Chapter 26
Scourge was sleeping when Amy jolted awake from her spot on the floor. The quiet rustle of the canvas woke her, alerting her to the presence of someone just outside the tent. She kept her mouth shut and her reactions quiet, careful not to wake him.
Cold metal slid between her hands and pushed against the ropes around her wrists. With one sharp tug, Amy was free for the first time in a week. She blinked, not sure the slack in the rope was real. She resisted the urge to move - to rub her wrists or run or take the knife into her own hands and lunge straight for the sleeping man across the tent - and instead sat stiff against the wood with baited breath.
"Wait for the noise, then slip out of the tent this way."
Knuckles' voice was so deep and quiet it was as if the night itself had whispered instructions to her.
Amy felt the hilt of the knife land squarely in her palms and she squeezed it tight as he slipped away. Something was coming - what? she didn't know. But she'd be ready.
She dozed off a few more times that night against her will, waiting up for some unmistakable sound that would signal the beginning of her escape. Just when she thought it might never come or that she had missed it entirely, there was rumbling in the dirt like the beginning of a storm.
One shout echoed through the camp, and then another. Scourge bolted up just as the disparate noises melted into one panicked wave, collecting screams and crashes as it got closer to their shore. Amy shoved her hands back behind her as he wheeled around to look at her, and several thieves came barging in yelling that something was going down.
Amy didn't wait to listen in on exactly what it was. The second Scourge's attention was fully on them, she turned to crawl under the tent and out into the open for the first time in a week.
"Hey!" someone shouted inside the tent.
She heard Scourge roar behind her, but she didn't waste a second turning around to look at him.
"Stop her!" Scourge yelled, his voice muffled.
Amy felt a rough hand around her ankle and claws biting through her skin. She cried out and kicked back hard, and heard her heel connect and crack into flesh.
Knuckles was waiting for her. He grabbed her by the elbows and wrenched her the rest of the way out the tent and into the noisy night. He hoisted her up and kept her full weight tucked into him, ready as she buckled on wobbly legs.
"Let's go!" Knuckles shouted over the commotion. As close as he was, Amy barely heard him over the chaos around them that tumbled, out of control, into true pandemonium.
He barreled her through the crowd, shoving away any thief attempting to get to her. She watched open-mouthed as the forest began to burn. Men with lanterns sprinted through the camp. Torchlight glinted off of steel blades and armor. Flames licked the outskirts of the clearing, trapping the unsuspecting thieves inside. Tents were torn down and consumed in the blaze, and men ran, screaming, for hiding places.
Amy watched, horrified, at the brutal flood of violence. Dust and ash fell softly around her, coating the ground and the inside of her mouth in a thin sheet of gray. Oh, how quickly kingdoms went up in smoke.
"These -" Amy said in shock, "these are knights?"
She couldn't quite wrap her head around it, but it was true. The reflections of the fire in their armor lit up the entire glen, but - she wondered - how had they gotten here? She had never before seen them in action quite like this - a destructive, unrelenting force acting with perfect, deadly purpose.
At the heart of a battleground, she didn't know who she should hope for; what she wanted to happen. Around her, thieves and knights alike went to the ground screaming and bloody. She searched the fight for any signs of the people she loved, hopeful none of them were so far that she couldn't save them.
She coughed and looked up at Knuckles in confusion.
"What's going on? Who did this?" she asked.
Knuckles only searched through the chaos grimly, pushing them both through the madness.
Who did this? Maybe, she realized in horror, she did. She took a shaky step, pressed tight to Knuckles, sick to her stomach that her existence was nothing but a curse.
"Where are you running to, little Princess?" someone screamed behind her. "The party isn't over yet!"
Amy froze. Knuckles shoved her forward.
"Don't listen," he urged.
"Coward!" Scourge shouted at her back. "Like my father and yours - you're a coward!"
Amy made the mistake of looking over her shoulder. Scourge ran for her through the smoke, his hands outstretched like he'd enjoy nothing more than to drag her back into the flames and the fight.
But he couldn't drag her back into the fight - not if she took him there first.
Amy hunched over and slipped out from under Knuckles' arm.
"Amy!" he shouted at her over the ruckus and lunged to grab her again, but she was already off and sprinting straight for Scourge.
Scourge started, shocked for only a moment to see Amy running at him. Then he crouched and smiled, ready for her.
Amy swung her hands back as she ran, screaming and sprinting as hard as she could, fighting her wobbly legs. Blood rushed through her, and she felt her hammer settle in her palms for the first time in a week. Gaia, how she had missed the comfort of the heavy grip in her hand. Its weight as it swung was so familiar and freeing. Scourge had taken all her power from her for far too long. Who did this? She had wanted to know… He had. He was just as responsible as she was.
She watched with vicious delight as Scourge's smile slipped from his face and he raised his knife in front of his face, unprepared for the unbridled power of her swing.
She reached him. The flat of her hammer connected with a crack against his forearms and he was thrown several paces from her by the sheer force of her blow. He hit the ground in a heap, and Amy let her hammer slip from existence to sprint after him, refusing to let him get away with all the hurt he had wrought on her.
"You're the coward!" Amy screamed as she lunged for Scourge and rolled them to the ground, pulling Knuckles' knife from where she had tucked it in her sleeve. Amy straddled him, leaning fully onto his neck and pushing his back into the dirt as she held the knife at his chest.
Her vision was red. Tears left angry streaks down her cheeks as she screamed in his face. She did not cry out of despair, she cried because she was furious.
"Do it," Scourge hissed, delighted to see her so alive. "Kill me!"
"I -" Amy tried to take a deep breath and choked on ash. Her hands shook as she held the knife at his chest.
"You promised," he said. Scourge smiled. His teeth were bloodstained. "You promised me you would kill me!"
Eyes wide, Amy raised the knife. She felt sick. He was right - wasn't he? He was the villain, she was the hero. Villains died. Heroes killed. She had to do it. She had promised to do it.
"Amy!"
Amy thought it was Knuckles calling to her, but the voice was deeper than she remembered. It was so hard to hear over the screaming and the blood rushing in her ears.
She swung the knife down, her heart on fire.
Something heavy and warm slammed into her, and Amy toppled to the ground.
She opened her eyes and gasped for air, clutching at her chest like she had stabbed herself. The air scorched her all the way down to her lungs. Scourge lay a pace away from her, blinking like he was surprised and somewhat disappointed to still be alive.
"You can't," Tails said, panting. They lay together, tangled in a mass on the ground where he had tackled her. "You can't make yourself like him."
"Tails!" Amy gasped. She grabbed her friend up and held him tight, clinging to him; letting the comfort of his presence guide her out of her blind rage and back to the ground.
Scourge stood, glowering. Amy sat forward and put a protective arm in front of Tails.
"You're wrong about me!" Amy yelled. "I am not you. And I'm not my father, either."
She rose from the ground and summoned her hammer, staring him down. Wind whipped ash from their quills and back into the sky. Chaos reigned around them. The camp blazed on. Tails watched on in awe as Amy slowly raised her hammer and pointed it at Scourge.
"I will not be made into anything I don't want to be - a ghost, a killer, a wife!" Amy declared. "I am Princess Amelia Rose - I am a Champion in the making. I am your deliverer, and I will see you into the hands of justice!"
Scourge curled his lip and threw his arms back, one foot forward like he was bracing to lunge at her.
"You think that I'm so bad because I have blood on my hands, and my father had blood on his hands…" he spat at her. "Well guess what?"
Scourge took one step toward her, then looked toward the wreckage - far past her - and thought better of it. Instead, he crouched and tilted his head, looking at her wild, like a beast.
"There is no such thing as an innocent King, Princess," Scourge snarled. "There is no Kingdom to be made that does not first burn, and there is no monarchy that isn't defined by one thing - that's bloodshed, sweetheart."
Scourge stood and turned toward the brush, throwing his final vow to her over his shoulder with a wicked smile.
"You think you're so different," he said, "but mark my words: I'll make sure you keep your promise. If you ever want to be rid of me, you'll have to kill me. And then my blood will be the first you spill in your new world order."
His last words rang out as he disappeared into the brush.
"It's either you or me, doll. It's either my blood, or yours."
Amy choked out something akin to a wail as he left - devastated by his promise. Tails grabbed onto her arm and pulled her back into him, hugging her close.
"Tails," she said through her tears, holding tight to her friend. "What's going on? Where's Sonic?"
Tails simply shook his head, working his hands around his neck carefully.
Amy grabbed his wrists and stopped him, shocked to see he was bound.
"What - why are you -" she asked, reaching for the knife from where it had fallen. She freed him with hands that still trembled.
"No time - " Tails said, slipping something around her neck. "Sonic is headed for the castle. You have to get back there before they kill him. Take this and keep it safe. Last time I saw him he - he said -"
Amy felt something cold and soothing on her neck. She didn't have to look - she knew what Sonic had charged her with. She clutched onto the ring like she had seen him do so many times before, and finally, her fingers stopped shaking.
"He'll tell me himself," Amy said resolutely, holding tight to her token. "I'll find a way to get him out. Now we need to find Knuckles and run while we can -"
Tails smiled at her sadly and stood with her, waving a hand in the air.
"Not 'we', Amy. I'll find him, and we'll get to safety," he promised. "But… we can't go with you. Not tonight."
"What?" Amy asked, holding tight to Tails' hands. "You have to!"
"We can't," he said again, taking her hands off him gently. "We can't go where you're going."
Then Amy felt the hoofbeats, and her stomach dropped.
"Who… brought the knights, Tails?" she whispered. She turned slowly on her heels to look where Scourge had seen something in the night - to where Tails was waving.
Through the smoke and ash, Shadow emerged on horseback. Ash rained around him, like he was one of the great apocalyptic bringers of death. His eyes shone through his visor, cutting straight to her.
"Shadow!" Amy shouted over the pandemonium, elated to see him. "Shadow will make sure we're safe!"
She looked back for Tails, but the kit was gone.
Amy turned back as Shadow galloped straight toward her, sheathing his sword and holding an arm out for her like he might embrace her.
He reached her and yanked her up into the seat with him in one motion, all without slowing his horse's pace. Amy winced. He was not gentle, and she couldn't help the fear that spurred her heart to beat faster as he pulled her into his side, his grip on her arms like death. Getting yanked around by men was beginning to make her feel sick.
Shadow snapped his reins with one hand and urged his horse on.
"Wait!" Amy shouted, shaking Shadow to try and get his attention over the noise. But she was too late, they were traveling away from the camp at a breakneck pace.
She heard crying echoing through the night as they left. She watched over his shoulder, the thieves sat restrained in rows getting farther away. A knight hauled one of his peers up, pushing urgent hands into blood flowing from between the joints of his armor.
"Shadow, stop!" Amy commanded, but the wind must have been too loud around them for him to hear. She had to get his attention - she refused to leave Knuckles and Tails behind.
"Shadow!" she called again, and grabbed his face in her hands, careful to not distract him from steering as she shook him gently.
"You are the priority now," Shadow shouted back over the wind. His voice sounded strained. His body was stiff as marble around her.
"Shadow!" Amy said. "I order you to go back! Tails, Knuckles - I need them - "
"You don't need them," Shadow roared in her ear. Amy gasped. She had never heard such clear, sharp emotion in his voice.
"Shadow," she tried again, her hands still on his face, "I'm not asking. I am ordering you to turn around and go back for them!"
He didn't acknowledge her.
Amy glanced at the ground moving far too fast below her. If he would not listen, she would make him. She was tired, but she was more tired of not being heard. He simply wasn't understanding - that had to be the reason why, for the first time she could remember, he refused to listen to her.
Amy pushed Shadow's arms from around her, slid from the saddle, and jumped off.
"Amy!" he shouted, yanking on his reins to turn his horse back to where she had tumbled to the ground.
She was already running, heading back toward the camp to where she had last seen her… people. Two of her wards. The friends she wanted to be entwined with for the rest of her life and rulership.
"Enough!" Shadow called again. He dismounted and sprinted toward her, getting ahead of her easily. He did not touch her again. He simply planted himself in front of her and stood firm, arms out to stop her.
Amy caught her breath, watching him in confusion. They were far enough from the camp that the glowing orange light in the distance could've been mistaken for the sunrise.
"Listen to me," Amy begged. "You have to go back for Tails and Knuckles - a young fox and a red echidna. Bring them to my room in secret, and I'll head back to the castle on your horse in the meantime. Sonic is there right now, and he's in trouble -"
"Amy -"
"- if I can get there in time," she continued, "then I can stop his execution. I don't know how I'll do it without blowing my cover, but I'll figure it out on the way. Hurry, Shadow, get back to the camp!"
"No," Shadow said.
Amy's mouth fell open and she froze, looking Shadow up and down aghast. Like he must be some alien replacement of the knight she once knew.
"No?" she asked. "But they're all in trouble! They're my friends, and I need Sonic for the Tournament. Sonic is - he's my…"
Amy trailed off, grabbing onto the ring as she realized what she had said.
Shadow narrowed his eyes on her. His nostrils flared.
"I did not want to believe it," he said, low and slow. A carefully contained predator.
"What?" Amy asked, taking a step back, wary of him for the first time in her life.
"That you would…" Shadow turned his head from her and bowed it slightly in a show of deference; the willingness to shut his mouth and do his job without speaking any of the messy feelings that were on the tip of his tongue. He could hold his tongue. He didn't need to feel so angry - not if she didn't want him to be. And part of him hoped she wouldn't ask just so he could just keep it to himself. But he knew her too well.
"Say it," Amy commanded, holding her ground. "We're friends aren't we? Speak your mind."
Shadow's head snapped up and he scowled. Friends… he had allowed himself to use that word for what they were in his own mind very recently. He had finally thought that it was true enough - that closeness did not mean he was any less worthy of or good at his job. But clearly, he had failed her. She had failed him. They had let each other down, and hard.
"I am not your friend," Shadow said coldly. "I am… your guard. And a knight of this Kingdom. Now, come back to the castle with me before I further offend you, your majesty."
Shadow took a step toward where his horse waited, but Amy held out a hand. Stubborn as always.
"What are you talking about?" Amy demanded, indignant. "We have known each other for 10 years . I've considered you my only friend for -"
"A friend would not wound me as you have," Shadow snapped.
Amy's breath caught in her throat. Shadow held his head high. He had never once looked down on Amy - but she wanted him to be frank? Fine. He was disappointed.
"If what the thief told me was true -" Shadow said.
"What thief?" Amy asked, her stomach sinking.
"- then you have spent months ignorantly walking into this trap while I was gone," Shadow finished. "You've defiled my teaching - the training that will see you safely to the throne and for what? A thief?"
"Thieves," Amy corrected with distaste. She began to see the full picture of how the knights had ended up in the camp. And more importantly, how Sonic had ended up at the castle.
"Those three men are the bravest and brightest of us," Amy said. "They're just as much a part of this Kingdom as we are and they're the only reason I could win this thing, Shadow -"
"They do not care for you!" his voice rose over hers. His hand flew up to gesture widely. "Not like I do. They are not here to protect you, like I am. That much should be clear as day to you now, and yet you defend them still -"
"They made a mistake, Shadow -"
"No, you made a mistake that I thought you were far, far above!" he bellowed.
Amy's mouth fell open. She was stung, but only for a moment, and then anger ignited in her chest. It was the only emotion she had left to offer him. She was starved, she was tired, she was heartbroken. She had never, never before had to prove herself to Shadow. He was the only person she knew she wouldn't have to bow to, to plead for him to see that she was worth supporting. But his tone was emotional and condescending. He was smug and superior in a way that she hadn't seen before - in a way that irked her the same way her father did.
"What happened to 'I believe in you'?" Amy snapped back, angry enough to feel tears in her eyes at his accusation. She held them back. Shadow had made it perfectly clear so many times before that he found her emotional outbursts childish and weak.
"We are friends, Shadow," she insisted, "and I didn't mean to hurt you, but I knew that -"
"You knew I'd disapprove," he finished her sentence for her, still feeling humiliated. "And still you let them train you?"
"Yes!" Amy said indignantly. She hardly resisted the urge to stamp her foot. "Because friends should support each other, and let them make their own decisions! You're mad because you don't understand why I've chosen to do this one thing my way - because it's not your way. But that doesn't mean my way is wrong! Or bad! It's me . And I thought you supported me."
"I did support you," Shadow argued back with a snarl. "I gave my life in service to you and then this… blue thief -"
"Sonic," Amy corrected, the sinking feeling back in her stomach. "What did you do to him?"
"When we fought he said…" Shadow didn't want to repeat it - it was so offending a thought.
"Tell me," he said instead, looking away from her, "that thief, Sonic… is he your second?"
Amy took a deep, audible breath. Her silence sunk Shadow's last ounce of hope - she looked at him with such pity it drove him insane. He hated to be made to feel pathetic.
"I risked. My life." Shadow gained ferocity with each word. "I forswore in secret the oath of the knighthood to train you. I gave you my time. My dedication. My honor. My sword."
Shadow held his hands out to her, stupefied; unable to understand how to communicate the depth of his lost good graces. He looked at her, angry and pitying and disgusted. Pleading with her to repent - to abandon her thieves and admit her fault. To come back with him to the castle and leave them behind, instead of him.
"Everything that is mine is first yours," he said, trying to make her understand. "I would've been first in line to lose my head this Tournament, standing by your side. I would've given up my chance at Champion - all to offer myself as your second in my last act of deference to who I knew you to be."
Shadow gripped the hilt of his sword so tight it could've broken into pieces as he turned from her, scorned beyond reproach.
"But now…" he said, "I suppose… I will respect your choice."
He knew better than to be ruled by emotion, but pride demanded he turn his contempt into punishment. Into action - a stance, a belief. He planted his flag in the ground and stood by it, safe behind his high wall superiority.
"If I will not be your second -" he said, his tone dark and venomous "- if you would make your stand with a thief by your side - then I shall honor that choice and instead fight in this Tournament. I will see you on the battlefield. If I lose to you and your thieves… then let me be your Kingdom's first exile."
"Shadow," Amy protested, reeling at how ludicrously out of control the conversation had gotten. "I'd never agree to that. You are my second from the minute I secure the throne! This Kingdom needs you in it, and I can't win against you - I promise you that."
"Not at all," Shadow said, his voice once again the unemotional epitome of authority. He mounted his horse again. "You have proven your prowess already - it seems I was the one left behind. Too slow, maybe. Whatever I have been, it is not honored. And for that, I will repay you with my absence."
Amy let out a shuddering breath and took a step forward, holding out a hand for him before thinking better of it and dropping it.
"Shadow, please," she said. She hated to hear him sound hurt. The ferocity of his emotions was jarring.
He urged his horse toward her, looking down at her wretched, dirty form. This could not be his queen. This was a fool. And she had made him a fool, too. He shook his head, trying to rid it of all the pesky feelings.
"I'm through with talking - not while the King still mourns your disappearance," he said, and held out a hand to help her up. "You are unwell, and justice still waits to be served. Allow me to help you mount - I will be silent, as I should have been from the start."
Amy wiped her nose and ignored his hand, mounting on her own. She sat behind him, frustrated by his hypocrisy. His melodrama.
"I thought you hated emotional outbursts," Amy said, striking with venomous intent. "But I suppose they're fine so long as you have them in your way."
Shadow said nothing. He tried to keep his pride together, but saying nothing felt almost worse. He was mad because she had made him into a petty child - someone who cared about another person enough to feel wronged. They were titles - that should be it. Knight and Princess. That belief was the core of his being.
But as they rode off - with her gripping tight to him in the cold - he couldn't help wondering if it was ever that simple for people like them.
If it was ever that simple for people like him. People that were sunflowers. People that only lived for the sun.
Sonic woke as he was pulled roughly from somewhere and dumped on the ground. He groaned. It was not a soft, dirt landing. His knees hit hard cobblestone.
He roused as best he could, head splitting with an ache so sharp he could practically hear it, and tried to understand where he was.
The castle, maybe? He thought he recognized the grand entryway as two strong pairs of hands hauled him to his feet. The torchlight was too bright for his bleary eyes. He blinked hard and tried to will his aches and pains away as he was dragged through blurry halls.
There was the creak of a wooden door. He stopped moving - or rather, stopped being moved. Then, Sonic was shoved somewhere dark and musky. He tried to catch himself as the ground came toward him, but one of his arms simply refused to work and the other was just too slow. He fell hard. His head cracked against cold stone and the world went dark for him again.
Sonic's mind lingered on Amy as time passed. She was soft in his memory; hazy and pink and shining gold so, so far away. He reached for her through the darkness, certain he could touch her.
"What's he doing?" said a voice.
Sonic blinked and woke with a start, still confused and out of sorts. Warm light poured into the room from the hall, where dark figures stood murmuring over him.
He put his hand down, and the figures hauled him to his feet again.
Sonic watched the dark halls pass him by, doing his best to get his limbs back under his own control. He thought he heard the men say something about the King, but Sonic could hardly begin to understand what that meant for him. He couldn't even understand that he was shackled at the wrist.
Finally, he was pushed to his knees in an echoing, marble room. His head lolled as he did his best to stay present and awake.
"What's this?" someone said from over him.
Sonic looked up, and for a second his heart jumped.
Someone pink stared down at him. Sonic opened his mouth, Amy's name on the tip of his tongue.
"The head thief?" The King said. "The ransomer?"
Sonic blinked and the man - the King - came into focus.
"Sir?" Sonic asked slowly. The lines in his vision were still fuzzy as he tried to speak.
"He dares address me?" The King asked, taking a step back.
"Apologies, your majesty," said a knight with a deep bow. "We await your orders."
"You are the cause of all our troubles?" the King asked him, ignoring the soldier.
"Yes, sir," said the soldier. "This is him."
"Not true -" Sonic said slowly, working overtime to gather his thoughts. His head still ached like it would never stop.
"Not true?" the King said, sounding indignant. "I saw you kidnap the Princess with my very eyes."
"With all due respect, sir - uh, your majesty," Sonic said slowly, "you don't know anything about what went down that night."
A gasp went up in the room and the King roared, holding a hand out for a sword.
Sonic's head drooped. He was so tired he couldn't keep upright.
"Sorry," Sonic said, not sure if he was saying what he hoped he was saying. "Was that rude?"
The King looked down at him. From his knees, Sonic got the impression that the man was trying to appear angry. Trying to get heated about the appearance of his daughter's kidnapper. But the King somehow still only looked grim; resigned. Even as he spoke, his voice betrayed no passion. Not like Amy's did. Her voice hit nearly every peak and valley of emotional tonality in just one word.
"You aren't worth breaking a sweat for," The King said, "but for your insolence - and for my daughter - I cannot let you breathe another moment."
The King raised the sword up, and Sonic's heart picked up. He hoped the adrenaline spike would bring his senses back, but he was still sluggish. He tried to look around for an escape, something he could do to get out of the way, but the world spun around him as his head turned.
For one moment, he thought it might all be over. He wasn't ready for that - not anymore. There was far too much to be done, for the Kingdom and for Amy. He had to be around for that. He had to be around to fight for her. But his body didn't listen to him, and he found himself squeezing his eyes shut on instinct.
Then, the door to the throne room swung open behind him.