Conner opened his eyes to find himself in the Center Kingdom. The village streets were bustling and he could see the basket-shaped Capitol Building knock-off that Red called the House Of Progress. Bree stood next to him, taking in the sights.

"Man, this place never gets old." Bree said.

"It is weird to see it in black and white, though. Usually it's so horrendously vibrant with the shades of red." Conner said

"Speaking of the color, where would the Red the person be?" Bree asked.

"Probably up in her throne room, follow me." Conner said.

He led Bree through the streets of the Center Kingdom until they reached Red's castle. They walked up the many steps, the red color returning to the building with each step they took. They could hear a horrible shrieking noise coming from the corridor. Conner and Bree exchanged a knowing look. They walked into the corridor to find Red trying her best to sing a Mariah Carey song while Alex encouraged her.

"I have no idea why Alex ever thought this was a good idea." Conner said, covering his ears.

"What?" Bree asked.

He realized she couldn't hear him over the screeching that was supposed to be music. Conner gestured that they should leave. Bree got the message and walked out the corridor. They climbed a set of stairs, their ears still ringing. They reached the top of the stairs, which lead to a balcony that usually gave a great view of the kingdom. However, this time all they could see was a white void dissolving everything in its path. They watched, horrified as the once happy villages were destroyed by the empty nothingness.

"The boom must have happened while we were with Red. Her singing must have drowned it out." Conner yelled.

"We have to go, now." Bree shouted.

Conner grabbed her hand and closed his eyes.

━━━━━━━━━▲━━━━━━━━━

Conner opened his eyes, finding himself at Bree's coffee shop. Bree was standing right next to him, still holding his hand.

"Bree." Conner said, waving his hand in front of her face.

"I don't know what happened." Bree said, blankly staring at the coffee shop.

"What do you mean?" Conner nervously asked.

"It's getting faster and faster. Somehow it's still finding us." Bree answered.

"The machine must be adapting to our plan." Conner muttered, thoughtfully rubbing his chin.

The small coffee shop was bustling with customers, all dressed in heavy winter coats and other warm clothes. A passing patron slipped past Conner and Bree, his fur-lined hood brushing Conner's face. The coat slowly turned a dark navy blue, spreading to the rest of the man until he was completely in color. Bree shook her head, looking at the shop's menu.

"Let's get a drink." Bree said, rubbing her forehead.

"Do we have enough time to get coffee?" Conner asked, frantically looking out the window for a large white void to come crashing through any minute.

"Conner, nobody knows how much time we have. I'm gonna get a coffee, it might jog my memory." Bree said.

"Wait. Bree, if we're trying to hold on until the morning when I wake up, why don't we try to wake me up right now?" Conner realized, his eyes widening.

"I doubt the machine would let you wake up, but it's worth a shot." Bree said, edging forward in the line for coffee.

Conner turned around and bashed his head onto the nearest table, knocking a chair over and sending the glass vase of flowers crashing to the ground, startling Bree. She turned around in shock.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Bree whispered, pulling him back onto his feet.

"I'm trying to wake myself up." Conner said unabashedly.

"That's not how you do that." Bree said, embarrassed for him.

"Well excuuse me. How would you suggest I wake myself up?" Conner snarkily asked.

"Try yelling or screaming. Your body could copy the actions your subconscious is taking even for just a split second, which would be enough to wake you up." Bree informed him.

Conner suddenly became very interested in his shoes.

"I suppose that could work." Conner muttered.

"I suppose it would." Bree said, rolling her eyes.

She turned back towards the line, which had moved ahead a considerable distance. Bree walked forward to make up the gap in the line she'd created by talking to Conner instead of paying attention to the line.

An all-too familiar crash sounded in the distance, startling them both.

"That can't be good." Bree mumbled, nervously glancing at Conner

"No shit, Sherlock. What's the plan?" Conner asked.

"Wake up or we get separated again. We don't know how much time or how many memories we have left, so I'd rather go with the first option." Bree replied, looking behind them towards the oncoming wall of nothingness.

Conner yelled an unintelligible stream of gibberish, to no avail. His conscious self remained just as asleep as he was before. The white void continued to descend on them, sucking in the glass door and walls of the coffee shop. Conner grabbed Bree's hand, dragging her through the back of the shop and out the door into an alleyway, littered with scraps of past meals.

"COME ON!" Conner bellowed at the sky, frantically trying to wake up.

The white void descended all around them, absorbing the litter that had once scattered the alleyway. Bree slipped on the asphalt, falling over the edge into the void. Conner grabbed her hand, trying to pull her back up. He watched in horror as her legs began to disintegrate in the white void until it spread to her entire body. It finally reached the hand that Conner still held onto, dissolving into a fine mist. Conner started to panic, his eyes widening and started breathing more and more quickly. He cried out a guttural scream of pure emotion, echoing through the real world.

"I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE! I don't want to forget, please don't make me forget, please just stop. Can you hear me? Please I can't do this, I-I can't live like this. Please stop, I'll do anything you want but please, for the love of god stop." Conner sobbed, salty tears running down his face and splashing onto the cold asphalt.

The white void offered no mercy. It closed in on him, ignoring his desperate pleas until nothing remained.