Hello again!

Here we are, chapter 2. Things are going to get crazy fast! I hope you guys are enjoying it so far! Keep in mind that I am still taking requests but I don't know if I'll get to them if at all. Br sure to keep leaving lovely reviews! Enjoy!

Ciao! xx

5:30am

Home. Safe and sound… although these days, just because they were back inside the morally supporting walls of Tails' garage didn't mean they were really safe. Were they ever really safe these days? One thing after another, problem after problem, and now their biggest problem is something they can barely even begin to try and fathom, let alone begin to solve.

The Anti-Mobians may have been the gang's arch enemies, but the gang weren't sure they'd really try to wipe out the lot of them. Which may just be the reason they landed themselves in trouble with their alter egos from time to time, because they know Scourge won't rest until he kills off at least Sonic. Maybe that was why the Anti king was so genuinely scared in Sonic's grasp, because even he knows Sonic normally wouldn't have it in him. Normally…

The sap hedgehog didn't know what it was, but he could physically feel that his alter ego was going to snap his neck with just the twitch of his muscles. He looked into his queen's eyes, her entire body frozen solid over Amy's as she shed a tear before the fuchsia hedgehog started screaming, leaping to her feet. Had Sonic been looking anywhere else other than Scourge, that may just have been the end of the green hedgehog's life, but Amy was able to tackle him away in time.

It all happened so fast, but the pain seemed to draw on forever. One second she was on top, pinning him down before he rolled her over and beat her back into the cold, hard ground with a firm grasp on her shoulders. She looked up into his eyes, hoping she could try and bring him to his senses but it was too late… his eyes weren't his eyes anymore, they were just a pure white that glowed down into hers.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Fiona pulling a frantic Scourge to his feet, despite how much he tried to show he was still as strong and tough as ever. They ran maybe a hundred metres away before calling on a portal, jumping through before O'Nux and Rosy followed, Prower jumping in last and closing the portal behind him. They may have been gone, but they weren't the real danger anymore.

Within a few split seconds, Shadow and Silver tackled Sonic off of the bubble-gum heroine, and after a battle, knocking him unconscious. The city was still ablaze, people scattered everywhere in fear, but they were safe now, the city authorities could take it from there. For now, the gang had to get their hero out of there…

.

'Get him on the bed.' Tails instructed as Shadow and Silver carried Sonic's unconscious body out of the Tornado and to the garage bed, the kitsune turning off the Tornado.

'What happened?!' Sonia screeched as she scrambled away from Cream.

'Oh my, Chaos!' The young rabbit said with a shaky breath.

'Ask Amy.' Tikal stated firmly.

'What the hell happened out there?' Rouge directed her question at Amy as they all walked further inside Tails' work space.

'Did you see anything?' Manic added on quickly.

'Are you hurt?' Cosmo added on soon after.

Their questions soon became a blur in her ears as they sat her down on one of the lounges, her focus never faltering from the blue hero's lifeless body for even a second. His fur had gone back to its regular shade of royal blue and she had seen the pupils in his eyes return when Tikal checked on the way home, but she still couldn't shake the fear coursing through her.

She continued to look past her friends that surrounded her, still focused on him, and remembering back to a time she had seen him look that way before. It was only once, just once, and she was sure it hadn't happened any other time than that. Both she and Cosmo, trapped inside a small cage of Eggman's, Manic and Sonia passed out behind them. Sonic lost it, but funnily enough it was Eggman himself that brought him back down.

Tails, Silver, Shadow, Manic and now Sonia and Cream were all surrounding him, trying to bring him back without reigniting something sinister. Knuckles was kneeling in front of her now, cupping her face and forcing her to look at him as the rest of the girls surrounded him. Their questions and comforting words suddenly began to come back, none the less making the fuchsia hedgehog talk that much more.

'Are you ok, kiddo?' Knuckles whispered.

'I need to sleep.' Amy breathed out.

'We need to know what happened.' Shadow stated firmly as he walked over.

'Not now, Shadow,' Silver announced over all the commotion, 'while Sonic is out, we all need to get some rest.'

'I'll stay up and watch him, just in case.' Cream insisted, 'Someone needs to keep watch.'

When morning finally dawned over them all, the mid-morning sun shining up over the horizon, the gang slowly began to wake up one by one in the living room. They were all sprawled out across the lounges, chairs, rugs and each other, all feeling the pain of an uncomfortable night/day's sleep as they came to and got to their feet to stretch. Everyone except Amy, still snoozing away, not that anyone was quick to wake her. She wasn't in a good way when she fell asleep…

Sonia was up and about first, getting up to redress her bandage when she found Cream in the kitchen making herself a coffee. The young rabbit was just as sleep deprived as the others, but now had been awake even longer, not having slept in something like two whole days. She was falling asleep as she poured her coffee, almost burning herself if Sonia hadn't rushed over to help her.

'Are you ok, sweetie?' Sonia asked as she pour a few mugs.

'Huh? Oh, yes, I'm fine, just tired. Uh, Sonic's awake, I'm going to bring him down a tea.' Cream sighed as she rubbed her eyes.

'No, you're not,' Knuckles stepped in and took the mugs off of her, 'you need to sleep before you hurt yourself.'

'I'm fine, I just-'

'Cream, there won't be an argument.' Shadow cut her off, everyone now awake and coming to the young girl's aid.

'Come on, I'll take you up to Sonic's room.' Tails insisted, looping an arm around her waist and helping her out.

'Should we get Amy before we go down?' Tikal asked.

'Leave her be. I don't think she'll be quite ready to face him yet.' Blaze answered, to which the others agreed.

While the young kitsune took Cream to bed, the others headed downstairs to Sonic, Sonia carrying the mug of coffee for her little brother. When they got into the garage, Sonic was lying still, staring up at the ceiling with one foot dangling off the bed. The others made themselves comfortable around the room while Sonia and Manic went up to their little brother, barely being acknowledged.

'Drink this, it'll help.' Sonia said plainly as she handed him the mug.

'No, thank you.' Sonic replied, to which Sonia pulled away and placed the mug on a nearby table.

'Do you remember anything?' Manic asked the obvious.

Sonic merely exchanged a look with his older brother, so embarrassed and ashamed it was a big deal for him to look any of them in the eye. His stomach was doing all sorts of twists and turns as he looked around the room at the others, all of them giving him a sympathetic smile, or a nod in Shadow's case. He continued scoping the room to find a familiar bundle of pink wasn't present, which scared him.

'Where is she?' He asked as he stared back up at the ceiling.

'Still sleeping. She was in a lot of pain last night, she's a bit traumatised.' Rouge admitted the truth to him.

'I have to see her.' Sonic insisted sadly as he tried to get up.

'Woah, woah,' Silver stepped in to help push him down, 'hold on there a minute.'

'Leave her be, Sonic. Just until this afternoon, or until she wakes up.' Cosmo added.

'Until then,' Tails voice sounded as he came back down stairs, 'I need to run some tests.'

Everyone had gone home to freshen up and come back to the garage to do what they could to help Tails out with running tests on their sapphire hero. The young kitsune had a few wires sticking into his brotherly figure, viewing results on his laptop while everyone tried to make conversation and keep the mood light, but Sonic couldn't help but think of Amy and how upset she must be with him.

'You're thinking too much into it, Sonic.' Manic said, knowing what his little brother was thinking about.

'She must be so mad at me, Manic. I'm not looking too much into it.' Sonic stated firmly.

'She's not mad, trust me,' Rouge insisted, 'shocked, maybe scared for a minute there, but not mad.'

'Who's mad?' A familiar, sleepy voice came from the stairwell.

Everyone turned in the direction of the voice to see Amy walking a little awkwardly towards them, her back still clearly in a little pain. Sonic shot up into a sitting position before Silver and Shadow grabbed him to hold him down again. Amy bid everyone good morning before walking over to her hero, her usually cheery and loving smile, though tainted with the attempt to hide her pain, plastered across her muzzle as if nothing had happened.

'Are you ok? How are you feeling?' Sonic asked, his guilt and sorrow seeping through his voice like venom.

'Sonic,' Amy began with a knowing smile, 'I'm fine, don't worry. How are you feeling?'

'I'm fine, just great.' He chuckled awkwardly.

'Uh, not quite.' Tails interrupted a little shakily.

'What are you talking about?' Sonia piped up, shifting away from Cream who was rubbing ointment on her wound.

'Is everything ok?' Knuckles added.

Cosmo left the fiery echidna's side from checking on his scar on his torso to walk over to the two-tailed fox, looking over his shoulder at the laptop. She read over the results quickly, a breath she didn't know she was holding in escaping her lips in fear as she placed a comforting hand on the kitsune's shoulder. They exchanged a glance before Tails closed the laptop and turned around to face everyone.

'What is it?' Cream asked nervously.

'This has only happened once before, right, Sonic?' Cosmo asked.

'Yeah, why?'

'Well, I don't know why but… but…'

'Sonic, when you… transformed… last night, it's like something unhinged inside you.' Tails stepped in, making it easier for the young Seedrian girl.

'Unhinged?' Blaze cocked a brow.

'I don't know how to explain it but… it's as though his mind saw what happened and said being in his dark form was ok, if that makes any sense.' Tails shrugged awkwardly, 'So, if it happens too often, it could… well, it could…'

'It could keep him that way.' Tikal said what he was thinking.

Everyone slowly turned to look at Sonic, wondering how he was going to react. For now, he just wasn't reacting at all. Amy was still standing next to him, watching him stare down into his lap, the wires still sticking into him uncomfortably with gooey slime. She cautiously took a step closer, placing a comforting hand on his, and took off the wires before ruffling his quills back into place. Even just her gentle touch seemed to snap him into reality, causing him to look up slightly at her.

'There has to be something we can do?' Shadow stated, sure of himself.

'Of course there is, right, Tails?' Silver answered, turning everyone's attention to the kitsune, bar Sonic and Amy whose gazes were still locked on each other nervously.

An eerie and uncomfortable silence fell over the gang as they gazed at Tails and Cosmo and then at Sonic before exchanging glances at each other after no one said anything. It wasn't that they thought they couldn't come up with a solution, but not having one right now didn't exactly make them feel easy, especially Sonic. They needed to think fast. If the Antis came back and something were to happen…

'I remember reading something,' Tikal began, breaking the silence that caused all eyes to fall on her, 'and it said that things like this can be resolved by things such as repressed memories or unresolved issues.'

'Anything like that you might have hidden away, pal?' Silver asked comfortingly.

'Mother?' Manic and Sonia piped up in sync.

'Guys, let's not go there.' Sonic sighed, the thought of the topic painful for both the blue blur and his siblings.

'Sonic, it might be what we need to help you.' Tails coaxed a little.

'Hypothetically speaking,' Cream piped up to prevent a fight, 'if we were to try and contact Queen Aleena, how would we go about it?'

'We could try headquarters?' Shadow shrugged through his monotone suggestion.

'Yeah, some of the other agents could have added new information to her file over the years?' Rouge added with a hopeful smile.

'Well, it's a start.' Knuckles nodded firmly.

.

It wasn't long before Sonic, his siblings, Amy, Rouge and Shadow made their way into the city and to the G.U.N agency office. The ivory bat led the way through the shiny halls, followed by the dark hedgehog who strode behind her. They led their friends into a huge room full of what seemed like millions of files, there probably was. They sifted through the categories until they came across 'Royalty'.

'You know, you three could still be in here.' Rouge reminded the siblings as she sifted through the royal folders, wishing she had the chance to be royal.

'No way, I couldn't handle having to be proper all the time.' Manic insisted, thankful he and his siblings abdicated their titles after there was no sign of their mother.

'If I didn't love my brothers as much as I do, I can promise you, I would still be a princess.' Sonia huffed a little, only to receive a peck on each temple from Manic, a rare sign of affection.

'Here we go.' Shadow said as he pulled out their mother's file and began skimming along with Rouge.

'Anything new?' Amy asked eagerly as she looked over the ebony and crimson hedgehog's shoulder, only for her eyes to land on the only piece of information they need at the same time Shadow's did.

'What is it?' Sonic asked enthusiastically when they remained silent.

He pulled the file away from the two agents and Amy so that he and his siblings could see, only for all three of their facial expressions to change at once. Their stomachs dropping into their floors, threatening to empty at the sight of the folder on their mother. One word was sprawled across the opening document in big, bold, red letters.

DECEASED

'M-Murder?' Sonia choked out as she read on.

'Suspected suicide?' Manic added, following her line of sight.

'We're leaving now.' Sonic snapped, shutting the folder shut.