Chapter 5: A Reason to Rise

Deep in the dark void, Sonic started to regain consciousness.

"Ugh…where am I?"

Sonic slowly opened his eyes. He glanced around to see if there was anything at all he could recognize, but, even if there was, all that surrounded him was darkness. Sonic felt like all the strength he had been sapped away from him. The paralyzing force, while not as strong as before, still was powerful enough to stop Sonic from having any thoughts of trying to escape.

A calm voice emanated from somewhere in the darkness. "You cannot escape this realm. Do not struggle, little hedgehog. You will be spending the rest of your life here."

Sonic was drifting away. "Rest…of…my…life…" he murmured. While he knew that giving up without a fight was absolutely absurd, he felt like he was losing all motivation to resist this dark entity. As the remainder of his energy slowly drained away, Sonic wasn't sure if he even wanted to try to escape this, slowly coming to terms with death.

Suddenly, he heard a shriek from far away. It lasted but a brief moment, but Sonic understood it right away. "Amy!"

Immediately, the other voice returned, more panicked this time. "It doesn't matter! There's no point in trying to help her."

It was no use for the voice. Sonic's strength started to return. He had to try and save Amy from whatever was going on. "No way! I'm not giving up!"

Now the voice was angry. "Then, die!"

"Whoa!" Suddenly, the invisible grip holding Sonic in place faded, and he began to fall. "Is that all?" Sonic yelled as he fell. "You're just going to make me plummet to a death I can't see? Lame!"

Immediately, Sonic hit the ground. Just as he had hoped, his words were infuriating whoever was speaking. "Enough of this! You think you're so clever! Fine! Then, enjoy a death you can see!" Light suddenly entered the area, and Sonic saw before his eyes an astoundingly large, dark mass. It appeared as some sort of spider-like being, and there seemed to be something inherently malevolent about it. On what appeared to be its head were some sort of deep red pieces of metal.

"Now, destroy him!" The giant monster obeyed, raising its right hand into a fist and slamming it to the ground where Sonic was standing, but he easily jumped out of the way. It then continued smashing away at Sonic as he continued to evade its attacks. An idea came to him; when the monster thrusted its left hand at him, Sonic jumped right onto its arm. Before it could react, Sonic boosted towards the creature's head and inflicted damage to the monster, apparent by the cracks on the helmet with some light beginning to shine from it. It began to writhe in pain, signaling that he had found its weak point. Acting quickly, Sonic sped up the other arm, ramming into the head again. Light now began to shine more strongly than before, and the monster started behaving irrationally, striking anywhere it felt harm could come from. Now, Sonic rushed towards it at full speed, jumping right at the head when the monster regained its composure and crushed Sonic in mid-air. Or it would have if Sonic weren't going so fast that he broke right through, striking at the head one last time.

The monster howled in pain as light enveloped its whole body. Sonic looked on as the monster's body dissolved into the light as the large helmet fell and broke apart into several different pieces. The voice was evidently upset. "It seems as if manipulating the power of the Fused Shadows diminished its power. Fine then. We'll just take them away for our own purposes." Three of the fragments immediately vanished. "That one you can keep. It's not like you'll ever make it out of my realm. We have more important things to deal with than one puny hedgehog. Have a nice death!"

Sonic paid little attention to the voice; he had heard far too many death threats to take any of them seriously anymore. As he approached the final fragment of the helmet, he noticed a small being wearing it and moaning silently. "Yo, are you okay?" Sonic called out to it.

Slowly, the figure stood up with a hand to its head. "What happened?" it muttered. Sonic noted a tone of regret in the feminine voice.

"You mind telling me what you were doing attacking me?"

"Who are you?" the figure questioned.

"I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog! Where I'm from, I'm the most famous hero around! And you still haven't answered my question. For that matter, who are you?"

The figure smiled a bit. "You seem to be trustworthy. My name is Midna. If I was attacking you, I do apologize. I think I was being controlled by the same person who once again took over this realm." She paused to sigh. "It seems I have failed as a leader twice now."

"Hm?" Sonic interjected.

"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking aloud."

"Well, okay then," Sonic said. "Do you know where we are?"

"This is the Twilight Realm. Or at least it was before Zant returned from the dead and turned it into this realm of shadows."

"Zant! You mean that undead guy with completely unnatural powers?"

Midna looked at Sonic suspiciously. "You've met him before?"

"Yeah. I was chasing him when suddenly he stopped me completely still, kidnapped my…friend, and then sent me here."

Midna relaxed. "So, it seems like you have a bone to pick with Zant, too. Tell you what. I'll help you find a way out of here if you let me tag along for a while. Do we have a deal?"

Sonic hesitated for a moment. He wasn't sure if he should trust this person who had just tried to kill him only a few minutes before. However, he quickly decided that it was a risk he was willing to take to get Amy back. "Alright, then. It's a deal."

"Good. Now, hold still. This might feel a little bit strange the first time around."

"Wait, what do you…WHOA!" In an instant, Sonic felt himself dissolve into particles as Midna teleported him elsewhere.