Hello again!

Chapter 5, here it is! I hope you're all still enjoying this awesome request sent in by SoraRose7. This story is almost at it's end which will mark the end of my stories for a little while, but I'll be back eventually! Be sure to keep sending in your requests, I'd love to hear them! Be sure to keep reading and reviewing! Enjoy!

Ciao! xx

The dark hedgehog was lying on his living room floor, making a 'snow' angel with the paper work that polluted his entire living room. His eyes were burning with the pages of G.U.N paperwork that he and his partner, Rouge, were sifting through. The ivory bat was face down on his couch, a cluster of scrunched papers in her fist as she sighed heavily. They had both almost dozed off into a snooze when familiar, distressed calls sounded at his front door, jolting them to their feet.

'Amy?!' Rouge cried out as she dashed to the door, Shadow on her tail.

She yanked the door open, only for the fuchsia teen to fall at their feet with what was a mix between a gasp and a groan. A sound of pure pain and agony. After the initial shock of falling further to the ground, she tried to lift herself up, but her head was spinning so fast she fell straight back down. It took a few seconds for even the two standing over her to process what was happening before they rushed down to her sides, Shadow scooping her up in his arms.

'Rose, what the hell happened to you?' Shadow said in a stern, booming voice as he carried her down the hall and set her down on the couch.

'H-He d-didn't mean it, h-he d-didn't.' Amy stammered through the painful sobs.

'Amy, who did this to you?!' Rouge cried out as she knelt down to her level.

She tried to reply but only gags came out, the pain mixed with her spinning head beginning to get the best of her body. Shadow dashed away before coming back a second later with a bucket before Amy emptied the contents of her stomach into the container. Rouge held back her short quills back and rubbed her back soothingly as she listened to the agonizing gags mixed with sobs. Once she finally stopped, she sat back up and began to breathe deeply before Rouge forced a bottle of water down her throat slowly.

'Rose. You'll tell me who did this to you and you'll tell me right now.' Shadow repeated the same way he did before.

'I saw you follow me home, Shadow.' Amy sighed.

'W-What?'

'I knew you had all been worried about me, and I knew someone would follow me, just to make sure I got home safe. Or to make sure I didn't do something reckless,' Amy said, leaving Shadow speechless, 'it was hours later that I would go looking for Sonic, knowing he still leaves home at night.'

'Wait, what? He does?' Rouge piped up.

'I think Tails has maybe seen him leave a time or two as well. It doesn't matter how strange he's gotten, even he can't resist the surge of adrenaline and whipping of the wind when he runs. If there was ever a time to do it, it was now.' Amy answered, 'So I went to the lake, thinking he might pass by, and I was right.'

'What happened, Amy?' Shadow growled lowly, knowing the answer but growing impatient regardless.

'He spotted me, and I finally got him talking,' Amy whispered, 'just a little.'

'Well, what happened?' Rouge asked, taking a seat beside her.

'I wish I knew. I wish I could put into words exactly what happened but… I can't. For just a brief second, everything was so perfect and then…'

Amy trailed off, as if the memory of what came next made her open wound flare up in pain again. She cupped her cheek with her bloody and dirty gloved hand as she turned away from Shadow and into Rouge's shoulder, not daring to look into what she imaged were livid, crimson eyes. The ivory temptress laced an arm around her friends' shoulders before looking up at Shadow, as if silently begging him not to do what she knew he was going to, no matter what anyone said.

'I'll be back.' Shadow stated plainly as he headed to the front door.

'Shadow-'

'I'll be back!' He cut her off harshly before disappearing.

The dark hedgehog sped away to the scene of the crime, hoping that Sonic hadn't fled to find Amy, although he kind of expected him to have at least tried to stop the fuchsia hedgehog. Lucky for him, anyway, by the time he got to the lake, Sonic was still there, curled up on a rock overlooking the lake. The ebony hedgehog considered running up and tackling him to the ground, showing him what for, but he knew he'd have to play it smarter than that if he wanted to play out his entire plan.

'You really gave Amy a beating, you know.' Shadow stated as he stepped out from behind a tree, causing Sonic to whirl around before leaping off the rock to face his dark doppelganger.

'She knows I didn't mean it.' Sonic told him, undeniably shyly.

'You put that idea in her head before you let her run away?' Shadow snapped.

'I didn't put anything in her head.'

'You split open her lip, gave her a severe concussion and she was still prepared to defend you.' Shadow almost snickered, 'You wouldn't deserve her in a million years.'

'I'm not disagreeing with you.' Sonic shrugged.

'Let's make this real simple,' Shadow began, breaking the brief silence, 'You're going to come with me, see Tails-'

'I'm not going anywhere.' Sonic cut him off, his fur turning back into his dark, navy state.

'Hard way it is then.' Shadow smirked, secretly glad.

Without another second's thought, Shadow leapt forth in attempt to take down the now livid Sonic. The midnight blue hedgehog pounced forth, prepared to defend himself before taking down Shadow, despite it really not being in his nature. He knew he'd done a horrible thing to Amy, but he couldn't fight the overwhelming urge to ring Shadow's neck. Even the ebony and crimson hedgehog wouldn't be opposed to beating Sonic over the head.

The dark steam whirled around Sonic as the pupils in his eyes disappeared, bearing his fangs as he held himself over Shadow, trying grasp his neck. The dark steam began to spin around the both of them as they shifted their weight back and forth until they had rolled close enough to a big rock. Shadow got himself on top and, actually a little reluctantly, pounded Sonic's head into the rock, knocking him out cold.

'You'll thank me later, Faker.' Shadow sighed as he got to his feet and slung Sonic over his shoulder before dashing away towards the garage.

Speeding in and out of forests in the middle of the night, holding his temporarily dark twin over his shoulder, he made his way closer and closer to the garage, planning to wake up Tails and get some help, now. He finally arrived, walking inside the garage and dumping Sonic's unconscious body on a couch before heading upstairs to find a snoozing Tails on the living room lounge. The ebony hedgehog switched off the TV and took the remote out of Tails' limp hand before shaking him awake.

'Get up, kid.' Shadow called as he pulled the kitsune to his feet.

'Whaa- Who died?!' Tails screeched as he came to.

'Downstairs, now. Sonic's out like a light.' Shadow instructed as he headed down to the garage, the kitsune on his tail.

'What are you talking about?' Tails questioned, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

'Just get downstairs,' Shadow instructed more firmly as he started sending out a messaged on his communicator, 'I'm getting Rouge and Rose over here now, they'll explain it to you.'

It wasn't long before Shadow had his ivory companion and the fuchsia hedgehog headed over to the garage. Tails decided, after looking over his brotherly figure, it would just be safest to run some more tests and see what they were up against now. So, he called over the rest of the gang, not opposed to anyone who had any ideas on what to do if the tests came back the same as they did a few days ago.

Once again, Sonic was hooked up to all the different kinds of machines and monitors that Tails had lying around the garage, still out like a light thanks to Shadow, lying peacefully on the bed the kitsune had set up. The rest of the gang slowly arrived, most of them still in pyjamas, stretching through a yawn and rubbing sleep out of their eyes at the ungodly hour of the night.

After all of the groaning and moaning about being woken up, Rouge filled everyone in about what happened earlier that night, Amy reluctant to look anyone in the eye but still unable to work out why she felt so guilty. It wasn't Sonic's fault, at least that's what she kept telling herself, and she knew there would be mixed opinions amongst her friends. She was still cupping her face with some ice, curled up in an arm chair while everyone else was making themselves comfortable for the upcoming debate.

'I just don't understand exactly what happened.' Knuckles asked again as he massaged his temples.

'Well, I don't really think any of us do…' Blaze trailed off with a shrug.

'Amy?' Cream coaxed in the fuchsia heroine's direction.

The young teen's eyes flickered up, snapping her back to reality at the mention of her name, only to realise everyone was now looking in her direction. She glanced around the room, briefly looking at everyone before resting her eyes on Sonic's limp body, wires of all kinds connected to him. His chest rose and fell peacefully as he took in deep breaths. Amy turned back to Cream and sat up a little straighter, moving the ice away from her cheek.

'I don't know what to tell you.' Amy shrugged as she stared at the ice in her palms, not sure if she even wanted to try and explain what happened.

'We need to know if we want to help him, Amy.' Manic insisted firmly.

'Surely you can tell us something?' Tikal added, trying to soften the blow of it all.

She bowed her head into her lap, fiddling with the ice in her hands as she thought back to earlier that evening. She felt everyone's eyes pierce into her, holes burning her fur as everything came flooding back. Tears threatened to fall but she refused to let herself get wrapped up in it all. She shook her head, as if to try and make her thoughts stay on track.

'You're scared?' Sonic whispered, bringing his other hand around her waist.

'N-No.'

'I know you're lying, Amy,' his smile faltered a little, 'tell the truth.'

'I-I'm petrified.' Amy complied through a whisper.

'You don't need to be, Amy. Not of me. Ever.' Sonic's smile returned as he leaned in closer to her face.

'No!'

'Amy?' Sonia said timidly, trying to get Amy to say something. Anything.

'I-Uh…' Amy trailed off again.

'Pull yourself together! You're not the bad guy, Sonic! You're a hero! You're the hero of Mobius! You can't like this feeling, you can't have this feeling!' Amy screeched.

'Why, Amy? Why do I always have to be the hero?! Why can't I be this guy?!' Sonic snapped back, the midnight steam starting to glow.

'Because you can't, Sonic! This isn't you and you know it! You can't do this, it has to stop right- ah!'

'He was angry when I got there,' Amy began timidly, 'he tried to leave but I convinced him to stay and tell me anything he could get out. And he… he said…'

'What?' Cosmo coaxed.

'He liked this new, dark side.' Amy sighed, 'He didn't want to change. Which I suppose is why he's been avoiding us all.'

Everyone sat or stood still in absolute shock, not sure how to take the new information. Could that really be true? Surely not. They believed he hit her, she had a firm mark across her face to prove that. They knew he wouldn't have meant to, of course, but it would be interesting to hear his side of the story, that is. Maybe poor Amy had just been whacked so hard that her senses had been knocked around a little. That seemed like a logical explanation, right?

'Amy,' Sonia began nervously, 'love you as I do, and as much as I trust you… are you sure you… remember everything right?'

'What are you talking about? Of course I-'

'Guys,' Tails cut the bubble gum hedgehog off, 'look at this.'

'What is it?' Shadow asked as they all walked over to gather around the kitsune and his laptop.

They stared over his twin tails and at the computer screen, watching the monitor results flash up on the screen. No one understood what the results were reading, all in different jagged lines and checked patterns, but Tails appeared to be growing more and more confused as they continued to show up on the screen. He typed in a few commands and changed a few things, as if it was making things easier, for him anyway.

'I don't get it.' Rouge shrugged.

'Same. What are you getting at, Tails?' Knuckles added.

'Basically, it's calculating Sonic's rising and falling emotional levels over the past six to eight hours.' Tails began, everyone listening intently, 'I can very roughly pin point when he was at his best and at what hour, and by the looks of it, he was at his best only an hour or so ago… only it was very briefly.'

'That would've been when you were with him, right, Amy?' Blaze asked.

'Yeah, I guess so.' Amy shrugged.

'So I guess we can assume that he was at his best when he was with Amy. Which is a good thing, right?' Tikal questioned.

'Absolutely, a step in the right direction.' Manic agreed, trying to convince himself more than anyone else.

'I think we all knew that, anyway.' Silver smirked to Knuckles, trying to lighten the mood.

'So, what do we do now?' Cosmo asked.

That was the million dollar question, now wasn't it? So they knew that Sonic was at his best, at his most regular personality, when he was with Amy. That spoke volumes, and ironically enough, said fact was the only thing unspoken that night. As everyone tried to think of some way to use that information to their advantage, Amy couldn't help but look at Sonic, watching him in peace and even feel a smile drift across her face.

'There is something?' Cream broke the silence.

'What is it, Kiddo?' Silver asked with a smile.

'You know how in the fairy tales, the prince wakes up the sleeping princess with a kiss?'

'Well, yeah?' Blaze cocked a brow, everyone knowing where the young rabbit was going with this.

'What if the princess kissed the prince?' Cream shrugged.

Everyone exchanged an awkward glance, knowing it was a sweet gesture – a fantasy, really – but it was far from a reality. No one said anything, not wanting to be the one to tell Cream that was insane. Silver, being one of the closest to her, other than Amy of course, knelt down to her level and rubbed her shoulder, as if softening the upcoming blow.

'Cream, kiddo…' Silver trailed off.

'Babe, that just isn't a reality.' Rouge spoke up.

'Sure, it's out there, but what harm would it do?' Cream shrugged again, but appearing to let it go.

She had a point, but the others seemed to let it go with her. As they got back to throwing around ideas, Cream looked over at Amy who was still staring at the snoozing body on the garage bed. All she wanted to do was run up and hug her friend, tell her everything was going to be ok. But, she guessed she didn't know that. In all honesty though, she still thought her fairy tale idea was worth a shot… Amy and Sonic were kind of like a prince and a princess?