Author's Note: I finally finished this chapter! Let me tell you, writing this almost killed me! Unfortunately, I came down with a mild case of writers block. The trouble was I knew where I wanted this chapter to go; I just had no idea how to get it there. Knowing there were people out there that were waiting for me to update was the only thing that got me through (that and lots of chocolate!). But, while waiting for inspiration to hit, I went on a major editing frenzy. Not much, I just fixed some mistakes and changed some words around. It's not like you have to read it all over again. You probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Anyway, I know you didn't come here to read my ridiculously long author's note, so on with the chapter!

WARNING: Amy goes through a huge transition in this chapter, and by the end you'll probably either hate her or feel sorry for her.

Disclaimer: I don't own it, okay! Maybe when I fulfill my plans for world domination! MUWAHAHAHAHA!! (If you couldn't tell, I have a bit of a caffeine buzz.)

Steps to Acceptance

Step 3 and 4: Depression to Rage

Amy barely noticed the sweltering sun on her face or the pain in her legs as her feet hit the sand. She didn't care that she was pushing herself far beyond her physical capabilities or the fact that her lungs burned with every breath she took. None of that mattered. Her target was worth it.

But, no matter what Amy thought, her body didn't seem to agree with her. It was practically screaming out in complaint. She had already slowed down cosiderably. It wouldn't be long before her limbs staged a rebellion and gave out on her, and her goal would be lost to her forever.

"Sonic!" Amy called out desperately, her breath coming out in huffs as the hedgehog rapidly began to get further and further away. "Wait for me!"

The girl nearly fell over when Sonic actually chose to heed her words, as he abruptly skidded to a stop, smiled, and gestured for her to join him.

Amy smiled back, and suddenly gaining her second wind, put on an extra burst of speed to meet him.

She didn't get far before unexpected pain seared through her body. It took a minute to get through the pink hedgehog's now hazy mind to realize she had smacked into something. Something hard.

Amy ran her hands over the smooth, foreign surface. It was like an invisible, solid glass wall that was both tall and endlessly long. In other words, impossible to get around.

"Sonic! Help me!" Amy called out to her hero, who was somehow completely oblivious to her predicament, and was still beckoning her to come closer.

"I need you!" she tried again, attempting to break the impenetrable glass with her hammer.

He was laughing now. Laughing and waving his hand. What was wrong with him? Amy could feel herself starting to panic. Didn't he care that she was trapped? Was he mocking her?

And then Sonic opened his mouth and said the last thing the girl expected to hear. "Shadow!" he called happily.

"Shadow?" Amy echoed, bewildered. What did Shadow have to do with anything?

For the first time, Amy noticed that Sonic's eyes weren't really focused on her. It was more like they were looking at something beyond her.

Already aware of what she was about to see, Amy followed his gaze and willed herself to turn around. And there he was, walking towards her in long, confident strides.

"What are you doing here?" Amy demanded, but Shadow didn't even spare her a glance. He just walked right past her, heading in Sonic's direction, bypassing the barrier as effortlessly as if it were made of nothing but air.

"No, Sonic! Let me out of here!" Amy pleaded, but in that moment, she knew it would make no difference. They couldn't hear her any more than they could see her. Sonic had been with Shadow from the very beginning. Amy didn't think that either one of them even realized she was here. She was invisible to them. She always had been.

As soon as Shadow reached his cerulean doppelganger, he immediately pulled him to his chest.

"Shadow," Sonic sighed, resting his head on the black hedgehog's shoulder.

Gently, Shadow tilted Sonic's chin upwards, leaning in. They lingered there for a few agonizing moments, their noses not even an inch apart. And then the blue hero smiled and eagerly closed the rest of the distance.

Tears blurred Amy's vision as once again, she was forced to watch the twin hedgehogs lock lips. "NO! STOP! Please Sonic!" she screamed, tiny spots of blood forming on her gloves as she pounded her fists against the glass. Her hammer lay at her feet, discarded and forgotten. Just like her.

When they finally finished exchanging tongues, Sonic laced Shadow's fingers through his own, and the two began to walk away together. Their strides gradually quickened in pace, and soon they were running side by side.

"No," Amy whispered, slowly sinking to her knees, still hitting feebly at the glass. But it was no use. All she could do was watch helplessly as the hedgehogs became tiny dots in a disappearing sunset.

Amy could still feel the tears on her face when she opened her eyes. Evidently, she had fallen asleep on the couch again.

It had been a week. One week since her heart had been broken into a million microscopic pieces. Now all the girl wanted to do was eat massive amounts of junk food, cry, watch sappy tearjerkers where either one or both of the main characters died in the end, and pretty much wallow in her own self pity.

Unfortunately, her house was almost as big a mess as she was. Dirty dishes, various food wrappers, and pizza boxes had accumulated on the floor and coffee table, while stacks of the aforementioned movies were piled haphazardly by her TV set, threatening to fall over any second. Amy no longer had the energy to care about her houses' cleanliness (or her own personal hygiene for that matter).

Because she had fallen asleep, she had missed a good portion of the video she was watching at the moment. But she had seen it many times before, so she still had a pretty good idea of what was going on. An attractive couple was sharing their first kiss (which ironically took place on a beach), after countless days of bumping into each other by chance and thinly veiled flirting.

They were so lucky, Amy thought jealously. Okay, maybe they would have been a bit more lucky if the boy wasn't hiding the fact that he had cancer and didn't have very long to live from his girlfriend, but at least they got to love each other, if only for a single summer.

Amy on the other hand, would never get a chance to find out what it was like to love and be loved in return. Instead, she was stuck in it alone, while he was in the arms of another.

It was funny, Amy reflected to herself, there were thousands of movies about two people falling in love and ending up together against all odds, but no one ever bothered to make one about the people who were left behind. Nobody cared about their story, or how they felt. They were merely dismissed and pushed into the background.

Amy dimly registered that someone was knocking on her door, but she made no move to answer it. They would go away. They always did.

At least, that was what she thought until she heard the door knob turn (though how that was accomplished was a mystery because it was locked and there wasn't an extra key), and the sound of heels clicking against the floor.

"Amy, I think it's time to get off the couch," Rouge announced.

"Go away," Amy mumbled in response.

"Look honey, I know you're depressed, and you have every right to be, but it has been a week since you've stepped outside your house. Let's go and get some fresh air. This isn't healthy."

"I don't want to go out, Rouge," the pink hedgehog answered, never taking her eyes off the television screen, even after the bat switched it off.

Rouge sighed. "Well, to be honest, you don't really get a choice."

The next thing Amy knew, she was showered, dressed and at the mall. The bat could be quite pushy when she wanted to be.

"See? Isn't this better than sitting around at home?" Rouge asked cheerfully.

"I guess," Amy replied, apathetically staring at random piles of clothing.

"What do you think of this, Amy?" Rouge inquired, holding up a tiny, hot pink dress that somehow managed to be short and low cut at the same time.

"It's...uh…nice." Amy said, sweatdroppping.

"Great! Go try it on." Rouge ordered, shoving the outfit in her arms.

"What!" Amy exclaimed, taken aback.

"Try it on," Rouge repeated slowly, as if she was talking to a small child.

Amy shook her head. "Um…no thanks. It's not exactly my style." And that was putting it lightly. It looked like something the entertainment would wear at a casino. It even had sequins. Sequins!

The white bat rolled her eyes. "Oh come on. Trust me; it will look great on you. It's the perfect dress for getting back on the market. I mean, Sonic is not the only man in the world. There are plenty of fish in the sea that would kill to go out with a pretty girl like you." Rouge brightened, "Maybe I could set you up!"

As Amy listened to this, she could feel herself getting angrier by the second. "NO! NO! NOOOOO!" she finally exploded. "Look, I'm sorry, but unlike you, I'm not interested in dressing like a stripper and bouncing from man to man. I have standards! I guess we can't all be sluts!" Amy yelled, not caring that other people were staring, or that Rouge was gaping at her like a fish out of water.

"I'll deal with this my way! I don't need or want your advice. Now, if you excuse me, I'm going home!" Amy dropped the dress on the floor and stomped off, leaving a bunch of baffled shoppers and a very hurt bat in her wake.

Who did Rouge think she was anyway? Some warped version of Dr. Phil? Amy thought, still furious. She hadn't even wanted to go shopping in the first place, but Rouge had forced her into it. And now she wanted to set Amy up with some stranger she had never met, wearing a dress that normally she wouldn't get caught dead in!

But, the pink girl had to admit, while she had gone about it completely the wrong way, Rouge had been only trying to help her, and Amy had said some pretty ugly things. Things that weren't true and that she hadn't really meant.

Amy sighed, and resolved to apologize to the bat later. She had been out of line. Truthfully, she wasn't angry at Rouge. She hadn't even been aware that she was angry before that moment. It probably had been bubbling inside her for days without Amy's knowledge. Rouge had just been the innocent bystander she ended up taking it out on.

What did make her angry was her situation. Every time she thought about Sonic and Shadow together, it felt like something sharp was being plunged into her soul. She couldn't even close her eyes without their moans of ecstasy over running water echoing in her head.

Amy blinked, suddenly realizing she was standing in front of Sonic's house. She hadn't even noticed that her feet had been sidetracked from their original destination.

"What are you doing here?" a voice demanded, using the exact words and tone Amy had in her dream, except this time she was the one who was intruding.

Amy quickly looked in the owner's direction. Shadow was leaning against a tree. His stance was casual, but his ruby glare was most definitely not.

"Where's Sonic?" It was the first thing that popped out of Amy's mouth, and she wasn't sure if this was because she was genuinely curious, or if she had inquired about his whereabouts so often it had actually become a reflex.

"Out," Shadow answered vaguely. He narrowed his eyes. "Are you looking for him? Or were you planning on staring at our house again, and you just wanted to make sure we were both at home so you would have people to observe?"

Amy's eyes widened and Shadow smirked. "Oh yes. I saw you out here a couple days ago. If you were trying to spy on us, you were doing a crappy job."

For the second time that day, Amy could feel the rage boiling in her breast. "This is all your fault," she hissed, "You took him away from me."

Amy understood that Sonic hadn't loved her, but she refused to believe he hadn't at least liked her a little. Why else would he put up with her? She was certain that, with the proper amount of time, she could've made it blossom into love. That was until Shadow came along and flushed all her work and plans for the future down the toilet.

"I didn't do anything. Nothing he didn't want me to, anyway." Shadow said, and before she could blink, he was right in front of her. "Now, I think it's time I made something perfectly clear to you, because faker obviously didn't do an adequate job. Sonic is mine, not yours. He would never be interested in a whiny little girl who is clearly delusional."

Amy snarled, and before she could calm down and think her actions through, she found herself pulling out her hammer and lunging at the black hedgehog.

He caught the mallet with ease in both hands and sneered at her. "What's the matter Amy? Can't take the truth?" With one good tug, he pulled the weapon out of her grasp.

"We wouldn't want you to hurt yourself now, would we?" Shadow grinned, looking mildly amused as Amy scowled and tried to launch yet another attack, this time with her bare fists.

Yet again, he effortlessly intercepted her. "I'm not going to fight you Amy." he informed her. "You're not enough of a challenge to be worth my time. And besides, for whatever reason, Sonic cares about you. He wouldn't be pleased if I hurt you."

His mentioning of Sonic and his condescending tone only served to make her angrier. Shadow may have held her arms captive, but Amy's legs were still free to knee him in a rather…sensitive area.

The ebony hedgehog growled out in pain and fell to the ground, much to Amy's satisfaction.

"Oh God, Shadow! Are you okay?" a concerned voice asked. Amy could literally feel the blood freezing in her veins when she identified the source.

Sonic's arms were full of groceries, but he quickly dropped them in favor of wrapping his arms around the dark one.

"I'm fine." Shadow reassured him, gently pushing the limbs away. "Crazy bitch kicked me in the nuts."

Frowning, Sonic turned his head to look at her for the first time.

"Is that true Amy?" he demanded, emerald eyes accusatory.

The pink hedgehog stared down at her boots, suddenly feeling sheepish. "Yes," she said in a very small voice.

"Why would you do that?" Sonic asked, obviously more than a little pissed off.

Amy looked up at him pleadingly. "Don't you see? He ruined everything. We could have had something. I know we could have if he hadn't come between us!"

"What is it going to take to get it through your head?!" Sonic snapped. "THERE IS NO US!! There never has been and there never will be!"

Sonic's harsh words were like a thousand lashing whips piercing into her skin, and Amy put her hands to her ears, as if blocking out the sound would prevent the words from being true.

Sonic let out a breath and said in a considerably calmer tone, "I'm sorry, Amy. Maybe some of this is my fault. I should have been straight with how I felt about you from the very beginning, but instead I avoided it like a coward and ran away. But don't take this out on Shadow. If you're going to be mad at someone, be mad at me."

Amy stared at him, as if he was speaking a foreign language she only half understood. Be mad at Sonic? She could never be mad at Sonic.

"No, Sonic, I love you." she protested, "And I know somewhere, deep down, you have feelings for me. You have to. You can't just--"

"I love him, Amy," Sonic said, silencing her instantly.

Dully, Amy noted that Shadow looked almost as surprised as she felt. Or perhaps the real surprise was that she didn't feel surprised. Not really. After all, she had seen the way the two hedgehogs looked at each other. It was the same look she had always hoped that Sonic would give her one day. And Amy was positive that the ebony hedgehog felt the exact same way. She could see it in his eyes.

Amy could see everything. It felt like a cloud had been lifted from her eyes for the first time in her life and she was looking at the world with astonishing clarity. Like those four words had cut the last strands of denial she had been desperately holding on to, and now she was falling into a bottomless pit of reality.

She looked the blue hero straight in the eye, and with a bitter, world weary smile, she made one simple statement.

"I know."

Whew! That took me a long time to type. I want to apologize to all you Rouge fans for bashing her. I have nothing against her. She's actually a pretty cool character. Don't take it personally. Now, I'm going to take a moment and shamelessly beg for reviews. I love that so many are putting this story on their favorites, but what I really want is feed back. Also, if you see any grammar mistakes, please point them out to me. Unfortunately, my only editors are me, myself, and I. I'll see you all next chapter, which is tragically also the last chaper.