immediately as Cream and Rouge crushed Amy in a hug. Happy to see their friend was back and safe.
"What happened out there.." Sally asked as she looked over Sonic, helping him to the other couch. Knuckles flopped next to them.
"Riko was.. Alot tougher than we expected. She did her research on us, that's for sure." Knuckles sighed as he sanked into Shadows' couch feeling more tired than he thought.
"Yeah but she didn't count on me coming to the rescue!" Silver smirked proudly. "Though I don't like fighting women, but it had to be done."
Rouge cupped Amy's face and looked her over as well. "You ok hon?"
"I think..I will be..I just need help." Amy softly said but everyone heard her clearly.
"And we'll help you. The right way." Rouge pulled Amy into another hug with a smile. Afterwards, she went to Knuckles and kissed his head. "I'm glad you're ok too."
"Mm" Knuckles was falling asleep and Rouge laughed.
"Before we all get too comfortable, even though it's over. There is something you all need to know." Shadow stated. Shadow explained everything that happened. Not sparing the details of Jessie's death and Riko getting away. And the favor he called in to cover it all up. Everyone agreed to stay silent about all of it.
"So She got away without a trace?" Blaze questioned. Silver nodded. "I looked everywhere, I don't know how she disappeared so quickly but she's gone."
"What if she comes back? What do we do?" Sally argued.
"She won't." Amy spoke up. "She did her job and killed Jessie. She doesn't have any reason to come back. So she won't bother us." Amy pulled out her cell phone and dialed Riko's number, putting it on speaker. "We're sorry; we are unable to complete your call as dialed. Please check the number and dial again, or call your operator to help you." She hangs up and puts it away. "See; She doesn't exist."
Everyone was quiet and accepted it.
The next day Jessie's death was all over the news. The story, Jessie was killed in a gang turf war. Shot multiple times and was found dead at the scene. The public ate it up, people commenting how he deserved it and so on. As for Amy and the gang, She opened up to them about everything she's been feeling. She told them part of her doesn't feel bad at all for Jessie being killed. Sometimes she wishes she had done it but seeing the path that would lead her she doesn't think that she could mentally deal with it. Shadow helped Amy by training with her to get any frustrations out and spent more time with her. She even had a talk to Sonic and let out alot of anger at him from that day. That seemed to help alot for her. Plus Shadow enjoyed seeing Sonic looking like a small scared child when Amy drilled into him. Especially when she summoned her new hammer and destroyed Shadow's table. Shadow wasn't mad cause he can replace furniture, but he couldn't replace Amy.
A few days later, Shadow found Amy sitting outside looking up at the stars. He came and pulled her into his chest, hugging her. "What are you thinking about?" he asked.
"How can you and everyone else still love me after everything that happened." She answered truthfully. "I still have these dark thoughts and..what if I hurt you. I lied to all of you and-"
"Rose, we don't care how much you changed, or what dark thoughts that might pop into your head. Frankly I like this new side of you. But no one is perfect, but you're perfect to me. So what, you hired an assassin to kill your rapist; you weren't trying to take over the world. You're still our Amy and we're just happy to have you back home with us. I'm sure the others would say the same."
Amy's body fell into Shadows and he kissed her cheek. "I love you Rose. And I'm never letting you go."
Amy blushed. "Shadow I've been meaning to ask you this for a while now. What is that pink book in your room?"
Shadow chuckled. "Oh that, let's just say it's my life book. After that day when you convinced me to help save the earth with faker, I kept a journal and wrote anything in it. How faker pissed me off one day, how you make me happy when I saw you smiling with your friends or.. How I want to plan a life with you."
Amy turned to him with tears welling up. "It's pink because it reminds me of you when you weren't around me."
Shadow and Amy shared a passionate kiss with the full moon shining down on them. Amy didn't know what the future held but she knew it was bright. As long as she had her friends and Shadow by her side to help her get through them all, she felt she could do anything with a real smile.
AN: Thank you all so much for being patient, reading, and enjoying this story. I hope you'll read more of my stories! On a serious note, if anything like this ever happens to you please don't be afraid to speak out and get help. No matter what it is abuse is still abuse and we should help each other. Even if it doesn't seem like it, Talking does help and goes a long way. So even if it seems the world is against you, find that light and follow it to brighter you.