Story thus far: Blaze leaks confidential info about Shadow's company to the public. The hedgehog is not too happy about that. One of Blaze's friends, Amy Rose, dies under strange circumstances after getting too close to Shadow's secrets. Blaze investigates her death while gathering material for an article that would bring Shadow to his knees. Plagued by intensifying nightmares and hallucinations, Blaze starts regretting her crusade.

Chapter 14: Knuckles ~ Blaze

My self-restraint crashed faster than the rest of my being. "Fired?! What for?"

"That is a question for your ex-boss, miss," Rouge said, waving my employment contract in front of my face.

I read what they had put under the reason for my dismissal. "'Bias and damaging the publisher's reputation'? The hell, Big?! The hell?!"

"Lower your voice, missy. You're lucky Bullion State took responsibility for your actions or you'd be the one going under now." Rouge slid her fingers over the last page, which contained extracts from the real uncensored Shadow Corp article I had bet everything on. "This draft was the last straw…and the company clutched to it for survival. Your employer didn't want you to get hurt, but you were relentless in your malice. Still are, considering the audacity it takes to shout at one's superiors for exposing deplorable lies. There is no room in journalism for such people, or in any business sector in Station Square."

The way she said it, engorged with the venom of her own high and mighty self-importance, made me faint from the things I wanted to do to her, starting with lodging my heel between her eyes. Other than that, she dismissed me like a knickknack, a piece of trash. To make it even worse, everyone knew I had the experience and the talent to make any publishing house proud, but they followed a script rather than their thoughts, reducing me to a scapegoat that suited everyone. After I had helped Silver pick the best journalists, too. Thanks a lot, sir. May I have another?

Rouge feigned disappointment at my sorrow before turning on a dime to carry on with her work next to Charmy. "Big, escort the cat out," she said with disinterest.

"I'll escort myself out." You bitch. The slam of the door was the last they heard of me.

That was my intention, at least. My feelings were in tatters and I couldn't think clearly. Fired, disgraced, weak… I sat down in an empty hallway and wept. I wept to my heart's content, and the feeling worsened with every tear rolling down my cheek. How could they? How could Big do this to me? I dwelled on the issue, trying to piece the puzzle together, and got nowhere. I stared at the blurry floor below, hissing once in a while to find the urge to breathe. They took away what I had been building of my life – of myself – for years with one stroke. Come tomorrow and they'd forget all about it while I'd still be crawling in the mud.

Dr Nega's words rang in my head: "What was your punishment?"

What was it, huh? Everything! A little kitty went against a corporate behemoth and got pulverised. Ha-ha, what were you thinking, Blaze? You could have written about Don Fachio's Historic Dogs or sucked up to Dr Nega with an editorial on fossil fuels, but no…miss goody-goody doesn't swing that way. Now she won't swing, period. Gah!

I glared at the ceiling, baring teeth, and found Vector standing in front of me. He offered me a napkin, which I tore from his grasp with enough force for it to rip. My face was a mess like the rest of me: a wet, matted mixture of salt and slobber covering a jug of bitterness like a lid.

"What do you want? Changed your mind about suing me?"

Vector scratched underneath his jaw and waited a few seconds for my bile to settle down and myself to look more decent. When my eyes dried up enough for him, he coughed a little.

"Hey, I didn't like the putdown you got there. Had you rolled with the Big's family gimmick, it would've been alright. Silver'd have rehired you. 'Twas a done deal. Now…Rouge's taking your file and it looks like she's serious."

Ah, so it was a charade, after all. Push me around, make me submit to pressure to avoid upsetting some pretentious batgirl's agenda. Good plan, sir! I knew allegiances were screwy in Shadow Corp, but I wouldn't have expected them to orchestrate a nepotistic gimmick for me. On another day, I would have asked whose brainchild it was to tear the idea generator a new one.

"Sorry I wasn't a fake pushover like the rest of you!" I shouted, making my way to the stairwell.

Vector followed me. "Take it easy, kitty! I'm here to right the wrongs. You look like you could use a change of pace and I'm expanding offices in Soleanna. Someone reliable such as yourself should make a great admin. What about it? Benefits, prospects, the works."

Break me and act like a hero while picking up the pieces. How thoughtful, Vector! Though, I was a good student, so I went with what they expected of me in the first place, a polite smile.

"Thanks, but Station Square is my home."

He didn't pick up on the fact I spoke through gritted teeth. Vector ran up to me with what he thought was a finisher.

"Awgh, kitty, what are ya saying? I already got you a seat next to mine. Soleanna is a long private flight away."

I would have slapped him. I should have slapped him, but I was teeming with so much disgust I had to get out of the building. "I feel that…I should finish escorting myself out."

With that, I ran. I ran all the way home, tears trailing behind me. This was a miserable start to a weekend.

I shouldn't have leaked the material to the public. I shouldn't have tried to approach Dr Nega, Shadow, Charmy, any one of them. In the end, I became a pawn to everyone. No matter what I did, it was to their benefit, and when they saw I had outlived my utility, they pulled the plug. Unlike Amy, I survived, but what was the point? They won! By continuing to resist, I only made it worse for myself. I had no future in Station Square. Employers would reject me upon finding out about my exodus from Bullion State. I even didn't know if Shadow Corp could be trusted not to sue me for whatever they had pinned on the magazine.

"Damn it!" I swore to myself, hugging a pillow in the comfort of my home. "How could I have been so blind? To think I could improve the lives of others." I bit the pillow in a sad attempt to vent my anger. Amy's solution was much better because my hate kept bubbling on. Hers was absolved.

I recollected the events I took part in during the last few weeks. Guided from one revelation to the next by an invisible hand, which only cared about making a profit. I had a choice. To stop. I could have stopped at any point. Others would have done so. Taken a bribe from Shadow Corp, asked Big for a reassignment. I could have sold out to Vector, but I still chose wrong. Good old Blaze chose to be proud to the end, and now she was considering retreat because she had reached that very end.

The doorbell rang. I didn't want to answer it until it rang again. Someone was persistent, and I'd gladly teach them a lesson about the evils of persistence.

"Who is it?" I asked, peeking carefully. I learned my lesson.

It was a red echidna holding a bouquet of pink roses. An outlandish cowboy hat obscured most of his face.

"You dropped this while you ran."

Flowers, again?! Punching bag time! I opened the door to introduce the playboy's roses to the ground and was about to do the same to his face when he grabbed my arm. That was when I saw what he was hiding behind the bouquet, a gold-plated badge.

"So much for a subtle introduction, then. Sergeant Knuckles, SSPD. May I come in?"

He took the hat off upon entering and looked around. I chose to fight the time flight was the only way to go.

The echidna had the air of an abrasive, yet honest person, a breath of fresh air after being surrounded by backstabbing thieves.

I closed the door behind him and sighed. "I'm sorry about hitting your pink roses, officer. I had a difficult day at work."

"They've been through worse. Which relates to the purpose of my arrival."

"I thought it was because I dropped something."

He scowled at my joke. "I didn't want to alert the neighbours by making a scene, Miss Blaze. We have a few questions about the disappearance of one Amy Rose."

My brain switched gears at the mention. Disappearance? She fell out of a skyscraper. I couldn't help feeling paranoid about this being another strike by Shadow Corp. "Am I accused of anything?"

"No. Your testimony will be appreciated, though."

"Didn't she commit suicide?"

Knuckles nodded. "According to our records, she did. However, her body went missing."

"Impossible. I attended the funeral."

"As have I, Sonic T. Hedgehog and a few other notable individuals. The coffin was empty when we dug it up under a warrant."

I gasped. "You what?!"

"Miss Blaze, I'd like you to follow me to the car." Knuckles put his hat back on, completely ignoring the fact I was lurched around by circumstances throughout the day enough to do something drastic.

"And if I refuse?"

"You will be wanted for questioning."

The situation I was in went from bad to horribly bad. I kept to myself as we drove to the police station. This guy wasn't kidding around. In fact, he had no sense of humour and could use anything I'd say against me. I was very tense when we reached his office and jumped the moment he turned the lights on.

There was a beastly animal's skull next to the entrance. Its jaws were bigger than my head!

Knuckles helped me retain my balance before putting his hat on the skull. "It's a giant jungle frog. Seized a case of them when we uncovered a smuggling ring. The museum didn't want this one, so the chief let me keep it as a reward."

I looked around and saw more outlandish items, some of which looked more dangerous than the bony hat rack. I was about to inquire when Knuckles motioned for me to take a seat. The echidna had plaques and reward certificates from police authorities in Central City, Soleanna and some exotic locations, which made me wonder how long he had been a sergeant at the SSPD. Come to think of it, I couldn't remember the last time I saw a member of Knuckles' species in Station Square. Definitely an immigrant.

He threw a few mundane questions at me only to get mundane answers in return. I hadn't known Amy that well. Sure, she had been clingy and could have annoyed someone with her idiosyncrasies, but what of it? She succumbed to pain. I didn't. Had I known there was something nefarious behind her death, I would have made it into a big story, being a truth-seeking reporter and all. That was how I explained myself to him.

The echidna interrupted my story without a warning and started walking to the door. "Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Blaze. If there is anything else, we'll contact you. I suggest you don't leave town."

I snorted. "Funny. That's exactly what I've been intending to do."

"Is that so?" He moved back to me. Bite my mouth.

"Yes. I'm moving to Central City. They have a lot more news to cover than Station Square." A rational explanation. Plus, I told him the truth.

"How does this tie into you running home weeping earlier today?"

I looked away, annoyed. Police or not, I did not approve stalking. "I had a rough patch."

"Miss Blaze, you're not telling me everything."

When I turned to face him again, he was inches away, glaring at me. "I told you everything you wanted to know about Amy. This is a free country and I can go about my personal life as I see fit."

He wouldn't move out of my personal space, reading me with his eyes. My heart skipped a beat when I realised what was up.

"Is breaking into her apartment a part of your personal life, Blaze?" he asked. I couldn't respond to the loaded question. Knuckles saw the shock in my expression and walked around the room in silence. He, too, didn't exhibit enough trust to tell me the whole story. "Amy Rose's behaviour prior to her death was described as erratic. How would you describe your own?"

I didn't need law enforcement to call me suicidal. I also didn't need to tell them more than they needed to know. "I take offence to that."

"Why did you break into her apartment?"

"I didn't break into her apartment." I had the keys. Satisfied with the reply, I folded my arms and grinned until I felt a pinch in the back of my head. "Ow!"

He plucked one of my hairs to use as evidence. I didn't like where this was going…

"I believe you. But if you are lying to me and your DNA matches our samples, you'll need your friends at Shadow Corp to lend you a good lawyer." He pointed at the door. "You can go now."

I slumped in my chair. "I have no friends at Shadow Corp."

"Why are you helping them, then?"

"I'm not."

"Are you sure about that?"

Was I sure? "No…" I did what I thought I had to, my job, but every step I had taken so far benefited someone up there in the dark tower, not the consumer and definitely not myself.

Knuckles sat down on his desk in front of me. He had this strange look. Was he trying to intimidate me? "Blaze, you know something's wrong when a corpse disappears. Or when a person chooses to become a corpse to begin with. You're the only lead I have."

It was a pleading look. Knuckles wasn't capable of making it proper, but I could tell he was trying. Despite being in power to rid me of my freedom, he seemed as powerless to change things for the better as myself. Was I really that pitiful?

I shook my head, facing down. "I don't know what's wrong or what's right anymore."

"Is that why you broke into her apartment?"

Slap went the echidna's face. I smacked him a good one. "I didn't break into anything! You hear?"

He flinched neither from the words nor the hit, something I was too strung up inside for to notice. "And her laptop?" he asked.

"What about her laptop?"

"The hard drive is missing."

"Her freaking corpse is missing!" I brought my hands up to my face. I didn't want him to see me cry. No one had seen me cry before today, not even myself. "No wonder you sold out to Shadow Corp; you're so caught up in the details you don't see the big…picture." I paused in the end, staring blankly into a corner. The corner wasn't blank, though. It had a surveillance camera monitoring the whole conversation. Shadow Corp administered the city's security network.

"Blaze?"

T-this was my chance! To prove I was innocent. To show what a big mistake it was for him to even try to relate me to Shadow Corp. I grinned to myself at the faux pas I was about to commit. It was a good feeling.

"It's in my bedside cabinet."

Out went the handcuffs. "You have the right to remain silent."

Out went the both of us, shackled wrist-to-wrist. Knuckles was about to learn a thing or two about Shadow Corp. If the hard drive I had salvaged from Amy's laptop had any data more concrete than the lovesick emails, the company would do everything in its power to destroy the evidence. Including illegal use of police surveillance footage.

It couldn't have gone any better. My home was a mess. The cabinet – in pieces. In fact, it bore a slight resemblance to Amy's apartment from when I had gotten the hard drive. Knuckles must have seen it as well because he did not react lightly.

"What…the devil?" he asked, staring at me.

"Anything I say can and will be used against me?" Even though I mocked him, he took the prompt to take the handcuffs off. I felt more comfortable to scold him again. "If there's anything I don't have at Shadow Corp, it's friends. Ever since I wrote a negative article about the company, I've had nothing but trouble. Amy must have gotten closer to finding out the truth, warranting a more direct solution, namely, murder. And now, thanks to you, someone's raided my house."

"How is this my fault?"

His cluelessness amused me. The bile had enough time to ferment inside me, so I realised the humour in our situation. "Letting the most corrupt business in the federation operate the city's security network is one, not to mention being a gullible pawn. You thought you were doing the right thing. You thought you were helping, but what's the point? They used you to hurt me and there's nothing you can do about it."

Knuckles paced around the bedroom. His look was that of defeat. "Not anymore…"

"What was so important about that hard drive, anyway?"

Either tired or guilty, he sat down on my bed and sighed. "We gathered evidence at her apartment. It looked like a textbook case, save for someone stealing her belongings before we got there. No one would have done that if it didn't involve something important. The SSPD knows you did it, Blaze. I was assigned to check if you'd cooperate before you're put behind bars."

This didn't surprise me. My life was spiralling down further than anyone at Shadow Corp had led me to believe, and it was going to get worse when they'd figure out what they had stolen from me.

"On what grounds?" I asked him.

"Amy Rose's case is to reopen with you as the suspect. Once I file my report, a 30-day warrant will be issued to keep you safe."

Safe from getting in Shadow's hair, no doubt. Knuckles didn't have the power to alter the way the police worked in Station Square. Local government procurements like CCTV equipment were bound by contracts that usually contained harsh termination clauses. Getting out of one meant going to court with firm evidence in hand. The process could take years, and I had no false hopes about winning a legal battle with Shadow Corp's lawyers. Thankfully, I was dealing with one confused echidna rather than a cadre of paralegals.

"Do you believe that yourself? At all?" I asked.

He didn't say anything, so I took the reaction as my cue. Knuckles didn't expect it, and I had a feeling neither did the mooks who raided my home. Some would have considered it excessive or paranoid, but I knew better than to trust a stranger. I had a hard drive containing Amy's files in my bedside, yes. It was an incomplete copy I made after going through the data. The original was hidden in my sugar jar in the kitchen. Can't have coffee without refills from the sugar jar.

"Here," I said as I handed him the original hard drive. "I figured it might happen, so I took precautions. Better you than them."

Knuckles had a mental avalanche I couldn't care less about. By now, he must have realised things weren't as the higher-ups had told him, and scapegoating me for the body's disappearance was a big mistake. Unfortunately, this meant he had a problem on his hands, a piece of hot evidence that could turn the case upside-down. This could harm the interests of more than a few powerful people in Station Square. Imprisoning a rogue reporter responsible for making a publisher bankrupt sounded tame compared to the consumer giant being involved in creepy deals.

"What are you going to do now?" he asked.

I was already back in the kitchen, toting the contents of my liquor cabinet. "Well, I've always wanted to get wasted. Now I have no reason not to!" I offered him a glassful. "Want some?"

"I'm on duty."

"Off duty?"

He grumbled. "I don't drink."

"Pussy." I laughed, getting comfy on my bed.

I wasn't a fan of drowning my sorrows in anything except caffeine, but the situation was severe enough for me to ditch the remaining restraints. Perhaps, it'd help me forget everything for a spell until the bottle ran empty.

He wouldn't talk or even look at me, which I found adorable. A sergeant acting so skittish about a cat helping herself to a drink.

"Want to know a secret?" I teased. "Everyone who's gone against Shadow T. Hedgehog paid a price. That's been happening for a few hundred years at least."

Knuckles turned around for the first time. He could have been curious or just taken aback by someone's insanity. One thing for sure, he didn't want me to share, so I took another gulp and lied down on my back.

I continued, "Yeah. That hedgehog's probably older than Station Square itself. Don't look at me like that. I've been to the archives. Would have dug all the way to the Stone Age were it not for missing pages. Can you imagine? The exact page his name was supposed to be on – poof – missing. Same thing in a dozen books. Other than that, every tome in perfect shape."

My companion grumbled about something I didn't catch. It probably wasn't as important or as cosy as looking at the ceiling, watching the lights sway above me gently. The white light changed colour and flowed in multiple directions. Had I not rubbed my hand against my face, I wouldn't have noticed it was because of the tears. A part of me was conscious of the inevitable events that awaited me. The blurry illusion wouldn't shut it out of my system, so I closed my eyes to let the humming inside my head rock me to peace.

It felt better than the thumping of caffeine in my veins, but worse in its own way. I couldn't imagine myself writing in a state like this. Unless it was a feuilleton or a sketch. Haven't done either in ages…

There were so many things I've been missing out on over this stupid Shadow Corp debacle. Little pleasures like meeting up with friends, talking about recent events, sleeping without my heart trying to gnaw its way out of my chest every few hours. It didn't look like I had any friends or colleagues left thanks to the choices I've made. As for sleep, I was likely to get plenty of it once they pulled the plug on me like they had done to Amy.

"What do you think, Knuckles?" I asked.

He didn't reply. He just sat there with his back turned, probably disappointed in me lying in a puddle of brandy that had knocked me out.

I crawled up to the echidna to poke him in the ribs. It always worked on my colleagues when I wanted to have their attention, so I anticipated a rawr of a reaction. What I got was entirely different, a smile.

A smile from an echidna to whom the concept of humour was alien. A smile as wide as the jungle frog's bite. Something was wrong, very wrong. I crawled to the other side of the bed, away from him.

"Joke's over, Knucklehead!" I yelled. I shouldn't have. The next thing I knew I was shrieking in horror as the echidna pounced on me.

"If the joke is over, why am I still laughing?" he asked. No, it wasn't him. It was something else. The thing that's been haunting me at night.

Deafened by my own screaming, I bit my mouth to weep into the carpet while he held me pinned down. My heart started acting up again, and I could see blood on the floor even though it didn't hurt. I then tried to pinch myself. Nothing.

As if to punish me, the monster grabbed my hair to turn my head in a way that'd make me unable to look away from him. I treated him with spit instead of tears.

"You're not real. You're just a dream."

It laughed in return, restraining me further. Were this not a dream, my ribcage would have been crushed. "You're living a dream, Blaze. A nightmare you cannot get away from!"

"I'm not afraid of you, monster."

The thing brushed its nose against mine, eliciting a hiss, and parted its jaws. They were bigger than my head. "In that case…Make. Us. WHOLE!"

"No! No!" I yelled as the maw swooped down to end me.

I kicked and I thrashed in the dark. It was just a dream. It would stop any second now. All I had to do was open my eyes…

Once I did, I realised how wrong I was. I saw myself in the mirror, pinned to the floor. Knuckles held a gun pointed at me.

"What's gotten into you, Blaze?!" he yelled. He sounded nervous. For a sergeant, that was never a good thing.

I glanced around the room. Everything seemed real, as did the physical pain. "Knu-Knuckles? W-what's going on?"

"One second you're unconscious and the next you're spewing nonsense while trying to kill me!"

There was blood on the floor. His blood. I had my claws out and they did a number on his face. I took a big breath and tried not to faint. That was a dream. This was real. To keep it that way, I had to remain conscious. Focus, Blaze.

"I need your help, Knuckles."

My attempt at calming him down didn't seem to work. "If I pull the trigger, you'll need more than that."

"Whatever it was, it's gone. I'm me again."

This confused him. I tried to calm down and relax my muscles to appear less threatening. The visual helped; Knuckles stopped weighing me down. A few seconds later, he lowered his gun, but kept it cocked. I had to be careful despite being out of the woods.

"Thanks," I said, slowly getting up.

My feet were wobbly, so I could only drag myself to sit on the bed. It was difficult to start or even pick a starting point. To think what I was about to tell a complete outsider, a flatfoot grunt… Erratic, my tail bone. This was crazy! Still, he wanted a story, and that was what I had been wanting to share with someone for a while now.

"Ever since I've been to Futuretech, the facility that develops things for Shadow Corp, strange things have been happening. I had these nightmares, seeing doubles of myself…demanding to make us whole."

He listened to me quietly, only nodding once in a while when I took time to explain something I couldn't understand myself. Knuckles offered no input until I got to the part I wanted to forget the most, the explosion in Mazuri caused by an object of great power. I called it a water filter like Wave did. Knuckles had a different term in his troubled mind.

"A Chaos Emerald…" he whispered in a state of shock, unaware that he had let go of his loaded gun.