Chapter 25

Shadow slowly made his way to his apartment, just outside GUN headquarters. As much pain as he was in, he knew he'd be fine in the morning. This was just embarrassing.

He put his palm up to the scan pad outside his door, which flashed green and unlocked the door for him. Sighing with relief, he slowly lowered himself onto his couch.

He smiled at the thought of everything they'd accomplished that day. He'd see the others again soon enough, he knew that for sure. Rouge, Amy, and Sticks never stayed away from GUN headquarters for very long.

Sleep quickly overtook him, letting his mind rest as his body healed.

Amy finally arrived back down at the beach, sitting down gently in the sand. It seemed smaller than she remembered, somehow. Maybe it was just that she had grown.

Blaze was right, she did feel like she was going to throw up.

For a brief moment, the thought of staying back at Boom Beach crossed her mind, but she just as quickly put it to rest. There was nothing here for her. Not anymore, anyway.

She felt an awful lot like the little girl who had run from here so many years ago. Small and scared. She hugged her knees to her chest and let all the air out of her lungs. In her shorts, the scar on the inside of her thigh was glaringly obvious in the late afternoon sun. She ran her fingers over it thoughtfully.

"I haven't seen this clown in a while," Amy snorted, launching herself up off a table just seconds before Metal Sonic destroyed it. She grabbed one of the beams on the ceiling and swung gracefully down, landing in a crouch.

"He's fun, isn't he?" Rouge asked, taking out her crossbow and firing a shot directly into his left arm, which easily separated from his body. The arrow, still trailing the arm, buried itself in a wall thirty feet behind him. Metal Sonic glanced down at the empty arm socket, as if computing what had just happened, before continuing his attack.

Amy pounced, knocking him to the ground and landing on top of him. She quickly pulled out the knife she had been given just a few days ago by the armory attendant at GUN. She trained with it since then and had grown to like it very much.

What she didn't expect was Metal Sonic's last line of defense. His normally black-and-red eyes changed to a painfully familiar green.

Amy hesitated, her knife poised directly above Metal Sonic's forehead.

That second of hesitation was all it took. She felt a horrible burning pain through her entire thigh. She didn't even scream, just gasped, immediately feeling the warm gush of blood.

Metal Sonic shoved her roughly to the side, fixing another laser at her forehead. She closed her eyes.

"Amy!" Rouge yelled, firing another arrow, this one going directly through the back of Metal Sonic's head, taking him out instantly. He fell forward with a loud crash.

Amy stared with wide eyes at the inside of her thigh, which was pouring blood.

"Shit, shit, shit," Rouge cursed, flying quickly to her friend. "What the hell happened?"

"I don't know…" Amy breathed heavily. "For a second, he looked like…" She paused before shaking her head. "Nobody. I just didn't see it." She swayed, blackness dancing at the edges of her vision.

"We can't wait for a medic," Rouge decided, hoisting Amy up in her arms and extending her wings to their full length. "We're going now."

"Okay," Amy affirmed before passing out.

She woke up briefly once they got the the hospital. Several doctors tried to get control of the bleeding, and one of them yelled something about an artery. She couldn't really hear. Everything looked too bright. She closed her eyes again.

When she opened them, she was in the operating theater, and there was a part of her brain that kept repeating, "You're going to die, you're going to die…"

A nurse peered at her worriedly. It was a younger woman, a fox, or maybe a wolf. Amy couldn't really tell. The woman whispered comforting words as Amy tried to fight the tears back. The woman noticed, leaned in, and murmured something to her.

"It's all right to be scared, hon."

At this, Amy felt the tears rush down her face. Surely she was dying now. Her first assignment with GUN, and she had gone and gotten herself killed. All because she still cared for that idiot.

She vowed to herself. If she made it through this, he would never distract her again.

Blackness finally took over the majority of her vision, and her last thought was that she wasn't ever going to wake up again.

Silver and Blaze had left Sonic alone in Amy's house.

He was okay with that. Actually, he'd insisted they go spend some time by themselves. It was a pretty big day for them.

But now, he sat alone with his thoughts at the kitchen table, tracing the wood grain with his fingers.

"Sonic, would you please open the door?" Tails sighed, smacking the door frustratedly with his open hand. "Come on, you can't ignore me."

Frustrated, Sonic swung the bedroom door open. "I'm not ignoring anyone," he insisted stubbornly.

"Don't bullshit me," Tails replied, annoyed. Sonic startled a bit; Tails never really cursed.

He relented. "Fine. You got me. I'm ignoring people."

Tails sighed again. "Oh, Sonic."

"I just can't believe she packed up and left, ya know?" He started pacing a circle around the room. "I mean, sure, I screwed up, but was it really that bad?"

The young fox gave him a questioning stare.

"Okay, yeah. It was that bad," Sonic exhaled. "I really fucked up here, huh, bud?"

"I don't think I would phrase it quite like that, but yeah, you did," Tails agreed, gazing down at his feet. "You really messed up with Amy."

"Maybe I should go after her," he continued, pacing faster now. Tails glanced warily at the carpet. Last time he'd done this, he'd accidentally set it on fire. "You know, go apologize. She'd understand, right?" Sonic looked over at his younger friend pleadingly.

Tails broke his gaze and stared at the wall. "Sonic… I don't think she would. Not this time. I mean, she's forgiven you before, but she's never left."

"I can't just let her go!" Sonic argued. "Just leave her to fend for herself? She could die!"

"Amy's a lot stronger than you give her credit for," Tails reminded him. "She can take care of herself."

He exhaled angrily and folded his hands on the table, thinking about the last time he'd seen her before she came back. He'd never told anyone, not even Tails.

"Amy Rose," Sonic panted, placing his hands on the hospital desk as the charge nurse raised an eyebrow at him. "Please, I'm her emergency contact, and I got a call…"

"Right. I'll see if she's up for visitors yet," the nurse replied, a young brown wolf with striking blue eyes. She headed off down the hallway, and Sonic did his best to peek around the corner and see what room she went into, but he couldn't quite make it out.

Instead, he sat down, his back against the wall. If Amy was hurt, really hurt, then it was all his fault. A horrible feeling settled in the pit of his stomach, right next to the little bit of hope he felt at the idea of getting to see her again.

Minutes later, the nurse returned, avoiding eye contact with him now. "I'm sorry. She's not available for visitors at this time."

"She's…not?" Sonic questioned, his hope sinking. "Please, did you tell her it was Sonic? We're friends- well, we were friends, and-"

"She knows who you are," she interrupted, meeting his sightline now. "I'm sorry to be blunt, sir, but she doesn't want to see you. She asked me to tell you to please leave."

"But… she's hurt…" he stuttered.

"I'm sorry. She's well within her rights to refuse visitors. I'll have to ask you to go back to the lobby and exit now." Not unkindly, the nurse led him back to the double doors.

"Please," he begged earnestly, looking at the nurse. He was almost in tears at this point. "Is she going to be okay?"

The nurse took pity on him. "She'll be fine after she heals. That's all I'm legally allowed to tell you, and even that's pushing it."

"Wait, one last thing," Sonic's voice cracked. "You gotta tell her for me… tell her… tell her I didn't mean it, okay? Please."

The nurse narrowed her gaze at him, then nodded. "Fine. But you need to leave now, sir."

"Okay," he whispered in response, walking slowly back out the double doors. They closed silently behind him, completely sealing him off from Amy for the last time.

A text came through his phone exactly one week later.

"Sorry about the call. I've switched my emergency contact to Rouge, so you won't be bothered again. This number is getting disabled in the next few minutes, and I'll have a new one, so you won't be able to reply. Please don't ask for it. I won't give it to you.

~Amy

He quickly typed out, "Amy, wait," and hit the send button as quickly as he could.

"The number you are trying to reach has been disconnected. Contact 15388 for help."

"Shit," he cursed, pitching his phone across the room in a fit of anger. It shattered against the far wall, and he winced at the sound.

Oh, well. Didn't matter now anyway.