CHAPTER 19

"What about Shadow?" Avery asked. Now that she thought about it, Amy's behavior has been rather strange lately. The pink hedgehog had seemed more moody and withdrawn. Whenever Avery saw Amy, she always seemed anxious and ready to head back home.

Amy hesitated and began to slightly tremble before continuing. "Well...when we went down into the sewers to save you..."

"Go on. It's okay," Avery reassured. Amy's trembling increased.

"We...kinda kissed a little..." As Amy spat out those words, she slowly stopped trembling, as though a weight were lifted off of her shoulders. Avery was surprised. Given how much Amy obsessed over Sonic, it didn't seem likely that she would be interested in Shadow in that manner.

"Two things Amy," Avery said. "1. I really wished you and Shadow tried to help fight Infinite instead of getting all handsy with each other." Amy began to blush.

"2. Why didn't you tell me or someone else sooner?" Amy began to blush even more.

"I-I didn't know how to break it to you all that m-me and Shadow..." Amy began to resume trembling. "I just didn't know, okay!"

"What about Shadow? What does he think of all this?" Avery asked.

"We haven't really talked since the kiss. I think he's just as uneasy about this as I am." Amy explained.

Avery raised an eyebrow. "So...you're into Shadow now?"

"I-I guess so." Amy said. "I don't know what to do. I don't know if I want to go further with Shadow or not. I don't know what to tell Sonic."

"I think Sonic would be okay with it. He's kinda...in a relationship with me," Avery reassured.

"You didn't need to tell me. I already pretty much figured it out."

"You did!?" Avery said. She was rather surprised about this.

"You don't hide it very well." Amy explained. She then turned her attention to Avery's now-larger belly.

"Looks like you're gonna have a family of your own now," Amy said with a smile. "You, Sonic and Forest."

"Yeah. A family..." Avery said as she put a hand on her belly.

"Speaking of which, did you have a family before the war? I never really got around to asking you about this," Amy questioned. "Where are your parents?"

Avery hesitated for a moment and then answered Amy's question. "My parents died in a car accident when I was six months old. At the time, I was being watched over by a babysitter at home."

"Wow...I feel bad for you..." Amy replied.

"Don't be. It doesn't bug me." Amy's jaw dropped at the sound of that.

"You don't care that your parents are dead!?" Amy gasped.

"Why should I? I have zero memories of them because I was so little. Why should I be attached to someone I never really knew?" Avery responded.

"That just seems...rather cold. Surely you had some other people in your life that you cared about?" Amy asked.

"Not really. My foster parents were total religious fanatics. They didn't really seem to try to be my friends. I was home-schooled until high school came. I thought it would be much better than being taught by people who are convinced that you go to hell if you use birth control," Avery hesitated for a bit and continued. "I was wrong. High school was worse..."

"How much worse?" Amy questioned.

"It was an inner city school for low-income kids. Like over half the students there were from really messed-up households. A lot of them bought their guns to school."

"What!?" Amy interrupted.

"Yeah. Every single day I went to school, I wondered if today would be the day I died. At least with my foster parents I never feared for my life," Avery took a breath and continued. "The bathrooms had gang signs painted on their walls. It was impossible to take a shit without walking in on a drug deal...or a sex act every now and then. It seemed like the cops had to be called to the school once a week on average. Most of the students didn't really seem to be all that interested in homework, so they never passed. Plenty of them dropped out. I was one of the few that didn't fail or drop out."

"Wow. Surely you had to have had some friends." Amy asked.

"Nope. No friends. They hated me and I hated them back," Avery muttered. "Like I said, for me, high school was four whole years of worrying about the very real possibility of being killed by one of my classmates. How are you supposed to be friends with someone who's main goal in life is to kill rival gang members, pimp women and/or sell drugs? I don't get it."

"I suppose that's something you can't understand." Amy replied.

"Nope. It wasn't friends that got me through that hellhole of a school. It was Sonic."

"Sonic?"

"Yeah. I've heard all the stories about his adventures. I've always daydreamed about him in class," Avery began to laugh. "The teachers didn't care though. The school created failures anyway."

"That's why you ended up joining the Resistance?" Amy said.

"Yeah. When I was with my first squad, I finally had friends. Especially my son's namesake, a wolf named Forest." Avery felt like she was going to cry when she mentioned that name.

"Of course, Infinite killed Forest." Amy interjected.

"Right. Along with the rest of my squad," Avery began to feel ill as she thought back to that moment, the pain in her chewed-off right ear tip coming back. Infinite had taunted her then. She never would have expected that he would later have his way with her. "That's how I came to you." Amy remained silent for a moment and then spoke.

"Looks like we both got things off our chest today." The pink hedgehog said, finally starting to sound more like her old cheerful self. Avery agreed. Talking to Amy did feel good. She started to feel less nervous about the future. She was finally going to have a family of her own and no matter what happens, Sonic will be there standing by her side.

"I think I'll talk to Shadow tomorrow about this." Amy said confidently.

"Glad I could help." Avery said with a smile. Amy then stood up and proceeded to leave Avery's apartment.

Sorry about the short chapter. Fuck writer's block. Fuck it to hell. I decided to elaborate more on the Avatar's backstory here.