HO BOY, IT'S BEEN OVER A YEAR! Super shout out to my new job and mental health keeping me on my toes. But an extra super shout out to NothinFancy for Beta reading this on the fly. You da real MVP, Buddy!
I'm going to get into a better update timing before My Time at Sandrock Updates again. Then... well. I'll keep y'all posted.
So without further ado! The next installation of ONE HUNDRED MOMENTS!
Are You Done?
She was alone again.
Opaque shadows flickered against the edges of her tunnel vision as Amy spun, trying to find some landmark around her. Long, heavy skirts swirled around her legs as she did so, sending small fireflies of light out into the abyss around her. It drew her eyes down to… nothing. No torso nor what she'd been sure were several layers of shimmering red ball gown skirts, just odd flickers of light floating up and around her subconscious mind. They flickered in strange random patterns that consumed her attention in the immense void. Amy huffed anxiously, after what her and Shadow did to her Majesty's chest, it had to be something bad.
"She always gets what she wants in the end."
Amy shivered, the memory of her mother's ashy webs clung to her fur once again, pulling at the nerves just beneath the surface to control every inch of who she was. They'd numbed the surface of her skin, leaving her feeling nothing but the pressure of her body contorting as her Majesty pleased. If she never felt such a horrific grasp again, it would be too soon. Yet, as anticipation met disappointment which made way for frustration, she realized that such suffocation was nothing compared to the vacant, weightless loneliness she felt now.
A sudden, deeply familiar whisper of a tender stroke rippled down Amy's arms that sent goosebumps over her body and a brilliant smile on her face. There was no true warmth to it, but as with most dreams, there was such a certainty to it that she couldn't help but relax. A giggled sigh of relief bubbled out of her chest and she leaned back against what she'd initially feared to be a great omen of evils to come.
This was no foreboding premonition, but a self-indulgent dream she'd had many, many times before. It was a dream of being whisked away from the darkness of her previous existence into the light of her endless possibilities by her one true love,Sonic, who would chuckle into her ear, no doubt a cheeky flirtation flickering under his breath. His steps would be quick and light, gently guiding her through an impromptu dance, but trusting her ability to lead them through safely and playfully. The last time she had this dream, however, he'd just grabbed her from behind, a possessive but loving bear hug that swung her around as she shrieked with pure joy at the impossibility. Still, this new, almost sheepish touch was nice. There was a sort of gentle romance to it that Sonic just wasn't known for, at least not to her.
Well, variety is the spice of life as the saying goes, and if she was being honest with herself, Amy could use a good kick right about now.
True to her expectations, the touch turned to embrace and was met with the joy of a love everlasting enveloping her, banishing her fears and granting her a peace she hadn't known since before Eggman's attack with the centipede. She'd had this dream so many times before, ever since Sonic had rescued her the first time. Soon, Sonic would dance away the murky isolation, revealing all of the friends she'd made over the course of twelve years. It always ended in the kind of kiss that could erase everything around her except for that one connection on her lips. Everything she'd worked for, gone, save for that one kiss, which always seemed Enough. Too Much, even.
Then she would wake up to a world where she had never been kissed and never would so long as she stayed awake.
The hope had been that Sonic would change his mind. Even now, as she knew how much worse things would be if he did, she still placed that kiss on the highest pedestal of her hopes and dreams.
What else were dreams for but to live a fantasy that reality was too cruel and complicated to provide for you?
So when that familiar thrill strummed her heart strings, she turned gleefully, selfishly towards her companion.
Her eyes widened and an audible gasp burst out as she realized her companion was not her true blue hero, but a black hedgehog, looming in front of her, gloved hands delicately tracing down her arms to engulf her right hand. Red, half-lidded eyes met hers, an intent in them that Amy couldn't read no matter how hard she tried. Her eyes seemed to skip over his features, leaving her no details but a certainty that Sonic was no longer the one who would banish her eternal isolation.
"Shadow!?" Amy practically choked, "Wha- why… you're here?"
Shadow glare intensified and any new words died pathetically strained in her throat. Amy wasn't sure which was the greater surprise, his presence or the fact that she wasn't entirely opposed to it. To her great horror she felt rather than saw his cheeky smirk as he leaned down to kiss her hand. A pleasurable shiver rushed through her and she couldn't help but wonder, had Dream Sonic's features ever been quite so intense as the look in Shadow's eyes now? As though he were connected directly to her thoughts? Dream Shadow pressed his advantage by pulling her in by her waist with one hand and using his other hand to take her right hand. Amy's remaining hand practically smacked against the proper place on his shoulder as he effortlessly swept her into a waltz. For a moment Amy was stunned by the romance of it all. She couldn't help but revel in its raw electricity as Shadow led her gracefully, firmly through all the steps to a music that swelled straight from their very souls. It was unlike anything she'd ever felt before, and yet it touched on a yearning that had sat cold and neglected for as long as she could remember. How nice was it to have her feelings reciprocated without-?
"...Reciprocated?"
No.
Amy recoiled viciously from Shadow's grasp and ran.
No!
Amy's heart clenched in dread as she felt Shadow's hands pull her back into the fold.
No, No, No, NO, please not again!
But Shadow's grip put iron to shame and even the full weight Amy's monstrous strength couldn't free her. When she found she couldn't escape, her eyes wildly swept the room for another way out and realized that they were entirely alone in this void, no friends to revel in her joy, much less save her from her great folly of emotion. Amy struggled to keep up with the pace and after a particularly bad trip where Shadow had to drag her back into place, Amy let out a warning yelp before practically screeching, "Just wait one second, Shadow, what do you think you're-?"
Shadow wouldn't listen. He growled in her ear and sped up the steps, practically swinging her through the air as Amy struggled to get him to stop. Amy's heart pounded in her ears, and as she tried to grind the two of them to a halt, she realized she was completely at his mercy. Now she shook and she practically begged him, "Shadow! Stop! Please, what is this about? What do you want from me?"
Amy felt herself slammed against a wall. She'd had no idea her dreams had such boundaries but this seemed the least of her worries as Shadow's hands landed just inches from each side of her head. A furious, conflicted, and unwillingly fearful blush bloomed across her face as Shadow leaned in, enigmatic yet imploring eyes glaring down at her. Their breathing was heavy from something more than just their little dance across her mind, Amy realized they were breathing in sync, and she was practically suffocating from the pace. His hands slid up, bringing his elbows to rest where his hands had been and sliding him closer to her, slowly at first, then going ever so slightly faster. Amy had only just realized that it was because she was leaning in when she caught herself, mere centimeters from his just parted lips. Half lidded eyes flew open as Amy struggled to get her hands between the two of them and push herself further away from him.
Shadow, for his part, barely budged but seemed shocked at her unwillingness to partake in his new leap into insanity. The look in his eyes so desperate and disappointed that it snagged at her conscience as he gingerly brushed gloved fingers over her cheek. This one expression of intimacy paralyzed Amy's need to distance herself from him and she couldn't help but lean into his touch as he brought a thumb to her lips. Her imagination captured, Shadow drew closer. His words, his first since this whole dream started, rippled through her, as unyielding as a river flowing towards the sea:
"Indulge me? Just this once?"
As Amy gasped back to reality, clawing her way out of the dream, her first conscious thought was a resounding, "What!?"
Her breathing practically convulsed as she clutched her head, "What was that?! What even was that?" she squeaked between gasps.
Fear pulled her into herself, numbing her chest and extremities leaving her trembling at the lack of feeling. It seemed all for the better, her emotions were a tornado of bullshit wreaking havoc on her mental state. She'd just had a REALLY romantic dream about one of her best friends.
And not just a vaguely cute date like a dream she'd had about what it would feel like to have Knuckles hold her hand, or even the time she thought about how cute and funny it would be to make Blaze blush with an off-color joke.
No, no, this was a no-holds-barred, you are 100% catching feelings, dark masquerade ballroom waltz of her literal dreams with a man who was about as romantically capable as a thrice. Damned. Pinecone?!
Amy's eyes clenched shut and she forced herself through the grounding exercises that Dr. Gruff had prescribed her. She practically raked her fingers through the sheets beneath her, only vaguely recognizing that she was alone in a stark, too bright hospital room, hooked up to several IV lines and practically naked against the cold of the room, save for a sheer blanket and a hospital gown. These things were the definition of trifling, not even a snowflake on the tip of the shit iceberg she found herself crashed against.
"I'm not… I don't feel like that for… I mean, come on, it's Shadow. It was just a-" she laughed almost maniacally under her breath, she couldn't decide whether it was a dream or a nightmare. She pulled herself away from that particularly snarled path and forced her laughter into a more light hearted tenor, "It's just my imagination! I'm just losing my mind a bit! I got hit too hard, he probably knocked some nonsense loose in my head during the fight with Queen Lunatic!
Amy scoffed lightly, even as her insides churned traitorously, "I don't have any feelings for him! I probably just replayed a few memories and mashed them together when he…"
The thought abruptly ceased and dragged her back to the moment not too long ago where she had been trapped in her own body, watching in a fuzzy first person perspective as Shadow the Gods-Damned Hedgehog had very successfully sedu-.
She couldn't even make it through the thought. She pulled in the biggest breath she could manage, even as unimaginable pain seared against her torso. Amy threw her hand behind her, even as her muscles screamed at her for daring to twist in such a manner. She pulled a pillow out from behind her, bringing the slightly too warm fabric to her face and screamed. It could have put banshees to shame, reverberating through the halls beyond her door and vibrating everything in the room. Instead it only rattled her bones and torn muscles. Still she persisted, until the pain doubled and tripled over her, echoing and soon overtaking the mental and physical screaming she was doing. Before long, she was out of breath and away from her traitorous thoughts with a clarity that she only mildly regretted.
The pain was a strangely all-consuming thought that rather than making her feel scared or helpless just made her feel blessedly occupied. She breathed a disbelieving laugh that left her hissing at the sting of it all. She was way more banged up than usual this time. It was going to take a while to heal. Distantly, Amy knew she couldn't do anything about it for now. All that was left was to sit back and not think about Shadow.
Amy leaned back into the bed and started going back into her breathing exercises, successfully for once. As she breathed, she counted out her numerous injuries one by one like sheep before slumber, even as her ribs protested the exercise. At least three broken ribs and what felt like a previously dislocated clavicle. Breathe in. Snapped left wrist and maybe a concussion. Breathe out. A few repetitions was all it took for her to feel the blissful telltale slip of her consciousness excusing itself. Just as she began to close her eyes, she felt rather than saw a flash of light that snapped her eyes back open and pushed her heart into overdrive.
…No…
Sure as shit, Amy heard the tell-tale whoosh of Shadow's chaos control as the blood drained from her face. As the light fizzled out of existence, Amy's mortification practically lit a bonfire on her face. Shadow had slumped to the floor and was covered practically head to toe in bandages. She could feel the weight of every strained breath he took despite the very familiar look in his too-bright red eyes. Amy couldn't tear her eyes away from him, even as her stomach felt like it was trying to lift her closer to him instead of letting her sink into the ground, where she wanted to be. He struggled closer to her bed and Amy was frozen in place as every thought that wasn't Shadow ceased to exist.
"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice taking on an oddly husky tone, almost as though he was choking on the words, "I heard screaming. What happened?"
"Oh… oh no."
Amy's eyes sparkled with tears as her internal screaming grew louder, trying desperately to figure out what the hell she was supposed to say about all of this. His eyes narrowed as the moments ticked by with Amy just… sitting there not saying anything. She panicked, her eyes roved over him desperately trying to latch onto something, ANYTHING that she could comment on that wasn't the batshit insane dream she'd just had about him!
"Amy? Amy, what's wrong?"
Amy wanted desperately to scramble away from him as he leaned himself against her bed to divine her desperation for himself. Instead she felt herself lean closer to him, that same pull from her dreams dragging her to him more powerfully than his grip ever could. Soon he was mere inches from her, completely oblivious to the source of the mental torture he was putting her through. As he reached for her, she closed her eyes, a frustrated whimper trying so hopelessly to get him to just back off because she could practically smell him and it was driving her-
Everything stopped. A low calm permeated Amy's mind as she realized the smell was nothing like she imagined Shadow smelling like. What threw her off the most about it was that it was so familiar and just…
Bad.
"What is that?"
Three magic words and Amy was free from Shadow's spell. Amy sniffed the air, trying to decode this new distraction. Upon inspection, it wasn't that the smell was really putrid, it just wasn't great either. It wasn't particularly sexy or what she would have thought of as a product of seduction or even influence. It was downright mundane for someone who'd poked the place in her heart she'd previously only reserved for one person. The smell itself was at turns acidic and fatty and herbaceous with an undertone of copper that made her stomach turn without making her outright sick, but what was it?
Shadow had frozen beside her, hand hovering over hers as he made his own experimental sniffs, "I don't- what are you talking about?"
Amy opened her eyes, tear free and with her usual spark of determination that set Shadow's heart both at ease and on edge at once. He retracted his hand and gingerly stepped back, allowing her more space for her process. Amy's eyes followed his movement and like a predator zeroing in on the perfect moment to strike, she found her mark. Her eyes perked up and her head tilted just to the left as she asked in her own too-loud voice, "What's that all over your face?"
Shadow flinched, eyebrows drawn together in confusion at the accusation and touched his hand to his face. As he did so, Amy realized that the bandages all over his body had a myriad of colorful stains like the odd brown smears around his mouth. Much to her relief she realized that even the red ones were the exact wrong colors for blood or other such bodily fluids. As a matter of fact, they were the exact right colors for…
Amy started giggling, "Oh my gosh, are those pepperonis in your quills?"
Shadow's once romance novelesque gaze returned to his customary grump stare and as Amy leaned in closer to confirm that it was, in fact, evidence of pizza stuck just to the left of his ear. He leaned back, an embarrassed blush glowing on his muzzle as he growled at her, "What an oddly judgemental way of saying 'thank you for checking on me'. That's three times in the span of a week I've done that without so much as a thank you."
Amy clicked her tongue at him in warning, "The first time you broke my door and threatened to kidnap my mother and have her studied. The second time-"
"The time you needed saving."
She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, well, now I'm in the hospital and you're trying to kill me with your B.O."
Amy's smile faltered a touch as Shadow held up his other hand to wipe his mouth. She gasped out a laugh when she realized he was holding something, "Oh, wow, you're covered in chocolate pudding!?"
Shadow rolled his eyes, "I am not."
"Are too, it's still in your hands!" Amy pointed out, "Look, you even lost your spoon! What were you doing? Slurping it out of the cup with your mouth?"
Shadow's face flushed red and his glare intensified, "I am regaining my strength! You were still unconscious so naturally I took a little time to-"
"Become one with the pudding?" Amy teased as she tugged at her blanket, "Seriously, how did you manage to make such a mess?"
She held out the edge of her blanket for him to wipe with, but Shadow only growled and pushed her hand away, "Are you done? You were screaming a few minutes ago. What the hell was that about?"
Amy's mouth snapped shut and her blush nearly put Shadow's to shame. She clutched her pillow harder to her chest, "...Screaming? What? What is screaming?"
A beat passed between the two of them before Amy realized her mistake and Shadow's grump glare became one of suspicion. Down her head went into the pillow, a cut on the back of her neck opening from the too quick movement, not that she cared. She could practically feel Shadow's glare on her head. Too quickly, Amy was back in the dream, the villain in a melodrama looming over her as he forced her to do his bidding. She practically felt his voice vibrate through her, "I know what I heard. What. Happened?"
"Oh. Well. Um. Nothing- really," the pillow muffled.
Shadow's eyebrow rose, "Nothing? You screamed for ten solid seconds over nothing?"
"Okay, well, not… NOTHING, nothing, but it wasn't life threatening or anything, I just h-had a dream."
The last part was barely squeaked out and to her dismay, Shadow seemed to absorb every word of it. His brow furrowed and he took a tentative step forward, making Amy flinch. He stopped and in the gentlest voice she'd ever heard, he said, "Amy. Look at me."
Amy learned too late that it was the most dangerous voice in the world, one she would mindlessly follow to the ends of the earth without question. To her horror, he had brought himself so close to her face that the only reason she wasn't lost in his damn eyes again was thanks to the interesting culmination of pizza and pudding smells, "Night terrors?"
"What?" she peeped.
"You're having night terrors now?"
Skip went the beat of her heart again and she wondered at the versatility of the damn thing, "Well, no, not… I mean, it wasn't a bad dream, it just really vivid and-"
Amy's mouth clamped shut and the only thing keeping her from clapping her hand to her mouth was the cast she just realized she was wearing on her left arm. Even as she refused to look Shadow in the eyes, however, she could just feel his annoyed and confused look directly pointed at her. Instead she watched him cross his arms, pudding still in hand.
"Night terrors that aren't bad dreams? What the hell happened?"
Amy snapped her fingers in a moment of inspiration, "You know what it was? It was classified! It's classified and you're just gonna have to be satisfied with that, Shadow the Nosey-hog!"
Shadow's eyes narrowed down to slits, "Amy…"
"I'm fine!" she squeaked, a clenched hand slamming down to her side, making her yelp in pain again. Rather than letting Shadow comfort her, she continued on in a harsher, more commanding voice, "Everything is fine! Everything is as peachy as it can be with us- uh, YO- I MEAN ME! Uh… I mean, we… in the… hospital."
Shadow's eyes searched Amy's and she started sweating under his gaze. Her fingers fidgeted on her sheets and she tried to get her breathing under control, but to no avail. Gods, damn it all, she didn't know how she felt about the boy, why the hell was he so keen on knowing before even she did!?
He'd opened his mouth to say something more, and Amy knew if he used that voice again, she would say everything and it would be too late. She snapped at him, "So, yes, I'm done. We're done with this conversation! So either move on or move along, mister!"
Eyebrows raised, but she couldn't divine anything else from his expression. As Shadow closed his eyes and took a deep, slow breath he simply said, "Just… at least tell me it had nothing to do with your family."
Amy's face fell, shame creeping into her features, but before she could say anything, Shadow continued, "Last time I got you hurt because I questioned you when I shouldn't have. I understand it's only been a day but… is there any way for you to confirm-"
"I'm not in danger, Shadow," Amy responded sincerely, her hand reaching out and resting on his arm, just below his shoulder, "I just had a dream. Scary and kind of strange, but it can't hurt me anymore. I'm okay, I promise."
Shadow's eyes followed her hand as she rubbed his arm comfortingly, the crease in his brow only slightly softening. He took one more breath before gently patting her hand with his and nodding, "Good."
His hand rested on hers and for a moment there was an odd peace in the air. The electricity of his hand on hers no longer shackled her senses. It was still there, but it had dulled to nothing more than a stimulation of the nerves, a soothing distraction to the now constant noise of the pain she'd woken to and the intensity of the fantasy she would rather never face again. This wasn't captivation, but companionship that felt so light and sweet.
There was safety here. There was compassion.
Gods, this felt like-
"Amy?"
Her hand shot back and she turned before remembering just how bad that idea was. Pain wretched through her body at lightning speed, making a small squeak of pain eek desperately out of her gaped mouth. Shadow's hand held out gently and he stepped forward. He realized too late just how beaten up he was as he managed to step wrong somehow. The pudding cup clattered to the floor as he froze in agony. Shadow leaned hard against the bed to regain his composure, but Amy was the first to recover.
"C-cream? What are you doing here?"
Wide brown eyes bounced between the two, a certainty in them that Amy blushed at. They glazed over with unshed tears and her hand found her way to her mouth. Shadow recovered at her side as Amy watched Cream with no small amount of trepidation.
Amy couldn't help but feel the same way. She hadn't spoken to her 'best friend' since Sally had given them their bridesmaid dresses almost two months ago. Thinking back, she realized that their dealings had been awkward since the New Year Party when Amy had gotten sick and yelled at everyone for abandoning her.
Even Cream had left her behind that night.
A low hum of anger flowed through Amy as she realized the emotion on Cream's face wasn't happiness but something more akin to fear or betrayal. She wasn't sure what it was, but it wasn't Cream being glad she was awake. As the three stared each other down, Shadow and Amy at Cream and Cream switching between the two in a panicked frenzy, Cream took a shaking breath in and in a wavering voice murmured, "Amy, can we talk? Alone?"
Cream always understood, at least on an intellectual level, that she was a nervous overthinker. It was hard to tell yourself that you were being overly paranoid when you'd spent a majority of your life playing 4D chess with Murphy's Law and only barely scraping by half the time.
It was better than not getting by at all. So she continued the game, over and over, analyzing every possible outcome until she picked the one where everyone made it out.
It was why she was the search and rescue division of the Freedom Fighters.
It was why when she heard the explosion on the other side of town, she grabbed her kit and ran to help.
As she hopped over the rooftops of Oak King's Village, Cheese flying staunchly behind her, she could smell the burning gas, wood, and scorched stone. One high leap showed her exactly where she was heading, clearing the fog slowly to reveal what pieces she was going to be working against.
Gods, she should have known it had something to do with Amy.
The house had been almost completely obliterated, a teapot shrieking on the stove dangling precariously over her best friend. Amy had been covered in burns, splinters and so, SO many cuts and signs of deep tissue bruising and broken bones. As other emergency responders started arriving, she organized the rescue, barking out orders that shocked everyone as she ran herself ragged to save Amy.
She was so focused on saving her friend that Cream had almost entirely overlooked Shadow a few feet away from them.
Of course he was involved too.
Whenever something happened around Amy nowadays, Shadow was never too far from her. Cream was beginning to wonder if it wasn't deliberate.
Amy finds out about Sonic and Sally's engagement. Shadow is there to pick up the pieces.
Amy gets stuck in a shootout at the mall. Shadow is there to "save" her and isolate her from her friends.
Amy gets arrested. Shadow is the one to interrogate her.
Nicole finds the bugs Shadow planted. Amy's is the only one they can't find.
Now there's a hole in the ground where Amy's house used to be and she and Shadow were the only ones in the wreckage.
Cream unconsciously pets Cheese's head as she ignores the rest of the Freedom Fighter's debate about what to do until Amy wakes up. Where will she stay? Will she agree? What caused the explosion? Was it an accident or had someone attacked them? Could they protect her if they tried to attack again?
The questions skirted the obvious and she grew steadily more incensed that no one stopped to consider that Shadow could've attacked Amy. While the motive was unclear, Cream had her theories. They'd never found her bug. Amy hadn't invited her over in ages so they'd been unable to sweep her house. Rotor had suggested finally filling her in about the bugs, which Cream agreed with. Sally pointed out that Amy and Shadow were too close for her not to bring it up, losing the precious advantage they'd cultivated in the first place. Antoine had suggested simply searching her house without her there, but sneaking in had always felt so…
Well, they never went through with it and after the centipede incident, Sonic insisted it wasn't a problem anymore. He even made Shadow a groomsman!
Cream's nose wrinkled at the thought. Sonic was always protective of Amy, so she never imagined that he could let her go to someone so conniving so easily.
The way she figured it, Amy most likely found it on her own. It wouldn't surprise Cream in the least if Sally's prediction of Amy's reaction was correct. Her temper had the bad reputation of a reckless rook, barging through anything to get her point across or her feelings acknowledged.
"Mr. Shadow's influence?" she wondered, then shook her head, "No, she's always been a little reckless. That has Mr. Sonic written all over it."
She paused petting Cheese to repeat the sentence in her mind without the honorifics. She tended to slip back into old habits when she was stressed. She was fourteen now, so close to adulthood and trusted within her circle of friends, even more so than Amy was at times.
Cream heaved a frustrated sigh at the thought. It was harsh, but true. Love had always clouded her friend's eyes. The same thing that gave Amy strength, made her presumptuous, selfish even. If given even the slightest bit of attention, Amy tended towards self-sacrifice, exchanging pawns and more strategic positions on the board for further validation. That her friends should expect Shadow not to lie to her? Not to use her for information, power, clout, whatever it was that the G.U.N was after? Of course not, and that's why it was best to leave Amy in the dark on certain matters.
Guilt clenched at her chest, remembering her own lies by omission. While Cream was one of the last people to find out about Sonic and Sally getting married, she had also agreed not to say anything to Amy. She sat on that information for weeks, hoping Sonic would say something to her privately before announcing it. She waited around Amy, searching for any signs of distress to help her pick up the pieces.
She should have known Sonic wouldn't do it. Where Amy was clouded by love, Sonic was clouded by his need to please. But they couldn't hide that information forever, and once the news went public and Amy found out that not only was her first love getting hitched, but that her friends had known all along, their relationship hadn't been the same. Cream knew that Amy would be fragile and volatile from the betrayal, but still she'd continued to make choice after choice that would push Amy further away from her, even as she thought she was doing the right thing.
She went to the ball and left Amy crying, sick and alone.
She never said a word about the bugs.
She never told Amy that Sally was planning to make them all bridesmaids.
Should it really surprise her that she'd been replaced by Shadow?
With all of her crimes lined up before her, she knew she had so much to make up for. She presented her theory to the others, but it was dismissed before it even hit the table. Sonic had been the first to say there was no way Shadow would lay a finger on her, and the rest of the table muttered their reluctant agreement. This betrayal shook Cream the hardest, Sonic never made a secret about his distrust of Shadow after they found out about the bugs. She confronted him after that meeting and while he was vague on the details (gods, why do her friends always have so many secrets) he promised that Shadow was on Amy's side and wasn't the one who attacked.
So she stood vigil by Amy's side until she heard the bedraggled cry of someone desperate to get away from hospital staff. Fleshy slaps against cold linoleum and hardwood paneling drew closer and Cream's heart stopped in horror. Less than twelve hours after the explosion, Shadow was up and practically dragging himself to Amy's side. She scrambled to prepare for a fight, convinced that Shadow had come to finish what he'd started. She wasn't sure if she could take him down, even in his weakened state. Still, she sent Cheese out the window to grab the others as quickly as he could fly just before Shadow turned the corner. Cream's blood turned cold at the sight of a beaten and battered Ultimate Life Form. Blood dripped from busted seams and swelling welts accented already harsh features, turning him into a walking terror that would stop at nothing to reach his goal. Red eyes were wide in pain and panic as they zeroed in on Cream's first best friend.
Ragged breathing turned wet and strained as he gripped the wood of the door frame so hard it started to creak.
Cream recognized the look in his eyes. As if she needed more proof of her busted theory, he called out to her shakily, "Is she…?"
Eyes hardened on her, but Cream now knew why Sonic had insisted on Shadow's innocence. She nodded but refused to step aside.
He ignored her.
There he leaned against the bed on the other side as he collapsed back into oblivion, too exhausted to keep fighting.
He was up after another two hours of rest and the worst of his burst stitches were patched again. Antoine staged the interrogation by Amy's bedside, at Shadow's insistence. Cream wondered briefly if this arrogant dark knight had meant to take her rook by force and that was why he attacked her. The very thought made her blood boil, but that theory died on arrival as well. Shadow's retelling of events, while also infuriatingly vague, became less so at everyone's reaction to him mentioning Amy's mother.
That changed more than a few pieces on the board.
Cream knew enough about the situation to know that Amy's past was complicated and that her family was bad news. She knew Amy had been banished when she was seven years old. She knew she was a ward of the Acorn kingdom and that she had been a princess before she was exiled. She had no idea why Amy's mother had attacked her now. She had no idea why Shadow was there or how they had managed to turn Amy's home into a crater.
He insisted on keeping her in his home.
To her outrage, Sally and Sonic agreed.
Protesting did nothing. Shadow may have been hurt, but he had the might of the G.U.N and its resources behind him to look after and protect them. Amy's family likely didn't know where he lived in the first place and would no doubt expect her to be tucked safely at Acorn castle or even in Sonic's home. Even if they did find him, Shadow could instantly teleport them away to safety without a teleporter ring. Injured as he was, Shadow was still the best bet to keep Amy safe.
Cream knew that was a lie. Shadow was just a convenient way to keep Amy out of the castle and away from Sonic, the real Queen on the board.
Someone else's Queen.
So here she sat at Amy's bedside, three days later as she embroidered her frustrations into an unfortunate piece of tattered silk. Tails had come by at some point, she couldn't remember when. She was in no mood to be comforted or cajoled away. A part of her couldn't forgive him for his willingness to trade Amy off to the first errant knight on the board. Everyone else seemed to see Amy as some inconvenient pawn in this game and Cream had allowed it for too long. It didn't take much to make him leave her alone. He'd grown tired of her lately, and frankly, the feeling was becoming mutual. She didn't have time to worry about that now.
Still, as she managed to poke herself for the fifth time, she realized she could no longer focus on one spot and her hands shook in exhaustion and impotence. She felt a gentle nudge on the tip of her ear she knew immediately to be Cheese. Sure enough, she looked down to a concerned chao, rubbing his belly and pointing at his mouth.
Cream heaved an unwilling sigh, "Stay here and keep watch. I'll go get us something to eat."
With a quick stretch she was up, chiding herself inwardly for attaining even such a meager pleasure while her friend lay in uncertainty.
She deserved none of it for abandoning Amy so shamefully for so long.
Still, she practically limped down the halls, searching for a vending machine with something that could cater to both Mobians and Chaos. With a garden attached nearby, it didn't take long to find some fruit nearby. She claimed her prize and was about to head back when her ears twitched at familiar voices nearby.
"I don't know why you're being so stubborn. You got what you wanted."
"I didn't ask for-"
"Shadow, stop it. This was exactly what you asked for!"
Cream froze. Shadow and Rouge. What were they up to?
She twitched her ears gently to listen for where they were. There, just around the corner from the garden entrance she heard Shadow being pushed in a wheelchair no doubt on the way back to his room. He was chewing on something that gave a bit of an unpleasant squelch with each bite.
It was a risky move, but Cream made it without question. She hid herself back in the foyer of the Garden, where she held the door open a crack and listened intently to their conversation as they passed.
"So what happened?" Rouge asked, frustration clear in her strained tone, "Did Her Highness hit you in the head too hard?"
"Amy didn't do this."
"Right, her mother did," sarcasm dripped from every word, "So what, now you want to back out? You were right. She was in danger. Now's your chance to find out how and why."
"The Commander shouldn't have been part of that operation. I thought you were the world's best thief-"
"Treasure hunter."
"Whatever. How the hell did he find out that I wanted a Mantis Knight?"
Cream felt her blood rush through her ears. MK had been engraved on each of the little bugs they'd found on their trip to Soleanna. So that's what that stood for. With barely contained rage, she pressed her head hard against the wall to listen more closely.
"That crest you told me about, it brought up something the Commander wanted. Look, I got you what you wanted. Now you have the bonus of protecting your precious princess with the full weight of the G.U.N in exchange for a little information about Avalon."
Cream frowned. She'd heard the name before but couldn't remember where. She kept listening.
"I don't give a shit about Avalon."
"Well the United Federation does. So. If you want that Mantis Knight you were harassing me about before you got blown to pieces, you're going to be a good little agent and find out what Amy knows about Ava-"
Cream didn't hear the rest of the sentence. The door she was practically leaning out of, slammed against her, pushing her back into the foyer and nearly pinning her ear in the jamb. As she bit her lip to cover a shriek of shock, she only barely heard Shadow ask what the hell she was being so dramatic about.
"You pissing me off, that's what," she barely heard Rouge quip as she walked away from the Garden.
There Cream leaned against the wall for a moment, compiling everything she just learned into some semblance of a plan. The first step was simple.
Find Sonic. Find Sally. Find someone.
Idiot -
It was just her luck, she saw the back of a familiar squirrel standing in the middle of the foyer. Her head turned from side to side as she got her bearings and decided where to go. The Princess must have been on her way to visit Amy and Shadow. Tears of relief and panic sprang from the corner of her eyes as Cream practically threw herself at her.
"Princess Sally!"
"Cream! Where'd you come from?" Sally smiled warily as she struggled to catch her, "What's the matter? You never call me that anymore."
"Please, just listen! Amy's in danger! M-mr. Shadow and Ms. Rouge are going to spy on Amy to-"
Sally frowned in confusion and even as Cream tried to plow through, she held up her hand, stopping her stream of consciousness, "Cream, be reasonable. Shadow isn't going to spy on Amy. He's trying to protect her."
"But they're planning on using those creepy bugs again! They really want to learn more about something called Avalon and Ms. Rouge wants him to-."
"Cream. Enough," Sally sighed, "Capable as Rouge can be, if Shadow decides he doesn't want to do something, he won't. Besides, Amy doesn't know enough about Avalon to give them any information about it. They'll find out it's a waste of time and move on."
"He wanted another bug!" Cream cried, tears now flowing freely down her cheeks, "I heard him, he was only mad at Ms Rouge because she told their Commander. He still wants to spy on her and use her and now the Commander wants him to as well. Please, we have to keep her away from him! Let her stay with me and-"
"Cream. Stop."
There was a commanding tone in her voice that stopped Cream completely in her tracks. She wasn't sure what it was, but she now had her complete and undivided attention as she took a deep breath and fiddled with the fresh bouquet of flowers in her hands.
"Shadow's not going to hurt Amy," Sally murmured tentatively, "Amy can be a bit… rash, but she chooses her friends wisely. Shadow will protect her. Even if he ends up using those… things again, I'm sure he has her best interests at heart. Just like we all do.
"We've already taken so much from her. Don't you want her to stay happy? Just for a little longer?"
Sally looked on at the young rabbit, hoping that she would understand where she was coming from and protect Amy from unnecessary heart ache. But Cream saw things differently. Time seemed to stop as the gut punch settled in Cream's mind. It took a moment to find her breath, but when she did, her voice sounded every bit as bitter as she felt, "Just until after the wedding. Right?"
Sally's face softened in confusion a moment before she realized the full weight of the accusation thrown at her. She flinched as though she'd been slapped, "Cream! NO! That's not-"
"YES IT IS. I'm done!" Cream wailed, "This is… I'm. I'm done lying. We lied about the wedding and the proposal. We lied about the bugs. Now we're lying about Mr. Shadow and I'm so tired of pretending we're doing this for her, when it's just so we can make things easier for us!
"But look at where we are! Amy is alone and she doesn't trust us anymore and all she has to lean on is someone who's just trying to lie to her too and I'm so sick of all of you thinking you know so much better when all you're doing is making things worse!"
Cream didn't stay to listen to what else Sally had to say. Back she ran towards Amy's hospital room, determined to tell Amy the truth. If she could just let her know what was wrong, apologize, beg for mercy, maybe she could put a stop to this. Maybe she could protect Amy on her own.
A king and a rook against the entire board, just like they used to be.
That feeling drove her all the way up the stairwell to the fifth floor where Amy was, despite how much harder it was to fly now that she was older. She raced through the halls, dodging nurses and patients alike. Her eyes glazed with tears of relief as she rounded the corner and was in sight of Amy's room. Ankle boots clacked loudly against the floor, echoing down the hall as she crossed the finish line-
When her entire world ground to a halt.
Cream's eyes widened in horror as she saw Amy's hand on Shadow's arm, her thumb tracing small comforting circles on his arm as he held her hand in place. Amy leaned slightly forward, a look of contentment on her face that Cream hadn't seen in such a long time. Shadow's was one of tranquil contemplation, his head resting near where their hands met practically on his chest. A deluge of information all hit Cream at once and she realized just how absolutely fucked she was.
Cream had seen that look in Amy's eyes before. It was that look that dragged her and her friends in and out of danger as easily as she breathed.
Amy was in love again.
"Amy?"
Both hedgehogs jumped out of their skins realizing they weren't alone. Painful mumblings morphed into shamefaced blushes as they looked on at their interloper.
"Cream? What are you doing here?"
A high pitched buzzing rang through her ears.
What was she going to do?
Her hands found their way over her mouth as she ran the possibilities through her mind. As Amy's face morphed from confusion to annoyance, Cream agonized over the very real possibility that Amy wouldn't believe her.
Not when her enemy could play at love so much better than Mr. Sonic ever had.
But Cream couldn't lie to her either, not anymore.
So what could she do?
"Amy, can we talk? Alone?"
Cream never felt so alone as when those words fell out of her mouth. Amy's lip twitched and Cream knew before Amy opened her mouth that telling her the truth was a losing battle. Here she was, a King, the most useless piece on the board, fighting against at least four, hell, five opponents if she counted Amy's family and one of them was Amy herself.
A lone king couldn't win any game, much less one with so many odds against them. Was she done before she'd had a chance to make a single move?
"Shadow's still hurt too. He came all this way just to see if I was okay. Whatever you have to say, you can say it to both of us."
Cream didn't miss the irked look on Amy's face as she calmly faced that slap in the face. She knew it was what she deserved after letting their relationship fester for so long. Still she couldn't help the low glow of sick pleasure at Amy's vexation. One of them needed to keep a cool head in all this, it was only natural that it be Cream.
This was for Amy's own good, after all.
Cream's eyes rested on Shadow as he stared back at her. At least he had the good grace to look appalled at the notion that he should be privy to any of her confessions. He gingerly moved away from Amy's side and started for the door while picking what looked like food from his quills.
"I think not."
"Wha- Shadow, wait-" Amy's hand reached out, her fingers just grazing the tip of one of his back quills, causing them both to stop. Cream watched in mortified fascination as Amy became bashful about her display, something that she'd never given even a second thought to. Even more astounding, he didn't ignore her, or push her away, something that had been all too common a scene when it'd been a blue hedgehog stopped by pink hands. In fact he turned towards her, reached out to place his hand on hers and with a gentle cajoling in his voice that sounded out of place coming from him, said, "I need to let the nurses know you're awake. You've yet to see a doctor or eat a damn thing in days. I'll be back as soon as your talk is done."
"B-but-"
"You'll be fine," Shadow gave Amy's hand a final pat before he let it slide away. He gingerly marched his way past Cream, a warning in his eyes. Cream's eyes narrowed but gave a small nod. It was an appreciated mercy on his part, but she was going to relish the moment when he realized she wouldn't return the favor. Why else would he leave her alone with Amy unless he was so sure about his victory?
Cream knew from painful past experience that Amy would never listen to a single word against Shadow at this point. If she was going to win in the end, she was not only going to have to prove the bugs existed, but that Shadow had planted at least two on Amy as well.
She was going to have to knuckle down and find those bugs.
Her eyes fell down and to the left, where Cheese still peeked warily from behind one of the legs of Amy's bed frame. Cream's eyes lowered, letting the full weight of her relief wash over her as she placed her index and middle finger against her left palm, drawing slow but steady circles against it. She only let the tears fall when she saw Cheese nod and walk quietly away.
It was their sign for search.
While Amy had become more… emotionally detached from her usual friends, Cream knew she couldn't give up. She wasn't done. Not by a long shot.
As Amy stared at her with annoyed expectancy, Cream finally knew what she could say to start tearing down this rook's defenses.
Cream took a deep breath, and prayed that she wasn't too late.