Chapter 15: My Dying Words

"I can't do that." Dash replied.

Willow sighed deeply. "If you won't do it," She began to take off her gloves. "Then I will. Don't stop me." She plopped the gloves into Dashes hands. "Dash, I just wanted to say that... I like you, a lot. I don't care that you and my sister kissed, but I just wanted to let you know how I felt..." Willow gave a small smile. "Before I..."

"Willow," He interrupted, "I never kissed your sister. You were sleepwalking."

Willow slowly turned to Hallow, "Sleep... walking..." Anger grew inside of Willow. "You played me!" She then began to slowly limp towards Hallow.

"Willow, what are you doing?" She then began to swing punches towards Hallow. With every swing, Willow would take a short brake and breathe heavily. "Willow, stop it." Hallow, having plenty of energy left, stepped back quickly after every punch that Willow threw at her.

Willow tried to stand tall. She held her left arm close to her body. "I'm done with you! All you've done is hurt everyone that I care about!" She said. She then began to sway slowly. Her face had no expression; her eye's showed emptiness that no one could fill. "Now it's... it's..." Willow then hit the ground hard.

A loud buzzing noise filled Willow's ears. She could barely hear anything. As she dizzily looked from right to left.

Hallow looked at the group. "Oh, don't worry about her. She's just..." A flow of blood rushed through Hallow's cold body. Her stone heart began to move. A faint heart beat grew stronger and stronger. "What?" She then gripped her chest. Tears flowed from her face. "I'm not supposed to have feelings!" She screamed. She looked out to Dash, Flint, Cole, and Sapphire. "Someone help her! She's dying!" They gave no response. "Don't just stand there, she's going to die!"

"No." Dash crossed his arms. "You brought this upon yourself. You need to be stopped. This is what Willow wanted."

Hallow tried to find something, anything, to help Willow, to help herself. "But you love her! I've seen the look in your eye. You care about her!" Dash just turned his head.

A strong breeze blew the leaves on the trees. The lake rippled. Everyone was silent, besides Hallow, who sobbed silently. All she wanted was to hold Willow close to her, but she knew she couldn't. "SOMEONE PLEASE HELP HER!" Willow moved slightly. "Willow! Thank god, I thought you were-" Willow cupped her hands around Hallow's face. Hallow's pupils grew small.

In a husky voice, Willow said, "...It's time for you to go." A bright light grew from Willow's hands. The light emanating from Willow began to make both Hallow and herself deteriorate. Dash, Flint, Cole, and Sapphire all looked away as the light got brighter.

***
Willow was up on a light purple cloud. All the pain she felt faded away. Instead of wearing her usual red outfit, she wore a light blue spring dress and she was barefoot. As she stepped out from the cloud, she felt the warmness from the sun shining down on her. She looked around to see a large field of grass and flowers. She wiggled her toes though the cool grass, which tickled her feet. She stretched her arms out towards the sky and began to spin.

"What are you doing?" Hallow was sitting up on a dead and rotten tree stump.

"What are you doing here? I thought I-"

"Destroyed me? You can't get rid of me. Remember, I'm you. I go where you go. I'm the bad and you're the good. I'm five steps ahead of everyone while you're behind. You're the curious while I am cautious. You're the careless, weak hedgehog who ended up having all the bad genes that our, your father given you. Willow all I have done was protect you, to keep you away from the darkness."

"No, you took control over my life, and I wanted out. I want to make my own decisions and have the consequences made by me, not you."

"I didn't think you had it in you."

"Huh?"

Hallow sung her feet back and forth as she sat on The stump. "Being bold. Going out of your way to save, possibly, thousands of people. You risked your life for people you didn't even know. Now that you're ready, it's time to move on." Hallow held out her hand towards Willow.

"I'm not going to fall for anymore of your sticks Hallow."

"Willow," She stood. "I thought you weren't ready. So I wanted to take your place."

"Ready for what?"

"Time will only tell, Willow. Now that you have grown strong enough to actually take your life, its time to become the person you were truly suppose to be."

"Are you telling me the truth?"

"Don't you want to see your friends again?"

"Yes, but-"

"Willow. If you can beat me, you can always do it again. You've already shown me." Hallow stood closely to Willow.

A tear streaked down Willow's face. She held out her hand and while Hallow clasped her hands around Willow's. It was finally over. The same bright light came once again. Right before her eyes, Hallow deteriorated, turning back into Willow's refection, and as she started to disappear she gave Willow the sweetest smile. For once, Hallow felt happiness.
***

Willow's eyes opened abruptly. Her eye's quickly looked around. She was in a hospital room filled with all the familiar faces that she remembered. She felt different.

Dash ran over to her bedside "She's up!" He still had scratches and bruises all over his body. His quills were pink with blotches of blue dye that still held on to his quills. Willow went to reach her arms out to Dash. Her right arm wrapped around Dash's neck. "I'm so glad you safe now." He whispered. Everything went silent until Willow started to cry. "It's alright Willow you're safe now."Dash stood back. "How are you feeling?"

"Really sore."

"Here, I'll get you a glass of water." Willow gripped the blanket with her right arm. "You're taking this well."

"Taking what well?" Willow went to reach out with her left hand to get the glass, but for some reason her arm wouldn't respond. She slowly looked down to her left. "DASH WHERE'S MY LEFT ARM!"

The heart beat monitor went off the charts. Willow started to freak out and breath quickly. She then began to shake. A red lion, in a doctor's uniform ran in. "She's going into shock. You all need to leave."

One of the nurses assistants pushed everyone out of the room while the doctor gave Willow several blankets. Willow's eyes then rolled into the back of her head, and everything went black.

***
From above, Willow could see her father looking absolutely exhausted, bags underneath his eyes.

"Damn it. How hard can this be?" He said as he threw his pencil across the room. He sat at his seat looking at the thousands of papers laid out on the table. He swept all the papers off the table, making the lab now covered with blue prints. "Why must it be my children that are useless…" Shadow said aloud. He then went over to the other side of the lab table that had several vials of blood. As Willow slowly floated by her father, she saw that he was pondering as he looked at the vials.

There was a faint knock at the door. Willow looked over to the door to see Rouge. "Dinner will be done in seven minutes." Shadow had no response. Rouge then slowly closed the door.

Shadow just stared at the vials. He then shook his head. He walked around and picked up every piece of paper and placed the pile on the lab table. Willow saw Shadow sit down, staring at the blank papers in front of him. Shadow was starting to fall asleep. He rested his head on his arms as he slouched in his chair. He slowly closed his eyes.

Willow just floated around her fathers lab. "What am I doing here?" She then floated over to the test tubes.

Suddenly everything went in slow motion. Shadow's breaths became extremely slow. Willow looked over to the clock on the wall to see the second hand was barely moving.

She looked over to the vials to see a black liquid seep out of a crack in one of test tubes. A familiar dark, and sharp, purple hand came out of nowhere and tipped the vial that was broken into another solution.

Time then sped up around her. A small white ball began to form within the newly combined solution.

"Hallow..."

Everything went into a blur. As Willow looked around herself, she saw Hallow's manny attempts to leave Willow's body. She saw that, at times, she was successful, but when she did she was very transparent and could barely interact with her surroundings.

Willow saw herself skating down her hallways while Dash fallowed in his socks. But behind him, Hallow was there carrying his shoes. As both Dash and Willow entered her bedroom, Hallow placed the shoes on the computer chair when Dash and Willow were kissing. She then went through the mirror in Willow's room and leaned up against the wall, waiting for them to stop kissing.
***

A rush of warmth went through Willow. She opened her eyes and looked around to see the same hospital room. The lion walked up to Willow with a clip board at hand. "Willow, before you go into shock again, we had to amputate your arm. There was too much bone damage to save your arm. You will be able to leave the hospital in a few months. You're very lucky to have lost one arm. We were able to save every other limb along with many nerves. Your bones are were at point of breakage." Willow just rubbed the area where her arm would have been.

"I am lucky..."

Dash walked up to Willow's bed side. "Don't worry Will's, we are all here for you." He then grabbed her hand and gave her one of his genuine smiles.

"Thank you." She said as she looked around to see Shadow, Rouge, Cole, Flint, and Sapphire all giving her an accepting smile.

"Visiting hours are over now. Everyone please leave so that Willow can get some rest. You can see her tomorrow." Said the doctor.

The doctor held the door open. Everyone then filed out the door, Dash being last. He then blew a kiss towards Willow, which in return she grabbed it and put it in her pretend pocket. The door then closed behind him.

"You just rest up now Willow. If you need anything just use your call light." He then placed it upon her bed.

"Thanks for saving my life."

He smiled, "All I could have done was help. Your willpower is what made this possible." The doctor then left the room.

After hearing that she could have lost more, Willow was thankful that she was still alive.

She looked at her stub and waved it a little. "You know," She said to herself. "I could make a cool robotic arm with weapons built into it."

Her attention went from her arm to her bedside stand. A card that read 'For Willow' was propped up on a stand. Willow reached over to her left and grabbed the card and flipped it open.

My Dear Willow,

At one point or another, you will defeat me. These are my dying words that I would like for you to embrace.

Everyone dreams Willow. In one form or another, you can find their strengths, weaknesses, wants, and needs. Use this to your advantage.

If you were to lose control, things would become chaotic, but if you have complete control, then you will have no problem with using your powers outside of the dream world. If the darkness consumes you, you must walk into the shadows to see any light.

I am sorry for if I hurt you any way.

Sincerely, Hallow

The End