Author's note: A humungous thank you to faithful E-Rank and Noonui for their continued support (and E-Rank for an AMAZING fanart on the previous chapter, please go see!), as well as to the lovely reviews from newcomers lucifurs, 000Marie198, Maraja Sargasso, and The Eccentric Nomad! Thank you for your feedback (and motivation by proxy) :D

Chapter 9: A Breach in Chaos

The ARK

It had not been very long since he'd ventured here.

Granted, decades could have passed and it still would not have been long enough in Shadow's opinion, considering the memories housed in this dilapidated space station, but the state of disrepair certainly seemed to have thrived in the absence of life.

He and Sonic were walking slowly through the dark hallways, with only backup lights along the ceilings guiding their way. Even a majority of those were out, either years of unmaintained use or more recent destruction leading to a dismal, blinking red path, sheer blackness swallowing up most of the corners and junctions.

Occasionally, they would pass by a small window, the planet below visible and providing an inviting, if not brief, blue glow to their surroundings.

Three minutes in, and they had traversed a half dozen of these lengthy corridors with no opposition.

Shadow's mind couldn't help but wander to the Master Emerald, and how Tikal knew he needed to remove his inhibitor rings. Why had he needed to remove them? Shouldn't they have protected him from the amount of Chaos seeping through those cracks?

And why had Sonic, of all Mobians, needed to wear them instead?

What exactly were his inhibitor rings inhibiting?

"Any idea on where we're going?"

Shadow glared at his companion, as the simple question alone was like a gunshot in the deathly silent chambers, never mind his distracted thoughts. His glare only earned him a defiant shrug in return.

"What? This place is seriously lacking in bots," Sonic whispered—well, attempted to whisper. Shadow carefully peered around another T-junction, before making his way down and to the right.

"And Eggman," Sonic continued as he followed. Shadow didn't respond, his senses returning to high alert as he led their way through the extended, barren hall. While the previous areas seemed mostly abandoned, this walkway had chunks of debris lining its floor, indicative of a battle, though probably not recently.

Probably.

"And anything, for that matter."

"Will you shut up already."

"Where are we going?" Sonic shot right back.

Shadow let out a low, disgruntled breath. "To the Chaos Emeralds."

In a flash, Sonic had darted forward and blocked his path. "Wait, you feel them here?"

He blinked. "Yes."

"Where?"

The barely-disguised urgency in that question gave Shadow pause. "Do you not—"

"No, Shadow, I don't. Can you please rub it in my face another time and just tell me where we're going?"

A low moan reverberated through the tunnels, silencing them both. While it had echoed across the long hall, the source of the eerily familiar sound had come from ahead of the duo, causing Sonic to spin around in surprise.

"That was—"

He didn't have time to finish, as a shot of bright white electricity snaked across the wall, forcing both hedgehogs to dive out of the way at the last second.

Shadow saw a glimpse of that same blue-white glow from the far end of the corridor, his eyes narrowing as he charged at it. More energy zapped out of the creature, a bolt of lightning that lit up the entire area like daylight and ricocheted across the path.

Sonic zipped by him, evading the blasts, and Shadow sped ahead, keeping pace with his rocket shoes. When they reached the end of the hallway, they simultaneously slammed on the brakes, searching for the enemy.

"Where'd it go?"

Another low groan erupted from behind them, where they had just come from. Sonic turned to give chase, but Shadow held his arm out.

"Wait."

He briefly closed his eyes as he spoke, allowing his senses to focus. "This way," he stated, already heading in the direction he had indicated. Sonic hesitated, watching for the creature on the other side.

"What about—"

"It's leading us away from the emeralds," Shadow brashly explained, not waiting around to see if Sonic would follow. The flames from his shoes provided an additional orange glow to the bleak red, and helped to navigate the littered chunks of building that lined the path.

Before long, he heard the fast footsteps of his rival following close behind him.

They rounded another corner, and Shadow was flung across the room as a bolt of energy hit him dead-on.

"Shadow!"

The black hedgehog rolled to a stop, the tips of his fur standing on end from electricity. The hit was jarring, his head swimming, and he could only hear the sound of buzzing for an excruciatingly slow moment. Vague commotion eventually broke through beyond, but he couldn't look up.

Warmth at his wrists brought his gaze downwards, and he stared dumbfoundedly at his inhibitor rings. They were bright white—as white as that energy—but quickly faded as he watched. Clarity seeped through and he pulled himself to his feet. Besides being thrown like a rag doll, there didn't seem to be any lingering damage.

His eyes travelled to the bracelets again, already dulled to their original gold metal, no different-looking than usual.

"Watch out!"

Like someone hitting the "play" button on a movie, the surround sound of explosions and buzzsaws alarmingly blared in Shadow's ears, and he felt himself getting shoved to the ground again, blinding light blocking everything for another long second.

A piercing, pained holler told him who had pushed him, and where exactly that energy charge had gone. Shadow cursed, scrambling up a second time and rushing the cause of the blasts.

He saw barely more than a sliver of sharp metal on ethereal blue, before he spindashed straight into a wall. He unrolled as he bounced back, skidding along the floor and bending low, preparing himself to attack.

He was rewarded with only silence. His breaths were purposely shallow as he warily stood up, making a full circle to find the entire junction empty. A creak from next to him made him jolt, ready to strike, before he realized it was the dented partition of the wall he had just half-demolished.

Another sweep around the area proved that the threat had left. He cautiously turned the way he had come from, seeing Sonic out cold on the floor.

A sigh inadvertently escaped, but he jogged up to the blue hedgehog and knelt next to him. He was breathing, at least, and a cursory glance showed no obvious injuries. But Shadow could feel negative energy exuding off of his prone form. Was that what those energy beams were?

A comforting sense resurfaced, and he realized the Chaos Emeralds were close. He took another, deeper breath, checking his surroundings once again.

Why had they stopped attacking?

Shadow hesitated, still kneeling next to Sonic. A moment passed … two … then something finally clicked and his decision was made. He lifted the unconscious hedgehog, standing up and running towards the source of Chaos energy. He crossed the corner of the hall, expecting resistance, but received none.

His skates roared to life and he floored it the rest of the way, covering as much distance in as little time as possible. The orange flames licked across the curved walls, obnoxiously bright and loud in the otherwise hushed atmosphere.

And still there was no resistance.

The sensation skyrocketed as he made it to a doorway, the sliding mechanism on it long ago broken and the door itself about a quarter of the way closed. He peered around its edge, then boldly twisted sideways to allow him entry while carrying Sonic.

All seven Chaos Emeralds were laid out across the far wall, as if someone had haphazardly tossed them there without a second thought. They glowed brightly, creating fractals of their respective hues across the broken-down room.

Despite the damage to most of its walls, as well as almost all of the equipment missing, Shadow instantly recognized it as one of Gerald Robotnik's old laboratories. Maria even used to perform her own experiments in here—

"You know, one day, I hope to take over for Grandpa."

"Perhaps sooner than later. You are nearly as smart as him, as it is."

"Well, when all you get to do is read most days, I suppose that helps! Now, can you hand me that pipette?"

Shadow had to mentally shake off the memory, setting Sonic down onto the floor to run up to the closest Chaos Emerald. Standing next to it, he cautiously inspected the ground beneath, as well as the wall behind it. He similarly scrutinized the others for any signs of a trap.

Surveying the rest of the room, he came to the uneasy conclusion that it was as empty and quiet as when he'd first entered.

It couldn't be that easy. He knew it wasn't going to be that easy.

But the room remained secure. Before grabbing the emerald, Shadow sprinted back to the doorway, checking down both sides of the desolate corridor. Satisfied that nothing was near—but still nevertheless wary—he returned to the green gem.

And just as he bent down to retrieve the pulsing emerald, another moan came from behind him, the sound of electricity blazing.

A frustrated growl escaped from Shadow. With the green Chaos Emerald in hand, he dashed towards Sonic, arm outstretched. The jagged white beam was nearly upon his rival's unmoving form, and even as he reached down to grab Sonic's shoulder, he couldn't begin to voice Chaos Control before he was engulfed in brilliant white light.

Surprisingly, this time around he wasn't hurled across the room by the force of the energy, whatever it was. Another power—Chaos—came forth, and he felt the emerald in his hand grow uncomfortably hot through his glove. The burn was intense, and Shadow dropped the jewel before he could stop himself.

White darkened to black. The transition allowed him to briefly see the old laboratory, but the world was already spinning in and out of existence.

The last thing Shadow could make out was Artificial Chaos, standing brazenly tall and lithe in the doorway. As quickly as it had appeared from out of nowhere, a liquified, translucent arm just as swiftly stretched out towards the hedgehogs.

No; towards the fallen emerald.

Shadow's hands flailed around, trying to retrieve the lost stone before it could. As he tried to look down he became inexplicably dizzy, as what used to be up felt like it was down, and he couldn't seem to gather enough sense to right himself. Heavy g-forces pummeled him, despite being fairly sure he wasn't moving, and he finally succumbed to unconsciousness, the echo of the creature's moan fading with him.

"Sonic?"

He grumbled sleepily, "Five more minutes, Tails."

"Sonic, wake up."

Hands shook the blue hedgehog's shoulders and he briefly debated spindashing to saw them off. A second, more grounded thought supposed that would not be in the best interest of a hero.

As those hands continued to relentlessly shake him, though, the temptation remained. He was awfully tired…

"No elephants for moon," he complained groggily, instead opting to swat at the hands moving him.

There was a lingering pause, where Sonic pre-emptively assumed he had won the battle, before Tails' voice breathily laughed and replied, "You mean epiphanies before noon, and—uh, unfortunately there's none here right now."

"That means sleep, then."

"Come on, Sonic…"

"All right, all right, I'm up," he lamented at that pitifully pleading voice, eyes blinking heavily as they peered at starch white above. Weird, his room's curtains must be open. What time of day was it that let this much light in?

"Are you okay?"

Sonic's eyes slowly rolled to the source of the voice, a fuzzy orange face sort of coming into view. He briefly clenched his eyes shut and reopened them, forcing his gaze to refocus. Eventually an only slightly blurry Tails appeared in front of him, and Sonic frowned when he noted how downright worried the fox was staring at him.

Wait.

"Tails!" The mental fog lifted and Sonic jumped up—albeit way slower than usual; what in Mobius had happened to him?—and pulled the younger fox into a tight hug. "Are you alright? What happened?"

His younger brother accepted the embrace, but glared at Sonic like he'd gone mad. "I'm fine. You're the one that got blasted with negative energy. Are you okay?"

Sonic shrugged. "I—" he trailed as his brain digested that bit of information. "Er, what?"

"You've been unconscious for almost an hour," Tails added, bringing his arm up to poke at his wrist communicator. "I mean, if time is still a relative concept here, that is."

"What." A wave of dizziness decided to invade at that moment, forcing Sonic to plant a hand on his head in retaliation. He tried shaking it back and forth vigorously, as if the physical movement would get rid of whatever heaviness had settled into his entire being.

Tails was at his side again, a hand on his shoulder as he stared up. "Take it easy. Do you need to sit down?"

A sound escaped Sonic, some conglomerate of a raspberry, a "Nah," and a snort all rolled into one. "I'm fine," he insisted.

Tails didn't look convinced in the slightest.

"He was hit with an intense amount of negative energy," Shadow's voice came from Sonic's side, forcing the latter to turn towards him. "The Chaos Emerald did neutralize some of it, but not enough before warping here."

Sonic was more impressed that Shadow looked very much alive again, unlike the last time he had seen him. "Hey, my daring last-minute-hero-save worked!"

Shadow's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I did not need saving, Faker. You did."

Sonic had already become distracted from the conversation, however, as he opted to take note of the seriously lacking scenery around them. Everything appeared to be a giant painted wall of white, with what could only be described as static distorting the distance.

Beyond that static was the ARK, but aside from glimpses of dark metal walls, or of vast space itself, it was too translucent and brief to be anything coherent.

"Where in the world are we?" Sonic asked. "It's very … um, bland."

"Well … the best I can determine, we're in a glitchy pocket dimension. More or less."

Sonic gave Tails an arched brow, to which the fox shrugged helplessly.

"I see you're back in the world of the living."

Sonic's eyes widened and he whirled around, Knuckles standing with his arms crossed in front of him.

"Knux!" Sonic exclaimed, zipping up to him. "Aw yes! The band is back together!"

The hero went in for a hug, but had to instead dodge a fist that came swinging his way.

"Knuckles!" Tails shouted annoyedly, running up to stand between the two of them.

"He brought the Master Emerald here!" the echidna somehow screamed through grinding teeth.

"Oh," Sonic hissed as that particular memory returned. "Well, technically it was Shadow … I wasn't crazy enough to try and touch that loose wire."

"And you brought Shadow to my island!" Knuckles easily sidestepped the younger fox and threw another fist.

Having successfully ducked the second punch, Sonic came up from behind Knuckles and gave him a quick squeeze before being flung off by the echidna's strong arms. "Water under the bridge. Good to see ya alive, bud!"

"I'm going to kill you!"

"Aw, Knuckles, come on!" Sonic made sure to stand beyond arm's-length of the seething Guardian, with Tails standing in-between. It seemed to work well enough, as Knuckles was forced to try and passively get around the fox first, which gave Sonic plenty of time to jog in the other direction. "We didn't have a choice!" he tried.

"Oh, you had a choice!" Knuckles snarled. "And now it's right where those abominations want it!"

"Abominations?" Sonic echoed with confusion. It gave Knuckles enough time to try and jump attack Sonic, but the latter easily darted away as his finger found its way to his chin in thought. "L'il bro, I think I need a recap on what's going on here."

Knuckles had fallen to the floor with his miss, growling in agitation. He scrambled up, aiming to attack again.

Sonic's hands went up in surrender. "Come on, Knux! How else were we supposed to get to the ARK to save you? Besides, Tikal helped!"

The echidna's next offensive floundered instantly. "What?"

"It's true!" Sonic latched onto Knuckles' fading resolve. "I just sort of … came along for the ride." He offered another grin and shrug, and a sigh of relief escaped when he saw his friend's terrifying fists relax.

"Tikal?" Knuckles repeated to no one, his gaze scrutinizing the ground for rationalization of that simple fact.

"See? We got the bigwig on our side here!" Sonic's hands went to his waist triumphantly, but he glanced about confusedly. "Wait, where'd Shadow go?"

"Behind you."

Sonic jumped at the sudden voice, seeing the black hedgehog standing with his arms crossed. "All right, for being a blank canvas, you wouldn't think sneaking around in here would be an option. This place is weird."

"Better believe it, hon."

Like from an opaque wall of mist, Rouge materialized from behind Shadow, walking up to stand next to him. "You never do miss a party, do you?" she asked, a coy smile lining her lips.

"Rouge, the start of this lovely adventure!" Sonic excitedly said. "Nice to see you alive and well."

"Likewise, Blue. You're looking a little worse for wear, though."

"Yeah, you keep dodging the question," Tails agreed, frowning at the hero. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Sonic waved him off nonchalantly. "Feeling a wee bit like I'm stuck in slow motion, but just dandy otherwise."

"Glad to hear, since we'll probably be needing that spikey head of yours soon," Rouge commented with a wink.

The hero smiled out of habit, but it briskly wavered as he thought through that statement. "Wait, like figurative or literal spikey heads, here?"

Rouge didn't get a chance to respond, as a nonplussed Knuckles got between them to face Sonic. "Tikal helped you bring the Master Emerald here?" he asked again, keeping to his tunnel vision. "But why?"

Sonic offered a non-helpful, "I'unno," answer, which made Knuckles mutter what was probably a curse in echidnean before resuming his pacing.

Rouge's smile grew as her gaze followed the distracted Knuckles. "Say, Shadow, where did you say you left Knuckie's jewel?"

"Don't you start with me, bat," Knuckles threatened with an accusing finger. Despite the strength of that statement, his violent expression dissolved into a reasonable glare, his pointing finger changing to a wagging one. "I know what you're trying to do, and it won't work," he responded more civilly (and with only half-clenched teeth this time).

She gave him a facetious pout, one that Shadow rolled his eyes at. "I would not recommend touching the Master Emerald at the moment," he deadpanned to her.

"Whoa, was—was that a joke, Shads?" Sonic practically squealed.

"But truthfully, you did manage to touch it," Tails interrupted more seriously, staring at Shadow with his thinking face on. "And somehow not die. With Tikal's help, I guess?"

"Why did she help him?!" Knuckles yelled from his distant pacing.

"Not to mention how," Tails added, "and whether it can be of any use here in stopping these creatures."

"All right, guys, I have a lot of questions too, but before we get to the meat and potatoes of this shindig—" Sonic rubbed his stomach in anguish, "can we get some food first? I'm starving."

"What is that blithering rodent going on about?"

There were a multitude of groans and eye rolls from the rest of his visible friends (and one clear, "I really don't get paid enough for this"), but Sonic couldn't help but cheekily smile at the large human that managed to emerge from nowhere.

"Now it's a party! Hey, Eggie, long time no see. Not like you to make a fashionably late entrance."

The others, including Shadow, didn't react further, which told Sonic they had all been well too aware that their enemy was stuck with them inside an analog program in dire need of an antenna adjustment.

"It would figure that you would somehow find yourself trapped inside this mess," Eggman grumbled, one hand pulling on his mustache.

Cubot hovered into view, waving happily at the blue hedgehog. "Don't you mean your mess, Doctor?"

Before Eggman could, Orbot came up from behind the yellow robot, said, "Allow me, sir," and slapped Cubot upside his boxy head.

"Color me surprised," Sonic impassively announced.

"Hate to break this to you, Sonic, but we don't have any food here," Tails answered the hero's previous request with a cringe. As said hedgehog slumped to the ground in despair, he cringed harder. "I mean, to be fair, we haven't checked the periphery of this place yet—"

"You can handle going without food for one day, hedgehog," Knuckles interrupted absently, not bothering to look or even stop his aimless walking as he tried to dissect the ancient echidna's involvement in all of this.

Sonic unintelligibly muttered his response.

"There is no point in exploring this dimension," Eggman declared. "Given the instability of its existence, it is likely that all directions lead to the epicenter."

"He is correct," Shadow nodded. "I have already tried."

Sonic whined his own nonsense, simply because none of what they said made a lick of sense. He was supine on his spines at this point, defeatedly looking up at the sheer white of nothingness above. In his peripheral vision, Knuckles was stomping about and mumbling to himself about Tikal's intentions. As he did so, he stepped too far and faded out of existence briefly.

Before Sonic's eyes could widen in fear, the echidna had apparently circled around and came back into view, becoming a staticky jumble of red for only a moment before he was in full-focus like nothing had ever happened.

What in the Chaos.

"All right, all right," Sonic said obnoxiously loud from his position on the floor, "can someone explain to me like I'm five why we're all stuck in a broken television set?"