Sonic was in hell.
Or at least that's what it felt like. He hadn't fought or defended himself when Zyx had tried to kill him, but Amy had held the scythe back, saying that perhaps they could use him. His Lightspine form, he had deactivated, knowing it would be too stressful too keep the Dracon mutation down as a Lightspine without Shahra's help. Caliburn he had left at the beach, embedded in the sand. They had dragged him to their one standing building and left him in the gaping space that used to be floors one to twenty-nine.
He remembered all this as he laid on the floor. He hadn't fought back. He couldn't get that out of his head. His body had refused to fight back. And he knew why. But was he willing to share the reason?
"Hey, blue rat!"
Amy's - no, it was Rose’s - harsh voice emerged from above, and Sonic raised his head. She was in her murky purple pseudo-reaper form, and called forth with a strict tension, "Zyx wants you. Get moving."
Sonic didn't complain. Feeling too weak to fly, he leapt onto the wall and climbed the fragments of the floors of the building. When he reached Rose's level, he asked, "What's Zyx in Reaper form for? Having trouble?"
Rose gave him a painful strike across the face. Sonic took it, waiting for an answer. He didn't get one, only a terse command. "Come with me." When they reached Zyx's floor, he was indeed in Reaper form, holding his scythe with strict tension. Rose threw Sonic to the ground and stepped past him, crossing the floor and ascending to the roof.
"Well, blur, it seems we have a problem here."
Sonic raised his eyes to the reaper. "If you mean that you've corrupted my one love and lied to her, then yeah."
Zyx's scythe slashed towards Sonic so fast that he barely had time to evade. The attack struck Sonic with full power, taking two of his quills and causing him to shout in pain. As he weakly rose, Zyx stated, "Alright, game's over. Where is the Mobian Master Emerald?"
Sonic took a battle stance and stated, "I was hoping you could tell me." This, of course, earned him another swing, but he dodged this one. Sonic knew this was good. If he could get Zyx angry, then maybe he could be taunted into a fight.
"I know you can lead me to it. You've done it before, utilizing your Hyper Form before you revealed your little Draconian secret. So where is it?"
Sonic started to walk in a circle, inviting Zyx to do the same. A common tactic, used to communicate before a battle, but Sonic wanted to use it to escape. Zyx didn't buy it. "Tell me where the Master Emerald is right now or I'll rip your wings off with my own bare hands!"
This prompted Sonic to laugh. "Yeah, right." And he sped out the door to the roof, then spread his wings to fly off.
He hadn't gone a second off the ground when Rose knocked him out of the air and sent him flying into the trap-ridden ground below. Flipping upright at the speed of sound, he lifted of the ground as it crumbled below him and leapt back off. The figure that dropped down before him was Rose.
No, it's Amy, Sonic reminded himself. Ignore what she says. She's Amy, and that's all she'll be.
Amy raised her axe. "You want to play, rat?"
Sonic kept himself off the ground, saying, "OK, Amy, now you're starting to sound like Erazor Djinn."
Amy swung the axe forward, shouting, "It's ROSE!"
"No," Sonic stated, backflipping away from her swing. "It's Amy. And nothing can change that."
Amy gave a battle scream and sped forward with impossible speed. Sonic rolled out of the way of a deadly down swing, then leapt into the air. Amy shot after him, her axe perpendicular to her body. She approached Sonic and spun into a flurry. Sonic pulled a perfect loop, evading the swing perfectly. Amy transitioned from spin to buzzsaw and let gravity pull her, but Sonic barrel rolled away. She tried to buzzsaw up, but he pulled another barrel loop and dodged.
Amy snapped. "Fight back, liar!" she shouted, throwing her axe like a boomerang. Sonic burst out of the way in a snap of Draconian energy, then burst in the other direction when it came back. Amy grabbed it, pulled a single spin, and tried to bring the axe down onto Sonic's head, but Sonic shot out of the way. She spun back.
"Fight back! Why won't you fight back!" It wasn't a question, but Sonic closed his eyes and answered it anyways.
"Why fight when there's no good purpose to fight for?"
Amy stared at him for a short while. Then she slowly started to laugh before bursting out in laughter. Sonic opened his eyes in time to see her drop her head and turn to him.
"Get it through your thick skull, you lying rat!" she shouted.
Sonic locked eyes with her. "I'm no liar," he stated. "Zyx is the one who is lying."
Amy suddenly appeared in front of him before he could say anything more, then locked a hand around his throat. "Nice try," she stated. "But you're the liar. Now back off or I'll tear your heart out!"
Sonic's eyes, wide, started to tear up. But he was no idiot. Slowly, he pulled her hand from his throat, then flew slowly off, watching Amy over his shoulder the whole time.
"Steady, steady..."
Merlina weakly rose, her eyes nothing but a blur. Bad move; her shoulders started feeling like they were on white fire. She fell backwards, surprised to hit something soft. When her vision focused, she saw Infera standing over her. She was in a cave, lying on a bed.
"Kay?" The pyrokinetic nodded. "What happened to me?"
"Zyx caught you off-guard and stabbed you in each arm," she replied. "I'm surprised that you've managed to recover this quickly.
Merlina looked around to see more of the 'advancement' Sonic had talked about before, but none of the others were around. "Where are Lancelot and the others?"
"They're alright. They just decided to take a break. If you're wondering, we're in a cave that used to belong to Silver, then Zyx. Now Silver's taken it back." The faint sound of wingbeats outside had Infera raise her head. "Sonic!" she cried out. "He's back!"
Merlina rose. This time she was able to withstand the fiery pain through her shoulders and rise to a sitting position. When Infera tried to stop her, she stated, "No, I can do this, Kay. Just let me stand." Infera shrugged, then stepped outside to look for Sonic. The sorceress stood as Infera returned in, Sonic with her. His eyes were drooped, and his wings dragged.
"Sir Sonic," Merlina stated, "what has happened?"
Sonic pulled himself onto the bed that Merlina herself had just been occupying. He was silent for a while. "I've failed, Merlina," he finally stated, his eyes starting to tear up. "I've failed to recover her."
Merlina blinked twice. "Who?" she asked, calm, yet gentle to the obviously broken Sonic.
"Amy," Sonic replied. "You would refer to her as Nimune. She has turned to the darkness. I tried to get her back." His voice started to crack as he stated, "But she called me a liar for loving her." A single teardrop fell from his face.
The Royal Sorceress respectfully closed her eyes as the Knight of the Wind began to cry.