Sonic felt like he might puke again, he felt all at once freezing cold and burning hot. He was overcome by confusion and fear. He looked around the room, and although he saw a few exits, he couldn't even sat down opposite of him.

"So… You're Sonic, huh?"

Sonic nodded at her.

"And you're supposed to be-" suddenly he felt like that was a bad idea, even though she had - visibly - changed so much. "You are Amy, right?" he asked. She crossed her arms and shifted her weight on her feet. His teasing wasn't lost on her. And she wasn't smiling, far from it, her face was caught in a stoic frown.

"You sound so doubtful"

"I should say the same, don't you recognize me? You were my number one fan…" He reminisced.

He suddenly froze as Amy shot a glare at him. He flinched, apparently he had nearly stepped on a landmine. He thought she had a death glare when she was younger. This was a different breed of grimace. Less of an expression of rage and wrath like she usually would, more of a cold, judgmental stare, her eyes seared into him and made him tense up. Just a sense of 'I would be angry with you, but I don't think it would be worth my time'.

"do you have any idea what happened between your disappearance and now?" she asked.

"not much…" he trailed off.

"do you even know how long its been?"

"…no."

She sat back in her chair.

"You disappeared about ten years ago."

Ten years?

too weak to respond, his mind raced, trying to comprehend. Ten years.

"So. You are now 25 years old. How does that make you feel?" she leaned forward.

"uh…. Uhhhh" ten years. He was 25 now? He was gone for 10 years. He hadn't even…he tried to push that out of his mind so he could listen to the rest of what Amy had to say.

"after the disappearance of Sonic the Hedgehog, Eggman was briefly quiet. And during this time, the freedom fighters spent a lot of time searching for him. But not even a few months passed before Eggman executed his plan.

Or rather, new line of robots that he had been designing and testing for many years, he produced them en masse and suddenly unleashed them on our cities and villages.

They were stronger, faster, more destructive...

And without Sonic, the freedom fighters didn't stand a chance."

Sonic could only lie helplessly. It sounded like a dream. What did she mean? When did he make them? Why did he wait to release them? Why did he get rid of him first?

"so. For years we desperately continued to search for him. Sonic the Hedgehog, I mean. We assumed you had either gotten captured or killed by Eggman. But he claimed that he didn't do anything to you. The other possibility was that you simply… ran away. But we could never find you, and we were quickly losing the battle."

"but… you don't need me. You guys are strong enough to fight him back on your own… how—"

Amy slammed her fist on the arm of her chair. Her eyes boored into him with barely contained anger. She reminded him of a predator hunting prey, as she lashed out at him. He stayed silent.

"We didn't know that!" she yelled. Then she sat back. "yet."

"We tried fighting him off, but he attacked multiple places at once. Those new machines were so much more powerful. We tried, but we didn't succeed enough. Our homes were being threatened. "

"then… you became the leader, right?"

"… So Knuckles and Tails did tell you some of it?" she waited for him to respond, but he couldn't think of anything to say, so he just stayed silent. "Yes, after I proposed we moved the survivors to this secret city on angel island, it was decided that I would be leader. That was about 5 years ago.

Since then, we've been able to protect ourselves and the survivors. We have bases across the globe… and areas of land that we are protecting, mostly places where there are other camps of survivors. The freedom Fighters briefly fell out of the public's good graces for failing to repel Robotnik's attacks. However, after the age of Sonic's leadership officially ended, we have slowly been making progress. And in recent years… we have at least been able to maintain the safety of other survivors. We've been at a stalemate… but at least we can fight off raids now."

"Can I ask a question, Amy?" sonic began.

"I am a commander. Most people would prefer to me as Miss Rose or General Rose." She stated.

"Amy, really?"

"Only my friends should call me Amy." Sonic tripped over his thoughts. "No Sonic. We are not. Friends." She answered him without him having to ask in the first place.

"What… Why?" he was starting to wish that he could blame this uncomfortable feeling on his sickness. And although he felt like he might puke, it was just out of nervousness. If he puked, sitting down, resting, just out of confusion and fear, that would be even more humiliating. Amy's judgmental stare made him both more nervous about the possibility of him throwing up, as well as more nauseous and more aware of how much he was in pain and how hard it was to breathe.

"I'm no idiot sonic. I know how Cryogenic storage works too. The base where you were found was destroyed by the freedom fighters 8 years ago in the war. Even the freedom fighters hold some prisoners in Cryogenic storage. If those machines aren't maintained, within a year the person in storage can initiate removal if they wake up.

I find it hard to believe that you wouldn't have taken the first opportunity to escape. But instead you waited.

Tell me Sonic, what actually happened?"

"I…."

"Surely, Sonic the Hedgehog isn't so stupid that he would fall for the machine's mind control. And he isn't so weak minded that he didn't even wake up when the machine's power source and network went out. Surely, he wouldn't be so easily defeated that you didn't realize that you could use one of those old machines to infiltrate Eggman's computer and find out what's went on. And if he did, he wouldn't have given up and gone back to sleep?"

Sonic stayed silent. Weak minded? Stupid? Did that happen? Was this true?

"Sonic the hedgehog can't possibly be so slow and dim-witted that he would sleep for ten years while a war waged without him. Can he?"

He hung his head. He didn't know what to say. Did he do that by choice? He didn't remember. He couldn't remember.

"that's what I thought." She muttered in a sigh. He made one last effort to try to stand up to her. All he remembered was feeling like he was suffocating.

"W-wait! No, I… I don't remember choosing to stay there… I would have gotten out, but if I was given a chance I never knew about it! I—" Amy stood up, slamming her foot down. the pound of her heel hitting the floor stopped him in his tracks, he flinched, and it hurt.

"Those pods are designed so that you can get out if something goes wrong. We destroyed that facility that the computer was a part of! I would say that something went wrong, and you were able to escape!

Do you understand?"

Sonic was too afraid to speak. She slowly walked closer to him

"Failing that! It was your reckless decisions that got you there and us here. If you had just thought for one second about what the consequences of your recklessness might be, you could have avoided it entirely. And if you weren't so dependent on Eggman's outward foolishness and your own bravado and speed, we wouldn't have been so unprepared for Eggman's invasion.

Among us survivors, Sonic the Hedgehog is the icon of the childish and careless mistakes that started this war! Sonic the Hedgehog is why so many innocents were killed.

His disappearance has long been the topic of speculation, but as time has gone on the undeniable truth has become clear. Sonic the hedgehog is not what we need.

You are our greatest mistake." She circled around him, her eyes set on glaring down at him mercilessly.

He felt his body try to curl up defensively but his limbs and his spine were too weak to respond. He knew he shouldn't, but it was getting harder not to. He didn't want to be so outwardly scared but his mind and his body were working against each other. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her stare harshly down, walking circles around him without ever losing focus. She seemed to be aware of his discomfort but did not falter or show mercy.

"You are an example among all the remaining Mobians, of the sort of behavior and attitude that brought on so much unnecessary destruction.

The Freedom Fighters have no need for you anymore, Sonic the Hedgehog."

Sonic lay paralyzed in confusion. He didn't feel so disoriented. But he wished he was. He wished he didn't have to listen. He wished he could just get sick and go back to sleep. She stood over him, attacking him…

"… This pitiable attitude doesn't look good on you, Sonic." She towered over him … "You'll be permitted to stay with us. But don't expect me to feel sorry for you. If you inconvenience us or hold us back… you can bet I'll send you right back where you came from." She backed off and sighed, the blue hedgehog was motionless, averting his gaze, staying quiet.

"That's all. I hope you understand your situation now. Cream will be here soon to take you to the infirmary…"

She walked away from the limp, blue hedgehog, who was avoiding looking at her… She went through the door and stepped out into the hallway. And she paged Cream to collect Sonic. And she left him cold and alone on the chair.

authors note: heyo

so basically, on account of life things ,i have been busy as of late, and i am left with very little energy or free time,

although i have written a few chapters ahead, at some point i may have to skip a week.

juusst letting you know

edit: oopsie, made an error! then i fixed it, i think