You did not belong to their dimension, so time had no hold on you. In that other place the hours stretched into years; you watched sunrises and seasons pass like a film while you remained unchanged. You couldn’t starve, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t forget the ache. The endless stasis gnawed at your mind until memories frayed into shadowy fragments: faces, laughter, one name pulsing louder than the rest—Shadow.

Weeks blurred into months. Five years passed. To that world you were still a child, but inside you aged a thousand lonely years. You sat in the endless green, fingering the small device you had woken with—a thing that pulsed like a faint heartbeat. Some days you clutched it; other days you left it and walked away, unable to face the emptiness it suggested.

Pools of still water showed a girl you didn’t recognize: black quills threaded with crimson, scarlet eyes empty. A gust lifted the grass. The device hummed where you’d left it—sent, unknown to you, by those blurry figures from your fractured past: Team Sonic, a brother who had once vowed to protect you. They had sent a way home. You remembered nothing.

A clearing held a carved rock. Your touch made the stones shiver and a distant voice come through—warm and desperate. “Amaya… can you hear me?” Symbols lit; the air shimmered. “Little sister… please… don’t walk away from me.” The word sister stung. A portal tore open: Sonic worried, Tails hopeful, Amy trembling, and Shadow—red-eyed, stricken.

You felt nothing. No recognition. No pull. You turned away as the portal dimmed and closed.

You returned to the device, lifted it, and without hesitation broke it. Light and shards scattered; energy pulsed and then dissolved. Far away, Shadow staggered, the link severed. “She destroyed it,” he breathed. “She destroyed our only chance.”

From the disturbed clearing a figure rose—shifting, smokelike. Its voice rolled through your hollow. “You’ve made a choice… I can give you what they denied: power, forgetting, freedom.” When you answered, your voice was flat. “I don’t want memories of people who left me.” The thing smiled. “Then become new. Become greater.”

Darkness curled around you, whispering release and strength. Your eyes dulled, a cold light burning within. The warmth—the spark—went out.

“Welcome,” the figure said.

Back with the team, the clearing emptied of hope exploded into raw reaction. Sonic’s grin vanished; he slammed a fist into his palm, anger and helplessness flickering across his face. Knuckles punched the earth, furious and immediate, the ground denting beneath his blow. Tails stumbled forward, wrenching at his toolbag, voice choking as he tried to recode a signal that no longer existed. Amy’s hands flew to her mouth; she sobbed and shoved forward, wanting to run through the portal after her friend. Rouge stood with arms folded, jaw tight—hurt flashing in her eyes beneath practiced calm.

Omega’s servos whirred as his targeting array locked and then went cold; he powered down with a static, mechanical thud, unable to process the defeat. Silver’s hands trembled; his future-vision blurred with grief, and he pressed a palm to his chest as if he could feel Amaya’s pulse from here. Blaze’s flame simmered low, controlled fury burning behind composed eyes—she wanted to act, but knew anger alone wouldn’t bring a lost soul back. Big sat heavily, bewildered and sorrowful, muttering comfort that fell flat into the air.

Vector slammed a fist against a tree, shouting accusations into the hush; his detective instincts turned to guilt. Espio melted into the shadows, silent and accusatory, his eyes narrowing as he searched for a clue they’d missed. Charmy buzzed around frantic, hyperactive tearful panic spilling into manic prayers. Cream clung to Cheese and kept vigil, quiet and trembling, whispering Amaya’s name like a charm.

Shadow sank to one knee, hands curled into claws, and the single syllable he managed—“Amaya…”—was both a plea and a broken promise. The team’s noise—anger, grief, futile rage—hung in the clearing like smoke.