IMPORTANT: All credits go to the Sonic Team who originally blessed us with a courageous, kind hearted, friendly, blue hedgehog. Only the main plot of the story is mine.

NOTE: No sexual scenes. Romantic relationship between Amy Rose and Sonic the Hedgehog. Rouge and Knuckles may never admit their true feelings for each other. No other relationships are mentioned in this story, but one of the main characters will have unrequited feelings for Amy...

SECOND NOTE: Any edits, comments email me or private message me (Email mentioned in profile).

Thanks for showing interest! Enjoy!

ATTENTION:

Chapter 10 is now up!

I apologize for my inactivity, these days have been very busy.

Besides the new year always starts off slowly, and painfully.

But here is Chapter 10, with Chapter 11 - 15 coming in quick succession.

Thanks for your patience and your readership.

Please comment and review

Have a good one

ETA Chapter 16:

Mid February 2019 - early March 2019

- MC Productions 737

Rising Darkness

- Hidden Darkness -

Chapter 10: A Reflecting Personality

Amy ran as fast as she could, the broken pieces of her hammer in her arms. She had been upstairs searching for Sonic, to give him a good pounding for canceling their date, without even telling her. Amy was about to give up when she turned around and saw a silhouette, of a certain hedgehog, blocking her path downstairs.

"Sonic!" she screamed. "You got some nerve showing up here."

"Sssonic?" the silhouette asked, a hissing, dark, cold voice. "I am not Sssonic, but I do want to know where he is." The silhouette stepped out from the shadows. His lime green eyes stared into Amy's bright green ones, then he smiled. At least she could feel the smile, for this mystery hedgehog had no mouth.

"Who are you?" Amy asked, raising her hammer, ready to strike at any moment.

"Jussst a friend of Ssshadow'sss." Came the hissing reply, as the stranger took a few steps closer.

"Shadow has no friends." Amy said. "At least anybody he would call his friends; besides, I never met you before."

"Sssmart..." trailed the stranger. "But not sssmart enough. Otherwissse you would have known you were ssstaring at Mephilesss the Dark." His eyes flashed, coldly and darkly.

"You are the one who isn't so smart." Amy said, crossing her arms, the raising the hammer. "Otherwise, you would have known I was Amy Rose!" And she dove for him, the hammer aimed to hit its target.

"Enough of thisss!" he snarled, and disappeared. The hammer crackled to pieces and Amy dropped it, watching in surprise as it shattered. She felt a cold icy force, driving her to her knees. Then, she was out.

She recovered eventually. Saw that Mephiles was talking to Tails, then turned to the broken remanants of her hammer. She scooped up the pieces, knew better than to fight Mephiles unarmed, and ran for it. She heard when Mephiles had discovered she had escaped, and then when he knocked Tails out and kidnapped him.

She ran as fast as she could, until she found herself at Eggman's lair. For she had been searching for her friends, and this was her last ditch effort. She threw open the door to Eggman's lab and saw the mad scientist hunched over a book.

"Alright, Eggman!" she shouted out, startling the mad man. "Where is he?!"

"Where is who?!" Eggman exclaimed, wildly turning around, ready to fling the book at Amy.

"Sonic, of course!" she fumed, stamping her foot and taking a menacing step towards the evil man. "Who else?!"

"That is a good question!" Eggman flinched as she got closer to him, shrinking back. "Which I cannot answer, but you can look around here. This was where I recall him being last.

"This doesn't sound good." A cheerful voice rang out. Sonic smiled at the two, giving them a wave.

"Don't you wave at me!" Amy shrieked, turning on the carefree hedgehog.

"Woah, Amy!" Sonic startled. "What's wrong."

"What's. Wrong." Amy enunciated, Eggman took the chance to dive under his desk, shielding his face with the book. "What. Is. WRONG!" she threw herself at Sonic, but Sonic was too quick, as he side stepped, causing Amy to collide with the wall.

"Oh, I get it." Sonic said, finally remembering. "You are mad because I had to miss our..."

"Date!" Eggman crowed with laughter. "You two are something, but besides that all, we need your help Sonic. Your friends are trapped and you are the only one who can help."

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked, momentarily confused and slightly blushing.

"Shut up, you two!" Amy shrieked and fumed. "Sonic, you owe me an explanation!"

"He owes you nothing you hotheaded hedgehog." spat Eggman, crawling our from his hiding place. "We have more important matters to attend t-AHHH! Stay away, you horrid hedgehog!" and Eggman darted out of the lab, running as fast as his legs could carry him. For, Amy had been moving towards him, little by little, ready to attack him at any moment.

"Look at him go!" laughed Sonic, before he zipped out of a charging Amy's way. "I never knew that Egghead could run so fast." The azure hedgehog nonchalantly strolled over to the lab table, where the mad scientist had been, poring over a book, at.

"What's that?" Amy huffed, crossing her arms, and walking over to the table.

"I have no idea!" Sonic admitted, shaking his head in confusion. "Whatever it is, it must have something to do with our unconcious friends."

"Our friends are..." Amy started, but then her eyes widened. "Sonic, I almost forgot to t-"

"Wait one second." Sonic mumbled as be flipped a page. "This is a very interesting read." he chuckled. Amy was growing red in the face, as she tried to stammer out what she had wanted to tell the blue hedgehog about.

"Hold on, Amy." Sonic said, the humor draining from his voice. "I think I know what happened to our f-"

"But what about Tails!" Amy shouted, shaking Sonic fervently.

"T-T-Tails?" rattled Sonic, as he was being aggresively shaken. "What about him?"

"Miles "Tails" Prower." Mephiles mused, cocking his head to the side. "What an interesting creature you are." Tails' head lolled to the side, as he began to return to conciousness.

"There is something different about you." hissed the demonic entity, as he circled around the little fox. "You are not like the othersss" he snarled, in a snakelike whisper at the word "others".

"W-W-Where a-a-an I? Tails mumbled, throat dry, head pounding. He looked around, took in the familiarity of the place, eyes widening once his gaze landed on the smoldering interdimensional being. "Why are you doing this!" he shouted out, as he strained against the shadowy bonds, that pinned him to a crackling, crumbly, pillar.

"I have nothing against you, little fox." Mephiles whispered softly, eyes dimming out for a moment. "It is your friends I want." his eyes flashed brightly, almost blinding poor Tails.

"Soon they will come for you, Tails." the dark creature promised. "I know they would never leave their friend in the clutches of a...demon." his tone seemed to darken, seemed to falter, at the last word.

"We only just met." Tails whispered, mind racing for a way of escape. "But I can already tell you are no...demon." Mephiles eyes burned with curiousity, the feeling of a less chilling smile, flowed through the room.

"You are different," Mephiles said, his lime green eyes flickering with something, maybe light or hope, but Tails could not tell what it was. "Tailsss." he hissed softly, eyes flickering.

"Y-Y-Yes?" Tails stammered, trying to calm his fast paced heart.

"Nothing." Mephiles said, closing his eyes. The room became cold and dark once more and Tails knew that somehow he had messed up. The demonic being had closed himself off, once more.

"Ugh..." Knuckles groaned, his head feeling like a pulsing heart. "My head...The clone!" he whirled around, readying his knuckles for a fight, but did not see his enemy look alike; in fact, he did not even see Angel Island anymore, not the grassy hills, the crumbling ruins, the Master Emerald. What he saw was empty space; he had found himself back in the Lightless Place. Had he even ever left it; maybe he had always been there and had fallen asleep and dreamt up the whole thing with the evil clone.

"I am losing my mind." he mumbled gruffly, shrugging his shoulders. "I got to get out of this place and back home." He started walking away, but then checked himself. "I do not even know where to go; this place is so empty, silent, and lightless!" Although there was no light, there was no darkness. Just a vast stretch of emptiness, seemingly going on for miles and miles, as far as the eye can see.

"I need to get out of here!" Knuckles exclaimed and began walking aimlessly, hoping to get somewhere."

A while later, Knuckles found himself going in circles, at least it seemed that way, but who could tell where he was going. Knuckles slumped down on the ground, thinking about how he even got here to begin with. But try as he might, he could not remember much, except for his previous fight with the evil clone (or at least what he decided a bizarre dream).

Just as he was about ready to start on his never ending, never seeming to go anywhere, journey, a sound caused him to startle into the air. He spun around and saw a mirror. A single, long, rectangular mirror, without any frames, right in front of him. Knuckles cautiously made his way to the mirror, making sure that it was not some sort of trap.

He looked through the glass and saw...nothing; this mirror did not reflect himself! He scratched his head, confused, then reaching his hand to the glass, he felt a smooth surface. This was beyond strange, how could a glass mirror not show his reflection?

Annoyed at this new mystery, adding to the stack of mysteries he was already expected to solve, he struck both his knuckles against the reflective glass, expcting it to shatter into pieces. Expecting it to break, except it didn't. Instead what happened was, as soon as his knuckles collided with the glass, he fell through.

Drip! Drip! Drip!

The sound of dripping water broke through the silence. Tails wike up with a start, he was in the room still, bound to the pillar. Mephiles the Dark was nowhere to be seemed like forever since Tails had last seen the intradimensional being; it seemed like forever since he had made the mistake, that led him to still being held prisoner.

There was something about the dark creature, that was his captor, that struck Tails as odd. He wasn't as evil as all the other enemies Tails and his friends had had to face off against. In fact, it seemed that what drove this creature to being "evil", if you can call him that, was his mysterious vendetta against the little fox's friends.

If Tails could only figure out what made the entity so vengeful, so angry, so hateful, then maybe he could find a way to befriend him. But then again, maybe it was just Tails' innocence that led him to believe there was a possible way of being friends with such a foul, dark, and cruel creature. After all, he did kidnap Tails, for no apparent reason, and he had attacked Amy, as well.

Drip! Drip! Drip!

Tails closed his eyes, trying to tune out the incessant dripping of the water droplets. He opened his eyes, and looked down at his feet. A small puddle, an amalgum of dirt, mold, and water, had formed at his feet.

Tails could barely make out his reflection within the dirty water. What he saw bothered him, even worse than the droplets that splashed down, with a cavernous echo. He saw a small face, complete with whiskers and bright blue eyes.

He saw the drioping and pointed ears, the messy fur. He saw that the bright blue eyes, were shadowed with exhaustion and lit up with fear. Tails had never taken the time to really look in a mirror, unless he was waking up in the morning, so he never really was aware of how he looked. But the terrified, young, helpless fox, that he saw staring back at him, could never compare to the times where he had taken the time to look at himself.

He was not one to be vain, or ever care about how he looked, but what he saw made him feel upset. It was not the dirtiness, the messiness, or even the tiredness of his puddled reflection that rubbed him the wrong way, but it was the wildness, the youngness, and the fearfulness.

He had always been alright with himself being young, even the youngest out of all his friends, because he knew his knowledge and wisdom exceeded the expectations of his youth. But right now, in his prison, all alone, in the puddle, he could not seee that knowledge or wisdom, all he saw was how small, how young, and how helpless he was. And that was what irked him most of all.

"Waaaaaahhhh!" the redheaded echidna called out, as he flailed his arms in the air. "I must control my descent!" the hot headed echidna stretched both his arms out, knuckles pointing towards the expanse of darkness below, and glided down.

He could see an eerie glow, becoming brighter and brighter, drawing nearer and nearer, as he fell. Soon he landed on both feet, his knuckles striking the ground, in a catlike crouch. He stood up, dusted himself off, and stared at the new place he had found himself in.

Knuckles could see that all around him were towering, frameless, glass structures, walling him into the tiny room. He could see that these glass walls, formed a circle, and that the real walls were made of stone.

He could see that the eerie light he had seen, was a single ceiling overhang, a chandelier of sorts. The chandelier like object, emitting a dim, dark, glow, was an inky black color, made of twisted iron, and seemed to have some shadowlike substance clinging to it, like thick, obsidian, webs.

"This place is stranger than that empty nothingness." he thought aloud. "I better find a way out of here." He looked at the mirror that was in front of him, shrugged his shoulders, and pushed his palms against the glass, careful to keep his feet planted firmly.

Just as he suspected! The glass disappeared, becoming a doorway, without a door. He looked inside and saw a hallway, stretching endlessly. He decided it was either the hallway or the creepy, small, dimly lit room. He stepped through the doorway, turned around to see behind him, and found himself staring at a mirror.

His reflection stared back at him and waved, as he had done so himself. It followed his movements, easing away the nervous feeling that had started to creep its way through the echidna; he had thought something was off about his reflection, like it might not even be a reflection at all.

He scolded himself for the ridiculous idea, of course it was his reflection, what else could it be. He turned away from the mirror, to see the hallway he was now in, and saw rows and rows of mirrors. The mirrors flamked the sides of the hallways, like doors, maybe they were doors. Just in case, Knuckles made sure not to go anywhere near them.

He continued walking, through the center of the hallway, which never twisted or turned, but was endlessly straight. Finally he got to the end of the hallway; a lone mirror, covering the wall of the end of the hallway, was there. Knuckles knew this had to be the way out of the hallway, so he pressed his hands firmly against the glass.

Nothing. The mirrored wall did not disappear, like the other mirror had.

"Did you really think you could leave so soon?" a familiar gruff, sinister, and chilling voice spoke up. Knuckles spun around and saw the other him. The other Knuckles was staring back at him, in the mirror. There was no doubt now that this was his evil clone, for he was laughing, and Knuckles was as serious as he could be.

Knuckles smiled back at his enemy; even if this echidna clone was really reflecting back at him, it could never get to him. At least that was what he thought, until the reflection resched out of the mirror, straight for him!

"Woah!" the redhead startled back, his foe laughed wickedly. Then Knuckles ran for it; he pealed off in the direction where he knew the room of mirrors was. He darted past the mirrored doorways, his foot falls echoing along the walls. He ran straight for the mirror, where he knew the room was waiting for him.

"Where do you think you are going, Knuckles?" laughed the evil him. "You can never run, from me, from yourself."

"Just watch me" Knuckles growled, as he felt the stinging of a stitch on his side. "And you are not me, and I am not you!" And he barreled straight through the mirror, Glass shatteted everywhere, cutting him up, his shoulder dripped with blood.

"What the -"

"Like I said you cannot run away from yourself." He fell back as he saw his evil clone reflected back at him. The evil Knuckles appeared to be warped, as the shattered glass could not form a perfect reflection. Knuckles staggered back, heart pounding, knckles ready.

"You fought me before." the other Knuckles laughed. "Do you really think you can beat me, this time?" his eyes flashed, lime green, for one second. "Or is it that you are so insistent on dying?"

"Shut up, and show me what you got!" Knuckles exclaimed, charging for his evil clone. "Agh!" he exclaimed as he bounced back from the mirror.

"Do you not understand still?" his evil reflection laughed deriisively. "I am you. I am what you have made me to be. Your darkness reflected. Your reflecting personality!" And with a swish of his hand, Knuckles (the real one) was sent flying upwards, towards a mirrored ceiling!

Drip! Drip! Drip!

One. Two. Three droplets later.

Drip! Drip! Drip!

Four. Five. Six droplets later.

Drip! Drip! Drip!

Seven. Eight Nine droplets later!

Drip! Drip! Drip

Ten. Eleven. Twelve droplets later.

Drip! Drip! Drip!

Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen droplets later.

"I had about enough of those dripping droplets." a familiar voice whispered. Tails jerked up with a start, but sat back down, the chill of his bindings reminding him of where he was. "Careful, Tails. If you struggle against my shadow chains, you will pass out again."

Tails strained his eyes, night had fallen since Tails had last been awake, but he could not see anything. "Where are you?" Tails rasped, his throat drier than before.

"In front of you." Mephiles responded. "Directly in front of you." Tails scooted backwards, backing up against the column he was securely restrained to.

"As to be expected." the entity hissed, voice somewhat resentful. "After all, I am the , evil, demonic fiend that kidnapped such a sweet, innocent, young fox. And, who plans to harm your wonderful, kind hearted, heroic friends." Mephiles eyes glowed brightly, lighting up Tails' prison chamber. Tails blinked in the sudden brightness, squinting his eyes to see Mephiles.

"Is that better, Tails." Mephiles' cruel, icy, dark smile could be felt. His lime green eyes glowed brighter and brighter, brighter still. "Or perhaps, you need more light!" he thundered, the glare from his eyes caused Tails to shield his eyes with his hands.

"Stop it!" Tails cried out, turning away from the light that was nearly blinding. "Stop it, please!"

"No," hissed Mephiles, as his eyes reached ultraviolet strength, even brighter than the sun. "You need to see better." Tails struggled to turn away from the blazing starlike lights of the entity's eyes, but the restraints tightened around him, making it impossible for him to do so.

"Please, Mephiles." he choked. "Please, stop."

"Never!" Mephiles snarled, the dazzling brightness of his eyes, causing Tails' vision to start to spot.

"Look," Tails struggled to fight back the nausea that shot throughout his body. "I am sorry, I reacted that way. But you have to understand, you make yourself seem scary and evil. Your anger and your hatred, your vindictiveness and your bitterness, it makes you who others see you to be."

"That's...true." And the light began to fade, slowly dimming, enough for Tails to recover and enough for him to see. And what he saw stunned him.