Of course Amy's conscience would manifest itself in the form of a blue hedgehog.

At first she was thrilled.

Another Sonic had shown up before her in the privacy of her room out of the blue and she felt absolutely elated at the sight of him. After all, she could never have too many Sonics. Then, she slowly registered his appearance and her far-too-wide razor-toothed smile drooped into a deep frown.

Unlike the suave, powerful and physically attractive variant Sonic that had welcomed her broken self into his life and golden palace with open arms, this Sonic was a stunty broken mess with matted fur covered in mud and the black crust of dried blood.

Half of his head was caved in, exposing pulped brain matter, skull fragments and a loose hanging eyeball dangling out of a crushed orbital socket like a macabre sniffle of snot. Despite his horrible presence, his expression was warm and gentle, a small smile gracing the parts of his facial features that were still whole.

She recognized him almost immediately and a pang of guilt and shame stabbed at her heart, feelings she didn't even think she was even capable of feeling anymore after all she had done.

It wasn't just any regular Sonic or even a variant across the breadth of the infinite multiverse, it was her Sonic. The original from her doomed reality who had stolen her heart all those years ago; the very same one she viciously murdered in a fit of desperation-fuel madness after experiencing so much pain and rejection in short period of time.

Her blackened heart skipped a beat, he looked as handsome and charming as the day she killed him.

"Hey, Ames," Sonic called her by her nickname, his voice as soft and soothing as the winds. "It's been a while, hasn't it?."

"Y-yeah... Yeah, it has," Amy muttered dumbly, her insanity having taken a back seat during the exchange. Whatever manic glee and callous disregard for decorum she carried herself with in the days since her transformation evaporated; in their stead was the same scared and vulnerable girl from before the subtle manipulations of the cruel Tails variant ruined her forever. "Sonic, how are you-?"

"Here?" Sonic finished for her, smirking as he did. He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head, his loose eyeball flicking around to and fro with the motion like a repulsive fleshy pendulum. "You tell me. I'm dead, remember?"

"Are you a ghost that's come to haunt me, Sonic?" Amy asked tentatively, swallowing thickly.

"I don't think I'm a ghost, even if I can do this," Sonic answered with a chuckle as he started moving around, phasing through walls and other solid objects like he carried no physical weight. "I'm less supernatural and more... spiritual, if you catch my drift," he jutted a thumb at the mashed side of his head.

"...You're in my head. I'm hallucinating you," Amy figured it out, earning an approving nod from Sonic.

"Bingo! You always were smart, Amy. Probably not as smart as Tails, but still. Eh, being number two in the brains department of our friend circle isn't so bad. What's left of it, at least. Which is probably just you and I, and I'm just a figment of your shattered psyche," Sonic explained as he leaned up against the wall. "I have to be here for a reason, I assume it has something to do with you."

Amy pouted and crossed her arms, seating herself on her bed. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm perfectly fine, my noodle is noodling quite alright, thank you very much."

"If it was, I wouldn't be here," Sonic deadpanned, raising his good brow. "I think I'm here because we need to have a serious chat about what happened that one fateful night and what you've been up to since then. I shouldn't have to spell it out for you."

"Tsk, I've gotten over it," Amy sneered, kicking her legs up and down childishly "That chapter of my life was torn out. I have a new life now, a new purpose, a new Sonic to love and loads and loads of familiar friends who care about me to have lots of fun with! I have everything I could possibly ever want! Why would I worry about something that shouldn't matter anymore?!"

"Because it does still matter to you," Sonic replied, his tone even and impartial. "I'm proof of that."

"Shut up!" Amy snapped, baring her teeth and eyes flashing with the dark speckles of madness. She shot up from her place on the bed and picked up her piko piko hammer leaning by the nightstand before winding it up and hurling it straight at Sonic in one smooth motion. The hammer twirled in the air, whistling threateningly before phasing straight through Sonic and embedding itself into the wall behind him with a loud thud.

"YOU REJECTED ME!" Amy shrieked accusingly with all the tonal intensity of a banshee, her grating voice like nails on a chalkboard. Shivers and twitching wracked across her body, tense muscles pulling and snapping uncontrollably and making her look as if she was glitching out of reality. Her breaths came out ragged and short, tears threatened to pour out from the corners of her weary eyes

"I did everything I possibly could to make you see me as more than just that clingy pathetic girl you saved from Little Planet, but it was never enough! Never enough!" Amy spat furiously, her left eye twitching wildly.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha! Look at me, Sonic! Really look at me!" she gestured to herself, to the collection of discolored mottled scars that lined her body like dotted lines on a map of agony. Lingering reminders from when Tails had made her beautiful, made her the perfect girl for Sonic by being hacked apart like meat in a butcher shop and reassembled with all the skill and flair of an artist putting together an abstract sculpture.

"Look at what I chose to become because of you! I'm a butterfly! A beautiful butterfly born from the warm cocoon of love and it! Was! ALL! FOR! YOU!" her voice cracked, pitching at a higher octave. Her lips curled into a deranged smile that belied a fathomless sadness hidden underneath. "But, you didn't see that," she whispered tiredly, feeling all the energy leave her body. "You were... horrified at what I became. You called me a monster..."

"I know what I said, Amy" Sonic didn't deny her words, didn't take his gaze away from her.

Amy collapsed onto her knees, wrapping her arms tightly around herself to keep warm from the sudden chill that ran up her spine and slumping over as she began to sob. The tears began to flow freely now. They dripped down the contours of her cheek before falling to the floor in quiet pitter patters.

"What was it all for, then?" she whispered. "All my pain, all my suffering? I allowed myself to let a madman turn me into his sick science project because he made me believe it was the only other way. I just wanted you to love me... You said it yourself; we could've been happy together, and I ruined that."

She sobbed quietly to herself, lost in her own little world with only the imagination of her dead Sonic born of her guilt and sorrow keeping her company. She wept for what felt like an eternity, experiencing a raw pain that she had buried deep away in her heart when she was granted the opportunity to start all over.

Amy shakily looked up and stared at Sonic, who looked down at her with unjudging eyes and a forgiving demeanor.

She was back at his house again, at the grisly scene of her greatest sin. Her tears were the rain clacking against the windows, her pain the dim candle light flickering in the darkness of the hallway. The heady scent of rusty iron and salt, the telltale scent of freshly spilt blood, filled her nostrils as she forced herself to suppress the urge to retch. She felt the sickening warmth of Sonic's blood clinging to her fur and the phantom softness of his quills gripped tightly between her fingers cradling his broken form in her arms.

"I didn't..." Amy sniffled and coughed, struggling to breath, let alone speak coherently. "I didn't mean for it to happen. I-I could never hurt you, but..."

"...I know you didn't" Sonic cooed, kneeling down and flashing her a comforting smile.

"H-how?" Amy blinked, bemused. "If you're just a figment of my imagination, are you just telling me this because my broken mind is coping with all the trauma, or-"

"You must remember, I didn't die immediately," Sonic explained. "My final moments were being held in your arms and listening to your voice, however far away it was to me, as you repeated how sorry you were," he chuckled to himself, the sound pleasant and airy. "Even after accidentally killing me in a fit of psychotic rage you still cared enough about my wellbeing. It's touching in a very Amy way."

"...Stop that," Amy insisted, gritting her teeth.

"Stop what?" Sonic tilted his head curiously.

"Stop making me feel better, stop trying to comfort me!" Amy gasped. "Stop reminding me of the love I still have for you!"

"Sorry, but I'm gonna have to politely decline," Sonic laughed boisterously.

"I... How can you speak like I didn't selfishly take away your life? Don't you hate me, Sonic?" Amy asked meekly, as if the question itself hurt more than the answer she was expecting to receive. "I killed you because you spurned me. You were horrified by my transformation into this... thing born of misguided obsession."

Sonic looked wistful, he picked at his cheek with his finger. "I'll admit, Amy, I was scared. Scared at what you had become, scared that you had hurt me," he held up his arm, the bleeding bruise still present with a thin shard of fractured bone sticking through the skin, "but most importantly of all, I want you to understand that I was scared for you."

"W-what do you mean?"

"I don't know the whole story," Sonic admitted, his expression shifting to shame. "But you do and by extension this version of me does too, if that makes sense in a roundabout sort of way. Think how well you know me, Amy. If I were still alive, even after every hurtful thing I had said, I wouldn't let it stand knowing that we were both manipulated by a fake insane Tails into ruining everything all because he couldn't handle rejection in his own universe."

Amy actually managed to smile at his explanation. It was a genuine smile, in spite of how small and hollow it looked.

"That's true..." Amy giggled bitterly, the bitter irony of the revelation was like a slap to the face. An insult to a festering injury. If she didn't feel terrible before the new perspective on things threatened to push her past the brink and straight into the realm of suicide. "If only we had known. You, my Sonic, my dear beloved Sonic, would've done whatever you could to help out."

Her shoulders slumped and her expression deadened. The peace was fleeting, it didn't change anything. The past was still the past, her Sonic was dead, his head bashed in by her own hands and buried in a shallow grave in the middle of the dark woods in a long dead world that she was culpable in causing its death as well.

Amy Rose was still a killer, a monster in every sense of the word. There was no hope for her, no absolution or forgiveness. She had accepted that since becoming a part of this mad crusade to scour the multiverse of all variants that didn't fit in the other Sonic's ambitions.

That's just how it was, the fate that she had been given.

"...Hey, why are you making that face?" Sonic asked concernedly.

"Because, Sonic, there's no point in reflecting about what happened and what could've been," Amy murmured defeatedly. "What does it change? I'm still a monster, a wretched twisted thing that exists to kill and maim and remove anything my new Sonic desires in order to build his perfect family. That is who I am now. I'm Amy Rose, an interdimensional serial killer who's ended enough worlds to fill up several solar systems."

"See, that's where you're wrong," Sonic assured. "You can still make things right. This madness can end, it has to. And you're the one who can do it."

"No, I can't," Amy shook her head, resigned to her destiny. "I'm in too deep. Nothing about this version of me is the naive girl with love in her heart for all things from before."

"Wrong again!" Sonic smirked, jabbing a thumb at himself. "You still got me. I'm the little voice in your head that tells you about right and wrong, your very own Jiminy Cricket. I'm the small part of you that you thought died a long time ago. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, your best friend and your would've-been-boyfriend, and the reason that there's still a small amount of good in you no matter how deeply you try to bury it. Amy, you can't turn back time, but you can still set right to wrong."

"I..." Amy hesitated, the small piece of her morality fighting against all the despair and cynicism that had taken over her heart. It fought with everything it had but would only succeed if she let it. "I can't betray my new family, my new Sonic. He loves me."

"Deep down you know that's just the denial talking. That other Sonic doesn't love you, Amy, he loves the idea of you," Sonic explained. "If the fake Tails had failed in turning you into this insane killer he'd have just moved onto another universe and tried again. Just like you did with the other variants of Knuckles, Blaze and Shadow. That's all the other Sonic wants, the idea of his lost friends, not the person representing it."

Amy felt sick to her stomach, the acceptance of the truth forcing bile up her throat. It was true, of course it was. She'd deluded herself into believing all of it because she was afraid of losing everything again. It was all a lie, a comfortable lie to keep her and the rest mollified and subdued so the other Sonic could treasure them like priceless figurines displayed in a cabinet, or in this case, a golden citadel.

"I-I wouldn't even know where to begin," Amy stammered.

"Think about the other worlds Tails showed you, the many different realities," Sonic suggested.

"There was one they could never get to no matter how hard they tried: the Legacy Universe, where the prime versions of us exist. You must seek them out, they can help stop this multiversal genocide from continuing any longer than it has. This is the only way to make amends for the atrocities you committed. If not for yourself, then do it for countless others who don't deserve to be wiped out by the whims of an insecure blue hedgehog with delusions of grandeur."

Amy felt something in the depths of her heart, that small piece of morality had grown into something else: hope. It was a flickering flame amidst the dark ocean that was her tainted soul. There was a chance to make it right, to preserve the memory of her long gone Sonic and the worlds that don't deserve to be snuffed out.

"I'll do it," Amy replied, resolution in her voice. "Life is sacred, I've forgotten that. I must atone for all the crimes I've committed."

Sonic smiled brightly at Amy's resolve and in turn his form was consumed by a flash of bright light. When the finally light died down, Sonic's mangled form was whole yet again. There was no gaping hole in the side of his head, no dried blood caked along his fur; he was that daring and dashing hedgehog Amy had fallen in love with.

"Oh, yeah! Check it out!" Sonic bellowed, flexing his bicep. "It feels good to be back in one piece. All the better to help guide you on this new journey of yours."

"You're... staying?" Amy stared at him, bemused.

"Of course I am, I'm the little voice in your head!" Sonic cheered, flashing her a thumbs up. "I'm with you 'til the end, Amy!"

Amy smiled a wide smile, one full of life and energy devoid of all the malice it once held. She brought up a hand to wipe away the tears staining her cheeks and hopped back up on her two feet. The manic glee was back, but now it had purpose instead of harboring the desire for directionless destruction.

This version of Amy Rose was no saint, no hero. What she was is a second chance, the conscious choice to do right and accept accountability for her crimes. Her hope wasn't forgiveness or absolution, it was the hope that others could achieve their happiness without fearing the meddling of outside forces.

It was the hope that some other Amy out there in the great big multiverse would find happiness with their own Sonic in a way she could never have.

"Ooooh! Goodie, goodie! My Sonic, my dear figment-of-my-shattered-psyche Sonic! This is going to be such a fun trip!" Amy laughed joyfully, clapping her hands and jumping up and down. "I'll make you proud, my baby! Momma's got another new lease on life!"

"What's all this noise?!" a screechy voice echoed through the air as the door to her room swung open and in walked a lanky twin-tailed fox with limbs too elongated and facial features like a gnarled root. It was the other Tails, the one who had been the architect behind her downfall, the one who relished in breaking down her self-esteem and preying on her weakness so long ago. "Are you on the rag again, Amy!?"

Amy's smile cracked, turning lopsided with one half expressing happiness and the other burning scorn. "Tails, my ol' buddy ol' pal o'mine! I'm just thinking about my next job! Lots of imposters out there to kill, ya know? It gets me all excited just thinking about it, so much so I accidentally got a bit too wild with my hammer," she lied, lethal anger bubbling in the pits of her belly.

Tails smiled a grotesque snaggletooth grin at Amy's enthusiasm, his earlier annoyance simmering away to reveal his cold and calculating nature. "Ah, is that so? Well, then, you'll be glad to know I have a plethora of other worlds for you to cull. So many imposters, so little time." He turned around, gesturing for her to follow.

Amy complied, but not before ripping her hammer out of the wall and trailing dangerously close behind him, her eyes aflame with murder.

"You'll be glad to know that I just discovered there's a universe out there where we're all made out of candy. The Sonic there is made out of some sort of gummy candy and the version of you is made from peppermint. It's all so... sickly sweet and saccharine. There's nothing of value for us there so better to get rid of it now than let it exist any longer than it needs to, the frauds," he spat the last word.

"Oooh, sounds tasty," Amy feigned interest, hefting her hammer in her hand as she positions it right behind Tails' head. "Say, what's the version of you there made out of?" she asked innocently.

"Eugh, if you must know: it's gingerbread," Tails grumbled. "Couldn't he have been made out of mint instead?"

"Oh, I think it's great the other you is made out of gingerbread," Amy smiles predatorily, revealing her jagged teeth as she reeled back her hammer. "After all, the both of you crumble all the same."

"What are yo-" Tails didn't get to finish his sentence as Amy smeared his head all along the nice clean walls beside her with a single swing of her hammer. Tails' lifeless, headless corpse sprayed a gout of blood out from his mangled stump of a neck as his body stumbled forward with residual muscle memory before collapsing onto the floor in a bleeding twitching mass.

She should've done that a long time ago.

Amy thought she would be sad to kill the only other Tails she knew, the one that had introduced her to this golden world of new opportunities. But at her core she felt nothing except the sweet warm satisfaction of revenge oozing across her body.

There was no remorse, no hesitation in the swing.

After all, she had killed so many Tails already.

What was one more?