[Sonamy] James Four Fourteen: End

This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears.
No one is near to comfort me, no one to restore my spirit.
My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.
-- Lamentations 1:16

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<Tails' POV>
If you'd told me when I was little that I'd become best friends with a blue hedgehog whose speed was world-famous, I'd never believe you.  And yet, that was exactly the result of a chance encounter more than ten years ago.  He became the older brother I never had, and in all the adventures he and I have had since then, I came to admire his free-spirited lifestyle.  He was the kind of guy who'd never settle down, always living life on his own terms.  How strange that one fateful night over six years ago and a pink hedgehog named Amy Rose would change his perspective forever.  From the day that Sonic introduced Amy to me, I knew she'd made an impression on him for the better.  I was secretly hoping that nothing would happen to upset the delicate bond that I saw slowly forming between the two hedgehogs, but of course Eggman just had to stick his fingers where they didn't belong.  My worries soon proved to be unfounded -- far from tearing them apart, Eggman's antics brought Sonic and Amy closer together.

So much closer, in fact, that I had a feeling that Sonic had found his one true soul mate.  I was definitely happy for Sonic and Amy when I first heard that they were getting married, but I can't say I was surprised.  When I was asked to be Sonic's best man, I spent hours working on the speech I'd be giving at the wedding reception, because I loved them like family.  And they must've loved me like family as well, as much as they involved me in the rocky first steps of their new life together, especially after Stella was born.  That's why it broke my heart when I first found out that Stella had been kidnapped from a public park.  I had offered to console them, but Sonic told me that he wanted to limit the number of people involved, for Amy's sake.  I didn't hear anything from them for a whole day, and then out of the blue, Amy called me up one afternoon and invited me and Knuckles to a picnic lunch.  It seemed so out-of-place that I couldn't help but feel suspicious, but I didn't say anything because I didn't want to risk hurting Amy's feelings.  I knew I'd been deceived when my lemonade tasted funny and I started getting lethargic, but as I passed out I clung to the hope that Amy was somehow coerced into doing it.

The next time I opened my eyes, I was staring up at the ceiling, face-to-face with Sonic.  He seemed worried, so I asked what was going on and where we were, and he explained that everyone was trapped in one of Robotnik's constructs (which puzzled me because I thought Sonic had left him behind when he and Amy stole his time machine years ago).  Returning my focus to the matter at hand, I suddenly feared for Amy and Stella, who didn't appear to be with Sonic at first glance, and Sonic shook his head.  "I'll find them myself," he said.  "Right now, my priority is to get you guys to safety."  So with a little elbow grease, courtesy of Knuckles, all three of us managed to reach the surface, where we found ourselves in the middle of some unfamiliar forest.  Sonic didn't stick around to see us off, probably because of the alarms that started blaring, but he made it clear that he wanted us out of there, so I wasted no time flying up above the treetops to establish our position, then I pointed Knuckles in what I believed was the right direction.  Once he and I managed to get back to civilization, we parted ways.

The following day, I decided to drop by Sonic and Amy's house to see how all of them were recuperating from the horrors of Robotnik's keep, especially little Stella, who was but a pawn in a game that had been going on long before she was ever born.  Who knows what kind of physical scars would be left on her body from this, to say nothing of the emotional trauma... But when I knocked on the door, there was no response.  I didn't hear any sounds from inside, either.  My first thought was that they'd gone somewhere to clear their minds, so I called Sonic and then Amy, and again, no response.  I resorted to unlocking the front door with the key hidden under one of the flowerpots ("the blue flowerpot, because it reminds me of Sonic," Amy had said), and looked around only to find everything was dark.  I was especially worried when I saw Amy's purse on the kitchen counter.  I stopped dead in my tracks when it dawned on me...Sonic and Amy may never have made it home if Sonic had gotten recaptured in his attempts to rescue Amy!

I wanted nothing more than to return to Robotnik's bunker and save my friends from danger, but if I went alone I'd run the risk of meeting the same fate.  The only other person I could count on at that moment was Knuckles, but I remember how ticked-off he was at Amy for getting us captured (even though it probably wasn't Amy's fault) and so I wasn't sure how willing he would be to help.  After a fair bit of coaxing over the phone, I was standing face-to-face with him on Sonic and Amy's front porch.  I was racking my brains trying to remember what direction we needed to go to find Robotnik's underground bunker -- I should have just trusted Knuckles' memory / tracking instincts because he was off and running before I could even form the makings of a plan.  Later, he and I were in a forest clearing that he claimed was concealing the entrance.  I didn't believe him at first until I felt the faint clanking of metal beneath my feet.  It took all the strength both of us had to lift one of the entrance doors enough to shimmy ourselves through (which got me a pinched tail for our efforts).

The hole Knuckles had punched in the entrance door the previous day was still there, and we used that to make our way into the storage bay.  Near-complete darkness was what met our eyes.  My first thought was that the room had some sort of motion sensor to turn the lights on/off, but after a minute of clear and open walking around, no lights turned on.  We felt around blindly for the door that would lead us into the rest of the complex, and discovered that whatever lied beyond didn't have lighting either.  I told Knuckles that we wouldn't make much progress without being able to see our hands in front of our faces, so I searched the storage bay top to bottom for any sort of portable light source, eventually finding a flashlight in a broken emergency-supplies crate inside one of the shipping containers.  Knuckles was quick to caution me on its use, reminding me that a lone flashlight in total darkness might give away our position.

In spite of this, the two of us proceeded out of the storage bay and into a hallway, walking aimlessly for a minute or two because neither of us had any real opportunity to explore this place.  One thing that was a little eerie was how quiet it was: no buzzing of overhead lights, no air-conditioning system, not even the faint sound of robot servo motors.  We did stumble upon a wall with a large map posted on it, which we studied intently for a few minutes.  After a brief whispered discussion, we decided to head in the direction of what appeared to be detention cells, which is where one would naturally expect to find captured victims.  But despite checking all the cells in the cluster, we found no traces of any of the hedgehogs...except for a few pink hairs on a bloodied roll of duct tape.  By this time, I was really starting to freak out; everything we'd seen so far led me to believe that Robotnik had taken Sonic and Amy somewhere else and abandoned this bunker.  "Come on, let's keep looking," said Knuckles, but as we exited the cell I could hear him muttering under his breath "I hope you're wrong, Tails, or else this would've been a huge waste of time."  I stopped in my tracks and stared daggers at Knuckles.  "I can't believe you just said something so heartless.  I can understand if you hold a grudge against Amy, but Sonic is your friend too!"  He sighed and responded with "I'm just frustrated at not making any real progress."

I didn't want to argue with him any further, so to change the subject I suggested we start searching for Eggman's control room.  This time I remembered its approximate location better than Knuckles, and there was no mistaking the door once we found it because of its unusual shape and material of construction.  Neither of us saw any way to open it at first, because it had no doorknob, and pushing the button on the wall next to the door did nothing.  So it should come as no surprise that the next tactic Knuckles tried was brute force.  He could only manage a few punches, though, before the heavy steel door took its toll on Knuckles' fists.  It was just enough, though, to leave a dent in one spot that I could squeeze my fingers through and grab the inside edge of the door.  Knuckles had to awkwardly wrap his arms around my chest to provide enough pulling force, but we eventually slid the door open.

We anxiously stepped foot inside the control room, and discovered it was just as dark and quiet as everything else, but what did strike me as odd was a faint smell, something I couldn't put my finger on, but was certainly out of place.  Something is definitely not right here...  Knuckles swept the room with the flashlight and (literally) stumbled on a piece of wood, about four feet square, set into the floor.  Thinking it was some kind of emergency escape hatch for Robotnik, I quickly pulled it open, and the odd smell I noticed before grew stronger and more recognizable -- it reminded me of engine oil, which only puzzled me further.  I took the flashlight and shined it down into the hatch.  It revealed a wide, deep pit whose bottom bubbled and glistened slightly in the light.  A tar pit?  Here, beneath Robotnik's bunker?  Knuckles must've seen something I didn't, because he told me to shine a light in one particular spot and when I did, I saw a fused mass of blue and pink.  Could it be...?  Using my tails to carefully descend into the pit, I took a closer look and confirmed my worst fears: we had just found the lifeless bodies of Sonic and Amy.  I quickly flew back up and, with Knuckles' help, we spent the next several minutes extracting Sonic and Amy from the pit without managing to fall in ourselves.  In setting them down on the dirty pavestone floor of Robotnik's control room, it was hard to miss how tightly Sonic's arms were wrapped around Amy -- not even death could part these two hedgehogs.  My eyes suddenly blazed with fury at the deranged doctor who brought my best friends' lives to a gruesome end, and I screamed "I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR THIS, EGGMAN!" before collapsing like a rag doll, tears flooding my eyes.  Knuckles was never one to wear his heart out on his sleeves, but even I could hear him sniffling.

I'd never attended a funeral before, much less been forced to organize one, but several days' worth of preparation and dozens of unpleasant phone calls to next of kin later, Knuckles and I found ourselves in the viewing room of the on-site funeral home at our town's cemetery.  Because of the grotesque look of the bodies and the way they were fused together, originally I wanted to cremate Sonic and Amy, but we were advised that the tar covering half their bodies would present a problem, and so we acquiesced on having them separated as carefully as possible and placed in separate (closed) caskets.  Neither Knuckles nor I were able to find any traces of Stella after finding Sonic and Amy, and so we opted to memorialize her with an empty pewter urn that had a rattle and her name etched into its side.  Topping the entire arrangement was the only photo I could find of all three hedgehogs together, which was taken at Stella's baptism when she was about four months old.

Many of the attendees were extended family members that I hadn't seen since the wedding, and it was clear that this tragic turn of events had broken Sonic's mother's heart as much as it had mine, for through the black veil it was easy to see her tear-stained face.  I even swear the normally vibrant green and magenta of Sonic's brother and sister looked a lot darker than I remembered.  Whether it was from natural aging, or if they'd done something special for the funeral, I could only speculate.  I had one person I didn't immediately recognize (I later found out she was Amy's sister) come up to me and give me a hug.  She said "I know how close you and Sonic were...I'm guessing he was like a brother to you.  You probably have a good idea of how hard this hit our family."  I nodded and returned the hug.

The minister who presided over the funeral happened to be the same one who married Sonic and Amy nearly two years ago, and he remembered them all too well.  "When we witness the wedding of two young people, we watch them make the promise to each other that only death would tear them apart.  Oh, how tragic that death had to come so soon to these two hedgehogs, and even more so that it came to their only child, who never got a real chance at life..."  When the minister finished, I also stepped up to add a few words: "Sonic was my best friend.  I loved him like a brother.  And when he met Amy, I knew in my heart that she'd be the one for him.  When I proposed a toast at their wedding to health and happiness, I never imagined having to give them a eulogy only a few short years later.  But at least I can take comfort in knowing that the love Sonic and Amy had for each other was stronger than death..." I wanted to say more but by that point my voice was breaking too much from the tears streaming down my face, and I quietly dismissed myself.

Later that afternoon, we had all gathered around the dual grave plot where Sonic and Amy's coffins lied side by side.  I held in my hands the pewter urn for Stella, and I held it close for a moment before setting it gently in a wire rack placed between the coffins.  As I watched the assembly being slowly lowered into the ground, I felt like a part of my own soul had died along with them.  I wasn't sure if my heart would ever completely heal from this -- it's something grief counselors try to talk you through, but experiencing it firsthand is a pain words can't fully express.  I stood there silently, staring at the open plots as the rest of the world faded from view.  I had no idea how long I was there, but the next time I looked up, I noticed everyone else was gone.  I took a slow step forward and looked down to see the caskets in their final resting place.  I fell to my knees and closed my eyes, trying to hold back the tears.  I couldn't help but feel at least partially responsible for this.  Sonic had been so eager to get me and Knuckles to safety, and I went along with it because I didn't want to disappoint him.  Well, look who's disappointed now.  If only I had pushed the point a little more, Sonic and Amy (and maybe even Stella) would still be alive today.  No, Tails, don't beat yourself up for this.  Sonic sacrificed himself to save you and Knuckles.  If he didn't, you may have been captured and killed too.  Remember him for his acts of selflessness, and cherish all the time you did have with him.  I got to my feet and made my way home, but in spite of this self-reassurance, I still cried myself to sleep that night.

The next morning put me in a slightly brighter mood.  I was still sad for the loss of my best friends, but I wanted to focus on all the good memories I had of Sonic and Amy rather than wallow in self-pity.  I decided that I would set aside one day every month where I could pay tribute to Sonic and Amy, with special visits on their birthdays and their anniversary.  So in an attempt to start the tradition, I went to a small flower shop that was within walking distance of my house, and purchased a small bouquet of blue and pink flowers.  I flew off to Sonic and Amy's grave site, intent on leaving the flowers there and taking a few minutes to reminisce.  But when I arrived, I was surprised to discover that a wicker basket had already been left there by someone else.  I saw a neatly-folded note sticking out of the side, and with my curiosity piqued, I took it in my hands.  It had been sealed with wax, and my heart stopped dead when I saw the insignia in the seal: Robotnik.

Thinking that the basket contained a bomb or some other nasty trap, I sprinted away from the basket as fast as my feet could carry me.  I got halfway across the cemetery before skidding to a stop and turning around.  In the distance, I could still see the basket in front of the graves, and no explosion or anything else had happened.  I waited a few more minutes to be on the safe side, then decided to open the letter, which had crumpled in my hand.  Smoothing out the page as best as I could, my eyes scanned the neatly handwritten words:

To whom it may concern:
My name is Dr. Ivo Robotnik, and after so many years and dozens of failed attempts, I can finally claim victory over Sonic the Hedgehog and Amy Rose.  I never believed patience was a virtue, but I guess good things do come to those who wait!

I snarled as I read those words.  It wasn't enough that you had to kill Sonic and Amy, Robotnik, and now you're rubbing it in my face?!  I swear, Robotnik, by every fiber of my being, that I will never forgive you for this infraction.  But then I noticed that the letter continued:

...Or so I once believed.  Sonic the Hedgehog has been my nemesis for so long that I can barely remember what my life or my work was like before him.  Over time, it became a game of sorts, an unending struggle between good and evil, as each of us tried to gain an upper hand on the other.  Because Sonic would always find a way to defeat me, I never bothered to make detailed plans of what exactly I'd do if Sonic no longer stood to oppose me.  Sure, I had aspirations of building an empire and dominating the world, but that was long ago, and frankly, world domination doesn't have the same appeal to me as it did when I was younger.  Maybe I'm getting too old for this...I don't know...

This was a side of Robotnik I'd never seen before.  I felt regret and even a slight tinge of guilt in the words on the page.  He may have concocted the letter to deceive us once again, as he is apt to do, but something about these words felt different.  They actually felt...sincere.

I wish there was some way to bring Sonic and Amy back to life, if but only for a moment.  I'd tell Sonic that I needed him as much as he needed me, and I'd tell Amy that I should have known better than to get her involved in all this.  But until then, I am determined to not let their memory perish from the earth.  To whomever finds this note: inside the basket you will find Sonic and Amy's only child.  Please see to it that she grows up and never forgets what kind of people her mother and father were.

Sincerely,

Dr. Ivo Robotnik

My eyes went wide and I gasped when I read that Stella was inside the basket.  With a speed that would've done Sonic proud, I rushed over to the wicker basket and threw open the blanket covering.  Inside, as promised, was a little blue hedgehog in a dirty pink and yellow sun dress...with her eyes closed and not moving.  My heart started pounding as I put an ear to her chest, listening for a heartbeat, and breathed a sigh of relief to hear one.  I put my fingers gently around Stella, lifting her out of the basket, and in so doing I woke her up.  She was clearly surprised to see me and started crying, but I was just so thankful that she hadn't died along with Sonic and Amy that I held her tightly to my chest and I started crying tears of joy.  I muttered under my breath "Don't worry, Robotnik...I won't let their memory die," before brushing Stella's quills out of her face and kissing her on the forehead.  I looked straight at Stella, who looked back at me with her signature big green eyes, and said "Stella, I promise on the names of your beloved mommy and daddy that I will raise you like my own child and help you grow to be the woman Sonic and Amy would have wanted you to be."