Nightmares and Abolition

Chapter 16

"Sonic?... Sonic?... Sonic!"

The blue hedgehog finally opened his eyes, after hearing Kate call out to him a few times. His vision was blurry, but he could see the image of his friend standing a few feet in front of him.

Sonic blinked. It wasn't Kate that he heard calling out to him. Instead, it was Mario.

"You alright?" Mario asked him.

Sonic rubbed his eyes, in an attempt to both make sure he could see clearly and was indeed awake. He was seeing that it was Mario who spoke to him, not Kate, and he was indeed wide awake after what felt like only an hour of sleep.

"Yeah... I just couldn't sleep well..." said Sonic.

"Me neither, but we better give some of the others a chance to sleep. We're taking shifts after all," said Mario.

Sonic sat up, letting out a yawn. He stood up, but as he did, he felt a little dizzy.

"What time is it?" the blue blur asked the red plumber.

"A little after midnight. I didn't sleep well either..." said Mario.

"Gee... I wonder why..." Sonic sarcastically muttered.

The blue hedgehog frowned, but his frown quickly faded and shifted into a sad look.

Mario let out a sigh. "Even if I didn't see Kate for myself, I saw what she looks like in my sleep. Seeing Fawful possessing her, it's awful..." he said.

"If you think dreaming about it is scary, just wait until you see him possessing our sister..." Sonic said, almost in a whisper.

Mario didn't respond. Instead, he and Sonic headed out of the castle. When they made it outside, they could feel the cold night air touch their faces. The two shivered a little bit, but they braved through the cold and headed over to the post where Shadow and Rouge were.

To their surprise, when they got there, they didn't see Shadow or Rouge. Instead, they saw that Bonnie had been covering for them, so the dark couple must've already gone to bed.

"Bonnie? What are you still doing up?" Mario asked her.

She turned around to face the plumber. Bonnie was holding a pair of binoculars to her face, so she lowered them and pulled them away from her eyes.

"Oh! Hi King Mario! Hello Sonic!" she greeted them, smiling at them.

"Don't you think you should get some sleep? I saw that you were doing some training earlier," said Sonic.

"I got some sleep. Besides, I offered to take a shift to let Mr. Shadow and Mrs. Rouge get some rest," said Bonnie.

She turned to face the outside world again, putting the binoculars back up to her face.

"Well, I think I'll go run up to the roof and sit with a bird's eye view. You stay with her then, Mario," said Sonic.

The blue blur dashed away, leaving Mario with Bonnie. Mario let out a yawn, but he sat down in a lawn chair and kept his focus on watching the land outside of the kingdom's walls.

"You doing alright, King Mario?" Bonnie asked him.

"It's just Mario, and... I'm fine. Just a little tired. I did just wake up," said Mario. He paused for a second, then said, "Just because I'm married to Peach, that doesn't mean I'm one hundred percent a king. I mean, I have no crown," with a nervous smile.

Bonnie turned to face him again, lowering the binoculars away from her face once more. "Oh. Well, I assumed that since you and Queen Peach are married, that automatically means you're a king. I deeply apologize," she said.