Chapter 2: Amy's apology.
Chris and Amy walked hand in hand towards the eastern suburbs of Starion square. Each watched the other's back for possible threats. The scuffle they had been in earlier had made them both extremely cautious and they thought it wise to be on guard just in case of another ambush.
"Since you and Sonic left, there's been an increase in violent crime all over the city." Chris sadly remarked as he took a slow, painful breath. "It's been like this for a long time Amy. I'm really sorry you have to come back to see Station Square in such a horrible state."
"I was worried this would happen." Amy replied as she took in the badly scrawled grafitti on a nearby red brick wall of a rundown apartment. "It's a good thing I came when I did."
"What do you mean?" Chris interjected, his voice half curious and half worried. "The last time you were here Amy, Station Square was nice and peaceful aside from when Dr Eggman tried to take it over. How did you know things would turn out this poorly?"
Amy sighed as she briefly closed her eyes.
"It's hard to explain Chris. But I'll try my best. When I was a little girl, I found out that I had a natural talent for telling people's fortunes. All I had to do was look into a person's eyes and shuffle my tarot cards in a certain way and I would get an insight as to what that person's destiny would be like."
"You mean like those cheapskates in a tent at the fun fair with a crystal ball and a turban?" Chris asked. "Mum and dad always tells me that they're all complete bogus. Grandpa Chuck says that according to science and research, fortune telling is just a scam made up by charlatans to con gullible saps into giving them some easy money."
As soon as Chris finished his sentence, he immediately cowered in shame as he saw the pained expression on Amy's face. Clearly he had hurt his good friend's feelings and he knew it.
But the flash of sadness on Amy's face was thankfully brief as she quickly composed herself and continued her explanation of her psychic abilities. Sonic's reaction to her claims had not been much better the first time she tried to get him to believe her. Such was the way skeptics unfortunately viewed the colorful world through a black and white lens.
"I didn't believe I could tell the future at first either." She admitted modestly. "I really thought I was just seeing things. But every time I tried my fortune telling trick on someone, it always seemed to work. Everything I predicted would happen actually happened, and in exactly the same way I predicted they would happen. Like when I predicted Sonic would save me over and over again from Dr Eggman, and he did."
"Do you know how you got your powers Amy?" Chris carefully inquired as Amy paused for breath.
"According to my family records Chris, a long time ago I had a distant ancestor named Nimue Rose. She was said to possess a vast number of different magical abilities including the power to fly, to shapeshift into any animal she wished, to read people's minds and of course their futures as well."
"So it's a genetic sort of thing? Like how the wizards in Harry potter give birth to babies also capable of using magic like them?" Chris puzzled, trying to keep his tone of voice as sensitive and inoffensive as humanly possible so as not to offend Amy again. As much as he loved spending time with Amy, he also knew that her temper tantrums could be very sudden and very violent.
Amy nodded happily. "Quite so. At least that's how I understand it. I don't know why I was the only member of my family who could do this trick or why I can't do any of the other magical tricks that my ancestor Nimue was capable of."
Chris was already rubbing his head lightly as he struggled to puzzle all of this out. It was surprisngly fun to have so many unanswered questions that he now had the pleasure of slowly figuring out, and knowing so much about Amy that he did not know before made him feel a new level of admiration from her.
"So um, what was Nimue like? I imagine she must have been a really nice person like you, Amy."
Amy swooned. "Nimue Rose was more than simply nice. She was the paragon of goodness. She was King Arthur's closest confidant and most trusted advisor. She was the one who blessed him with all the mystical abilities he used to rule his medieval kingdom with truth and grace, fighting evil by moonlight and winning love by daylight while never running from a real fight."
A single tear trickled from Amy's left eye, and she quickly wiped it away.
"Nimue was kind, calm and compassionate to everyone. She could defuse most conflicts before they even began, and even her enemies loved her. She certainly wasn't quick-tempered, bossy and arrogant like me."
"But Amy, you're not quick tempered, bossy or arrogant!" Chris exclaimed as loudly as he could. Deep down he knew that Amy was all three of those things, but he felt he would be a terrible friend unless he tried comforting Amy.
Amy looked at Chris with a sharp look that seared through skin, mind and soul. "You really are a great person Chris. But there's no sugarcoating facts. If I was anywhere near as perfect as Nimue, Sonic wouldn't still be running away from me every time I try to get close to him."
Chris could give no rebuttal to that remark, and he merely nodded gently as he prayed that Amy would calm down. The one thing he hated more than Amy's anger, was her grief. This was not the optimistic and confident hedgehog girl he had grown deeply attached to.
"But that doesn't explain why I chose to come back to be with you Chris." Amy said with a voice that was thankfully well under control again. "To cut to the chase, I came back here because of a vision I saw in a dream. A vision in which something terrible would happen to you, your good friend Helen and your entire family."
"H, how do you know about Helen?" Chris stuttered, shocked that Amy knew him much better than he knew her.
"Sonic told me all about Helen after he took her to her favorite island of flowers when everyone else was too busy." Amy explained sincerely. "It was on the day he didn't come with the rest of us to that expensive party the president put on for us."
Chris nodded apprehensively. He remembered that party well, especially with how lonely and empty it felt with Sonic missing for nearly an entire day.
"Sonic told me that in case he had to be somewhere else, I needed to always take good care of Helen in his place. In other words, Sonic appointed me as Helen's guardian."
Amy cocked her head as the ghost of her smile came to her face and then left it. "Why don't you answer a question for me now, Chris?"
"Of course Amy. It's my pleasure. Fire away."
"What exactly does Helen mean to you? You seem unusually concerned for her happiness(in a good way) and I'm just wonder if there's something special between you two."
"She's a good friend of mine, just like Frances and Danny. Nothing more." Chris quickly replied in the same emotionless monotone voice he had used the last two thousand times someone had asked him this question in some different variation. He knew that as a healthy rich kid with a mansion, he really had no business mingling with a disabled commoner. Especially not one as heavenly and flawless as his beloved Helen.
Amy smiled with a sense of bemusement.
"Nothing more?" She echoed as she eyed him intently awaiting his reply with bated breath. The one thing she loved doing as much as trying to get into her boyfriend Sonic's good graces, was playing matchmaker to her other close friends. Coming back to Earth really had been a wise decision for her.
Beads of sweat trickled from Chris's forehead despite the low temperature of the cool afternoon. For a moment it really looked like he would divulge his deepest secret, which he'd been keeping hidden in his heart for a very long time.
But somehow or another, Chris regained his composure and managed to discreetly wipe his brow dry.
"Helen is like the sister I never had." Chris weakly replied in a barely audible mutter, causing Amy to wince in pain as a look of utter disappointment flashed across her face. "Mum and dad told me that I was going to have a twin sister, but she unfortunately miscarried and the doctors could only save me."
"I'm truly sorry for your loss." Amy respectfully soothed as she patted his back, knowing full well that he was lying to her through his gritted teeth about what Helen really meant to him. "I can only pray that she is happy in her rightful place in heaven watching over you."
"Thank you Amy. That means a lot to me coming from you. May she rest in eternal peace." Chris said as he choked back an angry sob. More from the shame of having to lie brazenly to his Mobian friend, than from the loss of a sister he sadly never really got to know.
Amy only nodded and bowed her head in reverence to the spirit of Chris's unlucky twin sister.
"Wait a minute" Chris suddenley stated after putting his finger to his forehead for a few seconds. "If your prediction that I would be in danger came true just now, then that must mean that your prediction about Helen being in danger must also be true."
It took Amy a few more seconds to let out a gasp, as she realized the wisdom of Chris's profound suggestion.
"You're right Chris. We need to get to Helen right now."
By a happy coincidence the two friends were standing next to a road. It was not rush hour and not the dead of night either, and so there were a reasonable number of cars moving at a steady pace including a number of cabs.
Chris cautiously stepped towards the edge of the sidewalk and began to desperately wave his arms overhead. Amy hung back to let her human friend perform the bygone ritual of hailing a cab. Cabs had become rare on Amy's planet of Mobius following the nuclear fallout which killed off half the population.
It luckily did not take long for a cab to slow to a halt beside the two friends, who were both 12 years of age despite their vastly different appearances. For the rest of Sonic and his friends: Sonic was 15. Tails was 8. Knuckles was 18 and Rouge was 13, just one year older than Amy. But this was not something Sonic or his Mobian friends often mentioned.
Chris himself only came to know this when Amy once said in passing, that it was kind of ironic how they were both 12 year old lonely rich kids trapped by the expectations of upper society. Chris had then laughed at the fact that he actually spent the most time with Amy out of all of Sonic's team.
Sonic spent most of his days away from Chris. Tails went with Sonic wherever he went, or down in the basement fixing his prized plane. Knuckles guarded the master Emerald day and night like a guard dog, and Rouge hid in the shadows trying to devise a devious method to take the master emerald away from Knuckles.
This left only Amy in the Thorndyke manor Chris lived in. And Amy spent most of her time fawning over Sonic, and not on spending time with her new friend Chris. The miserable frown on Chris's face when Amy stepped into the portal to return to Mobius, said more about Amy's selfishness than words ever could.
Amy only wished she could make it up to Chris now. She could only pray that there were no hard feelings from Chris about the terrible way she had treated him while she was an honored guest in his luxurious mansion, which he let her live in for free.
"I promise I'll treat you better Chris. I'll show you I've changed for the better." Amy whispered under her breath as Chris shouted at the cab driver to take them to 105 Solomon street as quickly as possible. The address of Helen's humble home. The heavenly place that Amy had heard Sonic speak about, but never had the pleasure of visiting herself.
This was going to change now. This was Amy's chance to make everything right and to finish her unfinished duties here on Earth. Thanks to Tails's wonderful new invention, she now had all the time in the world to stay in Station Square with Chris.
"You know Chris, I never had a chance to thank you for saving Sonic from your swimming pool when he came to this world." Amy gratefully said. "So thank you. Thank you so much for rescuing my Sonic from drowning, and for helping my friend Cream get out of prison island."
"You don't need to thank me Amy. It was nothing." Chris replied as he turned bright pink. Never in his whole life had he felt as powerful and on top of the world as now.
"Please don't be so modest Chris. You've done a lot of good things and you should be proud of everything you've accomplished." Amy added as she looked at him with loving concern. "We all owe our lives to you. Chris. I can't tell you just how much Sonic wishes he could have come with me back to your world. Or how much Tails and Knuckles miss your company. Or how Team Chaotix have been singing your praises all day everyday since we got home."
Chris choked back a sob as he closed his eyes. "You don't really mean any of that, do you Amy? You're probably still angry that I took away so much of Sonic's attention from the rest of you. You probably all wish you had never met me because of how stupid and useless I am."
"What do you mean, Chris? I'm your friend. We're all your friends." Amy asked with a shocked gasp.
"Every single one of the bullies at school tells me I'm pathetic. I'm too weak or I'm too ugly or I'm too stupid to see how everyone would be better off with me dead." Chris explained sadly. "Ever since I was a little kid, everyone around me except mum and dad kept reminding me that I would never measure up to anything."
"Well they are dead wrong, because you've measured up to a lot of amazing things." Amy angrily protested. "You've been a wonderful son to your mommy and daddy, and you gave us a safe place to stay when we had nowhere else to go."
"That means nothing, Amy. You don't understand. Every time I tried to stop Dr Eggman from doing something bad, I always ended up captured and in need of you and Sonic's help. I've put Sonic's safety at risk countless times, all because of how incompetent I am. I can't run fast like Sonic, or punch hard like you or Knuckles, or make fancy gadgets like Tails. I can't do anything right Amy, and you know it. You're just trying to make me feel better, and I don't deserve to feel better."
Amy placed her hand on Chris's shoulder and looked him right in his eyes. It was a look of pure sympathy, gratitude and admiration all in one heartfelt expression.
"You are not useless Chris. There's more to being a hero than being able to fight well. Why do you think in movies, villians always lose even when they're so much stronger than the hero? Why hasn't Dr Eggman won yet if he has a massive army of invicible robots?"
"Why?" Chris asked, his sadness replaced by curiousity as he felt a newfound sense of confidence blazing within him as he continued to stare into Amy's beautiful big green eyes. Eyes that shone as brightly as the master emerald itself.
"Because Dr Eggman is a bad guy. And so are all the villains in the movies. They were evil. Their evil was their undoing. But you're not like them, Chris. You're a hero. You're much better than you think you are."
"Am I? Really?"
"I'm not going to say it again, Chris. Without your help, Sonic would've drowned and Cream would still be trapped in prison island, being experimented on by those crazed scientists. You will always have a special place in our hearts. You will always be our dear friend. Forever and always."
Chris only nodded. He needed to conserve his strength for whatever horrible dangers awaited him and Amy at Helen's house. If Amy's prediction of him being in danger had indeed come true, he couldn't even imagine what was now going to happen to Helen.
"Amy?"
"Yes Chris?"
"Do you know what Anime is?"
"Of course I know what Anime is. Me, Sonic and Tails used to watch it all the time when we weren't busy fighting Dr Eggman. In our world, Anime was very popular back before the nuclear apocalypse. Back when humans were more common."
Chris's eyes lit up. Never before did he know that the first person to share his love of Japanese animated movies (Anime) would be Amy. They really would have a lot to catch up on, when he was sure that Helen was safe.
"So who's your favorite Anime character then, Amy?"
Amy smiled. She knew there was something else special about Chris beyond his niceness. Something that marked the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship between them, with or without the presence of Sonic.
"My favorite Anime character? That's easy. Sakura Haruno from Naruto. If I ever needed proof that parallel universes existed, then Sakura would be all the proof I needed. She's just like me, except better. She doesn't fight as well as her teammates Naruto or Sasuke, but she's incredibly helpful in her own way."
Chris pondered for a moment before he gave his carefully worded reply.
"I also love watching Naruto, Amy. And I also think Sakura is beautiful just like you. As for me, I think my favorite Anime character would be Lelouch Lamperouge from Code Geass. He's wealthy and a noble just like me, but he uses his wealth and power to do good for the citizens in his kingdom."
Chris sighed in addled admiration.
"Even if Lelouch's methods are questionable, they always work out in the end. He unites the world by uniting them against himself. He gives up any hope of being loved, so that the people can love each other instead. I cannot think of a more selfless hero than Lelouch. Except Sonic of course."
Amy nodded approvingly.
"Good choice, Chris. Good choice. I always knew we had something special between us. We'll have to catch up on some great Anime after we've checked up on Helen."
Then Amy put her lips to Chris's ears, and whispered in a voice so quiet that Chris himself could barely hear her: "I know you love Helen as more than just a friend. I'm sure she feels the same way about you. I really want everything to go well between you two, unlike how things went badly between me and Sonic. Please don't make the same terrible mistakes I did, Chris."
A single tear trickled down Chris's right cheek as he shook Amy's hand gently.
"Thank you Amy. Looks like I can't hide anything from you. I'll tell Helen everything as you said. There is no point in delaying my love confession any longer. You've given me the confidence I never had, and I'll never be able to thank you enough."
"Thank you too, Chris. I'll also never be able to thank you enough for saving my best friends Sonic and little Cream. We'll make a good team together Chris, I know it".
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