Chapter 30: Into The Earth.

The next few days felt like they went by pretty quick for Sonic.

After about an hour of arguing with G.U.N, Shadow and Rouge managed to convince them to give them reports of activity near the last piece. They received the info hours later and their suspicions were confirmed. For the past couple weeks, Eggman's forces had been spotted around the piece, going in and out of it. Everyone agreed that there was likely a base built in there. One that was likely built around the temple.

With that knowledge, the fact that Eggman was definitely preparing for their arrival, the fact that Dark Gaia energy was heading towards there for unknown purposes, and that once they went in, there was no going back out until the job was done. They needed to prepare for whatever he threw at them to stop them from getting to the final temple.

Tails and Rouge set up a small training area outside of town to practice fighting. While they were fully confident that Knuckles, Amy, and Omega could now handle whatever was awaiting them, they agreed that some training wouldn't hurt. In addition, they also had to check how well Shadow was doing whenever he used his chaos powers.

While all that was happening, Tails also worked on devices to help fight any robots and creatures they may run into. This included upgrading the blinders so they could affect groups of creatures instead of just one.

But most importantly, he was focused on upgrading the Tornado. Upgrading it's armor to withstand more fire, modifying the wings so they could handle the weight of extra passengers since Team Dark was going with them.

Sonic decided to check up on him after doing a training session. He found the Tornado in it's battle mode, with Tails working on the turret.

"How's the plane coming along?" Sonic asked when he was near.

Tails turned to him, taking off the goggles he was wearing. "So far so good. I've been upgrading the turret so it can lock on and hit multiple targets at once."

"Learning from the last aerial battle I see."

Tails nodded. "Plus, with how many robots Eggman is likely going to send to us as soon as we're near the last piece, we need to deal with them quickly."

"Well combined with that and Omega going to assist us. We shouldn't have to much of a problem with dealing with robots."

"That's why I modified the wings a bit." Tails explained indicating his wrench to the wings. "They can now handle him without damaging them too much."

"And what about when we actually face the robots? Because Omega isn't going to be able to stand on the plane without throwing it off balance."

"He'll use his hover function when it's time to fight. It isn't going to last too long, but it should be long enough to deal with a wave of his robots and get back to the plane. I've been doing my best to improve that as much as I can."

Talking about Omega, Sonic thought about another member of Team Dark he wanted to ask about. "How's Shadow doing with his powers?"

"Well it appears that restoring the emeralds helped him." Tails answered. "He was able to throw a ton of chaos spears before showing any signs of getting tired."

"What about his teleportation?"

"He's able to teleport at short range without exhaustion. But he still can't teleport longer distances without nearly passing out."

Sonic let out a sigh. "Well hopefully we don't have to worry about having him do that while we're down there."

Tails nodded before looking out into the distance. There was no doubt he was thinking about the past couple weeks. They had traveled the world, seen various sights, and faced threats they never imagined existing. Now they were in the home stretch, about to go face Eggman and potentially Dark Gaia. After that, it would be over. Another completed adventure to add to the shelf.

Sonic felt the same way. It had certainly been an interesting adventure. He had been no stranger to traveling the world to stop a threat, and interacting with gods, but he had things that he never expected to deal with happening to him. He certainly never expected to look like a monster at night, or have a voice in his head. He didn't even expect both to be connected either.

It was certainly an adventure that he wasn't going to forget anytime soon. And he admitted, he was going to be sad once this was over.

"Well, I think you should get back to working on the plane." Sonic said. "The sooner you finish that, the sooner we can go to Eggman before he puts up enough defenses to stop us."

Tails nodded, putting the goggles back on. As Sonic began to walk away, Tails spoke. "One more thing Sonic."

Sonic stopped and turned towards him. "Yeah."

"I've been making a new device to help fight the creatures. You mind if you come with me tonight to test it out?"

Sonic nodded. "Sure."

Tails gave a smile before turning back to the turret and went back to work. While Sonic walked away, deciding to train a bit.

Arriving at the training area, he saw Amy and Knuckles fighting some dummies, made out of metal and cloth and decorated to either look like Eggman's robots, or a Dark Gaia creature. On the side, he saw Chip watching them.

Sonic stopped as he looked at him. He was still surprised by the fact that he was Light Gaia. This small, innocent creature who had no memory of who he was, turning out to be a deity sent to protect the world. While he knew that Chip had done this multiple times, he couldn't help but wonder how the part of Chip he knew throughout the adventure was feeling about this. All that pressure to that job must've felt overwhelming to that part of him.

Walking up to him, he stood next to him as he watched Amy and Knuckles. "Hey, Chip." He said.

Chip turned his head in surprise. "Oh, hi Sonic."

"You alright? I'm guessing finding out your true identity must be shocking to you." Sonic said.

"It was, at first. But as I took time to process it, I accepted it. It felt right. It was what I was supposed to do."

"Well I suppose you had some heads up to the job we needed to do beforehand when you activated the pedestals on the temple."

Chip nodded. "I never mentioned it to you, but every time I entered those temples, I got a small sense of familiarity to them."

He then turned to Sonic. "I do thank you for offering to help me restore the final temple. I have no idea what we will face down there, but I'm confident that you and your friends will handle it and restore the planet."

Sonic was silent. Ever since he learned of Chips true identity, a thought in his head had emerged. It was a thought related to the legend told in the manuscripts. Though considering he was living through it now, he supposed it was no longer a legend.

"Can I ask you something Chip?" He asked.

Chip turned his head. "What is it?"

"After we restore the temple, what's going to happen then?"

Chip looked down with a sad look. "Dark Gaia probably isn't going to be happy about being sealed again. It'll try to awaken and cover the world in darkness. Once you restore that temple, I'll go down and fight to to buy you and your friends some time to escape before the planet is whole again."

Deep down, Sonic knew what the answer was going to be, but it still saddened him. "So you're going to be sealed into the planet with it."

Chip nodded. "Until time for the next cycle to officially begin."

Sonic didn't respond. Both he and Chip knew that once the latter returned, the former will be long gone. Nothing would look the same on the planet either. Chip would be entering a completely different planet the next time he woke up. Sonic would never see Chip again.

Despite the sadness he felt on that face, Sonic accepted what Chip had to do to keep the planet safe. Not every friendship can last forever, and sometimes friends leave and you never see them again. If Chip had to go back into the planet to protect it, that was fine by him.

But there was also another one that he had to ask about what he and his friends were about to do. "What about you Dar? You've been quiet about this whole thing of finally sealing your master into the planet. Got anything to say about it?

"What can I even say?" Dar asked. "I have no control over you, so I can't stop you from sealing my master back in."

Sonic blinked in surprise. "So you're okay with sealing your master?"

"No. But if I remain stuck in you, at least a part of them is still out there."

Sonic then remembered something. While he had more or less given up on finding a solution on that situation. He figured that it wouldn't hurt to ask Chip now that his memory was back.

"Chip. I don't suppose it's possible you know how to get rid of my werehog form."

Chip looked at him for a second before he shook his head. "No I don't."

"What?! You're Dark Gaia's opposite. Surely you have powers to get rid of it's energy that's inside me."

Chip paused for a moment before he continued. "There is a possibility to get rid of your form. When Dark Gaia goes back to sleep, it absorbs all it's energy back into itself. It's possible that the energy in you could get reabsorbed into it once this is over."

He then looked at Sonic "But the truth is Sonic, I've never seen a case like yours before. Someone who's absorbed a ton of Dark Gaia energy, enough to transform them at night and still be in control, has never happened before. I don't exactly know how to get rid of the energy inside if Dark Gaia doesn't absorb it."

Sonic didn't say anything, not even make a sigh, at that answer. He had accepted that there probably wasn't any way to remove the Dark Gaia energy within him. But after finding out Chip was Light Gaia, he hoped that he knew a way to remove it.

Awhile ago, that news would've sent him into despair. The fact that he had to turn into a monster every night with no way of curing it. It would've saddened him. However, in recent days, he never seemed to mind the transformation. He had accepted it as being a part of him. Despite being slower then his normal self, he couldn't deny that there were some parts of it that he enjoyed. The strength he gained from it and the stretchable arms being a couple that came to mind.

If he did end up stuck turning into his werehog form every night. Then he supposed it wouldn't be too bad.

"Well, I do suppose I did succeed in one thing. Making you love the monstrous form given thanks to my masters energy."

Sonic rolled his eyes a bit. There was admittedly one thing he would've liked to figure out how to deal with. But at the same time, with the possibility that the werehog form could go away if Dark Gaia reabsorbed his energy, he wondered what would happen to Dar?

Sure Dar had been annoying to him for most of the time, but at the same time, he felt like they had become their own person. If Dark Gaia absorbed them, would they still be themselves, or would they lose their identity and become mindless energy again?

Sonic couldn't help but let out a mix of a scoff and a chuckle. He couldn't believe he was concerned for Dar. But at the same time he couldn't help but

"I'll cross those bridges when I get to them." Sonic finally said aloud.

He then stood up. "I'm going to train a bit. Need to make sure my skills are up to snuff for whatever we face down there."

Chip nodded as Sonic ran to the training field, greeting Knuckles and Amy as he arrived. Watching this, Chip couldn't help but get a bittersweet feeling watching this. Soon, it would all be over. Either him or Dark Gaia would go down in this early awakening. If he did end up being defeated by Dark Gaia, he was glad this would be the last time he saw the world. Even if it was through unexpected circumstances.

But for now, he didn't want to think about the near future. He wanted to enjoy whatever he had now in the present before the inevitable happened.


A couple days later, Tails felt like the plane was ready to face the final temple. In addition, everyone felt like they were ready to go. Before they left they gathered around and were told the plan.

They would go to Eggman's base, fight off any of his aerial defenses using the Tornado. Once they were near the entrance of the base, Sonic would leap off the plane and deal with any of the early defenses while the rest found a place to land. Once Sonic came back, they would fight through the base to the temple, restore the emerald, and escape while Chip fought Dark Gaia.

"Now this is a risky mission. There's a chance that we may not make it all back." Tails said. "If you have any doubts, you can back out now."

No one did. There was too much at stake to walk away from this mission.

Early the morning after, they took off to the final piece.

They flew for hours over the ocean. Even with the modifications made to the plane, the plane still struggled to hold everyone. Due to Omega being larger then the rest of them, he had to take the entire right wing to hold onto. This left Knuckles on left wing, Rouge and Amy hanging on the end of the left and right wings respectively, and Shadow behind Sonic holding on to another handlebar that Tails had added to the plane.

Eventually, they spotted the final piece of the planet come into view in the distance. As they got closer, they saw Eggman's ships appear, no doubt a border patrol to attack anyone that got close. Or keep tabs on anyone that passed by. Of course, Sonic and his friends had no intention of passing by.

After Sonic and Tails gave a small nod to each other when the ships appeared, Tails flew the plane at full speed towards the ships. As they got closer, the ships began to take notice of them as their guns started to turn towards them. Soon, they started to fire.

The Tornado weaved through the fire. Thanks to the upgrades, it was able to expertly avoid any of the fire, even with all the people on it. Soon they got close enough to the ships for them to stop firing, allowing them to pass the ships.

Taking a look back, Sonic saw smaller robots emerge from the ships, pursuing them. Glancing at Shadow, he gave a nod at him. Shadow turned towards the pursuing robots and holding onto the plane on one hand, he formed a chaos spear in the other and got ready to throw it when the robots got close.

Once they were in clear view, Shadow threw a spear at the nearest one, destroying it. The rest of the robots began to fire upon the Tornado in response. Thanks to the upgrades made however, the gunfire barely made a dent on the plane. However, the passengers on there were still vulnerable, so Tails still had to do his best to weave out of the way while Shadow continued to throw spears at the robots to destroy them.

The robots soon dwindled down as Shadow destroyed them. The remaining robots, realizing their gunfire wasn't doing anything to the plane, charged towards the plane. Intending to get close to the plane so they could shoot the people on the plane. Shadow did his best to try to destroy them, but a few made it past him. The robots flew to the side of the plane and aimed their guns. Tails saw one on his left as it was aiming it's gun and moved the plane closer to the left so Amy could deal with it. The robot didn't notice Amy preparing her hammer to hit the robot until she was close enough to hit it. She swung the hammer and hit the robot, causing the robot to spin out of control and fall into the water.

On the right side of the plane, due to Omega being unable to fire lest he risk damaging the plane, Rouge had to deal with the robots. She didn't have a hammer like Amy did, nor could she let go since with the speed the plane was going, it was likely she would be left behind. She did have one thing to fight the robots though.

Digging through her pocket, she got out a few bombs and aimed them at the robots, tossing them at them. While some of them missed and fell into the ocean, a few hit the robots, destroying them and having them fall into the ocean. The remaining robots on her side were then dealt with by Shadow when they attempted to retaliate against her.

With the border ships and robots dealt with, things were quiet for a bit as they flew over the water. Soon however, final piece of the planet came into view.

Everyone took a moment to look at it. For the past week, Sonic and the others had seen views like this. It had become a reminder of the current state of the planet. With every continent restored, and every continent they traveled to, it became a reminder of their progress. Usually when traveling to a piece they needed to restore, they had to fly higher in order to reach the continent due to the restored parts being lower then the broken ones.

This time however, they had no intention of going up. Instead they were going down.

As they neared the piece, Tails began to lower the plane to prepare to descend into the piece. Once they flew over the edge, they began their final journey.

Under the piece, things became dark. Tails activate the lights on the plane to see their surroundings more clearly, but they didn't go very far.

After a few minutes of flying, they saw red dots beginning to emerge in front of them. Even in the darkness, they noticed the sheen of metal near the lights. Eggman had sent his robots.

"Here comes the welcoming parade." Sonic said as they approached.

Tails nodded and gave a signal to Omega, who let go of the wing he was holding on and activated his hover capabilities. Tails then pressed a few buttons on the control panel, transforming the Tornado into it's battle mode.

As the robots got closer, Sonic held the trigger on the turret, hearing the beeps as it locked onto the robots. Tails had made it so it could lock on to up to 5 targets at once. Once he head the final beep, he fully pulled the trigger and the shots flew out of the turret in a burst before each shot began to track itself to their targets. They hit the targeted bots, destroying them instantly. But there were still a lot more left and the lock on burst had a cooldown.

Thankfully, he could still use the single shot, as he continued to target and fire at the bots. With Omega dealing with any bots he missed. Soon the first wave of robots were dealt with and they flew on. Soon, a large ship emerged from the darkness and started to deploy more drones. Sonic fired at the robots, but the drones continued to spawn from the ship. He knew that he had to deal with the ship if they were going to make it.

"Hey Omega." He cried out.

Omega finished a firing barage against the robots before turning to him.

Sonic then pointed to the ship deploying the robots. "Try to get that ship out of our way."

"Affirmative." Omega stated before flying over to the ship. When the door opened, releasing more drones, Omega fired into it, taking some of the drones in the process. Sonic saw that while it was doing some damage, it likely wasn't going to be enough.

He signaled Tails to fly faster towards the ship. Tails nodded and flew forward. As he did so, Sonic used the turret to destroy and robots that got in the way. Shadow assisted with any robots that he was unable to hit thanks to his chaos spears.

They reached the ship. They saw that the ship has smoke emanating from it due to all the fire Omega had put inside it. Though Omega had to pull away for now due to his weapons overheating. The turret on the Tornado however, was fully primed and ready.

The moment the door of the ship opened again, Sonic fired the turret at the interior. The already damaged ship didn't last long from the turret fire, and soon it started to slant downward and plummet, disappearing underneath the darkness.

They then dealt with the remaining drones that were around them. A quick process thanks to Sonic, Shadow, and Omega shooting them down. With Amy whacking one that got too close with her hammer.

Continuing to fly, they encountered more bots along the way. They destroyed them, but saw that they were starting to become more heavily armored. Sometimes taking two shots from the turret to destroy them. No doubt Eggman was now aware that they were getting close to his base and starting to deploy the heavier stuff against them.

Soon, after traveling through darkness for what felt like ages, they spotted a series of lights appear in the distance. Not ones moving towards them, but ones that felt like they were the ones getting closer to it. Soon, the source of the lights came into view.

Illuminated by green lights, they could see a series of dark red buildings built into the rock. Towering over them wall was a red tower with a cylindrical top, allowing a circular view of the base, and the darkness beyond it. Though he couldn't see it, Sonic didn't doubt that Eggman was in there, observing their arrival.

As they got closer, Sonic saw more ships approaching them quickly. Probably Eggman's prize for getting this close to his final base. The ships weren't as big as the one prior, but Sonic could tell it was going to take more then a single shot from the turret to destroy them.

The ships began to launch a barrage missiles towards them, and Sonic gave a smirk. Those the turret can handle in one shot.

He aimed the turret at the missiles began to fire single shots at them. One by one, the missiles were destroyed. Small explosions being left in their place the moment the fire hit them. He then held down the trigger slightly to lock onto some of the remaining missiles. Once they were locked on, he fired, destroying the missiles that the turret locked onto.

However, there were still a few missiles left, and because of the burst shot, he was unable to fire the turret at them due to overheating.

Fortunately, his friends had that covered. Amy knocked a missile aside with her hammer when it got too close to the wing she was on, Tails evaded some of them, while Shadow and Omega destroyed the rest.

With the missiles destroyed, they could now focus on the ships. By then, the turret had finished cooling down, so Sonic was free to fire at them. He fired at the first ship, hitting the wing to try to destroy it so the ship would fall. The wing of the ship eventually got so damaged that the ship tilted downwards before falling down. Meanwhile, Omega fired on another ship, letting out his own barrage of missiles at it, destroying it quickly, and damaging another. Sonic quickly finished off that one with another few shots at the turret.

With another set of obstacles out of the way, they continued onward's. Getting close to the base, they saw the towers had cannons on them that were beginning to turn towards the Tornado. Everyone on the plane saw that the cannons were heavily armored enough that the firepower they had couldn't damage them.

"Omega, get back to the plane." Rouge cried out to him. "We don't want to leave you behind."

"Hover systems are nearly depleted." Omega stated. "I will cease fighting Eggman's robots and return to the plane to wait for it to recharge."

He flew over, grabbing onto a handhold that was on the side of the plane.

"Hang on everyone." Tails said as he started to accelerate the plane.

The towers cannons then began to fire. Tails evaded the shots, weaving up, down, and side to side as the plane sped forward. As they got closer, the near misses with the shots increased. Sonic even feeling a couple of the missed shots. Neither said anything out of fear of distracting Tails long enough to get blown out of the sky.

'Come on, come on.' Sonic thought as they got closer to the towers.

They reached the towers, flying straight past them. Taking a look back, Sonic saw the cannons slowly turning towards them. He gave a smirk at them, they would be out of their range by the time they could aim at them.

Now that they were past the guard towers, Tails began to slow the plane down. Done out of necessity now that they were surrounded by various structures, and going to fast would result in them crashing into them. On top of that, they now had to find a place to land, and going slower would help.

As they flew, they observed the structures now that they were closer to them. A majority of them seemed to be windowless supply towers, generators, or energy storage. At times, Sonic saw purple energy inside the energy towers, and he didn't need Tails's intelligence to know what was in there.

"See anywhere we could land?" He asked Knuckles, who was also looking down.

Knuckles shook his head. "Unless you want to land on a very narrow path, or on one of the buildings, I don't see anything."

Sonic started to look for a place to land as well. He saw that Knuckles was correct. There seemed to be nothing but buildings of various sizes and heights, and narrow pathways. Nothing they could really land the Tornado on.

Sonic took a glance at the large tower. Eggman probably knew that they were now within the base and was making plans to take them down. He wanted to find a place to land soon before they either run out of fuel, or more likely, Eggman's defenses shooting them down.

"Look!" Amy shouted pointed down below.

Everyone looked down to see where Amy was pointing.

Below was a long bridge, one long enough to land the plane and even take off once necessary. At the end of a path was a large, neon lit version of Eggman's logo with an entrance where it's teeth were. It was the perfect place to land.

Just before he told Tails to land there, Sonic heard something approaching from behind. Looking back, he saw that a large group of bots were following them. Looking back at his friends, they appear to have noticed it too as Tails was staring at the radar with worry.

"Do you think we can land there with the robots behind us?" Sonic asked him.

Tails shook his head. "Not without one of us getting hit, or the plane getting destoryed in the process. We're going to have to either lose them, or destroy them before we land."

Sonic looked down at the bridge again. He knew that the bridge below was the best chance for them to land. It was close to the entrance and was capable of having the Tornado land and take off. Dealing with this group could mean that they could lose track of the bridge to the entrance given the size of the base.

He could only think of one solution to this problem. And he had to do it now.

"Try to lose them." Sonic told Tails as he began to let go of the turret. "I'll make sure you can land here."

"Sonic, wait!" Tails tried to say. But Sonic had let go and descended to the bridge below. With Chip following him down. Tails looked down as the two descended towards the bridge, slightly concerned for his brother.

"Don't worry, he knows what he's doing." Amy reassured him.

Tails looked at her for a second before nodding, speeding up the plane a bit so it could stay ahead of the group of robots behind them, while the other passengers prepared to fight them.


Sonic and Chip fell down towards the bridge for a few seconds before Sonic pivoted towards a nearby tower. Placing a hand and his feet there as he slid down before leaping down to the bridge, landing on his two feet. Chip joining him not long after.

"Alright." Sonic said staring ahead at the entrance. "Let's check this entrance out."

They began to walk towards the entrance. Sonic kept his guard up. Sure the robots might not have noticed him jumping off the Tornado, but that didn't mean there could be other robots ready to ambush him as he approached the entrance.

He stopped once he got close enough to the entrance to get a close look at it, staring at it dumbfounded.

"You've got to be kidding me." Dar said in bewilderment.

From above the entrance, there was an almost theme park esque sign with one word on it.

EGGMANLAND

"Huh, didn't think he would actually call his massive base that." Sonic remarked as he looked at it.

Just then, a sound that sounded like a microphone feedback echoed around the local area. A few seconds later, a familiar voice came in.

"Oh, ho, ho. Hello there visitor, welcome to Eggmanland. The brainchild of my heart and soul."

A section of the bridge opened up, bringing up a large, golden statue of the Doctor himself. His left hand outstretched to the sky with the other on his hip. Sonic and Chip simply stared at this in shock, though Sonic was unimpressed.

Eggman continued. "This base here will be the center of my magnificent empire that will be made possible through my genius and the limitless energy from the Dark Gaia energy I have collected."

"Does he really think he can exploit my master for energy?" Dar asked, baffled by Eggman's statement.

Chip meanwhile, got out the camera and tossed it at Sonic, who caught it. "Can you get a good shot of me, for you to remember me by?"

"That's what he's thinking of now? He's supposed to have his memory back."

Sonic gave a chuckle of approval. Even with his memory restored, there was still the Chip he knew.

Aiming the camera at the statue, Chip flew into view, hovering just in front of the statue. He then struck the same pose the statue was in. Sonic nodded and took the picture, letting out a small snicker as he did so.

He gave a thumbs up to Chip, who then flew back to him.

"So Chip, you said you could sense the temple if you're near it. Anything yet?"

Chip nodded. "Yeah, I can faintly sense it. Just as we suspected, he must've built his base on top of it."

"So it looks like we're going to have to wreck his base to get to it." Sonic remarked as he looked at the entrance. "Sounds like fun to me."

"You're really going in there without your friends?" Chip asked in confusion. "Then why did you bring them here with you?"

"We're just gonna deal with the entrance and the first wave of defenses for now." Sonic explained. "Once my friends catch up, we'll go deeper."

"Oh, but what about them landing. They're gonna need to find out where to land"

Sonic let out a chuckle. "I already have that solved."

Walking up to the statue, he unbuckled something from under his cuff and removed it. It was the communicator Tails gave him that was outfitted with a tracker. He wrapped the communicator around the statues leg and buckled it.

"There. That should help them find the landing spot."

He then turned to the entrance. "Now let's give Eggman our own personal greeting."

Eggman's voice then came back. "Oh, and if you happen to be here Sonic. You can send any complaints to have personally to me. Assuming you can find me." He stated before letting out a laugh that ended with a few coughs.

Sonic let out a sigh. "He enjoys this way too much."

He then ran towards the entrance, with Chip behind him. Ready for whatever fight Eggman was going to put him through. Though he was certain it was going to be tough.


Author's Notes: And now we're in Eggmanland, and the endgame by extension. You can more or less expect 6 to 7 more chapters of this story from here on out. In the meantime, I've been doing a collab with another author who isn't on this site with another AU of mine, and I'm planning a couple other stories, one of them should be coming out within the next couple months. This one not just a tie-in to Sonic Prime, but also a return to one of my more popular stories here. You'll know the one when the first chapter is uploaded.

See you next time.