Posting Sonic X fanfiction a week after meeting Jason Griffith is wildly surreal. And THIS chapter too?! Let's DO THIS!

Chapter Forty-One: Love is Stronger

I rage against the Metarex shell but the metal doesn't even twitch against my blows. Maybe my body doesn't move at all. Maybe my brain hallucinates my rebellion to protect my sanity. If I have any of that left.

But even my hallucinated rebellion is half-hearted. If it was real, if it was successful, Cosmo would suffer. Since it's not real, Tails will. The choice is impossible, so it's best I don't have one.

As if that means I'm not to blame.

If the Metarex shell wasn't enough to hide Sonic from view, then the branches of the tree cocooning him would be. Even though the branches were bare of leaves, they twisted tightly enough around each other to obscure him unless someone looked directly at him. And by that time, he'd already be moving.

The world around Sonic seemed to radiate cold rather than heat, though he couldn't tell for sure with the metal embracing him. All the trees were barren of leaves. The bit of green pushing its way out of the ground was anemic in color, like it choked. Sonic knew the feeling.

These weren't the coordinates Cosmo had offered to Tails as bait. Those coordinates were at the bottom of the hill, where the sparse grass died out completely to give way to a stretch of packed cold clay. Sonic was some distance from those coordinates. There was no Cosmo there. No Metarex there. Just Sonic. Waiting. It was the last action anyone would have expected of him.

The only comfort Sonic held onto was that hopefully his ambush would be quick enough that Tails's suffering would be limited.

A twitch of movement at the corner of Sonic's vision snapped the Metarex armor to attention. Don't think, don't think, Sonic thought desperately. He didn't want to be mentally present, even if he physically had to be. But the Metarex control refused to allow him to disassociate. Not this time.

A figure slid between the trees. By the time his gaze snapped to the movement, he only caught a glimpse of white before the figure disappeared from view again. Sonic's heart thudded in his chest. The whole of the Metarex armor shuddered with it. Or maybe it shivered with anticipation. Like a predator stalking its prey.

The claws of the Metarex armor wrapped around the branches of the tree to lift him out of his cover. Slowly, so slowly, avoiding any sort of jolting movement that might draw the attention of his prey, in the same way their sudden movement had attracted his eye. He pulled his body up and out of the embrace of the spindly branches and crept out onto one of the sturdier branches that extended to the tree beside it. The metallic limbs of the armor didn't shudder though Sonic within did.

Tails, please, you're smart, you know this has to be a trap, he thought. As if Sonic or Tails was telepathic. As though Tails would hear Sonic's thoughts and would turn around before Sonic's Metarex armor could catch him. The armor was not Sonic. It wasn't nearly as fast as Sonic could be. Maybe Tails would stand a chance against it. He had gotten away before. But it was while Sonic begged silently in vain for Tails to flee that the figure slid out from behind the tree to advance to the next bit of cover.

Sonic's stomach dropped out beneath him. He slid from the tree branch though the Metarex shell didn't move an inch. Sonic's brain blazed with hot panic.

It was Amy.

It was Amy.

And Sonic was doomed to kill the girl he loved.

-X-X-X-

Amy's View

Amy could hardly feel the cold against her skin anymore. She'd been in the barely-above freezing temperature long enough that her skin had prickled away into numbness. Her heart raced fast enough that she would have figured the heat of blood in her veins would have been enough to keep her warm. No such luck. The only hint that there was warmth inside her were the clouds of breath hovering before her lips. She worried her hammer would slide right from her frozen fingers.

No, she refused to let the cold sap her energy. This was risky enough without the cold stealing her focus. She tightened her grip, slowed her breathing, and slid to the next tree. For a moment, all she heard were her own footsteps on the dry dead foliage littering the ground. And then when she reached the next tree, even that sound evaporated.

It was way too quiet. Even knowing this was almost certainly a trap, it was still way too quiet. Amy was closing in on the coordinates Cosmo had provided Tails. A blinking icon on the visor of Amy's headset confirmed that, in case there was any doubt. Maybe a mile still left to go but close enough that Amy expected something.

If Cosmo's information wasn't true and it wasn't a trap, what was the point of it? Just bad intel?

Amy slid to the cover of the next tree. She pressed herself against its cold dead bark and peeked around its side at the crest of the hill before her. She took in a slow and nearly silent deep breath which she used to steady her grip on the hammer she raised, readying herself. Then, she stepped out of the cover of that one last tree.

A flying hunk of metal smashed into her side.

The oxygen she'd carefully gathered crashed all at once from her lungs. She blinked and she lay on the ground. She remembered the impact in retrospect instead of as it happened. Her arm throbbed with pain beneath the crush of her own body. She gasped for air. She saw her hammer lying a few feet beyond her reach. She rolled over onto her back to free her arm.

And Amy's eyes landed on Metarex-Sonic standing over her.

The adrenaline running hot in Amy's veins all at once froze to match the temperature of the world surrounding them. The metal plating that covered Sonic's face reflected Amy's wide eyes back at her. For a split second, Amy could almost pretend her eyes were his. Both green. Both afraid.

Then she blinked and he thrust a metallic fist at her face.

Her instinct for self-preservation woke up. She rolled away. And just in time. Metarex-Sonic's fist slid just past Amy's quills. She scrambled to her feet. Her eyes zeroed in on her hammer lying in front of her. Dried leaves slid beneath the soles of her boots and she struggled to remain upright as she ran for her weapon.

Metal smashed into the small of Amy's back and sent her stumbling until her knees hit the ground and she caught herself on the heels of her hands.

This is a nightmare. This can't be happening.

The edges of Amy's vision darkened and in the dim view that remained, the only thing she could clearly see was her hammer in front of her. She crawled for it. She would make it, she decided. She would reach her hammer. She would wrap her hand around the handle of her hammer. She would climb back to her feet, spin around, swing her hammer with the full force of her strength at—

Metarex-Sonic's full weight fell on top of Amy.

She collapsed to the ground beneath her. The metal of the Metarex armor chilled Amy's skin more than the icy air. She pulled her head out of the dirt. The red visor of her headset fuzzed in front of her eyes before her vision resolved once more. Amy dragged her arm out from beneath the weight of Metarex-Sonic. She stretched as far as she could but the tips of her fingers still didn't brush the handle of her hammer.

"No," she choked. "Sonic, please."

"Amy?" Tails's voice gasped suddenly in her ear. Reminding her headset was more than a visor. Reminding her she wasn't alone.

Just in time for a clawed hand to wrap around the back of her neck.

She threw her elbow back. It struck the metal hard enough that Metarex-Sonic's fingers slackened. "Sonic's here!" she screamed.

She had but a split second before the weight of the Metarex crashed back down on her. She dragged herself forward. Inches. Just inches.

It was enough.

Amy's hand wrapped around the handle of her hammer just as cold metal pressed once more against her skin. She swung her hammer back wildly in panic. The clang as she struck Metarex-Sonic's armor echoed eerily in the cold air. Enough of his weight slid off her back that she managed to scramble out from beneath him on her hands and knees.

"Amy, get out of there!" Tails shouted.

As if either of them believed such a thing was still an option.

-X-X-X-

Tails's View

Tails held his head in his good hand and stared at the floor. How did I let this happen? He couldn't stop staring blankly at the floor, not so much as blinking, which made his eyes fill with tired tears.

My fault.

My fault.

Sonic's going to kill Amy and it's all my fault.

-X-X-X-

Sonic's View

Sonic couldn't see. Sonic couldn't look away. The Metarex armor forced Sonic's body to contort in the worst way. To throw himself at Amy, to grab her neck, to knock her down again and again, even as she begged.

He'd braced himself to see Tails here, chasing down the chance of Cosmo even as he knew he was heading straight into an obvious lie. Allowed himself to believe that Tails would stand a chance. Tails might not be the most adept user of Chaos Emeralds but at least he had a decent amount of experience in his backlog.

Amy had less.

And because Sonic hadn't braced for her surprise appearance, his shock meant he stood no chance of resisting the Metarex armor forcing his actions.

Which made Amy's chances even smaller.

Amy crawled out from beneath him as the armor reoriented after the impact of her hammer. The armor protected Sonic himself from the worst of the blow. Was that a good thing? A bad thing?

The memory of Cosmo's shattered expression as she setup Tails for a trap flashed through Sonic's head. Only to further complicate his dissemination of right and wrong.

Amy jumped back as Metarex-Sonic surged forward. Sonic strained against the armor, tried to pull himself back. Amy raised a hammer in front of him. Her rose-colored fur was embedded with the crumbs of crumbling leaves she had lain among. Would the Metarex be able to see that he had fought back later? Not that it worked. He couldn't do anything to resist. Even if that resistance meant nothing in the end.

The Metarex armor threw him forward again.

Amy gritted her teeth and swung her hammer to intercept him. It smashed into his side and knocked him into the trunk of a tree. The wood cracked sharply beneath the impact. In slow motion, the tree snapped in two, each crack of the wood like a gunshot as it fell to the ground. The Metarex armor paid it no mind as it picked Sonic up and drove him toward Amy again.

Sonic got close enough to see the beads of sweat on Amy's brow before she swung her hammer. The blow redirected Sonic but the shell kept his feet under him.

Already, Amy's strength was falling.

Sonic wished he had enough control to close his eyes while the Metarex forced him to take the killing blow.

-X-X-X-

Amy's View

Amy gasped for air. Sweat coated her skin. Her arms shook with the effort she had already expended. No amount of willpower she gathered gave her the strength she needed to steady her shaking muscles. She couldn't even hold her hammer at the height she needed to ready a strong swing.

Meanwhile, Metarex-Sonic got his feet beneath him in a split second, as if Amy's full strength was nothing more than a glancing blow.

"Sonic, it's me!" Amy struck her hand against her chest. Her voice cracked, and she had to gasp for thin air before she could say, "It's Amy, please!"

Metarex-Sonic didn't so much as twitch in a way that implied resistance or recognition. Not even a glint of light flashed against his visor such that Amy could convince herself Sonic was awake inside that armor.

He jolted forward toward her.

Amy jammed her arms out in front of her, like her weapon was a sword rather than a hammer. Metarex-Sonic drove straight into it. The impact sent a sharp shockwave up Amy's arms. Like her very bones were crumbling. She screamed even as she held her ground. His clawed hands reached out around the head of her hammer for her hands holding its handle. She tried to shove him back, tried to give herself even a few inches' worth of time so she could jump back and reset. But Metarex-Sonic didn't offer even that much give.

Amy released the hammer and dove to the side. Metarex-Sonic tore through where Amy was just standing. The force of his speed carried Amy's hammer with him. Amy scrambled back to her feet, the messenger bag she carried hitting her hip as she did so. Her heart hammered in her throat. Her arms ached with a weight that had nothing to do with the hammer she had previously been wielding. Metarex-Sonic swung toward her once more.

Amy shoved a shaking hand into the messenger bag. Her fingers wrapped around the Chaos Emerald waiting there. As she stared down the Metarex shell that encased the boy she loved, the Chaos Emerald felt like little more than a stone.

The only slim hope she had was that maybe the house that held Sonic was made of glass.

Amy yanked out the Emerald. She didn't dare look away from Metarex-Sonic. Maybe he stared back as well. She wished she could tell; she ached to see Sonic's eyes. To remind her what hope was. Even with the Chaos Emerald in her hand, it wouldn't mean anything if she couldn't find her own connection to Chaos Energy.

She couldn't breathe around the heart in her throat. Would a Chaos Emerald even be enough? She thought of how little success she'd had using the Chaos Emerald on her own before. If their positions were reversed, Sonic's grasp of Chaos Energy would handle this situation. If only he could use the Chaos Emerald and simply save himself.

The Chaos Emeralds are miracle-workers…wish-granters…

What if the Emerald in Amy's hand could do what she could not and grant Sonic his power?

Metarex-Sonic collected his balance. Once he had, he burst forward once more. And Amy closed her eyes and made her wish.

-X-X-X-

Sonic's View

Sonic's throat burned with the scream he was unable to loose. The Metarex armor refused to allow him to release even the smallest bit of his consciousness. No, Sonic had to stare Amy in the eye as the Metarex armor forced him to drive forward for the kill. He threw her hammer aside and now she couldn't protect herself.

Just let me close my eyes. Don't make me remember this.

Amy pulled a Chaos Emerald from her bag. It looked like nothing in her hand. When Amy closed her eyes, what remained of Sonic's heart broke. While he watched her accept her fate, and so his.

This was it.

I'm really going to kill Amy.

Heat raged in his chest. Darkness drenched his bones. He couldn't breathe. His eyes burned but he couldn't blink. The space between him and Amy closed. Sonic couldn't stop the armor from propelling him forward. He found himself selfishly wishing she'd open her eyes so he could see the joyful love she carried for him there one last time. Before their futures ended. He begged time to stand still. To hang. To stop. Before the inches evaporated.

Then the white Chaos Emerald in Amy's hand burst with light.

The light blinded Sonic. Enough that it shocked the Metarex armor to skid to a stop. Like the armor forgot that Amy was straight ahead. Maybe it thought she no longer was, thought the Chaos Emerald had stolen her away.

Sonic felt utterly untethered. The entirety of the world evaporated around him. Between the blindness of the Chaos Emerald's light and the lack of autonomy the Metarex armor forced upon Sonic, he felt less than real. Or was he suddenly dead? Had Amy saved herself by ending him? But his heart beat too erratically within himself for him to believe he was anything but alive.

And then, suddenly, Sonic blinked.

By choice.

Sonic's heart skipped a beat. Had he hallucinated the sensation? It was so small a gesture, maybe he remembered feeling the movement rather than actually making it.

Except then, Sonic blinked again.

The blindness cleared enough from his vision that a blurred version of reality materialized in front of him. He blinked again and again. Amy still stood in front of him, her eyes closed, her hands wrapped around the Chaos Emerald that glowed with a light even this planet's sun couldn't pierce through the cloudy atmosphere. Sonic and Amy faced one another, both completely still. Where once had been panicked, violent motion, now their existence together hovered in a way that felt both timeless and eternal in this single moment.

Warmth blossomed in Sonic's chest, differently so than the heat ravaging him earlier. He pressed his clawed hand to the metal casing pressed against his chest.

Wait.

Sonic pulled his hand away from his chest. He stared at his empty open palm.

How…?

He was in control of the Metarex armor.

He was in control of his own body.

Sonic stumbled back a step in his shock. Put more distance between himself and Amy while he waited for this Metarex trap to snap closed. Because that was what this had to be, right? Give Sonic back control of his body long enough for him to get close to Amy before the Metarex's control snapped down to force Sonic to take the killing blow right when they were most vulnerable.

Amy's eyes cracked open. Now that they did, Sonic could see the tightness at the edges. Could see the beads of sweat coating the surface of Amy's forehead. "Sonic, if you can hear me, I can't hold this much longer," she struggled to say. "The rest is up to you!"

She couldn't hold…Chaos Control? But what did that have to do with Sonic?

Except…he did feel the strange steady warmth in his chest. And he had control of his body. And he could feel the pull and push of metal strapping his body in place when he normally did everything he could to dissociate from his body in this state.

This was Amy's doing?

How could Amy be doing this, even with a Chaos Emerald? Sonic tried to shift his eyes down. Not through the Metarex mask covering his face but within the armor. It was too dark for him to see his own body. But as the warmth grew in his chest, so did his awareness of the feeling of his own body. Like pieces of himself were slowly rising out of murky water. He could feel where he ached. Where he burned.

All of him alive with the Chaos Energy Amy triggered within him.

-X-X-X-

Amy's View

After squinting her eyes open for a moment, Amy squeezed them shut once more to pour every drop of her focus into using the Chaos Emerald to trigger Sonic's own Chaos Energy. Every inch of her body shook with the effort. Sweat dripped down the center of her forehead and slid its way to the tip of her nose.

Let this be enough.

Let this be enough to remind Sonic of the good still inside him.

In exhaustion, her legs crumpled beneath her. Amy's bare knees struck the dirt ground with a sharp pain and still she held onto the Chaos Emerald, though her grip was slackening by the second.

"Am…y."

Amy's eyes shot open with a sudden burst of strength she didn't know still remained inside her body. And when she did, those eyes met Sonic's.

The front of the Metarex armor hung open. Revealing a battered and ashen Sonic within. Metal straps held his body in place in the shell but the jade green eyes that met Amy's were undeniably alive.

Awake.

Sonic.

The Chaos Emerald slipped from Amy's hand and bounced to the ground in front of Amy's knees. Its bright light dimmed to a gentle glow. Amy scrambled unsteadily to her feet. Had it worked? Had it really worked?

Soundlessly, Amy reached an open hand toward Sonic's face. She pressed her palm against his cheek. He leaned into her hand and a pressure she hadn't realized was there released from her chest. She stepped yet closer. Sonic's head fell forward so he pressed his forehead against hers. Her eyelids fell closed, but it wasn't enough to prevent her tears from slipping loose.

Still, neither of them said a word. Amy just listened to their ragged breathing. Her heart both ached and eased.

They were at war. The Metarex stood at the precipice of victory. Cosmo was still missing. But still, for this one singular moment, Amy felt finally whole.