Hello everyone, I apologize for the long wait on this particular chapter. Let's just say that things have been somewhat busy, and I also haven't had the inspiration for this chapter as much as I had when I first thought it up, but it's slowly coming back to me now. If you are eager for more of this please let me know, and also I must ask some patients for any advent readers of this, as new chapters will come out, but slowly due to life being slightly busy.

As the group had prepared to depart from the room, Mario noticed that Sonic looked deep in thought. He wondered what was weighing on his friends mind, so he decided to question him about it.

"Sonic, Is-a there something on your mind that you-a want to talk about?" Mario inquired.

"Actually, I'm not sure there is much to say about it." Sonic began. "During the fight with that specter, My ring, No, something within the ring called out to me and asked me if I wanted the power to win."

"And-a you accepted that power?" Mario continued.

"Well, yeah, I wasn't about to let our mission end like that." Sonic replied.

"Did whatever you heard give you any clues as to what it might have been?" Tails asked him.

"No, It only asked me a question, and then I suddenly felt power flow through my body." Sonic replied to his friend. "I felt as if I could do anything with that power though, Like I could save everyone and everything I cared about with it."

"The rings are rumored to have some mysterious feature added to them. Not a single soul is capable of telling us what exactly this so called 'feature' is." Aragonite said to them. "It might by-chance not even be a feature, I cannot be certain, but one thing I do know, is that something bad had happened to implement this part of the ring."

"Mama-mia, Does-a that mean that the rings could all-a start talking to us?" Luigi asked a bit hesitant on the whole idea of voices being in his ring.

"I have no certainty on the subject, I have only what little knowledge that has been passed down through generations of local and city banter." Aragonite answered Luigi.

Tails shifted a bit, uneasy about continuing on with the subject. Something about this voice or spirit didn't seem right to him. Interjecting into the conversation he attempted to shift everyone's attention back to their main mission.

"Well, we don't know anything more than Sonic's account of the experience, so until we find out more, I say we put that aside for now, and finish up our mission." Tails said hoping they would not pry more into this already unsettling topic.

"Tails is right guys, let's get the heck on outta here." Sonic said, walking away from the group. He wasn't even sure what really happened to him, it all seemed like a dream. Because of this reason, he didn't wish to talk more about it. People pestering him with questions always seemed to get under his skin.

The group then entered into a new room. On each wall a mural was painted, depicting a strange story. Tails, who was just moments ago feeling a bit jittery, now gleamed with excitement. His eyes vividly displayed this too, and so too did his tails give a show of his new-found vigor as they flickered back and forth. Pulling Sonic over to him, he tried to direct his hedgehog friend's attention towards the mural.

Sonic responded to this with a questioning sound escaping his throat. While scratching the back of his head Sonic looked at what had piqued his friend's interest so much.

"It's a mural Sonic!" he said.

"Well, whats so great about it?!" Sonic replied not seeing any reason to be jubilant about it.

"It might tell us how to get home Sonic!" The fox said hoping that now Sonic would understand just how impertinent a discovery he had made.

Once Sonic realized the importance of the eerie drawings upon the wall, he became just as excited as Tails was. Grabbing Tails he shook with vigor and then he began to smile.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's read this thing and get the heck on back home!" Sonic said ecstatic about the idea of finally returning back to Mobius.

"The only problem is that I can't read any of this, But..." He turned to Aragonite and gave him a pleasant smile. "Aragonite, would you by chance happen to know any of the language carved here on the wall?"

"Hmm, let me take a gander at it, I might be able to translate." Aragonite answered while stepping towards the mural.

The language was closely related to modern Bathilian, the language spoken by most inhabitants of this world, but it was slightly different. The script was a bit confusing but similar enough that he could give a fairly decent translation. His fingers followed the words as he read to himself. Fixated on him, the whole group watched as he deciphered the text. Unfortunately, this wasn't anything that could help them return home.

"This isn't a way to return to your world i'm afraid." Aragonite began, as he turn and shook his head in disappointment.

Both Sonic and Tails' faces drooped a bit, sad to find out their hopes were smashed.

After hearing the result of the translation Luigi had drifted away from the group. Sighing in frustration he began to put it all in the back of his head. On a nearby wall was an orb, and at first it didn't look that particularly eye-catching. In fact, had it not been for a glinting of a sparkle, the dust-covered orb may have gone completely unnoticed. When his eyes met the orb for the first time a whisper slithered by his ears.

"Wanna be friends? Hehehehe" The whisper softly caressed his ears with.

The sound prompted him to release the orb's surface from it's veil of collected dust. Upon relieving the thin layer of particles from the object, it began to be pushed into the wall because of Luigi's lightly applied pressure. Worry spread over his face as he had no clue what to expect, Mario's voice broke through to him though.

"Hey, what are you-a doing over there Luigi?" His brother questioned while moving closer to him.

When his brother was close enough to see his face, Mario instantly could tell Luigi did something. Ever since they were little they could read each other's actions like an open book.

"I-a pressed a suspicious-a looking orb." Luigi confessed not wanting to even hide it since it could prove dangerous for the group.

"Mama-mia." Mario said loudly as he rolled his eyes a bit annoyed by his brother's actions. "On-a your guard guys! Luigi might-a have stumbled on to a trap!"

Each member of the group suddenly shifted into a serious mode, inching closer to one another until they were in a circle with their backs to one another. Prepared for the worst, they waited for the trap to activate. Those minutes felt like ages, and when one of them finally decided to move, they all let their guards down. After sighing in relief, Mario then slugged his brother in the shoulder.

"Ow Im-a sorry Mario." Luigi replied to the punch, giving Mario a puppy-dog face to which Mario then just smiled and chuckled a bit.

Just when everything appeared to be safe, the sound of whizzing going off was heard. Suddenly the hallway they came from was shut off by a slab of stone falling from the ceiling, and to make matters worse, red mist began pouring into the room from all directions.

"Ugh what is this stuff?" Tails exclaimed hacking and coughing as the mist enveloped his frame.

Watching Tails fall to his knees, Sonic and the rest of them began to choke on the gaseous substance. It burned their mouths, setting their taste buds aflame and leaving an awful taste. At once everyone's mouth was as dry as a desert. Sonic's vision began to get blurry, and his eyelids were growing heavier by the moment.

"Gu...ys... I feel... slee...py..." His speech was so slurred and choppy that he could barely utter his own thoughts.

Mario and Luigi were still standing when they witnessed Sonic and Tails collapse and pass out. Aragonite fell to a knee nearly coughing up his lungs before falling on to his side and slightly curling into a semi-fettle position.

Luigi's hand gripped Mario's shoulder, and he looked at his red-capped brother. Fear cast a huge cloud over Luigi's eyes, Mario could even feel him shaking. He fell to his knees, and upon doing so, he witnessed his brother giving in to the smoke. Feeling the same hazy vision that the rest of the group felt, he began to be overwhelmed by the burning gas. Not even he could withstand this as was apparent when he finally collapsed on to the floor. His mind slipped into unconsciousness.

"Ow my head!" Sonic complained slowly climbing to his feet.

The hedgehog seemed to be in some sort of low-lighted area. It was hard to see but his theory was that he was in a hallway. Not being able to see further than six to eight feet made him feel a but unsafe. The sound of shuffling movements and splashing water drew his attention to the direction in front of him.

"Mario? Tails? Is that you guys?" Sonic asked the foreboding darkness.

When no one answered, he started to get nervous. The palms of his hands became sweaty after hearing a faint and eerie giggle off in the distance. He had no clue where he was but he didn't like it. Moving down the hall a bit, a wall soon came into his vision. It was a dead end, but something else was there, a small pond. Sonic eyed it suspiciously inching carefully over to it.

"I ain't gonna fall into the water this time." He told himself, taking special care with each step he look.

When he began to take a look into the water a noise echoed from within the darkness. It was a creepy sound, and caught his attention rapidly. Turning swiftly around, he searched the black around him for whatever it was that made the sound. Nothing was found, but unbenonced to him, something was crawling from the water. Black tendrils, slowly inched towards his legs, and when they reached those limbs of his, they wrapped around tightly. Being caught by surprise, Sonic couldn't help but let out a yelp as he was quickly dragged into the depths of the strange body of water.

"Yaaaaaahahhhhhhhhhh!" Sonic yelled before his voice was canceled out by being submerged in the water.

Deeper and deeper he went, and soon he was deep enough that he could not even see the top from whence he came from. Not even a minute later, and he could feel the lack of oxygen effecting his lungs. His vision was getting hazy just before his body slipped into a state of unconsciousness. A hand of his reaching towards the top, trying to escape, but limply following suit with the rest of his body as he completely succumbed by the void.

-Tails and Aragonite-

"Ugh... My head..." Tails said as he awoke in a hallway, his eyes adjusting to the darkness of the room and seeing in front of him a painting of some odd sort. Abstract was the style, and it confused Tails greatly. After being attuned to his surroundings he slowly sat up. To his left Aragonite was currently passed out. It took just a few shakes from Tails to rouse him from his slumber.

"Aragonite... Wake up..." Tails called out to him once.

"Uhhh... Ohhh..." Aragonite said as struggled to move. "What happened to us, My companion?"

"I don't know... I have no idea where we even are, let alone what happened..." Tails kept looking around as he answered. The walls were a dull purple color, and contained some sort of generic trimming on the bottoms and tops. Every now and then both of them could spot a painting or sculpture on or near the walls. The flooring was made of laminated stone, though they could not tell what pattern or color it was due to the limitation of light in the area.

"What in the world is this strange place?" Aragonite inquired.

"Thats what I want to know... It's creepy.. I don't see Sonic, or anyone else around, and the darkness is very unsettling." Tails responded, starting to get a bit nervous about their new situation.

"Let's find an exit from this place, don't want to spend too long in this nerve-racking environment." Aragonite told him.

When both males had finally climbed to their feet, they started to travel in the east direction. Going down the hallway they found that the walls never ended. Constantly the scene of darkened surfaces with the occasional painting was all they ever really encountered. That is... until Tails discovered a door. Next to the door was a note written in what appeared to be red paint, but the color was more representative of a crimson blood color.

"Check this out Aragonite, What do you think it could be from?" Tails said as he began to make out what the message was trying to say. "Come join the party! What on earth does that mean?"

"I don't particularly trust that message. My suspicions lead me to suspect this room of harboring malefic monstrosities within it." Aragonite replied, being very wary about the door and what contents lay inside of it.

Tails grabbed his hand on to the door knob and slowly twisted it until he heard a click. Swinging open the door inch by inch, the room soon was found to have nothing more than a few bookshelves, a desk with a lit candle upon it next to a open diary, and on one of the nearby walls was some crudely drawn pictures. Depicted by these images was that of many humans, but upon closer inspection Tails was frightened by knives stabbing into them. More crimson colored paint splashed across the images was apparent, even amongst the dim lighting the candle provided.

"The signs of insanity settling in... Just who do you think drew these?" Aragonite wondered.

"It's hard to say... but I don't want to stay and find out, the quicker we can discover a way out of here the better." Tails said. "I... don't like this place Aragonite... something about it is shrouding me with an unsettling aura, I can't even begin to describe the creeping sensation of the ever-growing feeling of dread."

"Look away from the painting Tails, It may be trying to pull you into a false sense of fear." Aragonite instructed Tails. "Let's look for clues elsewhere. Pay no heed to the painting."

Tails removed his gaze from upon the drawings, and began to look in different places for clues. Upon the desk, a diary was flipped upon to an unfinished page.

"Dear Diary

January 12th 1674

It follows me everywhere I go... No one else can see it but me... It's red eyes... always watching... in the shadows... even as I write this... it watches... waiting for the perfect opportunity... to..."

Upon the end of the final sentence an illegible word was smeared with paint, and afterwards the page was blank. Tails read this and pondered over it's contents, and the one thing that stuck out was the paint. Having investigated one of the bookshelves, Aragonite soon discovered what seemed to be a map between two books. When he checked the map out he found that the front had a childishly drawn diagram on it, and on the back there was a message that read "Good luck!".

"Tails I found something that might help us out." Aragonite said walking right next to Tails.

"What is it?" Tails tried to say calmly, without making his friend think he was allowing himself to drown in increasing fear.

"A map of some sort. It just might tell us how to get out of this god-awful place." Aragonite replied to him.

When Tails got a good look of the map, he found exactly where they came from and what room they were currently in immediately. Suddenly one of the bookshelves moved to the left, and revealed a new path, and just seconds afterwards a sound echoed down the hallway they had come from. Not thinking twice, Tails took the map and the lead, rushing a bit down the darkened tunnel.

"Wait for me Tails!" Aragonite called out, hustling to catch up with him.

The tunnel took them to a four way intersection. According to the map, an exit was nearby, but required a bit of weaving through an elaborate maze-like network to reach it. The two of them looked around to figure out what path was best, and ran what they saw with the crudely drawn images on the paper. None of it matched up so they were really at a loss for how to successfully traverse this maze. They soon decided to go to the left path and stick to it for a while.

"Uh... Aragonite..." Tails came to a halt and started to speak. "Look in the distance... Is that the intersection we started at?"

Aragonite squinted a bit through the darkness but just flickering in the distance was indeed the very place from which they began at.

"It appears so..." Aragonite said realizing at once what that meant, they had been walking around in a big circle. "Ugh.. I feel like no matter which path we end up selecting it leads us back to the very spot that we originated from."

Suddenly something caught Tails's attention, a sound echoing from within the darkness, the same kind of sound that he heard when they first awoke in this place. It produced a shiver up his spine, and along side this was another feeling, the feeling of being watched.

"You alright Tails?" Aragonite questioned his friend, seeing the shivers of his body.

"Honestly?... No.. I've been trying to hide that fact... but it's not gonna do us any good if I do that... I am scared of this place.. No.. Not really scared, but I have a feeling of dread..." Tails answered him. "My body shivers constantly at the sudden emergence of any kind of unfamiliar sound, I find myself looking over my shoulder constantly, and I can't shake the feeling like something is out there, watching our every movements, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike..."

Aragonite listened intently to his friend spill what he was feeling out and from the words Tails said, he too started to understand why Tails was feeling so uneasy about this place. It was very dark in here, and they had not encountered any other beings but each other. The very air here was thick and made breathing somewhat of a chore, not to mention that it was slightly chilled too.

But the most important aspect Aragonite had picked up on had to have been the feeling of being spied on. It was as if eyes that could pierce through the body and straight to the soul were fixated on both of them right now. An evil aura coated their gaze and the only thing keeping Tails from passing out was the fact that Aragonite was right there beside him.

"Let's... not get separated okay?... I'm starting to understand what you are feeling right now." Aragonite attempted at comforting his friend.

"You are right Aragonite, as corny as it may sound, we do have each other's backs, and that is all we need to accomplish escaping this place." Tails said not liking the fact that he used such cheesy words, but that was the least of his worries right now.

When Tails gazed down the north path and started to debate on whether or not to go down it, he froze instantly. He could see it as clear as day for some reason, a pair of red beady eyes, looking right back at him. Aragonite caught sight of this and quickly took a peek down the path, but saw nothing. Tails blinked watching the orbs vanish as fast as they had appeared.

"Okay... Not that path..." Tails said. "Let's try the west path."

"Sounds like a plan." Aragonite agreed, already directing his movements to that way.

Tails stopped a bit behind Aragonite, who was still walking having not noticed him come to a halt, and then looked behind his shoulder. Sure enough, he once again spotted the pair of beady eyes greeting him. At the moment their eyes met for the second time, a harrowing giggle poured from out of the darkness, followed by the shifting of stone. Quickly Tails turned to Aragonite, and had prepared to regroup, but it was too late. A portion of the wall that lined the path had jutted out forwards and swiftly connected with the wall on the other side. Both Aragonite and Tails let out gasps of shock.

A deafening sound of a low rumble started growing near Tails's ears, the darkness around him slowly creeping to his location, and the worst yet was those same beady eyes, getting nearer and nearer to him. Tails was so frightened at this point, that his voice box let out a shrilling scream of terror. Aragonite tried to smash the wall down but to no avail nothing seemed to work.

"Tails! Tails! Hang on friend! I am coming!" Aragonite called out to Tails, but he didn't receive an answer.

Silence invaded the next few minutes of Aragonite's life as he soon slumped to the floor, disappointed in himself for not being able to come to his friend's aid when he most needed it. That is when the wall soon returned to it's original position just before this event took place. Aragonite saw nothing, absolutely nothing was behind the wall. In fact, it was a completely new path altogether.

"Merciful Tsukiyomi..." He said in a whisper to himself, not wanting to attract the attention of whatever it was that attacked Tails.

Aragonite then decided to go searching for his friend, even if he couldn't save him then, he was sure as heck not gonna let that thing keep him. He readied himself for anything, and after a few deep breathing exercises he started to travel down the path once more.

-Mario-

Inside a room full of crates and paintings covered with drapes, Mario was passed out on the floor. Not long after they were sucked in Mario had began to stir, and then eventually waking up. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, he noticed a candle sitting on a small desk in a corner. Jumping up quickly, he went to go investigate it.

"Mama-mia where am I?" He stammered after realizing the desk was empty. "Luigi!?"

No one else was in the room. Taking the candle in hand, Mario began to explore. This room appeared to be a storage area of some sort, as all the boxes were marked with some kind of item name, and there were a lot of paintings carefully preserved and covered. Just then a nearby door creaked open and the footsteps of something large was heard. Mario quickly put out the candle and found a nice hiding spot among some barrels.

Looking through a peephole in the barrel he was in, he could just barely make out what was going on. Something large and very hairy was looking for something. He soon found what he was searching for and to Mario's disbelief the creature had taken a corpse from within one of the crates, and had begun devouring it.

"Oh no..." He thought to himself. The sight was gruesome and repulsive, but the creature didn't seemed to mind, even licking it's lips in a savoring and satisfied manner.

Watching intently with his pupils following this thing's every movement, Mario shivered a bit in his little hiding spot. Once the creature had left, he waited several minutes before crawling out. He knew that he had to get out of here and fast. After carefully following the blood that the creature carelessly let dribble from his maw after consuming his meal, Mario found the door. Finding out it was locked dropped Mario's mood a bit lower than what it already was.

"Son of-a koopa!" Mario swore under his breath after jimmying the knob a few times.