Hello once again, everyone! Coming in with Chapter 7 for you all~

I hope you enjoy this chapter so R&R! Thank you so much for your comments. I'm glad to know that you guys are excited for the outcome of this story; I am too, hehe! That's all for now. Happy reading!

DISCLAIMER: As usual I don't own any SEGA characters, just this story.

Chapter 7: Discovery

Locked in a trap with no light, nothing but her own thoughts. It felt like she was in a dream. Sleep paralysis...maybe? A state of the mind where one is conscious in their sleep but unable to move. A terrifying feeling, but she could not wake up. She tried to leave her subconscious, but it was all for naught. Her efforts proved useless, her mind was trapped, leaving but a shell of a body. She could only hear mumbles, but for some reason could see almost clearly what was around her. Two familiar robots stood on each side and in front of her...doctor Eggman? What was he saying? What was going on? His mouth moved for only a short moment before she felt her body move on it's own.

Wait a minute?! Amy yelled in the midst of her subconscious. Was this not sleep paralysis? Why was her body moving?Why in her dream was she with Eggman?! Was she even dreaming?!

Once again she tried to take control of herself. Desperately trying to connect with some part of her body. Anxiety overcame her. All she wanted to do was ove. She moved her fingers; nothing. She moved her toes; useless. She moved her ears; not a thing. Anxiety was overtaken by a feeling of dread that soon overcame the Rose's subconscious. What was going on? Was it really all a weird dream? Or just a nightmare? Was this...karma? Karma for the way she treated her lifelong hero?

Her subconscious efforts to move came stop. It was like all her thoughts came to a halt. All that could be heard in the echoes of her mind was a soft chuckle.

It had to be karma. Why wouldn't it be? I hurt all my friends, for no reason. I can't even remember doing it, but I did. It was clear on all their faces. I hurt Sonic. I hurt him so many times. I didn't even bother to listen to him. I didn't even care. They all must hate me. Sonic must hate me. I probably deserve to be in whatever dream this is. Maybe...

Maybe it's better if I don't wake up.

Outside of the withering Rose's subconscious, past the mumbles she couldn't hear was indeed doctor Eggman. He was giving himself a pat on the back as the shell of Amy Rose stood by him patiently waiting for her next command. She was lifeless. Her eyes were no longer the bright jade colored emeralds that she once had. Now they were an empty, faded shade of crimson. They held no emotion, as her mind was locked away from Eggman's control and her own self doubt.

"It's amazing. The mind control is set to its lowest setting, yet she still obeys without any hassle." A chuckle comes from the crazed doctor. "Goes to show what a little manipulation can really do to somebody! Am I right boys?" He grinned, hitting his shoulder against Orbot, practically making him fall over. Steadying himself he looked to the doctor with a eyes of despair. He loved his creator, but he could not accept such actions of manipulation just to destroy the mobians that even the doctor himself cared to some sort of degree.

I hope Sonic and friends find a solution to help Miss Rose soon. His mechanical mind processed.

•••

The blue blur had lost count to how many times he speed around his friend's workshop. As much as he had wanted to wait next to Tails until a solution was made from the discovery of the bracelet Sonic had found, he couldn't stay still for the life of him. Not with the range of emotions he felt boiling inside him. Anxiety, Anger, Heartbreak, Sadness...he just didn't want to think about any of it. He didn't want to lose control and be reckless. It was funny. Normally that would be all Sonic would like to do, but circumstances had changed. He was scared, terrified even. Anything he did could damage the situation he was in even more than it had already had, and the blue blur wasn't sure if he could handle that sort of pain anymore. He just wanted Amy to be safe. Even if she did loathe him, he just wanted her safe.

"Sonic!" A voice came from inside the workshop. Bursting through the door in a flash Sonic was faced to face with the young fox, desperate for an answer. While one would usually be stunned by Sonic's sudden appearance, Tails had known his best friend by now and simple began to speak. "I think I know what's wrong with-"

"Yeah okay just tell me!" The blur begged, eyes almost twitching. Tails paid no mind to his impatience, he understood very well the stress his friend was going through.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I think it's mind control. You see this opening inside the bracelet here? There's a needle. It seems that it was used to inject into whoever puts it on. It's possible he put a device in her to make her act this way. It has to be that."

"That...son of a bitch…" Sonic growled and looked down. He could feel his nails digging into his skin as he clenched his fist. Sure, Eggman has tried mind control before; plenty of times actually. But this felt like a whole new level. To manipulate her to the point of hurting her friends in such a way; Amy of all mobians. To be watching the two and using their feelings against him. It all just clicked in Sonic's mind. He sent the message to Soar. He made Amy go crazy. He hurt Amy. Sonic could hear his teeth grinding. His quills began to rise up.

"Sonic…" Azure eyes looked up to the growling hedgehog. Delicately placing a hand down on him, Tails gave him a reassuring look. Sonic kept his head down, but twitched and ear as if to say Yes, I'm listening. "It's going to be okay. We're heroes, remember? We just need get everyone together. I'm sure Amy will soften up to you once we tell her it was all part of Eggman's schemes as usual. I'll call her, you go get the others over here, okay? We'll beat Eggman, get Amy back to normal, and then you two can talk, and you can tell her how you feel. No interruptions." The young fox looked to his friend waiting for approval. Spikes began to go down, and his clenched fists loosened before he gave a soft nod. Tails gave a reassuring smile before going to the other side of the room to call Amy on his communicator. With a sigh Sonic looked down to his own communicator, before pressing a red and green button to call the other two friends. A few beeps ringed around the room before two familiar voices came from the other side.

"Sonic? Hey dude, what's up?" Knuckles began.

"Hey you two!" Sticks chimed in. Sonic sighed. As much as it was nice to hear the sound of friendliness, it just wasn't enough to brighten the hero's mood.

"Hey you guys. We need you at the workshop, ASAP. Tails thinks he found out what was wrong with Amy." He responded in a flat tone.

"Sure but...Sonic you alright? You sound kind of down..." Knuckles questioned. There was silence.

"Sonic? Did something happen?" Sticks added. He didn't want to answer. It would be so easy to say yes to his friends and end the call, but he didn't want to lie. They would be met his face soon enough, and they'll know.

"There's no time for this. As usual Eggman is behind all of this, so we need to meet up and figure out how to stop him before-"

"Sonic?" Tails interrupted. His ears were flat. "Amy's...communicator has been disconnected." He felt his stomach drop looking at the expression on the fox's face. Shaking his head he stuttered out.

"M-Maybe she just turned it-"

"No Sonic. Not turned off. I mean disconnected. Her communicator is no longer active. I-I can't track it or reach to it or anything. I….I have a really bad feeling about this…" Sonic's eyes dialated at the comment from his friend. Curses spewed from his mouth before a dash of blue sped off the workshop, clearly heading straight for the direction of Amy's hut. Tails immediately took off with his namesakes swinging through the air. He looked to his communicator calling Sticks and Knuckles as he followed the trail of blue light. "Knuckles, Sticks!"

"Hey! The heck happened?! Sonic just hung up outta nowhere!" Sticks shouted in annoyance. Tails rolled his eyes. He knew she didn't understand the situation yet but the pressure of it all just made him more annoyed.

"Sticks, no time. We need you guys to head over to Amy's house quick. Her communicator is disconnected and I'm worried something must have happened. We'll discuss this more over there." He closed the call without another word and rushed over to Amy's hut.

•••

A streak of blue burst through the entrance to Amy's home. Though he wasn't yet prepared to see the rose face to face, at that moment he prayed to sweet Chaos that she would be inside. He didn't care if he met face to face with that signature hammer as long as it came from her, because that meant she was there. He scanned through the living room of her home. No rose in sight. He zoomed up to her room. Nothing. He checked the bathroom, every closet, outside and the kitchen. Absolutely no one there but the blue hedgehog himself. He slammed his fists on the kitchen counter cursing to himself.

"Damn it!" He yelled over and over again slamming his fists on the counter each time. His lungs burned at the shouting. His fists stung from both the impact of the counter and from his nails earlier at the workshop. The sound of pills from a shaking bottle before him made the hedgehog's ears perk up. His emerald gaze moved to focus on the bottle before him, moving his hand to take it and pull it closer for a better view. It was a plain red and black bottle. There was no description as to what it was, but as he turned the bottle he saw a small insignia on the bottom. His eyes widened, fury building up to cloud the emerald eyes glaring at the object he held.

"E-Eggman…" Gritting his teeth, he nearly destroyed the bottle in his grasp. Soon enough Tails came bursting through the entrance diverting the hedgehog's attention. Seeing the expression on the blues face already gave the answer he was hoping not to receive. The young genius ears lowered, and slowly he made his way to his friend.

"Sonic…" he spoke softly, as if he was talking to a petrified stray animal. Sonic's gaze lowered. His ears were down and he spoke not a word. He only gave Tails the bottle, the side with the insignia facing up. The fox's eyes widened before opening the bottle without hesitation.

He poured it out on the counter, reviewing the small red pills that spilled out. Grabbing one, he took a small scalpel from the many pouches on his belt and cut it open. Inside we're small black metal looking orbs that rolled out of the opening. A small curse escaped the fox's mouth as they spread out. He moved the tiny orbs together with the scalpel before grabbing a small magnifying glass from his belt and inspecting closer. Now there was silence. Sonic looked to Tails with desperation in his emerald eyes. Silence was the last thing he wanted. Silence meant that he was left with his thoughts, and he didn't want to think. His subconscious begged for his friend to say something soon. Anything. Time had never moved so slow. Sonic didn't do slow, and it was killing him. Snapping from his thoughts the hedgehog jumped back as the fox cursed much louder this time. "Damn it Sonic. These are microbots!" Tails slammed on the table. He wanted him to say anything but that.

"Micro-whats?!" A high pitched voice came in through the entrance. It was Sticks with Knuckles right behind her. The two quickly took notice of the grim faces the best friend pair carried.

"Whoa. Who died?" Knuckles blurted, unable to read the room properly. Sticks stepped on the Echidna's foot earning a yelp of pain. Normally she would be in the same position as Knuckles but at this point even she knew something was off balance.

"What's going on here Tails? Where's Amy? Why isn't she here?" A voice of worry grew on the badger. Tails sighed and gave a signal for everyone in the room to group up.

"Listen everyone. It's very well possible that Eggman has Amy in his clutches. He's tricked her into ingesting these microbots, and there's no telling how long this has been going on. But we can tell that it's the reason why she's been going crazy out of nowhere. It's clear that Eggman has put in some serious thought into this plan. We can't just rush into his lair and save Amy; that's what he wants. We have to think of a plan to get her back. We don't know what Eggman could do." A scoff interrupted the fox's speech.

"Are you sure we're talking about Eggman here?" Knuckles chuckles. Tails kept a grim expression on his face and his chuckle instantly died down. This time, Knuckles started to feel the heaviness of the room. He was worried for Amy just as much as everyone else, but he was so confident that she could handle herself. That was...until he saw everyone's face.

"Yes. I am. I know we're used to him not being able to pull off the best of schemes but this is different. We're at a complete disadvantage here. He has Amy captive... at least, we can assume he does. Not only that but he probably has her under his control. We don't know how long he's been plotting this, so time is to his advantage as well." The fox turns to his glooming friend. "Sonic, listen to me. I know you want to rush in and save Amy right away, but we need to have some sort of plans in case things go downhill. We need to figure out how to get these microbots out of her."

"How about like the fleabots he had used on us that one time? He had a remote, didn't he?" Sticks added. Tails gave her a thankful nod, noticing that Sonic had appreciated her seriousness in the situation.

"That could be something. According to what I saw it seems that he is using a multitude of bots to control her. This isn't something exterior either; they're inside. It's possible he has a control panel to handle such a large amount of bots. We just need to figure a way to take it from him." Tails walked around the room. He knew that as much as his friends wanted to help him, he was mainly the brains of the team. Normally, Amy would be by his side trying to help him devise something; but that wasn't the case this time. She was in trouble and it was up to him to think of something. Knuckles would try to bring up an idea every now and then, but was quickly shut up by a glare from the blue blur. Sonic was not in the mood to deal with anything at the moment. He wanted to have Amy safe and sound by his side. He didn't care if she hated him, he still loved her. He still did. So damn much it hurt to even think about it.

"Well it seems that our only option is to just sneak in and steal it huh?" Sticks chimed, breaking the silence. All eyes were on her. "Any good villain with a lair like Eggman's is sure to have some secret entrances lying around somewhere. We just have to find the right one. Then bam! We march right in there, get that control who's-it"

"Control Panel…" Tails interjected.

"Yeah whateva. That thing, and then grab Amy too and get her back to normal. We can do that, right Tails?" Sticks ended. All eyes were now on the golden colored fox. He took a moment to ponder at the possible outcomes of such a plan. He looked around the room, ignoring all the eyes focused on his every move. Emeralds burned down on the young genius, as the blue hedgehog's foot tapping on the ground was all he could hear. Tails face shifted, giving the three in his room a signal to come forward.

"I admit, it does seem like the quickest option at the moment from what I can think of. But we'll need to be careful. I'm sure Eggman has likely caught on to us by now and know we're trying to get her back. So this is what we're going to have to do."

•••

"You are a smart one yellow rat!" The doctor credited to the young Fox as he watched the four discuss their plan in Amy's hut. As usual the doctor had his spybots activated. After having messed around with Amy's mind control for some time he had returned to see them grouped up and ready to save their Sakura friend. With a chuckle he smacked the back of the pink hedgehog beside him, who did nothing but stare blankly awaiting for orders. "Your friends are funny, eh? Thinking that they could seriously devise a plan without my knowing?"

As expected. No response came from the Rose.

"Huh. Kinda missed hearing your little quips. Maybe I'll input some voice control commands in those bots. No matter!" The crazed doctor stood from his seat, walking away from the giant screen behind him as well as the Rose that continued standing in her position. "Orbot! Cubot!" He commanded. With haste the two bots hovered into the room to await their orders. "Bring up some of the security for secret passages Alpha, Zeta, Sigma and Omikron. I'd love for our guests to be as comfortable as possible." He said with sarcasm. A bone chilling evil laugh came from the crazed evil man, scaring the bots away from the doctor to go abide his commands. "As for you, my dear." The doctor said turning to Amy. He pressed a button on the control panel on his wrist, bringing up a holographic command script. "I'll just input the security signals into your microbots...like so...and viola!" The doctor exclaimed as he finished inputting a code. As soon as he hit the enter key Amy's direction turned to face the doctor. Her hammer appeared in her hand before she made way towards the hall. "You'll be dealing with our friends once they've had enough of my wonderful 'Eggman Hors d'oeuvres'. Consider yourself to be the 'main course'. I'm sure they'll be delighted to see you!" He laughed maniacally as the shell of Amy walked away.

Her subconscious ignored the mumbled laughter. For Amy, there was no point anyway. Nightmare or not, she didn't care.

She only felt like a withering Rose.