The nightmare haunted me every day, every minute of every hour. For nights, I couldn't sleep; the memory of the emptiness and Amy kept my mind awake. I watched Amy lay there, in a peaceful slumber and it was confirmed that she was in a coma. She reminded me of Sleeping Beauty, but no kiss will awaken her. This was no fairytale, this was a nightmare.

Every morning, Tails came in to give a check-up on Amy, I watched him with caution as he treated her. After at least 20 minutes, he'd be done and leave. I never told him about Amy's last touch, she heard me and wanted me to know that she was fine. I wish I said more to her, something meaningful for her to remember. Over the last days, she made me feel something more than just that little spark I felt towards her. I always felt like a coward, not being to confess my feeling to her; I remember the first time we met after the ARK incident…

Two years ago…

"Oh God, my head!" I whispered.

My eyes slowly began to open, the bright light causing me to squint. I laid upon a soft bed in a white room with black wood furniture and a window beside my bed. It was morning, light filled the room. My ears picked up on the sound of footsteps approaching the door. It cracked open and in came Rouge, she smiled.

"Good morning, sleepy head." she chirped.

"Long time, no see." I said as I looked at her.

"Mm-hmm, so when did you get here on Earth?" she asked.

"I woke up somewhere, 4 days ago. I'm not sure when I landed here"

She didn't say anything, but simply sighed.

"I've called the others over…" Rouge gave a small smile.

"How have they been?" I asked.

"Great…just great" she said, looking away.

"Sure?"

"All but Amy…when you left us, she was a mess for months. Amy isolated herself from us and stayed in her room, just laying on her bed and staring at the ceiling. Then we noticed Amy's other side of her personality when Sonic tried to give her a little pep talk.

- - -

A soft knock on the door echoed through the empty atmosphere of Amy's room, she did not move a muscle or let out a breath.

"Amy? It's Sonic, we need to talk."

Amy did nothing, but the knocking grew louder.

"Amy, please open the door! You can't stay in there forever." Sonic said, his voice growing louder.

Amy squeezed her eyes shut, her head pounded from all the knocking and everything seemed to be a blur which kept her calm and serene for all these months.

"That's it; I'm coming in, Amy!" Sonic shouted.

He jiggled the doorknob but it was locked. He backed up and planted his foot on the door and with one swift kick, the door flew open. His eyes shot open at the state of the room, it was dark but not pitch black and books and glass shards were scattered on the floor. Amy looked like she was in a trance, her quills were messy, there was no sparkle in her eyes and trails of her tears glistened down her cheeks. He picked up a half empty vodka bottle off the floor and placed it on her dresser.

"Amy…" Sonic said, as he sat on her bed, "you have to stop this; you're killing your self."

"Leave me alone, Sonic, living like this is my choice, not yours. If I wish to kill-"Amy was cut off when Sonic grabbed her shoulders and held her to sit up.

"Enough, Amy! What's wrong with you!? You were never like this, talking nonsense!" Sonic said sternly.

"Back off, Sonic! Accept the fact that things are different now and I'm different too."

"Yes, you are different…for now. You're not the Amy we knew; you're acting like a fool who won't even accept the fact that Shadow is gone! Let him go, Ames!"

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about!" Amy whispered, darkly.

Sonic grabbed her hands with an attempt to pull her off the bed but she pulled them back and punched Sonic in the gut. He backed up, grasping his belly and gritted his teeth.

"Amy, what are you doing?" Sonic gasped.

Amy snarled as she kicked him down and pinned him to the floor, her eyes glowed into something wicked. Sonic pushed her off and got up, he dodged a punch but as fast as he was, he pinned Amy against the wall.

"Amy...listen to me. You can't let that incident get to you, you have to be strong and let it go like the rest of us." Sonic whispered.

"I can't, Sonic! Shadow means so much to me! It's too hard..." Amy said as she began to sob.

Sonic pulled her into an embrace and helped her walk out the room.

- - -

"She was angry, sad and almost injured Sonic but he was strong enough to face her and help her wake up from her torture." Rouge said with a small smile.

I saw her cry for me to stop, the sadness, fear, it was all in her eyes. It pained me to see her like that and after 2 years…she must have never forgotten the incident. What did she feel when Rouge called her? How did she react? My ears picked up on the door bell ringing.

"Excuse me." Rouge said before exiting the room.

My first time seeing everyone after my near death experience. What will they say? Whatever came my way, I had to accept it. The footsteps grew faster and louder. The tense was growing on me, they came up the stairs, down the hallways and finally outside my room, the door slowly opened. There stood Knuckles, Blaze, Silver, Ella and Rouge.

"Shadow…" Silver whispered.

"Um, hi.." I finally spoke.

They walked over to me, asking all kinds of nonsense and hugging me. As if I had a choice, my body was still healing and I had to stay put. I noticed that the only people missing were Sonic and Amy…

"Where's blueboy and Amy?" I asked Knuckles.

"Sonic is handling Eggman, he said he would gone for awhile, but Amy…I'm not sure where she is." Knuckles mumbled.

"She's probably on her way right now!" Ella said, bleaming.

I have Ella a small smile, it felt great to be back but I had to talk with Amy.

An hour passed…Amy still hadn't shown, everyone stayed for lunch and left, Rouge was downstairs. She told me that she was finally in a relationship with Knuckles and at times they had their ups and downs.

I felt stupid being cooped up in here! I had to get outside. I moved my head around, curled and uncurled my fingers and bent my joints. I sat up slowly and swung my legs over the bed. I stood up but my knees gave way and I fell, I held the side table for support and stood up again. Step by step, I walked carefully and finally made it to the door. Before I turned the knob, a thought came to mind…

"If Rouge catches, I'm so screwed and for sure I'd fall down the stairs." I whispered to myself

I looked over to the window across the room and smiled. I slowly walked over to the side table, opened the draw and pulled out a pen and paper.

Gone out. Be back soon.

-Shadow

I placed the note on the pillow, hopefully this will lighten the scolding when I got back. I opened the window and poked my head out, the ground was 9 feet from the window. If I were to jump in this condition, I'd definitely just be a pile of broken bones. I looked at the roof and strategized my drop, it all came to me.

I stepped out on to the roof, holding on to the window pane so I wouldn't slip. I had to be fast with this idea then suddenly…

"Shadow?..."

I heard the voice I had been waiting to hear, an angelic voice echoed through my mind. I looked down and there she was…Amy Rose. I snapped out of my thoughts and I placed my finger upon lips letting her know to be very quiet. She gave me a funny look and backed away a little.

I concentrated on my strategy, I pushed me self off and ran across the roof, jumped on to another roof, skidded to a stop and jumped off towards a tree. Grabbing a branch, I flipped a few times before I jumped into another branch and then another 'til I was finally on the ground; I landed in front off Amy…

"You haven't changed one bit, Shadow the Hedgehog." Amy said, grinning.

I took her hand and ran, going at a pace were Amy would be at my side. Once I was sure we were out of the neighborhood, we stopped by some trees to catch our breath…well, for Amy to catch her breath. Suddenly her arms wrapped around my neck and pulled me into an embrace.

"Shadow, I've missed you so much…" she whispered.

I gave a smile and wrapped my arms around her waist.

"I've missed you too, Rose." I whispered.

She pulled away and motioned me to follow her; we walked together in silence, listening to the world around us.

I held her hand in mine, "Amy, about the ARK incident, I'm sorry that I had to leave you and everyone else."

"Why are you apologizing? You had to do what you had to do, right? That was fulfilling Maria's promise." Amy looked at me; a smile grew across her muzzle.

"Rouge told me about what you went through after I left." I whispered, looking at our feet hitting the ground.

"Oh…she told you about that? Well, I was a fool to not realize that what happened to you was not just the worst thing in the world but the best thing for you, Maria and us. I pulled through my troubles and was myself again and I'm just happy that you're back." she chirped.

The burden lifted off my shoulders and my heart began to beat at a fast pace; this feeling was like fireworks.

"I know this amazing place and you'll love it! I mean, if you're up for it?" Amy said, biting the side of her lip.

"Hmmm…I wouldn't mind." I said, shrugging.

She pulled me along with her, her quills swung from side to side and she gave a small giggle; I've never seen Amy this ecstatic.

"How come didn't show up with the others, Rose?" I asked.

"Well…I know everyone would be crowding you with questions, so I thought it would be lest if I came when everyone had left. You know, for us to be alone and talk and then I saw you standing outside Rouge's house's window." she giggled, "what were you trying to accomplish?"

"Being cooped out is the worst and I just had to get outside." I said, giving a laugh," so, where is this place, Rose?"

"Just beyond those trees." She pointed to a large population of trees.

We pushed through the thick bushes and were finally in the woods. We were surrounded by autumn's colours that popped out from everywhere, the further we walked, the taller the trees seemed to get like they were reaching to the heavens. Autumn's scent was everywhere and the crunching of leaves below our feet echoed through the woods.

We came to a hill, I noticed how steep it was and wondered how Amy was able to make it to the top but it was covered by another barrier of thick bushes but there was a hole bursting with sunlight; I couldn't see beyond it.

"Amy, you were able to climb all the way up there?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

She giggled, "Yep! It was pretty fun. Just hold on to the trees for support and sliding down hill is not the best experience, unless you want to take the easy way, running at high speed to the top like the loser you are." she teased me, smirking.

"I'm up for a challenge." I said, grinning.

We slowly walked up the hill, gripping on to the tree trunks and branches. I stayed behind Amy, watching her carefully.

"How fun is th-!" Amy gasped as she foot slipped.

Before she fell, I grabbed her by the waist and held her up. Our faces were inches away and we stared into each other's eyes; I never noticed what an amazing shade of green Amy's eyes were. I snapped out of my thoughts and helped her regain her balance.

"Thank you, Shadow." she whispered as she dusted off her jacket.

"You've really done this before?" I asked.

She nodded. I didn't want anything else to happen to her, so I lifted her off ground and held her in my arms.

"Close your eyes and hold on"

I kicked my feet off the ground and everything was left behind. I looked down at Amy, she was holding on to me for dear life, eyes tightly shut. The light was growing closer…closer and it burst out at us. I skidded to a stop and placed Amy on the leaf-covered ground; her breathing was fast.

"Wow.." Amy gasped and all she said.

"You okay?" I asked, tilting her head to look at me.

"Just peachy." she grinned.

A light chuckle escaped my lips, she sat up and I sat down next to her.

My eyes wandered around…I'd never seen anything so magnificent. The view stretched across the homes, woods and over to the horizon. The sky was blue as the oceans, clouds so soft you could sleep on one, autumn's colours were everywhere and the scent of sweet filled the air.

"It's beautiful." I whispered.

"I knew you'd love it!...After the ARK incident, I would come up here and regain myself. This place is like a sanctuary." Amy said.

Amy leaned her body against mine; I couldn't help but hold my breath. I looked down at her and she was in a gentle slumber; I couldn't help but see how lovely she looked. Her quills were now a few inches below her shoulders, her body was beginning to change in shape and pink tinted lips. A rose scent lifted off her body and filled the air around us; her face was so angelic in slumber. My heart was to race again, I felt at peace here with Rose. What was this feeling I am feeling?

- - -

My eyes slowly opened, I was back in Amy's room. My mind spun with past memories, some blissful, others dark. I looked over to Amy, through the times I've seen her, she was always different.

I noticed tiny rays of lights peeked through the spaces between the blinds; I walked over to them and pulled them open. The whole room was full of light, it glistened over Amy's body and she looked like an angel.

I sat down next to her on the bed and began to stroke her soft quills. Then I suddenly a warm presence by, I looked around the room…nothing. I felt a warm stroke against my cheek; I placed my hand upon my face and stood completely still. The presence faded, was I imagining things?

Suddenly, Amy's eyes shot open, her body jolted up and she let out a scream. My heart almost shot out of my chest, I shook my head to clear my head and calmed myself. I realized what had just happened and I wrapped Amy in my arms and embraced her as tight as I could. Her arms wrapped around me and she sobbed on my shoulder.

"Shadow, please don't leave me!!" Amy stuttered, frantically.

"Shhh, my Rose, I'm here." I cradled her in my arms," I'll never leave you."

I fought back the tears that were at the corners of my eyes. Amy's voice echoed through my ears, her soft touch against my body and her scent relaxed my tense shoulders. A miracle is a miracle and my Rose had awoken…

- - -

Author: School's a drag, I'm sick, and now I'm going to bed! Enjoy the new chapter! Goodnight, world!