I stood on the runway platform, looking around Eggman's new space fortress. That was weird; usually robots would be attacking me right about now. I shrugged this off and started running, looking for the way in.

The second I took another step was when all of his mechanics sprang to life. Now we were talking. I smiled, ready to accept this challenge. Dodging his robots and their projectiles was a piece of cake. You would think he would come up with something new every once and a while.

I was almost to what looked like the entrance to the inner part of the fortress when a rather large robot managed to grab me. I struggled. This one was no joke. It was probably his best one. I almost felt sorry for having to break it.

I closed my eyes, the seven chaos emeralds I had circling me. I felt the energy change me, turning me into my super form. I easily broke through the robot and continued to the rest of the base. I was very surprised when there were no more surprises.

I burst into a room, which was extremely dark. Now this was really weird. There wasn't anything mechanical at all about the place, which was Eggman's style for everything. It was just a plain, ordinary room. Eggman was sitting at a desk that was lit by a single candle.

"Well this is a twist. What are you up to, Egghead?"

He turned away from the desk. "Oh, Sonic, I hadn't thought you would get here so soon. I apologize for the security troubles; I forgot they were on."

I was starting to get a bit suspicious. "What, you aren't trying to do anything evil at the moment?"

"Well, not in practice, though I am studying an interesting theory. You'll make a much better light source than my candle. Come over here." I reluctantly floated over to the desk. Laid out was a bunch of papers that were very old and some very new.

"I had built this place so I could have some piece and quite while looking into this."

I moved some of the papers around. The older ones where very familiar. "These are the Gaia Manuscripts."

"Correct. Now, as we know, there is a war that has been fought between Dark and Light Gaia for thousands upon thousands of years."

"Right," I moved more papers. "You tried to make their fight happen early."

"Yes. Now, this is all very interesting, but what's more interesting is the theory of another Gaia."

"Well that doesn't make any sense. What would be grouped with light and dark?"

"An excellent question. Now, every time Dark and Light Gaia fight, there is always a balance there that is never broken. This balance came very close to being broken when I prematurely awakened them. Now, even rarer than their fight, the balance is broken. Then it says that to restore balance, the third must be awakened."

I read some other papers. "Well that doesn't mean that it's another Gaia."

"True. In fact, there are multiple other theories that are better and disprove this one. But that is all irrelevant, nothing more than talk. Then there's the possibility that the balance means nothing. That's something I'm interested in."

I had been wrong about the room not being mechanical. He pressed a secret button on the desk, and I was grabbed by an extremely fast robotic arm, and before I could react, was put in a large glass tube. I tried to break out, but it wasn't working. Something must be special about the glass.

"Now," Eggman said, still talking like I was next to him reading the papers, "I have an interesting theory about how to break the balance of light and darkness. You played a major role in their fight, which means that you are a very huge supporting factor of light. If I can convert you to darkness, then the balance shifts to darkness's favor."

I leaned against the tube. "And how do you plan on doing that?"

"Well, you are using the positive energy of the chaos emeralds. What would happen if you used the negative part, and it was fused with the power of Dark Gaia?"

Above me, a hole opened inside the glass, and water started pouring in. I looked at it in fear. No, I couldn't be afraid right now. That was his plan. I had to break out. I continued to beat away at the glass. The water kept rising, as did my fear.

"Resisting," Eggman said, "I thought you would do that. I have a bit more motivation for you."

He pressed another secret button, and a TV screen came from the ceiling. It showed a cell, in which Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Rouge, Espio, and Cream were being held captive. Cream's eyes were red, like she had been crying, and Amy was pacing frantically.

"They all came after they got an anonymous tip that said I was holding you captive. If this plan fails, then I will do this to all of them, one by one, torturing each of them. I think I'll start with the little rabbit girl. She should be the easiest."

The water was up to my neck. I couldn't help it. Rage, hatred, disgust, fear; all negative feelings were coursing through my body. I could feel myself change, not back to my original form, but something else.

The water went over my head, but I didn't care. I welled up all of the terrible emotions I was feeling, then slammed my open hand onto the glass. It shattered in a starburst of blue, spilling water everywhere. The chaos emeralds were on the floor, not their usual colors and not grey either, but an evil looking purple.

I was ready to destroy eggman. He would not hurt my friends. I wouldn't let him.

Without any warning, a needle came out of nowhere and stabbed my arm, drawing away with my blood before I could destroy it. Eggman laughed. "Now, I will just use whatever I can find in this blood to finish my plan. Have a nice day."

Another secret button was pushed, and a trap door underneath me opened, sending me and the chaos emeralds hurtling towards earth, wiping away any hope I had of saving my friends, who were still trapped up there.