(DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of their characters and props. But I do own my OCs.)

Chapter 8 – Hunting

"Now," Ella started as she held the siblings at arm's length. "I want you two to be sure to take care of yourselves. Chris, no sweets right before bedtime. Carrie, be sure to have someone change your bandages once or twice a day."

"Don't worry, Ella!" Chris sweat dropped. "We'll be fine! It's nothing I haven't done before."

"Yes, but Carrie hasn't. Carrie, are you sure you're going to be ok?"

Carrie just nodded. She hasn't spoken since the news which was 6 hours ago. With a final hug, Ella let the two siblings go aboard the Tornado Suite.

The Tornado Suite was a new invention of Tails and Chuck. It looked like a cruise ship and a UFO fused together. Its strong titanium metal was able to camouflage to any surrounding, but only for an hour. Camouflaging takes up a lot of energy from the fake chaos emeralds (which took 10 fake emeralds to run this ship altogether). The inside was 'futuristic' with its round-like walls and sliding doors. There were 10 bedrooms, a medical room, a kitchen with a metal dining counter, a lounge, a power vault (which will be holding the real and fake emeralds along with the big chaos emerald), and the command center. The command center is where the piloting and searching will be taking place. There's sits for everyone but there were only three main control chairs (Tails, Amy and Chris).

"C''mon, Carrie, Chris!" Tails called as he walked up to the siblings as they entered. "I'll show you your guys' rooms."

"Thanks, Tails!" Chris smiled as carried his suitcase. He was wearing his normal attire.

Carrie just nodded and smiled weakly as her thank you. She held her new backpack, which contained the medical supplies and dragged her rolling suitcase with her good hand. In her casted forearm, she hugged a sketchbook with a pencil to her chest. Over the past two days, Ella bought clothes and other necessities. She was wearing a pair of faded jeans, green shirt and a small black zip-up hoodie (she had to roll up her sleeve for her cast).

"Hey, Carrie," Knuckles walked up to Carrie. She stopped to look down at him. "You shouldn't be carrying things with that bad wrist. I'll take the suitcase and backpack for you."

She blinked as he took her suitcase and backpack from her and followed Tails. She stood there dumbfounded. Wow… I'm not used to that.

"Carrie! C'mon! Your room is right here!" Chris called back. With that, Chris trotted to catch up, her feet were sore today so she couldn't move around much. When she reached them, she nodded her thank you and smiled appreciatively to Tails and Knuckles. With that, she walked into her room and her door shut automatically.

"I bet that door startled her." Tails commented as he directed Chris to his new room. "Hey, Chris, does Carrie draw?"

"I was wondering the same thing," commented Knuckles as he followed closely behind.

"Carrie used to draw all the time when we were younger," Chris answered. "Ella bought the sketchbook hoping it will help Carrie recover."

"How are you doing with all of this?" Tails asked as they walked into Chris's new room.

"I'm just grateful to have my big sis back. But I keep thinking that everything is going to go back to normal… but, I know that's not going to happen for awhile."

"It will take time, Chris," Knuckles said wisely. "But Carrie is strong. If she wasn't, she wouldn't be here and able to trust us."

"I know," Chris smiled weakly. "Where's everybody?"

"Everyone is settling in their rooms," Tails answered. "We'll be taking off in 10 minutes. I'm going to tell everyone, over the speaker, to meet in the command center"

"I'll come with you guys."

10 minutes later….

"Alright, everyone! Buckle up!" Tails called from the main chair. After everyone took their seats, Tails began to countdown. "5, 4, 3, 2, 1! TAKE OFF!"

The entire ship shook as it took off into the air.

"Tails, you're a bit rusty on your take off," Amy commented as she sat beside the fox.

"I'm used to the Tornado and I haven't flown a big ship in a while! Cut me some slack, will ya?" Tails scowled. Chris just chuckled from the other side.

"Ok, everyone," Tails started after being 15 minutes in the air. "You can go to your rooms or do whatever. At 5 pm, which is in 3 hours, I'm going to put this baby on Auto-Rest for the night."

"What's Auto-Rest, Tails?" Cream innocently asked.

"It's when the Tornado Suite sits in the air without anyone being at the controls. Don't worry, if anything goes wrong, an alarm will go off. And I'm pretty close to the command room as it is."

"Ahh," Cream awed. "That's very smart of you, Tails."

"Oh, ha ha," Tails nervously laughed with a blush. "Thanks, Cream."

It was 5pm and the Tornado Suite was put on Auto-Rest.

Carrie pulled out her colored pencils from her suitcase and walked over to her desk. On her desk, her sketchbook sat there, waiting for her draw something. She took out a black pencil and held it up to the paper… she froze. As she sat there, looking at her blank paper, she started to get frustrated. She tossed her pencil to the side and got up. Walking over to the window, Carrie took in the scenery. She leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes.

I can't even draw anymore… man, I'm so useless.

Yes, yes you are.

Carrie jumped up and looked around. Who was that? Man, I'm hearing things.

You're not hearing, Carrie… You're thinking.

Thinking, what? Who is this?

I'm you.

With that, an image of a young Carrie appeared on the window.

What the hell?

What? You seemed surprised. We were bound to run into each other again.

Again? What do you mean? We're the same person… how can you meet yourself again?

Wow, you are useless… and stupid.

Why am I insulting myself

Let me explain, I, the main Carrie, have been pushed out 5 years ago. And then you, the new Carrie, replaced me.

5 years ago? Why were you pushed out?

Because my weak side, you, didn't fight back. And you haven't fought at all since then. I would've pounded those assholes.

But I ran away! I escaped!

That's not fighting… that's fleeing. I would've killed those bastards and walked away.

There's no way you could've fought them! 7 men against one girl? You'd be killed.

I rather die with honor than runaway like a coward.

What's so honorable about being raped and killed? It's humiliating.

So is running away.

It sounds like no matter what we would've done, it's humiliating. But I rather be alive and humiliated than have a humiliating death. At least by living, you can make up for it.

Feh, whatever. You're still useless. I mean, you can't do anything without that Sonic-guy or any of his friends helping you. You couldn't even carry your own suitcase.

But… sigh you're right.

I know I am.

I am useless. I can't even change my own bandages… I have someone else do it.

Hey, do us both a favor and kill yourself.

What?! No! I got too far to give up!

But you're so weak and useless… and stupid.

But why would I kill myself? What about Chris?

What about him?

He would be hurt if I killed myself.

So, you're going through this humiliation for your pesky brother?

Yes, she stared strongly at the little Carrie. I'm not keeping myself alive for me… I'm doing it for Chris!

Why?

Because we can't be separated. We made sure of that years ago when we became blood brothers!

Oivay, that whole 'our blood' bit. So stupid.

You know what?

"Fuck YOU!" With that, Carrie threw her good fist at the window. But her small image caught her fist with a smile.

Now, we're getting somewhere.

"Huh?"

You actually think I came here to insult myself? That's retarded.

"Then why are you here?" Carrie blinked as she stepped back.

You have to fight these spirits and you can't do it alone. Chris and others will want to help you, but think about it. The only person can defeat these spirits is YOU. So, since I'm you, and you're me… well, you do the math. But we got to tough you up a bit. You had your moments of fighting back at me, but there were times you broke down. I'm going to help you not to break down.

"Carrie?" Cream's voice called from the other side of the door. "May I come in?"

Well, that's my que. Talk to you later. With that, the small Carrie was gone.

Carrie shook her head and walked over to the door. When she opened it, she saw Cream holding a tray of cookies. Carrie moved to the side to let Cream and Cheese in.

"I made these cookies for you, Miss. Carrie," Cream chirped as she held up the cookies. "They are supposed to make you feel better."

Carrie smiled warmly at the kind gesture. "You know what it'll make me feel more better?" Carrie asked softly.

"What's that?"

"If you help eat them. C'mon, let's go get some milk from the kitchen."

"Ok, Miss. Carrie!" Cream agreed with enthusiasm. But once they walked out the door, a alarm went off. "What's going on?"

Knuckles ran up to them and announced, "We found an emerald!"

"Where is it, Amy?" Sonic asked as he stood beside the trio at their main seats.

"Under the ocean," she answered.

"Great, just great." He mumbled in annoyance.