A/N: Formerly known as 'malediction'. After Sonic inadvertently absorbs the negative energy from the Emeralds, chaos is unleashed... and only Shadow can put an end to it. Meanwhile, Amy finds herself torn between the growing interest in an anti-hero forced into the spotlight, and her former flame whose heart has been turned inside out… Read and review.

"battle not with monster, lest ye become a monster

and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes into you."

- friedrich nietzsche

--

"it is always good men who do the most harm in the world."

- henry brooks adam

monster

"Where to next, Tails?"

"Give me a second and I'll check." The kitsune's two tails made a soft whirling sound, not unlike the noise an RC helicopter makes, as he hovered in mid-air. He pushed several buttons on his hand-held computer and it beeped obligingly before a holographic grid sprang up in his hands, bathing his face in its brilliant green light. He studied the image before him a moment, frowning as he said, "we keep following this hallway until it dead-ends, and then we make a left through the door."

Sonic nodded once. "Any more security bots?"

"No..."

"Awesome! What a cake-walk!" Sonic said, grinning as he raised his hand for a high-five. The little two-tailed genius didn't seem to be sharing his sentiments, however, his expression growing more and more muddled as he continued to stare at the screen. "What's up, little bro?" Sonic asked, his face falling as he gazed upon the look of genuine concern etched on his friend's furry features. He stood on his tip-toes and strained his neck, trying to look over the hovering fox's shoulder at the screen. Having a visual aid did little to help the hedgehog get a better grasp of the situation, however - all he saw was open space, a few walls, a door, and seven flickering little objects. There was also a lot of numbers and the usual techno-babble Sonic would never be able to understand; no matter how many times Tails had tried to explain it in the past. "Something wrong?"

Tails seemed to jerk out of his trance, blinking rapidly. He snapped the little computer shut and tucked it away in the tool-belt he had brought along for the mission. "Well, nothing I can determine outright..." he began slowly.

"...Buuuut?" Sonic asked, a little impatiently. His gaze kept flicking down the hall, clearly eager to get a move on.

"But, well... don't you think security is a bit.. uhm, lax?"

"Eggman doesn't expect an ambush?" Sonic offered, raising a single eyebrow. It was clear that the lack of robot personnel was the last thing on his mind at the present. Tails continued to look unconvinced, and the blue hedgehog bit back a sigh and eventually shrugged. "Look, Tails, I don't mean to undermine your opinion or anything, but who cares? Haven't you ever heard the expression, 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth'? Let's just get a move on before Robotnik happens to notice we're here."

"But that's just it, Sonic," Tails said, shaking his head. "He has cameras all over this place! He has to known we're here by now. So where is everybody?"

"Don't know, don't care, don't want to stick around long enough to find out," Sonic said, tapping his foot. "C'mon Tails, we'll worry about things as we get to them. But so far, it's been smooth sailing, and we should be thankful. Although I wouldn't mind a little butt-thrashing right about now, to keep things interesting," the hedgehog added, casting his gaze upward thoughtfully.

Tails tried to smile reassuringly, although he still harbored some doubts. "I guess you're right..."

"'Course I am," Sonic said airily, waving him off. "Now let's hurry up and get this over with, and then maybe we'll be back in Station Square in time to catch the remainder of Happy Hour..." He flashed the little fox a wink and revved up, his feet kicking up dust on the floor before he rocketed off down the hall, Tails trailing behind like a little orange shadow.

"Robotnik's technology prowess never ceases to amaze me," Tails marveled, almost reverently as they glanced about the room, which appeared to be an enormous foyer leading into another room behind it, obscured by closed doors. The walls to the left and the right of the two were adorned with what appeared to be massive super computers and monitors. Their screens were either hooked up to security cameras and showing live-feed from various vantage points within the air fortress, or displaying graphs and numbers and grids - the sorts of complicated things Sonic could care less about.

"His architecture and sense of decor is shit, though," the blue hedgehog said wryly, indicating the drab paint and slate-grey flooring. "The man has clearly never heard of fung shui." He waggled his eyebrows at the younger kitsune, who was suddenly absent from his side. "What? Hey!" He pivoted on one heel, catching sight of Tails' backside as he retreated to one of the nearest computers, fingers already poised above the keyboard. The little fox could not resist the urge to snoop around in one of Robotnik's databanks when the offer was so plainly presented.

"Maybe I can hack into some of his system files, see what his next big scheme is," Tails said, speaking over the stream of Sonic's sudden protests.

"Later, Tails! We're almost there. It's just through this one last door, right?" Sonic jabbed his finger at the door just before him.

"Actually, according to my radar earlier, this should be the room," Tails said, his fingers rapidly tapping away at the keyboard as he spoke. "We went straight down the hallway and took a left, correct?"

"Right," Sonic said, rubbing the back of his head in evident confusion as he glanced around. "But if your directions really are right, where are they?"

"Directly beneath you," Tails informed him matter-of-factly. There was a resounding click, followed by a hissing noise, like air escaping from a broken seal. Sonic gave a cry of surprise as the ground beneath him began to shift and elevate, leaping out of the way before he could be taken up with it. A huge, cylindrical foundation broke free from the ground and began to rise rapidly into the air, fold-out stairs unfurling behind it as it went. Sonic watched the enormous structure open up and blossom before him, elongating and expanding like a bizarre, mechanical flower in bloom. It shuddered as it came to a halt, some five feet above them, an enormous circular chamber undoubtedly harboring seven highly sought after jewels, hooked up to what appeared to be some heavy-duty machinery within the confines of the glass.

"How'd you know...?"

"It says so right here," Tails said simply, pressing one gloved digit against the illuminated screen before him. Sonic squinted at it, but all he could see was a bunch of scrolling mumbo-jumbo only mad scientists and whiz kits were able to easily decipher. To him, it was just a nonsensical mess.

"I still don't see how you... oh, whatever," Sonic dismissed, well beyond caring by this point. He was hungry, and tired, and bored, and he just wanted to steal the Emeralds and go. He lifted his head upwards to stare at the object of their mission, seven enormously powerful and potentially destructive gem stones known as the Chaos Emeralds. "Let's snatch the Emeralds and beat feet out of here." He rubbed his hands together anxiously, wondering to himself what the best way to go about this was.

Well, I guess I'll start by taking the stairs, he thought dryly to himself, making his way up the steps. Once he had reached the top he clenched one fist and rapped it up against the glass, which shuddered slightly under the assault of his hand.

"Man, they don't make them like they used to," Sonic observed out loud, grinning to himself. "It's like he wants us to get them." Behind him, although he couldn't see it, Tails' expression darkened. "Doubt it's even an inch thick. Nothing a sonic spin won't make short work of--"

"Sonic--" Tails began haltingly, but his voice was drowned out by the roar of Sonic's spines buzzing through glass like a chainsaw. Within a few seconds the cobalt hero had made a perfectly spherical hole that was big enough for him to eclipse with relative ease.

"Easy as pie," he said, picking little pieces of dull glass free from his quills as he clamored through. Standing before the Emeralds, linked up between wires stretching between them, Tails couldn't help from feeling apprehensive. The absence of rampant security was reason to worry enough - they had made it this far with virtually no resistance. Something was surely very wrong here; Tails could feel it.

"Sonic, something's not right here," the little fox warned. "I don't think we should--" But the dire warning fell upon deaf ears; Sonic's arms were extended forward, fingers stretched to grasp the first Emerald. Sudden inexplicable panic seized Tails. "Sonic, don't! It's a trap!"

Completely disregarding Tails' exclamation, Sonic picked up one of the Emeralds. There was a beat in which no one spoke, and then Sonic smiled. "See, Tails? Nothing bad happene--" His words were cut short as an electrical current flashed through the cable and went up through the Emerald and up Sonic's arm, suddenly basking the hedgehog in a white-hot glow. The glow then became a blaze, intensifying in color, engulfing the hedgehog in its shade like a flash fire. For a moment Sonic simply seemed puzzled, but then there was a sinister sounding crack, like an exposed wire emitting sparks, or something breaking under stress – or perhaps it was Sonic who had broken, having finally snapped beneath the impending force of chaotic energy being forcibly ejected into him.

The cobalt hero threw back his head and suddenly screamed, a sound so unbearable that Tails pressed his ears flat against his head, struck silent and immobile by the horrible sight before him. The petite fox's mouth was slack with horror, watching the scene unravel before him helplessly. Sonic was thrashing, the Emerald still gripped fiercely between his digits as though glued to him by some invisible force. His voice rose in pitch and volume, wrought with agony and anguish and something a lot like fear, and yet still, Tails found himself unable to function coherently except to stare, his gaze transfixed upon the scene as though it were blood on the snow, gruesome but somewhat twistedly appealing.

And then as abruptly as it began, it ended, and the hedgehog slumped to the floor, the emerald rolling free from his grasp as he fell. The room was silent except for Tails' quiet whimpering and Sonic's labored breathing. The fox finally recovered from his shock and leapt into action, rushing up the steps and climbing into the chamber to see if the other animal was alright.

First, he checked his pulse - the hedgehog was still very much alive, his chest heaving with the effort of his breathing. His head was lulled to one side, his jaw clenched tightly shut as he exhaled heavily through his nose.

"Sonic?" There were tears in the kitsune's eyes as he feebly tried to stir the unconscious hedgehog. "Sonic? Are you alright?"

At last he began to stir, groaning slightly as he came to. "Oh, thank the gods!" Tails said, clasping his hands fiercely before him, as though in prayer. "Sonic, are you okay? I told you it was a trap--" He bit his lip anxiously as the other animal first sat up, then slowly climbed to his feet so that his back was facing Tails. With every passing moment the hedgehog seemed to grow stronger and surer of himself, much to the relief of the other animal.

"So that's why there wasn't anyone trying to stop you," Tails observed, watching as Sonic cracked his own neck, apparently to get the kinks out. "He wanted you to get zapped. He must've tampered with the energy flow on the Emerald, reversed them so that they would have an adverse effect on you..." Sonic muttered something under his breath and Tails' ear twitched forward, trying to catch what he had said. It was too late, however - the comment was missed entirely.

"What did you say?" the little fox asked curiously, leaning forward. Sonic didn't immediately answer and Tails reached out and touched his shoulder. "Sonic, did you hear me? Are you alright?"

Sonic slowly turned so that he was facing his comrade. The gaze he fixed Tails with was one he had never seen before - but if he had to guess, it was something a lot like disgust. "I said," the blue hedgehog said, louder this time, and the tone in which he said it made the kitsune's fur stand up on end in sudden alarm. "Adverse effects? You have no idea." And his fist abruptly closed around Tails' throat.

Initially, Tails was so shocked by the other animal's outburst that he simply allowed himself to be seized. As he felt his windpipe slowly crushing under the strain of Sonic's anger, however, common sense won out and his own hands flew up in a desperate act to slacken the cobalt hedgehog's vice-like grip on his throat. "Sonic," the little fox gurgled, "it's me, Tails…"

"I know who you are," Sonic said coldly, and instead of his grip slackening, it seemed to grow even impossibly tighter. His digits were tightly laced and unyielding and Tails began to panic as shadows bled along the edges of his field of vision. Seconds passed, and he began to feel frighteningly dizzy and light-headed...

"I never thought I'd live to see the day," chortled a voice from nearby, accompanied with a faint whishing noise that indicated someone else had entered the room. "I'm actually happy to see you for once, Sonic."

"Are you?" The blue hedgehog asked sardonically, his hold on the kit's throat finally loosening. Tails slumped to the floor, half-choking, half-gasping for air. His hand instinctively began to rub the place where Sonic had grabbed him, feeling the tender skin beneath the dense matted fur there. He knew he would be sporting a fantastic bruise later, but this minor detail was not the foremost concern in his mind.

"What have you done to him?" he wheezed.

"It's quite genius, really," Robotnik said, looking rather proud of himself. "I dreamed up the idea after watching the whole Perfect Chaos fiasco unfold. You see, the fact that Chaos only absorbed the negative energy of the Chaos Emeralds, leaving half-charged husks infused only with the power of good behind, had me quite intrigued. So after all was said and done, I began to wonder: could the reverse holdtrue as well? When Sonic used a new batch of Chaos Emeralds to become Super Sonic, did he leave the negative pieces behind? Could they still be salvageable?

"Unfortunately, even if my theory was true, I had no way of knowing for sure, since humans aren't compatible with the Emeralds. I could not tap into their dark potential; only a creature like Sonic could be capable of achieving a higher status. My initial thought was perhaps I could persuade Shadow to test my theory, but the more I thought about, the less likely it seemed that he'd agree - you and your motley crew have done your fair share of brainwashing him, and I wasn't sure he'd want to. So then I devised this little machine right here," he indicated the capsule that the Emeralds had been confined within with a dramatic sweep of his hand, "which forcefully injects the power of the Emeralds into any creature that attempts to make contact with them. And as you can see, it worked rather marvelously."

Tails inclined his head in Sonic's direction; he watched as a slightly muddled expression crossed his features. The hedgehog seemed to be impressed beyond his will. "That is pretty cool," he said at last, trademark smirk slowly sidling into place. There was something undeniably different about the expression, however, graced on the features of this newly-changed Sonic. It was a cross between hateful and maniacal. The little fox shivered.

"Isn't it, though?" the chubby doctor was practically beaming with pride.

"There's just one problem, though."

Robotnik seemed confused. "And what is that?"

The cobalt hedgehog took a step forward. "Well," be began slowly, "did it ever occur to you that you just gave your most hated rival a stupidly unfair advantage? Your goal was to turn me inside out – to mutate me, mold me, make me bad. This, accompanied with the fact that I'm boosted by the power of seven chaos emeralds, has made me a more than formidable adversary. Did it ever occur to you that it had completely eliminated any notion of an even playing field between you and I, in my favor? Did it ever occur to you, you fat fuck, that I might just become intent on destroying you now, instead of simply thwarting your evil plans before lunch?"

The two were nose-to-nose now, the shorter animal gazing up into the face of his rival with the utmost contempt. Tails couldn't help but feel a twinge of perverse pleasure at the sight of the doctor's evident unease.

"T-That did cross my m-mind, yes," the doctor admitted, and there was genuine terror in his eyes. He took an involtunary step back, but Sonic matched his movement with one of his own – they continued to be nose-to-nose.

"Tell me, then," Sonic said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper. "Convince me. Why should I join the likes of you?"

There was something even more chilling in Sonic's lack of vehemence, something far more terrifying than his outright violence. Tails watched as a thick bead of sweat formed at the top of the egg-shaped doctor's eye-ridge and then dripped abruptly into his left eye. He blinked rapidly.

"Well?" Sonic snapped impatiently, his voice ringing loudly off of the metallic walls of the room. Both Tails and Robotnik jumped.

"Uh… well, the p-promise of world domination is rather a-appealing, I'd imagine…" the human began awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head. He tried to smile.

"And what makes you think I'm not perfectly capable of doing that on my own?" Sonic murmured. Robotnik's mouth opened, then shut abruptly, then opened again. He seemed unable to formulate a proper reply.

"I'm disappointed in you, doctor," Sonic said, shaking his head. "I thought I could expect more from you—"

"Hey assholes!" came an angry voice, and Sonic and Robotnik looked around in sudden bewilderment. Tails winced and immediately fumbled to his tool-belt, where a radio was holstered in one of the notches. He started to turn the volume down but the blue hedgehog raised his hand to halt him.

"Wait," he commanded. "Turn it up. I had nearly forgotten about them…" he smiled.

For a moment, Tails considered openly defying him for the sake of the other two. At the same time, however, he thought better of it; if he made this new version of Sonic angry enough, there was no telling what he might do.

"Hello?" came the impatient voice again. "Did you guys die or something? Me and Amy have been waiting up here with the Tornado for over an hour. Do you need us to bail your sorry asses out of a jam or what?" Tails chewed on his lower lip, casting a fearful glance at the cobalt hedgehog.

"Go on," Sonic said, nodding. He seemed deeply amused by the entire ordeal. "Answer them."

And say what? That you've gone completely insane? Tails wondered to himself. He fumbled with the notch of his belt before the radio came tumbling loose, clattering on the ground before he could abruptly snatch it up again. Sonic snickered at the kit's nervousness, his smirk becoming an outright grin as Tails lifted the speaker to his mouth.

"Uh, hey, it's Tails," he began haltingly, unsure of just what to say. "Uh, listen, we've hit something of a snag here…"

"What the hell does that mean?" came Knuckles' gruff voice again. "Can you be a little more specifi—Amy, hey! Let go!"

"Tails!" came Amy's concerned voice, having evidently wrenched the radio out of the big echidna's hands. "Are you guys alright? Do you need a hand? Is Sonic okay?"

"Uh… well…"

"Uh, uh, uh, why don't you spit it out already!" came Knuckles' outraged cry, sounding distant and tinny over the airwave.

"That's enough," Sonic said, waving the radio away. Tails blindly clipped it back onto his belt, refusing to take his eyes off of the hedgehog in case he tried to pull a fast one like earlier. "Hey, doc," Sonic said, pivoting on one red sneaker so that he was facing the human. Robotnik looked uncomfortable being the focus of Sonic's undivided attention yet again. "We'll come back to this later. There's something I want to take care of first." Robotnik exhaled in relief as Sonic returned his attention to Tails.

"That echidna sure does have a mouth on him, doesn't he?" Sonic said, clucking distastefully at Knuckles' apparent lack of social etiquette. "Tell ya what, Tails," the hedgehog said after a moment, cocking his head to one side and putting his hands on his hips. "Since I used to like you so much, why don't I give you a head-start hoofin' it back to others? I'll give you to the count of… ten, let's say. Sound fair?" He didn't really wait for a reply, instead opting to turn around and close his eyes, as if they were simply playing a round of hide-and-seek and Sonic was 'it'. "One… two…"

Tails was already running.