Anonymous asked:

Here's an angsty prompt idea. After their latest battle with Eggman his latest invention inadvertently gets Amy sick which is quickly becoming fatal (not necessarily what IDW is doing but like same vibe you know). Sonic demands Eggman do something to fix this and save her. And we all know Sonic isn't the most emotionally vulnerable but when it gets touch and go he really fears it might be the end. But Amy gets healed and all's well that ends well. Appreciate it ^_^


cutegirlmayra answered:

Only if you're okay with me going SUPER angsty lol.

—–*TRIGGER WARNING*—–: This will be dealing with disabilities/seizure like symptoms, if you are sensitive to this material, please read any of my other fanfictions! (As someone with Asbergers and ADHD, I hope you'll understand that I know the severity of the context, but I'm in no way trying to make fun of or portray disability in any negative way. If my writing appears as such please note it was unintentional.)

I have put a 'Keep Reading' for those of you who wish not to read it.

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Prompt:

After all was said and done… no one thought it would turn out like this.

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Silver all piled around as Sonic sat beneath a shaded tree and held a sleeping Amy next to him.

"This doesn't look too good…" Tails had taken a sample of Eggman's third party experimental toxin, meant for Sonic but the enemy ended up targeting Amy as a test-run.

Needless to say, Eggman ended his alliance with the third party after he got 'experimental crazy' and decided he didn't want to work with someone so trigger-happy.

The toxin seemed to place Amy in an endless sleep cycle, but she would twitch or sound off painful whimpers and groans and toss in the sleep at times.

"The data suggests it's attacking her brain, working it's way up from the injection point it was shot from all the way up the spinal chord, so it's striking the main hub for communication signals to the rest of the body." Tails was watching the gunky chemical inside her progressing at a sluggish pace as it infected up the spinal chord, but not quite at the brain yet.

The image made it look like it was hugging her spine and oozing its way up, but still had a ways to go.

Sonic blinked his eyes, not sure what this could all mean but looked down at Amy. She started her twitches and sounds of pain, so he took his hand and moved it up off of where she was leaning, looping it around to rub the opposite shoulder and looked back to Tails. Her struggles ended with struggling pants, before going back into a deep sleep.

Silver shook his head, folding his arms. He was clearly distressed, him and Amy had joined up early in the adventure, he felt this was somehow his fault, even though he did nothing wrong.

"That madman just kept shooting those shots with that drug everywhere! Whatever it is, it's got to be a threat to the future as well." He was so focused on the task at hand, that he hadn't looked back until he heard Amy cry out and bent to a knee, seeing she had taken a hit for him.

Eggman hollered about waiting for Sonic to be the first hit, but the third party seemed to have their own agenda, and almost shot Eggman too.

Everyone escaped getting hit and defeated both him and Eggman before they parted ways, taking Amy's limp form somewhere safe.

Before she was fully under the chemical's effects, she had flinched and stiffened on the ground, trying to keep her pain silent before dropping into the blacked-out state…

"We have to find Eggman, he's the one who knows the most about this experimental chemical." Tails motioned his hands, then showed the gunk's path upwards by pointing to Amy and traveling his hand up from where her spin would be. "We've still got time, a couple hours, just going off an estimate."

Sonic looked back to Amy, "I can't leave her like this, Tails. She's unsafe, and that guy still hasn't shown up yet."

It was true that they lost sight of the mad scientist, but they were unaware Eggman had separated himself from their 'unethical services' but mostly because they wouldn't follow orders.

Silver shook his head, getting a grip on his emotions. "I'll do it."

Knuckles, remaining silently crushed by the lack of help he could offer, turned in surprise to Silver.

"I'm partly the reason this happened… if I just had looked back and paid more attention to her…" he closed his eyes, clearly distraught as Knuckles turned his head away, also thinking that since Silver was with her, he should have been more attentive.

"It's not your fault, Silver." Showing some compassion, Tails moved over to him and placed a reassuring hand on Silver's arm. "Honest, I'm sure if Amy could, she'd say the same thing too."

Silver looked to Tails and sighed, nodding. During his brief moments of meeting her, he could tell she was a very kind girl.

"I know that, but… I still feel awful!" He kicked the ground and turned away, but looked back over his shoulder to Sonic. "Sonic,… I promise you, I'll do what I can to keep her safe… but you have to go and confront Eggman about all this." He swiped out his hand, showing his strong sense of justice as his eyebrows narrowed in his anger.

Sonic waited a moment, as though weighing his options and looked down at Amy.

He gently picked her up, and carried her over to Silver.

In a few short gestures with his eyes, he showed that he was passing the responsibility over to Silver, however short the time would be from him facing Eggman and then coming back to her.

They held a stare for a long time… as though both hedgehogs were making a silent contract, and Silver finally bowed slightly as he took Amy.

Sonic's hand gripped her arm that was about to flop off her stomach and dangle to her side but his fast reflexes had caught it. He held it a moment, as though transferring the responsibility was a difficult decision. But… if there was hope, he was going to go for it, and Amy would have to be okay…

He had to make sure of it.

He slowly placed it back on her stomach, rubbing her hand discreetly as though promising her he wouldn't be too long.

He then looked back up to Silver and nodded, the transaction was made and the message was loud and clear.

Don't Fail.

As Sonic gestured for Tails and Knuckles to follow with a pivot to the new route and a nod, Tails spun his tails and lifted off the ground, taking one final look to Amy and Silver. He smiled weakly, as though also showing his agreement to this, and then went to follow Sonic.

Knuckles… just walked by, glaring Silver down… but finally he unfolded his arms and groaned towards the ground, taking off in a running start.

Looks like he felt too uneasy about this… but didn't voice his concerns.

He was trusting that it was Sonic's decision, and apparently would go with it. As he went though, he caught up to Sonic's leisurely pace in waiting for him, and gave him the same uncertain glare he had given to Silver.

Another message between men: I don't like this.

Sonic looked away from it, but his expression held no joy, only a serious focus towards the next, on-coming step and fight: I know. Neither do I.

Tails's eyebrows bent, seeing the mute exchange between the two, his hands bundled up and held in as his usual go-to position for flying, but he turned his body around as he flew forward to look back at Silver holding Amy, his head slackening with his shoulders falling… Helpless.

Tails swallowed hard, "Be safe… Amy…" And didn't look back…

When Silver finally took a deep, calming but determined breath in, he looked over to see Sonic and his friends had disappeared into the next zone.

"I won't be naive this time." He told himself, and headed towards the X-Tornado, stationed just beside the tree. "This time… I won't make anyone worry."

It was several hours later as Silver sat down after collecting water and watched Amy on the ground. He fiddled with his gloves, growing a bit restless, wanting to help protect the future but knowing his place was to protect Amy for now.

He looked up and used his telekinesis to fiddle with a blade of grass, making it move left or right and tugging on it but not enough to pull it from the ground.

The world was so beautiful to him… he didn't want even one blade to die in it.

That thought… led him to look over at Amy.

His eyes bent and it was clear he was remembering her finding him, and how sweet and bubbly she was… she had persisted in joining him for his search for Sonic, carrying a warning that he never knew would have benefited her to know… why did he feel the need to keep it a secret for only Sonic to know?

It wasn't like he disregarded her, but maybe he didn't value her company as much as he should.

Now, seeing her so still upon the ground… the wind not even reaching her… It was all a bit much to bear.

He tucked his head down between the gap of his raised knee and bent arm, trying to hide his emotional state as his eyes squinted and mouth trembled.

He wasn't crying, but he was also trying to fight the sensation of being about to cry.

Then it happened.

She started another twitching and jerking, making odd sounds that spooked him.

"N-no, you're okay. You're okay..!" he rolled to his knees and held his hands out as though once again… feeling helpless.

Even his words were desperate to sound comforting, but his panic was so relevant in them.

He used his powers to get a blob of the fresh water he had collected up into the air, moving it towards her mouth.

"Please Amy… just endure it a little longer…" He pleaded, before he heard a large crash and turned around.

The water fell to her side, as the twitching and flinching became minor, but still happening.

He saw a fallen tree, and narrowed his eyes at it before gasping as a robot from the third party, clearly stolen from Eggman's designs, began to approach.

Then more and more of Eggman's stolen property, with new logos that were just slapped on over Eggman's logo sticker started approaching him.

"Not again…" Silver's fists shifted into a rage-filled jerk, as though in one swift moment, he was ready to destroy and protect. "I won't let you hurt anyone ever again!"

As the robots all raised their machine-gun arms, having detected them, it was clear they weren't shooting bullets… but darts.

"Ur-rah!" Silver lifted up the X-Tornado with his power and held it up as cover to the shots fired. The darts stabbed into the X-Tornado, and the black substance was evident in a small cylinder attached to the dart's tip.

It leaked into the X-Tornado,… but at least it wasn't into anyone's body.

He rose to a knee, shoving the X-Tornado forward to push the robots down. Amazingly, the X-Tornado didn't even dent in, but was still perfectly intact.

However, some of the darts did bend like a nail having been jammed in the wrong way.

He shoved the X-Tornado to the side and skidded the robots hide off of it, shoving them back into the forest where they came from.

He stopped only to look down at Amy, her twitching much less now, but it was clear something was happening.

He gritted his teeth, his eyes still glossy from his despair before at her condition. "Hang on, Amy… They aren't getting you. You're no one's experiment!" he moved one arm away from lifting the X-Tornado, but his balanced faltered now that one arm was using his psychic power to lift the huge plane up.

He strained, sweat falling from his brow as he jammed his teeth together even more and tried lifting Amy up from the ground too… then himself.

It was a huge escape effort, two hands carrying one large plane's weight in one hand, and the other with him and Amy.

Knowing his power was faltering at handling too many objects at once, and one being massive, he kept feeling himself dropping and having to catch himself.

When Amy jerked, his mental concentration was momentarily lost and he almost dropped her.

That was the last straw.

"I can't out run them." He looked around, knowing he needed a better solution. "I'll have to hide you and distract them."

Seeing in the distance a mountain, he pulled up his legs, gathering the rest of his courage and strength, and shot himself towards it.

There was a cave!

His expression turned to joy at the realization, and he quickly flew down to it. "That looks safe!" he exclaimed, gliding down and putting the X-Tornado in the cave first, in and off to the back left where another tunnel formed from the main one.

Out of sight.

"Okay, Amy… Please forgive me…" He caught her into his arms, and held her tightly, dipping his head down in shame at having to leave her side. "Sonic… I said I'd do my best… this is my best option… please believe me…" He flew up to the plane's passenger cockpit, thinking that if anyone did discover the plane, they would see there's no pilot and perhaps not search it further but abandon it.

He lifted the clear shielding and placed her in the seat, strapping her in.

She had stopped twitching, and worried, he put two fingers to her nose and mouth.

Shallow breathing…

He frowned, but leaned forward and hugged her head one last time.

When he heard more logs crashing and snapping from being trampled by robot bodies forcing their way through the landscape, his head swung up to check the cave and hurriedly dropped the shielding down again.

"I'll come back, and hopefully, I'll bring Sonic and some good news too." both hands were against the shield, he moved his face closer to look in and still saw her asleep.

"…I'm sorry." He turned his head away, flying off from the plane's exterior slowly… danging himself in the air before looking back to the entrance of the cave, having flown into the center tunnel way again and looked as though he was prepared to battle.

He shot out of the cave and began hitting the robots with his power, ramming them into each other and denting their hides till they sparked. "This way!" he cried out, and led the assault of robots after him.

More hours passed…

Shadow was running off with a stolen formula blueprint, trying to evade flying robots that were even greater rip-offs of Eggmans.

As he turned into a cave to hide, he walked down it stealthily, still holding the container with the data chip inside it.

"Rouge, I've got it." he spoke out, touching a device by his ear as he examined the cylinder container further.

"Does it have it?" her voice rang urgently through the mic.

"No… but my scanners say it should be… what?" He walked towards the hidden tunnel path and his eyes widened.

"Shadow? What's wrong? What are you getting?"

"It's…" His eyes traveled down the darkness from the plane's tip, seeing it littered on the side with darts. "The X-Torn-… AH!" his shock couldn't have been more real as he hurriedly jumped from the cave's side to the plane's hide and pulled an intact dart out.

He tilted the chemical inside it… watching it slosh around.

"It wasn't an error… they're here!" He exclaimed, but hearing the robots outside, he moved down the plane's top and kept stealthily pulling out more darts.

"Incredible! Way to go, Shadow! Who knew this abandoned G.U.N base would come so much in handy..! Oh, that's right. I did. Is it some sort of secret lab..?"

He ignored Rouge's gloating when his foot hit something in the dark, another cockpit. He looked back to adjust his foot and get around it,… when a darkened silhouette that didn't match the angles of machinery caught his attention.

Then the shaded figure began to violently twitch and cause a ruckus, almost like a seizure episode.

The thrashes completely threw Shadow off guard, and he stumbled back, his expression showing his horror at whatever beast was trapped inside.

"Rouge, there's something else here." He didn't have time to explain, but pulled out a Chaos Emerald, "Chaos Control!" he illuminated the cave and his entire demeanor fell into a grave look of confusion.

"It can't be…" His eyes darted left and right, examining her condition as he couldn't understand what he was witnessing. "It's-!"

But before he could continue to explain to Rouge, who was blind as a bat from only being able to listen in and not see what was going on, robot steps started echoing in the cave. He turned around, a look of serious emergency on his face.

"Shadow!? What did you find!? Don't leave me in the dark here! What's all that thumping sound!? Shadow! Shadow, respond!"

"Not now, Rouge!" he killed the mic, tossing it to the ground as he ripped it off his ear and used Chaos Spears to jam into the shield and break the material.

He unstrapped her from the seat, feeling her flopping onto him and helped her over his shoulder. "Darn, I was hoping for more samples, but this is too important." He turned back to the see the robots' lights now come on, searching like a beacon out at sea in all sorts of directions… it was as though they were hurrying to find him too…

He jumped down and consequently crushed the G.U.N earpiece on his decent down, hurrying to the back of the cave.

When the robots fired on their jets, he knew he was heard.

"Chaos-!" he held up the Chaos Emerald. "Control!" and teleported through time and space.

Back with Rouge, she was complaining how the old computers couldn't diagnose Amy and scan the chemical at the same time.

"What's more important?" Shadow folded his arms, looking to Amy, "A life or a future life?" then glared to Rouge as though it wasn't an option to contradict him.

She looked to Amy, not shaking anymore and sighed, knowing the answer as she cut off the research side of the computer and turned on it's scanners.

"This is bad…" Rouge saw the screen… "The chemical has spread up her spinal chord and has it's greasy little tethers at the base of her brain."

"That's impossible." Seeing the image, Shadow's arms dropped and he lurched forward, as though he wasn't expecting the results to be this severe. "The chemical compound would need an extraordinary amount of time before reaching that far! Where was the injection location?"

When he turned back to Rouge… her hands were trembling, hovering over the keyboard.

He looked up to see her eyes mortified at these readings of Amy's current state, and Shadow had to approach her and pull her away from the computer, quickly typing in to see more data.

It took all of Rouge's strength to look away, turning back to Amy and covering her mouth, reaching for her hand.

"How… How could this happen?" Her voice was choking up, "Sonic… Sonic would never allow this to happen! How could they just abandon her like that!" she hit her hand holding Amy's into the table she was laid out on.

"Keep it together, Rouge." Shadow's voice sounded controlled, as though a solider, keeping the trauma at bay and back away from his work. "We need a cure." He continued, "Or the rest of us are going to end up this way."

"Who says they haven't already!?" Rouge's back bent forward as she coughed into her hand, unable to keep her emotions under control with a sight like this. "She's slipping away and they just left her there to-!"

Shadow flung around and gripped her hand, pulling her back to him.

His glare said it all.

Don't assume anything.

She felt her knees get weak and slowly lowered herself to sit on the ground, her wings drooping in stages as they lowered down and dragged against the floor.

Shadow just watched her and removed his aggressive grip on her wrist as it slipped through his grasp. He didn't mean to be so hostile, but now wasn't the time to judge others' actions.

It was the time to act and save.

"I will find Sonic." He declared, moving back over to the panel of controls and typing in more directives. "I've seen enough to know her state… she still has some time before it completely eats away at her mind." the entire computer shifted over to what looked like research on the chemicals being scanned. "The amount we found should be plenty, I've set the computer to reverse engineer. It will take some time… but keep her alive till I can bring Sonic and his friends here… to answer for what they've done." With that last sentence, Rouge looked up to see the pain in his eyes… to show he had a heart after all.

Did he have doubts that Sonic wasn't as kind and admirable as he had seemed to be? The answer was a resounding yes. He wasn't denying Rouge's accusations, but wasn't going to give in to them until he had the truth.

Nothing was being ruled out, and Rouge nodded as she wiped her wetted eyes and stood back up, being brave.

"Make sure you give them what they deserve for me… Shadow." she moved back to Amy's side, and Shadow closed his eyes as though silently accepting that he would.

"If all looks lost…" He began, turning his back to her and talking over his shoulder.

She shook her head, raising her head up as though to catch any remaining wetness from becoming tears.

He looked back towards the exit, not finishing the thoughts, per her body language's request… and took off.

More hours passed…

"This is ridiculous!" Rouge was surrounded by Eggman's robots, but stood in front of them and held her arms out to keep them from approaching Amy. "You expect me to believe you came all this way for her!? And not to get your greedy hands on the chemical!?"

"My machines are already leagues ahead of your outdated G.U.N technology!" Eggman's voice billowed through one of the robots, holding guns made of lazer-power towards her. "As you can see, I'm not equipped with that awful drug. I had thought it would make controlling mindless robots easier to get rid of the human mind entirely, I had no idea what they were really working on…" he confessed, pausing Rouge a moment as she listened to what he was saying. "Now, if you'd be so kind, I'd rather have something to barter with when Sonic realizes I've parted ways with the mad professor…"

"So she's your bait and switch!?" Her leg swung as though threatening to drill into his robots.

"W-woah, woah, calm down, Mama Rouge. I have a nutralizer I created for myself in case this might happen… It would benefit both me and Amy's current state to test it out, don't you agree?" His voice sounded as though he was trying to negotiate. "Yes, I want Sonic's fury to be redirected, but that doesn't mean I have no intention to present a perfectly healthy Rose to him… Savvy?"

She… slowly lowered her foot down, still ticked off as the robots surrounded Amy and began to move her into a floating transport pod.

"There, now we see eye to eye…"

"If anything happens to her Eggman…" She flew to sit on the end of the pod, showing she was coming too. "You're screwed."

"Don't think I don't know that… come along then." he groaned, showing his own 'calm distress' as the robot he was speaking through turned and the rest marched out with the transport pod in the middle.

Getting to Eggman's base, his computer screens were massive compared to the old G.U.N base… but as Rouge stayed by Amy's side… Eggman's face grew more and more like stone…

The results… were not in his favor.

As though whimsical at first, he was now showing signs of racing against the clock. Treating Rouge like a nurse all of a sudden, he spoke quickly out without a shred of emotion, only hurry. "That extraction gun. Over there."

Rouge was being to panic at his odd shift in behavior, but quickly used her wings to push herself to move faster, rapidly grabbing the object he barely gestured to and rushing back to him with dust flying up in her wake.

"She better make it Doc."

He didn't say anything.

"Hold her down, she's not going to like this." He jammed the gun's barrel to her side.

"DOCTOR!" Rouge shoved it off her body, "Have you lost your mind!?"

"Rouge, if you interfere, I'll be sure to blame the consequences on you." His threat was nothing like she had seen from him before… and complying, she did as she was told.

She pushed Amy's arms down to the her sides, over her head as Eggman swung the gun back into position.

"What will it do to her?"

He said nothing, only working fast, moving some parts on the gun as it lit up, and then cocked it.

"Eggman…" her plea revealed her fear…

He shot into Amy's side.

Amy's body lurched forward and from her, a painful cry.

"Keep her down." Eggman seemed to be grabbing a stick with movable features and cocked it back again.

An odd substance started draining into the gun.

"You're not gonna do it again!" Rouge cried out, but Eggman just lowered the gun and let the substance spill into it.

"Could you not talk and let me work, woman!?" Eggman rudely spat out as he watched the substance mingle with some blood… before unhooking it from her side and grabbing some medical supplies to stop the bleeding. "There… if anyone asks…" He kept one hand on the bandage… "I did what I could."

Rouge saw the grim look on his face and her's finally broke.

She looked back to Amy, who was slowly coming too, but something was off with her.

Eggman looked away, "I stopped the process."

"You what?" Rouge saw him turn his face away from her, as though he was hiding something.

"…It's damage could be recovered… but that's up to Amy now…" he was speaking too sorrowfully, as though trying to distance himself from the situation.

Rouge wouldn't allow it.

"EGGMAN!" she grabbed his padded shoulder and yanked him down, he let her, though it was clearly uncomfortable for a man of his height to slump so far to the side like this. She hollered frantically in his ear, "You tell me what you don't want me to know!"

He grimaced, as though not wanting to but then Amy stirred again.

Her body did some more twitches… as though her muscles were aching, before she slightly… opened her eyes.

Rouge released Eggman and appeared right by her side in seconds, "Amy..? Sweetie, tell me you're okay." she placed a hand to her cheek.

"…Rrrrouge…" she breathed out.

Rouge sighed in relief and dropped her head, "Thank Chaos."

But… when she looked to see Eggman's face.

Stone.

Why wasn't he relieved too?

Rouge, worried again now, looked back to Amy.

She was making odd hums, as though waking up, but something was off with them. She looked to Eggman, "Egg…" she said, but began to create weird forms with her mouth, and Rouge's hand twitched off her cheek as she continued to move as though unused to her limps.

Rouge's chest rose and fell… "What's wrong with her?" she demanded, feeling her heart tighten as though not wanting to beat anymore. "WHAT HAPPENED TO HER?!" she turned to Eggman but that was when Sonic, Silver, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow busted through the door as it feel like cold steel to the empty entrance.

"Rouge!" Shadow cried out, and it was clear Silver was beaten down and bruised… what had happened?

Knuckles darted by the two, followed by a speedy blue blur and Tails… was frozen in fear.

Amy's eyes wouldn't concentrate on anything, and her expression didn't match the situation at all.

Sonic's blur paused in front of her… stone.

Knuckles halted his franic steps… before looking to the screen, then back to her… his footsteps slowed… and then he fell to his knees.

He bashed his fist into the ground, and then lowered his back as though unable to look further.

Silver's eyes shook, "Is she..?"

Shadow turned his head away, and Tails finished everyone's trail of thought…

"She's… gone." He gripped his head.

"B-but she's alive!" Silver gestured to her, grabbing Tails's shoulder, "She's still moving!"

"She's not there!" Tails jerked himself away from Silver, "Her mind's gone! The Amy we knew is gone!" he cried out, crying and cringing as he fell to the ground, sobbing. "It's been too much time… We traveled to the cave and she wasn't there. That took time!" He gripped his chest as Silver's world began to crash down on him. "Shadow took time to find us!" He seemed to curl up on the ground, as Amy gestured a hand in the air, as though trying to grab something flying around her, as though in her mind… things were different. "We were stopped by that man and had to fight for our lives! We finally got him taken care of and unable to stop us further, but then Shadow got the G.U.N results remotely and my miles-electric had to download the signal, that meant we waited!" he gripped his head again, panting and wheezing as though also going through a mental breakdown. He started shouting as the room fell motionless… still… except for Amy. "When we discovered that the chemical probably had destroyed half of her already, we rushed to find Rouge!"

The situation looked like they were hung up on a wild goose chase, trying to scramble around and find Amy.

"BUT WHEN WE GOT THERE SHE WAS GONE!"

Rouge collapsed to the ground, covering her face with one hand, but through the slits in her fingers, her eyes shrunk and trembled.

"WE COULDN'T SAVE HER!"

-Many days later…-

Cream was out with Amy, supervised by Vanilla as she sat on a bench and walked the two. Cream was bending down to pick flowers, but Amy was staring up at the sky, as though transfixed on something, before Cream held up a flower and she took it, wobbling it in front of her face.

Cream gave a forced smile, just glad that it amused her.

Then… beside Vanilla… Sonic appeared.

"..How is she?" he asked, but his usual cheer and charisma was gone.

Vanilla smiled and looked down to her hands laying gracefully on her lap. "… Her appetites good… she only says one syllable words though… and not many for several days now." She looked back up with a mother's care at the two girls, seeing Cream and Cheese try to engage Amy but Amy was still shaking the flower profusely in front of her eye.

Sonic also stared… then folded his arms and adjusted his balance, looking on the ground as though uncomfortable.

"…Does she recognize anyone?"

"She recognizes Cream, but doesn't seem to notice me. She'll speak to Cream, but not engage me." There was some pain being held back in her words… "I hand feed her… But sometimes she bats my face or shoves my hand away."

Sonic turned abruptly away from her, "I don't need to hear that!"

"… You asked…" she lowered her head, as though she's been answering politely for too long, and so she told him the truth to see if that would satisfy him. "She may never get any better, Sonic… You come by and ask but I always tell you the same, kind things… today, you must face the possibly that Amy may be mentally disabled for life now."

Sonic whole being tensed up, but not wanting to lash out at her, he held it in, struggling.

"… You should see her. Talk with her." Vanilla finally said, looking to him, "She'd like that."

"…I don't think I can handle if-" he cut himself off, hearing the shift in his voice cracking and not liking his emotions being so real in front of others. He cleared his throat and looked to the sky… just like Rouge had done to keep the wetness in her eyes. "If she doesn't know me."

Vanilla remained silent, but like a loving mother, got up and embraced Sonic from being, resting her head on his shoulder and leaning her cheek into his, rubbing and stroking his head to calm him down.

"Her mind may not, but her heart will always know who you are, Sonic. You should speak to her."

With that kind, motherly encouragement, Vanilla called back Cream and Cheese and took her hand as Cream took Cheese's arm.

"We'll give you two some space." she moved further down the trail as Sonic was now solely in charge of watching her.

He took a deep breath, clearly uncomfortable, but walked softly over to her, trying not to spook her.

He bent down by her side, "Hey,… Amy." He felt a lump in his throat as his smile he had tried to summon for her sake vanished at the sight of the flower falling from Amy's hands and her taking a few seconds to stop shaking, and just stare at her hand while her damaged brain tried to figure out what had happened.

He closed his eyes, sitting down from his squat and finding this terribly hard.

He had avoided this for so long… he had beaten up Silver in his rage and then yelled at Shadow for leaving her as well.

By the time he got to Rouge and Eggman, there was no rage, only heartache.

"It's been a long time…" He admitted, "That we haven't seen each other." He pressed his two fingers into his eyes, and as he strained against crying, his lips trembled like Silver's had once done… and it was clear he was on the verge of crying.

That's when Amy's eyes blinked and she turned to look at him.

She made some weird mumbling sounds that were in-cohesive, and hit his shoulder with a few strong bats.

"Ow, ow, stop!" he leaned away and held up his hand, catching her slapping hand.

"Son." she said the first syllable of his name,… stared at him… and then angrily, almost child-like, began to hit him again.

"Woah, stop,.. stop,.. stop!" he kept counter-weighting the hand as she hit before trying to pull away from his touch, crying out as he finally let her go and she scrunched her arms into herself.

He didn't know how to handle this, but he was going to do his best. "Do you… do you know who I am."

She made a strange, but clearly upset face, and glared at the ground.

"… I'm so sorry."

"Son…"

"I failed you."

"Son…"

"I shouldn't have left you there. I should have let Silver go with Tails and Knuckles. I shouldn't have blamed him either… I should have listened to Knuckles's gut feeling… he kept bringing it up and I kept thinking we had more time. I shouldn't have punched and kicked him… I shouldn't have shouted at Shadow… I should have just run, like I always do. I should have ran straight to you and I didn't. I'm so sorry, Amy. I'm so-… I'm so lost without you."

Amy's body turned away from him.

It was a beautiful sky… a wonderful summer day… a perfect scene for a picnic or family outing.

But there they were, a broken man once revering himself as a hero… and a broken girl who he missed dearly.

Then, as though a snake about to strike, her hand went back up to strike him… but he began to cry.

Her hand twitched and slowed… before landing on his head.

"…Son…ic."

He kept crying.

"Son.. ic… cry…"

He didn't notice.

"Son..ic.. don't… cry…"

Then his ear twitched, and his eyes shook a moment as they grew wider and wider.

"Sonic…"

He turned to look at her.

She was crying…

He watched… then cried out, "Vanilla!" his voice rang through the flowered fields…

It took time, but with help, Amy slowly recovered, and Sonic was with her every step of the way.

(A huge AU, but ya know, I thought– 'what's worse than a huge side-effect that would lead Sonic to his breaking point?' here you go~)