A/N: The bad news: long chapter, 50% exposition, 50% romantic awkwardness, 100% dialog. The good news: we finally get around to explaining all past events, the summary, and the title.

So, my apologies. Or you're welcome. Or both. XD

The living room was full to bursting. Mobians were draped all over the couch and armchair like critters trying to escape a flood, and more were scattered on the floor and various other pieces of furniture that weren't strictly meant for sitting on. Omega was lurking hulkingly in a corner, looking like he wished he was a collapsible bicycle. Most of the Mobians in the crowd looked anxious, waiting to hear the news, while the few who had been on the translation team at the time—Tails, Blaze, and Knuckles—looked grim. Amy sat next to Sonic, still sniffling occasionally but trying to put on a brave face, while Sonic sat and looked immensely uncomfortable with everything.

"So," said Tails, when neither of his fellow-translators offered to speak. "About Amy . . . we gave her the antidote."

"The one from the ants?" interrupted Sonic, startled.

"Yeah," sighed Tails. "Turns out, it's not ants. It's the thing we read about in the ancient document. It's . . . a long story." He collected his composure, looking around at the room full of hopeful faces. He wasn't over-happy about what he had to tell them.

"First, from what we've gathered, the document is really, really old. It was written by an ancient civilization—so ancient that Merkel Peak was apparently still active when this document was written." Tails frowned. "So, thousands and thousands of years ago. It might have been an ancient tribe of rabbits, something like the Ancient Echidnas."

"That's not the important part," said Shadow impatiently. "The important part is what it says."

Tails nodded, scruffing up his bangs.

"It chronicles a great disaster that happened to the ancient tribe, one that they barely survived. Somewhere, somehow, a being of great evil was released—in fact, pure evil. Based on the phonetics of the ancient language, we believe their name for it was Fiolet—or Fio for short."

"Fee-ohh . . . " Sonic tested the name on his tongue. "Huh. Dorky name, but okay. So, what does pure evil look like?"

"Purple," replied Tails. "It's purple. The base form of the monster, its default state, is a dark purple cloud or mist."

"What Eggman found in the mines!" said Sonic, sitting up. "But how—"

"We'll get to that," said Tails, waving. "So, in its cloud form, it's completely harmless and can't be harmed, just like your average mist. But it has the power to take on any form it likes! Any animal in the world. And when it takes on a solid form, it can be just as dangerous as the animal it's turned into—and more."

"And let me guess, it's also invincible and can't die," said Shadow, ever the cynic.

"No, actually." Tails grimaced. "That's one of the problems. It's as easy to kill Fio as whatever creature he turns into. If he turned into a spider, heck, you could kill him with a rolled-up newspaper. The problem is, he doesn't stay dead. When he dies, his body returns to its cloud form, and depending on how, uh, painful his death was, he might stay that way a while. But he'll always come back."

"So technically, invincible and can't die," grunted Shadow. Tails spread his hands helplessly.

"It's not all bad! I'm pretty sure he can't re-use a form ever again once you kill it. So technically, if you killed every single one of his forms, he'd be dead! Or . . . a purple mist forever. Or something."

"That's still pretty much invincible," said Shadow grimly. "There are what, several million different species out there?"

"Yeah, well . . . " Tails trailed off, twiddling his fingers awkwardly. There was silence for a moment.

"Hey, look on the bright side!" said Sonic at last. "We don't have to deal with anything worse than a lot of different purple animals running around. Evil purple puppies and parakeets! Oooh, I'm scared."

"Uhh . . . not quite . . . that simple . . . " replied Tails, gulping.

"More bad news?" Sonic groaned, but flopped back and waved a hand resignedly. "Lay it on us."

"It bites," began Tails.

"It sure does," muttered Sonic.

"No, I mean literally. In all of its solid forms, it has a venomous bite. And that venom has . . . well, I don't know the proper name for it, but I guess you could call it a reversing effect. It invades the most active part of your brain, the one that gets used the most in your day-to-day life. And it somehow . . . reverses its action. Whatever character trait defines you the most, the one thing that best describes you—it will reverse that."

Silence as this information sank in. Sonic glanced over at Amy cautiously; you could practically see puzzle pieces clicking into place in his head.

"She says she was out feeding birds the day of the party, and got pecked by a purple finch," said Knuckles.

"Oh," said Sonic. A beat. "Wow."

"Yeah," sighed Tails. "And in Cream's case, it was probably the ant that bit her. Her most dominant feature is her kindness, so—well—you know. And with you—oh, that could've been anything. Anything that could've slipped into the tent and bit you while you were sleeping."

"W-wait, me?!" Sonic shook his head vehemently. "I didn't lose my speed! I mean, it went down a little, but I was still plenty fast when—uh—when that happened."

"Then your speed probably isn't your most prominent feature," shrugged Tails.

"What?!" Sonic looked as if gravity had just been declared a fantasy. "Hold on here, speed is my middle name! I live on it, I live for it, and it's not even—"

"It's important, sure," interrupted Tails placatingly. "But maybe not the most important. From what happened, I'd guess . . . well, you're always rescuing people from danger and stuff, right? When you show up, people know they don't have to be scared anymore. They know you're going to help. So you became a thing that brought fear, and tried to hurt others."

"Geez." Sonic subsided, suddenly embarrassed. "S-stop that. If that's the kind of mush that's my biggest trait, man, I've got to work on my speed some more!"

"I think it's a good trait to have," murmured Amy. Sonic went very red and stood down, muttering something under his breath and studying his shoe intently.

"As to how Fio got into the volcano," Blaze took up the thread, "the document was a little vague on that, because some of it had crumbled away at that part. It seems like the ancient tribe somehow managed to cast him into Merkel Peak, then an active volcano. We're guessing he couldn't get out of the lava even in his mist form, and must have been sealed inside the rock walls when the volcano became extinct. Then Doctor Eggman found the document, translated it somehow, and decided to go looking for him in the diamond mine."

There was a bit of silence.

"So, anything else?" asked Sonic at last.

"Nothing that hadn't crumbled away so much that it was illegible," said Blaze. "I believe there was something about a prophecy?"

Knuckles nodded.

"There were just two or three words visible on scraps of the parchment that hadn't crumbled . . . it said "prophecy." And then afterwards something about a blameless maiden, and killing. The tenses and cases got all weird there . . . we're not sure if it said "Fio killed a blameless maiden," or "if Fio kills a blameless maiden," or "Fio will kill a blameless maiden," or something else completely—it might not even have been all the same sentence."

"What?!" Shadow's ears flicked back. "We have a prophecy, and we don't know what it says?"

"Most likely it meant they'd seen a prophecy being fulfilled. Fio might have killed a young girl from their tribe," said Blaze quietly. "Either way, there's nothing we can do. That part of the parchment simply does not exist anymore. We must deal with what we do know."

"Which is this:" said Sonic, raising an index finger. "There's an evil purple mist-creature who can turn into any animal he wants, and he's after us. He can come back after being killed, and he can bite you so your greatest strength becomes your greatest weakness."

"Yeah, that's pretty much it," murmured Tails.

"Not a pretty picture," sighed Sonic. "But hey. At least we know what we're up against."

"And you know?" said Silver slowly. "Looking at what Fio's done so far . . . it's not even really him we have to be scared of. It's us, if he bites us. We've finally met the enemy, and the enemy is us."

Everyone was still a little bowled over by all the information at once, so the meeting didn't last much longer. They all agreed to meet up again tomorrow, and began to disperse gradually, murmuring amongst themselves.

"Sonic," called Amy quietly. "Could I talk to you alone?"

Sonic froze like a rabbit caught in a lettuce patch. This was traditionally the part where he'd rattle "Sorry, got someplace I gotta be!" and take off like the aforementioned rabbit, but somehow he felt now had to be an exception. Things had been weird lately, and special measures had to be taken.

So he shrugged and nodded mutely. He also tried to ignore the relieved glance Knuckles cast him. Boy, was the echidna glad to be out of this whole mess.

Setting out from the house in a random direction, Sonic and Amy fell into a roughly matching stride. Sonic itched to pick up the pace, but he knew Amy wouldn't be able to keep up—and now that he'd agreed to the talk, he was also stuck with the walk.

"So?" he said, after a long silence. "What's up?"

"I don't know where to start," murmured Amy, sounding utterly overwhelmed. "I . . . I am sorry, for everything. The company was a lie you know, there never was any spying. And I wish I could say I didn't mean those other things I said to you . . . but at the time, I did. I'd . . . I'd take them all back, if I could."

"Hey, don't sweat it," said Sonic hastily. "It wasn't you talking, and I know how it is. I definitely know how it is." He winced slightly at the memory of his own encounter with Fio's venom. "But anyway, no harm done. Don't mention it."

Seriously, please, he added mentally. He had the worst feeling that Amy would start crying if she dwelt on the subject too much, and he just could not picture how to deal with that. Already he was kicking himself for agreeing to this chat in the first place; apologies made him awkward, and apologies seemed to be the soup of the day here.

"I know it was the venom," murmured Amy. "But that's no excuse. I still feel awful for putting you through that. But then . . . I guess you didn't mind too much, huh?" This last bit with a rueful smile.

Sonic hesitated. First reflex was to say "nah, it was a nice break," but milliseconds later there was the reminder that he had in fact missed . . . something. Was it Amy? Was it just her chasing? Was it something else entirely?

Over it all, Shadow's barbs from a few hours earlier came echoing back. He was almost afraid to ask himself . . . had he just missed receiving hero-worship in exchange for unkindness?

Somehow he knew Shadow had come painfully close to the truth after all.

"Sonic?" asked Amy tentatively, and with a start Sonic realized he'd been silent for quite a while.

"Oh—uh—sorry, I—"

"You don't have to answer," said Amy softly.

"No, no." Sonic struggled not to groan. "This has to be ironed out. Look, earlier I heard—just around, you know?—that people think I'm leading you on. Some people say I'm running because I like having you follow me even after I hurt you."

Amy was silent for a moment.

"Sometimes I wondered about that," she said at last. Sonic's heart sank.

"And . . . you still followed me."

"Couldn't help it." Amy laughed bitterly. "Even if that was true, I couldn't help loving you. I'm obsessed, remember?" She drew in her breath. "So then. Was it true?"

"Not . . . all the way," mumbled Sonic, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground. "It wasn't a reason, so much as an excuse. I knew you'd keep chasing me, yeah, but that only meant I felt safe running away. 'Cos I knew you wouldn't stay mad." He looked away, his voice low. ". . . Sorry. Kinda lame of me, I know."

"So what was the real reason?" Amy was surprisingly calm. "Why do you run away?"

"Running's how I deal," shrugged Sonic. "Better to run, put off talking about it." He shifted awkwardly, aware that it sounded like a pretty immature way of handling things.

"Well, let's talk about it now," said Amy flatly. "Now is a good time."

"Nah . . . "

"No, seriously. Go ahead. Tell me the truth. Tell me you'd rather be just friends, tell me you hate my hugs, tell me you hate me, tell me something. I'm sick of guessing."

"Look," sighed Sonic, rubbing his forehead tiredly. "Why don't we—"

"Uh-uh. Tell me."

Sonic eyed her glumly from between his fingers.

"Fine. Fine then. Overall? I like you okay, Amy Rose. But . . . it just wouldn't work. I just don't do commitment, you know what I mean?"

Amy gave him a disgruntled glance.

"You save the world every single time something happens. You took in Tails as your own little brother. You look out for every single one of your friends, without fail. And you say you have problems with commitment."

"Uh . . . " Sonic blinked. "Well, I mean, not like that. Not that kind of commitment. I mean . . . " He slapped his forehead. "Look. You know what you want. You, me, happy couple forever. Right? Well, I don't want to be tied down like that. All those other commitments, they don't tie me down—they let me just dash in, do my thing, then keep on running. I've got to be free. Asking me to settle down—I can't. I just can't."

He crossed his arms and looked at Amy in resignation, ready for whatever mayhem might follow.

"When did I ever try to tie you down?" asked Amy simply.

She got a blank look.

"When did I ever say I wanted you to stop running?"

Silence.

"Did I ever say you had to stay in one place?"

Sonic found his voice eventually.

"You keep talking about marriage and stuff . . . " he ventured.

"Yeah, someday. Would be nice," said Amy wistfully. "But since when does marriage equal tying down?"

"Uhh . . . usually?"

Amy groaned.

"Sonic. You didn't know? Why do you think I didn't mind you always running away? Your running, the way you travel, and help people, and have adventures—I love you because of that. I wouldn't want you to give that up, I know you always come back. You come back home for Tails, you stop to talk to all your friends . . . I wouldn't have asked you to stop any longer for me."

"Oh," said Sonic. For one syllable, it packed quite a lot of enlightened tone. Somewhere along the lines of, "Oh. Now I understand the universe and can hear the music of the spheres" kind of "Oh."

For a while they continued walking in silence. Sonic had forgotten even the itch to run, and Amy seemed to be out of words, watching her boots crunching over the dead leaves on the path.

"Sorry, I guess," ventured Sonic awkwardly. "Didn't know that."

"It's okay." Amy shrugged, smiling sadly. "But you know? Now that all this crazy stuff has happened, I think maybe I'm the one who needs to change."

Sonic braced. Just when he'd thought the hard part was over! He didn't handle well in deep soul-searching conversations like this.

He was in luck, though. Amy's point was pretty straightforward.

"You heard what they said back there," she said, waving. "Fiolet's bite takes away the part of your character that describes you best. For you it took away your goodness, for Cream it took away her kindness . . . for me, it took away my obsession with you. The biggest thing about me is that I love you." She laughed slightly, shaking her head. "No offense or anything, but that's kinda sad."

"So . . . you're taking up a new hobby?" asked Sonic, raising an eyebrow.

"I'll try," said Amy staunchly. "I still do love you, Sonic. That's not ever going to change. But I'm going to try something new, too. Let something else be my definition, ya know?"

"Sounds good!" Sonic grinned. "And if you do, maybe I'll think about holding still now and then."

"Really?" Amy's eyes were wide.

"Eh, maybe. Not in front of the guys or anythin', but maybe." Sonic glanced at Amy's awestruck expression and couldn't help but smirk fondly. "I kinda did miss you, you know."

"No . . way . . . " whispered Amy, looking faint. "Really?"

"Aw, don't make me say it again," Sonic pleaded in mock reluctance.

"Oh wow . . ." Amy suddenly covered her eyes. "Oh no. So when I was . . . you really did . . . oh my gosh, I'm so sorry . . . "

"Not this again!" grinned Sonic, back to his old self now that the heavier conversation was over. "No apologies, seriously." He swung into a jaunty step, pretending to become preoccupied in his thoughts. And truthfully, he was still extremely torn on one point—whether he owed Shadow a punch in the nose for messing with his head, or an earnest handshake for pushing him until he finally straightened things out with his tenacious pink admirer. He was sorely tempted to try both.

Eventually, glancing slyly over at a flustered-looking Amy, he began to sing under his breath.

"But you didn't have to cuuut me off; make out like it never happened and that we were nothing! I don't even need your love, but you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough . . ."

"Gahh." Amy covered her eyes again, but peeked out at him reproachfully. "Don't tease me, Sonic."

"Baby, baby; where did our love go?"

"Honestly, stop!" Amy managed an annoyed look.

"Why do you build me up—Buttercup, baby, just to let me down? And mess me around? And then worst of all—"

"Sonic. I'm not kidding."

Sonic was walking backwards now to face her, grinning from ear to ear.

"If y'don't mind my asking, what's this poisonous snake, doing in my underwear drawer? I've got a funny feeling, you don't love me anymore . . . "

"Ohhhhkay, that does it!" Amy's hammer materialized in her hand, looking all business. Sonic jumped and backed away hastily, waving his hands in self-defense. Suddenly he stopped and grinned at her again.

"Just like old times?"

"Juuuuust like old times," smiled Amy dangerously. Chuckling, Sonic turned on his heel and shot off, with Amy and her hammer hot in pursuit. Some things were maybe going to change . . . but then again, some things maybe weren't.