I'm sorry for neglecting this story. School has been killer. But it's over now, which could mean one of two things.

1: I now have more free time to work on this and other stories if I finish.

2: I have so much fun this summer that I completely forget.

Now. I understand that I have some reviews, finally. For the sake of writing as little as possible, since this story is directly linked to the other two, I will include the names of people who reviewed the other two sides of Darkness Within. The title, I'm aware, doesn't really fit the story so far. I may be the only one who's aware of that fact, since I'm the only one who's mentioned it. But It will make sense soon… somewhat.

Christian Ape99: Do you know Christian Wolf99? THey reviewed the side stories, while I was going over the reviews, I didn't realise a different animal was used and thought you were the same person.

werewolf lover99: Thanks.

random reviewer: I've never seen that movie. What's Underworld about? Probably vampires.

A couple of you asked about fan characters. Do you mean can you put fan characters in the story? The thing about that is that I already have a set plot, so maybe not this story, but my other stories might be fair game, depending on whether I'm strictly following the plot or not, because I'm planning on writing a closely related plot for Kingdom Hearts and the anime Date a Live. If you're a fan of Legend of Zelda, that's definitely fair game, because I'm creating a story all my own for that, but I may not want to write them all at once, because I want to not have such a big work load, but them all being completely different may add the variety I need to make this work.

Now, one last thing. I made a huge mistake in chapter 3 with Silver. Apparently, he's a Sorean who can't fly. And, I believe in one of these chapters, I already elaborated that Soreans have wings attached to their arms. So I have some editing to do.

Song: You Can Do Anything-Sonic CD

"You're pretty fast, Shadow!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Hmph. I can keep up with you." He replied.

Sonic chuckled as he spun into a motobug. "You sure?"

Shadow kicked a buzz bomber out of the air. "I'm right next to you, aren't I?" Shadow laughed a bit.

Sonic just smiled and halted. Shadow stopped a little ahead of him and turned around. "Watch this." Sonic started running again. Shadow ran with him as he passed him. They were accelerating at about the same pace.

"What are you trying to prove?"

Sonic didn't reply, but instead accelerated even more to stay ahead of Shadow. Some badniks were lining up ahead to stop them. "Perfect." Sonic said simply.

"More robots to smash." Shadow replied. Sonic just chuckled from ahead.

"Unless you can keep up with a Sonic Boom, you won't be smashing these bots."

Sonic turned his head to see Shadow confused. "Sonic… Boom?" Sonic turned forward again and sped up once again. This time a blue energy formed around him, and he heard a thud behind him.

"Can't keep up?" Sonic blasted through the badniks ahead. Some of them broke instantly, while others were launched in all directions. Sonic skidded to a halt and turned around to see Shadow far behind him, just getting up. "And that… is why I'm the fastest. I'm Sonic… Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Song: Seascape-Knuckles' Chaotix

"I'll take care of this!" Espio threw his shuriken at a Slicer.

"That was so COOL, Espio!" Charmy exclaimed.

Vector nodded in approval, and jumped up to bellyflop a Crab Meat. "You're really capable in battle. This is a great turn of events."

"Hey! It's that Blyxil guy over there." Charmy pointed out.

"What!?" Espio shouted. He turned to see Blyxil in combat with Shadow.

The Chaotix watched as Shadow knocked Blyxil around without seeming to do any damage.

Blyxil disappeared, and Shadow walked over to what looked to be a sleeping human.

"Let's go check it out." Espio said.

Song: Knuckles' theme-Sonic & Knuckles

It was five days after the event on the beach. Knuckles was in his room in the Chaotix base. He was staring at what looked like a fragmented emerald. It was about the size of his torso.

"Soon. You will be whole again." Knuckles said. He shrunk the emerald down in size, and Mighty came in with the mission phone.

"He's asking specifically for you." He said. He handed Knuckles the phone.

Knuckles held it up to his ear. "What do you want?"

"Head 3 miles west of your base. In that location, you will find something very important to you. It won't appear to the other Chaotix just yet. You need to form a team of non Chaotix members."

"Who is this?" The line went off. "Something important to me?" Knuckles held the emerald in his hands. "The Master Emerald."

Song: Marble Garden Zone

Stage: Marble Hill Act 1

Knuckles led Silver, Blaze and Rouge out of town.

"So what happens when we find this thing?" Rouge asked.

"I'll be one step closer to fixing the Master Emerald. Thanks for your help, guys." Knuckles replied.

Blaze nodded, and Silver replied "No problem."

The area had a lot of grass and lot's of hills. As the group moved forward, a spiked pillar popped out of the ground. "Whoa!" Knuckles yelled.

Silver floated above the group with his psychic powers. "Grab on." Blaze did just that, but Rouge stopped Knuckles from doing so.

"Silver, remember the last time you carried more than one person?"

"Oh…" Silver replied.

Rouge flew up herself. "Come on, Knuckles." Knuckles grabbed onto her legs, and Rouge and Silver flew their partners to the top of the pillar to get a good vantage point.

"If what I've been told is correct, the Master Emerald Shard should be near that temple. Blaze, would you like to lead the way?" Knuckles said.

"Sure."

Act II

Song: Red Mountain 1

Blaze jumped off the pillar and flame heeled her way down. When she landed, she began to run to the temple. On the way, she ran into some Monkey badniks.

Knuckles came up beside her. "Don't worry about the Monkey Dudes. They're cakewalks."

"Sure." Blaze ran up to one and performed her fire twirl. It went down pretty easily, and out popped a crab. "What?"

Knuckles looked at it. "That's new. Usually Eggman puts animals into robots that resemble them." Blaze decided to ignore it and continue destroying the badniks. Once that was finished, she continued running towards the temple.

She jumped from the ground up to a wall, then jumped off of it and onto higher ground. From there, she ran up a hill and hopped off of it, and flame heeled to the temple.

She landed, and Silver appeared next to her.

"Let's get this show on the road." Silver used his powers to open the door, and Rouge rushed ahead of them.

Act III

Song: Sandopolis Act II

Rouge began to fly around while Knuckles glided from wall to wall, occasionally climbing upwards.

"It's got to be around here somewhere." He said.

Rouge landed on the ground and tried looking for anything that shines. "If I were a powerful Emerald, where would I be?"

Knuckles ran deeper into the temple and found a cavern. Inside, he found what looked like a ring. He pulled it out, and left for the main area. "Rouge, I found something." Rouge landed near him and took a look at the ring.

"Is this it?"

Knuckles shook his head. "It's not part of the Master Emerald, but it's the only thing here."

The two decided to leave the temple and meet up with Silver and Blaze, but they found them staring down Blyxil.

Song: Mini Boss-Sonic&Knuckles

Silver stepped forward. "What are you doing here?" He demanded.

Blyxil gave no reply.

Silver ran forward. "Answer me!" Silver used his powers to pick up a rock and throw it a Blyxil. He whacked it with his staff and ran towards Silver. He swung his staff, but Silver jumped over it and slammed Blyxil to the ground.

Blyxil got up and attempted to axe kick Silver. Silver dodged it, then Samuel attempted it again. This repeated 3 times until he hit Silver. Silver retaliated by grabbing Samuel in a psychic hold. "It's no use!" Blyxil struggled to break free, but was unsuccessful. "Take THIS!" Silver threw Blyxil into a wall.

Song: Chosen One-Shadow The Hedgehog

Blyxil got up and laughed. "So this is the power you possess."

"What do you mean?" Blyxil did not answer Silver's question. Instead, Blyxil ran at Silver and knocked him over with his arm.

Blaze and Rouge looked after Silver while Knuckles confronted Blyxil. "What do you want with us?"

Blyxil pointed at Knuckles's hand. "The ring." Before Knuckles could respond, a machine appeared behind Blyxil.

Song: Theme of Dr. Eggman

"You've all played your parts. Now give me that ring!" Eggman said. He had his mobile in a grey machine that had blasters on each side.

"What do you want, Eggman?" Knuckles asked.

"Is insulting someone the way to thank them for telling you where something is located? I don't think so!" Eggman shot fireballs at Knuckles.

"It was you!?"

"Now, get a load of this! My Fire Mobile!"

Song: Boss-Sonic 3

Knuckles jumped over the fire ball Eggman shot at him and glided into his machine.

Eggman flew a distance away. "Get a load of this!" He launched balls of magma at Knuckles.

Knuckles punched the ground and shook it. A piece of earth came up and knocked one of the magma balls back at Eggman. Knuckles punched another back, but decided not to do that again on account of FIRE BURNS!

Eggman flew above Knuckles and shot fire straight down at him. Knuckles ran out from under him and jumped on his mobiles back. "What? Impossible!" Knuckles punched through the back, which did some serious damage.

"This can't be!" Eggmam yelled.

Stage over

Song: Throw It All Away-Sonic Adventure 2

Eggman frantically tried to regain control of his machine. But to no avail.

Blyxil watched the fight with an amused smirk on his face.

"What are you smiling about?" Blyxil jumped, startled. A yellow flash appeared and batted Eggman away.

"This isn't the END!"

Shadow stood in his place. "It's time you learned your place Blyxil!"

Song: Who I am-Lost Track

Sonic was running through the woods with Samuel.

"So what's it like where you're from?" Sonic asked. Samuel tensed up.

"It's… hot. Mazuri's near the equator." He stated simply.

Sonic chuckled. "I meant the people. What are they like?"

"They're abusive pricks. That's what they are." Sam said darkly. Sonic stopped running and turned around to face Sam.

"What do you mean?"

Samuel looked down to the ground. "I'll have to go back there soon. I'd like to have friends along. Would you like to come?" Sonic looked into Samuel's eyes and saw darkness. He felt alone.

"Sure."

One last thing. Once this is over, I have a sequel in mind that will be basically rewriting another Sonic game. You can guess which game it is, but that'll be obvious in the last chapter. I will read reviews to see if anyone got it right, but I won't tell anyone if they're right or wrong until I upload the last chapter, because if I do, I'll spoil how this one will end. I want to give you a hint, but I can't think of anything that won't be too obvious.