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The only sound that could be heard in the cave was the drip, drip, dripping of droplets coming from the ceiling and splashing into the ground.
Sonic just stood there, unable to move, to breath, to do anything but stare at the spot where Nine used to be mere second ago.
The image still so clear in his mind that he could picture Nine's metalic tails, waving through the air as they slowly got swallowed by the bright, purple portal, as if he was actually relieving the event
His eyes could still catch the softly pulsing colourfull light emanating from the shards, despite the cave having gone compleatily dark minutes ago.
At first, dozens of different emotions flashed through him like a rampaging elephant, hitting him all at once, just as the portal closed and brought Nine and the Shards with it. Shock, disbelief, guilt, shame, betreyal all flooded his body for a split second, before everything went completely silent, and his body started to feel like it was not his own.
Still, the drip, drip, dripping continued on, unbothered by the way that time seemed to halt for the blue hedgehog. Droplets kept on falling and hitting the ground, their splash sometimes reaching Sonic's ankles, wetting his fur and socks.
As the drip, drip continued Sonic felt a certain wetness on his face, and thought that some stray droplets must have landed on his muzzle, and now they were making their way down, down, down, as gravity pulled them towards the ground resting below Sonic's feet.
Still, Sonic did not move. His legs felt simultaniously as stiff as a board and as wobbly as overcoocked spaghetti, and if he were to move he was sure he would fall face first into the ground. And that would just be embarassing.
So instead he decided to slowly sink down onto his knees.
Sonic blinked, and next thing he knew, a hand was now covering his face. It was his own. He did not remember doing that.
Even with his hands blanketing his vision he could still recall the memory very vividly, but another image started to warm it's way into his mind: the dark, cold, now unwelcoming sight of the empty cave. Between the two images flashing before his eyes he could not decide which one was more real.
Still, the dripping continued.