Err... I'm sorry it took so long, but I've had terrible writer's block and then WordPad was being stupid. This is the fifth time I've had trouble with that 'temporary' folder. I wonder why it's so messed up? Any way, I prevailed over computer problems. Yay. Here it is.

"It's so dark in here... Fliara, give us some light!" Declared Knuckles, stumbling blindly along the dark, cold corridors.

"I'm way ahead of you, bro." Fliara said as her hands erupted into flame. The fire instantly illuminated the long, stone hallway, bringing countless details to life under the soft glow of Fliara's enflamed claws. The surrounding heroes gave amused murmurs at the sight they beheld before them.

An endlessly long, black hallway stretched before them, unlit torches dotting the walls. Rouge looked up, but the ceiling was too far away to see; it eventually melted into blackness once the light of Fliara's fire dwindled and vanished due to the distance. The stones were cut into odd and un-patterned shapes, but fit together with the modern methods of a cement-like structure. They immediately took into notice that the hallway was narrow, only three of them could stand side by side and fit through, but it was obviously a very deep pathway. Fliara had the odd feeling that it was sloping up and down, trying to knock its travelers out of their sense of direction. The dragon grinned. She wasn't going to be fooled by a little elevation difference.

"Well... " Began Rouge, who eventually found herself at a lack of words.

"It's big?" Suggested Sonic, still leaning into Amy' protective embrace. Rouge turned around and nodded.

"Yes, exactly, it's very big." Said Rouge.

"And we're going to walk through every bit of it." Moaned Shadow, shaking his head in doubt. "If this thing's a square kilometer in size, just imagine the length of the tunnels inside of it!" Shadow gave and exasperated moan, and threw his hands in the air. "This is sure going to take a long time!" Alexi chuckled.

"Good. Maybe you guys will get exhausted and the ghosts will eat you. I could use some entertainment." The leopard laughed cruelly. Shadow glared.

"Stop joking. It's not funny, you know." The black hedgehog said, folding his arms in front of his chest.

"I wasn't." Sneered Alexi, grinning like a skeleton. Shadow shuddered at her evil grin as she walked past him. Fliara followed.

"She's got the right idea, you know. We better head out now. We don't want to stand still for too long during the day. The police that went in here could need our help and besides the demon-guards are more active when the sun's up." The dragon explained. The rest of the group shrugged, but followed, Sonic limping along as he leaned into Amy.

The group had been walking down the forbidding hallway for what seemed like ages now, their footsteps echoing in the dreary hall. Sonic was sticking close to his pink protector, hungry for both her warmth and her protection, but mostly just for the splendid feeling of security he achieved every time he was close to her. It was very cold in the dark hallway, and many of the heroes were shivering or obviously trying to hide their discomfort; all except Alexi, who, being a snow-leopard, had such efficient fur that it did not affect her for a moment.

Fliara, however, was much worse off. She was a dragon, which meant she was cold-blooded. And, despite popular normie belief, (I hate normies... hate them so much... they're so... normal.) Cold-blooded does not mean that you can survive cold.

"Are you feeling okay, sis?" Asked knuckles, noticing how Fliara shivered. The dragon shook her head.

"I don't know. I had no idea it would be this cold." Fliara said. Knuckles looked to his pack.

"Did you pack blankets?"

"Of course! But they don't do me any good, Knux. Remember that I'm cold-blooded. I don't produce my own body heat." Fliara said. Tails looked up at his dragon-ish friend.

"Doesn't the fire on your hands keep you warm?"

"No, Tails. That takes more energy than it puts in." Fliara explained. "I think I packed an electric blanket. That makes it's own heat." Fliara said, digging through her pack. She took out the electric blanket, turned it on, and draped it over her wings and back. Her shivering soon ceased. Knuckles sighed in relief.

"What kind of stuph did you pack in here?" Knuckles asked, looking at the packs. Amy was carrying Sonic's pack. ...Why does he have one when Fliara never made him one, you ask? She made it in scene 23. So There.

"Blankets, food, water, talismans, an electric heater, batteries, matches, tin foil, -"

"Okay, okay, I get it. But why the heater and matches and stuph. We have you for that." Knuckles said. Fliara shook her head.

"Unless I'm the last person to face my fear, I won't be here for part of the journey. "I'll either be at the gate, keeping it open, or trapped by Dan-Chilack if I fail." Fliara explained. Shadow jogged up next to them.

"So who's going first?" Shadow asked. Fliara looked around at her comrades, trying to make a conclusion.

"We could pick Sonic, so he wouldn't have to face the inner labyrinth's dangers, but then he would be separated from Amy. That would be very bad. The ghosts would get him." Said Fliara, scratching the back of her head with a still lit claw. She was fireproof but it didn't stop the other heroes from jumping a little.

"I think Alexi should go first." Shadow said. Alexi turned and glared at him. Shadow, to everyone's surprise, blushed and looked away. Alexi turned to him and glared.

"I'll speak for myself, thank you very much. And I'm sick of your antics. I am going as far as I can through this maze, until I come across a monster with enough power to kill the 'invincible'" The leopard growled, giving Shadow a push. Shadow looked back up at her, slightly angry.

"Alexi... " Shadow began, but she turned away before he could say anything, storming off down the tunnel. Shadow decided to drop the subject, and followed as Alexi and the rest of the group walked down the dark, forbidding halls...

The group continued to chat, trying to decide who would go first, when suddenly, Rouge stopped in her tracks, ears twitching. Everyone fell silent. The fabled gem-thief looked to the tall ceiling, apparently searching for something. Sonic swallowed nervously. Did she hear something? Ws it a threat? Was it one of the policemen? Was it simply a strange echo of one of their voices...? The little blue hedgehog, realizing his own mortality in this situation, pressed his muzzle into Amy's quills, not wanting to see what horrendous beast that Rouge might be hearing. Amy comforted him.

Knuckles walked up to the white bat, concerned that she might be hearing something of importance.

"What is it, Rouge?" He asked quietly. The bat shook her head, and continued to stare upwards.

"I think there's something up there." She said. Fliara walked in front of them.

"Like what?" The dragon asked, tail swishing behind her. The flames licked around her claws, still lighting up the area, but not up to where the ceiling was, not up to where the noises that Rouge was hearing were coming from.

"I'm sure I don't know, Fliara, but it's definitely there." She mused, her eyes darting around the darkness overhead.

Suddenly, the sounds that Rouge had heard escalated and grew, evolving from inaudible clicks and murmurs to sickening screeches. The surrounding heroes immediately went into battle stance, even Sonic, (it had grown into a habit for him over time. However, in his weakness, he stumbled.) As they heard strange, unearthly noises from the ceiling... small clinks and clacks, unorthodox slurps, and a strange and unpredicted snapping. Fliara sprung into flight, hovering above the ground. Knuckles stared up at her, bewildered.

"Fliara! What do you think you're doing?" Scolded Knuckles, glaring. "You say it all the time yourself; never run into an enemy you can't see!" The red echidna lectured, his battle position faltering. Sonic shivered. Amy held him tighter.

"I'm not going to... I'm just curious." Fliara said, not moving from her place in the air, a foot above their heads.

"Curiosity killed the dragon! Now get down here!" Knuckles whispered, for the odd noises had grown louder. There was a sickening crunch, no one had any idea what that was, and then an odd, dripping noise from a few meters off. Fliara dropped silently to the ground and looked around. An unsaid agreement was formed, and Knuckles slowly walked towards the noise to investigate, not wanting to draw attention to whatever was up there, and saw a pool of liquid, fed by a steady drip from above. He wordlessly put his glove into the viscous fluid, rubbing it between his finger and thumb. Then, Knuckles stopped cold, backed away from the liquid, and shuddered. Sonic dared his face to venture from Amy's shoulder and looked over at the dumbfounded knuckles.

"What is it?"

Knuckles swallowed nervously, and looked back to the ceiling. He slowly turned to his comrades and whispered hoarsely:

"Blood."

A deafening, beastly scream tore through the room and something quite large fell from the ceiling, landing on top of Fliara. The dragon gave a shout of anger and surprise, however the flame on her hands went out and left the rest of the group in darkness before the attacker could be seen. The heroes went into a state of panic, and of course Sonic was no better off. Knuckles was calling for Fliara, who did not respond, and repetitive screeches and clacks were heard from above, overall sending the heroes into utter confusion. Shadow shook his head to clear out the confusion, and tried to get a grip on the situation. Flattening his ears to his head, (to block out the unnecessary noise) he stuck a hand out to his right, satisfied to feel Alexi's arm underneath the glove. To his left was Rouge, and behind him was Tails, Sonic and Amy, for he could hear them shouting. Knuckles was in front of him. That was almost everyone. But where was Fliara?

"Fliara!" Knuckles called again, blindly stumbling through the hall. He heard a thud, another beastly scream, loud, but fading clicks, and then silence.

Dead silence.

"Fliara!" Knuckles shouted into the dark, looking around. He accidentally backed into Rouge, who gave him a slight push as retaliation, but was not mad. Suddenly, two large circles of flame danced into life, shattering the darkness. The heroes turned, and were shocked at what they saw. Fliara stood there, wings sagging, her entire front covered in blood. Knuckles shouted in worry, and ran to his little sister, but before he could lay a hand on her she held up a flaming claw, stopping him.

"It's not mine." Fliara said. "The blood- it's not mine." The dragon shook her head, and her claw fell to her side, the flames licking up her thigh but doing no damage to her clothing or her skin. She looked at the ground, seemingly drained.

"Then whose is it?" Asked Rouge. Fliara looked up from the ground, and pointed behind her, wordless.

A corpse, it's rib cage ripped open and it's intestines strewn across the floor, lay in a deepening pool of blood, the skin of it's face torn off and the eyeballs gone. Nothing remained but muscle and blood... so much blood... (Yay! ... I am so messed up.)

Sonic managed a bleak cry and buried his face into Amy's shoulder. He couldn't stand the sight of blood. It made him feel sick and reasonless guilty. Amy averted her eyes from the ghastly sight, and wrapped her arms around Sonic, who, to her amazement, did not tremble.

Tails, eyes wide, backed away slowly, terror eating him from the inside out.

"...What-... what could do something like that..." Rouge stammered, staring down at the corpse, shocked. "That's inhuman."

"It wasn't human, Rouge." Muttered Shadow, remembering the demons he had read about in the book. "And whatever it was... it's still out there."

Fliara, coated in the corpse's blood, (from when it fell on her.) picked up her pack and looked towards the rest of the labyrinth. Knuckles took a step towards her.

"W-we should keep moving. There's nothing more we can do for those that lost their lives here. We cannot wait for the same thing to happen to us." She explained, turning to her friends. "I think tha-"

Her sentence came to a halt as Tails promptly turned around and emptied the contents of his stomach onto the stone floor, shuddering and sobbing. Fliara ran up and patted her kitsune comrade on the back. Alexi laughed, walking over to the corpse and kicking it violently.

"You think this is bad? I've done worse than this." The blue leopard hissed, bending down towards the corpse. Suddenly, Alexi was silenced, and she stared down at the corpse, confused. Shadow walked up to her.

"What? Do you notice something?" Shadow asked. Alexi nodded.

"Look, these here are definitely claw wounds. Big ones. But the noises we heard were for spider-legs. And here are some puncture wounds." Alexi mused, poking around the corpse. No one had much interest.

"S-so what are you saying?" Asked Sonic, unnerved.

"I'm saying that this thing is a spider- with big claws." Alexi explained sarcastically. Knuckles scoffed lightly, but didn't seem too confident in his protest.

"There's no such thing." The red echidna argued. Alexi laughed, and it was a terrible noise, Alexi laughing. It was a dark sound, one that echoed through the halls and sent shivers down their spines.

"Just because you don't believe in something doesn't mean it can't kill you. Take it from me." Alexi said, holding out her bloody palms. "Too many times have these hands been stained with the blood of people who thought that I didn't exist."

"Alexi- ...there are children present." Shadow intruded, gesturing towards Tails. Alexi laughed maniacally again, then turned to Shadow.

"Good. They have much to learn." The leopard explained. Then, without a word, the entire group decided to keep moving, knowing that the corpse was only one of many terrors to come and the next one could be just around the corner.

YAY! BLOOD! FINALLY! And, yes, this chapter DID serve the plot, if you're wondering. This chapter was kind of dark, but that's a good thing, right? It's supposed to be really creepy and stuph, and, yes, Alexi is weird. (Grins) So, next chapter, someone in the group will attempt to open the first gate. Who will it be? What will be their worst fear? What was that spider-thing-with-claws and when will it return? Why is Alexi so messed up? All these questions and more will be answered on the next episode of DRAGON BALL Z! ...I mean Fear.