Amy couldn't move. Not because of whatever command Eggman had used, but something else deeper rooted her in place.
Her breath quickened, her hands albeit locked felt trembling at her sides, but the sight in front of her didn't change.
Circuits. Wires. Metal.
It had to be a trick. A prank. Some kind of cruel illusion!
This wasn't real...
It wasn't real!!!
Eggman chuckled, leaning back with amusement. "Ah, the denial stage. Very fascinating. Go on, Amy, tell me how this must be some elaborate trick. How I must have done something to you." He gestured lazily to her still-open chest compartment. "By all means, explain it away."
Amy clenched her teeth.
That's right... That's exactly what this was!
"I had walked into some trap! You had used some hologram or gadget to mess with me! That's all!!!"
With sheer willpower, she forced herself to look up and glare at him. "You're sick if you think I'd fall for this!"
Eggman sighed. "Fascinating," he repeated, stroking his ridiculously long mustache. "Even with the proof staring you in the face, you still cling to the lie. But I suppose I shouldn't be surprised." He tapped his temple. "After all, that devotion to your guise or stubbornness if you want to call it was programmed into you by me!"
Amy flinched.
Those words...
"Shut up!" she spat, yanking at her own limbs, trying to force them to move. But they refused.
Eggman merely smirked and reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a small, sleek remote. He held it up between two fingers. "If you really want to know the truth, why don't we let the real you talk?"
Before Amy could protest, he pressed a button.
And then—
Her mouth opened.
And she began to speak.
But not of her own will.
"Designation: Automated Monitoring Yielder. Primary Directive: Research and Observation of Sonic and his Entourage."
Amy's heart... no, her core sank into an abyss of terror.
Because she hadn't meant to say that...
And yet, the words had come from her lips.
Eggman grinned. "Now, that's the reaction I was waiting for."
"N-No!" Amy gasped, her breaths coming quick and shallow. Her mind raced, grasping for any explanation! Any excuse! "T-This isn't real! I must be dreaming! Y-Yeah, that's it! A messed-up nightmare!"
Her voice grew frantic, latching onto the first inconsistency she could think of. "After all! Why would Sonic even ask me on a date?! That's my thing! I'm the one who chases him! Not the other way around!"
Eggman threw his head back with a hearty, condescending laugh. "Oh-hohoho! The desperation! The denial! I must say, you never fail to entertain!" His grin widened, eyes gleaming with amusement as he looked down at her.
"But this is the truth, my dear A.M.Y R.O.S.E.!" He gestured grandly, as if presenting his masterpiece. "You are my creation! A brilliantly disguised machine, crafted with one purpose and that is to keep tabs on that insufferable hedgehog and his little band of pests!"
He began to pace, relishing every word. "I built you years ago, back when Sonic was becoming a real thorn in my side rather than just a nuisance and started gathering his so-called friends to fight against me! I needed to understand him: his movements, his weaknesses. But nothing worked! He was too unpredictable, too fast, too free. So I thought, why not create the perfect observer? A robot that could stay close to him. One that wouldn't just watch him, but one he will never wreck like our previous clashes!"
He smirked, tapping a finger against his temple. "Crafting your inner core for near-endless function without a proper power-source? Easy! But designing an identity so convincing that even Sonic never questioned it? Now that was the real challenge! And oh, what a laughable little backstory I cooked up! I'm a scientist after all, not a play writer!"
Eggman let out another boisterous chuckle, wiping a fake tear of joy. "Just think about it! A young girl hedgehog, conveniently living in a house in the middle of the woods, just so happens to meet a speedy little blue hedgehog boy one day? And then, what does she do? She devotes her entire existence to following him like some crazed fangirl for years!"
He shook his head, grinning wickedly. "Honestly, it's a sappy comedy! I still can't believe Sonic never once questioned it! Never stopped to think: 'Hmm, maybe this obsessive pink hedgehog isn't exactly what she seems!'"
Eggman leaned in slightly, lowering his voice into something almost mockingly gentle. "But now, my dear, you finally get to know what he and others never did."
Amy's mind screamed at her to reject it. To deny everything he was saying.
But the open compartment in her chest, the golden circuits glinting inside her—those weren't a lie. The words that had spilled from her lips against her will—Designation: A.M.Y R.O.S.E—those weren't a lie either.
She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to drown it all out. No. No, no, no! This was wrong. It had to be!!!
Yet, Eggman's voice slithered back in.
"Finally taking it all in, are we?" He sighed in exaggerated relief, as if he'd been waiting forever for this moment. "Honestly, I was starting to think your stubbornness would override your logic circuits completely!"
Amy's breath came in shallow gasps. "N-No… I remember my life! I remember growing up! I remember my parents!" Her voice cracked as she clung to the memories who felt slipping through her grasp like sand. "I remember… I remember!!!"
Eggman smirked wider, folding his arms. "Oh, of course you do! Memories are important, after all. Without them, how could you possibly play your role?"
Amy's eyes snapped open. "What…?"
The evil scientist leaned closer. "You don't remember anything, my dear. You were given those memories. Implanted, coded, fabricated to make you believe you had a past. A simple illusion, all so you'd never question what you are!"
He stepped back, placing a hand over his chest in mock sentimentality. "And you are playing your part so beautifully! Beyond my wildest dreams! A devoted, lovesick girl, hopelessly fawning over Sonic. Always chasing him, but never quite catching up. Close enough to keep an eye on and delay him on the occasion, but never enough to break the illusion!"
Amy wanted to shook her head violently. "Shut up!"
Eggman only chuckled. "Oh, come now! You're smarter than this! Think about it, really think. If you truly had a family, a home, a childhood… where are they now? Why does your story begin with Sonic but never before?"
Amy's breath caught in her throat.
It was subtle, almost imperceptible, but something inside her clicked.
She tried desperately to recall anything before that day... Before she met Sonic.
Her home in the woods? She knew it. But had she ever left it? Had she ever seen her parents anywhere else?
She remembered them smiling. Sitting at the table. But what had they been talking about?
...What were their voices like?
Amy's body trembled. The gaps... tiny before were gaping holes now.
Eggman grinned as he watched realization dawn in her wide, horrified eyes.
"Ahh, there it is," he said, voice dripping with satisfaction. "That's the moment I waited for! The moment of realization!"
Amy's world was collapsing in on itself.
No... Not her world.
Her programming.
And for the first time, she didn't know who—or what she was anymore.