This chapter. Just… this chapter.

Reviews! (which Halo will be covering)

Afterburngaming: Aw, you're sweet~

AreAllTheNamesTaken: The plot will be kicking in VERY soon, like in only a couple of chapters. (SPOILER ALERT)

Shapeshifter 14: It'll happen… Eventually. (hehehe)

ultimateCCC: Yep, they're pretty close… relatively. (HAHAHA)

Autumn: Um… that was a Sonia chapter...

StarlightSparks: Aw, thanks!

Sonic's POV:

I woke up in cold sweat, breathing hard. I wanted to scream, but my mouth was too dry to make a sound.

Shaking, I turned on the light next to my bed and got up. No point in trying to sleep after that dream. I walked downstairs into the kitchen, stopping right before I reached the door. I wasn't allowed in there. But I was so thirsty… I couldn't mess up a glass of water, could I?

Worth a shot.

Cautiously, I opened the cupboard and grabbed a cup, holding it with both hands out in front of me as I brought it to the sink; I was half expecting it to spontaneously catch on fire. As carefully as I could, I filled the cup and brought it to my lips. I almost dropped it, but caught it just in time.

This was a huge accomplishment for me! I had entered the kitchen and left without starting Armageddon! Woo!

I sat down on the couch in the living room, the dim illumination of the floor lamp the only thing lighting the room. I thought briefly about turning on the TV, but didn't really feel in the mood.

I shouldn't really be surprised that I've been having so many nightmares lately. Robotnik has only been getting more and more ruthless in his attacks in the last few months, which is scaring the heck out of me. He's gone from terrorizing cities to going after our team. Just a month ago, Amy was abducted in the middle of the night, the fifth time since January.

She wasn't the only one who's been kidnapped, though- he's taken Tails at least four times, Knuckles three, and Rouge and Shadow both once each. And me? I'm sorry to say that I've gotten stuck in one of his death traps three times and counting.

We've barely been making out of these things alive. Once, Knuckles was literally tossed in a pit of shrapnel and had to climb up a sheer wall to escape. Amy's been attacked by three Metal Sonics at the same time in a locked room, and he held Tails hostage for three days once, torturing him with another electric collar. He was almost dead by the time we found where Robotnik was keeping him (I think he wanted Tails to upgrade his army again, but every time he tried the poor kid had a panic attack and became pretty… hostile). Shadow's 'death-trap' was very easy for him to escape (I think it had actually been designed to catch me…). He simply teleported out of the metal room that was about to explode. Rouge had a trap that was (surprise, surprise) themed on jewels. Easy for her to get in, not so easy to get out… and she didn't get a single jewel, much to her disappointment.

I remember the most recent trap he's gotten me in. It was around a month ago. He was reported to have been burning down some buildings in a small town a few miles east of here, but when we arrived to help, all we found were three dozen Metal Sonics, half of them there to distract the team and the other half there to capture me. They took me to a nearby lake and dragged me underwater, holding me down to the sandy floor and waiting to see how long I could hold my breath. I remember struggling futilely against the grip of their cold metal claws and the feeling of my lungs burning, desperate for oxygen. My vision was blurry from the water and I kept seeing black splotches that only got bigger and bigger the longer I stayed under…

The next thing I knew, I was hacking up water, with a soaking Knuckles hoisting my shoulder over his. If he, Tails and Amy hadn't jumped in and knocked away the Metal Sonics, I'd have drowned that day. I still get chills thinking about it.

Then came the terrifying day, about two weeks ago, when Robotnik kidnapped Cream. I remember that night; Vanilla was banging on our door at the crack of dawn, so hysterical we could hardly understand her. Eventually, after a few cups of tea, she was able to choke out that Cream was missing, and in her bed was a ransom note- from Robotnik. The ransom was something along the lines of "unconditional surrender". That day was… scary. We had no idea where the heck he was keeping her, and we wasted half the day trying to figure it out. After a few fruitless hours, we finally called in Team Dark.

The minute we told Shadow that Cream had been kidnapped and was being held ransom, he started teleporting all of us at once to each of Robotnik's bases until we found the one where he was holding Cream, with Rouge fuming all the while. Quote: "You do not kidnap and threaten children's lives. Especially that child." I almost threw up about twelve times (teleportation with no time to recover is not fun.)

I was expecting him to be torturing her for information, or holding her in some sort of sick, life force-sucking machine. Nope. Not even close.

When we got there, we found Cream in a locked room with seven dismantled SWATbots at her feet. She was trying to escape by whacking the wall with one of the robot's arms and screaming profanities that she really shouldn't have known at all (you've gotta wonder how much late-night TV Vanilla was letting her watch).

Turns out that 'Botnik had taken Cheese and had locked Cream in a room with a dozen SWATbots ready to tear her apart if we didn't comply with the ransom in forty eight hours. He should've built himself some sturdier robots, because according to the security tapes we saw later, those rust buckets didn't stand a chance- Cream was literally tearing them limb from limb.

Anyway, after we found and freed both her and Cheese, that's when it really got interesting. Cream was thrilled to have Cheese back, but when she noticed that he had a bent wing, we saw a side of her that frankly, I'd like to never see again. Me, Amy, and Knuckles all had to hold her back from going after Robotnik and committing cold-blooded murder. After calling him a couple of names that cannot and should not be repeated, she had pretty much gotten it out of her system and asked if we could go home. And we did… everyone but Shadow.

I'm still not clear on the specifics of what happened, only that the aftermath was big enough to make the six o'clock news and that that particular base is no longer standing. Cream has started taking defense lessons from Amy in case this happens again, and I'm about ninety-nine percent sure that Shadow is secretly training her behind our backs. Robotnik hasn't tried another abduction since, but it's only a matter of time.

Nightmares… I've lived with them since I was six, but it was something I still wasn't positive how to get rid of them. Some people confront them, head on- and somehow get over their fear of spiders and the dark. Don't think the same works for friends getting kidnapped by an evil wannabe dictator.

Other people just watch tv to get rid of their problems and pray that the horrifying images never return.

I sit and think about them. Which in the long run, may not get rid of them. But I've learned that if I ignored them they just got worse.

Tonight's dream was really strange. It was a repeat of a particularly terrifying death trap that involved Amy hanging over a vat of lava (don't ask), but instead of Amy it was everyone. Amy, Tails, Cream, Shadow, Rouge, Vanilla, Frank and Bernice, and… Manic and Sonia. They were locked in tight metal cages and slowly being lowered closer and closer to the bubbling surface of the lava. I was running to save them, but they only got farther and farther away. I heard their screams for one blood curdling second… and then it was quiet.

I wasn't fast enough.

Team Sonic and Team Dark's appearance didn't surprise me, nor did Vanilla's, Bernice's, or Frank's. But the fact that my dead siblings were there was really strange. But I guess it shouldn't have surprised me too much.

Over the past six months, or at least since Christmas, I'd been getting really... vivid memories of my old family for practically no reason. Let's just say that I've had very mixed emotions over the whole experience. If I was just sitting in my room and a flash of memory washed over me, then I'd grab a notebook and pen and quickly scribble down everything I could get- sometimes a whole paragraph, sometimes only a single word. Once in awhile, when words just couldn't do it, I'd draw a picture. When I was with friends or in the middle of a fight, I found it very, very, annoying. I had no idea why I was getting these flashes of memories- maybe I was having some sort of PTSD reaction or something. That would make sense, since Robotnik is trying to kill my new family.

Family…

Somedays, I wondered if I should leave. Just run away, go live alone somewhere. They'd be safer that way; I was a magnet for danger and beacon for tragedy. But at this point I was in too deep. Abandoning everyone would just make things worse- as I had learned the hard way from my first attempt with Tails. In times like these, I cursed myself for ever making connections with anyone.

I mentally kicked myself. Stupid, stupid, stupid...

The only person who knew my whole story was General Towers. I knew everyone else was a confused on why I panicked so much when someone almost died. I'd check them over for injuries and ask them hundreds of questions to see if they were alright before calming down a little. I think Shadow might suspect that something was up, but he never made a comment. Fine by me.

I know that the rest of the team was worried about me, and Tails had tried to get me to talk at least three times already about what was bothering me, or why I would abruptly zone out in the middle of a fight or conversation.

I'd like to say I told him.

I realized that I had been up for nearly an hour. My eyelids were heavy; I worked up the energy to grab at a blanket on the floor, then felt myself crash back to dreamland. The world there was blurry and vague, unstable. I wished I wasn't able to dream at all.

I'm running towards something… No, I'm running away from something. Something bad. Dark.

There's laughter in the background, the echoing din chilling me to the bone. I look around, desperate, unable to see anything through the black fog. The laughter grows steadily louder and I pick up the pace, the sickening thrill of panic setting in my lungs. I want to scream to for help, for somebody, anybody, to save me from this monster, but nothing escapes my throat. I'm mute.

I run faster and faster. The laughter surrounds me; it fills my ears, overwhelming my mind and crippling my senses. Where is it coming from? Doesn't matter. Just run, run, run, go, leave, leave, faster, faster.

Soon it's everywhere, the pitch black fog seeping through my eyelids, the deranged laughter now a deafening shriek. I trip, crashing to my knees. It's coming for me. My legs are frozen. I can't move. I can't escape.

I'm trapped.

XXX

And… CUT!

That was fun. Anyone else scream?

NOT ME! More like fangirl-squealed. ANGST!

Of course you would say that… Anyway, please review! What do y'all think is going to happen to Sonic? (;