. . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . .

A groan left the [Animal Name's] lips, slowly opening their eyes and they felt confused, upon finding themselves at Sonic's cave. Sitting up, they narrowed their eyes in suspicion and got up from the dirty floor. Looking up, they squinted their eyes at the sunlight coming out from the top-opening of the cave.

"[Name]! Are you there?"

A familiar, bundle-of-joy voice intercepted in, causing [Name's] shoulders to tense and they peeked out from the cave and they ended up toppling back onto the floor from getting tackled down by a blue blur.

"[Name]! You're okay!"

The voice belonged to Sonic, his green eyes widened in awe and he hugged the sceptical [Animal Name] tightly, placing his head on the crook of their neck. [Name] tried to pull the hedgehog off, but they later gave up, due to how surprisingly strong Sonic was to keep on hugging the [Colour] mobian.

Slumping their shoulders, it took a short while, before to hedgehog released [Name] from the hug and he draped his hands over their neck, as they stood up.

Now, Sonic was latching onto them in a bridal style carrying manner. [Name] raised an eye ridge, giving the hedgehog a deadpanned look and Sonic merely grinned in resort.

"Will you let go now, hedgehog?"

"Nah...It's pretty comfortable here! Can you spin me around, like this, as well?"

"Pardon? But, why?"

"Ple-e-e-e-ease! It'll be awesome and Disney-like, as well!"

[Name] let out an annoyed huff, slowly twirling the hedgehog around with them, as Sonic gleefully laughed to himself. The [Animal Name] raised a brow, rolling their eyes in amusement and paused their spinning.

"Are you feeling happy, now?"

"Sure am, Ice-Spice!" Sonic beamed, before his joyful expression turned grim. "We need to talk, though."

[Name] was still puzzled on how they even ended up in their enemy's cave, facing the hedgehog that had gotten out of their arms and sat down on a bean bag of his. He patted the other bean bag for [Name] to sit on, inviting them over.

The [Colour] [Animal Name] reluctantly sat by Sonic on the other bean bag. The blue hedgehog was now jitterish and quite anxious on whatever he'd say next, because he was patting his knees in a rhythmic manner.

"What is it we need to discuss of?" 

"Well..." Sonic hesitated, exhaling through his mouth and his shoulders slumped. "It's about, what happened back on the road...With our fight, and all."

[Name's] [fur | feathers | etc.] floofed up in surprise from this, grimacing at the mention and started to turn a cold-shoulder to the hedgehog now at the mention of this. "What about it?"

"I just--" Sonic paused, once again and his ears pinned down with a morbid expression on his face. "--I just, don't understand...One minute, you say I mean nothing to you and the next minute: you're pushing me out of the way to save me from one of Robotnik's bomb-thingies."

The corner of [Name's] lips twitched downwards, as they stared at the ground in a bewildered manner and swallowed down their breath.

"So, I just want to know; why? Why did you save me, despite saying I mean nothing to you?"

Silence.

That was all the hedgehog got from the [Animal Name].

He frowned at this, getting up from his bean bag and sat himself on the same bean bag, as [Name]. He leaned his head on their shoulder, causing [Name] to recoil away and gaze at the hedgehog in shock.

"Why did you do it, Ice-Spice? Please, tell me."

Though, [Name] still didn't answer and stared at the ground. A sulky look grew on the blue hedgehog's face, forcing [Name] to face him and he started to shake their shoulders.

"Tell me, why?!--"

"I don't know!" [Name] yelled out in defeat, pushing Sonic's gloved hands away from them. The speedster's left ear flickered, a grim expression painted onto his features and the [Animal Name] placed their gloved-bandaged hands onto their face in embarrassment.

"...I do not know, okay?! I was just feeling angry at you, and when I had knowledge that the bomb was going to be set off, I just-- I did not want you to go out, like that. Besides, I still failed to even sway you out of harm's way, so what I did; was useless."

"Really? Is that all you have to say?" Sonic scoffed, causing [Name] to look up from their hands and wrinkled their nose in a distasteful manner.

"I believe so. What more do you want from me?!"

"Much-Much more, [Name]. M̴̡̙͖̼̍̍ụ̶̼̖̹͑̿̐͒c̴͙͇̦͍͛̅͆́̆̒̃̂̽h̸͇̟̍̇́̈́̓́͝-̵̛̻̻̬̠̮̙̭͆̓͑͊͐̋̃̉̎͜M̶̡͙̦̅̑̏̈͌͒̕̚͝͝u̵̞̹̽̌͌̀͝c̷̱̞̲̈́͝h̴͍̙̱̝̬̘͇̗̫̰̐͒͠ ̶̪̤̫̭͕͆̒̇̀̈̊m̵̢͎̗͑͒̄͛̔̑o̷͍̗̳̰͈͖͗͐̅̓́̈́̃̓́̿ŗ̴̢̠̖̺͍͕̼̊̇̀̎̎̈́̈́̏͝e̸͇͉̓͗̆̀̌͋̊́͒̃.̴̨̛̝̱̰̘̼͐̎͐̾̑̌͠ ." Sonic stated, shaking his head in a disappointed manner and his whole body pixelated into disappearance. [Name] widened their eyes, trying to reach out for the hedgehog, but they were too late.

This was when, the [Colour] [Animal Name] managed to fully comprehend how this must not be real. Holding their hands to their head, they kept shaking their head to try awaken themselves and fell down to their knees. 

"Awaken! Awaken!"

But, it seemed that nothing was to be working at this point.

Scrunching their eyes shut tight, [Name] inhaled and exhaled in a slow course of motion. In suspense, [Name] stayed vigilant with caution and reluctantly opened their [Eye Colour] eyes. Their eyes exaggerated themselves in a jolt to find themselves in a white void.

Their arms slumped to their sides, "Oh, crikey..."

Sighing, they got themselves up and started to trek forwards. [Name] frowned immensely and felt prepared to wonder around aimlessly throughout the whole of the white void, until they'd awaken from this stubborn slumber of theirs.

Cupping their gloved-bandages over their mouth, they let out echoed yells, anticipating for a response back. "Greetings?"

Silence.

"Uh...hello?"

Silence, once again.

"Howdy-do?"

Nothing.

"Um, what else can work...? Oh, yes!-- Uh, Heya?"

[Name] stared out into the nothingness, furrowing their invisible brows within utter confusion. "Thomas? Sonic? Are--Are you guys here?"

"𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐍'𝐓 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄, 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃." An unfamiliar voice boomed out, causing the [Animal Name] to flinch in shock, clearing their throat and mustered up their confidence.

"Who's out there? Show yourself, ignorant-being, that doesn't seem to understand the concept of [Name] the [Animal Name] being far to magnificent to be referred to, as an insolent...child."

"𝐈'𝐌 𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐘, 𝐁𝐔𝐓: 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐏 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓?"

"I am discussing to you of-- Oh, nevermind! Why should I explain to you buffoon?! Just, show yourself!"

"𝐍𝐎."

[Name] bawled their hands into fists, starting to punch the air, trying to see if they could try attack whatever was speaking to them right now.

"𝐃𝐔𝐃𝐄, 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐏𝐈𝐃 𝐅𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐈𝐑 𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐍𝐎𝐖...𝐈'𝐌 𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐃 𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒. 𝐋𝐄𝐓'𝐒 𝐅𝐈𝐗 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐔𝐏, 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐂𝐊."

And, a snap of fingers was heard upon [Name's] ears. Their ears twitched and their punching frenzy was put to a stop, blinking indifferently to find themselves sitting on a nicely-decorated chair. They were by a table, surrounded by stuffed teddy bears sitting in the other seats and each owner of the chair, had a dashingly-beautiful pink teacup in front of them.

It was clingingly shiny that the [Animal Name] could see their own reflection. The cup of theirs was levitated into the air, as a flowery-decorated teapot floated towards the pink teacup, tilting towards it and poured tea into it.

[Name] twitched their eyelids, angered confusion bubbling up inside of them and their nose wrinkled up in annoyance. 

"What is the meaning of this?!"

"𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐄, 𝐀𝐌 𝐈 𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓?"

[Name] shook their head in a passion of impatience, as the teapot and the teacup descended back calmly onto the table. The tea's steam swayed out from the tea substance, escaping it and the thinned-out reflection was seen from the tea.

"No, this is not the nice, at all! What is this?: Some kind of, joke!?"

"𝐍𝐎! 𝐈 𝐀𝐌 𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐃, 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐊 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓. 𝐍𝐎𝐖, 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓; 𝐄𝐍𝐉𝐎𝐘 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐓𝐄𝐀!"

On queue, the teacup slowly lifted itself upwards towards [Name's] face. A clear expression of displeasure was on the [Animal Name's] features, slapping the teacup away. The containments of the drink spilled onto the edge of the table, as the clinking noise descended to a stop, leaving the pink teacup onto the floor.

An evident gasp was heard from the omniscient voice.

"I will not enjoy this ghastly tea, you might have possibly poisoned. I demand, that you awaken me from this deep slumber I was forced into! Your omnipresent voice, in dream form, might seem to have control on this in the moment. So, use your sorcery to release me from this place, immediately!"

Letting out a small huff, [Name] was now stood up on their tea-party chair and stared up at the void of a ceiling. They kept their ill-tempered glare on their face.

After a moment of noiselessness, a sigh was heard from above and with a snap of fingers: the tea-party setup disappeared. The white void slowly swirled into a black-and-white swirly hole, [Name] widened their eyes, starting to sink through the hole.

"𝐒𝐎, 𝐁𝐄 𝐈𝐓, 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐍. 𝐋𝐄𝐓'𝐒 𝐉𝐔𝐌𝐏 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐓: 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐄𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐑 𝐈𝐍 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐕𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄, 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐃𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐏 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐒𝐄."

"What?!-- But, I tho--"

"𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋, 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐖𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐆, 𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐑. 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐓𝐎 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄."

"LOSER?! I am not at all, a lo-o-o-se-e-e-e-e-e-er...!" [Name's] voice trailed off, as they spun around in the whirlpool that was created underneath them, trying to narrow their way out, but they were flawed in doing so.

"𝐘𝐄𝐒, 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀-𝐀-𝐀-𝐀𝐑-𝐄-𝐄-𝐄-𝐄!" A huge hand appeared out of nowhere, as if; it's sole purpose was to wave mockingly at the [Animal Name]. And, in response: the [Colour] mobian gave up on struggling and crossed their arms in annoyance, as they spun around and around.

Descending through the whirlpool, they glared up at the huge hand and hardened their eyes. And, the hand moved upwards and disappeared off, as [Name] was now on the brink of departing from the white void.

"No, I am not, omnipresent imbeci-i-i-i-ile!"

And, with that: [Name] had shifted out from the endless, white void and they now were off to endure through the certain timelines of their life, that the omnipresent voice had bestowed unto them.

"𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊 𝐌𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐌𝐂𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐆𝐄 𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐊 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐌𝐎𝐁𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐀 𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐄𝐑 𝐌𝐂𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐆𝐄 𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐊!"