[SONIC]

Fifteen minutes was up and the sound of the timer rang out around us. I felt completely mind-blown at some of the stuff Blaze was telling me about dreaming. I had no idea there was more to it than just something that happens when you're asleep!

"Thanks so much Blaze, that was... eye opening," I said giving her a quick hug.

"You're so welcome!" she beamed back at me.

We walked back over to the group where everyone was waiting to start the next round.

"C'mon guys let's keep this moving!" Knuckles called over to us. "You might as well go first this time Sonic."

"Too easy!" I said and put my hand straight in the hat. Unfolding the paper I felt my stomach dip nervously when I read the name.

"Tails"

Ah crud. This is gonna be hella awkward!

Tails was frozen on the spot. He looked at me with uneasy eyes. I nodded in the direction round the side of Knuckles' cave, signalling him to follow me. We walked until we were out of sight and earshot from the others.

He was shaking and he had tears in his eyes. I hated seeing him like this, but I was still angry and confused about what I saw that in his spare room...

"S-sonic..." he said timidly after a long silence. "I need to explain some things."

"Yeah bud, I think that's probably a good idea," I replied.

We remained standing up. Tails stared at the floor and pushed around some dirt with his shoe.

"I- uh, I'm sorry about the camera footage. I should never have done that..." he trailed off.

"What on Mobius were you thinking?!" I cried. "Like, what made you do it?"

Tails blushed profusely. "I know it was stupid, I wish I'd never done it. And I was actually in the process of deleting it when you walked in!"

"But why Tails? Why?!" The hurt and betrayal I felt was coming to the surface. Tears started to prick my eyes.

"I was just curious-" he said.

"That's no excuse!" I shouted, "And why me?!"

"Because I wanted more Sonic!!" he yelled back, tears now rolling down his cheeks. "More than just being your 'best buddy,' more than just being the one you come and hang out with when you're bored, more than just being the one who has to fix all your problems!"

He paused to take a deep breath and continued.

"I knew you'd never see me the same way I saw you. I've kept my feelings for you a secret for years. I hid them so hard it became an obsession. It was just a really dumb idea to film you and I regretted it immediately. I even thought about telling you but I couldn't bring myself to do it. But this has made me realise Sonic, that if I couldn't be honest with you in the first place, then it's not a relationship that would work."

I stood there dumfounded. It was still too much to take in that Tails ever had feelings for me. But at least I had an explanation.

"Look," I said, "You've betrayed me and broken my trust. It is not ok to film someone without their consent. Do you even understand how bad this feels?"

Tails hung his head. I could tell even though he was hurt, he was deeply remorseful.

"I know Sonic, but do you understand how bad it feels to love someone and them not love you back?" he said.

I honestly didn't know what that felt like, but from the looks of things it had been hard on the guy.

"You know that it's dangerous to supress emotions," I said to him. "In fact, Blaze was just saying to me that emotions are like energy, and if you don't let them out or talk about them, it can cause all kinds of problems."

"Like in my case, obsession..."

"Yeah exactly," I said.

Tails sniffed and wiped the tears from his cheeks. He took another deep breath to calm himself down. After a few moments he spoke again.

"Well to be honest I think I'm over it."

"Huh?" I was surprised to hear this.

"Yeaaahhh. I realised that my admiration and desire to be just like you changed into attraction at some point. But that attraction was never reciprocated. Really I think you're amazing and I do love everything about who you are, but I realised that having feelings for you is just wrong. This whole debacle has been an absolute toll on my wellbeing and there's only so far you can go on the pursuit for love. Amy helped me recognise this."

"Amy?!" I spluttered, "What does she have to do with this?"

"Well I saw the extent she'd go for someone she loves, I realised that that's how much I want someone to care for me. You really missed out on a good one there!"

"Missed out? What are you talking about?" I frowned, slightly miffed at being accused of missing out on anything. I had to admit, maybe I hadn't acknowledged some of Amy's better qualities.

"I think she's had enough of not being appreciated too," Tails said firmly.

I felt a pang of guilt. Maybe I do take my friends for granted sometimes. Maybe I've been oblivious to how much they cared about me sometimes...

"Plus you and Shadow is just... disgusting," he added.

I bit my lip in frustration.

"Look I'm sorry Tails, I never meant to make you feel that way. I'm sorry I'm not easy to talk to sometimes. I'm glad you've decided to move on. But what you did really fucked with my head and it'll take a bit of time to forgive you. But I'll work on it! And hey you never know, maybe we'll just laugh about all this one day."

"I hope so," Tails said with a half-smile.

I stepped towards him and pulled him into a tight hug. He hugged me back and we both shed a few silent tears. Deep down he was still my lil' bro, and I cared for him so much. I just hoped we could go back to how things were.

"Friends?" I released him out of out hug and held up my hand for a high-five.

"Friends!" he replied and slapped my hand.

We were suddenly distracted by a loud scream coming from nearby...

[ROUGE]

"YOU!!!" I screamed in Amy's face. "IT WAS YOU!?!"

My head was spinning. Fury pumped through my veins. My was heart broken.

Amy flinched in fear and held her hands up to cover her face. I was about to take a swing at the little bitch's face but I managed to restrain myself, knowing that I had nothing to gain from violence.

"I'm just so confused!" I cried. "Why would you do such a thing? How could you do this Amy? After everything we've been through!! I consider you like a sister to me!"

Amy stood in front of me shaking, as white as a ghost.

"Answer me!!" I yelled.

"Rouge please calm down!" she cried. "I can explain! I never meant to hurt you!"

The words started tumbling out her mouth.

"Blaze told me that you were with Sonic, and me being me I put two and two together and I assumed you were dating, and I felt so hurt because you know how much I liked him, and I got so angry, something inside of me snapped and I couldn't control myself. I just wanted to get revenge and it was so stupid of me please, please forgive me Rouge!!"

I let out a gasp of disbelief and rubbed my forehead. This was unbelievable! How could one of my best friends think so wrongly of me and target me in such a malicious attack? I would never do anything to hurt anyone and to have this done to me was a huge blow to my feelings.

"I'll do anything to make it up to you Rouge!" Amy pleaded.

"I need a minute to think," I replied.

I turned around and walked a couple of meters away to get my thoughts together, taking a few deep breaths.

Amy is obviously suffering internally, from what? I'm not sure. But I do know her well and know how much she cares for her friends and her planet. She obviously has trust issues if she thinks I would betray her in such a way! I know that everyone has good and bad inside of them, including myself, and we all have a past, which affects our behaviour. I have to give her credit for coming clean about what she did, and I can see that she's clearly remorseful. I guess you don't know someone properly until you make them angry!

I turned back to Amy. She was still sobbing, her face sad and puffy. I felt a slight twinge of compassion.

"D-do you hate me Rouge?" she sniffed.

"No of course I don't hate you," I said. "I'm just devastated that you did such a thing! Don't you know how much I love and care for you? I would never treat you like that as a friend and I expect the same in return!"

"I know. I wasn't myself. Sometimes I just can't control my anger. It's been getting worse recently."

I sighed. I was furious with Amy and felt really disappointed by her actions. But I had also struggled with my own anger problems throughout my life, and I knew how it felt to want revenge.

"What is it that makes you so angry?" I asked her.

Her eyes drifted to the sky as she thought for a minute. "Not having control over my life," she said finally.

"And what makes you feel like you have no control?"

"Because bad stuff happens to me all the time," she sighed. "In all honestly I think it goes back to my childhood. Losing my parents at eight years old, being shipped around to different foster parents who didn't give two shits about me, always being shouted at by them and being told what to do. The first time I ever had control over my own life was when I ran away and decided to fend for myself."

I felt a pang of sorrow in my heart for Amy. Her early life had been hard. You couldn't even tell by looking at her today. I understood where she was coming from.

"It's ok Amy," I said.

"Huh?" she said looking up at me, her teary eyes glistening in the lazy sunlight.

"Most of our behaviour as adults comes from what happens to us in our early childhood. Although what you did really has hurt my feelings, I think I now understand what made you do it."

"Oh Rouge, it'll never happen again, I p-promise!" Amy cried hopefully.

"Oh it absolutely won't I know that," I said confidently. "I'm going to give you another chance as my friend, but fuck with me again and we're done."

Amy nodded enthusiastically and pulled me into a tight squeeze.

"You're the best Rouge!"

[CREAM]

It was my turn to choose a name from the hat. I grabbed the first one I could and read the name.

"Blaze"

Oh phew I really could do with a chat with Blaze right now!

"Yippeee!" I jumped up and grabbed Blaze by the elbow. She stood up and we linked arms, walking out into the forest until we reached a private circle of mushrooms.

"Perfect, let's sit in here!" she exclaimed excitedly.

We sat down and I cuddled up next to Blaze. She's always been like my big sister, I look up to her so much.

"How're ya doing sis?" she said smiling, showing her tiny sharp teeth.

"Oh well, pretty good, err... a bit sad," I couldn't help but say exactly what was on my mind.

"Aww no, why's that?" she cooed softly.

"Um, I kinda confessed my feelings to Tails, but he likes someone else," my heart felt heavy as I voiced my mood.

"Oh really?" Blaze sounded surprised.

"Yeah but it's ok," I continued quickly, "I'm moving on. I just want to work on myself a bit before looking for a relationship. Say Blaze, do you know much about self love?"

"Self love? Hmm well yes of course, it should be a priority," Blaze cried. "Why do you ask?"

"Because sometimes I find it hard to like who I am," I replied sadly. It was hard to admit, but I do have dark days, where I struggle to see any good in myself.

"Oh Cream!" Blaze looked like se was going to burst into tears for me. "But you're perfect!"

"I'm not Blaze! If I was then why doesn't anybody have a crush on me?"

"How do you know that?" she questioned.

"No one has ever told me!" I cried. "There must be something wrong with me."

Blaze adjusted her position so we were facing each other and looked deep into my eyes.

"Look Cream, when you're feeling down, you gotta remember that you're the only person on the whole planet who is able to be you. The only one! How special is that? You've got thoughts and talents and little quirks in your personality that no one else has or ever will have, even if you haven't discovered them all yet. Embrace who you truly are and own it! And besides, when we have the confidence to be ourselves it is incredibly attractive to others!"

I was taken aback by Blaze's kind words. I'd never thought of myself as unique. But I guess she was right. Now that I thought about it all of my friends were so individual, and they're amazing!

Blaze continued speaking.

"If you want to practice self love, start with trying to stop thinking negative things about yourself. If you keep putting yourself down you might start to believe it. So when you start thinking something bad, stop yourself. Try thinking something that you like about yourself instead. Anything. And never, I mean never put yourself down in front of others. Especially just to fit in. That will just hold you back and others won't respect you. Be proud to be you, love yourself and others will love you too."

"Wow that's such good advice. It's a lot to take in, but thank you Blaze, I'll try!" My mind immediately started to tell me that I wouldn't be able to do it. Oh no you don't! I immediately tried to focus on the nice things that Blaze had just said about me.

Time to change the way I think about myself, I got this!

[KNUCKLES]

"I guess that leaves you and me bro!" I grinned at Shadow, who was sitting with his legs crossed, resting his head in his hand, looking bored.

"Guess so Knuckles."

I had been looking forward to my chance to chat with Shadow. Not only did I want to find out how he was going, but I knew he wouldn't be able to hold back his feelings under the influence of the magic dust.

"How did you pull up after everything?" I said to him. "From the looks of things you're doing a lot better than when I last saw you."

"I am," he said coolly. "Sonic helped me recover after my suicide attempt. Things were a bit rocky for a while but they've come good now."

"Is that so?" I said with a slight smirk. "I knew something was going on between you two!"

"What! How did you know?" he demanded.

"Heh well I could just sense it! Nah who am I kidding, it was so obvious!" I sniggered, teasing him. "The tension between you two, the blushing, the way you couldn't keep your eyes off each other-"

"Alright, alright! Enough already!" Shadow snapped at me, turning red. I couldn't help but laugh at the usually domineering hedgehog getting embarrassed. "It's true," he admitted.

I gave him a firm pat on the back. "Well good on ya, I'm happy for you buddy!"

"Thanks," he said relaxing a little. "Hey Knuckles..."

"Yeah bud?"

"I never thanked you properly for saving my life," Shadow fidgeted awkwardly. I guessed he wasn't used to expressing gratitude.

"Hey man, as if I was ever gonna let anything bad happen to you! Once a team, always a team!" I cried.

Shadow nodded and gazed into the distance over my shoulder. "You know, if I had died that day, I never would have found the happiness that I have now."

"I know Shads. I'm glad you're happy."

For a brief moment I saw a small smile creep into the corner of his mouth. Now I'm a tough guy, but not going to lie, it warmed my heart a little bit.

We both sighed deeply in silent satisfaction. A few birds could be heard singing their afternoon melody in the distance.

"There's one other thing," Shadow said suddenly. "What do you know about visions?"

I immediately knew why he was asking. It had to have something to do with what he experienced when I added those magic mushrooms to his soup...

"I know a lot about visions, what did you see Shadow?"

I listened while he explained how he saw his own and Sonic's image morphing together that day at my place.

"What do you think it means?" he asked.

"I'm not sure to be honest, but I think you need to find out." I knew I had to tell him about the mushrooms. It might help him find the next piece to this puzzle...

"Now look Shadow, that day at mine, you were able to have that vision because, well, I added some magic mushrooms to your stew-"

"You did whaaaa...?! Why you little- !" his face suddenly turned to a fierce snarl and he lunged forward, grabbing me by my neck.

"Shadow!! Ughnhhh!!" I struggled trying to get him off. "I was- ngh- trying to help you- ugh!"

"Why would you trick me like that?!" he growled.

"It's not a- argh- a trick godammit!! Let me go you idiot!" With that I moved my foot from underneath me and booted him in the stomach as hard as I could.

"Ooooffff!" Shadow flew backwards and landed flat on his back a few feet away from me. I stood up rubbing my neck and walked over to him.

"Can you just hear me out for one moment, Mr Angry?" I said putting my hands on my hips and peering over him. He glared up at me, eyes blazing with anger and making a low gasping-growling sound. To my relief he wasn't able to talk right now because I had winded him when I kicked him.

"This was no trick my friend," I began, keeping it short so I could tell him all I needed to before he recovered his breath. "Magic mushrooms are Mobius' greatest medicine. It's a secret most don't know about. Taken in small doses they can relieve depression and open new channels in your brain. Taken in large doses they can be a gateway into other realms and dimensions. I only gave you a moderate dose - just enough to be able to see the truth that you are hiding within yourself."

Shadow stopped snarling and finally was able to gasp a lungful of air. His face flipped from angry to confused in a mere second.

"My t-truth?" he spluttered. "W-what do you mean by that?"

"Well I can't help you there mate," I laughed. "Everyone has their own inner truth. It's the deepest expression of who we are. But since it's your truth not mine, you'll have to figure that one out by yourself!"