A/N Hello everyone and welcome back. Well after this there's only eight chapters left. Enjoy!

Sandopolis Zone 2

Eggman's henchbots finished up gathering their scraps from the ship Scratch and grounder lugged two heavy bags on their backs while the Cyber Sailors and Metal Sonic held large devices. In their arms.

"Wooo!" Scratch heaved, wiping his head of non-existent sweat.

"We did it." Grounder said. "That's all we can salvage. Time to return to the Death Egg."

Metal Sonic rose into the air and the Sailors had jet packs appear out of their backs and rose into the air with Metal Sonic and they jetted back to the Volcano. Scratch sighed watching them disappear.

"Guess we're walking."

"Suppose so." Grounder grumbled, feeling annoyed.

The two robots began to trek once they were safely away, Scratch pushed the button on the remote Eggman gave him. The ship combusted with many small internal explosions before the whole thing blew up.

Back at the Palace, Tuxedo Mask raised his cane. Knuckles made the first attack by throwing a punch at him. Tuxedo Mask jumped up and dodged.

Tuxedo Mask protested. "Knuckles, this is foolish! I don't want to fight you!"

"Tough luck!" Knuckles dismissed. As he charged at him throwing another punch. Tuxedo Mask leaped to the side and Knuckles punched the ground he was standing on hard. Many chunks of the ground flew into the air leaving a crater where Tuxedo Mask stood.

Tuxedo Mask stood in front of the Master Emerald, he noticed a particular glow behind him with the Master Emerald that didn't match. He slightly turned his head and saw the seven Chaos Emeralds sitting directly along the ridge of the Master Emerald.

"Don't think about laying a hand on it!" Knuckles shouted, Tuxedo Mask reached into his pocket for something to end the fight, but Knuckles rushed at him quickly and charged and pumped his fist. He knew what he was trying to do.

"Oh no! No flower tricks from you!" Knuckles growled. He growled. Instead of punching he jumped above Tuxedo Mask to his surprise. Knuckles then performed his drill drive attack. Spinning with his fist at the front with great speed, his attack slammed into his back.

Tuxedo Mask wailed in pain, as if a huge hammer pounded his spine. He was sent rolling down the stairs of the shrine. Knuckles slowly climbed to his knee, coughing.

"Yeah!" Knuckles stood boasting his attack. "How do you feel about that!?" Fighting the pain in his back he slowly raised to his feet. His face turned serious.

"Ok….'cough cough'….No more playing around." Tuxedo Mask quickly threw a rose at Knuckles's face, it exploded in a big flurry of rose petals. Blinding Knuckles as he threw his arms up to shield his face.

Once the storm cleared Tuxedo Mask emerged from behind it and swung his cane and struck Knuckles in the chest.

"GAAAA!" Knuckles cried in pain, and fell backward onto his back. Clutching his chest he picked himself up and to his surprise, Tuxedo Mask had disappeared.

"Urrrr." Knuckles growled standing up clutching his chest. "He got away." To his surprise, at his feet there was Sailor Jupiter's Transformation stick and Tiara. Tuxedo Mask's voice filled the air.

"Knuckles keep these two items! They're of great importance to the Sailors. Do so and learn the truth of your true enemy!"

Knuckles was tempted to just grab those items and throw them away. However he hesitated and picked them up and stared at them.

Back with the heroes, they were inside the pyramid and darkness was all around them. It was pitch black and no one could see anything. Luckily the atmosphere inside the Pyramid was more tolerable than the desert. It was still warm but not so blazing hot. Sailor Moon shivered with fear.

Sailor Moon spoke. "Gee, you think we might bump into mummies in here?" Her voice echoed greatly across the Pyramid. Even though they couldn't see anything, it was clear that the area was vast.

"If we do, leave it to me!" Sailor Mars asserted, sounding brave.

"Bunch up together!" Tails instructed. "We should stay close together so we don't get lost. It's way too dark in here!" The group was bunched up closely together as they moved slowly forward not knowing what to expect.

"Ouch!" Sailor Mars winced. "Sonic, that's my foot!"

"Sorry!"

"ROWR!" Artemis made a loud cat noise in pain. "Venus you stepped on my tail!"

Tails spoke up. "Nope that was me! Sorry Artemis!"

"Leaaaaaaave this place!" Wailed a frail voice. The team stopped and tensed up as the voice didn't seem to come from any particular direction.

"Geeeeet Ouuuuuuuut!" The frail voice wailed again.

"Y...you don't think?" Sailor Venus stammered.

"GHOST!" Sailor Moon cried.

Sailor Mars stood strong as wailing and insane laughter filled the air and the sound was circling around the team.

Suddenly three large white ghosts with devil horns on the head with dark black angry eyes appeared around them. Their astral bodies offered a glow which added a little light to the area.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Sailor Moon screamed.

Sailor Mars rolled her eyes. Sailor Moon they look nothing much than people wearing white sheets.

Sonic had to warn. Maybe so but they can still do us harm! He quickly charged up a spin dash and charged right at one of the spirits. Sonic cut right through it like butter and the ghost wailed in pain and vanished. Sonic returned to the team looking triumphant.

"See? No problem!" The wailing returned and the team slowly pointed shaking fingers behind Sonic, he slowly turned and saw the ghost return completely unharmed.

Sailor Mars sighed. "Sorry Sonic, but I kind of figured that attack wouldn't work."

The ghost swooped in and encircled the group wailing and laughing. Sailor Mars acted quickly and took out a ofuda. She spoke the words and held it in front of her.

"Rin,Pyo,Tou,Sha,Kai,Jin,Retsu,Zai,Zen! Begon, evil spirits!"

Sailor Mars threw the firey talisman at the ghosts and they all got caught in a bright blaze of fire and burned up until they disappeared.

"Way to go Sailor Mars!" Sonic praised.

"So glad to have a shrine maiden on our side!" Sailor Moon praised. The team smiled and began to move forward. Unfortunately the wailing returned and the ghosts reappeared directly behind them.

"RUN!" Sonic shouted, gripped with fear and panic, the team charged forward with the ghost close behind them.

"I don't get it!" Sailor Mars cried. "That should have destroyed them!"

"We tear them down and they come right back!" Sailor Venus pointed out. "Come on Sailor Mars! You gotta know something to take them out!"

Sailor Mars struggled to think about the situation.

"They must gain their power from something else if my skills alone don't take them out." They kept rushing as the ghost closed in on them, getting closer and closer. She got an idea. "They must get power from this darkness!"

"Great!" Sailor Moon said sweating and panting. "So what do we do!?"

Sailor Mars explained. "We gotta find a way to light up this place!"

"How!?" Sailor Venus shouted.

When the ghosts were getting dangerously close Sailor Mars turned and used her attack.

"Fire Soul!"

The fireball burned up the ghosts and they had a small window until they returned.

"We can't keep running like this!" Sailor Mars declared boldly. Luckily the attack provided a small amount of light for everyone to see a tiny portion of the area.

Luckily the cats saw something hanging a couple feet above them.

Artemis called. "Tails! Fly upwards at the three o'clock position and grab the hanging object!"

Tails nodded in agreement, he slowly flew up with his hands up reaching for whatever he could feel.

The ghosts slowly began to reform as Tails managed to touch something thin, smooth and made of some kind of marble. Must be a pole of some sort. Tails pulled on it and the metallic sounds of a chain moved as he did. Once it stopped moving something in the distance opened up and the sounds of rushing water were heard all throughout the Pyramid.

Luna's nose twitched.

"Oil!"

Sonic smiled big. "Light it up Sailor Mars!"

Sailor Mars quickly honed her senses and found a good point to aim her fire.

"Fire Soul!"

The fire shot to the left side of the structure and soared a great distance until it hit something. The impact caused a fire to ignite and spread in a specific pathway all around the Pyramid. Along the path many torches lit up and the Pyramid became luminated in light. The darkness was gone.

The ghosts finished reforming themselves but it was too late for them. They cried out in pain and terror as the bright light seemed to harm them.

Sailor Mars smirked at the weakened spectors as she grabbed another ofuda and tried again.

"Rin,Pyo,Tou,Sha,Kai,Jin,Retsu,Zai,Zen! Begon, evil spirits!"

The ghosts cried as they completely burned up and once they were gone a scream of the ghosts filled the area, something that didn't happen before when they were attacked.

Sailor Mars smiled and winked at her comrades. "They won't trouble us anymore!"

The team paused and looked around the area. The Pyramid was vast and wide, ancient hieroglyphs were engraved everywhere. Many torches illuminated the area and the ceiling of the structure must have been several miles in the air. The floor was stone with many mounds of sand covering it up in several spots.

"You think Eggman built this Pyramid himself?" Sailor Moon wondered.

"Not likely." Sonic replied. "If anything he just reworked this place to suit his needs for a base."

Sailor Mars had a theory. "Those ghosts must be spiritual protectors of this ancient place."

"Be careful then, everyone." Luna advised. "There's probably ancient boobytraps all over the place."

Tails rejoined the others and smiled at Artemis.

Tails was curious. "An ancient pulley! How could you see it? I sure couldn't."

Artemis and Luna laughed.

He explained. "We're cats, we can see a little bit better than most if there's even a little light."

The team continued onward trying to be careful to not to trigger any traps That is until they came to a rather unexpected obstacle. A large stone wall blocked the way forward. Unfortunately, there was no way to get around it as it connected to an overhang. That stretched to all sides of the structure.

"Looks like we're stuck." Sailor Venus said. "Tails can't fly around it and we have no tools so I don't think we can tunnel our way through or something."

Sonic and Tails both pressed their ears against the wall and began pounding on it to hear any possible weaknesses in the structure.

"No good." Sonic said. "Wall's completely solid, and couldn't tunnel through even if we wanted to."

Sailor Moon saw a nearby square stone and got a pleasant idea.

"While we try to figure this out guys I'm just gonna rest here for a moment."

Sailor Moon planted her behind on the stone and sighed in comfort as she began to relax. Sailor Mars rolled her eyes at her as the others tried to find another way to move forward. Sailor Moon yelped as she felt the stone she was sitting on slide backwards from underneath her. To everyone's shock the stone wall blocking their way slowly rose up a few inches.

"Woah!" Sonic gasped as the rest of the team was agape.

"Ow!" Sailor Moon whined rubbing her bottom. She stood back up the stone she was sitting on moved back into the place and the stone wall came back down. The team coughed and waved the sand out of their faces as the wall threw some up in the air when it came down.

"What did you guys do?" Sonic asked.

"Hey guys!" Sailor Moon called, pointing to the stone, the team eyed it suspiciously. Tails dusted off the sand surrounding it and discovered an engraved trail the stone was traveling on.

Tails explained it. "That wall is a door! This unsuspecting stone appears to be the mechanism that controls it. Sonic, give me a hand."

Sonic moved with Tails and the two pushed the stone and the wall moved up opening the pathway forward. Once the stone stopped moving the door did as well.

Tails gave an explanation. "This door is controlled by this stone. Once we let it go, rush to the other side before it closes."

The others nodded, Tails and Sonic released the stone and it began to slowly move back in place and the door began to move down. The team ran and made it to the other side, Sailor Venus was the last one to make it as the door slammed down behind them.

'Cough...Cough.' Sailor Moon went with Sailor Venus and the cats as they swatted the sand out of the air.

"We made it." Sonic smiled.

Sailor Venus complained. "I'm gonna be shampooing my hair for weeks to get all the dirt out!"

The team continued onward as Sonic took point. After passing the huge wall the area opened up again lots of places to explore, or potentially get lost in.

Sonic spoke boldly. "I'll make sure we don't come upon any more unpleasant surprises." Unexpectedly he stepped onto some ordinary looking sand and then...

"WAAAAAAAA!" Once his foot stepped on it Sonic slid down to the left, the sand pushed him like very slick ice and Sonic began to slide down it wildly like a slide. The sliding took him to many hills and stone slides that took him lower into the pyramid.

"SONIC!" Sailor Moon cried.

"Come on!" Sailor Mars called. "We gotta go after him!" She jumped on the sand and she slid down the same way Sonic did. One by one the others did so. Although Sailor Moon hesitated before following.

Sonic slid off a waterfall-like fall of sand. Screaming he fell down a floor of the structure and landed face down in a pit of more sand and several brown boulders a few feet away from him.

"Ow, tat ws unplsnt." Sonic spoke with his voice muffled in the sand.

Things got worse for him as one by one the others fell and had a soft landing, on top of each other. Each one yelped loudly as one landed on top of the other. Slowly they each slid off the pile of bodies and groaned as they laid on the sand. That is except the cats who landed gracefully on their feet. Artemis laughed as he and Luna were the last ones to land on Sailor Mars's back.

"Sometimes being a feline has great advantages!" Artemis laughed. Luna giggled back to him knowing full well about said advantages.

Sonic first picked his head up and noticed something off about the rocks. There were about seven of them, and all of a sudden, they all seemed to open up what appeared to be eyelids. Big white eyes looked at the team then turned angry.

"What?" He gasped. The rocks rose a few inches off the ground and small metallic legs with legs began to slowly march towards them.

"Rock badnicks!" Tails pointed out their identities.

Sonic quickly charged up his spin dash and slammed into one. Unfortunately Sonic bounced back to the group with no damage inflicted to the badnicks. However plenty of damage was inflicted onto Sonic. He landed on his back, his eyes shaken as he clearly slammed his head against a hard surface. He felt dizzy and dazed.

"Ugh, my head." He groaned, his head spinning around.

"Eggman clearly made that rock too hard to penetrate." Tails said feeling Sonic's head, checking on his friend.

"My fire won't do anything against that rock." Sailor Mars pointed out. The angry looking robots were inching closer. While they don't appear to be such a threat it would be a bad idea to let them get close.

"Leave it to me!" Sailor Venus said, stepping forward.

"You know how to beat them?" Sailor Moon asked. Sailor Venus smiled back at her.

"Just watch me!" She winked then used her attack.

"Crescent Beam!"

She fired her laser at the badnicks and one by one the beam shattered the rocks and destroyed the badnicks.

"Super work Venus!" Tails said, giving her a thumbs up. Sonic shook his head one last time and regained himself. Afterwards the team continued onwards, the sandy slide took them into a slightly enclosed hallway. They traversed it until they came to yet another bottomless pit. With no other ways around.

"How can we get across?" Artemis asked.

"I can't keep flying each of you guys over." Tails pointed out. Sonic saw something hanging in the center of the ceiling above the pit.

"We won't have to!" Sonic said. He pointed to what looked like a glass container holding sand inside. "Sailor Moon, throw your tiara at that." She didn't understand why but decided to try it out.

"Moon Tiara Action!"

The tiara shattered the glass and what appeared to be an endless river of sand poured out of the ceiling down the pit.

"Now what?" Sailor Moon asked as they watched the sand fall down into the darkness. Luna figured it out.

"Just wait and watch." She advised. After about three minutes the sand began to pile up and fill the pit.

"I see!" Sailor Moon cheered. "The ancient architects put in a way forward for us!" Once the pit was full enough the team was able to safely move across. Once the pit was behind them. Tails noticed the sound of the pouring sand hadn't ceased. He looked behind them and saw a disturbing sight.

"Uh guys! We have a new problem!"

The team looked behind them and noticed the sand was still pouring filling up the passageway behind them and the sand began to creep up behind them like a dangerous flood.

"Run!" Artemis called. The team ran down the hallway and were cut off by another wall, they were trapped.

"NO! WE'RE GONNA GET CRUSHED!" Sailor Moon screamed.

Sonic, Tails and Sailor Mars looked frantically for a stone, hoping that this wall was actually a secret door. Unfortunately they found nothing. The cats immediately began to dig to try to get under the door, anything to get out of this situation. The flood of sand was inching more and more. Sailor Moon began pounding on the wall as Sailor Venus attempted to attack the wall.

"Crescent Beam!"

The beam shattered against the wall leaving a medium size dent, the cats heard an echo on the other side.

"This wall isn't thick!" Luna called. "Everyone, attack it!"

The team acted fast as Sonic and Tails joined hands and began their double spin dash, Sailor Mars and Venus powered them up with their attacks.

"Crescent Beam!"

"Fire Soul!"

Sailor Moon readied her Tiara and threw it at the dent right as Sonic and Tails launched their Venus, Fire, double spin dash at the dent.

"Moon Tiara Action!"

The large attack destroyed the wall and the pathway forward opened up, unfortunately the situation had not improved for they only walked a few feet forward until they were forced to stop.

Sailor Moon cried. "Great another pit!" Indeed the way forward just led to another bottomless pit. The wall on the other side of it cut off the way.

"We're still trapped!" Sailor Mars shouted.

The team looked back at the flood of sand behind them as the danger of that threat wasn't going anywhere.

Sonic's instincts told him immediately the only thing to do.

"Only way out is down!" Sonic declared, the team turned to face him, they watched as he jumped off the ledge and down the pit.

"SONIC!" Sailor Moon screamed at the top of her lungs. She charged at the ledge and threw her arm down it to hopelessly catch Sonic but he was already gone into the dark abyss.

Sailor Mars looked back as the flood of sand was now only three feet away.

"We got no other option! Jump down!" Sailor Moon was too gripped with fear. Sailor Mars acted fast and grabbed her by the waist and threw her into the pit. Sailor Moon screamed as she fell into the darkness. The cats gulped and jumped down, followed by Tails, Sailor Venus, and lastly Mars.

The team fell and fell and fell, it seemed like an eternal fall into darkness. Sonic being at the front saw a bright light fastly approaching him, he closed his eyes as it blinded him.

Back at the Palace of the Master Emerald, Tuxedo Mask got away from Knuckles.

He grumbled to himself. "Let's hope that pig headed idiot has some clue what I'm trying to do." He looked around and noticed several tunnels on the lower levels under where the main entrance is, the same way he, as well as Sonic and the others, took in the past to get here. Tuxedo Mask leapt down and eyed each of the tunnels to see where they lead.

He thought to himself. Guess there's more than one way into this palace. Sailor Moon and the others are going to eventually enter the Volcanic mines. One of these has to lead me to them. I gotta find them quickly. Especially since I know where the Chaos Emeralds are, we'll need them to beat Eggman.

Back with the team, Sonic groaned as he laid on some sand. He raised his head and looked around as he was still inside the Pyramid and to his delight. His allies were with him too, lying unconscious on the ground around him. The area was dimly lit and the room was just a wide straight corridor.

"Guys wake up!" Sonic called shaking them awake. Groaning, they each shook their heads and woke up.

"We're alive?" Sailor Moon questioned. "How?"

"The Silver Crystal didn't intervene this time!" Luna pointed out. Tails looked around and pointed something out.

"Here's what's important! We're at the lowest level of the Pyramid! There should be an entrance to the Volcano from here!"

The team got up and dusted themselves off and moved down the corridor until they came across a new obstacle. There was another stone giant. Bigger than the one the heroes encountered at the entrance of the Pyramid. However it looked almost exactly the same. Withered bricks with spikes at the chest and belly, and spikes on the knuckles. The head was also the head of the ancient Sphinx.

"Another one?" Sailor Mars groaned.

"This one is much bigger!" Sailor Venus pointed out.

"Exactly! It's the perfect weapon to bring you all down!" Echoed the familiar evil voice of their enemy scientist. Where it came from no one could deduce. The giant broke free from the wall and began to slowly march toward the team. Each step shook the ground making the team struggle to keep their balance.

"Watch out!" Tails shouted as the giant swung his spiked fist at the team. They barely dodged it as they leaped out of the way. The fist slammed into the ground and shook the whole structure.

The eyes of the giant slowly opened up. They glowed bright red and charged up energy then they both shot two bright lasers one at Tails, the other at Sailor Venus. Tails dodged easily, Sailor Venus barely dodged as her skirt got hit and caught fire. She quickly patted it out. Sailor Moon called the other Sailors.

"Guys! Let's combine an attack!" The other Sailors stood next to her. Sailor Moon took her tiara and threw it as the other Sailors put their attacks into it.

"Moon Tiara Action!"

"Crescent Beam!"

"Fire Soul!"

The powerful Tiara flew and hit the giant in the chest but unfortunately it had no effect. Sonic had an idea.

"Tails join me!" Tails rushed to him as they both faced the giant. "Remember the Golem we faced outside?"

"Yeah."

"Let's go for the head!" Sonic Tails joined hands and spun around and launched at the Giant as it opened its eyes again and began to charge up its laser.

The two smashed into the face and destroyed it. The face and head shattered into dust and several chunks of the chest broke off with it. Underneath revealed was Dr. Eggman, in his hovercraft surrounded by wires and circuits.

"Eggman!" Sailor Venus shouted in anger.

"You're controlling it!" Sailor Mars pointed out.

Eggman growled, the Golem ceased to move once Sonic and Tails shattered the head.

"It matters not if you beat me here! The Death Egg is almost complete, once it is, it will break free of the mountain and Earth will be mine!"

"That's not gonna happen!" Sonic shouted.

Sailor Moon stared at him in anger. "You're gonna stop this and change Mercury and Jupiter back!" Eggman laughed hysterically at her assertiveness.

"Oh why would I do that? They have been such great help for me! They surely are more than a match for you!"

Sailor Moon roared as she took her Tiara and threw it at Eggman. The other Sailors put their anger into it.

Crescent Beam!

Fire Soul!

The attacks combined and slammed into Eggman causing a big explosion sending Eggman flying into the back of the corridor until he disappeared into the darkness.

"This is not good." Sonic said.

"Why?" Tails asked.

"Don't you see?" Sailor Mars added. "Eggman has almost finished repairing the Death Egg, all he needs now is time to get it into space. He's stalling us!" Sailor Venus sighed and relieved a sad inevitability.

"Unfortunately this also means Eggman will make us fight Sailor Mercury and Jupiter again soon."

"What are we gonna do to get Ami and Lita back?" Sailor Moon cried. The team moved forward and once they made it past the doorway where the giant was standing they found another capture capsule. Tails jumped on the button and freed all the animals inside.

"I'll do all I can to save them!" Tails announced. "I actually really like Ami."

"Really?" Luna asked.

"Yeah she understands my relationship with machines. I actually really want to work on stuff with her sometime."

Sailor Moon smiled warmly at him as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

"That's very cute! I hope we can see you two work together once we save them."

This conversation actually lightened everyone's mood, thinking about happy stuff to do together after they stop Eggman. The team moved further down the Pyramid and once they all stepped into the far side of the corridor, a trap door opened underneath them, revealing another bottomless pit.

"NOT AGAIN!" Sailor Moon cried as the team plummeted down into the darkness.

A/N Well that concludes this one. what did you guys think of this one? Let me know in a PM or a review! See you all next time!