(Sonia's POV)

Me, Chip, and (Y/N) are all waking through Holoska. (Y/N) has been pretty silent ever since I tried to tell him what I saw his father doing. As we walked, some of Eggman's robots and Dark Gaia creatures appeared. I scoffed as I quickly punched forward, hitting them all. They all got knocked into a large body of water, sinking all the way down to the bottom. I looked around and there is another large body of ice and snow on the other side of the water, but there doesn't seem to be a way to it.

Chip: How are we going to move forward now?

Sonia: Even if I could swim, this water would be way too cold to swim all the way over.

Chip: I can fly, but I don't think I can fly you both over.

(Y/N): ...

(Y/N) didn't say anything. I would like to at least hear him give a suggestion to this problem. I looked around again and noticed a large and tall pillar of ice. I walked up to it and reeled my arm back, making it stretch far back.

Sonia: Argh!

I threw my arm forward, punching the ice pillar. The bottom of it cracked and started to lean forward and fell down. The fallen pillar is now a bridge connecting the two land masses now.

Chip: Woah! Now we can continue going forward!

We all hopped onto the fallen ice pillar and used it to make it over the cold water. We all made it over and we continued to move forward. I was trying to think of something to say to (Y/N) to at least get him to say something, but I was interrupted when Chip let out a sigh and started to hold his stomach.

Sonia: Chip? You good?

Chip: Just a bit hungry is all... Ah hah!

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a chocolate bar. He opened his mouth wide and bit down as hard as he could on the bar. He stayed still for a second before throwing the chocolate into the air and started to run around, screaming while holding his teeth. I caught the chocolate bar and noticed it doesn't even have bite marks on it. I tapped on it, making a clink noise. It's as hard as steel. I thought about the feeling biting into this thing would do and winced as I looked over at Chip.

Chip: Aaaaah! Why did the chocolate bite back?!

I just put the chocolate in my pocket. Might give it to Knuckles next time I see him to mess with him a bit. Chip managed to recover from his pain and we kept heading forward.

Sonia: ...Hey. (Y/N).

(Y/N): ...

Sonia: Stop giving me the silent treatment. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, but not telling you would have only hurt you more.

He reached over and put the hoodie of the coat over his head to hide his face from me.

(Y/N): ...Whatever.

Whatever... The only word he said. It's progress, I guess. We all kept walking forward until a bright light made us all stop. The light went away and I looked ahead, seeing some kind of creature enclosed in ice.

I saw it's eyes move before it shattered itself out of the ice and let out a roar.

Chip: Oh no!

Chip quickly flew behind me. I grunted as I jumped ahead to fight this giant thing that's in the way. I managed to notice that there is a Gaia Temple behind the creature. I quickly punched and clawed at its body, making it screech out in pain before whipping its head around. It knocked me back a bit from hitting me, making me crash into some snow. It opened its mouth and started to breathe out ice everywhere. I tried to run away, but felt my feet get trapped under some of the ice it breathed.

Sonia: Oh cmon!

I saw (Y/N) dash over using his shoes and used the flames coming from the back of them to melt the ice around me.

Sonia: Thanks for the save!

He just nodded his head as he went around to melt more of the ice the creature made. I ran over at the creature again as it tried to swing its head at me. I jumped over it and put my hands together and slammed my hands down on top of its head. It let out a shriek as a huge ball of ice came from its mouth. I noticed that it is slowly coming for me. I smirked as right before the ball of ice hit me, (Y/N) dashed over to grab me. We both got out of the way as the ball of ice hit the creature, freezing itself. (Y/N) started to spin me around before throwing me forward. I brought my fist back and got ready to punch. A blue aura surrounded my body as I threw my fist forward, making the ice shatter into a ton of pieces, including the creature.

Sonia: Sorry buddy, but this girl knows how to give the cold shoulder!

I landed in some snow, softening my fall as the aura around me dissipated.

(Y/N): ...That joke was bad...

Chip: I don't get it.

I saw (Y/N) walking forward towards the temple. I got up and patted any snow off myself as me and Chip joined (Y/N) to enter the temple. We walked inside and went up to the alter in the middle. I managed to catch my breath from that fight as Chip's orb near his neck lit up and the alter raised up. I took out one of the drained Chaos Emerald's and put it onto the alter. The Chaos Emerald started to glow before floating up into the air, now becoming light blue in color.

Chip: Woah! It's an aqua color now!

...Sure, that. The ground started to roughly shake, meaning that another piece of the planet is being restored. After a bit, the shaking stopped. Me, (Y/N), and Chip all left the temple, leaving the Chaos Emerald like the other 3 times we did this.

Sonia: Now we are officially over half way there!

(Time Skip)

Me, (Y/N), and Chip all returned to the small village we came across before setting out to find the temple here. It was morning by the time we made it, so I'm back to my usual self for the moment.

Chip: I sure am hungry after all that walking. Let's get something to eat while we are here!

Sonia: You really are insatiable.

I saw (Y/N) looking around the village. He hadn't said a thing on the way back here. He started to walk off. I was about to ask where he was going, but I saw him walking over to his family. Seems like they stayed here. I ran over to get next to (Y/N).

Amethyst: Oh! There's my baby boy! I was wondering where you went off to! I could t find you anywhere in Spagonia!

Garnet: Good to see you again, bro.

(Y/N): I want to ask you all something.

Onyx: What might that be?

Sonia: I saw what you tried to do last night.

I pointed at (Y/N)'s father. He crossed his arms and stayed quiet.

Sonia: You tried to steal a souvenir from a shop!

Amethyst: O-Oh! I-I didn't think my darling Onyx would-

Onyx: Let's not lie to them. We don't want to bring more shame onto us.

Everyone stayed quiet as the muscular man unfolded his arms.

Onyx: Yeah, I did try to steal that thing. Only because it's hard for us to make some money. It was either steal that thing and sell it off, or let us go hungry.

I quickly looked at the rest of the family. (Y/N)'s mother and brother just nodded their heads and his little siblings got a look of confusion on their faces while looking at each other.

Onyx: I apologize for not talking about this earlier. I just didn't want you to look down at my family.

(Y/N): ...Alright. I guess... Well...

I looked over at (Y/N) and I can tell he is conflicted. Yeah, stealing is wrong, but his father was trying to do it for a good reason.

(Y/N): If that's the reason, then I suppose I can let it slide this one time.

His father smiled and patted (Y/N) on the back while letting out a small laugh.

Onyx: There's my boy! I knew you would understand!

(Y/N): Me and Sonia are off to fix another piece of the planet.

Sonia: At the rate we are going, it shouldn't be long.

They gave us their thanks before walking off. I stared at them as they walked away. I'll make sure to keep my eye on them if I run into them again. I looked over at (Y/N).

Sonia: Let's get out of the cold and find our next temple to get to.

(Y/N): ...Right.

(Time Skip)

Me, Chip, (Y/N), Tails, and Amy are all walking around in a town in a place called Shamar. It was still daytime by the time we got here. Professor Pickle said that he has a research lab somewhere in this town. But unfortunately he didn't actually say where in the town.

(Y/N): Man, first a place that was really cold and now a place that's really hot.

Chip: I wonder what kind of food this place has!

Chip said as his mouth started to drool a bit.

Amy: So we only need 3 more of the Chaos Emeralds restored, right?

Tails: Yep! Soon all this trouble will be behind us.

(Y/N): I do wonder how the rest of our friends are dealing with this.

Sonia: If some of them even noticed. I'm sure the Knucklehead hasn't noticed since he's up on that island of his.

Amy: I'm sure Rouge and Shadow have noticed. Maybe they're doing their own investigation on this?

Tails: I figured if anyone would be investigating this mess, it would be the Chaotix.

Chip: Oh boy, you all sure do have a lot of friends! I'd love to meet them sometime!

(Y/N): Eh... I'm not sure if some of them can be considered friends exactly.

Sonia: You're talking about Shadow, huh?

(Y/N): You said it, not me.

We continued to look around, trying to find Professor Pickle's research lab but we didn't have much luck.

Tails: Maybe we should split up to find it?

Chip: That sounds like a great idea!

Chip went on ahead on his own. Amy let out a sigh as she walked forward to catch up with Chip.

Amy: Now you wait up! I've been informed of that endless appetite of yours!

Chip: How did you know I was trying to find food?!

I just smiled as I watched the two walk away. Tails started to use her tails to fly up into the air, leaving me and (Y/N) together.

Sonia: Looks like it's just us now.

I looked over at (Y/N), who is looking away from me while rubbing the back of his neck.

(Y/N): Sonia... Sorry for being a butt to you earlier.

I just smiled and wrapped one arm around him, giving him a one arm hug.

Sonia: It's alright. I'm sorry to make assumptions about your family. So let's just leave it as water under the bridge, kay?

(Y/N): Uh, yeah. Water under the bridge.

I gave (Y/N) a quick kiss and patted him on the back.

Sonia: Glad we moved past that. Now let's go and find that research lab.

(Chapter 44 end)