(Readers POV)

I slowly opened my eyes. I can see that I'm still being carried by Big. I looked around and saw that I'm in some kind of jungle area.

(Y/N): Ugh... Where are we...?

Cream: Miss Amy! Mister (Y/N) is awake!

Amy: Glad to see you're awake (Y/N)!

I looked over and saw Amy and Cream.

Big: How are you feeling buddy?

(Y/N): ...Sore...

Cream: I think we should stop for a bit and help Mister (Y/N) feel better.

Amy: Yeah, I think we can take a small break.

I let out a small sigh. Great, I'm slowing people down... Crap... That Sonia robot is right... Big gently put me down on the ground, next to a huge river.

Amy: Big! You stay here while me, Cream, and Cheese go and find something to snack on.

Big: Okie dokie.

Amy, Cream, and her Chao all left the area. I let out another sigh as I looked out in the water. Big sat down next to me and took out a fish pole. He threw the hook attached to the pole into the water.

(Y/N): ...

Big: ...

(Y/N): ...Hey... Big?

Big: Hmm?

(Y/N): Do... Do you have anything that makes you special? Unique?

Big: Hmm... Fishing.

(Y/N): No. That's not what I mean.

Big: It's not? Then what do you mean?

(Y/N): It's just... Everyone else has something special about them. Sonia has her speed, Tails has her smarts and 2 tails, Knuckles can glide and is super strong. Me? I don't have any of those things.

Big: Uh... Sounds like you haven't found it yet.

I looked over at Big. He is just looking out at the water while holding his fishing pole.

(Y/N): Haven't found it yet?

Big: Yeah. You just need to find it. Like how I found fishing!

(Y/N): That's easy for you to say.

Big: It wasn't easy to find out about fishing. Froggy helped me learn how to. I had to fish him out of so many things. Sometimes you need someone else to help you find that something... I think.

I looked back at the river of water, seeing the water reflecting the sun's shine. The robot Sonia's words kept ringing in my head.

Neo Metal: It's the same reason your family abandoned you.

I don't know much about my family. Barely anything really. Maybe they didn't leave me because of me being a burden... But I can't say for sure. I looked at the water, seeing my reflection. I can see my face has some bruises and scratches.

(Y/N): I don't want Sonia seeing me like this...

I whispered to myself. I started to lay down on the ground, just looking up at the sky. After a couple of minutes, I heard footsteps getting closer. I sat up and looked over, seeing Amy, Cream, and her Chao walking over and holding some berries.

Amy: We couldn't find much.

Cream: But it should be a good snack!

They walked over to me and Big and sat down next to us. Cream handed me some of the berries. I put them in my mouth and started to chew them down. They tasted rather sweet. I saw everyone else enjoying their berries.

Cream: These berries tastes so good!

Cheese: Chao chao!

As everyone just ate their berries, we noticed some tugging on Big's fishing pole.

Big: Oh!

Cream: Something is biting, Mister Big!

Amy: Reel it in!

Big stood up and pulled his fishing rod back. A huge splash came out of the water, revealing that Big hooked a giant frog.

Big: That's not Froggy!

Cream: It's definitely a big frog!

The frog landed on the ground and started to croak. Suddenly, the clouds went dark and it started to rain.

Amy: Did that frog make it rain?

It croaked at us again before jumping back into the river. The rain soon stopped. I shook my body, shaking the water off my body.

(Y/N): I think I rested enough. Let's get going.

Cream: Are you sure, Mister (Y/N)?

I nodded my head as I started to walk forward.

Amy: Well, if you say so.

Amy, Cream, and Big all started to walk with me. I heard something, making my wolf ears twitch a bit. I can hear several footsteps getting closer. I saw Team Chaotix walking up towards everyone and stopped.

Charmy: Hey! It's the wolf guy again!

Vector: Excuse me miss, I was wondering if I could ask you something.

He said towards Amy.

Amy: If it's about a date, it'll halfta wait!

Amy, Cream, and Big all turned around to start walking away from them.

Vector: A date?! You think this is a joke, you little brat!

Espio: Now, hand over that Chao nice and easy.

Cream grabbed onto Cheese and held him close to her.

Cream: I betcha you're the ones who took Chocola Chao.

Vector: What?!

Big: It's not nice to tease my friends!

I saw that everyone looks like they are about to fight each other.

(Y/N): Okay, everyone calm down for a moment!

Everyone stopped to look over at me.

Espio: Are you with them?

He said while pointing at Amy, Cream, and Big. I nodded my head. Espio nodded his head and took a step back.

Vector: Espio! What are you doing?!

Espio: I cannot engage in battle.

Charmy: Huh?! Why not?!

Espio: One of our opponents is already injured. It would be against my ninja code.

Charmy: Aw man! And here I thought we were going to rock and roll!

(Y/N): Seriously guys, I thought you all were cool. Why were you trying to take Cream's Chao away.

Charmy: We were just following orders from our client!

Vector: Charmy! Be quiet!

Amy: Orders? You all just sound like a bunch of weird guys doing weird evil things!

Vector: Hey, we're not evil! We were told that some bad guys were taking away Chao, so we were trying to protect them!

Espio: It was just a major misunderstanding.

Well that's good. Seems like the situation has calmed down.

Vector: Why do I feel like I'm forgetting to say something?

Charmy: That's nothing new for you, Vector!

Espio: Oh, I remember.

He looked over at me.

Espio: I remember you asking about a blue haired hedgehog girl. We saw someone that matched that description earlier. She was with a yellow haired fox girl and a red haired echidna guy.

(Y/N): That's definitely her!

Amy: Which way did she go?!

He looked around for a moment before pointing in a direction.

Amy: Thank you so much! Maybe you guys aren't so weird after all.

Cream: Let's hurry up and warn Miss Sonia about that robot!

(Sonia's POV)

Me, Tails, and Knuckles are walking near some creepy castle. I say creepy, but it's more like a Halloween attraction.

Tails: Sonia, you sure this is the right way?

She asked with a bit of fear in her voice.

Sonia: I saw Shadow and Eggman head this way. This has gotta be the right way.

Tails: B-But it's so spooky here.

I looked over and saw Knuckles smirking to himself a bit. That's never a good sign.

Knuckles: Maybe... That's the ghost of Shadow we fought earlier.

Tails jumped a bit.

Tails: Whaaa! Stop it, Knuckles!

Man, I haven't seen Tails this shaken up in awhile. I think last time involved a lightning storm?

Sonia: That's enough outta you, Knuckles. Let's get going before you scare Tails to death.

Tails: T-To death?!

Knuckles: Look who's talking.

I rolled my eyes and started to run forward. Tails and Knuckles followed me. We ran past a pair of huge wooden doors and went inside the castle. We went into a large round room with a set of doors in the middle of the room. Some robots were also in the room. I quickly ran over them and destroyed them. I noticed that I'm on the other side of the room and the doors in the middle of the room.

Knuckles: What's the point of these doors? They don't go anywhere.

I noticed a skeleton pop out from behind the doors and waved at us before going back to behind the door. I walked over to look behind the doors, but seeing no skeleton.

Sonia: Now this actually got a bit interesting.

Tails looked around and saw a switch on the wall. She flew up and hit the switch, causing the doors to open, revealing an entirely new hallway.

Tails: Huh?! How did that happen?

Me, Tails, and Knuckles all walked into the newly formed hallway. We made it into a room with a closed door and a bunch of framed pictures on the walls. Knuckles went over to the door and punched it, but it didn't budge an inch.

Knuckles: Well I've done all I can do.

Tails: Maybe there's a secret switch somewhere to open the door?

I looked around the room, but didn't see a switch somewhere. I thought about where one could be and an idea popped into my head. I started to run around the room really fast, making a lot of strong winds to blow. The framed pictures flew off the walls. A switch was revealed that was hidden because of the pictures. I hit the switch, making the door open.

Sonia: I take it back, this isn't that interesting anymore.

We all went through the opened door and we went into a pitch black room. The door suddenly closed behind us with a loud thud. I felt Tails start to hug me.

Tails: I'm really not liking this place.

I started to walk forward, trying to find a light switch or something. I felt myself bump into something big. The lights suddenly turned on, revealing that I bumped into Big. Tails jumped from the sudden appearance of Big, making him confused.

Big: Oh, hey guys.

Sonia: Hey Big.

Tails: D-Don't scare me like that again!

Big: I found them.

Big said while looking back. I saw Amy and Cream enter the room. I let out a sigh. I don't want to try or deal with these 3 again. I also saw (Y/N) walk into the room. I noticed that he has some bruises and scratches on his face.

Sonia: (Y/N)?!

I quickly ran over to him and got in front of me.

(Y/N): H-Hey Sonia.

Sonia: What happened to you?!

Amy: He got attacked.

Tails: He got attacked?! Was it Eggman?

(Y/N): It was a robot of Sonia.

So it was Metal Sonia. I started to get mad. Mad at Eggman, mad at Metal Sonia, and mad at myself. I knew I should've tried finding (Y/N) sooner, then he wouldn't have gotten hurt.

Knuckles: So Metal Sonia is involved too?

(Y/N): I don't think she's involved. She's directly responsible. When I found her, she was disguised as Eggman and copied your data.

Sonia: We were fighting Metal Sonia this whole time.

Tails: So she's the one planning to take over the world! But then what is Eggman doing?

Sonia: Doesn't matter, we need to stop Metal Sonia first.

I was about to leave the room, but I felt someone grab my shoulder. I looked over and saw it was (Y/N). He looked at me for a moment before looking down at the ground.

(Y/N): This may not be a good time... But can we talk?

I can tell there is a lot going through his mind. I looked at Amy, Tails, Cream, Knuckles, and Big.

Sonia: You all go on ahead. We'll catch up.

Everyone nodded and ran out of the room. I looked back at (Y/N).

Sonia: So what do you wanna talk about?

(Y/N): ...Sonia? Am... Am I a burden?

He said, still looking down. I was caught a bit off guard from the sudden question.

Sonia: And what makes you ask that?

(Y/N): It's just... I haven't really done anything to help any of you guys out in these adventures...

I started to think about what to say. Whatever happened to him, it definitely has him thinking of himself in the wrong way.

Sonia: You shouldn't sell yourself so short. Who was there to help me use the Chaos Emeralds when Chaos absorbed their power? Who helped Tails take down Eggman on the ARK? Who figured out who's really behind this plot of conquering the world?

(Y/N) stayed silent and turned around, having his back face me.

(Y/N): I wasn't needed for any of those. You all would've been just fine without me.

I walked up to him and started to hug him from behind. (Y/N) jumped a bit from the sudden hug.

Sonia: Snap out of this. I don't want to see you doubting yourself like this. No one does.

(Y/N): Then why didn't my family?

Sonia: Your family?

(Y/N): Why did they abandon me?

Sonia: (Y/N)... I don't have the answer to that. Neither do you. If they did abandon you, then you shouldn't care about them. If they didn't care about you, why should you care about them?

(Y/N): I...

Sonia: I know things get tough. Trust me, I've been through them. But please keep moving forward, no matter what. Do it for you and your friends.

(Y/N): Sonia...

Sonia: You just haven't been given a chance to show just how cool you are!

I felt (Y/N) grab onto my hands.

(Y/N): Th-Thanks Sonia.

Sonia: It's no big deal. I gotta cheer up a friend.

We both went silent for a moment. I felt (Y/N) move my arms off of him and turned around to look at me, still holding my hands.

(Y/N): There's something else I want to tell you...

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

(Y/N): I-I'm in love you!

Both of our faces heated up. I gripped onto his hands a bit tighter

Sonia: I'm in love you too.

We both stared at each other's eyes. (Y/N) looked away and let go of my hands.

(Y/N): No... I didn't want it to end up like this...

Sonia: Now what does that mean?

(Y/N): I didn't want to confess to you at some random spooky castle, or my face being beat up, or-

I interpreted him by kissing him on the cheek. He stopped talking to look at me. I smiled at him.

Sonia: Hey, if this isn't the way you wanted me to find out, I'll wait for you to tell me the way you want to.

(Y/N) wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close to him. I wrapped my arms around him. He placed a kiss on my cheek and broke the hug.

Sonia: Now that we got that out of your systems, let's catch up with everyone else.

(Y/N): R-Right.

(Chapter 24 end)