Disclaimer: I still don't own anything but the plot and my OC, Myster Edge. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

*NOTE: This chapter has been edited to clear things up on the number of Chaos Emeralds Myster Edge has up to this part of the story. If I caused any confusion, it has been updated for that reason.

Chapter 15: Dark Disclosure

Location: Vanilla Dome (1)

It was cold, damp, and dark inside the grotto. However, there was sunlight that gleamed through a small opening of the cave wall and it beamed off some familiar faces.

"Oh, boy. I really hope Mario and Luigi are okay. I can't imagine what that horrible figure did to them."

"I'm with you on that. The night of the crash was unexpected. And to see Luigi like that, I couldn't bear the sight of him falling to his doom."

Those two voices came from none other than Princess Peach and Princess Daisy. Both ladies were detained inside this concealed prison with some bars blocking their path to escape. They weren't the only ones stuck in there. Cream was sitting and leaning against the wall as she held Cheese in her arms. Rouge and Blaze were pacing around in front of the rabbit and Chao. Toadsworth, Toadette, and Toad bundled up across from them to keep each other warm. Then, there's Amy, banging the cell door with her traditional mallet.

"AUGH! These bars are so strong! I can't even make a dent out of it!"

"No luck, huh?" Blaze walked up next to the pink hedgehog. "Man, this atmosphere is really bugging me. Being trapped in that bubble was bad enough."

"Not to be rude, but do you think you can stop with the noise? We're all starting to get a headache," complained Toad.

Amy turned to the Toad trio. "Sorry, guys. I can't break us out of here." She sighed unhappily. "I really hope Sonic and Tails got the brothers to safety. And I hope they're alright."

"I understand, Amy," Peach sympathized. "I'm sure our friends got out of there safely. It's Luigi I'm worried about most though, given the unexpected ambush used against him."

"I wonder how the rest of the gang is faring over there," Rouge thought as she glanced to the dungeon across from them.

Speaking of the others, they were also locked up, separate from the girls and the Toads. The captives caught a glimpse of Shadow and Knuckles trying to knock down the metal bars while Silver attempted telekinesis to pick the lock. Yoshi and Charmy were tracing in the dirt full of boredom. Vector and Espio leaned against the walls as they lacked motivation to try and set themselves free. Orbot and Cubot were pacing, or in their case hovering, to and fro. Beforehand, they tried to escape between the poles, but their heads were too thick to reach the outside.

In a nutshell, they were all stuck. Yoshi pointed out that they were in the Vanilla Dome, north of his homeland, after noticing the scent of vanilla within the cave world. However, they don't know where Mario, Luigi, Sonic, Tails, or Colombo were.

"You guys might as well stop before you fatigue yourselves. I'm telling you, the cell door is impenetrable," Espio advocated to the hedgehogs and echidna.

"Ugh, damn it! I'm sick of being stuck inside this dank, dirty cave! I'm gonna give that shadow figure a busting when I get close to his face," panted Shadow.

The guys decided to stop and stepped away from the cell columns. As the prisoners mellowed, the robots heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, Orbot, do you hear something?"

"As a matter of fact, I do, Cubot. It sounds so familiar. And it's coming this way."

The prisoners happened to hear a faint voice, which got progressively louder and angrier as the figure moved closer to them.

"For the last time, I don't know where the rest of the Chaos Emeralds are! Besides, you should be looking for them under my command! Not that cloaked shadow bum!"

"Isn't that Dr. Eggman?" Cream wondered as she sat up from the cold cavern floor.

"Unhand me, you foolish, robotic software!"

"Yep, it's Eggman," groaned Knuckles, recognizing the voice from that dirty comment.

"Apparently, he got captured by Edge, too. You don't hear that every day," Vector added.

"Way to point out the obvious," replied a sarcastic Orbot. "We discussed this back at the castle attack."

"Now that you brought up the attacks again, I wonder where Bowser is. We got separated from him when that evil shadow locked us up," Yoshi contemplated.

"I have no idea, but I'm glad he's not with us! He could burn us to a crisp if one of us ticks him off!" bellowed Charmy.

Rouge went up to the bars to peek at the dungeon entrance. The others congregated near her as they were also curious of Eggman's appearance. She heard his complaints become gaudier than before. "What's he doing here anyway?"

"Other than being kidnapped, beats me," Cubot answered. "We haven't seen the boss for days!"

At that point, the two sets of prisoners saw a pair of large robots restraining both of Eggman's arms. The doctor remained in a struggling fit, attempting to free himself from their clutches.

"I repeat, unhand me, you bombarded buckets of bolts!"

Ignoring his raucous behavior, one of the robots turned to the prison to his left, featuring Shadow, Silver, and the others. Taking out a key, the robotic minion was about to insert the object into the door lock.

"Step back," he ordered. "Try to escape, and we will terminate you. Guaranteed."

The gang stepped back cautiously. The robot then unlocked the cell and opened the door. After that, the two androids tossed the mustached scientist onto the cavern floor.

"YAARRGH! Ooof!" Eggman grunted from his uncomfortable landing. And in a quick blink of an eye, the minions relocked the prison and headed back to the main headquarters.

Orbot and Cubot floated to their leader.

"Sir, are you alright?" Cubot asked as he and the latter helped him up.

"Does it look like I'm alright, you incompetent blockhead?! I just got electrocuted on the day that perpetrator ambushed my fortress, he stole my Chaos Emeralds, and he kept interrogating me on where the others were. But since he took control of my robots, they're doing his bidding and not mine. They should be looking for the emeralds for me, and ME ONLY! And I just got tossed into this cave, stuck with you imbeciles!"

Knuckles crossed his arms. "Okay, first off, the emeralds weren't yours to begin with."

Eggman growled under his breath. "Watch what you say, gullible enchilada."

"I'm an echidna, you idiot! And not once in my life was I ever gullible!" Everyone, including the girls from the opposing cell, shook their heads. They knew Knuckles was lying for his poor state of mind and lack of common sense.

Amy scoffed. "Yeah, well how about the time Eggman tricked you into the thinking Sonic and Tails had part of the Master Emerald, when they actually had two Chaos Emeralds?"

"And then you got into a fight only for Eggman to inexplicably come out of nowhere and steal them to power up the hideous water creature, Chaos?" Cream mumbled. (2)

"Knuckles, denial's just a river in Africa. And that makes you look like an incoherent fool," Rouge teased.

"Will you three shut up?!" Knuckles shouted. "Grr, I'm gonna kill Sonic for sharing that to you!"

"Can you stop thinking about yourself and get back to the main point?" Blaze shifted her attention to the doctor who was back on his feet, dusting the dirt off his outfit. "So Eggman, what do you know so far?"

"Know about what, might I ask?"

"Is there anything about this Myster Edge figure we should know?"

"And why should I share this information to you?"

"All we know is that Edge has stolen the Chaos Emeralds and he needs all seven for something. He already has three: the two initially found at your base, and the one taken from Shadow," Princess Peach explained.

Daisy also spoke up. "So maybe he received some clues to where the other Emeralds are. If so, we can contact our friends."

"Maybe they have some sort of chance to take down that cloaked figure," Amy suggested.

"If this involves helping that snarky, blue rat, then count me out! I don't help anyone who are friends with him, that two-tailed fox, or your pudgy, little plumber bros!"

"Doctor, I hate to disagree with you here, but we need your assistance. Even though Sonic may be our enemy, he and his allies are probably our only hope to get us out of this mess," offered Orbot.

"This sounds weird, but I'm with Orbot on this one. We should get some information leaked out to our friends," proclaimed Vector.

"Please, Eggman," Cream implored. "Mr. Mario and Mr. Sonic should know where we are and what that evil guy is planning."

"Do it for us, will ya?" begged Yoshi.

"Chao Chao!" Cheese pleaded.

Everyone was desperate to get something from the doctor. Some of the small characters decided to use pouty faces with big, sad puppy eyes as their motive. All of this made him snap.

"DAAAH! ALRIGHT! I am aware of that stupid shadow's plan and I'll tell you. Just stop with the freaking puppy faces!"

"Okay, doctor, spill the beans," demanded Shadow, crossing his arms in front of his white-furred chest.

Robotnik gripped one of the metal poles for support as he began his speech.

"So, I assume that Orbot, Cubot, and I explained the basic details: I got electrocuted, he took the two Emeralds from my lair, etc. etc. I was unconscious when I woke up in this dark cave. In fact, I was in this cell a couple of days ago…

"Then, he transferred me to his main hideout and locked me up in a chair with chains around my wrists and ankles. That cloaked figure, Myster Edge, was asking too many questions about the locations of the remaining Chaos Emeralds that were dispersed throughout our home planet. He even asked me to work for him! When I denied, he decided to shock me with increasing intensity. I don't know how the hell I managed to survive from all that…

"He was very suspicious of me. He thought that I was hoarding the others elsewhere, as if I was planning to make the brainwashed robots search aimlessly to waste his time on purpose. I kept true to my word and claimed that I don't know where they are."

"Are you 100% positive that you don't have the blue, green, or purple Emeralds with you, nor do you know their whereabouts?" Silver asked.

"Well actually, I happened to notice the purple Emerald in his scepter."

Shadow turned to the doctor. "Wait, you mean he has another one?"

"I saw it with my own two eyes. He stole the red and white ones I kept in my base, and it was floating along with the cyan one inside."

"You swear you're not lying?"

"That's the truth! Straight from the camel's mouth!"

"I believe you mean 'Straight from the horse's mouth'," Toadsworth interrupted.

"I don't have your time for your corrections, dirty mushroom top!" he shouted across the cave.

"Poppycock! Didn't your parents teach you to respect your elders? Why I ought to whack you to see what's wrong with that noggin of yours!"

"Toadsworth, calm down!" warned Toadette as she pulled back the cane from the elder. "Now's not the time to go insane!"

"Anyways, what else do you know?" asked Blaze.

"Hmm? Oh yeah… Um, during my interrogative sitting, I did manage to see something else off the corner of my eyes that seemed to possess powerful energy."

"What exactly is it? Is it the Master Emerald?" Rouge perked up.

"Pfft, in your dreams, Rouge. It's resting on Angel Island where it should be," Knuckles counteracted.

"Well you never know if he stole it as well! Maybe there's something wrong with your noggin. After all, you are one gullible dolt," smirked the seductive bat.

"Would you shut the hell up?! I don't get easily deceived that often," denied the red echidna. He went up to the cell door and angrily threw his hands out as if he wanted to pull her into his knuckles, like a bunch of fan girls trying to grasp their favorite celebrity crush. Except in his case, he looked irritated to the point where he wanted to strangle her. "You're lucky that you're locked up in the other jail spot!"

Vector, Espio, Shadow, and Silver tried to pull him back to alleviate his temper. Yoshi, Orbot, Cubot, and Charmy cowered together as they were scared to see Knuckles heat up like that. Eggman facepalmed and grunted.

"To answer your question, no, neither he nor I stole the Master Emerald. But as I was saying, this object I saw was placed inside this powerful generator. The thing is, there were five separate fragments; all of them looked the same. And each one seemed to contain some type of dark energy."

"Hmm…" Princess Peach noticed her red-dotted retainer putting his hand on his chin, deep in thought.

"Is something wrong, Toad?"

The mushroom attendant turned to the royal lady. "Whatever the doctor described sounds so familiar to me. Where have I heard something like that though?"

Espio inquired for more information. "Do you know anything else about these… pieces you saw? What do they look like?"

"If I can remember, the fragments were purple. All of them were glistening with lightning sparks. Not only that, but I saw some strange white entities hooked up to the machine. Whoever they were, they seemed to absorb the power source from those pieces. And I overheard them talking about a moon… or something like that."

A sudden realization popped into Toad's head. He now knew what Robotnik was talking about. "Oh no!" he shrieked, getting everyone's attention.

"What's wrong?" Daisy asked.

"I think that villain broke the Dark Moon!"

Location: Edge's Headquarters

Deep within the caves was Myster Edge's headquarters. He was lounging in a large, black chair in front of his special control room that the robots have built for him. Similar to Eggman's, he was overseeing the gigantic supercomputer and his multiple security cameras to spy on the captured victims inside their dungeons.

Edge smirked evilly as he shifted his glance to the four Chaos Emeralds that were floating in his scepter, including the purple gem Eggman described. To his benefit, his robot army sought throughout Mobius and found it outside the perimeter of the Mystic Ruins. After discovering it, one of the henchmen unlocked the warp pipe outside of Mobius' train station to deliver it personally. And now, the cloaked shadow has more than half of the priceless jewels. There's three more to find, but the antagonist was unaware that one of them was in the hands of the blue hedgehog.

"Myster Edge," a robot called from behind. It was the one who locked up Eggman with the other hostages. "The draining process is almost complete. The ghosts should be more powerful than ever."

"Excellent work, Alpha," answered Edge, sinisterly.

He rotated his chair to view the magnificent machine. At the top, five Dark Moon fragments were concealed in a glass dome with tubes connected to five separate capsules. All the containers were holding the five Possessor Ghosts: Grouchy, Harsh, Overset, Shrewd, and Tough. (3) The ghosts were immobile, but they were being fed with the negative energy of the pieces. Some of the robots and possessed ghosts were watching over the procedure, fascinated by the Possessors who started to glow purple.

"HAHAHA! These ghosts are becoming stronger by the second! Once they're done, I'll use the remaining corrupted energy to construct the Oblivion! All that is left is completing our collection of the Chaos Emeralds to relinquish this black hole. And all worlds will cease to exist!"

The cloaked scoundrel continued his evil laugh, but he was interrupted by Alpha.

"Excuse me, my liege."

Edge stopped his cackling and looked at his technological henchman. "What is it now?"

"I must inform you, there are supposed to be six Dark Moon fragments, not five. Don't you need every single one?"

The villain raised an eyebrow. "Six, you say? Apparently, I wasn't keeping track of that. But that does not matter. We can work with what we have. The moon's power is sufficient to create the Dark Shards. By creating enough of these, the dark holes will ravage the skies and begin to grow, thus leading to their demises. We may not need every single Dark Moon piece, but the Shards will help me become more powerful than ever. Not only that, but we need the seven Emeralds to summon the Oblivion itself."

"But didn't you say we needed to keep the broken pieces separate from each other?"

"We will once the Possessors are fully powered up and when we have enough shards and all seven Emeralds, we can create the Oblivion. Eventually, I'll leave them the responsibility of holding the Dark Moon in various locations."

"Okay, but are you sure you don't need all six?" Alpha asked once more for confirmation.

"Who cares?" Edge smirked. "It's not like that pathetic green guy's gonna retrieve them all like before. If he tried to fight them, those ghosts will be more aggressive and harmful to possibly end his and his friends' games. And because of this, we don't have to worry about anyone ruining my master plan."

"If you say so, my lord. But I have one more question," the robot complied.

"And what is that?"

"Why are we keeping the other prisoners? What do they have to do with your plan?"

"Well initially, I was going to convert them into being my slaves. But since the fat doctor refused with his bitter attitude, the others will probably act accordingly like him. So instead, they'll be part of a test."

"A test?" Alpha asked with curiosity.

"A test to see if this guy can truly be a hero. And if he is, then he'll have to save them all. But that will be his top priority, so he'll be distracted. To our advantage, we can continue making the shards to call forth the Oblivion. And he will be too late to stop me, and too late to even achieve such a high status," he finished with an evil grin.

"Ah, now I see the whole picture."

"Yes. Everything is coming together. But like I said, our focus is to get the rest of the Emeralds as the Possessors take in more power into their ghostly figures. As for you and the other minions, head back to the dungeons and retrieve the captives. Separate them into groups and take them to my other dungeons. That way, we can buy more time as those heroes attempt to rescue their friends, but they'll have to traverse through multiple areas to actually find them."

"As you wish, Myster Edge. Ghosts! Robots! Follow me back to the caverns!"

With Alpha's command, a horde of Greenies, Slammers, and robots headed back to the double cells. As for Edge, he remained in his large chair, laughing maniacally at his progress.

"The Dark Moon?" Cubot questioned.

"I've never heard of anything like that," Orbot added.

"Me neither," said Silver.

"How is it possible to destroy a celestial body like that?" interrogated Shadow.

"Clearly, you don't remember the time Eggman destroyed half the moon back in our world," Knuckles replied. (4)

"What exactly is the Dark Moon?" asked Blaze.

Toad lectured the gang about the importance of the purple celestial body and the time Luigi had to travel to multiple mansions during his adventure. He explained that it was broken by King Boo, who ordered the ghosts to rule under his bidding, and gave the Possessor Ghosts the Dark Moon pieces to guard them. Luigi would have to use his Poltergust 5000 to fight inanimate or possessed objects to capture the bosses. He went through hell and back to collect the pieces, restore the moon, return the ghosts back to their hospitable state, and save his older brother.

"Wow, Luigi must be very brave to trek through so much ground and face so many dangers to get those ghosts back to normal," praised Vector.

"Yeah! That's so cool, finding ghosts and sucking them up with his vacuum! He's a professional ghost buster if you ask me!" exclaimed Charmy.

"It's astounding, but it was also very scary and uncomfortable for Luigi because of his fear of ghosts," Toad fretted. "I was more of a scaredy-cat than he was. I was more afraid that the ghosts would kill him, and he'd join their spirits!"

"Thankfully, Luigi was alright after saving Mario. But when he returned to the Mushroom Kingdom, he did look unstable for a week. Even though he's now used to the friendly ghosts in Evershade, he's still fearful of paranormal activity," Peach mentioned to the cellmates.

"Now, all we could hope for is Luigi and the others to save us and stop that scoundrel! But now that we know Edge's purpose for the Dark Moon, we can contact him about this," insisted Daisy as she pulled out her Mailbox SP.

"I never thought I would say this, but we appreciate your help, Eggman," thanked Amy.

Eggman scoffed. "Yeah, well… Don't bother asking me for information to help you again. That will be the last time!"

After Daisy texted her message to Luigi, the guys heard footsteps approaching the cavernous prisons. With a booming voice, the prisoners jumped.

"Inmates! LINE UP!" roared Alpha.

"What exactly is this? The military or a poor version of G.U.N.?" sneered Rouge.

"I said LINE UP! Or do you want to be terminated?"

They reluctantly did what they were told by his aggressive demand. Then, the robotic underling unlocked the left prison door. The Greenies were assigned to watch over Silver, Shadow, and the Chaotix. The Slammer ghosts took Knuckles, Yoshi, Eggman, Orbot, and Cubot. Edge's robots oversaw the prisoners in the right dungeon, keeping them locked inside and making sure they don't escape.

"Aren't you gonna take us, too?" Peach queried the head robot.

"No. I'm here to separate the other prisoners from you guys. That way, there's less chatter going on around here." Alpha turned back to the ghosts. "Alright, boys. Take them to the cruiser! Don't let them get out of your hands."

"Wait, where are you taking us?" Yoshi panicked.

"None of your business, dino-breath! Now get moving!"

"Unhand us, you hooligans!" Espio shouted.

"Hey, watch the gold chains! They're worth a lot!" Vector screeched.

"Ow! How are you that strong for a ghost?! You're worse than those malfunctioned bots!" complained Eggman.

The Greenies and Slammers held down the prisoners as they boarded two separate large aircrafts, both with a black shadow insignia printed on the side. After they left, Alpha and his robotic crew looked back at the other captives.

"Now, you girls and mushroom people will stay here. I hope you don't mind rotting until Edge fulfills his needs."

Daisy growled. "Just you wait, nefarious bolt brain! Mario and his friends will kick your guys' asses and save us! And we can count on Luigi to capture those phony ghosts!"

Peach held her friend back. "Daisy, control yourself!"

"Like that green plumber stands a chance. He's a weak and easily frightened being. How do you even have confidence in him?"

Alpha's hurtful comments towards Luigi infuriated the flower princess. How dare does that robot try to humiliate her significant other? Peach was also offended by his remarks. Luigi was her best friend next to Daisy. But all she could do was worry for him, considering he was harmed by Myster Edge a few days ago, as well as think about Mario. Amy, Cream, and the rest of the Sonic gang still had their minds on Sonic and Tails. They hoped the two can help the Mario Bros. stop this madness.

"Have fun being trapped in here, not that you have a choice and can't do anything about it."

Alpha chortled loudly as he walked back to his boss' headquarters. The robot army then stood guard over the trapped victims as they were held in the cave against their wills. All they could do was sit and hope their heroes will come to their rescue.

END OF CHAPTER

We finally got to see Eggman again, only for him to be gone… again. Hopefully I made his humor up to par since he was absent since the end of Chapter 2. He reluctantly helped the other prisoners by sharing the details, to his knowledge, on Edge's scheme. Will the message to Luigi and the others get there in time before it's too late?

Along with that, we know that the prisoners were originally caught in Vanilla Dome. Where do you think the ghosts took the other half? We'll return to Toadley Clinic to check up on the man in green. And we'll also revisit another character that hasn't been seen for so long.

As always, thanks for reading and please review!

Post-Chapter Notes:

(1): Vanilla Dome is the third world found in Super Mario World. I chose this cave location as the resting spot for the kidnapped victims.

(2): What Amy and Cream were explaining was the fight scene between Knuckles and Sonic in Sonic Adventure, which was one of many instances where the red echidna is known to be easily tricked. (Even though Cream technically wasn't found in SA, assume that Sonic told her about how stupid Knuckles can be.)

(3): These are the names of the five Possessors Luigi faced in his Dark Moon quest.

Fun fact: the first letters in their names in sequential order (by which they were fought and found) spells out the word 'GHOST'. That's a pretty cool detail Nintendo used in that game!

(4): Eggman made a threat to demolish the moon in Sonic Adventure 2. The Dark Moon wasn't the only celestial body that was destroyed!