Happy fans equals a happy authoress - so here's the next chapter!

Disclaimer: Chiwizard does not own Sonic

Claimer: Chiwizard claims the antagonist, Raven, and the Fount of Light

- -

The shadowy monster wasn't fazed by its lack of arm for long: within seconds, the remaining stump had stretched and grown to replace the missing section. It was as good as new, and ready for battle, as soon as it was completed.

A feat that Knuckles wanted very much to duplicate, as he glanced at his throbbing shoulder with undisguised irritation. With only one arm working, he couldn't glide and would barely be able to fight, and that meant he'd have to stay on the sidelines for the rest of their little adventure.

But right now, it looked like he wouldn't have been much help even he if could fight. Sonic, Raven, and even Tails were landing good, solid hits that tore through the substance of the shadow-monster like rocks going through wet paper. But any holes or dents they made filled themselves back in almost immediately.

"Its like a living shadow," Knuckles said to himself as he picked his way over to one of the holes.

Down in the hole, he could see Shadow. The black Ultimate Life Form was trying to wriggle out of the grasp of the severed hand still clutching him, but wasn't making much headway.

Actually, Knuckles noticed when he climbed down and got closer, the hedgehog wasn't exactly trying very hard. Not that you could very well blame him…

"Hey," the echidna said when he was standing beside Shadow, "Anything broken?"

"…Just my sense of reality," Shadow replied after a few moments.

"In this place, I'm not surprised," Knuckles said in a weak attempt at a joke.

It wasn't funny, but Shadow forced an equally weak chuckle.

As soon as Shadow was able to finally pry himself out of the claws' grasp - with some assistance from Knuckles - the weird flesh swiftly melted into a puddle of darkness, and then into nothing.

Up on the level above them, there was a roar and the sound of something hitting a wall. A black spike pierced the ceiling near where the thud had come from, but judging from the annoyed bellow of the monster, whoever it had been attempting to skewer had gotten away.

"What now?" Knuckles sighed, "The more we fight in this place, the less chance we seem to have of winning. The only good news is that whole 'no-mentally-making-things-appear' power seems to have worn off for that Eclipse monster as much as it has for us."

"Eclipse? Sounds fitting," Shadow replied, "But about this place…what do you know about this place exactly, Knuckles?"

"Huh? Wait, the Fount of Light? Not much more than the odd rumor or two," the echidna said, "Basically, as a 'fountain of light', this place is supposedly a great source of wisdom, and also be the source of the power of the Master Emerald, I think. 'Belief is its only reality', I think, is the only other description I ever heard."

"Belief is its only reality?"

"Yeah, that's what the inscription said," Knuckles answered, "What, Shadow? Does that actually help?"

"…Believe it or not," Shadow replied with a wan smile, "I think I might have an idea…"

The black hedgehog darted for the door of the room they were standing in, heading for the corridors and leaving a confused Knuckles behind. The echinda stared after the hedgehog in confusion, before turning to face his next difficult task:

How was he supposed to get back up to the gym with only one arm for climbing, anyway?

Luckily, or unluckily - depending on your point of view - that problem was soon taken care of for him.

The floor of the great gymnasium, having taken so much damage already, at last reached the point where it would take no more. The sheer dumb luck that Knuckles was standing right underneath a previously made hole was what prevented him from being crushed by the heavy metal ceiling as it came down around him in pieces.

There was a blue and orange blur at the edge of Knuckles' vision - Tails airlifting Sonic - and a white something-or-other had landed near where he was standing - in a place now cleverly concealed by several metal beams - but what was taking the majority of the red echidna's attention was the pitch-black monstrosity splattered over the wreckage in front of him.

Said monstrosity pulled itself back together in short order. It peered around the room with its beady white-glowing eyes, looking for something. When it didn't find what it was seeking, Knuckles found himself on the end of the Eclipse-creature's piercing stare.

Without meaning to, Knuckles' gaze darted to the open doorway that Shadow had just gone through.

"Ah HAH! My prey will soon flee me no more," 'Eclipse' cried, before charging for the corridor.

It wasn't exactly a great fit…but the corridor buckled and gave way under enough force, so Eclipse was able to charge along fairly rapidly.

"Hey, ugly! Where're ya going!" Sonic yelled, trying to goad the monster to return.

"And where is he going, anyway?" the blue hedgehog asked Knuckles when the taunting failed to achieve his objective.

"I have no idea whatsoever," Knuckles said, "…Unless…"

"Unless?" asked Tails.

"…Well, that IS the way Shadow went," Knuckles admitted.

"Oh, great! Here we go again - c'mon Tails," Sonic sighed, heading for the partially demolished doorway.

Tails followed, whirling his tails to keep up. Knuckles was about to run after them, but a twinge reminded him exactly why he hadn't been upstairs fighting in the first place.

If only there was some way he could help the others! But no, with his arm out of commission, the best use Knuckles could think of for himself was freeing trapped Ultimate Life Forms.

Something hit the floor.

Turning, Knuckles was suddenly made aware that he was not actually alone in the room. Determinedly prying himself out from underneath the beams, exactly where Knuckles had spotted him landing, was Raven.

The white hedgehog was almost able to completely free himself, but one of the larger beams still held his leg firmly pinned. Not entirely certain himself what he was doing, Knuckles moved to try and help Raven out.

Forcing his way to where the beam touched the floor, Knuckles shouldered the heavy object and shoved with all his one-armed might. This lifted the beam up, barely high enough for Raven to quickly yank his leg out before it was crushed under the falling metal when Knuckles lost his grip.

Without thinking much of it, Knuckles then proceeded to offer Raven a hand in getting off the floor. And just as quickly yanked his hand back with a yelp when the crazed hedgehog bit him.

'Oh great,' Knuckles grumbled to himself as he inspected his wrist, 'And now I'm bleeding. Is whatever's making Raven insane contagious, like rabies? I haven't seen him foam at the mouth yet, but…'

"Its only because of Shadow that I'm not going to kick your butt for biting me," Knuckles growled.

"…Shadow?"

Raven's voice was very quiet, and a great deal less maniacal then the last time Knuckles had heard him speak - which had been while attempting to send Sonic and Shadow into oblivion. Even so, he still sounded like he was a few Emeralds short of a Chaos Control.

"Yeah," Knuckles retorted, "Your brother. For some reason he's jumping for joy to have you around."

The white one looked around the room a few times, then back at the red echidna.

"Where?"

"You mean, Where is Shadow?" Knuckles asked.

He got a nod.

"He went off into the corridors. And that Eclipse-thing took off after him."

Raven growled. Then he tried to get up. But since the leg that had been pinned earlier was bending in strange ways, Raven didn't get very far before toppling back over.

"…Oh great, I know I'm going to regret this," Knuckles muttered to himself, "Hey, Raven."

Raven looked his way.

"…Well," Knuckles hesitated, "…I've only got one arm, and you've only got one leg…but together, we might be able to save your brother. What do you think…?"

Raven stared at him for a full minute, and then slowly nodded.

"Oh, and if you bite me again," Knuckles added conversationally as he assisted Raven in standing and then in heading down the destroyed corridors as fast as the two of them could go, "Shadow or no Shadow, I'll punch you into the next millennium. You got that, lunatic?"

There was no response, of course, but unless Knuckles' ears were playing tricks on him, he did hear Raven give out a very faint giggle.