A/N: The next chapter is finally out! I know! YAY!

As usual, I'll save my blabbing for later.

EDIT: I have NO idea what's wrong with my uploader, but it cut out a lot of the dialogue for some reason when I uploaded it, so I had to upload again. Sorry for any confusion.

Dedicated to Marianne

"Heaven bent to take my hand
Nowhere left to turn
I'm lost to those I thought were friends
To everyone I know…"

"Fallen" lyrics by Sarah McLachlan

'Maybe what we're doing is a mistake,' thought Rouge, so tired that she was surprised she could even think in the first place. 'Maybe this is just one, huge mistake.'

Rouge buried her head in her hands. She was so tired… but her thoughts wouldn't leave her alone. They chased her in her head over and over again in an endless circle. She could see them in her minds eye – huge, towering shadows that reached out at her, grabbing her wings and yanking her towards them. She would scream and beat at them as hard as she could, but they still wouldn't let go…

The white bat gave a shudder. How had she deteriorated so quickly? How had she – young, confident, smart… 'and maybe just a bit vain,' she admitted to herself… become such a… a…

'A…' Rouge couldn't find a word to describe herself. 'A mess? A wreck?' Understatements of the year…

The roof of the old motel she was standing on moaned under her light weight, but she ignored it. Knuckles had told her to start searching here, east of where Sonic had been last sighted.

'The echidna has a very good plan,' she admitted reluctantly to herself. They had been spread out in the four directions around the globe, and they would work their way towards the center, slowly and painfully tightening the noose around their necks, giving them no chance to escape…

Rouge shuddered again. 'At least, that was how Knuckles had described it. A noose tightening…'

She hated it. This plan of theirs, the changes, the stupid prophecy… Knuckles had changed the most out of them all.

'Maybe… maybe that's why I started to change,' she thought hesitantly. 'Because that stupid, thick-headed echidna did.'

Suddenly, Rouge felt so angry at him. Why was he doing this? She paced around the roof, her legs going faster and faster. He had always been hot-headed, to be sure, but now he had simply gone too far. This wasn't saving the world… this was murder!

"Argh!" Rouge screamed in frustration. She punched the door leading to the roof, creating a fist-sized dent. But she didn't stop there. She kept on punching, feeling immense satisfaction at the way the metal door was starting to fold, the way her nails were starting to chip, her knuckles starting to crack, the sharp pain in her fingers, distracting her from the pain in her heart…

"Knuckles!" One more furious punch that would've scared even said echidna away, and the door was blown away from it's hinges.

Rouge stopped, breathing heavily, just staring at the dark, yawning space that was left. The satisfaction was already ebbing away, leaving the same, burning pain that ate away at her. After all, what had breaking down the door accomplished?

Rouge tightened her lips. 'Don't cry,' she thought desperately to herself. 'Think of something else. Anything else. Just breathe… in… out… in…'

Rouge sniffed. Her ears were ringing from the blow of the last punch, and her throat felt raw from screaming. She must've woken up everyone in the motel by now… but somehow, she didn't care. A small part of her wanted someone to come up onto the roof right now, just so she could have an excuse for hurting someone…

"No…" she whispered to herself. Her throat was too hoarse for anything more than a whisper. "I… I won't… I can't think like that. This is why Knuckles…"

There. Knuckles's name slipped into her thoughts again.

Rouge walked to the edge of the roof, gripping the sides. She contemplated throwing herself over the edge, locking her wings so that she couldn't spread them open and fly away. What would it feel like? Would it hurt when she hit the concrete?

She grimaced. 'No, too messy,' she decided. She chuckled a bit. It felt good to laugh. She couldn't remember the last time that she had laughed.

'Oh, Knuckles.' She sighed to herself. 'What's happened to you? What's happened to me? What's happened to all of us?'

And as usual, there was no answer. Maybe there was… but she couldn't catch it fast enough. It seemed like the stars would cast their light and cut the answer to shreds before it could reach her.

'Just like Knuckles,' Rouge thought.'Something I used to love has changed… and I don't know if I can change them back.'

'I'm dreaming,' thought Sonic. 'I'm dreaming, but I can't stop it…'

He could feel his blankets being wrapped around him, but suddenly, they seemed to lift up and become the night sky. A black sky, peppered with red stars.

'Red stars?' The pillow underneath him fell away. Grass seemed to grow out from it. 'That can't be right, can it?'

The stars shivered as if they could hear them. Suddenly, the stars started to fall, setting the grass around him ablaze.

'Run!' his mind screamed, but his legs wouldn't move. He could feel the smoke around him, wrapping around his legs and rooting him to the spot. The brightness of the fires captivated him, and he reached out to touch them…

'Sonic, Sonic!' he suddenly heard. Was the fire talking to him? 'How could you? How could you do this to us?'

'I have to!' he heard himself shouting back. 'They need me!'

'We need you, Sonic!' The fire was wrapping around him. He could smell his fur being singed and the salt of his tears as the smoke seeped into his eyelids. 'Help us, Sonic! We need you!'

'No, let go of me!' He was kicking, lashing out at the fire, but nothing seemed to work. The more he fought it, the harder it held onto him. 'They need me, they need me!'

"They need me!" Sonic woke up with a start, and clamped his mouth shut. 'God, was I talking in my sleep?' He glanced around quickly, but saw that both the babies and Amy were sleeping deeply.

As quietly as he could, he kicked off his tangle of blankets, wincing at the creaky mattress. He crept over to the window, opened it, and easily swung himself to the tree limb that stretched out towards him.

He glanced back again, and saw Amy murmur in her sleep before turning around.

The hedgehog relaxed a bit, deciding to stay out in the tree limb for a little while. The tree was swaying peacefully in the wind. Sonic found the rhythm mesmerizing… but it wasn't enough to keep his mind away from his troubles.

'This is it. I'm losing my mind, aren't I?' He heard some bird he didn't know the name of rustle in it's nest above him somewhere, as if agreeing with his thoughts.

Sonic sighed. He rubbed his tired eyes, but he defiantly wasn't going to be getting any sleep again. His mind was too awake for that now. He nose twitched as smells assaulted it – the spiciness of the grass, the strangely sweet aroma of the fast-flowing river. The tree even smelled a little sooty, like the fire in his dream…

Sonic shook his head. What help were his dreams now? They did nothing but add to his worries, and he had more than enough to deal with.

Resting his head in his hands, he let his thoughts wander. It was the only way he knew to solve his problems. Well, that, and running.

'But that's only my way of solving things,' he thought. 'Wandering and running away is my life. Was dragging Amy and Naomi and Nathaniel into this the right thing? Was it really the only way?'

He thought of all the other things they could've done. He could've tried talking to them. But no, Knuckles was way too bent on killing the babies to be swayed. He could've hidden the babies away. But Knuckles and Rouge were two of the best treasure hunters in the world – how hard could finding the babies have been? He could've threatened them… but with what? Besides, he wasn't like that.

And so, when his options had run dry, he did the only other thing he could – run.

'And now, we have the whole world after us.'

The wind whistled a soft tune into his ears. Was it trying to console him? No, that couldn't have been it. He didn't deserve it.

"It's all my fault," he whispered.

"What is?"

The voice shocked him out of his thoughts. He looked up. Amy was staring at him with those emerald-drop eyes of hers. The moon seemed to make her quills sparkle with dust.

Naomi and Nathaniel stared up at Sonic from Amy's arms. They were awake – all of them were awake, just because he was. 'Something else that's my fault,' thought Sonic.

Sonic looked away. "Nothing," he said.

"Ahh?" Naomi sounded incredulous, as if she didn't believe him. Sonic's heart quickened. Did she understand him?

"Sonic…" Amy's voice was soft, like the music of the wind. She paused. "I think Naomi wants you to hold her."

Naomi held out her hands to him, giggling with delight. The breeze winded through her white quills, and Nathaniel looked at them with fascination, as if wondering what invisible force was making them move.

Sonic swallowed. "I… Amy…"

"What's wrong, Sonic?" she asked, her voice full of concern. The pink hedgehog shifted the two tiny hedgehogs in her arms. She already looked like a mother.

Sonic swallowed again. "Amy… how long are we going to keep running?"

Amy blinked in surprise. Her mouth opened and closed for a few moments, struggling with her words. "Sonic…"

"How long…" continued Sonic, as if he hadn't heard her, "How long can we keep this up?"

Amy was silent for so long that he thought she wouldn't answer. But when she finally did, her voice sounded a bit tentative, as if she was treading across sand. "Until they understand, Sonic."

Sonic shook his head. "What if they never understand? What if they don't want to understand?"

Amy smiled a bit at him. Her eyes were sparkling with amusement. "That's okay Sonic. As long as you understand, that's all I'll ever need."

Naomi giggled happily, whether at the wind or at Amy's words he didn't know. But he could feel his heart beating even quicker, the blood running faster in his veins as if he had went around the world more times than he ever had in his life.

"Amy…" he hadn't noticed that he had moved closer to her. "Amy… I…" Amy's eyes had gone wide. When had their faces gotten so close? He could smell her sweet scent, making him feel dizzy.

'No…' He suddenly shrank back. 'No, I can't.'

Instead, he just smiled at her and squeezed her shoulder, leaving sooty, black dust from the tree. "Thanks Amy."

For a second, he saw a flash of emotion in her eyes that he had never seen before, but it was gone before he could find out what it was. "No problem, Sonic." She smiled at him. "What are friends for, right?"

"Yeah… friends…" The strange feeling he had gotten earlier was already ebbing away from his blood. Naomi squeaked when Sonic moved back along the branch, making it bob up and leave a streak of black dust along the walls.

Gently, Sonic took Naomi in his arms, who screeched in delight. She clapped happily when she saw how dizzyingly high they were from the ground, and she rode the waving of the branch as if she had done it all her life. She seemed to grow strong before Sonic's eyes, as if her fragility had been driven away by something he couldn't name.

Sonic smiled. 'I feel like…' He shook his head. He couldn't even find the words for what he was feeling right now, as he hugged Naomi tighter to his chest. 'I don't know what this feeling is, but…' He caught Amy's eye, and she smiled at him. 'I've never felt happier in my life.'

Shadow watched them silently, the night a perfect cover for his black fur. The little girl's laughter rang in his ears, and he felt something strange rise in his throat.

'Regret? Am I regretting my choice?' Shadow ran a hand through his quills. The wind made them rattle against each other, like they were rustling a drape of midnight sky.

He had known that Tails was lying back at his workshop, and he felt contempt at the way the fox's heart was so soft. Didn't he know that this was the fate of the world he was talking about? Didn't he know that everything they did could alter the coming disaster?

Shadow tightened his lips. Why didn't he just call Knuckles now? He had found them – if they worked quickly enough, they could have all of the captured.

'It's because…' Shadow desperately tried not to finish the thought, but to no avail. 'Sonic is my friend.'

When had this happened? When had Sonic become his friend? Shadow felt a bit of despair at the thought. His emotions could get in the way of his mission, and that was the last thing he needed.

'Pah, pathetic emotions,' he thought to himself. The motel wall he was leaning on spat a few brick crumbs at him as it bent slightly under his weight. The river that ran beside the motel lashed out with it's watery fingers at his feet, as if telling him he was wrong.

In a private corner of his mind, he felt himself deflate. Somehow, some way during the time that he had spent with Sonic, he had become his friend. And as corny, disgusting, and against every single bit of his moral fiber that he had built up against it, he had learned the meaning of friendship.

He hadn't been this way once. He hadn't been so revolted at the thought of friendship once, a long time ago, when they sky was always midnight black, when his world had revolved around his friendship with a blue-eyed, sickly girl…

But that had been a long time ago. Too long for him to think about anymore.

He had to harden his resolve. He had to ignore his emotions. He just had to.

'Pah… pathetic emotions…' he thought again, but this time, his mind didn't sound as sure as before.

He looked over at Sonic again. 'A friend…' Shadow bit his lip. No, he couldn't think this way.

With every single will of his being, he shoved the thoughts into the innermost, darkest corner of his mind.

'I will never, ever let my emotions control me like that,' Shadow thought to himself, slowly walking away. 'Never, ever again.'

A/N: Melancholy, eh? I can't even spell that word... but I gotta stop being so depressing :P

Anyways, the next chapter might be a bit late coming out - The Queen of Aces hurt her arm. I won't go into the details, though, so ask her if you really, really want to know that badly. Actually, don't. I don't think she wants to be bothered. But yeah... I could keep ranting like this all day, you know? But ugh, I'm just so busy right now. I have no idea what happened to my relaxing summer... (mutters)

So thanks for reading! Hope you've enjoyed it!

Anonymous Reviews:

Naetara: Yeah, the thought of Tails hurting anyone is a bit creepy, but you gotta remember that Tails is only 8, and he's already have a lot of responsibilites acting as a hero, so he's probably had to make a lot of choices like that already. Plus, he's like, extremely logical, and it probably made sense to him to get rid of one person for the sake of the entire planet. Anyways, glad you liked it, and thanks for the compliments :P

Marianne: YES, I've definatly was looking forward to you reviewing :P Don't worry, we'll always have this story going, no matter how lazy (or injured) we get :) Besides, knowing we have someone who'll always read no matter what... well, we can't dissapoint that reader, can we:D Thanks for reviewing, and good luck!

The Queen of Aces

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