A/N: I know. ZOMG, 'tis a new chapter!
You will now find attatched a list of excuses.
a) Severe, severe writer's block. With no cure.
b) To tie in with that, an absolute lack of inspiration (I didn't have enough money to buy more).
c) Homework sucks. Though it was semi-fun to make fun of it when I was writing an assignment on it...
e) Mix it all in a big bowl of laziness, and... VOILA! Lack of update.
Phew... okay, now that that's out of the way...
ON WITH ZA CHAPTA!!
Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog. Sorry, no corny disclaimer joke this time.
Tick… tick… tick…
'Get away from me… get away…'
Invisible hands were reaching for him. He tried to turn around and run, but in this slow, dream-like state, he couldn't get away fast enough. A tendril of darkness whipped past his face, and it burned his cheek like fire.
'Run… run…'
Tails kept running, and he gasped out loud as something gripped his leg.
'Please… get away from me…'
The grip on his leg tightened, and he was whipped around.
'Get away…'
Emerald eyes gazed into his…
'Please, Tails. You have to get away…'
But he couldn't… he just couldn't…
'Tails! Go!'
He closed his eyes…
'Go!'
Tick… tick… tick…
His body felt numb, and he was shivering uncontrollably. Tails sat up, wincing, as if his cheek really was on fire. He reached his hand up to his cheek by instinct… but felt nothing.
'A dream…' his hand fell back down heavily on his leg. 'It was just a dream…'
He buried his face into his hands. 'Why… why do I feel like… that I want it to be real?'
White walls stared back at him, as blank as his mind.
'I don't know what to think… I don't know what I should feel…'
The smallest smile stole over his lips.
'Sonic…' His lips went dry at the very thought of that name. 'Tell me what I should feel, please.' He swallowed, his throat suddenly too dry, his tongue suddenly too heavy. 'I guess… I'm not as independent as I thought I am…'
"Oh… you're awake…"
Tails glanced up. "Cream," he said hoarsely, in a way of a greeting.
Cream bit her lip, and sat down tentatively beside him. She stared at him, the saddest look in her eyes. It just felt… so wrong to her. Tails had always smiled, even through the worst of times. Just like Sonic.
"Cream…" She looked up at the fox. "Where is everyone?"
She relaxed a bit. "Well… after we came back to your house, you fell asleep." Her hand overlaid his, and she clutched it tightly, as if trying to give him all her energy. As if she was about to tell him horrible news. "And then… everyone else left outside. They're… still outside… if you want to see…"
Tails swallowed hard, and he put his other hand over hers.
There was a pause.
'Please…' begged Cream silently in her mind. 'Don't ask me about it…' She knew that it was so selfish… so incredibly selfish. But she couldn't help it. She didn't want to be the one to answer… at least, not now. Not yet.
Of course, her thoughts were ignored.
"What should I do, Cream?" whispered Tails. He looked up at her, his eyes intense. It seemed like a lifetime ago when they had turned ice-cold and hard… how the glimmer in them had disappeared. She flinched, as if it was those eyes that were trained on her. She quickly looked down, as if ashamed.
"Cream…" She couldn't help it. She looked back up at him. He looked at her with eyes that were pleading to her. "I don't know what to do…"
She sighed. It wasn't like she didn't see this coming. She knew that he would ask… and she knew that she had to answer. Even if she herself didn't know what she wanted yet… at least, she thought that she didn't.
She let go of his hands and rested her chin in them. She stared out, thinking. Weighing each of her words carefully in her mind… wondering herself if what she doing was right.
"You know," she finally said, softly. "Amy is really sad." Her dark, brown eyes stared at her own lap.
"I know," replied Tails, his voice just as quiet as they treaded on the taboo subject.
"And," Cream continued, as if they were delicately walking on thin ice, and desperate not to slip. "Knuckles really misses him, even if he doesn't show it. He's really angry with him for leaving."
Tails was silent.
Cream went on, though still a bit uneasy. "Charmey's been really quiet too. The Chaotix seems to be in space most of the time."
Cream watched as Tails's eyes stared at the stitches in the thin blanket that was covering him.
"Rouge… and Shadow…" Cream wetted her lips. "Even though they haven't known… him… for that long, they said that he was a good person. Rouge is upset that Knuckles is upset… and well, I'm not too sure about Shadow…"
"What about you?"
Cream took in a sharp breath. She felt her chin being lifted by a finger, and she met Tails's eyes as they looked searchingly at her.
"Me…?" she asked, quietly.
Tails nodded.
"I…" she swallowed. "I…" She tried to force the words out, but they were being tangled in her mind. Did she really want him back?
"Cream?" spoke Tails, as if the ice under them was beginning to break.
"I… I…" Tails's image started to blur, and she clutched his arm. She placed her face on his shoulder, and let her tears silently fall. "I want him back Tails. I want him back…" Her voice was low and hoarse.
Tails slowly put his hand on the back of her head. Her tears slowed as he rubbed it softly. "Why?" he questioned her.
Cream broke away from him, and it was now he who felt as if the girl was reading his soul.
"Because… I know that you do too."
The ice was broken.
'I shouldn't be here.'
It was the first thought he had as he stood a good distance away from his friends, watching them. The prickly green foliage hid him perfectly, and he was but a shadow to anyone who was passing by. He could've left right then and there… nobody would know…
But he stood there, frozen as he watched them silently.
'You should… at least say goodbye…'
Sonic felt like screaming. What was he supposed to say? He couldn't just… go up to them and say goodbye. They wouldn't let him…
'And you wouldn't let yourself.'
Where were the words when he needed them?
His mind felt completely blank. And it just confused him all the more.
'I'm just here to say goodbye. I'm just here to say goodbye. Then I'll leave.'
Sonic swallowed hard, gathering his courage. Funny how he could fight robots and Eggman without a single thought, without a single doubt… and yet, when it came to his friends…
"Sonic…"
Sonic felt his ears perk up at the sound of his name. Carefully, he peered around the tree he was hidden behind, letting the wind hit his face full blast.
"Sonic… back… right?"
He tried to strain his ears to catch all the words. Who was speaking? He squinted his eyes, ignoring the increasingly bright glare of the sun.
Five mounds sat around the steps of Tails's house. They were definitely talking about him…
"Dunno… maybe he'll…"
The rest of the sentence was drowned out by the sounds of awakening morning birds as they broke out into full song.
"Hey, are you guys coming back in?"
It was Cream. The door was opened fully, as she called out to the five mounds sitting at the steps. The sunlight bathed all of them, and for a moment, it was like they were nothing but a still painting… or even a memory.
Sonic heard murmurs, then saw all of them stand up and head back inside.
It was then that Cream peered out into the leafy green forest.
Sonic pulled back as fast as he could. He could've sworn… that Cream's brown eyes had stared right into his. He put a hand to his chest as if it would stop his heart from beating so loudly, or that his breathing would grow still. He quietly swore to himself in his mind. What if Cream had saw him?
He heard the click of a door closing. He waited for just a moment longer, than dared to peek out.
No one was there.
'Well, what were you hoping for? That they'd find you and drag you inside with them?'
He felt his courage falling away, and swore to himself again. What was he doing, sneaking around like a thief in the night?
Before his courage could fail him again, he marched boldly to the door, and knocked.
'So it was him that I saw…'
Cream kept her face calm and gentle as she looked at her older friend up and down. She was at least a head shorter than him, and yet he squirmed as she watched him.
Cream felt a frown working it's way up to her face. No… the Sonic she knew was confident. He wouldn't squirm… and he had never been uncomfortable around her before.
She watched him for a little while longer. He was opening and closing his mouth, as if he had words that needed to be said, and yet they had escaped him at the last moment.
Cream decided not to say anything, and simply held open the door.
They were gone.
Sonic thought that he had it. He thought that he knew the words that needed to be said, he thought that he knew the words that he had started to engrave into his mind.
But he didn't.
It was like trying to read a foreign language. He knew they were there… he knew what they meant… but he just didn't know what to say, or how to say them.
He didn't know what to think from the searching gaze that Cream was giving him. Was it and invite to let him in? Was it… forgiveness? What was he seeing in that young girl's eyes?
Then, he saw her shift. She opened the door a little wider.
'No… I'm not supposed to…'
But his body walked in anyway.
There they were, seated around a small table. You probably wouldn't have noticed that Sonic was missing from the group at all.
'Vector, Charmey, Espio, Rouge, Knuckles… Tails… and Cream's behind me…'
He gave a small sigh. 'No Amy…'
He almost berated himself for it right away.
'You know that you won't leave if you see Amy…'
He felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned around to see Cream. She gently guided him to a chair and sat him down, before sitting down herself.
Nobody was meeting his eye. The Chaotix were apparently busy inspecting the small table. Tails seemed to have found his blanket very interesting. Rouge was idly flipping through the newspaper, while Knuckles wrung his hands slowly.
"So…" Sonic looked up at Cream, a bit glad to be distracted from the hurt he felt as his friends ignored him. "Is there something you need to say?" she asked softly while petting Cheese and Chocola who had landed on her lap. Even they were quiet, as if they knew what was going on.
The atmosphere tensed.
Sonic opened his mouth. It was now or never. "I…" His mouth went dry of words.
"Chao, chao?" Cheese and Chocola look at each other for a moment before flying off of Cream's lap and landing on Sonic's. They gazed at Sonic with inquiring looks. "Chao, chao?" they said again, tugging on his arms.
"… They miss you, you know." Sonic kept his gaze on the little chaos, watching as they tugged on his arms. Cream laced her fingers together and rested her chin on them. "See? Look." Sonic looked down, and saw that the tiniest spikes were growing a bit under their fur.
"But…" Sonic let out a breath that he didn't know that he had been holding. He saw his friends tense up a bit. "I… I can't stay. I just can't."
Nobody spoke for a while.
"Why?" asked Cream, now that she knew that no one else was going to talk.
It was like the words suddenly tumbled into him, and he rushed to bail them out before he could lose them again. "Look, I'm sorry guys. I really am." He gave a quick glance at them all, but they remained unchanged. He had never felt so blocked off from them before. "It's just that… that other me… he, he was me. It wasn't just some… something that Robotnik created. I can't stay, I'll endanger you all. And… and…" Sonic gulped. "I can't… I just can't do something like that to you guys." He paused for a second. The air between them all just tensed even more, and he wouldn't have been surprised to hear something break.
"I'm really glad that I got to knew you guys…" Sonic bit his lip. The words were slowing now, flowing at a more comfortable pace. "You guys really were there for me… thick and thin… and, well, all that." He dug his fingers into the seat of his chair.
"I want you to know too… that I don't think any of you guys are weak… or that I really meant any of those words that I said. It's just… I don't even know where they came from. It's like my mind just made them up by it's own… and I just… couldn't stop them." He shivered.
"You guys don't have to worry about me or anything," he said, hastily. "Just… just…" His voice shrunk to a whisper. "Live on without me, okay? …What…?"
Knuckles had marched up to him without him knowing, and grabbed his shoulder. The chaos flew off in alarm.
And before he knew it, Knuckles had punched him across the face.
Hard.
The chair was in splinters… no, more than that. It had been reduced to a fine dust, and Sonic had flown across the room, hitting the wall, which now had a nice sized crack to it.
Sonic gave a groan before sitting up and rubbing his head. "What the hell, Knuckles?"
Rouge was still flipping through the news. "Wow, Sonic. For a guy like you, I never knew you could spew so many sentimental things out at once. If you did that a bit more, you would've snatched that Amy Rose a long time ago."
Sonic could only gap… which was a rare sight indeed.
"After all I said, that's all you can say?" he asked incredulously.
"Well, yeah," she replied, before carefully folding up her newspaper and setting it back down. You would've thought that this happened everyday from the way she acted. "You struck me as more… of the spontaneous type."
Sonic blinked, still too shocked to register much.
Espio closed his eyes a bit before leaning back. "She's right, you know," he simply said.
Vector put his head phones on, closing his eyes and bobbing his head to the music. "You always said that you would never look back... or to the future for that matter." He opened an eye and peered lazily at him through it. "Always think of the present… after all, that's the only moment that you live in."
Charmey yawned a bit. "You could've at least spiced up your goodbye speech a bit. Now I don't want you to leave at all."
"Wait… what?" Sonic stood up painfully, still rubbing his head.
"Geez, you're so slow," said Knuckles in exasperation. "Do you know how angry you got me? I thought that you'd never shut up…"
"But… but…"
"Sonic," said Knuckles. "Listen to us…"
"Stop!" shouted Sonic, angry. This caught their attention. "Look, if I stay here, it will endanger you all! What part of that don't you understand?"
Knuckles frowned. "Are you saying that I'm too weak to take you on?"
"I'm not kidding!" The house echoed from his voice. It grew very still. "This isn't just… another regular fight. I might actually kill you this time, and I can't do anything to stop it! It's not another fight for the Chaos Emerald, or some robot, or whatever! This is a fight for our lives!"
More silence…
"… But Sonic…" said a very quiet voice. "What about you?"
All heads turned to Tails.
"Tails…" Sonic softened his voice. "Look, bro. I'll be fine… I've always been fine out on my own, so why worry about me now?"
"Because…" Tails took a deep breath, than look Sonic straight in the eye. "You're not coming back this time… right?"
Sonic looked down. "… Yeah… that's true…"
"Sonic," started Knuckles. "Who gave you this big idea of getting away from us and staying by yourself? Who told you to do this?"
"…" Sonic didn't say anything for a second. "Myself…"
Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. I think that it's your other side who told you to stay away from us… wasn't it?"
Sonic looked away.
"Exactly," replied Knuckles, staring intently at Sonic. "Since when have you ever listened to threats? Since when have you, of all people, ever thought of anything as impossible? What happened to your stupid cocky attitude?"
Sonic looked at his shoes, uncomfortable. "I guess I… changed…" he muttered quietly.
"Besides, isn't it obvious?" Knuckles asked him, ignoring his earlier statement. "If he wants you to stay away from us, it's probably for his benefit."
"But… he said…" But Sonic's voice didn't seem so sure any more.
Knuckles spoke over him. "Do you seriously think that if he would actually warn you to stay away from us? Do you think that he will actually tell you that running away from us will protect us from him? The last time I checked, he wanted to kill us, right?"
Sonic felt the corners of his mouth turn down. 'Well…'
"If I didn't know any better," continued Knuckles. "I'd say that he wants you to stay away from us so that he can come back. Being alone… can be…" He cleared his throat. "… It can… well, trap you in your mind a bit." He rubbed the back of his head, clearing his throat again, as if embarrassed that he had somewhat complained about his "job."
"He's right, you know," an annoying little voice said, poking at his resolve.
"Wow…" said Rouge, breaking through Sonic's thoughts. "Knuckie, that was the smartest thing that I've ever heard you say." She smirked.
"Heh, I know…" said Knuckles, looking very proud for a moment. "Hey… wait…"
"So!" Cream said, very loudly before anything else could happen. "What are you going to do now, Sonic?"
Sonic felt their scrutinizing gazes turn to him again.
He squirmed for a second, than sighed. "I… don't know… what I should do…"
"Well, I sure know," said Knuckles.
Sonic looked at him with an unspoken question in his eyes.
"Stay," he answered, simply, without a trace of his usual arrogance in his voice.
Sonic stared, as if he was shocked.
"Stay." This time, it was Rouge.
Sonic looked down, and despite himself, he felt a smile work it's way to his face.
"Stay," said the Chaotix, blandly.
Sonic fidgeted silently.
"Stay," said Cream with a smile, accompanied by the 'chao, chao!' of Cheese and Chocola.
Sonic drew in a deep breath…
The next answer didn't come.
Sonic looked up at Tails. He just… needed to know…
Tails walked up, his eyes downcast. Slowly he looked up at Sonic, and clasped his hand.
"Stay," he said, his voice low.
But Sonic knew that he meant it.
Sonic let go of Tails's hand, before standing up slowly. Without a word, he walked to the door.
'What should I do?' he silently asked himself.
He heard an answer.
'Stay…' he heard something inside him whisper.
A/N: ...What? Romance doesn't have to be just about love. Romance also has like... an emotional aspect in it as well (sorry... too much English for my own good...). So, it was... friendship...ish... Don't any of you ever get tired of romance? ACK! Don't hurt me, I was kidding! (runs from scary glares thrown by romance lovers)
The next chapter will be the last one. Yes, you read it right folks. All things, good and bad, must come to an end someday. I know that I will miss writing this... it was fun to torture them while it lasted. Shoot, I shouldn't say things like this out loud...
Next chapter will be up ASAP. You see, I kinda... semi-know what I'm going to write this time.
Special thanks to the people who got me to move my lazy bum and update (you know who you are!).
Anonymous Reviews:
Mei Fire: Thanks a bunch for reading! I hope that you'll enjoy the upcoming last chapter.
Jeanette: I'm glad that you didn't think that the flower thing was corny. I kept on debating with myself whether to put it in or not... I think my computer go too angry with me copy/pasting it over and over again at one point, and I had to re-type the whole scene. Thanks for reading!
cindamcjinga: Heh, heh... you hate waiting? Now why would you have to tell me that? (sweatdrops) Thanks for reading!
Flying Dragons: LOL, thanks for being honest with me. I wasn't all that happy with the last chapter. I didn't hate it either... but meh. Thanks for reading!
hamhamhaha: Hey, it's still nice to hear... err... read things that people type. Thanks for reading! And thanks for the Tails/Cream video... Dang... I gotta put it up someday...
Sonamyloveis strong: Don't worry, I've... already kinda started on the next chapter. Somewhat. Thanks for reading!
azngirlchibi