Chapter Thirteen: One Possible Fate

May 9, 2006

Dear Diary…or whoever reads this message after I'm dead,

I'm trying…to find the words to describe how I feel. That's supposed to help, isn't it? Writing down your feelings? But I imagine that advice wasn't given with the anticipation of it being applied to an intergalactic war.

Another one.

When the love of your life is missing. Not to mention that you're the reason the love of your friend's life faces the same fate. AND you're heading toward a planet in a damaged ship to stop AN ACTUAL GENOCIDE.

Somehow, I don't think we're built to deal with this level of tragedy. I'm so tired.

So tired.

So so so so so tired.

I don't even know what keeps me going anymore. Sheer stubbornness? Probably. The need to do the right thing? I guess. Because if we don't keep trying, then who even are we anymore?

I wish I didn't care so much about doing the right thing anymore.

-Amy Rose

Amy folded up the piece of scrap paper she wrote on while sitting on the floor of the backup bridge. Not that she needed to be here just yet. Tails sat in the captain's chair while she leaned against the cold metal lining the sides of his console. They weren't yet within sight of Majyk, though it was only a matter of time.

But even if all she did was sit in silence beside Tails, she would rather that than be alone while the universe fell to pieces around her.

With a heavy breath, she stretched out to wrap her fingers around the handle of her hammer laying on the ground beside her. As if it was a security blanket. And to a certain extent, it was. She sought even the illusion of control. At least with her hammer, she could fight, if given the opportunity. Which was better than succumbing to fear and laying down to accept her fate.

Barely.

C2 sat on the floor across from Amy. Her tails wrapped around her body on either side, making her look far more benign than her sharp eyes did. C2 draped her hands over her knees and turned her head to the left to look out the bridge's window. Like she was doing nothing more than biding her time in this mortal form.

Amy's hand around the handle of her hammer tightened.

"Do we have a plan for when we get to Majyk?" she asked suddenly, if for nothing more than a distraction.

What a choice of distraction.

"No," Tails said with a sigh. He sounded as exhausted as she felt these days. "I keep trying to come up with plans, but the Metarex keep doing things we couldn't expect. So—" Another heavy sigh. When Amy glanced back at him, she saw him wipe his hand across his tired eyes. "—just planning to adapt right now."

Amy nodded silently, even though Tails's words didn't exactly instill an ounce of confidence in her. Tails probably knew it too. But they weren't in the practice of lying to each other, no matter how bad the truth felt.

"Chris, calling the bridge." Chris's voice echoed around the room through the ship's communication system.

Tails straightened in his seat. "I read you, Chris. What's going on?"

Already, Amy's heart accelerated. Each beat sent her body shuddering. She no longer felt her hammer in her grasp, though she could clearly see her hand wrapped around the handle.

"Short range scanners should now be operational," he reported. "The range should be enough to get us a first look at Majyk now."

"Awesome!" Though Tails's exclamation sounded less like joy and more like a sigh of relief. "Let's give it a shot."

Amy tilted her hammer so she could use it as leverage to push herself to her feet. Already her knees shook beneath her in anticipation of the state in which they would find the planet Majyk. Tails typed a command into the console and a new window burst to life on his screen. And within that window was a video feed that broadcast a live view of Majyk.

Looking completely normal.

Amy frowned. She twisted away from the screen to see Tails furrowing his brow as well. "Was Shadow lying to us?" she asked him.

Tails typed away at the console, concerned eyes fixed on the screen in front of him. "I—don't—know," he replied slowly.

Amy twisted back to the screen to see if whatever Tails was trying to do updated the scene in any way. But even when the sound of Tails's typing halted, the feed remained the same: nothing more than a single orb floating in the vacuum of space.

Amy turned back to Tails for an explanation. He slumped back in his seat and stared at the scene revealed in the window before him. "Shadow isn't one to lie," he said slowly, almost to himself, as if trying to explain for his own sake what he saw before him. His eyes fell closed, and Amy watched as wrinkles of tension multiplied across Tails's features. "Even when he was trying to kill Cosmo, he admitted what he was trying to do." He opened his eyes again and finally declared, "I don't think Shadow's trying to play us."

"Certainly not. Not when Nova's life is at sake."

Amy spun around at the sound of Shadow's voice to see him standing in the doorway to the bridge with a scowl firmly across his features. A bandage wrapped around his torso, protecting his stitches and making him look far too vulnerable for comfort. A chill crawled its way up Amy's spine. She hadn't even heard the hiss of the door that slid open to allow Shadow entry.

But Tails wasn't similarly struck silent. "There don't appear to be any Metarex ships in orbit around Majyk. Could they all have landed? Or left?"

Shadow's scowl deepened. He strode silently forward, and Amy stepped back to allow him space to see the screen. After a moment of staring at the screen, Shadow said, "When I left to seek assistance, their numbers were innumerable. I can't imagine they would not have had a claim on the orbit surrounding the planet."

"So what does that mean?" Amy demanded. She crossed her arms against her chest. Her hammer hung from her fingertips. "Did they leave or land?"

Tails sighed heavily. "Only one way to find out."

-(-)-

They descended through the atmosphere with bated breath.

Only Chris remained in the engine room in case of any dire technical failure. Cream, Cheese, and Knuckles all joined the rest of the crew on the backup bridge. It struck Amy then how small their crew had become. Rouge had left with Eggman while the going was good. The Chaotix walked away when they had the opportunity to grab an escape pod back at the space station. And then there had been Sonic and Cosmo…

All of it made Amy feel very small. Insignificant, even. How would so few stand against a powerful army of so many? Even if a handful of them could use the Chaos Emeralds. Before, it had taken the combined power of Amy, Sonic, Tails, Nova, and Shadow to defeat but one Metarex, even with the strength of the seven Chaos Emeralds on their side. Now there was more against them. Fewer for them. And Amy couldn't help but feel they were doing nothing more than biding their time.

And yet, despite all their weakness, they continued to descend. Cream stepped up to stand beside Amy. Though she cradled Cheese in her arms, she glared out the window before them, looking as focused as anyone else around her. Amy wished she could still find the same determination within herself.

Her mind was even more tired than her body.

Even so, she put her body and mind both under more pressure as she held her breath. She glanced between the window before them all and the scanner loaded up on Tails's screen. "Still no Metarex detected," he said for the sake of those not watching his screen.

Amy's eyes shifted to Shadow, whose eyes were fixed unblinkingly on Tails's screen. His arms were crossed against his chest, but Amy could still see the tightness of his fingers as they gripped his arms. Amy's heart battered itself against her diaphragm. When she finally tried to suck in a breath, her lungs hardly accepted air at all, for they felt so bruised by the beating of her heart.

The blackness of space gave way to the pale blue sky, then to the white wisps of clouds as they continued to descend.

"I don't think the Metarex are still on Majyk, Shadow," Tails whispered. Like he feared voicing such a thought any louder than necessary.

Shadow said nothing. Though Amy could read enough of his thoughts in the tightness in his eyes. For the first time in Amy's life, her heart broke for Shadow.

And that was even before the details on the surface of the planet grew large enough to see.

Cream gasped beside Amy, loud enough to wake the sleeping form of Cheese in her arms. Even C2 standing off to the side tensed until the fur of her twin tails bristled. But no one spoke. Because truly no words could describe the horror they saw before them.

The planet of Majyk burned.

Ashy smoke rose through the air, choking the sky with fumes. Buildings crumbled to ruins as if this civilization had long ago fallen. Amy's hammer slid from her fingers. Icy cold filled her body. She drew her hands to her mouth. This had once been Light Shale City. She had been here in two separate timelines. Seen the way it sparkled like the sheen of a Chaos Emerald.

Now it choked.

Suffocated.

Crumbled to ruin.

This was genocide.

Amy didn't have an emotion within her body to suitably respond to the nightmare before her. The surface of her skin buzzed as it tried. Then, C2 whispered, "The war Majyk pitted against the Seedrians brought the Seedrian civilization to ruin. And it now appears the Metarex have returned the favor."

In the silence that followed, though they were encased within the Blue Typhoon, Amy thought she could hear the crackle of the flames burning below.

"What about Nova?" Cream finally whispered.

Amy turned to look at Shadow. But she couldn't read the expression on his face. Though, then again, what expression could there be to summarize the torrent of emotions that must be flooding through him? The fact that you may just have to face the inevitable? The fact that Nova might be…

"Where did you last see her?" Amy found herself demanding. The last shred of hope inside her claiming control before despair finally destroyed her entirely.

Shadow's eyes flashed to her in an instant though no other part of his body moved. "The castle," he replied after a moment.

Amy nodded. Leaned over and took her hammer in hand once more before straightening. "Then we have to try."

-(-)-

Walking through the remains of Light Shale City was like wandering through an untended graveyard.

They landed in the same airfield as they had twice before. The concrete was cracked beneath them, but otherwise, it was the most unblemished part of the terrain. They passed through the immigration stations that in one timeline, Nova had removed to attempt to correct the xenophobia among her people. But now they were nothing more than piles of scrap metal.

The streets were littered with debris. Fires blazed on around them. Buildings crumbled on either side of them.

And then there were the bodies.

"Close your eyes, Cream," Amy whispered, taking one of Cream's hands in her own.

Cream did so without protest, as did the chao she carried in her other arm. No complaints that she was old enough, had seen enough already. Because this was the sort of thing no living being should ever have to see. Amy wished she could close her own eyes. Instead, she settled for fixing her eyes straight in front of her and averting her gaze away from the bodies surrounding her.

The corpses.

Except for Amy's brief whisper, none of them spoke. Not that there were any suitable words to offer anyway. Though Shadow clutched the violet Chaos Emerald in his hand so that its glow slid between his fingers, he did not trigger Chaos Control to flash ahead of them all. Maybe he assumed there wasn't a point anymore. Perhaps he had already lost his last remaining shred of hope.

Given the scene they faced, Amy could hardly judge him.

Amy's grip on Cream's hand tightened, as if Cream's hand was hope itself. She recalled how hard Nova had fought to save Shadow when he had been taken by the Metarex on the ghost ship in the previous version of the timeline they had fought through. For her sake, Amy clung to the last remaining shred of hope on Shadow's behalf.

If anything, the remains of the castle were much worse of a sight. The massive picture window that once had made up an entire wall of the structure was shattered to nothing more than powder across the concrete. Within the building, all looked dark and gray with ash. Again, Amy glanced at Shadow. Tightness twitched at the corner of his eye. "We have to try," she whispered again.

"I must at least reclaim her body," Shadow replied shortly.

Amy's heart cracked. Cream let out a small squeak beside her that could only be involuntary. Otherwise, no one said a word. Not Tails nor Chris, not Knuckles nor C2. No protest. No complaint. For this was war and this was the cost.

Shadow stepped forward, holding the violet Chaos Emerald in front of him to lead their way. The Emerald brightened as they continued on, which had to mean Nova had borne a Chaos Emerald as well. In that thought alone, Amy tried to cling to hope. Two Chaos Emeralds closer to being able to save Sonic and Cosmo. But the desperate grapple for hope didn't stick. Amy honestly hadn't expected it to. The reality of the situation right before them made it too much to find hope in the possibility of the future.

Amy released Cream's hand as they stepped into the hallways of the castle. There was far too much debris to traverse without both hands available for steadying. Debris…and more bodies. Amy kept her eyes straight ahead on the glow of the Chaos Emerald as much as she could. Her hands sweated in her gloves. Her hammer slipped in her hand. Ash and dust clogged her lungs so that every few minutes, she needed to cough in order to clear her airway.

Everywhere, destruction.

"What's even the point?" Knuckles asked suddenly. But he sounded so much unlike himself. His voice too soft, too defeated. "What do the Metarex want out of all this?"

No one else offered up an answer. After all, Knuckles only voiced the question that was already on all their minds. Once upon a time, the Metarex fought for peace. A corrupt definition of peace, absolutely; one where only plants remained. But they had come such a long way from their plans of forestation. Now it seemed they sought nothing more or less than complete devastation.

The glow of the Chaos Emerald grew ever brighter as they continued on. Shadow only had eyes on the Emerald. Or rather, probably on what the Emerald represented. His eyes did not sweep left and right to take in the scene around them. Amy wondered just how much of this he had seen when he fought at Nova's side before she sent him off to seek help.

Glass cracked beneath the soles of Amy's boots. She adjusted her hands for balance before tightening her grip on her hammer. All of the noise they made was far too loud in the midst of so much silence.

Shadow turned and led them into the remains of a bedroom. The mattress and the bed beneath had been sliced in two. Shards of wood were all that remained of the furniture.

"There's no one in here," Knuckles said, allowing the fists he had raised to fall to his sides once more.

And yet the Chaos Emerald continued to glow. Shadow continued forward, and the rest of them followed close behind. Until, obscured behind a large wooden scrap of dresser, awaited a door. Without so much as a glance behind him, Shadow shoved the Chaos Emerald into the first pair of hands he found: Tails's, in this case. Shadow grabbed the wood and dragged it aside so that he could wrench the door behind open to reveal a closet. From what Amy could see around Shadow, clothes still hung from hangers intact, as if the Metarex had missed the space entirely. Maybe the debris had obscured it from their notice.

And among the clothes scattered across the closet floor, there illuminated a pale blue Chaos Emerald glow.

Shadow scrambled forward. Amy dropped her hammer to dash inside after him. By the time she reached him, he had dropped to his knees beside the mound of clothes and was ripping them away from the glow.

To reveal the Chaos Emerald with a pale hand wrapped around it. Amy sucked in a sharp breath.

And then the fingers around the Chaos Emerald tightened.