I scoffed at the suggestive tone and just continued to glare at them. Clearly this plan I had to ignore them wasn't working in my favour. I was too angry with them. Or myself… Whatever! Whether they were real or not, I was still fuming! After all the taunting, punishments, therapy and meds, they just randomly chose to show up again? After ten years! How dare they? No, they weren't real! For gods sake why was I getting so angry? They were not real!

"Does this mean we've won hide and seek?" Wakko asked, tilting his head at his brother.

"So if you're Talia, who's this?" asked Dot, looking at the picture.

"Poppy, my sister."

Dot shrugged and passed the photo to her brothers, "I'm cuter…"

Yakko nudged his brother, "Hey Wakks, looks like you've got a chance there!"

"She's six…" I warned.

There was an awkward pause, and then, "Mwah! Goodnight everybody!" he winked at me before prodding the photo again, "And him?"

"My brother, Flynn."

Dot snatched the picture and smiled at my brothers' image, "Helloooo freckles!"

I groaned and swiped the photo from them and replaced it on the mantelpiece. They were part of my psyche, so shouldn't they know about my brother and sister? Dot jumped up and started swinging on my arm. I was taken back by the weight. Although she was still pretty light, she was still heavier than one would expect for a figment of imagination. Also, she was warm, and where her arms had wrapped around me and pressed her chest to my arm, I could feel a faint heartbeat. I shook myself; it was all in my head!

"Where've you been, kid?" she asked with a grin, "I'm not playing this game with you again, I'm sure you're cheating!"

I managed to prise her off, "What do you care? You're not even real, so there's no point in talking to you…"

They looked at one another in confusion, even going as far to prod one another in the arm and stomach to check each others existence. By the time they were satisfied that they were in fact real to each other, I had tossed the bat back inside Flynn's room and was making my back down the stairs. Once again, using their amazing speed, they were already there waiting for me, this time bouncing on the sofa. I took a breath and kept my eyes on the floor, trying not to look at them directly. If I didn't look at them, then it would be easier to force myself into thinking that they were just in my head.

"If we're not real, then how do explain us jumping on your sofa?" Yakko challenged.

"Look! I can do a back-flip!" Wakko grinned before carrying out the act to prove it.

"See, if he wasn't real, that would be a lot harder to do." The leader insisted before smirking, "Not to mention you would see it if he wasn't real."

I bit my lip and went into the kitchen, eyeing the cupboard where my pills were kept. My hands were twitching, but I couldn't bring myself to take them out just yet. I could beat this! I was stronger than this! I looked at my reflection again in the shiny surface of the toaster and glared at myself with the utmost determination.

"It was all in your head. This is reality, and there are no cartoons in reality. Wake up!"

"Uuuuuhhhhh-Talking to yourself is the first sign of craziness, you know." Yakko pointed out, leaning over my shoulder to join my refection in the toaster, "And he's the second sign!"

He thumbed over his shoulder towards Wakko who was spinning repeatedly on the spot with Dot timing him on a stopwatch. I groaned and buried my head in my hands. Whether I was talking to my reflection, or them, I was still talking to myself. So what difference does it make?

"You're not real!" I insisted.

When I removed my hands, I was startled to find that I was lying on my back on the sofa with the Warner's sitting next to me, looking sympathetic and holding clipboards, taking notes and wearing glasses. Yakko nodded in understanding.

"And what makes you say that?" he asked in a forced voice that was meant to sound calming, like those shrinks you see on TV.

Dot tilted her head, dropping the act, "Have you considered seeing a real p – psychiatrist? Clearly you need it if you're ignoring what's right in front of you."

My face burned in anger, "It's because of you that I've spent the last ten years in and out of a p – psych… I mean psychiatrists office!"

"Uh-huh, and how do you feel about that?" the snarky boy continued.

I sat upright and pointed at him warningly, "That depends, how would you feel if you thought you'd met three totally out-of-this-world people who saved you life and did all of these amazing things and then they just left you, and then it turns out that you'd imagined the entire thing?"

Wakko blinked, "But what if you didn't imagine it?"

I didn't have an answer for that because at the end of the day, there was no need to have an answer. Because I did imagine the whole thing and that was that! Just like I'm imagining this now… I could only thank god that Flynn and Poppy weren't here to see me like this. It wouldn't be fair on them. All of a sudden, we were all jolted by the shrill ringing of the phone. I moved to get to my feet but was harshly hoisted back down again.

"I'LL GET IT!" they all chanted.

All of a sudden the three started lunging towards the phone, tripping over each other and tackling one another to the ground. As soon as one was about to grab the phone, another would hoist them backwards by the tail and then get smacked to the ground themselves. I gulped at the sight and tried to edge my way around them. However, at the last moment one of them grabbed my ankle, tripping me so that I landed flat on my stomach and dragged back along the floor and into the fight. One of them pinned my legs while I struggled to stop another getting to the phone. Was I literally battling with myself? This was just ridiculous!

"Hellooo Nurse!" Yakko announced, finally picking up the phone, he smiled mischievously and leant against the wall, acting like we was in deep conversation, "No way, uh-huh, sure, well ya don't say…"

"Is it Mr. Clooney?" Dot asked excitedly, "I knew he'd come around!"

Wakko huffed, "I never get to get it!"

I lay battered and bruised on the floor, the younger brother sitting on my stomach with arms crossed and a sour expression on his face. Yakko stood by my head and leaned over me so that he looked upside down from my position. He smirked slyly and dangled the phone in front of my face.

"I think it's for you, kiddo! But if you insist on saying we're all in your head, then doesn't that mean it's for us too?"

Rolling my eyes, my hand reached up to grab it, but he darted it to the side just as my fingers brushed it. I tried again, with the same result. My expression turned into a scowl as I tried for a third time. Whether he took pity on me, or his reflexes were slower that time, I wasn't sure, but I gripped the phone and held it to my ear.

"Hello?" I paled at the sound of Mrs. Fisher, the old lady who lived next door, she was such a nosey old – "What's that? No everything's fine over here thanks… Noise? I guess I had the TV too loud… Yes, won't happen again… Great… Huh? Oh uh… That was Flynn!... I know he's got a sore throat, his voice is acting up… I'll tell him… Thanks again!...Bye…"

I disconnected the call and exhaled, sinking into the carpet further and clenching my eyes shut. This day just couldn't get much worse could it? No, wait, don't tempt that! If the neighbours found out I was having a break down then that was it, I'd be in a loony-bin and the kids would be in some home and who knows what else! Man why couldn't those three just keep it down? Why did they have to -Wait… My eyes snapped open and I turned to look at the Warner's who were stood waiting for me, expectant and smug faced. Something wasn't right here…

"She heard you!" I pointed out.

"That tends to happen when you talk into a phone when someone's on the other end." Yakko pointed out.

"No, well, yeah but how?" I muttered, sitting up and tilting my head in confusion, "You're not real, I'm sure of it, so how could she hear you?"

"You mean there's a possibility that you're sane and this is actually happening?" Yakko moved the back of his hand to his forehead and swayed into a faint, his siblings catching him in their arms, "Say it isn't so!"

I swallowed thickly, "Don't make fun of me."

"Someone's got to make fun," Dot said, "You were a lot more fun before."

"Yeah, well, dangling over the side of a water tower just brings out the best in me!" I snapped sarcastically.

Yakko folded his arms, "I thought that didn't really happen?"

"It didn't!" I faltered, "Well, maybe… No, it didn't… I…"

He arched an eyebrow and smirked, "You're not sure, are ya?"

"Well it's not like you're helping!"

I ran my hands through my hair and took a breath, trying to clear my head. What was going on, seriously? This made no sense! I was so sure that they were just in my head, and yet other people could hear them too? Part of me wanted to go and check that other people could see them as well, but the more reasonable part of me knew a bad idea when it heard one. No, I could handle this myself and it would be sorted now.

"Okay, so for a minute, let's pretend that you are real -"

"We're way ahead of you there, kiddo." Yakko interrupted with a snarky tone.

I ignored that and continued, "…then where have you been for the last ten years, and how come you look exactly the same as before?"

"Perfection doesn't age, you know." Dot sighed dreamily while admiring herself in a hand mirror.

"It's a toon thing!" Wakko offered with a grin, "We don't change if we don't want too."

"And we've never wanted too." Yakko added, "And we've spent the last few years making up for lost time! You have no idea how boring it was inside that tower!"

"And then after ten years you randomly think, yeah let's go find that kid who helped us out and got taken away by a security guard while we just watched, hmmm, I wonder what happened to her?" I snapped with a mocking tone.

Yakko narrowed his eyes, "Well, someone's a little bitter, aren't they?"

Wakko nudged me, "I think he's talking about you."

"No, really?" I rolled my eyes.

"And we did look for you," insisted Dot, "in the water tower. We figured that if they hadn't locked you up there, then you were okay! And you were!" she grinned.

I flushed, "Okay? I was not okay! You have no idea…" I trailed off, in the end there was no point really, "So, what made you come looking for me? And how did you even find me?"

They all glanced at each other with a knowing smile. Wakko reached under his hat and pulled out a sack on some sort and started rummaging around in it. After a moment, he pulled out a folded paper and then replaced the bag under his hat. He started to unfold the pages until we all became pressed against the wall. The paper, which was turning out to be a map, pretty much took up the entirety of the floor. Yakko leaned over and pointed at a vaguely recognisable are on the map and nodded.

"The Grand Canyon's great this time of year."

I wasn't sure how to react to that, but it turns out I didn't need to. Wakko continued to grab a corner of the map and flick it upwards harshly. For a moment, my vision was totally blocked by the map and a strange dizziness came over me. When the map was out of the way, clutched tightly in the boys' hand, I shrieked out in terror.

We were standing inches from the edge of a vast rocky cliff. A gaping open from that stretched out and to the side of us threateningly. Still recovering from the dizzy spell, I teetered forward, getting full view of the life-threatening drop below. I let out a whimper of surprise and tried to take a step backwards, but found myself pressing against Yakko who was smirking, clearly enjoying my shock. Obviously I'd gotten taller over the years, so where I had been a mere few inches shorter than him as a kid, he was now more or less level with my shoulders and was looking at me knowingly.

"Map travel: when the public transport just can't be trusted!"

"Oh, what a view! It makes me want to burst into song and dance!" Dot said dreamily before tilting her head questioningly, "Or put lemonade in a fish-bowl, I can't remember which."

"It was easy to get around and search with this baby." Wakko insisted, "We just got lucky…"

"Map travel? Is that another toon thing?" I rasped, not daring to speak too loudly for fear of screaming.

"Hey, you're quick." Yakko answered with an arch of his eyebrow.

"Then why not follow my lead and take me home?" I asked, trying to keep from swaying.

Before I knew what was happening, he span me around to face him, grabbing one hand in his and the other on the small of my back, forcing me to grip his shoulder for support. He wriggled his eyebrows at me and smirked.

"Actually, I prefer to take the lead. Hit it!"

Music started playing right from the air. It was classical and forced us into a sort of awkward waltz, awkward because I really had no clue what was going on. Dot and Wakko were in a similar position, but they carried out the dance steps perfectly. Yakko announced a switch, sending me spinning towards Wakko, who forced me to stoop so that he could position me properly for the dance. What the hell was going on? This was just insane! I broke away and scowled at them.

"I mean, take me home!"

"You know you really should speak more clearly." Yakko nodded.

"Awe, you don't want to stay and admire the view some more?" Wakko moaned childishly.

I swallowed, "Well if you end up being real and not in my head then you can bring me back another time."

Their eyes brightened, "Promise?" they chanted and started to cheer as I nodded my head in agreement.

Wakko threw out the map again and once more my vision was blurred by the paper. The ground beneath my feet changed from solid rock to soft carpet and I had to use all of my energy to stop myself from sinking to the floor with relief. I was trembling, and I hated it. But that had seemed just too real and it scared me. Wakko folded up the map and replaced it in the sack under his cap. One of them gave me a sharp shove and I collapsed into the sofa, relishing in the home comfort of it. After that, I didn't want to know why they'd chosen to look for me now, I didn't really want to know where it might lead. Another shock like that and I may just end up passing out.

"Gee, you're looking a little pale there, kiddo."

I shrugged, managing to try and control myself, "I'm fine… I think…"

No, I really wasn't fine. It was pretty obvious that I wasn't but by that point I really didn't care. I tried to put some of the pieces together in my head, but it wasn't easy. From what I could gather, these three insisted that they were real, had made sure that I wasn't in that cursed tower before running off and having the time of their lives with their magic map before suddenly thinking that they'd just pay me a visit and see how I was doing. In a basic and rather blunt translation, I was well and truly losing it.

"I know one thing though, cartoons aren't real." I furrowed my brow at a memory, "But that guard, the one that took me away, he was looking for you, he knew! I… I don't get it, why didn't he back me up?"

Yakko threw himself down next to me, "Uuuuuuuhhhh-You remember I told you that he could help if you could afford to buy it?" I nodded, so he continued, "Well his help was bought to keep us locked up." He spread his arms as if to indicate the situation, "Money well spent, huh?"

Dot swayed in dramatic woe, "Oh the horror! The cruelty! … The boredom, sheesh!"

"We're a conspiracy!" Wakko announced with a grin, but then frowned and tapped his chin, looking at me quizzically, "What's a conspiracy."

I blinked, "I think you just answered your own question…" I arched my brow at them, not quite buying their story, "So, what, you broke out of a TV world or popped out of an animators head, or something like that?"

"Why it's elementary!" Yakko was suddenly in a tweed cape and hat, examining me with a magnifying glass and blowing bubbles from a nineteenth century pipe, oh, Sherlock Holes, very clever, "And you Miss. Talia, can you answer when the first human was born, how we all came to be on this planet or what exactly you used to be three previous lives ago?"

Not really understanding the relevance to it all, I simply shook my head, "Um, no, I can't say that I can."

His costume was gone and he rested an elbow casually on my shoulder, "Exactly kiddo, just because we're toons doesn't mean we know the exact history of all toon-kind and how we're here!"

"So you don't know how this is all real either, and yet you're still trying to convince me that it is real?" I asked sceptically, "You've lost your case really, haven't you?"

"No we haven't, it's right here!" Wakko grinned, hoisting a briefcase from the collar of his sweater and held it out for show before swallowing the thing whole.

My hand instinctively went to my throat out of shock. Wow his jaw unhinged like a snake! There were so many questions that I wanted to ask, but it seemed that I was getting nowhere fast. Sure, they had a point, just because I was human doesn't mean that I know every little thing there is to know about them so I couldn't really expect them to know all about their kind either. But, there were only three of them! And if they were a conspiracy, then that would explain why they were locked up and why no one from the studio would back up my story… But, it was all just too out-there and weird! This stuff just didn't happen in real life! I would have tried to convince myself that I was dreaming, but after the fight over the phone, I'd felt enough pain to cross out that possibility. But I still wasn't convinced that this was real. Why was I so willing to prove my own insanity anyway? By trying to prove my insanity, that must mean I'm sane, but to believe an of this would be insane… It was a real catch-22.

"We got a real tough nut on our hands here." Dot rolled her eyes.

"I bet I can crack it!" Wakko offered, trying and failing to hide a large wooden mallet behind his back.

Yakko caught sight of my eyes widening in fear and smirked slyly, "Now now Sibs, clearly we've overstayed our welcome!"

I eyed him cautiously, Dot and Wakko following suit. His words suggested pity and understanding, but his expression and tone was practically dripping with cunning. I didn't like where this was going. What was he up to?

"Come on, let's hit the road." He continued, getting to his feet and batting his eyes solemnly, "After all, three kids like us out alone in the cold, cruel world are bound to find somewhere to stay… And it's not like we came all this way just to check in on an old friend now, is it?"

Dot caught on first, clasping her hands behind her back and frowning dramatically and overly pronouncing every word, "Oh, woe is us, such sorrow and confusion we've caused, how terrible we feel! Of course dear brother, we shall leave our friend in piece… most likely for good as we've nowhere to go…"

"Such honesty sister dear," Yakko nodded and put an arm around her, "But nevertheless, we shall trouble Talia no more. Come on, Sibs, let's go…"

Wakko also forced a dejected expression and followed his siblings, but peered over his shoulder and me and shrugged, whispering to me, "I don't really get what's going on…"

I suppressed a chuckle at that. But I still wasn't wavering. I knew exactly what they were doing. After all, I'd been through this with Poppy and Flynn enough times. The classic guilt trip tactic. You pretend to give in and act depressed, talking about how you're okay, but how much better you'd be if things went your way, but you keep the sad tone and make it look like you're trying to trick yourself into being happy. It was a basic trick, and highly overused. They'd get to the front door and then go back to normal, I'd bet money on it. However, I was glad that no money was really placed when they turned the lock on the front door and opened it wide. They turned one last time to look at me and waved, slowly and solemnly.

"It was good seeing ya again, kiddo."

"Maybe we'll meet again someday." Dot sighed.

"Nice knowing you…"

And with that, the door closed behind them, and they were gone. I blinked in surprise. That was it? They really left? I can honestly say that I didn't see that one coming. Part of me wanted to jump up in victory and celebrate, but another part of me wanted to go after them. This didn't make sense! If they really were in my head, then it was good that they're gone. But, the way they'd answered my questions and done all of those things, maybe they were real… But that was insane! Wasn't it? I'd like to say that stranger things have happened but I couldn't name any to make it true. No, I thought, don't let them try and guilt you into going after them, it was stupid! But they were just kids! No they weren't, they haven't aged in ten years, they could be older than Mrs. Fisher next door! But they weren't mentally! God this was so conflicting! I was basically fighting sanity with insanity and what should have been an easy answer was now a warzone! No, that was it. I'd made my choice. I wasn't going to put myself through this again…. and yet I was already marching towards the door.

Just as I was about to open it, I heard a muffled series of sniggers and giggles. My hand gripped the handle and turned it harshly, swinging the door open and making the three who were leaning against it tumble into a heap at my feet. They all grinned up at me winningly, making glowing halo's form over their heads. I shook myself mentally and cursed myself a million times, yet I still wasn't able to hold back the tiniest trace of a smile.

"Just get inside before I change my mind."

A/N:

Thanks so much for all the reviews, I love you all for it and it's really given me some 'faboo' motivation. I'll update soon and don't hold back with the comments, I'll accept them all XD

Oh, and to answer another question, this is not going to be a 'it was all a dream' type thing and will not be another parody of 'cat in the hat', you readers deserve better than that sell-out crap. XD