From the sofa, Blaze looked up as she turned and her eyes grew upon catching sight of a very sorry looking Silver shuffling into the room with Sonic behind him, ready to offer support if it was needed.

"Silver!" Blaze cried, her book dropping from her fingers. "Oh my- Silver! You're safe!" In an instant, she was up on her feet and had vaulted the back of the sofa, darting over and taking him by his shoulders as she hugged him.

Without saying anything, Silver wrapped his arms around her and inhaled her lavender fur, comforted beyond all relief and feeling his cares melt away when Blaze, overcome with emotion, began to very softly purr so that only Silver could feel it as his fur became moist against the cat's happy tears of relief.

It only took Amy a second to make it from the kitchen to the sitting room and another half a second to comprehend the scene. Feeling choked up, she looked between the embracing couple and her own husband.

"...What on earth happened?" she asked Sonic, her heart thumping as she realised what he must have done. "You were supposed to find Silver."

"And I did," Sonic quietly nodded, not brave enough to make eye contact with her. He gestured limply with his right hand. "Here he is."

Wiping away her tears and sniffing, Blaze pulled out of Silver's chest and put her paws on his face, holding his head and staring into his eyes.

"Are you okay?" she asked him, "You're not hurt are you?"

Silver smiled.

"Nothing a little rest won't cure," he told her. He'd asked to stop by a body of water on the way so that he could clean his fur of blood before being reunited with his family. Blaze's fingers were only a couple of centimeteres away from the cut on his head and he knew he'd have to tell her about it eventually but, for now, he wanted nothing more than to put her at ease.

"I'll let the others know," Amy began and then, for the first time, noticed who had gingerly tiptoed in behind the two hedgehogs. "Oh hello Big - and Froggy! You boys sit yourself down and don't wander anywhere." Amy turned towards the stairs. "Steele! Come see Daddy!" she called, dabbing at her eyes.

There was a THUD! as some plaything was dropped and little feet came pelting down the stairs, wheeling round the corner and scampering into the room. Steele stood with his ears pricked and his tail tip flicking in anticipation, perched up on the tips of his toes. He stared at his mother and father in amazement.

"Hey, there's my boy!" Silver breathed, crouching down.

As though that were the confirmation Steele needed, the kitten sprang forward and leapt into his father's arms, pushing his face as deep as it would go into his father's neck, kneading at his fluffy chest and licking Silver's chin as he alternated between purring and mewing.

"It's okay, I'm back," Silver soothed him, stroking the kitten's fur as he held him on his knees, "Sorry I left you so long. Careful of Dada's spines, son. There's a good lad."

Big, as was his polite custom, had taken a seat on the little foot rest (that looked far too small for him to be perched on) and beckoned Silver and Blaze to come and sit down too. He had a great fondness for Blaze and her family and he had been eager to help out when he had found Sonic running back with a very poorly-looking Silver. It had been Big that had carefully cleaned Silver's wounds before their return.

Amy, meanwhile, had gone back into the kitchen to get the phone and Sonic had followed her in the hopes of getting drinks for people. Having punched in some numbers, Amy leant against the wall and listened to the ringing tones as she inspected the handsome blue hedgehog trying to arrange some mugs on a tray.

That was when she saw the bright red spattering on the fur of his lower abdomen.

She was close enough that she could reach out with her free hand and grab Sonic by his arm, forcing him to turn around so she could see where the 'red' was coming from. Her answer was given by Sonic's stomach displaying a scratch, short and not too deep, mostly hidden under his fur which, thanks to the pale peach colouring, did little to hide the blood.

"Um..." was all Sonic could mutter once he realised he had failed to hide his minor injury and had forgotten to take the oppurtunity to check himself for blood stains while Silver had been tending his own injuries with Big.

Amy didn't have the time to grill him about it there and then because just at that moment, a voice was answering the other end of the line.

"Hi, Rouge? Yeah it's me," Amy began, her green eyes boring holes into Sonic which promised that she had a few things to say to him once she was done on the phone. "I-... hmm? Ah, no, nothing's happening in that area yet, no. I was just letting you know that Silver is back and if Shadow could be- Oh, Shadow? I didn't realise you were there."

Amy snapped her fingers aggressively as Sonic tried to escape with the tray of empty mugs, daring him to leave her line of sight.

"...Yes, I was just going to ask Rouge to let you know that- ... ... Yes, Silver's back. ... ... Yeah. ..."

Sonic knew that had his tail been longer, it would be tucking between his legs right now as Amy gave him a stern look.

"Unfortunately, yes he did. ... ... ... I will be sure to let him know." Sonic hated it when Amy talked about him with that tone of voice. "... Ah ah, no! Shadow, you know I don't... ... ... All right, just this once. So long as you're careful. ... Mm-hmm, he's giving me funny looks as we speak. ... ... Okay, I'll see you all soon then. Bye."

Knowing Amy was talking about him with her stern voice was one thing but when she was talking to Shadow about him with her stern voice... well that did not bode well. His child-like green eyes widened in fear as Amy hung up the phone and uncaringly dropped it on the kitchen counter.

She looked at him with eyes half lidded and arms folded - then she tantalisingly turned away to fish out her well-used First Aid kit.

"...Shadow, Rouge and Omega are on their way," she said over her shoulder. "Now come sit down so I can look at that scratch."

But Sonic only wanted to know one thing: "What did Shadow say?"

"Oh he just wanted to know what happened. That's all."

This wasn't good and Sonic knew it.

"What did he say?"

Amy pulled him into the corner kitchen chair.

"Nothing he can't say to you himself, sweetheart," she replied, inaudibly warning Sonic that he was going to get nothing short of a beating.

Amy leaned over and carefully used her fingers to move Sonic's fur so as to inspect the skin underneath. The wound was over on the side, near the border where his peach stomach fur met the blue fur. Small 'dewdrops' of blood were clung to the lighter coloured hairs where Amy could see they had leaked from a set of very fine and incredibly smooth cuts running from left to right. It would only need a clean and the scratches would heal by themselves in no time at all.

It didn't excuse anything though and she glanced up accusingly at her husband.

"Are you going to tell me the truth about this or are you going to spin me some tale?" she asked.

Sonic looked down at his tummy as though he had the IQ of a fish. "...Didn't even realise that was there."

Amy inhaled very deliberately and then, just as deliberatly, let out a long sigh.

"...Sonic, how old am I?"

The blue hedgehog blinked at his wife, beginning to panic. Was this a test? One of those 'how well do you know your partner' questions? This was the sort of trick she'd pull when it was near to their wedding anniversary. It wasn't their anniversary soon was it? Or her birthday? Her birthday! Was it today!? Was he about to be digging his own grave because he'd stupidly forgotten!?

"Uh..." he replied in a squeaky voice, "...twenty... fffff-six?"

"Correct..." Sonic relaxed. "...So when was I born?"

No longer relaxed! He wracked his brains. He KNEW this!

"Um... Nineteen, ninety thr-"

"It wasn't yesterday, Sonic!" Amy told him angrily. "I wasn't born yesterday! I know what a wound from Metal Sonic looks like."

There was no point in denying it. Sonic had learnt, a long time ago, that it only lead to more trouble so he had no choice but to admit defeat and come clean.

"Yeah well you should see him," he shrugged and flashed a smile. "He got off worse than I did."

Letting out a more gentle sigh this time, Amy took out an antisceptic wipe and softly began to clean the cuts. And boy did THAT sting! Felt like getting lemon juice in a paper cut.

"I don't doubt that," she told him, "but... Look, just remember what 'back-up' is for, yeah? I know it's hard for you to accept help but we can't run these kind of risks right now. If Metal had done any more serious damage you might not be fit enough to help me when the babies come."

"...I'm sorry, Ames," Sonic said, feeling the weight of guilt overpower the pain of his scratch, "You're right - I wasn't thinking."

Amy smiled at him and finished cleaning the cuts.

"I'm sure you'll get a rematch with Metal before you know it. Anyway, I'm not the one you'll be sorry about when Shadow gets here."

The alarm bells resumed their frantic tolls in Sonic's brain.

"Amy, what did he say?"

But Amy chuckled and rather than saying anything, decided to go and see if Blaze needed any help with getting Silver seen to.

The front door opened with a BANG, causing all the occupants of the house to violently jump and prepare for battle. When they saw it was just Shadow's angry face appearing in the sitting room, they only slightly relaxed.

"Where is he?" he shouted, eyes scanning the room. Rouge and Omega had followed Shadow in, having left Knuckles with Ruby back on Angel Island (where they had been enjoying their promised 'drink' before Amy rang).

"Indoor voice, Shadow," Amy winced with one hand supporting her back and the other having just handed Blaze, stood behind the sofa, a drink.

"Where is he?" Shadow shouted again, not as loudly.

"Silver's right here," Amy replied, pointing to where Silver's alarmed face was peering over the top of the sofa. "He's fine."

But Shadow shook his head. "Not him!"

That's when Sonic popped his head round the corner from the kitchen and politely asked, "Can I get anyone else a drink?"

"YOU! Get here NOW!" Shadow bellowed, jabbing a finger in his direction and advancing dangerously towards the blue hedgehog.

"Shadow, for goodness sake!" Amy cried, "Keep your voice down - you'll frighten Steele."

In actual fact, Steele barely noticed that Uncle Shadow was about to beat seven rings out of Uncle Sonic, so content was he with looking through his play pack of cards while he sat on his dad's lap.

Sonic was about to take refuge back inside the kitchen and escape out the nearest window but Shadow caught a hold of his left ear and pulled it - hard!

"You were supposed to FIND him," he loudly yelled down the unfortunate ear. "FIND. Not throw yourself in like the glory-hog you are!"

"I did find him!" Sonic squeaked, grabbing Shadow's wrist and waving a foot towards the sofa. "Look, I found him!"

"And were was the call?"

"What call?"

"Exactly!"

Grabbing Sonic with both hands, Shadow pulled him from the doorway and threw a punch which Sonic, expecting the attack, nimbly dodged by jumping back. Still having a firm hold of him, Shadow was pulled along by momentum and both hedgehogs went toppling over the back of the sofa, narrowly missing Silver and Steele.

"Not in front of Steele and mind my couch!" Amy shouted at them. There was no way that the fabric of the sofa was going to withstand the quills of Sonic and Shadow being raked across them while the pair of them duked it out like pro wrestlers.

Pausing in shuffling his cards, Steele casually glanced at Sonic and Shadow who were struggling on the carpet together in a very suggestive manner and hardly looked bothered by the show of aggression.

"Aw," Silver yawned, his exhaustion catching up with him, "they're fighting about me..."

Rouge, normally one who was entertained by a 'Sonic Vs Shadow: One-on-One' fight, opened her wings and threw a sharp kick into the mass of spines on the floor.

"All right, break it up. Hey! Break it up, I said! Shadow don't you DARE bite him!"

The steel-toe kick connected with Shadow's lung and he coughed painfully, rolling off Sonic (who he HAD planned on biting) and picking himself up with a look of having every intention to resume the fight when the oppurtunity came.

"The place -cough- was radioactive!" Sonic was trying to explain, wheezing for air and wiping at his scratch which had been encouraged to bleed again thanks to Shadow's surprise 'Street Fighter' reenactment. "Big was with me, right Big? You were there!"

"I didn't go into the radioactive bit," Big said, unaware that Omega had been trying to hand a cup of water to him for the last five minutes. "Too dangerous."

"Right!" Sonic crawled away from Shadow and took refuge at his heavily pregnant wife's side. "I just figured it'd be safer if I dashed in real quickly and got Silver out without anyone having to-" He gave a yelp as Shadow teleported directly in front of him.

"What's this?" the Ultimate Lifeform asked, pointing at the small smear of pale red blood that Sonic had been wiping at on his stomach.

Sonic pathetically looked down. "...A scratch."

With a long moan coming from him, Shadow turned around, took the drink off Omega and leant against the mantlepiece. Silver wondered how funny the situation would be if it broke under Shadow's elbow at that point...

"...You got into a fight with Metal," Shadow said. It wasn't a question - it was an observation.

"Hey I didn't want to stick around!" Sonic replied, stepping forward with his hands up in innocence, "I wanted to grab Silver and go but..."

"I wanted to stay," Silver finished.

Shadow turned from dramatically posing at the mantlepiece while all other eyes turned to the sofa.

"Why?" Blaze asked, sitting down beside him and resting her paw on his knee.

Silver hugged his son who protested a little now, the joy at seeing his father again clearly wearing off.

"...Metal Sonic went to the future." Silver paused and took a breath. "He made me open a portal. I wasn't strong enough to stop the Am-" The word teetered on his lips as he looked up in a panic at Amy while Sonic visibly flinched.

Amy's face was stoic.

"...Amy Doll," she murmured and at a look from Sonic, received all the confirmation she needed.

"Amy Doll?" Rouge said and followed it with a short groan, leaning against the arm of the sofa. "Please tell me you're joking."

Unfortunately, Sonic shook his head. "Eggman has a thing about making robots with specific targets in mind."

"Unlike the Tails Doll, there were multiple Amy Dolls created," Omega said, contributing to the discussion.

"Yeah we destroyed them but apparently one wasn't broken enough," Sonic mumbled and moved closer to his wife, protectively wrapping an arm around her. "Now they've got her walking and talking again.

"Yeah well..." Silver popped Steele down at his feet and watched as the kitten begin to spread his cards over the floor. "She walked AND talked - and Metal got what he wanted. I made Sonic leave me because I wanted to know what Metal was doing."

"What on earth does the Amy Doll do?" Blaze wondered but wasn't really looking for an answer. She knew it would only make her cross so she watched her son playing with his cards instead. He always seemed to pick out the Ace of Hearts for some reason.

"Metal wanted to go to the future," Shadow muttered, "Did you learn why?"

Silver held his face in his hands and shook his head.

"At first he said he wanted information about me but it was only information he could get in the future so I didn't get what he was on about," he explained, his voice beginning to speed up as he tried to unload everything in such a short space of time to his listening audience. "Then when he got back he was going on about the Past and the Future and about what connects them and he said you were the Past and I was the Future and-"

He looked across at Sonic. Sonic had been there, in hiding, listening to that entire conversation. He would have heard everything Metal had said about him.

Sonic didn't return Silver's gaze. He still had his arm around Amy and had leant the side of his head onto the top of hers, staring down at her tummy with a distant look on his face.

"...And he mentioned Sonic in amongst all of that," Silver added in a slower paced voice. "I dunno. He was yammering on without making much sense."

Shadow downed the drink of water and rubbed his fingers over his mouth. "...Where is Metal now?"

That's when Sonic returned to the conversation.

"He's unlikely to still be where we left him," he answered, "Amy Doll was with him but there wasn't any sign of Metal Knuckles or the Tails Doll."

Hearing that, Rouge stiffened and her wings twitched up over her ears.

"They didn't say where they were?" she asked.

"No. We didn't see them," replied Silver.

The bat drew in her wings again and kicked her heels.

"...I'm heading back to Angel Island," she announced, already moving towards the door, "If there's a metal version of Knuckles flying around doing whatever he likes..."

"I'll update you if we decide anything," Shadow called after her, understanding that she was probably concerned with leaving Angel Island's two resident echidnas alone.

Rouge left an uneasy feeling in Amy's house after she left.

"All right," Shadow said, "The main thing is Silver's back and he's okay and everyone's in one piece..." He glanced at Sonic with a stabbing glare. "...just."

"But I still don't know what Metal Sonic did in the future," Silver went on saying, "I don't know what exactly he's confirmed for himself but, whatever it is, he seems to be pleased with it."

"We'll find out. You just rest up and look after Steele," Sonic told him, winking down at the little kitten prince that had looked up at hearing Uncle Sonic say his name.

"Do you want to stay here another night?" Amy offered, patting Blaze on the shoulder, "You can go back to your own place whenever you want."

Blaze was grateful for the Hedgehogs' hospitality. "Thank you."