It was at that moment I awoke, immediately sitting up in a cold sweat. My hands gripped tightly on the bed covers, and Chaos Energy sparked off the tip of my fingers. I saw the fur on my arm was standing on end, with a chill that penetrated into the bone. A breath appeared to be caught in my throat.

Then I laughed. I allowed myself to laugh. It was soft, but it happened all the same.

How could I be so stupid?

My laughter increased in volume. It was just a dream!

I was in stitches. You stupid ultimate life form, getting spooked by a dream!

The laughter finally died down, and I managed to wipe away a tear that had developed in the corner of my eye. Light was shining through a gap in the curtains, so I went over and opened them. It was clearly morning, the sun was starting to come up and as I opened the window, birds could be heard calling to one another. I then teleported.

"Boo." I said in a completely monotone voice when I suddenly appeared on the chair opposite her on the kitchen table. It was rather amusing to see her fall backwards on her chair. The bat let out a disgruntled exclamation of shock when she was on the floor. Every morning I do this, yet it still scares her every time.

"Shadow.." she panted, "why must you do this to me?"

"It provides mild entertainment."

"Why don't you just.. read a book or something?"

I shrugged. "This is more amusing to me."

"But why..?"

"I don't need to explain myself, I'm the ultimate life form." A grin crept on my face.

Rouge huffed. "You can't always use that excuse."

"Watch me."

Omega walked in just then, and his gaze fell upon Rouge. God knows where he had been all night. "Seriously, Rouge..?" he began, "I told you to arm yourself with a baseball bat."

Slowly, she began to stand up. "Shadow's been feeling rather.. perplexed lately, I wasn't expecting it from him."

"Never assume."

Rouge's eyes suddenly became sympathetic after she stood up completely and looked my direction. "Are you feeling any better now?"

"I guess." That response was cryptic, I'm well aware. I suppose I had forgotten about my current situation for a little, but the thoughts were slowly swimming back into my head. The reality that there was no way out also began to settle in again.

"I see." Surprisingly, Rouge didn't attempt to press on, at least not yet. She walked into the kitchen and started boiling water in the kettle, no doubt planning on making a coffee.

Omega picked up the chair that Rouge had fell over on and put it back upright. "Just remember I'm up for any sparring matches if you need to take out your emotions on something."

I couldn't help but smile a little. "I wasn't aware my version of therapy was combat therapy."

"Rouge has retail therapy, we're perfectly entitled to our version." Omega crossed his arms.

Rouge walked in then, shaking her head, but with a smile on her face. She set down her mug on the table, and my face turned pale when I saw a message written in the froth.

You think you're weak.

I heard static on the TV, and quickly whipped around, my heart beating furiously in my chest. There were words showing through the static.

You wouldn't be if you didn't hold back.

I shook my head, trembling, trying to physically get rid of the image. I could faintly hear Rouge talking amongst the ringing in my head. She was probably asking what was wrong with me. I had hallucinated before, I'll admit. I sometimes saw Maria when she wasn't there, but she would vanish in an instance. These messages were still there, refusing to go away. How did the stupid dream effect me this much? It shouldn't have lead me to hallucinations.

That's when I heard voices. Hundreds. Thousands talking at once.

If you didn't hold back, you could have saved her.

My heart stopped.

I could barely move my head, but I somehow I manged to turn back to Rouge.

Only it wasn't Rouge.

It was the person I longed, yet dreaded to see most. It was Maria, except her body was made up of some thick, slimy, purple liquid. The eyes were a solid, blaring white, with no pupils, no nothing. There was a gap in the liquid where her mouth was, showing a grin way too large to be considered anything but abnormal.

You didn't care, did you?

Her voice was practically robotic. I could only stare in horror, powerless. Unable to say anything as all words caught in my throat. Maria laughed, it was giggle, with a lingering echo.

You never did.

I screamed then, although I think the correct term was screeched. My voice was finally back, but I couldn't put it to good use to insist that she had gotten it all wrong. I always cared! I never stopped caring!

I saw a pair of petrified blue eyes staring at me. I had never been more grateful to see Rouge in my life. "A-Are you okay?" her voice was struggling to become more than a mere whisper.

Tears began to form, blurring my vision and making my face cold as they streamed down. "I care!" I sobbed.

"I care way too much!"