"Hey, Sonic..."

The hedgehog's eyes opened slowly, and he looked over towards them. "Hey... You're all here?"

"Yes...!" Amy took his hands. "We're all here, Sonic... How're you feeling?"

Sonic sighed. "...Tired... But I'm still here, so that's something..." His eyes then fell on the bundle in her arms. "Is that...?"

Amy smiled, carefully holding her son out so he could see better. "Yup... Sonic, meet Remington Cole."

"Hey, little guy..." Sonic cooed. "I'm a friend of your mom's... She's gonna take real good care of you."

"And you too, Sonic." Amy announced. "I got permission to have you stay with me, since my front door is accessible."

"Ah yes, the wheelchair situation." Sonic murmured, then looked up at Tails. "You getting on that, Tails?"

Tails smirked. "You know I am."

"So if I punch you in the shin, you can still feel it?" Knuckles asked mischieviously.

Sonic glared. "You try to test that, and I'll have Shadow remove you from the premises, Knux."

"It was just a joke."

"Shadow might not think so..." Sonic sighed. "He's been really protective of me since I got here..."

Amy sighed. "He's probably trying to make up for it... Poor guy."

"I keep telling him that it's not his fault, but I think he's still blaming himself for not getting to me sooner."

"He'll get over it."

"You sure? Cuz he didn't let go of Maria for a REEEEEEALLY long time."

Knuckles put a hand on Sonic's shoulder. "I'd like to stick around and mess with you some more, but I've gotta get back to Angel Island and Tikal...You get some rest, Blue." He instructed, then headed towards the door.

"Wait, you'll miss the fun part." Sonic replied, sitting up a little. "Ames, could you come here for a minute?"

Amy nodded, coming over to the bed after handing Remy off to Cosmo, who didn't seem to mind at all. "Yes, Sonic?"

Sonic took her hand, slipping something small into it. "Amelia Leann Rose, before anything else happens to prevent me from doing this... I have to say that you're an amazing person, an amazing friend and teammate... And you're going to be an amazing mother for Remy."

"Thanks, Sonic... But what's-"

"I'm sure you could take care of him just fine by yourself... But I love you too much to let you, so... I guess what I'm trying to say is...Will you let me help?"

He looked away as Amy gave a gasp, then she leaned closer. "Are you... Are you proposing, Sonic...?"

A short nod was all he gave, his cheeks burning as red as Knuckles' fur.

Knuckles chuckled. "This isn't the fun part... It's awesome!"

"I was gonna do something special for you, Ames... But then everything went bad and then... And now I'm too scared you'll say no because I'm just a messed up, paralegic science experiment who's tried to be a hero, and-"

"No freaking way, Sonic T. Hedgehog!" Amy wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. "I-I mean... Yes! I accept your proposal, as lousy as it is, because I love you too much to care if you're a science experiment, or if you can't walk... You'll always be my hero to me."

Sonic smiled, tears in his eyes. "Thank you, Amy... For not giving up on me after all this time."

"Oh please. I promised that I would follow you everywhere you went the day we met, Sonic. Do you really think I'd back out of that?"

"No."

"So, we'll be having ourselves a wedding to attend sometime!" Cosmo cheered. "This'll be fun!"

"Now," Knuckles asked. "Can we please go like... A year without something awful happening to you!?"

Sonic chuckled. "I hope so, Knux... I hope that we don't have anything else go wrong for a loooong time..."

______________________________________________________________________

"Shadow...? What are you doing?"

Shadow looked up from the screen. "I can't sleep... Something's bothering me."

"What is it...?"

"...Private Galaxino, I don't think he's who he says he is... he never talks about himself, he knows stuff he shouldn't know, and his file reads that he's been promoted multiple times, but has declined it every time. Why would someone want to stay a private...?"

"He's trying to avoid attention...?" Rouge sat down. "What do you think he's going here, then?"

"I don't know... I'm running a facial recognition, see if anything comes up."

The computer hummed as it skimmed through thousands of images, then began coming up with results, none of them recent. Ancient Tapestries, old writings, faded photos from decades before, all referring to or depicting a skunk bearing Honesty's features, from as far back as 1000 years.

"The tapestries and writings all speak of a young wizard that is like the wind, seen in the area for but a short amount of time during struggles, then disappearing and leaving no trace." Rouge murmured. "Some describe him as a teenager, more recent ones as an adult, and the more recent you go, the less sightings there have been."

"A wizard, huh...?" Shadow opened a file by his hand. "...Sounds like we've got ourselves an immortal working for us." He winced as his hand throbbed, rubbing his wrist with the other.

"You alright?"

"Yes... My hand's just trying to cramp up from too much paper-signing, I guess..."

Rouge smirked, kissing his cheek. "Well don't be up too late worrying about Honesty... Your paperboy can't be that dangerous, even if he is immortal."

Shadow nodded, watching his wife return to their bedroom. He waited a few moments, then removed his glove, feeling the increasing stiffness in his joints as time had gone on. "It's getting worse..." he whispered, then returned his glove to his hand, and returned to his research.

___________________________________________________________________________

Honesty quietly walked from his desk to the break room, not speaking to anyone as he passed them. He heard whispers from other officers, but he did not acknowledge them.

He couldn't let anyone else know his secret. If anyone knew, they might take advantage of him. He'd been doing this for ages, yet it only felt like a few short years to him. Where had the time gone...?

As he collected his coat, he sensed a presence that was familiar to him, but extremely foreign to this realm. He quickly threw his coat on, then hurried towards the door. He had to see what it was before it faded...

As he exited the building, he noticed the strange occurrence outside. Despite it being in the mid-eighties that afternoon, snow was tumbling down from the sky, not hard, but enough that other officers stood around dumbfounded as it hit the ground and stuck like the ground was frozen.

Honesty hurried out, determining the source of the snow in the sky. He'd seen this before, but not a very, very long time, and it meant something bad had happened...

His feet carried him away from the base, and out into the nearby hills, where he heard crying and the snow increased in intensity.

He froze, then dropped to his knees as he reached the top of a hill, seeing a white cat sitting in the grass, weeping into her hands and her once-fine, blue dress now in tatters.

"Princess...!?" He whispered, unable to bring another word to his lips.

The cat turned to face him, tears streaming down her cheeks. "HONESTY!!!" she screamed, rushing forward and wrapping her arms tightly around his neck as she wept. "Honesty they're gone! All of them! I couldn't save them! I-I couldn't-"

"Shh! Shh..." Honesty held her tightly. "Deep breaths, Frost... What's happened...?"

"The Anarcians! They invaded Emrels! Th-They took my family hostage and took their powers! I made it out but..."

She broke down into more sobs, and Honesty held her close, closing his eyes and kissing her head as she cried. But as he opened his eyes, they glowed green, his pupils turning a paler green than the rest of his eyes. A rage washed through his veins, pulsing like a second heart and burning in his mind. "I swear, Frost... We are going to get your family back..."

The princess looked up to his face. "What are you going to do...?" she whimpered.

Honesty clenched a fist, and a scepter appeared in his grip, it's end bearing a glowing blue orb. "...I'm going to destroy them...!"

He took in a deep breath, then watched as the snowfall eased significantly as the princess curled up closer to him. "Come on, Frost... I know somebody who can house you until we figure out a plan."

"Okay..." Frost got up onto her feet. "...Lead the way, Galaxy's Eighth..."

And that's all for this story! Stay Tuned for the next "Book" in the series: The Chaos of Emeralds!