Cream eventually came back from the medical ward. She wheeled an empty stretcher into the room where she had been hanging out with the others. She looked around, the room seemed to be empty, but she heard some irregular breathing. She spotted Sonic curled up on the single reclining chair in the dining room. She rushed over to him.

Was he experiencing some sort of complication? Was he hurt?

She quickly did a one over of the blue hedgehog. He was breathing, but a little heavily, sharply and irregularly, she prodded his shoulder, walking around to get a better angle so she could see him.

"Mister s-Sonic, are you alright?"

She looked at his face, his eyes were open, but his gaze looked distant. He looked up at her but only for a moment before he covered his face. she realized what was going on.

Cream was taken aback. But she felt bad… He was crying.

She started to panic a little. She knew how Amy was when it came to Sonic. It was a bad idea to leave her alone with him.

"I'm… Sorry, I'm…" he mumbled. He sounded so unlike the Sonic she remembered. He sounded so weak… He was just barely audible.

"N-no it's okay Sonic, I'm here to help you! Um… I need to take you back to infirmary so I can run some tests… "

He stopped talking. He looked toward the stretcher. Cream ran over and pulled it up to the chair.

Sonic put his arms up on the stretcher and tried to pull himself up. But he struggled to hold himself up, he managed to get his torso on the stretcher, but he was stuck on the chair. Cream got ready to lift his feet up and carry him onto the stretcher. He was much lighter than she thought. She probably could have just put him on the stretcher herself…

But he probably didn't want to talk... He curled up again and tried to control his breathing so his crying wasn't so obvious. The young rabbit felt sorry for him. After years of coming to view him as a traitor… She wasn't so sure how important that was now. He felt bad about what he caused, clearly…

Well, the best way to figure out what was going on with him was to examine him.

But, she reached underneath the stretcher and pulled out a thin sterile blanket. She unfolded it and tossed it over him. She whispered quietly, both to her patient and to herself. "It'll be okay."" It'll be okay." "It'll be okay" Sonic pulled his face under the blanket and curled up. His breathing was evening out. She silently wheeled him out to the hallway.

Amy saw a figure a ways before the door to her office. The hallway was dimly lit since almost no one was working at this time of night. Her ears twitched against the silent air.

A figure with long ears and two bushy tails stood waiting for her.

"Tails." She nodded, slowing to a stop a few steps away from him.

"Amy… You weren't too hard on him. Were you?" she sighed and maintained eye contact.

"Tails, I know you still regard Sonic as a friend. I suppose it's respectable that you can still forgive him after all we've gone through. I won't hold you accountable for continuing to believe in him... Perhaps that's why you found him anyway."

"No! I was just concerned about what might happen if Eggman sensed the signal, I wanted to check it out before he found it…"

"It's no use lying to me Tails." Amy looked at him sympathetically. "I know you and Knuckles are both glad to see him back. I don't hate you for that."

"Aren't you, at least, a little happy that we finally found him?" he asked.

Amy didn't answer.

"I mean, I know you never talked about him after you came back… we all knew you had sort of, condemned him but…" he sensed that she wasn't going to give him an answer "… I'm sorry, General..." his ears flopped down. "but… if it's okay with you, I'd like to rehabilitate him until his strength returns…"

"Rehabilitate?"

"If he would agree to it, then maybe if I can return him to his former strength, he could be a great asset."

"… I'm not sure how I would feel about having such a loose cannon among my soldiers, Tails. And besides, you have your own duties and work to do. I can't have you wasting too much time on other projects. You are an important asset too."

"I know Amy, but I can figure it out, I'm sure! I won't let it interfere with my duty"

"Sonic the Hedgehog isn't our responsibility."

"I'm offering to take on the responsibility of watching over Sonic. You can trust me to take care of myself right?"

Amy sighed.

"I want to Tails… But you are an essential team member, I can't have you compromised in any way."

"Please Amy, give me a chance!" Tails begged her. She crossed her arms and though about it.

"…Okay. because I know you believe in him. Until he returns to health, he is under your supervision. After that... we'll see."

"Thank you General Rose!" Tails gleefully saluted her, perking up almost instantly. She smiled at him, Tails was still a kid at heart. She nodded and continued walking.

"By the way, Amy, how did your uh… Conversation with Sonic go?" Tails asked, flicking his tails curiously. She held onto the doorknob to her office, she hid her expression from Tails. She knew it would put a damper on his mood, but it was better to be honest than to get his hopes up.

"I'm sorry. My thought on what has happened with Sonic the Hedgehog still have not changed." She stated, looking straight ahead, into the office. "Even if Sonic the Hedgehog is still alive, we are better off without him."

Tail's ears fell again…

"However, only time will tell, I suppose.

Goodnight." She opened the door and entered the office.

"Goodnight…" Tails replied. Amy shut the door.

She turned on the lights in her office. Sure, After all these years, it sure was satisfying to see the cause of all her troubles cower and flinch beneath her in a weakened, nearly broken state. It had given her momentary pleasure, revenge, catharsis, to see Sonic the Hedgehog writhe in discomfort under her trained eye.

But the fact remained that now he was here.

She walked to the window on the other side of the room.

On the desk next to the window in a little box, she looked at

She opened the box and picked it up the small bottle cap, painted pink with glitter and stickers covering it, with a safety pin glued to the back. She clenched it in her fist. It was filled with memories. The reason she changed. Why she was made the leader. Why she lost her arm. And why the Freedom Fighters didn't need Sonic the Hedgehog. And she pinned it to her jacket.

Chapter 7 End

authors note to the readers:

okay, i'm gonna be super real, i'm behind on writing this! school isnt over for me yet, so bleh...

i still gotta catch up with my last bits of homework. we'll see how the next couple weeks pan out. moost likely i will be able to get the next chapter out on time, but at this rate i may need to take a tiny hiatus to catch up, but i'm gonna try and avoid that.