Yay, new chapter! I'm pretty sure I'll have this story finished by the end of the week. But today...I have to get my permanet braces. Oi, the horror! Anyway, the new chappie is here, before I have to get my braces. The horror.

Amy went numb as soon as she hit the void, but it didn't matter. She was a hedgie on a mission, and she wasn't ready to lose. Amy looked around her, but the hero chao was not in sight. Where had the little guy gotten to?

"Chao..." Amy heard off in the distance. There was Mic, a little blue speck in the darkness. Amy began to make her way toward it, when everything began swaying. It was almost like being on a roller-coaster.

"Sonic, what's going on?" Amy yelled, trying to keep her balance as her world spun around before her.

"Whenever this stupid beast moves, we end up getting tossed about inside," Sonic yelled, trying to pay more attention to swimming.

"It's getting hard to get through here," Aurum said, still keeping calm. "You focus on finding Mic, don't worry about us."

"Easy for you to say," Amy muttered. Once again, the pink hedgehog began to shakily make her way over to the crying chao, who seemd to be floating farther away. Our heroine was beginning to doubt that she'd make it in time, when the darknes began to glow.

"What the?" Amy wondered out loud. Before she could qustion any further, she quickly made her way over to Mic, seeing as the swaying had disappeared upon the appearence of the glow.

"Amy, chao!" Mic cried as Amy made her way over to him. "You came back for me, chao! I was beginning to think you forgot about me."

"I wouldn't forget about you," Amy replied, finally grabbing the chao. "What do you think's going on? Why is everything glowing?"

"Chaos Energy," Mic muttered. "When Sonic is exposed to Chaos Energy, everything glows like the emeralds, chao."

"I wonder what's going on out there," Amy said.

"Come on Sonic, you can't stop now!" Sonic heard his brother say.

"It's not working, Aurum," Sonic retorted. "I'm sinking!"

"Just kick harder, alright? Give up now, and you're never getting those emeralds, and there's no way Amy'll get out!" Sonic did what his brother said, trying to propel himself to the next emerald. He still had the red one, he had made it to the purple one, and he had only grabbed the green when it accidentally bumped into him. That still left white, both blues, and yellow, the latter being his current goal. The hardest part was the fact that the stupid Egg Aqua kept moving, which shook everything inside it. Sometimes, when Sonic was close to an emerald, a step by the hideous beast knocked it away. Luckily for Sonic, there were air bubbles throughout the creature, so that he didn't end up suffocating. To Sonic, it felt like one big, evil, watery zone.

Suddenly, the creature stopped moving. At the same time, the Chaos Emeralds all bagan to glow, including the ones in Sonic's possesion. Sonic could feel their power flowing away from them, but he didn't know why.

"What's going on?" Aurum asked, for once at a loss for words. Then it hit both of them: The Egg Aqua was trying to absorb the Chaos Emerald's power, just like Chaos had done before it. But...what about them, since they were inside the beast? What would happen to them? Wait a minute...hadn't Shadow said something about this before?

"Every being has chaos inside their body, and some more than others. For example, people who use the emeralds frequently have more Chaos Energy than those who don't." Yeah, that was what he said, but what did it mean now? Then a thought struck Sonic. "What if it absorbs my energy too?" Sonic probably had more chaos energy than anyone, the only exception possibly being Shadow, maybe Knuckles, and Chaos. If the Egg Aqua was indeed absorbing Chaos Energy, since Sonic was inside him, would he take away Sonic's too?

"No time to worry about that," Aurum shouted at him, snapping the blue blur out of his worry. "Look, since this thing isn't moving at the moment, we should be using this as an oppurtunity to grab the rest of the emeralds, not imagining what could happen to us!"

"Oh yeah, good point," Sonic agreeed, once again making his way towards the now-stationary yellow emerald. But slowly, Sonic could feel his energy draining away. He was right, the creature was siphoning his energy as well. From the inside, Sonic could see the form of the Egg Aqua's weapons, charging up with Chaos Energy for an attack, which would undoubtedly be a powerful one. Sonic grasped the yellow emerald, it's color slowly fading.

"There, I got another one," Sonic said to himself. "Hey Aurum, I got another one. Aurum? Hey, where are you?" Then a thought struck Sonic yet again. Since Aurum had been in him so long, and had so much exposure to the Chaos Emeralds, didn't that mean he was mainly made up of Chaos Energy himself?

"Oh crud," Sonic muttered, "I better get those emeralds fast."

Amy was also being affected by the Egg Aqua. Inside of Sonic, everything was beginning to fall away. The familiar darkness was disapearing, the glow giving way to a pure void. Amy could not look at it, it confused her head too much. Trying to make her way past the patches of void, Amy felt something strange in her arms. She looked down at Mic, who was flickering. As a matter of fact, she was flickering a little as well.

"What's going on?" She asked. The chao in her arms shook his head, not knowing himself of the situation. Amy looked around, when a familiar yellow shape on the ground caught her eyes. "Aurum!" She began to make her way towards him, noting that his form was flickering even more than both her and Mic. The rose hedgehog reached Aurum, offering a hand to help him up. He accepted, getting to his feet as he continued to fade in and out of sight.

"Aurum, can you tell me what's happening?" Amy asked, Mic chaoing in agreement. Aurm closed his eyes, as if to concentrate on keeping himself there.

"The Egg Aqua...absorbing energy...chaos..." His sentance was interrupted with each flicker, but Amy was getting the idea of what he was saying.

"The Egg Aqua is absorbing Chaos Energy, and us too?" Amy asked, putting the words together.

"Yes...hope Sonic...can grab emeralds...before..." And suddenly, before anyone could do anything about it, all three of them were consumed by the void.

Mwahaha, another cliffhanger! Hope it'll keep ya' in suspense until Wednesday. See you then, so pitch up your tents!