Everything Changes (A Sonic Boom Fanfic)

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Kay had never actually set foot in the ocean before, let alone slept in a beach house where she could hear the waves rolling onto the sand all night long. Crickets were chirping as well. The night was dark but not starless, and a nearly full moon illuminated the world outside. It was peaceful.

From her spot on the couch with an extra blanket thrown across her lower half – she really didn't need a blanket; it was so warm here, even at night – Kay idly wondered what time it was. Back on Earth she was used to being able to look at a clock even in the dead of night and know the hour. She couldn't do that on Mobius, and she'd forgotten how much she missed it.

Amy was asleep in her hammock by the window. Kay could faintly see her outline in the moonlight. The pink hedgehog had been so accommodating and hospitable to her since her arrival. But then, that was her nature back on Mobius Prime, too. She recalled the first day she'd arrived there, all that time ago, and how she'd spent the night in Amy's room at Freedom HQ, with all those pictures of Sonic around her.

How different her first day here had been.

Her arrival on Prime had been just as unexpected, but at least there she had known who everyone was, what their personalities and motivations where, the locations she visited, and everything else. She'd even remembered some more obscure villains when she was taken to the Casino Night Zone. She sighed forlornly. There probably was no Casino Night Zone here.

Everything was so different now. She hated to admit it, but Sonic wasn't as openly kind to her as he'd been on Prime. Even when he didn't know her, he'd been all smiles and welcoming. The Sonic she met today didn't seem to care that she'd been found alone on a mountaintop and supposedly had amnesia. He'd almost...shrugged it off. Like he didn't want to mess with it.

And it was horrible to think, but maybe it was true.

The waves crashing outside jarred her from her thoughts, and she sat up, silently pushing the blanket off of her and just sitting in the darkness of the beach house for a moment. Her mind was racing so wildly now – as it often did at this time of night – that she was certain she wouldn't go back to sleep any time soon. She must still be on Turtle time. And she really hadn't set foot in the ocean before...it was almost as if the darkened waves were calling to her.

Suddenly a walk on the beach in the middle of the night sounded wonderful.

Kay quietly got to her feet and made her way to the front door. It slid open and shut soundlessly, and she slipped out into the warm night air. Either it was summer on Bygone, or the island was a tropical one and thus always warm. Whichever it was, it felt nice to breathe in the cleansing air. She made her way down the small slope Amy's house was built on top of and officially began her walk on the beach. Nothing but an open ocean in front of her and a village with no name behind.

As she walked, she let her mind wander down all the paths she couldn't let it during the day, in the presence of the others. Like, who were these characters she thought of as Sonic and his friends? Why were they so different? Had she been the cause of this somehow? If so, could she fix it? Should she fix it?

This Mobius was so peaceful...a vision of what life on Prime must have been like both before and after the Eggman Empire. Sonic and his friends were different, yes, but here they didn't have to watch their friends fall in battle. Eggman was nothing more than a wannabe villain. They didn't have to constantly move around the planet to keep one step ahead of him; they could make permanent homes and live secure lives with little doubt as to what their futures looked like. Really, wasn't this version of Mobius more ideal than the one she'd left behind?

Kay had made it far enough along the shoreline now that Amy's house was quite a distance away. She judged herself to be about halfway between here and Sonic's place. For a moment she paused and turned to look out at the sea beyond, eventually easing herself into a sitting position. The waves came almost all the way up to her here, but not quite. It was perfection.

And in the midst of this perfection, the most pressing question of all: Who was she here?

On Mobius Prime, the answer had become obvious very quickly, and her adventure was set in motion. She never had time to wonder about her purpose, because she was always sure of what it was. She'd known everything then.

But everything had changed now. Here, Kay wasn't the Emerald's Chosen. She wasn't even sure there were Chaos Emeralds here, let alone a Master Emerald. Besides, she could still feel the hole inside her where Chaos had once rested. It was gone forever now. If there was Chaos Power here, either she would have found it or it would have found her by now. So who was she? Just a normal, powerless hedgehog girl living on an island somewhere on a newly constructed Mobius where she didn't even know her closest friends.

What a price to pay for having her ultimate dream come true. To live on Mobius permanently.

Well, she was here now. She had the rest of her life to explore this new world and find somewhere to belong. But would she be able to, knowing she was completely on her own this time around?

I'm not going to worry about it now, Kay thought as she got to her feet once more, brushing the sand from her dress. One step at a time, as always. Learn about the island first, then worry about what lies beyond. I have the rest of my life to learn everything again. The thought made her smile.

Then, moments later, another thought came to her.

If you have time to worry, then run.

Kay took off along the beach, running hard and fast, ignoring the eventual burning in her lungs and legs as she tore across the shoreline. She ran beyond the village border, beyond Sonic's beach house. She barely even noticed it was there. She just kept running. Just because she could. She didn't worry about finding her way back. She didn't worry about finding her way anywhere. She didn't worry about learning how to adjust, how to fit in.

She just ran.