Sonic forced himself to fall asleep in the empty jail cell that night. Tolerating the despondent odors and the constant midnight draft, his body drained from the nightmares and St. John's ferocious interrogation, the sudden onset of the reality that he was to be tried and sentenced by King Acorn the next day for apparently killing Princess Sally. It was a concept that couldn't be more unrealistic. However, the evidence was all there. The other Freedom Fighters saw Sonic take out a small knife and cut the rope the heroic princess climbed. They watched her plunge several stories, fall through an awning, and hit the cold concrete with the most sickening thud. The entire time Dr. Quack endeavored to save the princess' life, Sonic was absent from her side. His arrival was too little too late. And when the time came to succumb to horrible sleep, he caved. His last conscious thought consisted of his idea that if Sally wasn't waking up tomorrow morning, he shouldn't either.
The dreams came again. He dreamt of a future where he was the hero all over again, and Sally was so beautifully nestled in his arms. It started so pleasant. But then, the darkness came. Sonic strained to see across the blackened clouds. Her Sword of Acorns was outstretched in his gloved hand amidst the drama of a massive struggle against machines. Then visions of brilliant purple light, and lastly, disaster raced through the young hedgehog's head. Sonic shuffled into consciousness, the shackles chiming with the dull sound of captivity. Sunbeams flared through the iron bars in the window of Sonic's jail cell, and a tray of messy unappetizing food outside the bars. Sonic was disgusted and gracious at once as he devoured the slop St. John's men served him. He figured it was his last meal.
"On your feet, prisoner," came the order rich in Australian accent from none other than the captor and warden himself, Geoffrey St. John. Sonic glared at the skunk outside those thick iron bars and stood up, covered in dirt, ragged and cold from the draft of the night. The brief glimmer of false hope hit Sonic when the cell doors opened. It was quickly broken by the forceful shove by St. John's men. The hedgehog captive fumbled forward to be violently dragged away by the shackles' chain. "I hope His Highness sends you off to be executed like the dog that you are," St. John growled.
"Oh, woof-woof, St. John," Sonic smarted back. His retort was met with a slap to the back of his head by one of St. John's men. He grumbled at the two guards, muttered less than stellar remarks about St. John himself. The blinding daylight left him helpless to what was in front of him, the only sensory input was the regal accent that Sonic recognized as the king.
His judge.
His jury.
His executioner.
"Bring out the prisoner!" The king bellowed. He stood tall upon a tree stump, positioned to hand the fate of Sonic the Hedgehog to him. His judgment would be greatly influenced by who was murdered that night and the prisoner himself. He watched the ragged fifteen-year-old hedgehog was dragged amidst the circle of a mob. Sonic was certain it was a lynching. King Acorn looked down into the weary eyes of Sonic the prisoner, identifying him as two opposite people: the murderer and the hero.
"Sonic the Hedgehog, you are charged with murder and treason. What do you have to say for yourself?..."
"...Sonic?" Sally shook her dearest hedgehog gently by his arm. He had fallen prey to the dreams again, the dreams of the mistakes of the past. When the hedgehog got his bearings straight, he saw a beautiful auburn-haired ghost. "Sweetie, you're freaking me out! Stop that." He looked up at her with those brilliant green eyes, struggling to hold back tears. When the reality set in, he grabbed her and locked her in a tight embrace. Words escaped his lips, almost unheard and hidden under soft sobs and a heavy cloud of somber distress.
"I thought I lost you, Sally...I thought I lost you..." Drained of tears and life, Sonic the Hedgehog fell into a horrid sleep in his princess' arms. Sally closed her eyes, holding him close. The last thing his consciousness heard was simple reassurance,
"Sonic? What is it? Is something wrong, dearest?" Sally asked, unsure of her husband's problem. His response was in the form of the most peculiar question, as he stared blankly at Sally.
"Sally, what's the date? I need to know the exact date," He said, his hands shaking lightly, clearly distraught. He had such a strange sensation course through him, as if he at last lost touch between his dreams and the reality that he was living. He counted on his fingers, hoping that some reasoning could help him make heads or tails of how he was feeling at the moment. Never before had he felt so old.
"The year is 3270," she answered uncertainly, puzzled as to why her husband would ask such a mundane question before setting out to make his first appearance as King since he had ordered the eradication of New Megaopolis. Sally observed her husband, and was worried by his reaction to her response.
"Sally...that can't be right. Just a second ago...I could've sworn we were...Yes! That's it! I remember it now, clear as crystal. We were on a picnic. We had sat down at the Lake of Rings, and I was...I was talking about my dreams, and how I saw all this happening." He seemed to be very pleased that he had managed to remember so much, as if these twilight years in his life had left him with a bad ability to recall past events. Sally grimaced, worried about her husband.
"Sweetie, there is no Lake of Rings, remember? Robotnik completely annihilated it at the first battle of the Great Forest. We haven't been on a picnic since before Sonia and Manik were born." She felt his forehead and his cheek, theorizing that something made him ill, but felt nothing as far as a feverish temperature. This left her very confused, but the scene he described seemed familiar, as if it were a very distant memory.
"Sally...if that's true, then why does it seem like it just happened? Why do I feel like nothing here seems right. These clothes, the Sword of Acorns on the mantle, you talking about kids, none of it seems normal. This is...a dream, but I'm awake. What's happening to me, Sal?" He looked down at his trembling hands, gloved as usual. He found a mirror in the hall and stared at his reflection, and saw the image of an aged hedgehog, dressed so strangely.
Dressed like a king.
Sonic did not feel like King Sonic. He felt like he was in shackles, or tired from his nightmares.
This nightmare was real, though. Sonic could not fathom it.
"Sonic, let's go see Dr. Quack. I'm sure he'll be able to see if anything is wrong with you," Sally suggested, taking her husband by his arm, leading him towards the hospital. Sonic complied, sure that the familiar feeling of having Sally on his arm was something that did feel right.
His Royal Highness was on his back, slowing conveyed towards a device used to conduct scans of the brain. Dr. Jonathan Quack oversaw the procedure. King Sonic entered the white metal cavern of the medical imaging machine. He almost mistook it for a Roboticizer. He heard a voice coming from the speaker. He presumed it was Quack's.
"Sire, the scan should take only five minutes," said the young doctor. He looked at the Queen and continued, "If there's some sort of abnormality, it'll show up in the scan. This device is very finely tuned. I must ask though, has the king been taking any medications? Has he had a sufficient diet and sleep? He seems perfectly coherent for his age."
"Sonic just doesn't seem like himself, as if it's finally hitting him that he's not as young as he used to be. He brings up things that happened twenty-five years ago, and he remembers it clearly. However, he has little to no memory of the entire Second Great War." She turned around, looking at the immense cylinder that was trying to ascertain her husband's troubles medically. She observed him twitch a little. The twitch became a struggle to escape. Sonic shouted to be let out of the machine, his voice booming with a combination of anger and fear. Sally ran to him grabbing his leg and slowly pulling him out of the device. Sonic collapsed to the floor, gasping for air, reaching blindly as if he was relieved to feel open spaces. The entire situation lasted 3 minutes, nowhere near enough time to complete the scan. The doctor suggested another scan, but Sonic's response was immediate.
"That infernal machine can go to hell. Damn its eyes!" Sonic shouted. Sally supported him up to his feet while he continued to catch his breath. When he achieved proper footing he stormed out of the hospital, Sally struggling to keep up. She finally did so, but only because the aged hedgehog was stopped dead in his tracks by a purple hole that rested in mid-air without shape or depth. Queen Sally panicked, ordering a small-scale evacuation and isolation for the mysterious hole. Her cries to Sonic to back away from it were unheard by the curious hedgehog who reached out......And grabbed the Power Ring that came out of the Lake of Rings. The glimmering torus gave off a brilliant holy light, famous for granting the wish of those who had pure hearts who wished hard enough. He passed it off to the Princess sitting before him, the glow it emitted reaching back beyond Sally's auburn hair as it waved freely in the wind creating this halo that left the young hedgehog speechless. Sonic smiled for the first time in days, able to shake off those waking dreams to enjoy the romantic getaway for the couple. Sally smiled and took Sonic's gloved hand, squeezing it just a little.
"There's the hedgehog I used to know. Feeling better?" She looked down at the ring, a little relieved at the solace it seemed to bring her significant other.
Relieved that her wish came true. However, Princess Sally was unnerved by another question that she inevitably pondered:
How long would Sonic's peace of mind last?