Rouge looks up at the sky. "Huh, looks like we spent half the day in there." She muses, shielding her eyes. "It's about noon-ish, judging by the sun."

Omega emits a whirring noise for a moment, and then corrects her. "It is actually 1:30PM, in this time zone."

"Close enough." The white bat shrugs.

Behind her, I shiver, still feeling a little cold. Fortunately, my black fur will absorb energy from the sun, meaning that I'll warm up soon. But there's still an odd feeling in my nose, which confuses me. I can't tell what, exactly, it is, but nonetheless I'm unnerved. "Well, I'm just glad we got out of there. It was ridiculously cold in there." Crossing my arms, I glare out at the surrounding forest. "Not to mention an abominable mess." Thinking back to the cables and random other machinery strewn about, I shake my head. Ugh, that was so disorganized. How on Earth could it have ever properly functioned?

Rouge looks at me, smirking. "It wasn't really that cold. And why does the condition of the place even matter?"

"Well, it doesn't anymore," I reply smoothly, "but if it was always in such a state of disarray, I don't understand how Robotnik could ever work around it. Disorder only leads to chaos, and chaos doesn't help anything." Stifling a yawn, I stretch. Why do I feel so tired?

"That does make sense, but hey, the less organized Eggman is, the easier it'll be to beat him, amirite?" Rouge turns to Omega for assurance.

"Affirmative." The robot booms, swiveling his lower arm segment. I'm starting to think that it's some form of a habit, for him to do that. "This topic of discussion, however, is pointless, and we should get going soon."

"Yeah, alright." The white bat glances at me. "Hey, Shadz, you gonna be okay? You still look a little rough 'round the edges there."

"Hm?" I blink. What's she talking about? Rough around the edges? Huh...Is my hair messed up or something? "I don't know what you mean. I'm fine."

"If you say so," she chirps, turning back to Omega. "The site we need to go to isn't too terribly far from here, but considering the growing heat index out here, it'd be best for us to walk through the forest." Folding her wings around her shoulders, she steps into the trees. "By the way, the sooner we make it there, the sooner we get to eat."

"What does that mean?" I query as I hop delicately over a bush to join her. Behind me, I wince as I hear Omega blatantly crush the poor shrubbery.

"Well, once I get to the gems I'm looking for, I can take them back to my employers, who'll give me some cash, and I can buy food for us." The white bat explains, delicately avoiding tree branches.

"Didn't you bring any food with you?" Confused, both as to how she could possibly embark on a journey without food and how she was even managing to dodge these obnoxious branches, I slash through the boughs in front of me with my claws.

"This mission wasn't supposed to take this long, so I only brought, like, two granola bars," she admits sheepishly.

"You ought prepare better next time," I comment, smirking.

"Aw, shaddup..." She grumbles, looking embarrassed. Smirking, I follow carefully in her footsteps, doing my best to keep up. Silence falls over our group--we're all a bit too busy trying not to get caught in the brambles of the forest--and my mind wanders. For whatever reason, I keep thinking of that awful nightmare I had earlier today. Why was I dreaming of 'Heather' before I could even remember her? And what was up with all those trees? Looking up at the forest we're in, I noticed a sudden, striking familiarity--the trees here look very similar to the ones in my nightmare. That doesn't necessarily mean anything though. I mean, trees are trees. There's not a whole ton of differences. Besides, these are kinda different--they have leaves. And there's no creepy fog, and the floor isn't some sort of green fluid.

The last thought jolts me for a moment. Green... I almost gasp aloud. So far, in all my nightmares, the color green has featured almost predominantly. What does that mean? My memory is still too fragmented for me to properly remember everything. What significance does the color green have? And why does such an unusually specific thing--this one particular shade of green--keep appearing? It must mean something...but what? And that girl, Heather...She feels so important, but who was she to me? Biting my lip, I stare at the ground. There's still so much I don't know...

My thoughts are interrupted when I plow face-first into a disturbingly bony wall of skin. Spluttering in surprise, I step back. Rouge turns to glare at me, and I realize that what I smacked into was her half-folded wings. "Ah...S-Sorry," I stammer, surprised at the heat in her glare, "I wasn't paying attention."

She sighs. "Do you even spend time in your head, or does your mind wander all the time?" I shrug sheepishly, not offering a rebuttal. My problem is that I spend too much time in my own head, not the other way around... Rolling her eyes, she turns back around. "Ugh, whatever. Look, we're here, but it's too bright out to properly sneak inside, so we're gonna have to rest out here until it's dark." Reaching into her packs, she pulls out the two granola bars she mentioned earlier, tossing one to me. "Here, eat up, it's all we got."

I catch it easily. "Thanks." Looking down at it, I turn it over in my hands. One side of its wrapping has the word "CLIFF" embossed on it, and the back has long lines of tiny print on it. Confused, I squint, trying to read it, but it looks like the ink's been blurred by something; in any case, my stomach's rumbling tells me that doesn't exactly matter. I rip open the wrapper neatly, pulling out the bar and eating it quickly. Rouge, who sat down while I was inspecting the bar, has already half-finished hers, looking bored. I decide to take a seat across from her, and Omega thumps his way into a sort of seated position a foot or so away from me.

"Hey, Omega, you'll stay up and wake us once the sun goes down, yeah?" Rouge says, dusting her hands off and putting the wrapper in her pocket.

"Understood." He replies, fixing his eyes on the horizon. She reclines, looking up at the tree branches. I finish off the last few mouthfuls, careful not to make a mess, jamming my wrapper into my shoes. Rolling onto my side, I curl up a bit, crossing my legs at the ankles, with my hand right in front of my face. A gentle breeze is blowing; it's soothing, and before long I drift into unconsciousness.

----------------

"C'mon, Shadow, hurry up already!" Rouge cheers from ahead of me, weaving through the tree branches with delicate grace, appearing and disappearing in their boughs.

"H-Hey, I can't follow you easily from down here!" I protest, tripping and stumbling over the roots below me. It almost feels like they're rapidly growing, trying to get in my way. We dash through a jungle, moving at a breakneck pace, but I can't remember why. "Wait up!" I cry as she begins to pull away from me. Above my head, the branches become thicker and thicker, the forest darkening as we venture deeper into it. "Rouge! Wait!" Howling now, I reach up, trying to catch her ankle, but I can't tell her from the branches anymore; they've swallowed her entirely, I can't see her anymore. "ROUGE!" Skidding to a stop, I look around. I don't know where I am, I can't find her, I lost her... Swiveling around, I stare into the darkness, confused. Above me, wind rustles the branches, and leaves begin to fall--slowly at first, then all at once they begin to fall, piles upon piles of them. I writhe my way through them, panicking as leaves fill my mouth, my eyes and ears. Eventually, I flop out of the massive wall, hitting the ground with a splash. Some sort of shallow, cold water covers the ground--with dread, I recognize the deep green half-solid lake from my earlier nightmare.

Dragging myself to my feet, I shake off the fluid, disgusted. Its viscosity, at first, feels the same as water, but once it touches my fur it becomes gel-like, clinging to me. Looking around, I see the same gnarled and twisted trees as last time, only now I stand on a path, where no trees grow, though some roots are still visible. Suddenly, I'm walking along the path, towards a light I see at the end of the path. I wonder what it is... Glancing over my shoulder, I see nothing but pitch-black nothingness behind me, at my heels. I guess there's nowhere to go but forward here. After a few minutes of walking, I realize that the distance between the light and I hasn't changed. I stop walking, confused. "Am I walking in place?" I muse aloud, biting my lip.

"You're stuck." A soft voice answers from behind me.

I turn my head slightly, looking over my shoulder. "Heather..." I breathe, shocked, and I whirl around.

"You're stuck." She repeats, and I stare at her for a moment. She's grown older, as I have, but that can't be right--I last saw her when I was 8, and it's been years since she died. Yet, here she stands, in front of me. She's taller than I am, everyone is, and she's wearing the same outfit she always wore: those unusual black shorts, with no actual legs to them, and the green metal scale top with gold trim. Some of the scales are missing, I notice, and the longer I look at her the more haggard and rough she seems. "You keep doing the same things over and over and expecting different results. Insanity." Her voice is dull, and she won't look me in the eyes, staring blankly at my torso.

"What do you mean?" I inquire, confused.

"And you'll do it again. You always do. No matter how dumb it is." She drones on, lowering her head, slumping, arms dangling rigidly downwards. Her hair falls forward, obscuring her face. "You always do. You know? You carried yourself like some kind of god all the time, you know?" She giggles. "The ultimate life-form. Isn't that right? The perfect boy. But you, oh, you," her head snaps up, and I gasp. Her wide eyes hold two green irises, stretched abnormally wide, with no pupil, shining like freshly polished china plates. "You always looked more like a demon than a god to me." A distorted and freakish grin spreads across her face.

"Wh-Wha--!" I begin, but the floor liquefies and I fall with a scream into a dark green abyss. This time, however, when I look up I can see through the water, though everything's distorted with green light. Heather looms over the water, staring down at me. I stretch one arm above my head, thrashing, reaching towards her, but she doesn't even move to help me. The fluid is suddenly too thick for me to swim through, but not thick enough to support my weight; I'm helpless as I sink further and further down, Heather's grin leering down at me from above.

----------------

With his two red orb-eyes shining in the darkness, Omega watches the sun descending over the horizon, waiting to move until it was completely behind the trees. As the last of the light bleeds from the land, the bulky robot stands, rotating his arms in a sort of stretch. To his left, Rouge slumbers peacefully, her ears twitching, and on his right, Shadow lies half-curled up. Omega leans to the left, tapping Rouge's shoulder gently. She groans, then sits up, yawning widely. "The sun has set." He informs her, stepping back.

"Alright, cool." She gets up, rubbing her eyes. "Here, lemme wake Shadz up for ya." She leans forward over Shadow, looking down at his sleeping form with groggy eyes. "Hey--" she begins, but she stops short as her sight clears a little, adjusting to the darkness. His long spines cascade down his shoulders in red and black masses, and his eyelids twitch slightly in his sleep. One hand, his left, rests right in front of his face, its fingers half-curled, while the other lies palm-down on the grass. His feet are delicately crossed at the ankles, his tail slowly wagging. She blinks at the angelic look on his face--his eyelids closed, long eyelashes grazing his cheeks, with his mouth hanging slightly open, lip wavering slightly--wondering how on earth he could possibly look that adorable while sleeping.

Omega awkwardly taps his foot. "...If you could," he interrupts her thoughts, "do this while we're all still young?" Rouge blushes, embarrassed

"You're a robot, you don't even age," she snorts, shaking Shadow a little roughly. "Anyways. Get up, Sleeping Beauty, we have something to do."