Broken Down

Cream landed them at the base of the mountain. Amy struggled to stay on her feet. She wobbled over to the grass and curled up on the side of the road. "Amy?" Tekno asked, kneeling down by her. "Hey… cheer up." Amy looked to her and sniffled, before closing her eyes and looking away in pain. A dark fog enveloped Amy. Tekno watched as she emerged from the mist. Amy's bright colorful clothes had magically turned into a black gown. Her gold headband rusted, drooped and cracked. Tekno sighed. "Hey… don't be like that." Tekno sat down by Amy's side, as Cream, Big, Cheese and Birdie watched from afar.

"He was working with Cleave… now he's gone," Amy wept miserably. "I didn't even say goodbye."

Tekno looked on to the long stretch of farmland. The road stretched on further than she could see. It looked familiar. "Well, we should still be near Kerosen. I can't wait to meet Sonic and Tails, they seem…" Tekno's smile fell, when she remembered what happened with the cards. Then she realized why this place was so familiar.

"I don't want to go back there anymore…" Amy grumbled hollowly, staring off into the sunrise apathetically. Tekno felt her heart sink.

"Aw, Amy… was it really that bad?" Tekno asked. "It couldn't have been, right?"

"When I used that Hourglass Card, I saw my entire life fall apart around me," Amy mumbled. "Maybe if I don't go back to Sonic and Tails' house, it won't happen. I won't turn into that thing."

Tekno held her arm as a bruise grew on it. "Ow!" She cried. Amy looked to her in concern.

"Tekno… are you okay?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, I think I might have been hurt while escaping Cleave," Tekno muttered, her entire body shaking and her voice dry. She fell over. "Ahahahah… who am I kidding?" Amy looked down at her, perplexed. Then, it hit her. Those scars… those blemishes covering Tekno's body… they were the same as the ones on Cleave. "I'm turning, Amy. I'm turning into an Eternalist."

"WHAT? But… how? Why?!" Amy shrieked. Cream covered her mouth with her hands. She stepped behind Big, taking Cheese and Birdie with her. "You aren't one of them! You aren't Cleave's citizen… are you still worshiping his god?"

"Why do you think I'm like this, Amy?" Tekno asked. "Sure, I stopped seeing Illedence's god as my own a long time ago. But… I did worship it for most of my life. I guess it took its toll on me." Amy's eyes widened. "My transformation didn't resume until I met you. It took me a while to figure out why, but…" Tekno hugged Amy. "It's because you ARE Illedence's god. You're Eternamy in the future, aren't you?"

Amy frowned, trying to say something but unable to do anything but sob.

"I kept transforming because I met you so close to when you were supposed to turn into Eternamy with the Master Emerald, and I cared about you. At least… I figure you're supposed to turn soon based on what you said after your tarot card reading. Without you, I would have probably just died in the woods, alone. Don't blame yourself. I… I needed this." Tekno felt her mind collapse in on itself as she lost control of her thoughts ever so slightly. "I'm sorry I couldn't stick around for longer. I'm sorry I'm leaving now. I don't WANT to…" Tekno felt every bone in her body begin to twist and contort into that of a monster. "... But I'm content with our adventure. I'm content with my life. This journey led me to see my home one more time, you showed me Lantern Lake again." Tekno turned away, now even lankier than before. "Thank you, Amy. I know it's only been a few hours, but you gave me SALVATION. Not just that, you gave me… happiness. For once in my life." Tekno collapsed into unconsciousness, as she continued to stretch and disfigure.

Amy looked down upon the comatose body in devastation. She fell to her knees, and held in a shriek for no other reason than the fact that Cleave and his robots might hear her. "Ms. Rose? We should get going…" Cream said. Big put a hand on Cream's shoulder, and shook his head.

Amy kept sobbing. She turned to them, tears balancing on her eyelashes like they were tightropes. "This is my fault… you all need to get away from me before you turn into Eternalists too," Amy told Cream and Big. "Please. Take Birdie too." Birdie, aghast, flew over to Amy. She reached her hand out to him, as he floated by her, nuzzling his forehead against her finger. "I'm sorry, Birdie… you can't stay with me... Goodbye…" Amy whispered, turning and walking off for but a second…

… When she heard a bullet fire. She instantly spun back around, as Birdie screeched in pain. He fell to the ground, landing with a splattering sound against the dirt road. "NO!" Amy wailed. Amy picked Birdie up, and turned to the source of the bullet. She felt blood seep into her gloves from Birdie's tiny burnt wing. She saw Zero tearing through the tall grass with his buzzsaw hands.

Amy instantly scampered down the road, Birdie in her hands. Cream, Cheese and Big cried out in fear, as they hightailed it out of there in the opposite direction. They wanted to say goodbye, hell, they wanted to help Amy. But there was no way to do that without being spotted and killed by Zero. They both flew right past the battered body that used to be Tekno.

Amy felt dirt kick up from under her boots with every step she took, trying to escape Zero with all the energy she had left after a night of no sleep. She cried for help, but nobody was up yet. She then slipped on a patch of ice, falling flat on her face. She slipped along uncontrollably, trying to get to her feet as she glided along the frozen ground. Carried by nothing but her prior momentum. She slid downhill, picking up more momentum. Zero forwent his legs, folding them into blades which he used to effortlessly skate downhill after her.

Amy continued to tumble, each collision with the ground a new injury. She fell chin-first onto the gravel at the bottom of the hill, scraping her entire body. "B-Birdie…" Amy whispered, looking to the baby bird in her hand. "Are you okay?" She whispered through the pain. She was holding onto Birdie by just one of his feathers. Her blurry vision was obscured by tears as Zero closed in. "Hey… wake up! Wake… up…!" Amy mumbled, before collapsing to the ground weakly.

Zero closed in, turning his hands into anvils. Amy turned around onto her back, holding forward a card with a lightning bolt illustration. A sudden surge of electricity blasted Zero from the clouds above. Amy weakly got to her feet. "Don't… touch… Birdie!" Amy grunted. A lid opened on Zero's smoking head to release some exhaust, revealing his giant glowing mechanical brain. Amy summoned her hammer, and ruthlessly beat him back multiple times with her dwindling strength. "I've been through too much today to be sucker-shot by a walking dumpster!" She screamed as she whacked him to the ground. She smashed her hammer into his glass brain, cracking it down the center. She then stomped onto his protruding glass eyes, shattering them like pieces of broken lantern under her feet. Zero fell silent, damaged beyond repair.

Zero then stood up, throwing Amy to the ground by surprise. Now blind and fuming through the cracks in his vital organs, Zero swung his buzzsaw hands wildly to try and slice Amy into perfect sheets. She dodged, picked Birdie up, and ran for it. She kept running as Zero followed the sound of her footsteps. He leaped overhead, and tried to stomp her, missing narrowly. He shot bullets all over the place, Amy rolling for cover. Zero scurried towards her on all-fours, piercing the ground under him and leaving foot-deep stabs in the road. Knowing she couldn't outrun him, she instead stopped dead in her tracks and slammed her hammer into his exposed brain. It exploded in a flash of red, Amy opening up a barrier to protect herself and Birdie.

When the light faded, Amy dispelled the barrier. The mighty shield swirled away into the form of a sparkle, and the sparkle disappeared into nothingness. Amy sat down on her knees. Birdie still wouldn't open his eyes. Amy put a finger to his chest. No heartbeat. She gasped.

"I-it's okay! I have— just the thing for this!" Amy exclaimed hopefully, her smile wriggling around and struggling to stay on her face. She pulled up a card from her collection. It had an illustration of a dark blue mouth with green fangs within. "This card… is the 'Chaos Lips'. It can bring you back to life, Birdie! You'll be okay—!" Amy suddenly remembered the Sonic in the tarot reading. How she had used the same necromancy spell to continuously bring him back, over and over despite his corruption from Eternamy. How much pain he was in from the constant revival and distortion. She gritted her teeth and backed away from Birdie, gripping the card until it creased. Not knowing what else to do, she turned and ran. Ran far away so she wouldn't be able to get him hurt anymore.

…

Gamma stepped through the smoldering remains of Zero on the gravel path. The prototype to the E-Series, torn apart and left dismembered by just one hedgehog. Zero was always distant, always cold. When he wasn't managing overpopulation in Eternalist settlements, he usually just wandered off into Searchlight Swamp to "recharge". He only ever had one programmed desire: to kill. Sometimes Gamma felt like he wasn't even sentient. As if he was just a tool for execution, no different from the United Federation's tank, the Spagonian guillotine, or the Apotosian brazen bull. Looking through the heap of unsalvageable parts, Gamma could only find small chunks of meat and hair mixed in with the blood that coursed through Zero's circuitry, fueling him. It was all stored in a repurposed garbage disposal mechanism. Gamma could find no intact remains of any animal, let alone an identifiable bird. This confirmed his theory that Zero had no living battery, no real heart or soul.

And yet… with Zero gone, with the only other E-Series robot remaining being a bootleg mockery, Gamma faced the crushing prospect of spending the rest of his days all alone. Even then, with how quickly the E-Series line had been reduced to just one and a half, Gamma questioned how many days he had left.

Gamma looked to his own hand, another troubling theory taking form. Zero was a demo— a precursor— an alpha build. Of course he wouldn't have an animal powering him kinetically. Of course he would have to go out and poach anything with a pulse just to continue functioning. That was the cost of incompletion. But from what Gamma could gather, the more stable E-Series robots (his other departed brothers) were all powered by kinetic energy from birds. A live bird had been present inside Epsilon, he had felt a connection to the bird in Twisted Willows that must have been inside Delta. He had arrived to Beta too late to see a bird. But he had an inkling of where Beta's bird had gone. The one and only Storm System… E-105 Zeta.

Gamma stepped forward, as he realized that he too was likely powered by a caged bird. Then, he saw something on the side of the road. A Flicky. In fact, it was the same bird that the pink hedgehog had been taking care of. The one affectionately named "Birdie". Gamma walked over to it, and realized it was dead. Gamma knelt down, and picked Birdie up. He curiously opened the pendant around Birdie's neck.

Inside, was a picture of three Flickies. The picture was familiar. Something flashed in Gamma's eyes. A mixture of grief and rage.

"Mayor Cleave… enemy," Gamma droned, a hazy vision of Cleave the Moloch taking form in his mind. "Master registration… deleted." Gamma remembered the hedgehog girl who had protected Birdie up until Zero killed him. "Amy... Must locate."

Gamma scooped up some dirt from the side of the road with his hand. He dug, and dug, and dug. He looked to Birdie one last time. He looked to the picture within the pendant. A precious memory of family, joy, love and warmth. For a second, Gamma wanted to take the pendant. But… he knew he couldn't. To do so would be cruel to Birdie. It would deprive him of something dear to him. So… Gamma placed Birdie into the pit. With the pendant. And then, Gamma covered the hole with dirt. He stood in silence for a second. Before walking away from the grave. The nest for the deceased.