Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic The Hedgehog or any of the characters, they are owned by Sega and Sonic Team.

June 2nd 2000.

Amy arrived where Rouge was staying, at about one in the morning, Rouge already having fresh coffee ready for the both of them.

Rouge had seemed on edge, dark circles under her eyes, expressing her exhaustion and anxiety.

"Rouge, what's wrong?" Amy asked, out of concern.

Rouge simply walked to the living room, motioning for Amy to take a seat, which Amy did.

Rouge pressed a button on the answering machine and a message began to play.

"Hey Rouge, it's Knuckles… are you there?" Knuckles said.

They heard him sigh and start talking again.

"Listen, I've been thinking about everything and… I was wondering if we could talk, see where it goes and maybe… give it another try." Knuckles said.

"Call me back when you hear this message." Knuckles said.

"Bye." Knuckles said, and the message came to an end.

Amy looked at Rouge, who was nervously shaking as she sipped her coffee.

"Rouge." Amy said.

Amy walked over, taking the cup out of her hand and placing her hands on Rouge's shoulders.

"Calm down, breath." Amy said.

Rouge nodded.

"Alright, now, first things first, what are you going to do?" Amy asked.

Rouge had been thinking about it the entire day since she had heard that message, still having no clear answer.

"I don't know." Rouge said.

June 9th 2000.

A week had passed and Rouge had still not made her decision, avoiding Knuckles both on and off set.

However, that would prove difficult, as today would be their fight scene, taking place in space.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Knuckles had made it public that he had planned to get back together with Rouge, resulting in the tabloid speculation on the matter, including stories which brought Shadow in as a rival to Knuckles for Rouge's choice.

But the studio seemed to love it, as it brought more attention to the new film as well as get the fans excited.

The fans seemed to be split on who they liked with Rouge more and for Knuckles, who basically didn't like Shadow already, this was a sign that he had to take action.

Meanwhile.

Bunnie was sitting in her office, two employees as well as Ray walking in, looks of shame on their faces.

"You said you had bad news." Bunnie said.

"Yes, Ms. Rabbot." One of them said.

"Due to a critical error on our part, we were unaware of an issue with our audio equipment on the Sonic Adventure 2 set." The other one said.

Bunnie looked at them, uneasiness setting in.

"We weren't able to salvage the audio from the footage we've shot so far." Ray said.

Bunnie stood up and faced the window.

"Four months of footage down the drain." Bunnie said, holding back her anger and sadness.

Bunnie turned around, the conflicting emotions present on her face.

"Do we have any form of solution?" Bunnie asked.

"I put some cash in for time in a recording studio, we can record the dialogue from there and edit it in, but we'll also have to edit all the footage we've got so far, not to mention we have to buy new audio equipment." Ray told her.

"How much time and money do we need?" Bunnie asked.

"We can get the new equipment by next week, we'll have to hold off on filming until then, but overall, we'll need another million to get the total cost covered." Ray said.

Bunnie sighed and looked at Ray, who still looked regretful.

"There's more, isn't there?" Bunnie said.

Ray nodded.

"We unfortunately… won't be able to make the December release date." Ray told her, hesitantly.

"What?!" Bunnie shouted, in surprise.

The three of them backed up in intimidation.

"Sorry." Bunnie said, regaining her composure.

"Yes, unfortunately, we have to push back the release date to next summer." Ray said.

Bunnie, beginning to feel a migraine, asked that they leave her office.

As the three of them left, Bunnie fell back onto her seat.

"We're not gonna make it." Bunnie thought.

With Sonic.

Sonic seemed to be steering clear of the drama, having had his fair share in the past.

With the delay on filming, Sonic had decided to return back to his hometown and check up on his family.

His dad and Aleena seemed to be doing well, still happily married.

Manic and Sonia had actually started playing instruments, performing for their friends at school.

"Wow, you two actually sound good." Sonic said.

"Yeah, we're gonna be as famous as you one day." Manic said.

"We'll see." Sonic said, with a smile.

"Sonic, there's a call for you downstairs, it's Amy." Aleena told him.

"Thanks." Sonic said.

Sonic went downstairs, answering the phone, to hear a panicked Amy on the line.

"Amy, slow down, what's going on?" Sonic asked.

"Sonic, there's been an accident." Amy said.