Chapter 1

The Underground

"Hey, guys! I'm back! Did you miss me?" asked a blue hedgehog as he ran through the door of his friend Tails' house. The fox's face lit up when he saw his friend. They ran towards each other and were soon embracing each other in a friendship hug. When Tails let go, Sonic saw Shadow was staring into his chaos emerald with a serious look on his face.

"Was it really the right thing...? Sealing all of those monsters beneath the surface of our world? Why am I doubting myself?! Of course, it was the right thing!!" Shadow snapped to himself. He hardly noticed that his rival had walked into the room.

"Uh... Hi, Shads! What is this you say about monsters? Don't tell me you got attacked while I was away! I only went to visit some relatives for a couple of days! What happened?" asked Sonic suddenly feeling left out.

Shadow finally realized that Sonic was back. He didn't really react the way Sonic was expecting. He didn't say 'Faker! I was hoping that you had a major accident and wasn't going to come back!' or 'Hmph! So you have returned.'. He didn't even get up and leave the room! He seemed distracted.

"Shadow's been a little out of it since he made the decision. He's trying to prove to the world that he doesn't want anything other than what's best for us. He says 'It's what she would want.'. However, when the monsters showed up in our world wanting to coexist with us, he said that they were a threat to us and he sealed them underground with the chaos emeralds. He's been doubting himself ever since...," Tails explained.

Sonic looked shocked. "He sealed them away with the chaos emeralds?! After they specifically said that they wanted peace?! He didn't even give them a chance?! Shadow, I do agree that they might be dangerous, but they might also be nice people! Did you let them explain why they were here?" asked Sonic tapping his foot and shaking his head with disappointment.

"They said they were from the human world. They came here because humans sent them here to live peacefully. I haven't seen a human other than Eggman for years! That's one reason why I didn't want to believe them! Not to mention, none of them looked natural!" Shadow stated.

Tails and Sonic sighed. What could they do? The monsters were already sealed away. Sonic shrugged it off and decided that he probably should think more about it later. He turned to his buddy Tails. "Listen, I want you to take Shadow back to the same place he sealed them. If possible, I want you to try to release them with the chaos emeralds. I don't want any of this to have the possibility of repeating itself. Just think. If those monsters were to escape, you want to know what they'd do? They'd probably come to try to destroy us! I want Shadow to make up with the monsters. If you think we should, we can let them coexist with us. Okay?" asked Sonic.

"Okay," answered Tails.

Sonic went out for a run. Wind smacking against his face as he saw the sights of his home. Mobius really was a beautiful planet. There was plenty of room to run, there were many wondrous sights, and there were almost always blue skies. It was hard to believe that the monsters would want to destroy them over all of this uninhabited land. Sonic knew there was plenty of room. He could understand why the humans would send them here.There were billions of humans. There was much more room on Mobius than on Earth. What was Shadow thinking?

He was only trying to consider the safety of the others. I guess I can't blame him for that. He's only been trying to do what Maria would see right. However, his acts were a little too hasty this time.

As Sonic ran, he saw a large mountain. Curiosity swept through the blue hedgehog as he climbed the slope. Was this mountain here before? When Sonic reached the top, he saw Tails and Shadow at the top with the seven chaos emeralds. This mountain was where Shadow sealed them! Sonic approached.

"Hey Tails, apparently, by sealing the monsters, Shads made a mountain!" Sonic exclaimed looking at all of the golden flowers. Tails nodded.

"It's incredible how much power is flowing out of this mountain! It must've taken a lot of chaos energy to build this barrier! I'm going to have to show the others!" Tails exclaimed as he began to text Knuckles, Amy, Silver, and Blaze about the mountain. He got an instant reply from Amy who said she'd be right over. Sonic walked forward and saw a huge hole at the top of the mountain. It was almost like looking into a volcano that had a hole and you couldn't see the bottom at the top. Shadow was staring at it blankly.

"What if I can't break the barrier?" asked Shadow to Sonic.

"You must try!" Sonic pleaded.

Shadow took a few steps closer to the bottomless pit. The chaos emeralds circled him. As he was about to reach the edge of the hole, his foot got stuck in a tree root. His body launched forward and Shadow bit back a long list of words that he knew he'd regret saying sooner or later. His foot came loose, but it was too late. Shadow, with the chaos emeralds, went plunging into the hole. Before Sonic knew he was even doing it, he was running to save Shadow.

He ran too fast and fell into the hole as well! ... ... ... ... ...

The two of them fell. The last thing Sonic saw of the surface before drowning in darkness was Tails as he screamed Sonic's name. Sonic wished he could reply, but it was almost too painful to make an encouraging comment considering the situation he was in. All he did was fall.

Five minutes later.

CRASH!!!

Shadow moaned. Sonic groaned. The two hedgehogs sat up and looked around. Everything was dark. Thankfully, the golden flowers at the bottom of the cliff broke their fall. Only the small clearing they were in was lit. They didn't know what to do. Sonic looked up to the sky. He couldn't see it. They had fallen too far. When they were finally able to stand and talk, they didn't. They didn't feel like moving at all. They didn't have any determination or motivation whatsoever. They just wanted to wait for Tails to throw a rope down to them. Nothing happened as they waited.

"What now?" asked Sonic.

"These flowers...," Shadow said without paying attention to Sonic.

"What about them? They're yellow flowers! Nothing more!" Sonic said as he looked at them.

"No... These flowers... They remind me of someone... They remind me of Maria... Her golden hair... For some reason, the memories that these flowers give me... fills me with...," Shadow stopped Sonic was getting tired of how Shadow couldn't just say something without adding large gaps in his sentences.

"Spit it out already!"

"It fills me with determination!" Shadow said.

He stood to his feet with a feeling of purpose bubbling within him. He didn't know where it was coming from. He didn't want to just wait there anymore. He was there to do something. Shadow dragged Sonic to his feet.

"What are you doing?!" demanded Sonic.

"Don't you get it?! The only way we're ever going to make it out of here is by continuing! If we stay here, we aren't really going to get anywhere are we? No! We have to keep moving! I'll carry you to the surface if that's what I gotta do!"

Sonic closed his eyes and thought. When he opened his eyes, the Sonic Shadow knew so well awoke once more. The one not willing to give up. Shadow still didn't know where this suddenly came from within him. He just knew.

"Let's find a way out," Sonic said with a nod.

They walked around and after about thirty seconds, Sonic yelled to Shadow and pointed to a large purple door. There was a faint light beyond it. They both looked to each other with the same thought. They stepped into the room. They didn't find what they expected! That's for sure! They found...

Another golden flower. Actually, this one was different. It was a big, smiling flower. Shadow coughed and Sonic looked at it weirdly. A smiling flower. The last thing they expected to find.

The flower looked up at them and flashed its biggest smile for them. The two hedgehogs jumped when it moved. The flower was trying not to laugh at them. It pulled itself together and talked with a happy, annoying voice.

"Howdy!! I'm Flowey!! Flowey the Flower! Hmm... You're new to the Underground, aren'tcha? Golly, you must be so confused!" Flowey said with its big grin.

"IT SPOKE!!" Sonic yelled with even more surprise.

"Of course, it spoke!! I'm guessing that everything here speaks! Yes, we are a little confused," Shadow told the flower.

"Gee! If you don't know that much, you must not know anything about how things are down here! Someone ought to tell you how things work around here! I guess little old me will have to do!" Flowey answered.

"Oh boy...," Shadow said without enthusiasm.

"Quiet! Just because I'm a flower doesn't mean that I can't hear your rude statements! Well, are you ready? Here we go! Time to start the lesson!" Flowey announced.

Two hearts drifted in front of them. Both of them were red. Sonic poked it. When he did, he laughed as if had been poked in the ribs. They both looked at the hearts in confusion. Flowey began to explain.

"See those hearts? Those are your souls! They are the very culmination of your being!" Flowey told them.

"These are our souls! Now this is getting weird!" Sonic cried as he looked at his little red heart just floating right in front of him. So defenseless...

"Well, what else do we need to know? At the moment, I'm a little freaked out by the fact that I'm staring at my own soul, but I'm still certain that there's more I need to know," Shadow stated trying not to say the flower's name because he knew he'd look ridiculous by saying Flowey.

Flowey laughed again. "Hold your horses there! We can't rush these things! Your buddy might not be able to keep up!" Flowey stated.

"Are you calling me slow?! I'm the fastest thing alive for your information!" Sonic yelled angrily.

Flowey continued to laugh. The two hedgehogs weren't sure what kind of a laugh it was anymore. An evil laugh? A happy laugh? A laugh that means nothing at all?

"Well, you can move the heart with your mind. Each time you get attacked, your soul will appear. Your soul gets stronger by collecting LV!" Flowey told them.

"LV?" asked Sonic and Shadow in sync.

"Yeah! It's short for LOVE! You want some LOVE right?" asked Flowey.

Sonic and Shadow looked at each other. What was up with this strange plant? Flowey didn't wait for their answer. It launched small white dots at them. Shadow and Sonic still weren't sure about any of what the flower was saying.

"Get as many as you can!" cheered Flowey.

Neither of the hedgehogs moved. They just stared. There were too many to avoid and they didn't know whether if Flowey was right or not. They didn't move. Shadow thought hard and readied to attack the plant with a chaos spear. It was right then he got hit. Sonic got hit as well. They both yelled in pain and fell to their knees already beaten. Something told them that they only had 1 hit point left. They suddenly realized that the flower wanted to kill them. They looked up at the flower to see that it had a horrible monster face replacing the silly smile. It smirked at them with its evil grin and laughed a horrifying laugh.

"Wait... Shadow? Wh-a-at h-hap-pened?" asked Sonic trying not to be startled by the sudden change from the flower. He looked over at Shadow to see that the dark hedgehog was almost as freaked out as him.

"I-I think we're in trouble...," Shadow said taking a step back. He was stopped when sharp stones appeared and began to circle around them to take their last hit point.

"You idiots... In this world, it's kill or be killed!" yelled Flowey.

The rock spikes drew closer and closer. Sonic officially had enough with that world. It had to be a bad dream... It felt too real to be a dream... Shadow was there and their backs were pressed against each other and both were breathing heavily. Flowey laughed more and more.

"It was nice knowing you Sonic...," Shadow stated bluntly.

"Yeah. You too," Sonic answered.

Suddenly, a ball of fire hit the flower and the rock spikes fell all over the ground. Shadow and Sonic looked around in bewilderment. Another monster who was trying to kill them?

"A horrible creature isn't it? Don't worry. I am here to help you. You see, I have vowed to come by here every day to see if anyone has fallen down. Apparently, I found you just in time. The Underground isn't a place for you hedgehogs. Even if it was you who sealed us in here," said a goat lady who had white fur and wore a purple dress. She stood about a couple feet taller than them and had small horns on her head. She held no weapons, but it was obvious she had pyrokinesis.

Sonic and Shadow stood up weakly. They weren't surprised by appearances anymore. After the flower, they didn't really care. Shadow knew that his reputation had jumped out the door and took a jacket and suitcase with it. Sonic was able to ask the question on both of their minds.

"Who are you? Are you here to hurt us?" he asked.

"I'm not here to harm you child. I'll take you to my humble home where it's safe. My name? Oh! You may call me Toriel!" Toriel replied.

"Toriel? That's a nice name!" Sonic said.

"Whatever! How do we get to your house? We're not exactly too keen on staying here. Is it far?" asked Shadow.

"No. It's not far. Are we going to stand talking and let an enemy find us? We can't have that! You're too weak to battle or act. We should go now. Follow me!"

Author's note: Sorry this was a little boring and dry, but first chapters are kinda like that. Next chapter will be puzzles and a trip to Toriel's house! Yeah... They are repeating events without knowledge of ever doing what they already did. I don't know how this'll turn out or if this'll change. Just bear with me on this... Oh! Lily the Hedgehog will be added to this story by request! Be sure to expect to see her in the story soon!