My door slowly creaked open making a pillar of light in my almost pitch black room. My hand reached for the bedside where it grabbed on to the hilt of one of my knives. I brought the knife up and raised it just below eye level as a shadowy figure entered my room.

My heart was beating furiously in anticipation as the figure reached for the light switch. The lights switched "on" revealing Dr. Quack who was eyeing the room lazily until he saw my raised weapon. His eye widened and he raised his hand up defensively "Whoa there!" he said "Put the knife down missey I'm just here for your blood test!"

I sighed with relief but was still a bit hesitant to put my weapon down. Not that I though he was a threat or anything. It's just….. Blood tests involve needles. But never the less I put my knife back down on the bedside table and smiled sheepishly "Sorry Dr. Quack I thought you were ….well someone else.

Dr. Quack's face hardened and turned to a cherry-ish color "Sorry?!"he spat "You scared me half to death!"

I turned my head away stubbornly "Well you didn't look that scared…"

I tilted my head up to see him working at his table grumbling angrily "Well when you've been through war as long as I have you learn to expect these kinds of things! I don't know why I even let that dog talk me into letting you keep that thing here." He raised his voice "THIS IS A HOSPITAL FOR GOODNESS SAKES! Who do you think would attack you in a hospital?!"

I wanted to say "Naugus" but I decided I best keep that to myself.

"Devdas gave me that weapon just in case anyone would-"

My words caught in my throat when I saw Dr. Quack walk over with a syringe in hand. oblivious to my fear of needles he said "I swear you and that dog are just so…so paranoid!"

I cringed "Then I guess I shouldn't say anything about us questioning the nurse and checking my food for poison then should I?..."

The Doctor gave me a looked that practically said, Are you kidding me? But once he realized I was completely serious he snorted and burst out laughing.

I narrowed my eyes since I kind of took offense to this. I was right to be a little paranoid. I mean in the past three days I learned that Naugus somehow knew that I was going on that mission to the Death egg and practically sentenced me to a fate worse than death by telling Eggman to legionize me while I was there. And not to mention when he greeted us when we got back to the city he didn't look at all pleased to see I was still in one piece.

"Forget paranoid!" laughed Dr. Quack "You and that dog are downright insane!"

"Shut it!" I yelled "If you'd gone through what I've been through in the past few months you would be taking precautions too!"

His laugh faded away except for a small smirk, and his eye drooped lazily "Yes, yes I know quite well what you've been through, and you should really learn how to tell when someone's kidding around with you."

"Yeah! Well… You should stop being so hard to read!"

He chuckled a little and turned on his heel and headed to the door. "Wait!" I yelled "Didn't you need to take a blood sample?"

The only response I got was him waving a crimson colored test tube almost teasingly over his shoulder as he walked out of the room and shut the door behind him. I stared at the door in confusion until I finally looked down at my hand to see that it was already bandaged and had a slight throb to it that I hadn't noticed until just now.

I narrowed my eyes but smirked. That had to be the best doctor in all of Mobius…

That night I dreamt I was on the beach. It was a beautiful sunny day without a cloud in the sky. I was floating lazily in a crystal clear ocean while Nadi-La was building a sand castle on the empty shoreline. She wore a modest red full body swimsuit that had pink frills along the neckline and pink flip- flops that were covered with sand. She was eyeing her work critically like one of her calculations was messed up on her blueprints for making a sandcastles.

I laughed and started to swim over to join her until I felt a small playful tug on my leg. I swung my head around to see Devdas's head bobbing right above the water with his wet, black hair covering his eyes and a mischievous smile on his face. Before I could do anything he swam around me and went deeper into the ocean. I tried to follow him but for some reason I couldn't move my legs.

I struggled to move but the ocean seemed to put pressure on all of my limbs until they were immobile. I looked out to the distance but Devdas was no longer there. I looked to the shoreline and Nadi-La wasn't there either.

The ocean turned inky black and the waves started to get higher and higher until one finally overtook me. I panicked as I sunk below the ocean's surface unable to move and struggling for breath. My lungs burned and everything around me went black…

My eyes snapped open. Out of instinct I tried to gasp for breath but something was covering my mouth. I breathed from my nose, thankfully that wasn't covered and I started to breath from there until I looked up and lost my breath once again. Looming above me was an ugly face with elfish features with a white beard and yellowish sharpened teeth that were smiling down at me.

"Well welcome back Nicki" said Naugus "I hope you enjoyed your stay in New Mobotropolis because one way or another it's coming to an end."

My eyes widened as I tried to move my body but it was frozen just like in my dream.

"W-what kind of monster attacks someone while there down?" I hissed

He brought his metal claw up to his chest "What? Me? Oh no no no no no! You see it is my associate who will be doing all the work."

I looked to the side to see a blue cloaked figure. The figure raised his hands up to his hood and brought it down. My eyes must have been popping out of my head with how wide they were.

The face that was under that hood was a golden cat who had a scar going down his eye. He smiled "You really should have just stayed up on the Death Egg" mocked Benedict.