"STOP!" a voice screamed.

The sorceress stopped in her tracks.

"What?" she said to herself. "No. It can't be. That voice…"

"Sonic!" Amy cried.

Yes, it was Sonic. He was staggering up on two feet, holding his chest. Amy ran over to him and helped him stand up.

"Sonic, how did you survive an attack to the chest?" she asked.

"I don't know," Sonic answered. "It's a miracle."

"But…how?" the sorceress said aloud. She was stunned; she could barely move.

"You…" Sonic said to the sorceress, "…why? What was the point of…trying to kill us?"

"I only wanted us to be together," she answered. "And that was impossible with her alive."

"You think I would…want to be with you…after that?" he commented. "I would simply have left."

"Oh really?" she said, now in her usual voice. "Well, you can't escape now. Perhaps it is too late to turn back. Now I will have to kill you…for good this time."

"I won't let you…do that," he said, standing in front of Amy.

"Sonic, no," Amy said.

"You think you can defeat me?" The sorceress laughed. "I have a sword. And you are injured. I think we know who will win."

"No," Amy said, stepping in front of Sonic. "I will fight."

The sorceress laughed again. "And you think you will fair any better? You, little sister, are no more a match for me than he is."

"I disagree," Amy replied. "Father has been training me. I have learned many fighting skills throughout the years, and I think I may have a shot."

She then grabbed the sword from her father's sheath and held it out, ready for battle. "Bring it on."

"Very well," the sorceress said. "Let the battle begin!"

They battled quite equally for a while, then, with many cuts and bruises, quit. They stood across the room from each other, staring, breathing heavily.

"I must admit, you have pretty good skills," the sorceress told Amy, "for an amateur."

"Ha. Like you were better!" Amy replied.

"But you forget, sister, I have mastered black magic!" the sorceress said, and shot a ray of blackness at Amy.

But Amy jumped over it, and the sorceress ended up exhausting all of her power.

"Damn," she said. "I probably should've saved my energy."

"But, no matter," she said, and snapped her fingers. "I still have control over the dragons."

She waited for a few seconds, but nothing happened. She snapped her fingers again…still nothing.

"What the hell?" she exclaimed. "Where are they?"

'Now's my chance!' Amy thought, and jumped in the air, and brought down the sword.

But the sorceress caught the blade. Her hand started to bleed, being cut by the sword. Amy pushed harder and harder, but the sorceress was too strong. She reached into her sash and retrieved a dagger. She brought it up to the sorceress' neck. The sorceress then dropped her sword and backed down.

"Amy, you wouldn't kill your own flesh and blood, would you?"

"Guess again," Amy said, and slit the sorceress' throat.

Her body toppled to the floor, and, a few seconds later, turned into gold dust, which got blown away by the wind.

Amy then dropped the sword and the dagger, breathing heavily, and dropped to her knees. Sonic staggered over to her and sat down, still holding his chest. Amy looked over at him.

"Oh, Sonic, let me bandage that for you," she said, and took out a wrap. She wrapped his chest.

Sonic noticed her looking at something on the floor. It was a necklace with a picture of the sorceress when she was young in it.

Amy picked it up, and a tear made its way down her cheek.

"Amy…" Sonic said, concerned. "…what is it?"

"This picture," Amy replied. "She and I were young when we took this."

"Yeah?"

"So many memories…" she said, now crying. "That day…"

~ Flashback : 3 Years Ago ~

A 15-year-old girl with long, black, wavy hair was telling a 13-year-old Amy a story. Their father came in.

"Hello, Eva," he said to her. "Telling Amy another story?"

"Yes," Eva answered.

"Come on, don't stop," Amy told her. "Keep going."

"Alright, alright," Eva replied with a smile. "There we were, Father and I, out in the woods. We were surrounded by trees, and whatever lived there. We were searching for a way out, when suddenly…we were attacked by a pack of wolves! We were outnumbered, and didn't know if we would make it out alive! But we managed to kill all of them; and about an hour later, we found a way out."

Then Amy looked at their father. "Wow. Did that really happen, Father?"

"It sure did," he answered, nodding. "I remember that day."

"Good thing you'd brought your sword," Eva commented.

"And you your dagger," he said back.

Then all three of them shared a laugh.

"I wish Mother were still here," Amy said, suddenly sad.

Her father sat down beside her. "It's alright, Amy. I know you're mother meant a lot to you—and to me—but you need to look at the bright side."

"And what would that be?" Amy asked him.

"Well, it has brought us closer," he answered.

"Yeah, I guess it has," Amy replied. "I'd never thought of that."

"And, you know, it has given us a chance to meet new people," Eva added.

"How?"

"Well, you know how for the first week, people were coming over and visiting?" Eva responded. "We can meet up with those people and get to know them better."

"Oh," Amy said, now smiling. "Thanks, Father, Eva."

"No problem, sweetheart," her father replied. "Tell you what: how about I take you to the bakery to get some of those cinnamon roles you love so much."

"Yeah!"

"Now that's the spirit," he said, chuckling.

"What about me?" Eva asked, obviously jealous.

"I thought you hated cinnamon roles," he answered.

"Well, yeah, but…"

She couldn't think of anything else to say. She did hate cinnamon roles. And she was too full of pride to say that she wanted to go with them. So she just sat there, her jealousy festering and transforming into anger.

As time went by, her anger grew and grew until it was rage.

"I'm tired of being second place," she said to her reflection in the mirror that night.

"That brat Amy is always getting more love from Father. Well, I'll show them. When I inherit the throne, she'll be the first one to go. I'm sick of her."

The next day, when Amy and the king left, Eva thought about what she was going to do that day. She went to her room and brushed her hair in front of the mirror, and thought about all the attention Amy was getting from their father. Her rage returned, and she got the urge to burn something.

She concluded that she could not burn the castle, it being made of bricks. So she went down to the docks. Back then, the cinnamon stand had been in the opposite direction of the dock, not on the way to it.

So she lit a small torch and set it down on the wooden dock. Then she got some hay from a barn and threw it on top of the torch. She stood a good distance from the dock, and within minutes, the whole dock was on fire.

A village woman and her husband spotted the fire and called other villagers to get buckets of water. Instantly, the villagers started working together to put out the fire.

The king and Amy had been heading home at this time, and saw the fire. They rushed over.

"Eva, what's going on?" the king asked.

"I set the dock on fire."

"What?"

The king called five of his guards, and they hurried over to help. Not long after, the fire had been put out, and the guards returned to their posts. The villagers stayed to watch the king's next move.

He turned to Eva. "What were you thinking? You set the dock on fire, almost destroying part of the village!"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Eva, I've had enough of this!" he said. "Your bad attitude has put all of our lives in danger!"

"So what are you going to do?" Eva replied sarcastically. "Ground me?"

"No, worse," he told her. "Eva, you are hereby banished from this kingdom!"

"What?" Eva exclaimed.

"You can no longer live here. You will never be allowed to set foot in this kingdom again. And if you ever do, you will be killed on sight."

"What? But, you can't do that!" Eva shouted. "I'm your daughter!"

"You're 15," he replied. "You can fend for yourself. Now go."

"No." Eva crossed her arms. "I refuse to—"

"GO!"

Eva stood there, glaring at him, then said, "Fine, I'll go."

"She turned around to leave, then said, over her shoulder, "…But you'll regret this."

She then walked away. Away from the king, the villagers, and Amy. She left the kingdom and found a hut far in the meadow.

"Father?" Amy said.

"Yes, Amy?"

"She can never come back, can she?"

"No. I'm sorry, Princess."

Amy leaned on her father and stared in the direction that Eva had gone; a tear made it's way down her face.

'I'll miss you,' she thought.

Eva sat down and leaned on the front of the hut.

'How dare he banish me,' she thought. 'I'll return to that god-forsaken place on day. I should start thinking of a plan.'

So she did.

While she was thinking, a dragonfly came by and settled down on her shoulder.

"Oh, a little dragonfly," she said, and got it to stand on her finger.

She brought it to her face and smiled sweetly. "Not a lot of you just wandering around."

And from that moment on, she made friends with the dragonfly. She trained it to trust her in its dragon form, and when it was comfortable enough with her, it began to multiply. And as it matured, it multiplied more and more. By the time it was an adult, Eva had grown to love the dragonfly, as if it were her son. She learned to speak dragon, and so talked to him when he changed into his dragon form.

They would sit on the grass and look up at the sky, just talking. She sometimes played games with him and made special treats for him.

She had realized that she had a talent: training dragons. Her dragonfly was a red dragon, and as everyone knows, red dragons were not usually ones to be nice to humans. She supposed it was because of her aura, or even her kindness towards creatures.

But whatever the reason, the red dragon had become her best friend. He even multiplied when she need a lot of help. For an obvious reason, he never multiplied in elemental (good) dragons, as well as other red dragons. But, as they had come from a dragon who cared for her, his multiples were nice to her; and when she didn't need them anymore, they simply left.

So the sorceress had rebuilt her life, along with her dragon friend.

~ End of Flashback ~

"I remember how much I missed her that day," Amy said. "How much I missed how it used to be."

Sonic put his hand on her shoulder. "Amy, I know you miss her. But she was evil; just look at the bright side."

Amy looked at him with teary eyes, and smiled. He smiled back and stood up, then held out his hand.

"Come on, let's go rebuild our lives," he said.

Amy took his hand and stood up, then put the necklace in her sash.

And, as Sonic had said, they rebuilt their lives together. The village was repaired, and Sonic and the king's wounds healed very nicely. They were even able to recruit new guards. They fixed the castle and burned all of bodies of dead dragons and soldiers.

And every day, Sonic and Amy visited the dock, and placed a bouquet of roses on it to honor Eva's memory.

Sonic married Amy and became a prince. The king now honored him with a feast once a week for the whole village.

And Amy kept the necklace in a special jewelry display case, the necklace always open, showing the picture of her departed sister. She kept it on her nightstand until the day she died.

The End