The sun was beginning to peek it's head along the distant desert horizon marking the dawn of a new day. Within an hour the sun would be fully up and it was at this time that everyone within New New Mobotropolis was beginning to stir. Everyone except Sonic himself. He lay in bed trapped within a nightmare that he couldn't wake from. He tossed and turned in his bed, mumbling incoherent sentences. The longer the nightmare dragged on, the worse it got until finally he sat up in bed, screaming in terror.

He quickly looked around his room and took quick deep breathes to try to soothe his nerves, "It was just a nightmare." He mumbled to himself in reassurance. He sat on his bed with his back against the wall with his legs curled up and held himself tightly. He finally took one last deep breath and slapped his cheeks with both his hands to not only wake himself up but to startle himself out of the panic he had been in. "It wasn't real, so there's no reason for me to be scared." He said out loud.

He climbed out of bed and shuddered at the chill morning air. He reached for his usual attire which consisted of a brown bandanna, a brown vest, brown backpack, yellowish white gloves with the fingers cut off, yellowish white socks and red sneakers. He tied up the laces to his shoes and sighed. "Another day, another fight." He tilted his head from side to side until he head a satisfying crack and did a few quick stretches before he opened his bedroom door and walked into the hallway of the living quarters. He could hear the bustling of people waking up and hushed whispers. He walked down the hallway until he stopped at a familiar door and knocked.

"Hey Sal..." He began before he cut himself short and his heart sank. "Ohh, right." He said quietly before looking down at the floor. "You're not with us anymore."

He stood there in silence before he heard a small cough. He look down to see Tails standing next to him. "I miss her too, Sonic." Tails said with a small smile. Sonic could only nod. There wasn't time for grieving, that would come later after this was was finally won, or lost. "Come on, let's go get some food, I'm starving!" Tails exclaimed.

Sonic had to smile at his little brother, even with all that had happened, Tails kept a brave face and tried to keep smiling for everyone around him. "You're pretty tough, you know that right, kiddo?" Sonic asked.

"I have to be." Tails said simply as they walked to the dining hall. "Everyone is trying their best so I have to do my best too." Sonic couldn't think of anything to say in response but he felt a mixture of pride and sadness for his brother. He was proud of how hard Tails tried and saddened by the fact that Tails didn't even have time to grieve, but then again, no-one really had a chance to grieve anymore.

Sonic and Tails entered the dining hall and sat down to oatmeal with a small selection of dried fruits to otherwise spice up the bland meal. Sonic put in a few blackberries and began to eat the food. He'd never been fond of oatmeal but with rations slowly running out, this was all they could eat and the fruit was a special treat. Tails gagged at the food and frowned. "Oatmeal again? I hate oatmeal!" He pouted.

Sonic patted Tails on the shoulder. "I know what you mean. But hey at least we have fruit this time around!"

Tails grumbled under his breath but ate his breakfast nonetheless. Sonic looked around for his friends, and once they saw him waving to them, walked over. With another quick glance Sonic counted everyone who was left. It was hard to get an exact count but he was sure that he saw a little more than fifty people in that cramped room. Knuckles sat next to him and Tikal next to Knuckles. Nicole approached the end of the table with a very concerned expression.

"What's wrong Nicole? You look like someone put mealworms in your oatmeal." Sonic half-heartedly joked.

"Have any of you seen Amy? I went to wake her up but she wasn't in her room." Nicole asked. Everyone at the table slowly looked at eachother and then shook their heads.

"Isn't she with Cream?" Knuckles questioned, "I know that they're pretty close, like sisters."

"That's just it. I asked Vanilla and she said she hasn't seen Amy anywhere and neither has Cream."

"She can't be very far." Shadow said quietly as he walked past the group. "She knows it's dangerous to go somewhere without a partner."

"You're right, but still I'm worried." Nicole said.

Sonic looked down at his breakfast and suddenly lost his appetite. He stood up and pushed his plate away. "I'm going to go look for Amy. She must be around her somewhere."

"Do you want me to come help you find her, Sonic?" Tails and Knuckles asked at the same time.

"No thanks." Sonic said simply as he left the room. "I can find her on my own."

He began to walk through the entire compound and checked every inch he possibly could. He knocked on every bedroom door, he asked every single passing person, but no-one had seen her since last night. With each passing moment he could feel hysteria setting in. He walked faster, called her name louder and panicked. "AMMMYYYYY!" His shouts echoed down empty corridors. He walked even faster, unaware that he had begun to pull the stitching out of his legs and a thin trail of blood began to trickle down his legs and into his socks.

Sonic left the compound to go outside and ask if any of the guards had seen Amy. Just like everyone inside, no-one had seen her since last night. Until finally he came to the last guard, a large yellowish white polar bear who nodded.

"Where is she? Where did she go?" Sonic asked.

The polar bear looked around before saying. "She left early this morning to go harvest some desert plants that might have medicinal properties."

"When did she come back?" Sonic bit his lip nervously.

The polar bear shrugged, "I don't know, I do know I left my post for a short time to go eat." He pointed at a green duck who was busy playing with a bouncy ball, "He should know when she came back so you should ask him."

Sonic took an angry deep breath. "Fine." He mumbled. He walked back over to the duck that he saw right before this polar bear. "Your friend over there says you were also watching his post while he went to go get breakfast. Did you see anyone come back?"

"I dunno, I was to busy playing with this fun bouncy-ball. Want to try it? It's super shiny and bouncy!" The duck said cheerfully.

Sonic rolled his eyes. "No I don't want to play, I want to find my missing friend."

The duck shrugged, "M'kay, but you're really missin' out."

Sonic groaned in frustration. He decided to go back inside and check everywhere again to see he accidentally missed her in his search to find her.

Sonic searched everywhere again, this time more thoroughly and once again asked everyone. Still, every answer was the same, no-one saw Amy leave or come back. The more time passed the more Sonic began to panic. Amy wasn't answering her cellphone and that only made the growing pit in Sonic's stomach feel worse.

He began to pace the hallways quickly, his hands shaking as he began to fear the worst. "Sonic! Stop it!" Someone shouted. Sonic turned around to see Shadow behind him.

Sonic grabbed Shadow by his shirt collar. "I've got to find Amy! She could be hurt or worse and no-one knows where she is!" Sonic's breathing grew heavy and he was visibly trembling.

Shadow frowned and with one hand slapped Sonic across the face. "We will find her, but first you need to stop panicking." Shadow said calmly.

Sonic rubbed his face where Shadows hand made contact. The slap he was given caused him to suddenly snap back to reality. "It's just that I feel like something bad has already happened to her and I don't know where she is and because my legs aren't healing fast enough I can't run anymore.."

"Trust me, and I know it's not usually my style to say so, but, Amy is a tough girl, you shouldn't be so worried because she can handle herself in a fight and you know that." Shadow said with a slight smile. "I'll help you find her, but only because she is my friend, too."

Sonic nodded slowly. "Okay."

The two hedgehogs stood there in silence before Sonic finally said, "Maybe we should go check outside again?" Shadow nodded and the two started to head outside before a loud crackle rumbled through the PA system strung through the entire compound. "SONIC! GET IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM IMMEDIATELY! IT'S ABOUT AMY!" Nicoles voice shouted. She sounded terrified and Sonic felt like his heart was going to stop beating.

Just when he almost had his hopes up that Amy might be safe somewhere, the tone of Nicole's voice told him otherwise. He felt his entire body freeze up for a split second.

Shadows usually stoic expression suddenly turned to one of extreme concern. "Let's go!" He grabbed Sonic's arm to pull him in the direction of the conference room. Sonic nodded as he followed behind Shadow. Shadow and Amy shared a very close almost sibling like bond and Sonic could tell that Shadow was just as worried as he was. It seemed like an eternity before the pair reached the conference room when in all actuality it was just a few minutes. Nicole had a laptop hooked up to a screen and Sonic felt a crippling panic at the live video before him on screen.

Robotnik held Amy up by the back of her light purple nightdress. Her hands were tied in front of her in chains and her mouth was gagged. She was obviously crying and large black and blue bruises were starting to cover her face, neck and shoulders. Robotnik stood there laughing menacingly. "This is it, hedgehog." Robotnik spat. "If you want your precious girlfriend back, surrender to me and I'll let the rest of the Mobians you have hiding with you become my slaves. Defy me and ..." He made a slitting motion with his finger against Amy's throat. "Well I'm sure you get the picture. Because I am so generous I will give you exactly three hours to turn yourselves in. And because I am even more gracious, here are the exact coordinates so you don't get lost. But if you bring anyone of your friends with you, I will kill Amy on spot."

Amy made muffled noises through her gag but everyone knew she was begging to be rescued. "Robotnik you bastard!" Sonic shouted.

"Tsk tsk. I'm shocked to hear such foul language from you. Besides, the clock is ticking. You'd better make up your mind soon."

The video feed cut off abruptly.

"Amy!" Sonic and Shadow said at the same time.

Sonic looked at Shadow and Nicole and then clenched his fists. "That's it. I'm sick of Robotnik pushing us around! I'm sick of him taking away our friends and I'll be damned if I let him kill Amy."

"Sonic be rational! You're just going to give up and let Robotnik win because he's holding Amy hostage?" Nicole exclaimed. "You really want everyone here to become his slaves where we'll be worked to death in his factories?"

"No! I'm just sick of it all. I ... I don't know." Sonic looked down at the ground.

"How about this then?" Shadow spoke up. "Sonic, I have a plan. You will go to Robotnik while Knuckles, a small team of Freedom Fighters and myself sneak in to help you take him down once and for all."

Sonic shook his head. "I can't have you do that. He said he only wants me there. If he even remotely thinks you followed me I'm sure he'll kill Amy before we can have a chance to do anything. I would run in with a blaze of glory but with how my legs are, I can't run anymore. Maybe I can come up with a compromise or something. I mean I'm sure that's what Amy would want me to do."

Shadow slammed his fist on the table. "If only Robotnik didn't have all the Chaos Emeralds, I could chaos control myself inside and rescue Amy before he could do anything." He said angrily.

Sonic looked at Shadow with shock from the ebony hedgehogs sudden violent outburst. He couldn't think of anything to say, but it was true, without the Chaos Emeralds, Shadow couldn't access his chaos powers, which only left him feeling powerless deep down inside.

Sonic placed a hand on Shadows shoulder. "Don't worry. I'll get Amy back alive somehow and we'll end this war. Even if it kills me, I promise we'll be free someday." Sonic bit his lip then took a deep breath.

"Nicole, send the coordinates to my phone. I'll take one of the dune buggys and go alone."

"Sonic you can't! You know we can't trust Robotnik!" Nicole pleaded. "There must be some other way!"

Sonic smiled weakly, "I don't think there's any other way." With that being said he turned and started to walk out of the room.

"Just come back alive and with Amy or else I'll kill you." Shadow said solemnly.

Sonic turned to face Shadow and with a smirk said, "Like I said, don't worry, I'm not gonna go down that easily! Besides, I promised I'd bring Amy back alive. Have a little faith in me!"