[AMY]

After my chat with Rouge I was exhausted. I didn't realise how much energy it takes to hold on to problems!

The timer rang at 15 minutes and we all walked back to gather around the spot where the hat was holding the names. It was slowly getting darker and the sky was now turning magenta and it looked like it would be a beautiful sunset.

Knuckles nodded at me to indicate that I was to choose next. Sighing wearily I pulled out a name.

"Sonic"

Sonic also looked tired but he still managed to smile and gave me a fist bump. I got up slowly and followed him out to a small forest clearing amongst the bushes.

"Amy, Amy..." he sighed with a grin, "How'd it go with Rouge? I head a bit of screaming back there!"

I laughed defensively. "Yeah heh. Well I finally told her! She was mad at first but she said she'd give me another chance as her friend. Rouge is so mature!"

"Well I guess she's had a lot of life experience," reasoned Sonic.

The magic dust was still in full effect so I decided to cut right to the chase.

"So Tails told me a little secret!" I teased him.

"Huh?! What did he say?" he cried, looking nervous.

"Welllll.... He said that someone has a bit of a thing for a certain black and red hedgehog!"

Sonic went bright red and nodded.

"So it's true! Well, well I never would have guessed that one!"

"You aren't gonna set fire to his house are you?" Sonic said uneasily.

"Hah chaos no!" I laughed. "I've decided to renounce all unreturned desires."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I'm moving on Sonic! I'm no longer interested in following around someone who doesn't appreciate me for who I am!" I boasted, proud of myself.

"Look about that Amy," said Sonic, "I'm sorry for not being upfront about my feelings. The truth is, I'm gay and I always have been. I just didn't want to admit it to myself so I blocked out everyone in a romantic way. Well until Shadow..."

"It all makes so much sense now!!" I exclaimed. "No wonder you were able to resist my charm! And all this time I was being so hard on myself, thinking there was something wrong with me!"

"No there's nothing wrong with you Amy! You're amazing! Just err.. not my type..." Sonic smirked.

We shared a laugh and I finally relaxed. It felt like a huge weight was lifted of my shoulders. I finally felt myself being able to let go...

[TAILS]

I felt a bit better after talking with Sonic. I knew it would take time to heal our friendship but I was positive that we could get back to being brothers again! Having some closure on the situation and making the decision to move on was a big start.

I was up next to pick a name and I hoped it would be a less intense chat this time.

"Rouge"

Alrighty then this will be much easier!

"C'mon cutie!" Rouge jumped up enthusiastically and signalled to the spot behind Knuckles' cave.

We walked over to the discreet setting and sat down next to each other.

"Are you having fun Tails?" Rouge asked, "You look a lot brighter than before!"

"Yeah I guess I feel a lot better now," I replied. I was intrigued to hear what went down in her conversation with Amy. "So you spoke to Amy?" I said innocently. 

"Yep I sure did, you must have heard me screaming right? But why do you ask? Did you know something?"

I bowed my head down. "Well actually yeah, I was with her when she started the fire-"

"Tails! You weren't in on this as well were you?" Rouge screeched.

I winced at her high pitched tone of voice. "No! Of course not! I just followed her there. I had no idea she was going to do that. I was the one who rang the fire assistance."

Rouge relaxed a little. "Oh well that explains how they got there so quickly! I guess I should thank you for that. But why didn't you say something to me?"

"Sorry Rouge," I replied. "I've had a lot on my mind. I went through a bad patch recently. Plus I thought it better that you heard it from Amy herself."

"That's fair enough I suppose. I'm sorry to hear you've been having a rough one. Anything you wanna talk about hun?" Rouge said sweetly.

"Ah I just did something bad and got rejected by someone I liked. It was... Sonic actually. But we talked it out and I think everything's gonna be ok."

Rouge nearly fell back in shock. "Sonic?! But he's like your brother!"

"Yeah yeah I know," I groaned. "Look I don't need to explain myself but you know love's a funny thing; I couldn't help it. But now I'm more interested in finding someone who cares for me back."

"You're an intelligent young man Tails, that won't be so hard!"

"You know, you might be right Rouge," I smiled. "I think I might have already found them..."

[SHADOW]

I sighed as Knuckles held up his hat for me to pick again. All I could think about was getting to the bottom of my vision with Sonic. But I still obediently pulled out my next name.

"Cream"

"Awesome, let's go Shadow!" Cream chirped and jumped up.

We chose a spot a short distance away under some beautiful tall trees to have our chat.

I've always had a soft spot for Cream, in a fatherly sense. I admired her innocent view of the world and the purity of her heart. She has the ability to be empathetic to everyone regardless of who they are, always seeing the best in people. She was the one who has always been kind to me, right from the start.

"I've missed hanging out with you Shadow!" Cream smiled at me. "I'm so sorry about your... erm... attempt... I had no idea you were so depressed."

Cream looked at me with genuine sadness in her eyes. I felt guilty again. I hated the thought of upsetting her.

"No need to be sorry Cream, you weren't to know. Anyway it's in the past, I'm not suicidal any more."

Cream looked relieved and gave me a quick hug. "You know you can always talk to me if you ever feel sad!"

"I know Cream, thank you," I patted her lightly on the head. "So what's new in your world?"

"Well, I'm on a path to self-love!" Cream giggled.

"Is that so?" I said, mildly amused, as she's already so loving.

"Yeah I got rejected pretty bad, but I'm going to use that energy to put back into myself and come out stronger!"

"Oh, rejection eh?" I said knowing all too well what that felt like. "Yeah it burns like hell. But you know you get over it. Every day it gets a little bit easier."

"That's reassuring." She smiled. Her face lit up as she suddenly remembered something. "Oh and another thing! I must congratulate you and Sonic! I'm so happy for you guys!"

Geez gossip travels fast in this circle of friends!

[BLAZE]

Knuckles and I were the last ones left sitting by the hat. I was glad to finally get him alone because I wanted to pick his brain about this supposed event that was about to happen.

I didn't waste any time and let my questions pour out.

"So what do you really make of all this Knuckles? Are we in any danger? And what on Mobius was that weird vibration we felt?"

"Look it's hard to say..." Knuckles said, appearing concerned. "We won't know much until it happens. My guess is that the vibration was a wave of energy coming from outer space."

My eyes widened in amazement.

I've dealt with a few things in my time but this is new territory.

"Yeah," he said, reading my expression. "There's a few scenarios playing out in my mind. It's possible the planet could become consumed in dark energy, and... die. If too much dark energy makes its way here from the galaxies it could unbalance our world. The frequency of the planet will vibrate at a slower rate, causing nature to struggle to survive. If all the plants die we will too as they're our source of food and oxygen. On the other hand it's also possible that too much light energy ends up here. It could change the planet's frequency so that it's vibrating too rapidly and we end up in a singularity."

"What's a singularity?" I asked.

"It's where energy becomes too intense and spacetime collapses in on itself. Kind of like a black hole."

I exhaled sharply. I hadn't realised how serious this was.

"So let me get this straight," I said, deep in thought. "What you're saying is that we're going to have to balance it out somehow? As in balance the dark and the light energy that reaches us, to save the planet?"

"I believe that's how we have to approach this," Knuckles nodded. "Right now while we're still in this dimension we've gotta work with what we got. That means balancing ourselves first."

"So that's the point of this exercise?" I said, finally seeing the extent Knuckles was going to in order to help everyone here.

"Precisely," he confirmed. "The magic dust is an ancient tool used by many of my ancestors to unlock honesty in people, to bring everything to the surface so that it may be healed. We can't expect to win a battle of this calibre if we're not stable ourselves."

"Well it's certainly working!" I agreed, totally impressed by the echidna's knowledge.

Knuckles gave me a knowing smile. In that moment he looked older and wiser than his years. I swear I could see the spirit of his ancestors smiling through him.

"So what's next?" I asked, shaking my head slightly to get the image of his shifting face away.

"You remember I said we'd have to work on our psychic abilities?" he replied.

I nodded my head enthusiastically. It was my area of expertise.

"So," he continued, "Training our psychic abilities should allow us to move to a higher dimension. The higher dimension we exist in, the more powerful we are, thus we have more chance of preventing a disaster and winning the battle."

"Yes that makes complete sense," I agreed. "Ok so we need some sort of psychic training plan?"

"Exactly!" Knuckled exclaimed. "Can you help me with that?"

"It would be my absolute honour!" I cried and gave him a tight hug.

Now this is going to be interesting!