FicWad

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8am, day seven.
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The first thing Aura was aware of when she woke was that there was something over her mouth. Her hand reached up and felt something smooth, and she could hear a steady rhythm of bleeps from the right side. Opening her eyes, she blinked to clear her vision, then noticed the bed she was lying in, the machines beside her, and the plain walls. Suspicions almost confirmed, she sniffed the air and could distinguish the tang of disinfectent.

She shivered, never having liked hospitals. It wasn't a fear, just a dislike, and she didn't know where it had come from, but the unease she had whenever being in one had never gone away.

Nobody else was in the room, so she shifted position so her legs dangled over the side and her feet touched the floor, then stood up. A little shaky for a moment, equilibrium returned and her gaze wandered around, spotting a bag in the corner of the room. Opening it, she found a complete set of her clothing as well as shoes, and a jacket was draped across the chair above. Eyeing the gown she currently wore with a bland expression, she looked around again before changing.

"What'cha think you're doing?" Just putting her shoes on, the voice startled her. Sonic closed the door behind him, crossed his arms and stared at her "You're not mute, are you?"

"Sonic, you startled me" Aura breathed.

He gave her a small smile in return, while shaking his head slowly "Not half as much as you did to us"

Sitting back down on the bed, Aura looked at him questionly "What do you mean?"

Sonic looked half torn between shouting and staying calm but managed to attain the latter, a strangled noise of annoyance escaping him "We had a plan, Aura. You distract him, I hit him hard, then you shortcircuit him. Seems like you forgot the middle part"

"What was I meant to do? He had me by the scruff of my neck" Aura returned "You couldn't hit him then, and I had the perfect degree of surprise"

"Wise up, Aura. It's not all about you!" Sonic growled.

"Why is it every time I do something on my own, I get that lecture?" Rubbing her eyes, she breathed in and out, deep and slow "I know sometimes I forget that, but it's not true for every occasion. Sometimes I have to act alone"

"Look, can we just forget this?" Sonic waved it off, throwing himself onto the chair in the corner "You worried us, that's all"

Again, Aura was puzzled "Why? I must have collapsed after..." she stopped "Did it work?" she asked, eyes widened "Is he?.."

"Metal Sonic's gone" Sonic confirmed "and I know you said collapsing after using your powers a lot is normal, but I don't think a week is the time frame you were thinking of" He watched her reaction. Just as he thought, she looked extremely surprised "Right?"

"A week?.."

"Well, six days, but I rounded it up" he waved a hand "You did come around a few times, out like a light a few seconds later" his tone and expression darkened "At least, that's how it was for the last two days... The first four on the other hand" Sonic pushed himself off the chair and strode right up to where Aura still sat on the bed watching him. She drew back at his sudden approach but didn't seem scared, and this apparent lack of care bothered him. His fingers curled around the metal post at the bottom end at the same time as he spoke "Do you have any idea what you did to yourself, Aura? That when I brought you in and found a doctor, that he took one look at you and said you weren't breathing! That I had to watch through the doors with Tekno as they worked on you!"

Questions on her lips as he began, they were all forgotten "...not breathing?" she murmered, swallowing "Sonic, I... I'm sorry. I had no idea that could happen, please believe me"

"I doubt you did, but you need to be more careful! We never had a chance to save Johnny, but you and Amy since this whole Metal Sonic thing began was all about just sitting and waiting, or standing and pacing..." Relaxing a little, Sonic let go, just noticing how tightly he had been gripping the post. "You hungry?" he asked, more to change the subject than anything else. He got a nod in return and left the room to find the cafeteria just down the next corridor.

When he returned, Aura was sitting and facing the door.

"The doctor said you should be able to leave today, so as soon as we finished eating, we'll..." Sonic stopped, just realising that Aura looked extremely worried, and even a little terrified, and was shaking almost unnoticably from head to toe. "Aura?" He frowned, waving a hand in front of her face, then shaking her shoulder when that had no effect. Blinking, she seemed to come out of a deep sleep, looking up to see Sonic's worried expression "Aura, I got you this" he handed her the bag, then brought the chair a little closer to the bed "What's wrong, you look like you lost your best friend"

"No..." she started to say, then stopped and fell silent. This time she looked even more worried, and swallowed three times in succession before being able to say anything more "I can't feel them!" she gripped the brown paper bag in her hands.

Sonic didn't know what was going on "Can't feel what?"

"My powers!" Aura alternated between uneven breathing and heavy swallowing "I tried to make a ball of energy, but I couldn't!"

"You've been out for five days. That's a pretty good explanation for why you can't use them"

"I didn't say 'use' them, I said 'feel' them" Aura shook her head "Totally different. Six days should have been enough to recharge them"

"You almost died!" Sonic felt like shouting, but remembering where he was kept his voice down "You really overloaded yourself fighting Metal Sonic, so you just need more time to recharge" To stop himself getting angry he ate the burger he had managed to filch from the cafeteria, chewing absently.

"I've used that kind of power before and recharged quicker" Aura held out one hand as she spoke, concentrating. But nothing happened and she stretched and clenched her fingers before trying again unsuccessfully "Remember when you first met me...my second time meeting you? I teleported that entire spaceship to our dimension and back, did a few more distance teleports and used my electrical power, and I was fine with a days rest each way"

"Didn't you have some sort of boost then?" Sonic asked her, frowning as she continued to try.

"Well, yes" Aura admitted "The lightning storm, the emeralds, and then the spaceship warp core... That last one helped me get the ship to and back from our dimension. I couldn't have done that without it"

"And you kept getting energy from that?"

"Continuously"

"Explains that then" Sonic nodded "Give it a few more days and it'll be fine"

Aura shook her head, chewing her lip nervously "You don't understand, Sonic. This isn't the first time my powers have taken more than a few days to return, but every single time I could still feel it, inside me. It's like a warm glow or humming or... I can't explain it, but I could always feel my powers were there even if I couldn't use them. That's how I know if I can teleport without killing myself, or how long I can keep a light going, though it's never exact. But right now I can't feel anything. It's like my powers are gone!"

"Maybe you could live a normal life now?" Sonic offered, not really knowing what else to say "You've got the house in Azure City. You could get a job, maybe go back to school or something"

"Normal?" Aura laughed shortly "I don't think I could ever be normal. The things that have happened to me, all those places I've been and the things I saw there... Even if I hadn't left or found my powers, I'd still have no parents or family"

"Okay, so not normal, but why not anyway?"

"I came back to help, and I still want to" Aura traced a line on the back of one hand with her finger, looking up at him "Can I still do that? Can I stay?"

"Sure" Sonic nodded "Not having any abilities doesn't mean you can't be a freedom fighter. Amy doesn't have any, and she does fine" He screwed up the bag his lunch had been in, throwing it at the bin in the corner. It bounced off, so he stood and went to get it. Passing Aura, he noticed her trembling, and laid a hand on her shoulder "Look, let's get back to the base, Tekno can run some tests and we'll get this whole thing figured out"



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5pm, day seven.
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But they didn't.

Tekno couldn't find any reason why they couldn't be sensed, not even with all the data from tests she had run when Aura joined them. Called away to help with the cleanup from Metal Sonic's attack, Sonic returned to see Tekno looking over something on a computer screen, and Aura nowhere in sight.

"She said she needed some time to think" Tekno answered his unspoken question after telling him the results.

"I would've thought you'd find something, Tekno"

"I'm not a miracle worker, Sonic" she sounded a little irritated "All I can say is that without some sort of boost, she must have had to draw on all her resources for that attack and it must have been too much. It could have been a case of her abilities dying, or her"

Sonic eyed her "and did you tell Aura this?"

Tekno nodded "She seemed spooked, but I expected that"

Uttering a long groan, Sonic threw himself up to sit on a long metal table a few feet from Tekno. Propping his head with one hand, the other made various motions in the air before the fingers curled into a fist and he shook it. But he wasn't angry, and the gesture turned to rubbing his eyes. "I said she could still be part of the team, do you think I was right?"

"Yes" Tekno agreed "There's no reason why not"

"But with no powers, how can she?" Sonic knew he had said the exact opposite to Aura, but the thought continued to nag at him.

"Amy has none"

"Amy hasn't ever had any" he pointed out "Aura has"

"You're worried she won't be able to adjust?"

"Yeah"

"Maybe she needs some sort of weapon then"

"A weapon!?" Sonic looked a little worried "I know Amy has her crossbow, but don't you think it's a little harsh?"

"I don't see why, Sonic" Tekno reasoned "after all, wouldn't you have considered Aura's abilities a weapon in themselves?"

"Good point" Sonic couldn't help but agree with her judgement "But what kind?"

Tekno stood up, making her way to a desk at the other side of the room. She picked up a rolled sheet of paper and came back to her seat. She didn't unroll it at first, but continued to talk "I've been thinking about this myself. Aura's abilities that she could use to fight are electricity and fire. Teleportation doesn't extend to that since it can't be done in a split second. The two she can are a mixture of short and long range, more suited to the former, so I think any weapon should be a mix of that. A crossbow is out, it isn't good in closed quarters and that's something Aura has experience in"

"A sword?" Sonic wondered.

"Not exactly" Tekno unrolled the paper "Don't get angry at me for my suggestion, but I thought this might work"

"Why would I get..." Sonic trailed off as he saw a light pencil sketch of what she had been talking about "You can't be serious?"

"I am, Sonic"

"Do you want to tarnish Johnny's memory?" Sonic fumed, pointing to the sketch of a staff very much like the late freedom fighter had wielded "Aura already has his old room, you want to give her his weapon as well? Are you trying to replace him with her?"

"If I remember right, you were the one to suggest she use his room, Sonic" Tekno pointed out "And I'm not trying to replace him. The design is similar, but not identical. It's a good weapon with both long and short range capabilities. It's simple, so she won't need a lot of training, and you already know a bit about using it, am I right?"

"Johnny did show me some tricks with his once" Sonic had to agree. A noise of indecision, then committal rang deep in his throat, and he nodded "I guess it sounds like a good idea"

"Where are you going?" Tekno asked as he hopped off the table and headed for the door "You are okay with this?"

"So suspicious Tekno" Sonic shook his head with a smile, waving one hand "I'm meant to be helping out with some repairs. You get that made up and tell me when it's finished"

It did prey on his mind for the remainder of the day, hauling bricks and building walls for those houses which had been damaged in Metal Sonic's destructive path. It would be finished tommorow as if nothing had happened, though it would be hard not to remember. He knew it wouldn't be tarnishing the memory of his friend, or replacing him. Johnny was probably watching him and shaking his head ruefully at Sonic's hardheadedness and reminding him to keep an open mind. It was one of the things Sonic had most admired; Johnny had been a great statagist in planning and executing a mission or raid. Those skills were also present in Amy, and Tekno to a degree, and he didn't feel as if they replaced Johnny. Was it because Aura was new compared to them, or because of the weapon? It could be either, Sonic knew, but if it was the weapon then the least he could do was trust and respect the person who would be wielding this new one.

Working until the air began to cool, Sonic felt the last of his anger wash away with the first few drops of rain. Sitting inside the house a few minutes later as the resident insisted he have something hot to drink, Sonic noticed Aura walking to the base and climbing up the latter to slip in the window. He stood up to go after her, then figured that perhaps she wanted to be alone, and considering what had happened today, that this time he should let her.

Over the next few days, he hardly saw Aura at all. Neither did anyone else. She was gone before anybody got up in the morning and didn't return until late at night. She always left a note, and took her communicator so they knew she could he reached in an emergency, but asked not to be called, and didn't even take Ryndar with her, who tended to spend his time around Amy. As for the other's, Tails had dissapeared somewhere, Tekno spent her time in the workshop, Amy was meant to be taking it easy but spent a lot of time helping with the last of the repairs and Sonic just relaxed, enjoying those all-too few moments after a big battle when Robotnik was recouping his forces, allowing a little time to get things back to normal.