Things Best Forgotten

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Sonic and co., not even the Tails Doll. (Although I do own a large doll of Tails I like hugging occasionally. Umm... forget I said that...) Also, brief reference to 'Final Fantasy' in this chapter as well, but, again, I don't own that either.

And here it is, as promised! The conclusion to my second and most frightening long story, on Halloween itself! (You'd almost think that I had this idea all along, huh?) I'd love to thank the literally hundreds of people that have read and will read this story all the way through, and I give special thanks to all the great ones of you that even saw fit to leave reviews as well. This story may never have become completed had it not been for you guys, honestly.

But now, it's time for the cliffhanger to lift and to read about how the Tails Doll is finally defeated and peace restored, or will it? The story may be over, but is it really...

Chapter 11: The End?

Tails realized all too late his mistake as Sonic's hands brought forth the one hated object Tails had learned to fear most. "NO!! Sonic, quick, get rid of it! Throw it back out…!" Tails began to shout as he recoiled from the harmless looking doll in the blue hedgehog's arms.

"Whee hee hee heee heee! Oh, it's far too late for that now, Tails!" a voice seemed to materialize from the doll like magic while it slowly floated up from Sonic's hands, stunning Tails since he'd never witnessed the doll doing either of these things before.

Shadow, however, was unsurprised. "Now do you believe me?!" the angry hedgehog yelled at Tails when he realized their plan was now all but ruined. "I was about to warn you that your pal Sonic might already be one of them!"

"Wait, one of who?!" Tails shouted back in a clear panic already. The doll was here and Tails knew the time for questions had ended, but not understanding exactly what was going on didn't make Tails any more confident in what actions he should take.

The Tails Doll only seemed to smile at the fox's frenzied confusion, the actual stitch-working of the demented puppet moving itself into a demonic, jagged grin. "Why, just like I myself am now manifested as a toy, an object to be manipulated and made to do as a child may please, so are your friends, young Miles," the doll playfully boasted. "Their souls are no more, and the shells that are left now belong to me as well! Is that not right, Sonic?" the doll continued as the now rigid blue hedgehog nodded once and then unexpectedly lunged for Tails at full speed.

Luckily, Shadow's boasting from before proved accurate when a flash of black intercepted the one of blue just feet before the petrified fox and sent Sonic flying across the living room and into a far wall. Tails, too terrified to move upon witnessing his best friend and older brother trying to hurt him, simply watched what was once Sonic fall after his impact to the wall and collapse over a small bookshelf, his body contorted in ways no living thing could survive as it lay there with the blue hedgehog's spine bent over in half. To add to the horror of the sight, however, Sonic, or at least what was left of Sonic now, actually recovered from the brutal blow and began to stand back up, the broken bones or injuries the blue hedgehog's corpse had sustained either mending themselves or at least registering no pain as the Tails Doll again laughed.

"Hee hee hee hee heeeee! Oh, Shadow… If I cannot be destroyed, then what makes you think those I control may be instead?" the doll taunted while it enjoyed thoroughly the situation and feelings of fear that, by now, came rolling off of Tails and feeding its continued blissful state.

Shadow, undaunted yet clearly realizing the danger they were in, quickly turned to Tails before Sonic could recover. "Change of plans. It's too dangerous for you here. Run, go someplace safe and stay there! I'll deal with this overstuffed puppet," Shadow commanded, knowing their only chance now was for him to capture the doll within its chest before the Tails Doll got bored and decided to start devouring their souls instead of playing with its food.

"But, the plan…!" Tails objected quickly, although he wanted nothing more than to do exactly what Shadow had told him at the moment.

"That plan went out the door as soon as you decided to open it!" Shadow shouted back, clearly annoyed at the fox's insistence on staying and talking when at any moment either the doll or Sonic could act. "I can't fight this thing and keep you safe at the same time! Now, move it!" Shadow commanded in a brutal tone.

Thankfully, Shadow's blunt and also frightening shouts were enough to snap Tails out of his fear-induced paralysis. Nodding quickly, Tails did an immediate spin on his heels and ran for the rarely used door at the back of his house, only to find that he'd wasted too much time already when Eggman, Amy, and Rouge suddenly emerged from the kitchen in his path, blocking the fox's only escape left on this floor.

Standing in place once more because of his shock, Tails couldn't help but think that this wasn't really happening. These people he knew and called friends, with the exception of Eggman of course, would never really…

Unfortunately, Tails' doubts were shattered as he snapped out of his terrified trance just in time to dodge a gigantic Piko Piko Hammer that whizzed overhead by mere inches due to his timely duck. Seconds afterwards, Tails looked up again just in time to jump over a whirling tornado kick from Rouge and was also forced to use his tails to change course in midair to avoid a volley of laser fire emitted by Eggman's pod. Realizing that he was in real danger here as well as with Shadow, Tails used the moment he gained from dodging the attacks to flee to someplace he knew he could use as his own personal fortress if need be, his underground lab.

Dashing down the entrance hidden in the floor nearby faster than he could recall ever doing so before, Tails quickly descended into the solid concrete vault and secured a heavy, steel vault door behind him, sealing the fox away from the house above. Granted, the function of the extremely heavy door was more to keep any explosions or experiments gone wrong from getting out into Tails' home, but he didn't doubt that the function was just as useful in reverse as well. Stepping away from the door quickly while loud banging began coming from it, no doubt the small group of once familiar zombies after him trying to break through, Tails huddled near the center of the hangar and the Tornado biplane.

Looking over the situation, Tails finally began to calm down from his terror induced panic. As long as that door held, which Tails realized after several minutes that it would, then he was safe in here from both his zombified friends and that demonic doll of himself. Also, having anticipated someday possibly using his underground workshop/hangar as a shelter, Tails knew that he'd hidden almost a month's or more worth of provisions down here, too, so, if it really came down to it, he could attempt to wait out the danger as well. As a matter of fact, the more Tails thought about his current position, the more he began to relax ever so slightly. At least for now, Tails knew he was safe, and his concern gradually turned from himself to Shadow and his success at stopping the Tails Doll alone.

That was, until Tails felt something move below his feet. Looking quickly to the ground in hopes that it was just a trick of his mind, Tails searched for the cause of the movement. But, although he could feel what seemed like almost rhythmic beats coming from the cement floor below him, Tails saw nothing around vibrating or moving that could create the small tremors. A feeling of dread began to rise as he tentatively put one ear to the floor to listen, and almost immediately Tails, pale faced again, figured out what was wrong.

Scurrying away quickly from where he'd been standing moments ago, Tails narrowly avoided the shower of pulverized concrete as something broke through from below with a mighty force. Turning to face the intruder from across the large workshop, Tails soon realized his mistaken sense of safety had been a bit premature as the figure of a familiar burrowing red echidna now advanced towards him slowly. "K-Knuckles, please, don't!" Tails shouted as the fox cowered in a corner and tried to conceal himself behind random technical equipment and spare parts.

Immune to the frightened kit's calls, however, Knuckles only swept the miscellaneous items away with his fists, revealing Tails sitting in the corner shaking with both hands on his head, ready for a painful blow that would likely knock him out until the Tails Doll could return to harvest his soul later. Looking up with tear filled eyes, Tails saw what was once his friend raise back a fist for just such a knockout blow and closed his eyes against the pain to come. I can't believe I'm going to die like this! I always thought it could maybe happen fighting Eggman someday, but here in my own workshop by someone I know? Tails' mind raced to make peace before it was over. However, instead of that feeling of finality Tails had expected right now, the fox found himself clenching his hands in determination. Well, I won't let it happen!

His sudden burst of courage spurring the kit into action even as Knuckles' fist came down at full force, Tails countered the move by grabbing the echidna's arm in mid-swing and pulling down with the force of the blow, deflecting the aim of the spiked fist into the wall next to him with enough of an impact to actually get it stuck into the concrete. While the somewhat shocked echidna tried to pull himself free, Tails then made a dash for another part of his workshop and activated a machine that produced a slowly growing portal of energy on a pedestal nearby.

I know I've never tested this thing before, but it's just got to work now! Tails thought as his fingers and eyes danced across a computer controlling the machine, powering it up as quickly as possible. He looked up for a moment when he heard a loud noise across the workshop and saw Knuckles' reanimated corpse finally rip its fist free from its concrete prison and begin advancing on him once more. Come on, come on…! Tails nervously shouted to himself as he watched the status bar of the machine's readiness crawl ever so slowly towards completion. Tails already realized, however, that Knuckles would be upon him before the device had reached enough charge to be entirely safe.

Realizing he had no other choice, Tails dashed away from the computer console moments before Knuckles' second errant punch destroyed it entirely, and the fox leapt into the glowing energy portal still wavering in the air. As soon as he touched the floating aura, Tails felt a searing heat and a blinding flash that lasted no more than a moment before he fell a short distance onto some sort of solid ground. Wincing in pain from the experience, Tails slowly got up and glanced around to find out if the device had worked. Yes! I did it! I was able to artificially re-create a Chaos Control warp field! Tails thought in jubilation as he realized he wasn't dead and had now escaped the undead that had him trapped in his workshop. That is, until he recognized where exactly he'd been warped to…

Wait, am I in…? Tails' sense of joy quickly deteriorated as he recognized the familiar indoors location. He had somehow forgotten in his rush to designate a point of arrival for his teleportation device, which meant it had simply taken him to the only location that had gone through Tails' mind at the time where he usually felt safe, his upstairs bedroom. Realizing this mistake and that he was nowhere near safe at this location either, especially with the sound of Shadow and the Tails Doll fighting still coming from downstairs loud and clear, Tails quickly made a move to his room's single window, intending to jump out and fly as far from his home as he could until he collapsed.

However, even this idea was proven futile as one peek out his window before opening it showed Mrs. Vanilla, Cream, and Cheese all standing guard outside and watching the house for any such escape. Tails knew that if he attempted to simply break through and fly away now, one of them would raise an alarm, and likely within seconds Tails would be forced to try to outrun his dead brother who would give chase. Dead or alive, Tails knew who would win that high-stakes game of tag in the end.

And so Tails found himself trapped. He'd done so many things right: choosing his workshop to take shelter in at first, defending himself against Knuckles' full force assault, and even risking his life to a highly dangerous experiment to enact his escape. But, in the end, his fear still caused him to mess up, and now all that seemed to mean nothing. With his last shreds of hope now stripped from him, Tails found little more to do than huddle tightly beneath his bed's covers and wait for someone to find him there crying.

Seconds later, Tails noticed the noises from downstairs abruptly cease, signaling the end of what must have been an epic battle between the immortal doll and the self-proclaimed 'Ultimate Lifeform'. As much as he listened, though, Tails couldn't be sure of the victor until he heard footsteps coming to the second floor of the house. As Tails quaked in fear, the noises stopped just outside his still unhinged door. Whoever or whatever it was now stood only feet from the quivering mass of blankets that was all that could be seen of Tails. "Whenever I said to run someplace safe, I didn't mean just hide in your bed," the unmistakable voice of Shadow called out from the location in the doorway.

Tails felt his heart suddenly leap as his eyes shot open quickly beneath his cocoon of blankets. It was Shadow! Had he actually beaten the Tails Doll and saved everyone?! Feeling a sense of relief he'd never had in this magnitude before, Tails immediately tossed aside the covers and turned back towards Shadow with a gigantic smirk of thankfulness across his muzzle.

That same smile froze solid in horror no sooner than Tails' gaze looked back in Shadow's direction. Now floating just feet from his face as Shadow did indeed stand back at the broken doorway, the Tails Doll laughed. "Wheeeee heee hee hee hee heeeee! Oh, little Tails! If only you could enjoy the look on your face right now as much as I do!" the doll spoke, seeming almost on the verge of losing control of itself in its complete mirth from Tails' sudden horror.

Tails only backed away slowly on his bed, trying to put any amount of distance he could between him and the levitating doll. However, the Tails Doll only floated forwards as he did so to keep the unsettling distance, and Tails quickly ran out of room on the bed to retreat to. "You really thought any living thing might defeat me? So naïve…" the doll only continued to taunt him as it still laughed as if the whole thing was the best practical joke it had ever heard of. "But, perhaps it is that same innocence mixed with genius that has attracted me to your soul above all others. That, and because we seem to both share other 'similarities' as well," it then brought up the strange resemblance of the two.

"NO! Leave me alone! You can't be real! None of this is real!" Tails shouted desperately as he finally found his voice again for what could be the last time.

The Tails Doll only cocked its head eerily to one side at his outburst, however. "You doubt if this is real? Perhaps now you actually are starting to become crazy," the demonic plaything joked. "Oh, but we can't have that now, can we? I wouldn't want your soul tainted after all the pain I've gone through to cultivate it, nurture it with fear, holding off until this very moment for the harvest when your terror is finally at its most ripe…" the doll muttered in glee.

Hearing this only drove the cornered fox into a rage. To be completely trapped and scared out of his wits, and at the same time his captor having played him like a game the whole time as well gave Tails that last impulse to fight back just like before with Knuckles. I shredded this thing into pieces before, and I can do it again! Tails resolved as the fox lunged forward to grab the floating puppet. Unfortunately, the Tails Doll knew all too well the impulses of a cornered animal, and no sooner had Tails' gloved hands touched the crudely stitched toy then the fox was forced to pull them away in extreme pain.

"Heeeee heee heee! I had a feeling you would never give up so easily! That is exactly why yours is the final soul I need!" the doll laughed again as a noticeable black aura of flames surrounded it.

"Ah…" Tails whimpered as he held both his hands gingerly from the burns they had sustained even through his gloves. "What… what do you mean?" Tails couldn't help but ask, trying to stall for time, perhaps, but knowing it did him no good regardless.

The doll almost seemed to swell or grow in size as it proudly responded, "For millions of years I have been trapped inside this bothersome crystal, cut off from my true power and freedom by a race of Mobians long since extinct. But, I vowed at my banishment that foul day that once I had gathered the energy of the soul of the one who would have my own form, I would be free once more! So, imagine my horror when that fool, Robotnik, grafted me into an image of a two-tailed mutant like you! And yet, nothing compared to the joy once you released me, and I found that the one soul I needed had finally come despite that fat oaf's interference!" the Tails Doll shouted in an excited form of jubilation at the final retelling of its long and patient past before it now seized the future of the planet forever. It's voice no longer seemed childish and playful, but more deep and ominous as the aura around it began to expand outwards in a pitch-black fiery splendor and the gem on the doll's forehead now shown in the center of it all like a red sun, an awesome yet unsettling display of all the energy it had already obtained from the souls before Tails' own. "The power you see before you is only a mere fraction of my might, young Miles! Once I have added your soul to those of all your closest friends and enemies, the entire planet will know nothing but fear for the rest of eternity!" the now barely recognizable Tails Doll shouted triumphantly.

Tails was speechless at the display of otherworldly power before him. He knew he couldn't let this happen, he had to do something, but he didn't have a single clue how to combat a thing like this. His idea to use sunlight as a weapon was useless now as the doll's black aura bloated out any source of illumination entirely, and, to his complete horror once more, Tails found that something was restraining his muscles like in his nightmare, rendering him unable to move at all. No… NO!! Tails wailed in his mind. This can't be happening! Something has to happen now, right? Somebody help!

"Still you cling to hope? You and this planet are already beyond saving, Tails! Soon all will be consumed by darkness! If you must feel hope for anything, let it be that you will not suffer much longer," the Tails Doll spoke ominously as Tails could almost swear he saw the doll's mouth itself moving and separating while it talked, emitting blasts of red heat from its twisted grin like the inside of a furnace. "Your fear has driven me, fed me, and these foolish friends of yours were but appetizers to slack my hunger, but now I have finally waited long enough for the main course; your soul, and, after that, the worlds'! So tell me, Miles Prower," the demonic being in front of Tails paused briefly, "Can you feel the sunshine?"

Tails struggled for a moment against his invisible bonds in a futile attempt to escape, knowing that his last moments had come. However, Tails' failing courage prompted one final response, and why he'd chosen for these to be his last words Tails might never know. "Yes, I do! And it brightens up my day from evil like you!" the fox shouted.

Amused, the Tails Doll let out a terrible chuckle to shake Hades itself. "Then you shall be the last to answer so!"

Almost immediately, Tails felt a powerful rending force in his abdomen, like a surgeon trying to remove his ribcage from his chest by ripping it out of his flesh whole. Unable to remain strong or determined in the face of such terror and pain, Tails could only scream. He felt himself dying as the very force of his being was sucked from his body like a milkshake up a straw, yet, though he grew weaker and weaker, the pain only intensified more and more. In moments, Tails was screaming at the loudest possible volume, and still it wasn't enough to express the agony. His last rational thought was that his body would remain screaming long after he was actually dead, and then thought itself was ripped from the fox's consciousness. Tails was only aware of a black, nameless void for a mere second, the maniacal laughing of a triumphant and well fed demon over his corpse, and then nothing at all.

The splash of cold liquid over his face revived the fox like a thunderclap as Tails leapt forward into a sitting position fast enough to give the blue hedgehog standing nearby and holding a small bucket a fright as well. "Holy…! Gees, you about scared me ta death, bro!" Sonic shouted as he quickly calmed down from Tails' unexpected jerk. "At least I've finally got ya up, though. What on Mobius is wrong with you this morning?" Sonic demanded as the noticeably concerned and equally annoyed hedgehog tossed the empty water pail away carelessly.

Tails, completely dumbfounded for the moment, stared back at Sonic as if the blue hedgehog were some kind of apparition in purgatory here with him before finally finding his voice once more to respond. "Wha- what do you mean, Sonic?" Tails asked quietly, finding that his throat for some reason seemed to be worn raw.

"I mean, why have you been screamin' loud enough to wake up people on Earth from here all night long?!" Sonic replied, his impatience showing as he tapped his foot on the floor at the foot of Tails' bed rapidly.

"Wait, all night? So, I'm just waking up now?" Tails asked in a clearly confused tone.

"Yeah, but I'm sure you had the rest of Mobius up about a half hour ago, bud," Sonic responded, the edge working its way out of his voice gradually as he realized something was clearly wrong with the fox. "You must've been in some kind of nightmare, huh, bro?" Sonic more stated than asked, the hedgehog's voice betraying the magnitude of which he suspected that Tails' dreams must have actually frightened him.

Tails was silent a moment, the reality of the improbable situation slowly sinking its way into his mind. All that he'd just been through, was just a simple nightmare? "I… I guess so…" Tails stuttered in his still shell-shocked state.

Sonic suppressed the urge to laugh at the answer. "You 'guess so'?! Tails, that bucket of water isn't the only reason your bed is soaked right now," Sonic quizzically informed the still frazzled kit.

Wait, what does he mean by… Tails' mind raced to decipher what Sonic had meant until moving one of his legs closer to himself without thinking revealed a clue as to the answer. "Oh no… Not again," Tails moaned as he recognized the location of the dampness on his mattress covers.

"Hang on a sec, Tails, 'not again'? You got some kind of problem with this all the sudden I should know about?" Sonic asked curiously. It was hard to tell whether he was genuinely concerned for the fox on this issue or just making a joke at his expense, however.

Tails made sure to respond quickly this time, though, either way. "No, it's just that in my nightmare I dreamed I also… well…" Tails explained, now unsure if he should be embarrassed by the accident or overjoyed that it could mean the whole ordeal he'd just gone through really was all in his head.

Sonic only smirked in response to Tails' humiliated explanation. "Well, don't worry about it too much, OK, bro? The way you were screaming towards the end there, I'm only happy that you're still fine," Sonic comforted the fox as he gave the kit a rare glance which betrayed the softness in his heart for his adopted little brother. "But, if you think I'm gonna clean that up, then ya really must be dreaming!" And, just like that, the brief look was gone, replaced now by the two's joined laughter.

"Yeah, I guess that should have been my first clue that I was dreaming in the first place," Tails spoke up in between chuckles.

Sonic's laughter seemed to end prematurely at this statement while he turned back to Tails with a look of mild disgust. "Wait, you mean in your dream I actually…?" Sonic asked.

Tails answered back with only a nod and enjoyed the various facial expressions Sonic had immediately after learning this, ranging from shock to disgust to wanting to be sick and various mixtures of the three. He was over-exaggerating, of course, Tails knew in an effort to make him feel better and take his mind off the embarrassing situation. It was Sonic's method of showing care by acting like the opposite and being goofy, and it never failed to make Tails laugh ever since he was only a tiny kit.

Finally through with his over the top facial expressions, Sonic turned back to Tails curiously. "So, should I even ask what else was in that dream of yours?" the hedgehog jokingly commented.

For a minute, Tails contemplated telling Sonic of the humiliating situation at Mrs. Vanilla's house in his dream where he'd overreacted quite a bit. "No, probably not," Tails simply answered with a grin.

Sonic knew he was being left out of the loop on something based on Tails' now playful grin, but decided it was best to let the subject go for his own sake. "Fair enough, then. You feel like gettin' out of bed now, though?" Sonic asked, wondering how Tails could stand to still be sitting on a half soiled and half soaked mattress.

"Heh heh… Yeah, I suppose so," Tails muttered while the fox slowly stood up out of bed next to Sonic. "I don't ever want to have a nightmare like that one again," the fox commented as well while Sonic led the way downstairs to breakfast.

"Hey, don't say I didn't warn ya, little bro," Sonic added in a patronizing voice as he began rounding up food in the kitchen while Tails stood nearby.

The young fox was confused by this, however. "Huh?" Tails broke in, wondering just when Sonic had predicted such nightmares.

"Don't ya remember, Tails? Last night when I'd told ya you were eating too much cake before bed and it would give you nightmares?" Sonic answered quickly, his back turned from the fox as he spoke since the hedgehog was preoccupied mixing some instant breakfast meal for the two of them.

It took a moment for Tails to successfully recall the events of yesterday. Oh, of course! Yesterday was my birthday! Everyone was here, too! Amy brought a huge cake with two iced tails on it that wrote out my age, Rouge and Shadow gave me some top secret GUN technology to test out, Knuckles forgot to get anything, and Sonic gave me a new expensive part I've been wanting for the X-Tornado!

Wait? X-Tornado? How come I thought I had that already if it's only…? Tails caught himself wondering before he realized that it was only in his dreams that the X-Tornado didn't exist yet and that he didn't know who Shadow was either. In real life, he now remembered he knew both existed quite well. So, another few things that should have warned me I missed… Tails chided himself slightly as he at least felt relieved to know for sure now that it was all a nightmare.

A few sharp knocks on the living room door across from them broke Tails out of his quiet thinking suddenly while Sonic turned his head as well to look back at the silent fox. "Yoo hoo? Mobius to Tails? You want ta get that, little bro?" Sonic requested as he was still busy preparing their meal.

Nodding consent a moment later as Tails' brief shock at being called back from his mental daydreaming wore off, the fox made his way over to the front door and opened it just after a second set of soft knocks were heard from the other side.

"Good morning, Tails!" the energetic young bunny on the other side greeted him from his doorstep as the chao floating over her shoulder replied in kind using its own undecipherable language.

"Oh, Hiya, Cream! What are you doing here so early?" Tails immediately asked, not accustomed to visitors at this point in the morning.

"Why not be outside? It's such a beautiful day today! I could just sit here and feel the warm sunshine all day!" Cream responded with a large, innocent smile.

The words she had used didn't have the intended effect on Tails, however, as the fox involuntarily backed away from the doorway and the polite bunny, looking a little pale all of the sudden.

Cream instantly noticed this and became concerned. "Tails? Are you feeling OK? Did I say something wrong?" she guessed, her voice now clearly apologetic.

"Uh, no, I'm fine, Cream," Tails quickly recovered and tried to talk his way out of explaining his whole terrifying nightmare to her now. "But, Umm… Did you have any reason in particular to come visit?" Tails asked again, only this time emphasizing why she'd walk the considerable distance to his home from hers if it was only to say hello and what a beautiful day it was.

Cream's excited smile returned instantly once again as she reached for something concealed behind her back. "It's because I wanted to give you your birthday present, Tails! It wasn't ready yesterday for the party, so I had to let mommy work on it a bit for me before I gave it to you today," Cream explained, her excitement at waiting to reveal the present to Tails seeming to mount until she couldn't hold off any longer.

"Oh, really? OK, then, what did you get me?" Tails asked, Cream's excitement proving contagious as the fox looked forward to seeing what gift Cream was about to give him.

Cream chuckled lightly at Tails' own impatience as she grabbed whatever was behind her back and prepared to show it to the eager fox. "Just promise me you won't laugh, though. I'm still not that good with stitching yet," Cream warned as she then showed Tails something that she'd worked on creating herself for the past week or so.

In the young rabbit's hands now sat a crudely stitched and somewhat deformed doll that was clearly designed to look like him. Even more, it also contained a red, fluffy pom-pom on a wire sown to its forehead, in the exact same way the Tails Doll's gem was attached to its head in his nightmare. "Taa Daa! Remember when you showed me that game you liked so much called 'Final Fantasy'? It's you as a moogle, Tails!" Cream giggled in delight while the homemade gift was at last revealed.

Tails didn't respond. As a matter of fact, the fox didn't make a single noise or movement whatsoever. He stared transfixed at the doll in Cream's hands in front of him for a moment, his face an unreadable mixture of shock, horror, and surprise, before turning completely pale and collapsing straight backwards to the floor.

"Tails! Oh no! What's wrong with him, Mr. Sonic?!" Cream squealed in sudden terror as she witnessed him faint right in front of her.

Sonic, who luckily had been watching at the moment the event had occurred gingerly placed a hand on his brother's head and chest to check if Tails was really even alive still, and sighed in relief when he realized the fox was indeed fine. "Beats me, Cream, but it looks like he just fainted," Sonic mentioned as he lifted the unconscious fox onto the living room sofa carefully.

"Will he be OK?" the frightened bunny quickly asked, hoping that she wasn't at all the cause for this sudden emergency.

"He'll be fine once he wakes up," Sonic comforted the scared young rabbit. "My only guess is that he liked your gift so much he couldn't take the excitement maybe," the blue hedgehog added with a shrug.

"You really think so?" Cream asked happily as both stood over the fainted fox, now waiting patiently for Tails to revive again, neither understanding the true reason for his collapse in the first place.