"Have you calmed down?"

"Yes, very much so," Sonic replied sarcastically. He always hated these moments, they took away from his life As far as he was concerned, he was content to live his life in his fantasy. But the medication almost always pulled him out of it, and reminded him that he was stuck in the Station Square Asylum indefinitely.

"Look, Sonic," the warden said softly," We've made some great progress here. We've made you realise that you went off the deep end, and you come to be accepting that now don't you?"

"Yes," Sonic sighed. He really hated these meetings. He just had to sit it out for a while, then the pills would wear off and he'd be able to get back to his real life, and help save Mobius.

"Is there anything you'd like to tell me Sonic?"

"No Warden Robotnik," the hedgehog answered. He didn't feel too much like playing along now, wanting to get back and get some answers about what was going on with the world. He needed to go back, he needed to figure out why everything kept constantly getting reset. This was abnormal, even by his own mental standards of normal. "Will that be all?"

"For now, yes," Robotnik answered, "You can back in with the others. Don't forget you're scheduled to see the therapist at two forty five today."

"Of course not," Sonic nodded.

With that he left the wardens office. The medication he had been injected with would only last another few minutes, and he was escorted to the main functional area where everybody else was. Sonic had only really seen this room a couple of times, usually he'd spend a couple of minutes watching everyone else before he could get back to the real world that was apparently imaginary in this, his deluded imagination. Sonic remembered the first time he'd seen this building, panic had stricken him, now he accepted it was harmless, and just one of the things everybody went through sooner or later.

Sonic watched the others in the room. Amongst them he saw the fox who thought he could fly, the armadillo who didn't believe he existed any more, a hedgehog who was convinced he was a cartoon character and a male rodent who was convinced he had been turned into a female bat. Generally the time spent here wasn't so much unpleasant as it was annoying, and it distracted from Sonic's real purpose. However, everybody in the real world had assured him not to worry about it, but Sonic couldn't help it.

But there was somebody new today. Sonic could see her in the left corner, though nobody else was giving her any attention, not even the overly hyperactive bee. Sonic looked at the lady, she was muttering something, but Sonic couldn't make out what. He edged closer, trying not to alarm her, or attract the attention of the men in white coats who stood at the edge of the room, ready to inject anyone who acted a bit violently with there needless full of "Stay-in-the-dream juice" as Sonic called it.

He stood next to the female cat, and watched as a small ball of fire erupted in her hand, before it extinguished itself, having burnt all the fuel to be found around it.

"How did you do that?" Sonic asked, slightly alarmed.

"Do what?" the green cat asked quietly.

"You made a flame appear!"

"No, 'fraid not," she relented, "Shame I was really close that time too."

"I know what I saw"

"Yes, because I can trust the vision of someone who's institutionalised.

"What's your name?" Sonic asked, curious about this new member of the crazy club.

"Dawn," she replied, "and you?"

"S-Sonic," the hedgehog stuttered, slightly taken aback The world began to distort in Sonic's vision. The walls of the room began to melt, as Sonic instinctively realised the medication was wearing off, and this world as loosing it's grip on Sonic.

"No, not yet?" Sonic yelled, as his vision slowly blurred. As he looked to dawn she had changed from green to red, and her figure had become a gassy looking blur. Her facial features had distorted making her look much more threatening, and she looked like she was scowling. She now appeared to float around the area, disturbing Sonic greatly to see.

"Dawn, I need to know something!" Sonic shouted, "Is this real?"

Sonic never heard Dawn's answer. The entire world had collapsed, and he was back where he began. It was the all too familiar checker-board patterned sight of the Green Hill Zone. For once, Sonic didn't want to be here. He wanted to be back where he was.

"Great, now how do I get back?" Sonic asked aloud.

"Get back where?" echoed a familiar voice. Sonic turned around was immediately surprised to see himself looking back. He looked at his double, then looked at himself. His gloves looked different, and his fur was now black. Sonic ran his hands over his spines, while looking at his body as best as he could. Finally he caught a reflection of himself in a nearby river. There was no doubt about it, Sonic now looked exactly like Shadow.