Author's note: Another humble thank you thank you thank you to E-Rank, CVGWJames, and Noonui for their feedback!

Chapter 5: Pride Before the Pitfall

Sonic let out a long, tired breath as he sat atop the upper wing, the dusk of the day dwindling rapidly into night. Minus a quick stop at a rural airfield to refuel both plane and Mobians, the majority of this day had been spent sitting and doing absolutely nothing.

His foot betrayed his need to run, tapping against the alloy as he leaned on his hands and breathed in the crisp air. It had been an especially quiet trip this go-around, thanks to his and Tails' earlier squabble.

Shadow was as emo as ever, silent and broody and apparently with, "No need to eat," whatever that meant. Letting out another bored groan, Sonic tilted farther back on his hands, nonchalantly turning his head to see the cockpit.

He couldn't help the subsequent lopsided grin that grew. Shaking his head, he stood up and brushed his legs off. With a swift swing to the bottom wing, he smirked at the small startle he gave Shadow—ironically sitting exactly the same way Sonic had been chilling topside—before saying, "Don't mind me."

"What are you doing?"

Sonic waved him off as he walked to the other side, close to the cockpit. "I'll just be a sec," he insisted.

There was a beat of silence before Shadow (rather incredulously) asked, "Is he asleep?!"

"Shh!" Sonic bent down on one knee, turning in a way that he could see the control panel. Tails' head was lolled back, his mouth dangling open as he lightly snored. Sonic confirmed everything was set up correctly before standing up.

Shadow was directly behind him, arms crossed.

"It's fine, he's got autopilot on." Shooing the black hedgehog back a few steps, he let out his own yawn, stretching his arms in the air.

"Autopilot on a biplane?"

Sonic shot him a look. "Well, yeah. We're talking about Tails, here. Most of his sleep schedule falls during mid-flight."

"Will it know how to guide us without manual manipulation?"

He couldn't give his doppelganger any more of an annoyed expression, so he settled with deadpan instead. "Last I checked, that's the definition of autopilot."

"What about landing? If there are any storms en route, surely autopilot would not be adequate—"

"Dude, Shads, don't get your quills in a knot," Sonic interrupted. "It's Tails' tech, so actually yeah, it could pilot us through a storm (and has before because Tails is kinda useless when we're in a storm)," he digressed with a wayward glance, "but he needs the sleep. He's been running on fumes since you showed up this morning."

The black hedgehog grunted, one of his hands gripping a strut far tighter than necessary, but he chose to not comment further. Satisfied, Sonic shrugged at him and made it to the edge of the bottom wing before Shadow cleared his throat.

Sonic stared at him half-expectantly, half-disinterestedly.

"You should not call it fake Chaos energy."

"…Er, what?"

"It is different than what the child made."

The blue hedgehog let out a long, tired exhale. Et tu, Brute? "Again … end result is the same," he reiterated through forced calm.

"No."

That earned the Ultimate Lifeform a glare. "Fine, I'll bite. Why?"

"The manufactured emerald he made was partially Chaos. Negative energy is not."

"Then what is it?"

The black hedgehog paused, eyes on the horizon, before he repeated, "Negative energy."

"Wow," Sonic sarcastically retorted, "amazing. You're just full of cryptic messages, aren't you?"

Shadow was grating his teeth and may have been prepping to say more, but Sonic didn't bother waiting. He grabbed the upper wing and swung back atop it.

There was an irritated sigh below, which made Sonic inadvertently smirk, before he himself startled when Shadow immediately followed him.

He raised a single brow at the black hedgehog, who seemed to be struggling to find words. His hands were in tight fists at his sides, but after another moment's delay he looked Sonic squarely in the eyes.

"Chaos energy is infinite," he finally said.

Sonic blinked. "Okay…?"

"Fake energy is not."

"Yeah," Sonic haughtily agreed. "And explosive."

"Because it is unstable," Shadow cut in. "Finite. Negative energy is infinite."

"Uh, so wouldn't that make it—"

"Not dark Chaos energy."

Sonic let out a breathy laugh and mocked, "This is a really fun conversation."

"This new negative energy is not meant to be here, in this world. In this time," Shadow argued, his voice only hinting at his frustration. "There is something wrong with it."

"That I know. I told you, I felt it with the fake Chaos Emerald."

"Perhaps. But it was not infinite, unlike this new negative energy."

"I feel like we're going in circles, here," Sonic groaned and rubbed between his eyes tiredly. "But I kinda get it. It doesn't explain why I felt that but not whatever it is you've been noticing. Why is that?"

Shadow opened his mouth to speak, but before he could Sonic waved him off with a roll of his eyes, already seeing where this was going. "Right, right, I know; you're the Ultimate Lifeform, yada yada yada." His hands went to his waist as he shook his head in exasperation.

"I think…"

There was a different kind of hesitation in Shadow's tone this time, enough to make Sonic peer over at him once more.

"I think … negative energy is a part of me." The darker hedgehog avoided eye contact, instead absently gazing at his wrists. "That is why I recognize it."

Sonic couldn't explain it, but he definitely heard the raw truth in his admission. The black hedgehog nearly seemed embarrassed about it, even. He gave in and finally asked, "If it's a part of you and you're so dang special, then why is it—or this new stuff, or whatever—bad?"

Shadow hadn't stopped staring at his wrists, bringing them slightly forward to emphasize the thick gold bracelets adorned to them. "These contain it." He looked back up. "The fake emerald contains it."

Sonic swore he saw a brief glimpse of concern in Shadow's features, before he opted to face their oncoming flight path.

"This new form is not contained."

Sand Ocean

The plane thumped and jarred Tails awake. His neck had a crick in it from lying against the side of the cockpit, and he hissed in pain when he pulled it upright. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he vaguely saw it was nighttime, with the silhouette of either Shadow or Sonic jumping off the side of the Tornado.

"Up and at 'em, bro!"

They must've landed already. How long had he been out? Groggily checking the instrument panel, the kit let out a rather large yawn as he confirmed their coordinates. Pulling his Miles Electric out from beneath the seat, he switched off the engine and jumped out of the plane, helicoptering down to the ground below.

"A little, uh, emptier than I remember," Sonic commented to him, indicating the whole lot of nothing in their immediate area. Rolling sand dunes expanded as far as the eye could see, which really wasn't that far thanks to the bleak, gray night of the uninhabitable zone.

"I set it to park a few miles away," Tails simply answered, "to avoid the quicksand."

Despite being a desert, the cooler time of season left the night temperature drastically dipping. Nothing quite like the northern forest they had been hiking through earlier today, but enough to make Tails' fur fluff up.

Shadow stood a few paces away, searching the vast amount of sand drifts lining every direction. "Which way?" he asked, not bothering to turn around.

"Uh," Tails paused long enough to pull up his digital map, "the secret entrance should be … um, hold on…"

The kit frowned, noticing the satellite data being updated based on their location, and scrambled to input it into their current course.

"Which way?" came another impatient prompt.

Before he had a chance to respond, he felt a presence over his shoulder. Glancing up, Sonic was peering at the screen, arm out and pointing the way the current path was set. "Thatta way!"

He zipped up next to Shadow, bumping against his arm in the process and making the black hedgehog snarl.

"Race ya!"

"Wait, guys—!"

Tails groaned mid-exclamation, because by then he'd been left in a plume of dust and kicked-up sand. Coughing a couple times and waving his arm through the air to disperse it, he stayed put while his computer finished updating the information.

Cheap, slow internet. He needed to talk to G.U.N. about the orbits of their satellites.

His ears twitched when the Miles Electric made a sudden warning beep. Checking the newly loaded data, the only sound he could muster was, "Eep."

Spinning his tails to take to the air, he zoomed after the two impatient hedgehogs, muttering to himself about choosing friends (well, friend and acquaintance?) that also happened to be the two fastest Mobians on the planet. He could be home drinking hot cocoa right now.

Distant yells could be heard, but they were directionless, faint echoes in the empty desert. He concentrated to hear better, while also keeping a close eye on the ground to find either of their respective trails. The sand was shifting from the constant breeze, however, and appeared to be quickly covering the hedgehogs' tracks.

A self-pitying sigh escaped when he remembered that he'd had plans to upgrade the firmware on his security system tonight.

About two miles into his trek, Tails heard the telltale "Woop!" of his older brother somewhere off to his left.

"Sonic!" he hollered, slinging the strap of his Miles Electric diagonally across his shoulder.

"Hey, slowpoke!" said the disembodied voice.

Tails changed direction, following the sound. Even as a fox, his night vision was no match for the blank, dark gray canvas before him. "Where are you?" he called out.

"Right here!"

A gust of wind knocked Tails off course mid-grumble, and he ended up spinning in a giant circle to get on track again. Steadying himself in the air, he yelled to the nothingness, "We need to get out of here!"

"Why?"

There was another, even stronger blast of wind, sand flowing up and practically smacking Tails in the face. He sputtered and closed his eyes, landing on the steep side of a sand dune and finding his shoes sinking into the soft earth.

He wiped his mouth off the best he could, still studying the vista for any signs of his team members. "Where's Shadow?!" he yelled, honestly to just make Sonic answer and give him another idea of where he was at. There were a couple sandy swishes behind him, making him twirl that way. Then, from his right he heard another, closer whoosh, and he jerked his head over just in time to see the aftermath of Sonic's trailblazing.

"Would you stop zooming around?!"

"Aw, come on, this is amazing! It's like surfing but without the water!"

A few more ripples of flying dirt spiraled around the fox, annoying him to no end. "How would you know?!" he bit back.

Finally, the hedgehog skidded to a stop next to him, his sudden deceleration leaving him buried up to his waist within the dune's incline. He gave the kit a pretty impressive pout regardless. "That was cold, Tails."

Happy about finally gathering the hedgehog's attention, Tails cut to the chase. "There's a sandstorm coming. We need to get to the secret entrance now."

"Sure thing," he nonchalantly responded, carefully prying himself up and out of the hole he had quite literally dug himself into.

Shifting his strap so the Miles Electric wouldn't get in the way of his double appendages, Tails glanced around. "Where's Shadow?"

The hero shrugged, shaking his ankles in the air to get rid of lodged pebbles. "I don't know. We were racing, but it's like super dark out here without lights, and, well, then the wind picked up and … maybe I won?" He offered his sidekick a cheeky grin.

Tails sighed. "Seriously?"

"Hey, I needed to run! This place is begging for it!" Even now the hedgehog looked like a barely-contained jumping bean, less than a millisecond away from jetting off again.

"All right, all right," Tails placated. "I'll turn on my beacon, then we can start heading towards the base and maybe—hopefully—we'll meet up with each other."

"Beacon?" Sonic asked just as Tails flipped a switch on the side of his tablet. With a small whir, an antenna extended from its chassis, a bright yellow light pulsing from its tip.

"Whoa. Cool," the hedgehog answered himself.

Another draft slammed into the duo, causing both to cover their faces from the assault of grit. "You sure you can fly in this?" Sonic asked, having to raise his voice over the sound of fluttering sand.

"Only one way to find out!" Tails answered him, not waiting to hear his response. He instantly jumped up and flew away, heading in the direction the Miles Electric told him to.

He couldn't help but snicker at the trailing, "Not the answer I was looking for!" from behind him, before the hedgehog easily caught up.

"You're still mad at me, huh?" he asked, not even breathless at the speed they were currently traveling.

"A little," Tails admitted easily, watching his computer and swiftly changing their heading to stay on course.

"I get it, I was kind of a Knuckles back there." Tails let out a small snort at that, despite his best attempts. "I'm sorry," the hero added more seriously. "I know you meant well."

"You mean I'm not a megalomaniac bent on destroying Mobius with fake Chaos energy?"

"Jury's still out on that."

"Har, har."

"But I guess fake emeralds aren't all bad," the hero jested.

Tails smirked. "So kind of you."

A somber tone briefly filtered through when Sonic added, "Just ... be careful, okay?"

"Always am." Tails gave him his own cheeky grin. "And apology accepted," he said before accelerating ahead.

"Nuh-uh!" the hedgehog yelled, also increasing his speed.

Tails had to veer up as a tall sand dune blocked their path, while Sonic effortlessly ran up its steep side. They reached its apex in seconds, only to find that its other half was a sharper concave slope.

"Cowabunga!"

Apparently Sonic had no issues with it. Tails slowed his two tails to let his altitude drop, watching on amusedly as the blue hedgehog successfully (and accurately) surfed down its steep decline. Go figure.

A particularly heavy draft knocked the kit back some, which was conveniently followed up with another warning beep from his computer. The sandstorm was fast approaching. Tails expertly dropped through the air to catch up to his brother, only noticing the dark blob in the distance when it was too late.

"Sonic—!"

Nearing the base of the hill, the blue hedgehog looked up at Tails' call instead of to his left (oops), and failed to see the entity pummel him from the side. Tails followed their rolling trajectory, his outright panic fading as his vision cleared the closer he got.

"Shadow, what the—"

"Quicksand," he interrupted Sonic, standing up from his kneeled position just as Tails landed. Sonic was sprawled on his side, quills every which way, but with one elbow slowly propping himself up so he could glare his attacker in the eyes.

Of course, that glare turned into confusion as both Tails and Sonic followed Shadow's line of sight. Sure enough, the base of the dune had a mildly different sheen of sand, barely visible with the waning moon above. Closer inspection (and stillness on their part), however, showed the sand to be gently moving, like a giant, undulating mass of liquid metal.

"Oh," Sonic said at last. "Um, thanks."

Shadow didn't respond, but instead looked at Tails. "Thank your light."

Blinking, it took a long second for the fox to realize he meant the computer's beacon, which happened to still be blindly pulsing next to him. He hastily shut it off while mumbling a welcome, still breathing heavily from the racing (not to mention Shadow's shadowy attack from out of nowhere). Remembering their situation, however, Tails shoved the screen towards the black hedgehog. "There's a sandstorm coming."

"Yes," he agreed, nodding the direction he had come from. "It'll be here in about two minutes."

Finally dragging himself to his feet, Sonic brushed his fur off of excess grime and cleared his throat. "Well then, lead the way, li'l bro."

Tails nodded, pulling himself back into the air and continuing on their course, albeit with a purposeful detour around what appeared to be a lake-sized pit of quicksand.

"So I won, right?" he heard Sonic ask Shadow from behind him. Tails rolled his eyes.

"Hardly."

"I was totally ahead!"

"Of what, your narcissism?"

Tails ignored the rest of their banter, keeping his focus on the worsening storm. He stayed only a few feet above the ground, the constant bursts of wind and sand picking up to hurricane-force gales. Sonic pulled up to his left, taking the brunt of the onslaught, while Shadow stayed close behind both of them on their right.

Tails mentally noted that Shadow's rocket exhaust couldn't be seen, which also explained his earlier ninja attack. He frowned at that observation, before seeing that the slight sinking effect of the sand—combined with the continual kick-up from his speed—essentially buried their flames.

Or Chaos energy. Or whatever the heck it was. Tails frowned more, though, as he wondered how they didn't get clogged in this terrain.

He shelved his digressing thoughts and placed a protective hand over his eyes while he checked the navigation on the Miles Electric. He had to squint to see the coordinates, calculating in his head where the entrance was and what he could remember of it when he had last been here. Gosh, that'd been a while ago. They should be coming up to a bunch of stone pillars soon, right?

"Gah!"

The fox pulled to a fast stop, hovering and flipping around to see Sonic about halfway sunk in a barely-visible pit of sand. He was leaning forward in it, as if his previous momentum carried his upper body forward, and now his face was precariously close to the surface of the rippling concoction.

"Grab on!" Tails cried, flying down and grasping the hedgehog's hand with both of his own. Sonic's other hand already appeared to be submerged.

Where was Shadow?

A grunt to his right made the kit cringe, and he realized very quickly that both hedgehogs had been unprepared. This pit didn't seem to have that sheen the other lake of quicksand had, but that might have been because it was so much smaller. Of all the lousy luck.

The black hedgehog had fared better in the nature-trap, at least, with only his legs stuck in the sludge. Both hands were out, and he was currently trying to balance himself by keeping his arms spread apart.

But he was sinking, too.

"Here!" Tails called, stretching himself over to offer one of his hands to Shadow. Thankfully, pride was nonexistent at this point because the hedgehog dutifully grabbed ahold, placing Tails between the two heavier Mobians in some weird game of tug-of-war, where Tails was the rope and his opponent was an inanimate, albeit deadly colloid.

A punch of sand hit Tails in the face, his eyes burning from it. He bent his head low and coughed, not very thankful for the rude reminder of the ridiculously large sandstorm still heading their way.

"Tails!" Sonic gritted through his teeth, his voice strained. He was probably being stretched like a rubber band between his sidekick and the sinking sandpit. "Get out of here!"

"No way!" Tails defiantly shouted, struggling and pulling with all of his might. His tails were aching and his arms were on fire. A morbid back-thought made him stupidly wonder if he could dislocate both shoulders at once.

That was when he actually felt Sonic trying to pull his hand away from him. "Stop it!" Tails cried out.

"Go!"

"No!" he stubbornly said. "I've got this!"

Though, to be fair, he didn't, because now only both hedgehogs' heads were visible, and he could barely see either of them with the amount of dust setting up residence in the middle of their predicament.

Something touched his feet and didn't let go. Tails could barely turn his head to look that way, adrenaline making him slow on the uptake that, no, someone wasn't holding his feet. His shoes, and a good amount of his legs, had become submerged.

"Okay," he hissed to no one, "I don't got this."

All three Mobians disappeared beneath the whirlpool of sand, the deafening roar of the sandstorm's arrival the very last sound that could be heard.