Author's note: A little early for an update, but that's ok!

Chapter Eight: A Dream's Work

Mighty and I walked, or limped, through the tunnel slowly. Neither of us talked. Neither of us had anything to say. My mind was still half asleep, the wound in my arm still bleed. Mighty had nothing on him to cover it up and neither did I.

About half way through, I announced that I needed a break. I hated having to sit down when the guy I beat up wasn't having as much trouble as I was. I rubbed my spinning head. Mighty sat beside me. "You sure you are ok?"

I nodded, then shook my head. I wasn't ok. I was stuck in the middle of the future with some Dictator, who could very well be me, ruling the world with an iron fists and everyone I could have considered friends were dead and I was losing my mind. I felt like a child who was scared of what might be lurking under his bed, or in his closet. A child who was too scared to leave the light off at night and when he woke up from a bad dream, he was too scared to leave the safety of his room because he feared what might be waiting for him down the long hallway leading to his parent's bed room.

I passed out again. My mind was finally resting, or at least I thought it was

I was standing in the middle of thousands of fallen robots. The same figure from my first dream was standing beside me, panting. "Now what? Why do you keep calling me!" I yelled, but was aware of fatigue, as if I had really fought all those robots. I looked at my surroundings. The sky was a red-ish grey color and the ground was covered with dead grass. I gulped. This all look familiar. "What do you want?" I yelled at the figure beside me.

"HELP HIM!" The figure yelled. Once again, I searched for Tails, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Where is he?" I asked.

The figure pointed to Tails' body. He was already dead. "I can't help him!" I yelled, looking at the dead fox. "What do you want with me?" Tears were going down my cheeks.

"You have to help him!"

"I CAN'T!" I screamed, punching out at the figure.

I jumped back. "HELP HIM!" It screamed.

"How?" I yelled.

"Save him!"

"He's already dead! I can't save him! Who am I saving him from?" I wanted to scream, but I controlled it.

The figure turned to look at me. I screamed. It had no mouth, no face, and it's eyes had no pupils and where pure white, while the rest of the figure was black. "You," it hissed.

I bolted upright in a hurry, screaming bloody murder. Mighty had to tackle my and pin my down before I stopped screaming and thrashing. He had to bang me, hard, on the head before, as he described it, "my eyes came back to reality."

When he got off of me, I didn't move. I was breathing hard, too hard. I thought I was having a heart attackMy heart was beating so fast I thought for sure it would burst. My eyes were rolling, and I could hardly see anything. I was losing whatever grip I had on reality, and I didn't even know why.

If you were to ask Mighty, he would tell you my struggle lasted ten minutes in total and I didn't move for almost and hour. If you were to ask me, I would tell you all that happened over what seemed like years.

When I finally sat up, calm enough, Mighty was staring, wide-eyed at me. I swallowed and looked at him. "Are you ok?" He asked.

I shook my head. "Nightmare," I whispered.

"Don't give me that again! What did you dream about?"

I glared at him, but before I could stop it, I told him. Both dreams came out of my mouth. By the time I was done describing them, I was crying. I turned away. I wasn't going to cry in front of this guy, who has had it ten times worse than I have.

"Do you care for this fox?"

I shook my head. "No," I snapped. True, I might cry if he died, but his death in my dreams wouldn't scare me this much.

"It seems like you do," Mighty said. I rolled my eyes. "Shadow, I can't interpret your dreams, but someone is trying to tell you to protect that fox of yours."

"FROM WHAT?" I screamed. It echoed through the tunnel.

"I don't know! It's your dream!" Mighty retorted angrily.

"Look, I'm sorry. I don't want to kill him. Sure, he's annoying, but I won't kill him. My dreams all suggest I will be the death of that fox, but I don't want to kill him."

Mighty shrugged. "Ever thought you have an evil twin running around here? Maybe you aren't Shadow and the real Shadow is evil and will kill your fox."

"Get serious, man!"

Mighty took a deep breath. "Maybe it's not suggesting you will be the death of him. Dreams work strangely. They all seem to be telling you to help him. Maybe if you don't help him, he'll die."

"What am I helping him with?"

Mighty shrugged. "I have no idea. You say in your first you killed him, right?" I nodded. "And in the second dream, your 'figure' told you that you need to save him from yourself. So one way or the other, you are the death of him. It looks like you have a dark side lurking in you."

I looked at him. Black Hearted Evil. Brave Hearted Hero. "I am all, I am all, I am"

Mighty cocked his head. "Huh?"

"Nothing," I answered quickly.

"There could be another reason to those dreams."

"Really?" I asked. I did not like the idea of being the death of Tails.

"Yeah. Is it possible that you could be symbolizing someone else?"

I shook my head, though that wasn't entirely true. There was one other person I could symbolize, but as far as I was concerned, he no longer existed. "No. I can't symbolize anyone else."

"Is it possible, then, that you do have a second form?"

I shrugged. "It might." Considering the form I'm in doesn't exist in this world! I added silently.

Mighty groaned. "I don't know what to tell you Shadow, but these dreams are scaring you silly. I had to bang your head on the tracks to get you to calm down."

I put my hand on the back of my head and brought it back. The white glove was stained with blood. I shook my head.

"Hey, I'm sorry. You were going to kill yourself if you kept that up, and you might have killed me," Mighty explained.

"I'm not mad at you." I stood up on shaky legs. "Let's go. Cream is mostly worried sick."

"Cream?"

"She's a rabbit. You'll meet her and my fox," I said and led the way.

"Are you sure you are ok. We can rest some more."

I shook my head. "Well rest when we find Cream and Tails"

"Tails?"

"My twin-tailed fox. Pay attention Mighty," I growled.

"Don't get mad at me because you can't sleep without screaming."Mighty growled.

I wanted to lunge for him again, but I controlled myself the best I could. "Just shut up! This had been very stressful."

"Stressful! Do you have any idea what life is like by yourself?"

"YES!" I screamed. "I know how it feels to have no one in your life, so shut up! I know exactly what you went through! I slept for 50 blasted years of my life, so don't talk to me about alone! When I woke up, everything I knew was gone! Then I fell to Earth to lose my memory, so yes, Mighty, I know what it feels like to live life without anyone! And I'm not about to lose anyone else!"

The speech shocked me as much as it did Mighty. According to this world, non of that could have happened. According to him, I was crazier than who ever took over this dump. And yes, I was talking about Tails. I had lost everything, and that dumb fox seems to be the last thing I have left, so I wasn't about to lose him as well as everything else I had ever known in my life.

Mighty looked at me. "Are you ok?" He asked again.

"Is that all you can say!" I yelled.

"Dude, non of that could have happened."

I explained, everything. I started with my creation and went from there. He didn't believe a single word of it.

"You are crazy! Time travel is impossible!"

I laughed, but stopped myself this time. "Tell that to Tails. Please don't tell Cream about this. She already thinks I'm nuts."

"You are nuts! But ok, I won't tell anyone about your crazy theory," Mighty said. "Let's go, Shadow. We don't want Cream to worry.

We walked out of the Train Station. Cream was where I had left her. "Shadow!" She yelled and ran over to me. "Who's this?"

"Name's Mighty, madam." Mighty said, slightly bowing his head. I chuckled.

Cream smiled. "I'm glad you are back. Come on, we must get inside now!"

Might was looking at the city with a shocked expression. "The Dictator did all of this."

Cream nodded and turned to leave.

It was then when I realized we were missing someone. "Where's Tails?"

Cream spun aroundShe cocked her head. "I thought he went after you..."