Lynkia, kimchi-tan, Byrd3-13:

Thanks! :) I'm so happy that you guys are reading and enjoying my story! I'm hoping with the new IDW comics and such, we'll see a resurgence of SonAmy fan stuff. We could all use more of that! v3

Chapter 13 - Parting Ways

"Sonic, this is no time for you to to be all macho and reckless!" Amy said, reaching to touch his tense shoulder.

"Me, reckless? C'mon… it's not reckless if I always win. " He grinned as if nothing were bothering him, but Amy knew better.

Both Dimensions

The bright light and ringing in their ears finally faded, and all the dimensional travelers blinked to try to gain their bearings.

"Sonic?" AltAmy asked immediately, then turned to her boyfriend to hug him, happy they were still together.

OrAmy dusted herself off as she looked through the monitor, relieved to see Eggman was in the Alternate world now. She'd managed to pull it off, she thought with a proud smile, but something else occupied her immediate thoughts.

"It looks like everyone is where they need to be - I'm going to go see if Cream and Vanilla are okay," OrAmy said and immediately headed out the door. When she went outside, she almost ran directly into OrSonic, and she skidded to a halt.

"What?" Sonic asked, confused why she stopped.

"You don't have to come with me. I'll be fine."

"Buh - don't you want me to come?" He looked at her with those heart-melting green eyes and handsome smile, and Amy almost gave into him.

She took his hands and squeezed them. "You know I do, Sonic, but, I can do this myself. I'm trying to be more independent. So you don't have to worry about me."

"Alright Ames…" Sonic let go of her hands. "If you're sure."

"Of course." She beamed at him. "I'll be back in a bit - make sure our friends are okay over there. I was able to send Eggman away, I think anyway."

"You got it." He gave her a thumbs up.

"Okay. Be back soon." Amy turned to run away, smiling at Sonic as she headed to check on her friends.

Sonic cupped his hands around his mouth to yell after her. "You better - or I'll check on you."

"Bye Sonic!" Amy lifted one hand to wave and then disappeared into the horizon, leaving Sonic was the same lovesick feeling Amy herself felt everytime Sonic left her in such a fashion.

He took a deep sigh and then went back inside, his heart aching. Sonic was surprised at how much it physically hurt him to watch her go on without him. Maybe she was the same Amy he'd known for years, but she felt so much different now. Before she'd just been Amy, his biggest fan and one of his closest friends. And now…? She was gorgeous, strong, capable, sweet, and - she had new abilities. Abilities he wasn't sure he was down with. Abilities that legitimately frightened him. And then there was that incident earlier - he cringed, that had been actually embarrassing. Sonic definitely didn't want Amy to know everything he was thinking about and what he wanted.

He took another deep breath, hoping he hadn't gotten more than he bargained for by asking Amy out, and went back to see his friends.

OrSonic was greeted, through the interdimensional communicator, with an apparent standoff between his other version and yet another version of Eggman. He watched the encounter through the monitor with baited breath, wishing he could jump through the screen to do something if he could.

"Well, well, well… what do we have here?" Dr. Eggman asked, smirking at AltSonic, AltAmy, and AltTails, who had all made the trip back home.

"We got you now, Eggman," Sonic grinned, his fists clenched.

"Uh… I guess we all got swapped while I was gone," Tails blinked, still disoriented. "I didn't realize I'd been gone that long, but - " he glanced at the monitor and OrSonic. "I found the way to fix what's going on in your world - your Tails should be able to help you."

OrSonic nodded at him. "Got it."

"All this chatter, it's so…. Cute." Dr. Eggman spoke again, but his voice was eerie, calm, collected, not normally childish like the Eggman they knew.

"You may be lost, but we got you now. And you're going to jail where you belong!" Amy said.

"Yeah, what she said," AltSonic agreed.

The doctor moved slowly, methodically, almost robotic. "Sonic. It's been a while since I've seen you. I see you must have pulled me into another world. Amusing."

"Yeah, and you're here without any of your Badniks. Looks like you've already lost!" Sonic said smugly, his arms crossed across his chest.

Eggman leaned forward, his hands steepled with his fingertips touching. "Do you want to know why I haven't seen your kind in a while? Because where I just came from, Sonic the Hedgehog doesn't exist."

"Well obviously - " Sonic rolled his eyes. "That's the only way you could actually win-"

"Do you want to know why?"

"Why?" Sonic sighed heavily, already impatient.

"Because I killed him."

The air was suddenly sucked out of the room, and everyone froze from the chilling confession. But they didn't have much time to process it as Eggman launched himself at Sonic. The hedgehog immediately dodged him despite his instant shock. His green eyes flew open as he saw the metal prosthetics appeared to replace Eggman's arms and legs.

"Tails, what the hell?" He exclaimed, still shocked to move.

"He….roboticized himself!?" Tails spat with disbelief.

"You gotta be kidding me - !" Amy yelled, pulling out her hammer.

Eggman cackled. "Thanks for bringing me here, Sonic. Now I'll get the chance to kill you yet again."

The evil doctor's left hand suddenly turned into a machine gun, spraying bullets every which way. Sonic leaped into action, pulling Tails and Amy to safety. Everything in the workshop was instantly destroyed, including the communicator. Sonic cringed when he saw the feed down, the monitor smashed by the bullet impacts. They'd lost contact with their friends.

Once he'd gotten Amy and Tails safe, Sonic raced out the door, trying to get this dangerous new foe away from his friends until they could figure out the best way to handle this. His mind racing, Sonic turned to watch a fully upgraded Dr. Eggman hot on his heels. No, this wasn't actually happening. Sonic hadn't dreamed of facing Eggman himself like this, but it looked like he'd fully upgraded himself with super speed, and arms with a multitude of weapons.

"Strange, Egghead, you usually don't do your own dirty work," the hedgehog quipped as he dodged aggressive blows from the doctor.

"I learned that machines are strong, but fallible. They were what was holding me back for so long. So I decided to put that strength inside of me, unstoppable power with a brilliant mind. And I killed you with my own two hands." He raised his two arms and grinned smugly at the metal contraptions.

Sonic grabbed his chin. "Uh, I could be wrong, but those aren't your own hands"

That was enough banter for Eggman, and he took several more shots at Sonic, but he dodged each one of them. His reflexes were being put to the test, but Sonic had some experience fighting other speedsters. Just like Metal Sonic, he told himself. Or Shadow. But neither one of those had a vendetta against him or a murderous streak quite as deadly as Eggman himself. Still, there was no way Sonic was losing to Eggman. Never had happened, never would happen. That was a fact.

Original Dimension

Static. A blank screen, with no sound, no picture, nothing to even clue OrSonic into what happened. Had they made it out? Had Eggman won? He ran up to the monitor, but quickly realized there was nothing he could do. The communicator was broke on the other end, and he certainly couldn't fix it. Sonic glanced around the room, instinctively looking for Tails, but then felt his heart sink as he realized the truth.

He was alone.

Tails was still lost, and Amy had run off to tend to her friends, and his other friends were stuck in a world with a powerful, roboticized Eggman that had killed him once before.

And he could do nothing.

"No, I gotta be able to do something. I can't just let them fight Eggface alone. I'm not gonna let myself be helpless."

Amy didn't want to be bothered, so he'd see if he could track down Tails. He'd know what to do…

Alternate Dimension

"Amy, this is the lamest idea I've ever heard… why are you so sure this will work? Shouldn't we just let Sonic do his thing?" Tails whined, unsure of why he was carrying this useless object in his hands. He could fly much faster if he didn't have to carry this...

"No, are you crazy?" Amy scowled at Tails as she ran underneath him. "We can't let him fight Eggman alone. Do you really want to stay in hiding like he said?"

"No, I mean, I know, but… I still don't understand how - "

"Just trust me, okay? It'll all make sense in a moment." Amy set her expression as she kept running forward. She didn't have time to explain to Tails all they'd gone through in the past few hours, he'd just have to learn quick.

The two came upon the fighters, but all they could really see were blurs of blue and red, bouncing every which way.

"Wait, Eggman!" Amy's voice suddenly exploded across the field.

Both of them stopped, and Amy looked at Sonic, relieved but not surprised to see him in one piece.

"Amy, I told you to stay there!" Sonic's expression turned worried as he looked at his girl. He didn't want this crazy cyborg anywhere near the people he cared about.

"What do you want, child?" Dr. Eggman asked coldly.

Amy held up the Pink Sapphires, one in each hand. "You know what these are?"

The doctor stood up straight, his body language suddenly stiff and less confident. "The Wish Stones."

"Yeah." Amy turned to the side, and then a bright pink light enveloped her body, as if she were glowing. "And you know what I can do with them. Leave Sonic alone. Now."

For a moment Amy and Eggman just stared each other down, neither of them budging.

Sonic cleared his throat, uncomfortable with the silence, and the agonizing wait. He wasn't sure how his Amy was able to glow like that, as she looked nothing like Super Amy, but Eggman couldn't seem to tell the difference. Either way, Sonic wasn't about to stand around and, again, wait, for his love to get attacked.

"Well, Egghead? Looks like you lose after all." Sonic smirked.

The doctor holstered his arms, and they turned back to normal, but creepy flesh color. "Hmph. Fine. It seems here you hide behind your girlfriend, so pathetic. I'll deal with you once I have my army built up again. I hope you put up a better fight when the hour comes."

Sonic let out a breath as Eggman left them alone, and then instantly ran up to hug Amy. The light disappeared around her as his arms held her close. She hugged him in return, and then Sonic held her at arm's length and studied her eyes.

"Are you okay?" Amy asked, running her hands down his arms and back, checking for injuries.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sonic raised his hands to cup the sides of her face. "What was that? Did you get your Super form?"

"No…" Amy looked off to the side, and then Sonic noticed Tails flying in, holding a pink tinted spotlight lamp.

"I can't believe that worked, Amy," Tails shook his head. "You wanna fill me in on what happened? And what you can do with those? And why there are suddenly two of them?

Amy sighed and told Tails the story.

"I'm glad you're okay, but… I wish you wouldn't have done that. I had him, Ames," Sonic suddenly pulled away from her, his back turned and his arms crossed.

Amy visibly deflated from his rejection, but then perked up. "No, you didn't! I had to do something to help, and Tails agreed. Didn't you hear what he said? He - " she stopped herself, unable to say the words.

Sonic spun around, still wearing a scowl. "How do we know he was tellin' the truth? I don't trust 'im."

"Even if he didn't kill you, we know for a fact he's defeated you before, because that's what the other Eggman wished for" Tails pointed out. "Why take that risk?"

The hedgehog shrugged. "So what? That was another me. I can take him."

"Sonic, this is no time for you to to be all macho and reckless!" Amy said, reaching to touch his tense shoulder.

"Me, reckless? C'mon… it's not reckless if I always win. " He grinned as if nothing were bothering him, but Amy knew better.

"Your confidence doesn't work here when we know this Eggman could kill you." Amy met his eyes with a tender gaze. "I just don't want to lose you. Especially not to you doing something dumb."

"Amy's right. We can't fight this Eggman. If what you say is true, Amy, then we'll have to use the Pink Sapphires and send him back to where he came from," Tails said.

"But we can't do that – I don't even know how to use these." Amy looked down at the cursed gemstones in her hands. The cause of all of their problems, it seemed. Why, if they hadn't stolen her Sonic away from her in the first place, none of this would have happened. She wouldn't even know she was capable of being anything more than what she was - and wouldn't feel suddenly like a failure. She looked up to Sonic, her heart warming slightly at his tender expression.

"You can," he encouraged, grinning at her. "I know you can, Ames. We believe in you."

Amy shook her head. "Even if I can figure out how to use them, this new version of Eggman won't want to go back, so these sapphires are useless. They can only send someone where they want to go. If I use them on him who knows what will happen - it seems like all he really wants is to kill you. And I'm not letting that happen."

"This is hurting my brain…" Tails said and started rubbing his forehead – he suddenly did a double take and squinted at Amy. "What is that on your neck?"

"None of your business!" Amy shouted, shouldering her hammer to hide the purple hickey. It was still a bit tender, but it reminded her of Sonic's earlier affection, so she didn't mind at all.

Tails hid his smile but had to look at Sonic out of the corner of his eye, who looked mortified, but was obviously trying to hide it.

"How long until you can get the comm back up?" Sonic quickly changed the conversation, gesturing towards the broken bits of the communicator.

Tails shook his head. "Should that really be our first priority? We're all back in our correct dimension now – before all this happened, I found what Eggman had been working on, and I think the other world will be okay. We need to focus on our world now."

"Yeah but we may need the other Amy's help." Sonic reasoned.

Amy huffed. "Am I not good enough for you, Sonic?"

"No, no, no, of course you are, but she's the one who got us into this mess, and we may need her to help you out."

"You just said you thought I could control the sapphires! And now you're not sure?"

"Eh…. well, what I really think we should do is just let me have another shot at Eggman, but - "

"No, that's not happening. Not on my watch." Amy clutched the gemstones in her hand, and set her face in a serious expression. "I know what I'm going to do. I'll get get the other Eggman, our Eggman, and I'll convince him to come back."

"How?" Tails asked.

"I don't need a Super Form to use the Sapphires on myself. I can go to where we sent Eggman. It's the only way."

"I'm coming with you," Sonic said.

"No. I… have to do this myself," Amy said.

"What? You're crazy if you think I'm letting you go to another world by yourself!"

"Sonic… you actually can't. There's no you over there, because… you're dead in that world. So there's no one to swap you with."

Sonic shook his head. "No. You're not going alone."

"I can do this. I'm not letting you fight that monster." Amy gripped the gems, feeling them start to pulsate on top of her gloves.

"Wait!" Sonic pulled out his Chaos Emeralds. "I can go with these, using Chaos Control."

Amy touched his arm. "Stay here."

"Okay, what's the deal? Do you not want me to come?"

"You said…" she sighed. "You said you needed space. So I'm going to give it to you."

"No, Ames, not like this! How do you not understand - I can't let you go." He grabbed her hands, trying to force those cursed gems out of them.

The sapphires glow got more and more intense, turning from pink to bright white.

"I love you, Sonic…" Amy whispered, tears welling up in her eyes as she stared into her love's.

"No!"

The booming sound sent him flying back, but Sonic wasn't gonna let this happen. There had to be a way to follow her. Pulling out his Emeralds, Sonic fought against light and sound waves with his powerful legs, reaching out blindly towards where Amy had been just a moment ago. The seven Emeralds swirled around him, and he managed to locate the source of the energy pushing him back. Two pink sapphires, orbiting Amy's body. He reached out to touch her, trying to pull her back, but his hand went right through her figure. She was already gone.

"No. No!"

One hand reached out to touch the Sapphires in the middle of their orbit, catching them in his grasp. The other hand touched the nearest Chaos Emerald in his possession, and he felt two strong, but very different sources of energy flow through his body.

"Chaos Control!"

He was gone.

"NO, Sonic, wait!" Tails screamed, the noise only drowned out by the crashing of seven all-powerful Chaos Emeralds to the ground, leaving nothing but empty space in their wake.

He took several deep breaths as he looked around him in horror. Sonic was gone. Completely. He hadn't been replaced by anyone. He'd just vanished using the power of the Emeralds and Sapphires.

"No… no, no, no… He has no way to get back now… No…" Tails knelt on the floor, picking up each Emerald one by one, hoping there was something he was overlooking or overthinking.

They were both gone. Amy had no way back either, unless somehow they managed to find the Pink Sapphires in whatever hellish world they'd just gone to. And then once they found them, Amy would still have to somehow activate her Super Form. He still didn't even understand what that was.

"Tails…?"

The fox jumped a few feet in the air, his tails activating by instinct. His heart beat rapidly as he suddenly realized he wasn't alone.

"You're… alive…" a soft, feminine voice reached his ears.

He let out a breath as he looked down at the girl below him. Yet another version of Amy Rose, gaping at him like a fish. Tails had had more than enough of the girl today…and in his worry about Sonic, he'd totally forgotten that Amy herself was been swapped. Great.

"Yeah. Welcome to another dimension." He smiled wryly as he let himself drift to the ground, standing on his own two feet again.

"Is Sonic alive, too?" She asked, her eyes huge.

Tails sighed. It had already been a long day. "Yes, but, he's not here right now."

"Wait, Sonic's not dead… so where is he?"

"He's in your world. He went to rescue Amy."

Amy's head moved backwards in surprise. "Rescue me? But I'm here."

"No, no," Tails raised his hands."Let me start from the beginning. Although I think I'm a bit hazy on the details, too..."

Third Amy stood perfectly still, obviously shaken by all this news. "So there's another me, and another Sonic, and we're both okay. In this world, Tails, how does he feel about me?"

Tails smiled a bit as he went back to gathering up the Chaos Emeralds. He'd have to keep these safe without Sonic around, and at least Amy would be able to help him with that. "Asking the important questions." His blue eyes met Amy's hopeful green ones. "He loves you, Amy."

One lone tear dripped from her left eye, and her bottom lip trembled from emotion. "I knew it… that's what he wanted to tell me… before he died..." she drifted off, obviously trapped in her head's worst nightmare.

Tails wasn't prepared for this. He tucked the powerful Emeralds into his pouch. "Please tell me you have two pink, teardrop shaped gems."

Amy opened her palms, and let the sapphires catch the one tear she let herself cry.

"Good. Well, follow me. We definitely won't be safe out here." Tails instructed, and was soon followed by a sullen, but thankfully silent Amy Rose.

Original Dimension

"Sonic, I'm so glad you're here."

OrTails didn't even look up upon hearing the gust of wind behind him. He knew that sound as well as anyone.

"Tails, there's a problem," Sonic began, "- the other Eggman is roboticized himself, and attacked our friends in the other world - and I can't do anything about it because Amy ran off, and the communicator is broke."

The fox finally turned around. "Oh. That's… not good. This is my fault, isn't it? I was the one who suggested we swap the Eggmans…" Guilt creased his forehead.

"Is there anything we can do for them?"

Tails shook his head, and Sonic looked away, hating to feel so helpless.

"There's gotta be somethin'... There's gotta be."

Tails turned back to the computer. "Well, you want some good news?"

"Please."

"I may know how to fix the problem in our world. It looks like my other version dug up some research on what Eggman was working on. And now that we know about there being two sapphires, and he doesn't, we can track down where he sent those objects to, and bring them back here."

"Will that solve the science thing?"

"Yes. As long as we don't use the Pink Sapphires on any more stationary objects, it'll work. We'll just need to use the Chaos Emeralds - which you have, right?"

"'Course."

"Good. I know you don't want to hear all this but I'm gonna say it anyway. Usually when you have energy loss in a system, the energy is not really lost, just converted to a different type, usually a more chaotic type, according to the law of the conservation of energy."

Sonic's eyes were already glazing over, but Tails had to explain this outloud, if only to get it straight in his own head.

"In our case, whenever we use interdimensional travel and remove things, and therefore energy, from the system, the Chaos Emeralds would cover that 'energy loss' by just creating more energy to replace whatever it transported. The Sapphires don't work the same way, they're not actually a power source – they are created off of hopes and dreams or whatever, and they can only fulfill those wishes in a very particular way, by swapping people – so therefore there's no energy loss at all, just a direct transfer, but, and this is important, only when used on people. When used on objects, it's a misuse of that power, because objects don't have wishes, and therefore don't create any replacement energy, so, the energy is just removed from the system and transported to a void dimension."

Sonic made fake sleeping noises.

"Long story short, we can't use the Sapphires on inanimate objects anymore – we have to use the Chaos Emeralds to cover that loss of energy. You use Chaos Control and send those objects back."

"Science science math math, use the Chaos Emeralds, got it. So once you figure out where the objects are, we can send them back, got it. What can I do in the meantime to help?"

"I need to get a list of all objects that were sent so we can be sure we get them all – Eggman left some records I think, but there's some other stuff that's been disappearing and I'm not sure how to keep track of it."

"Alright, you do that, I'm gonna find Ames."

Tails glanced as his big brother sideways. "Sonic, does she really need your help?"

"I-I mean, no, but, ya know…" he kicked his foot into the ground.

Tails faked ignorance. "I don't know."

"I kinda, ya know, wanna see her I guess?" Sonic's eyes didn't leave the ground, obviously embarrassed at his feelings per usual.

Tails sighed. "You turn into a different person around her. Absolutely lovestruck."

"What? No I don't."

"You're becoming just like her. Anyway – heheh, she has some cool new powers, huh? Were you really thinking of her like that?" Tails punched his shoulder.

Sonic threw a punch back, but it was half-hearted.

"Heh heh she was so mad at you, you should have seen her."

"Drop it, will ya?"

Tails tilted his head, sensing this wasn't just brotherly banter. "What? Am I not allowed to tease you? It's just… new seeing you like this. For the longest time you've avoided talking about Amy, and now, all of a sudden, she's all you really care about."

Sonic clapped his shoulder and made genuine eye contact. "Tails… you will always be my little bro. Okay? Nothin's gonna change that."

Tails beamed back at him, and turned the pat into a full-blown hug. Initially surprised, Sonic embraced him back, suddenly feeling lucky he had someone who cared about him this much.

"Thanks, Sonic, but I'm not worried about me." Tails broke the hug. "Maybe you should go see her. I don't think she'd mind."

"Thanks little bro."

And just like that, he was gone. As usual. But Tails didn't mind so much, as it was just Sonic being Sonic. Now, he had to do the Tails thing and help save the world, his own way.