Chapter Text
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Paradox.”
That’s the first thing it remembers.
Bright lights, cooling breezes, soft grass. The words come easily. But go just as quickly.
But this word… this word stays.
And it clings. He clings. And then suddenly, he’s aware. Suddenly, something… no, some one yellow sits in front of him. A name floods his consciousness.
“Nice to meet you too, Miles.”
The person—fox—laughs. “Please. ‘Tails’ is fine.”
Another word. It clings too. A… nickname? A name and a nickname? Odd. Did he have one? No. He could… make one?
“Okay! And you can call me ‘Dox’ for short!”
He hopes Tails likes it.
The fox snorts, a smile on his face. Success.
“So Dox , you said the chaos was corrupted? What do you mean by that?”
Everything abruptly slurs. The color melts away, and he feels itself pulled back into blackness.
But they cling. Paradox. Tails.
It will stay. It will remember.
★★★★
The next awareness is… different.
It had been “woken up” a couple times before, to protect. To divert. But those never stayed. It was never aware .
The first awareness was calm, quiet, happy , welcoming. This one… this one is bright, loud, and suffocating . Too close. Too colorful. Too constricted. There’re words, voices, but it doesn’t understand . Need to get away. Need to, be somewhere else. Need to—
—Move.
And then it’s not. Sort of.
Someone, no. Not singular. Plural. Multiple people are speaking. Muffled and underwater, it tries to focus.
“I… it’s….be okay though. Everyone’s gonna help us. We’ll be back to normal in no time. You’ll see.”
Everyone? Back to normal? Was this, not “normal”?
“H-How are you so certain about that?”
“Well, somebody’s gotta be, right? Without hope, what’s the point of doing anything?”
Hope. That’s a new word. It’s… abstract. Not physical. And yet he clings again.
The voices were different. While the fox’s (Tails) voice was loud and difficult to filter, these voices were quiet and clear. Effortless to understand. Like they were right next to him, at all times. But they spoke to each other and not to him.
Who are you? But he goes ignored.
They’re moving again. He can, hear Tails speaking but the meaning is lost to him. And the closed feeling returns.
He knows what to do.
Move. And it does—
“Nope.”
—and something stops him. Tails.
“You said you were okay!”
The closed feeling intensifies, constricting tighter and tighter. Every noise is suddenly too much, it’s too much. Even the three voices seem too loud.
“Yeah, well, we lied!”
Loud, loud, it’s too loud, what do I do, I need to move, I need get out of this room, I need to—
“We need their help if we’re going to get you guys back to normal! Paradox!”
“Let go of me!”
—Escape.
Light—chaos—flashes. But it’s messy and not right and out of his control. He’s falling again, but this time he manages to steady, grasping to the last image that flashed through his mind. The room. But the closed feeling doesn’t disappear, it increases tenfold. Hundred fold. Too many thoughts. Too many eyes.
Shattered chairs. He knows this. He has to, divert. He’s done it before. But where? Too many whispers. Not enough space...!
The thoughts are piling up, nowhere to go. The three clear voices panic. They’re not supposed to panic. Need to fix! Need to get away ...!
“We can’t—We need to get them to back—Guys? What’s—Um, maybe we should—Oh n—“
It lets go. And everything ceases.