See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer

Chapter 4: Truth and Forgiveness

Tails winched as Rouge cleaned and bandaged the claw marks on his chest while Shadow was researching about "dream based injuries", the closest he got to an answer about what happened to Tails is that he did that to himself while fighting against the evil Sonic; Tails was a bit skeptical about that but given the rather raunchy turn his nightmares had taken, he couldn't exactly deny that was a possibility of it being true. "In any case, we're not letting you sleep alone for the rest of the night. We'll stay down here with you to make sure you don't hurt yourself again", said Shadow as he pulled out two sleeping bags. He and Rouge laid them on the floor before sitting on opposite sides of Tails on the couch, "Wait aren't you guys going to sleep?", asked Tails.

"No hun, we're going to wait for you to fall back to sleep first", said Rouge. Tails nodded as he laid back down, feeling the strong grip of sleep pulling him back into slumber; the next morning, Tails awoke to the smell of home-cooking. Tails was surprised: not once during the night did he have any nightmares, he was able to sleep peacefully. Tails yawned as he got up and walked into the kitchen to see Shadow sitting at the table reading a newspaper and drinking coffee while Rouge stood by the stove cooking, "Well look who finally woke up. Guess what: you slept like a baby last night, no screaming, no nightmares. I guess Shadow's plan of us keeping you company during the night worked; anyway, I made you some breakfast", said Rouge as she placed a platter of eggs, bacon and toast in front of Tails.

He thanked her as he began to eat, he was practically starving as his sleep deprivation threw his internal appetite clock out of sync and he hadn't eaten since the picnic he and Sonic had yesterday. Tails sighed sadly, he thought about Sonic and what he must've been thinking right now. Was he sad? Angry? Confused? Scared? He didn't know, all Tails knew was that he couldn't put this off, he had to go see him; he needed to apologize, to explain to Sonic what happened and that he never meant to hurt him. "Shadow, I...I want to go to the hospital and see Sonic. I feel...I feel like now is the right time to explain everything", he said. Shadow and Rouge shared a glance before nodding to one another, "Alright, we'll go. Finish your breakfast and go fix yourself up, then we'll walk to he hospital", said Shadow.

After eating breakfast, Tails put on his shoes and combed his fur before heading out the door with Shadow and Rouge and following them down the street to the hospital. Once they stepped inside, they approached the front desk. "Good morning, how can I help you?", asked the secretary. "Yes, we're here to see Sonic the Hedgehog", said Shadow. The secretary typed into her computer, "Ah yes, Sonic the Hedgehog; he's on the fourth floor, room 412. He's available for visitation, but only two people can see him right now I'm afraid", she said. Rouge patted Tails on the shoulder, "You two go upstairs and see Sonic, I'll sit here in the waiting room until you're done. Also, if Knuckles and the others show up, I can keep them preoccupied for you", she said.

Shadow and Tails walked into the elevator as it took them up to the fourth floor, all the while Tails was shaking nervously. "You're not having second thoughts are you?", asked Shadow. Tails shook his head, "No, I'm just scared. I don't know how Sonic will react when he sees me, I don't know if he'll be angry with me or if he'll be afraid of me. What if he never wants to talk to me ever again?", he said. Shadow patted him on the shoulder, "I'm not very good at giving comforting words nor can I say for sure that Sonic won't be apprehensive towards you, but I do know that if you put this off any longer, the guilt going to eat you alive until you won't be able to take it anymore. This is something you have to do, for Sonic, for you", he said.

Tails sighed as he stepped off the elevator with Shadow and walked towards Room 412; when they opened the door, Tails gasped. Sonic laid on a bed, sleeping peacefully; his chest and abdomen were bandaged up and he had a large bandage on his right cheek, he had a breathing tube inserted into his nose and an I.V. drip attached to his left arm. Sonic also had a few electrodes attached to his chest area that were connected to a nearby machine used to monitor his pulse and heart rate, which was normal since he was fast asleep. Tails smiled as he saw that he hadn't done to much damage and that his friend was still very much alive, but that didn't stop the tears from falling as he bent over on the right side of Sonic's bed and began crying while Shadow stood on the opposite end of the bed.

Sonic let on a small groan as his eyes opened, his vision took a minute to clear up before he spotted his rival standing next to him. "Good morning, Faker. How do you feel?", said Shadow. Sonic smirked and let out a small chuckle, "I've been better, Shadow. I'm a little sore, but I'm doing okay", he said. That's when Sonic heard crying and turned to see Tails crouched next to him sobbing, Sonic reached his hand out and patted Tails on the head. Tails flinched at the sudden contact and looked up to see Sonic smiling at him, "Hey buddy, why so sad?", he said. Tails tried to smile back, but the guilt was too much and he kept crying. "Oh Sonic, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean...I just...Oh Chaos, what have done?!", Tails sobbed. Sonic stroked the top of Tails' head as his friend cried, surprising the young fox by giving him a small hug, "Tails...even though I know you did something terrible, I still have to say: I'm still very happy to see you Tails", he said.

This made Tails cry even harder, "Why? Why are you glad to see me? Don't you remember what I did? It happened only just yesterday! Why in Chaos' name are you glad to see me after I did something like that? I...I thought you'd be furious or scared of me!", said Tails. "I do remember Tails, I remember everything. I couldn't think of anything else while I was here; there was no one else I wanted to see more than you because I don't know what I did to make you do this to me. And I don't want to think its because you truly wanted to hurt me, I just can't believe it. But the fact that you're here now proves that I was right, you...you're not a killer. Are you Tails?" said Sonic.

Tails looked away from Sonic as he took deep breaths and prepared to confess, "I'm sorry, Sonic. I'm so sorry for everything, you didn't do anything wrong. You were just trying to help me and I put you in the hospital for it; I can't explain why, but for weeks I've been having these terrible nightmares about an evil version of you torturing and killing me and the others. I didn't tell anyone about it until it had gotten so bad that I started hallucinating and soon couldn't distinguish between the real you and the demonic you from my nightmares. And then during that picnic, you mention playing 'Hide and Seek' just like the evil you from my dreams would say and I lost it; I thought it somehow came for me in real life and I snapped, that's why I stabbed you. It wasn't until I stopped that I realized I attacked you and not that monster. I'm sorry Sonic, I didn't mean to hurt you; I don't expect you to forgive me, but I hope that now you know why I did it, you will understand", said Tails.

"But Tails, I do forgive you", said Sonic.

"But...why?", asked Tails.

"Because I was worried about you, the way you acted back there...I knew that wasn't you. You're my best friend, and I know you would never do such a terrible thing unless there was a good reason, and after explaining it to me, I'm sorry I didn't notice how much you were suffering sooner. Just tell me, Tails, do want to be friends again? Just let's be friends and forget this whole mess?", said Sonic. Tails smiled widely as he nodded, "Well then, come over here and give me a hug, little bro", said Sonic. Tails ran up to him and gave him a hug, crying hysterically but joyfully. Shadow stood off to the side watching the scene, "Well that actually went a lot better than I expected it would, let's hope the others are as willing to forgive and forget as Sonic is", he said. Just then, a nurse walked into the room. "I'm sorry, but I have to inform you both that visiting hours are over and you'll have to leave", she said. "Go on Tails, I'll be out of here sooner than you know it. And I'm hoping I'll be out soon, this hospital food tastes like moldy seaweed. I could really go for a chili dog", said Sonic.

Tails laughed as he followed Shadow out of the room, entering the elevator and heading back to the main lobby. As they entered the lobby, Tails was suddenly whacked over the head by Knuckles' fist; as he tried to overcome the pain, he looked up to see the others were in the lobby, each of them holding expressions ranging between sympathetic to saddened. "Ouch, what was that for Knuckles?", said Tails. Knuckles' expression changed from angry to sad, "Tails, why didn't you tell us about your nightmares? I thought you were just stressed out or maybe even depressed, but I didn't know it was this bad. If you had told us, we could've helped you", he said.

That's when Tails was suddenly rushed by Amy and Cream who engulfed him in a tight but loving hug, "Rouge told us everything, Tails. We had no idea you were suffering so much, if we did this probably wouldn't have happened", said Amy as Cream cried into Tails' shoulder. Tails hugged them back, "Its not your fault, I chose not to tell you because I thought I'd be burdening you with my problems and maybe I could try to handle it myself, but given what happened to Sonic it was stupid of me not to say anything. But I'm glad that, just like Sonic, you all listened to me and understood my situation", said Tails. Shadow gave Rouge a sideways glance, "What? They came in to see Sonic, but they found out he already had visitors. So I explained the whole thing to them when they asked where Tails was", she said nonchalantly.

"Well Tails, we may have forgiven you and as of right now no one but us knows what you did, but now we need to focus on a new problem: how and why you're having these nightmares", said Silver. "And that's not the only thing: last night I woke up from this latest nightmare with claw marks on my chest. Apparently, I must've hurt myself while fighting against the evil Sonic in my dreams", said Tails. As the others were discussing how to go about helping Tails with his problem, none of them notice Blaze tense up in fear. Nightmarish versions of loved ones, vivid dreams, hallucination, violent outbursts and injuries sustained in the dream appearing in real life? Oh no...it can't be, I thought this problem was eliminated fifty years ago. How could one still be alive?, she thought.

Author's Note: That's it for Chapter 4, and even though Tails has made up for what he did, there's still his nightmares which have now gotten more twisted. And what does Blaze know about this? How will the others help fix Tails' problem? And what did Blaze mean when she said "I thought this problem was eliminated fifty years ago. How can one still be alive?"? What happened fifty years ago and how does it relate to Tails? Find out next time in Chapter 5; until then, this is SuperKirbyLand234 signing out!