When we got there, it looked like we were watching global warming in motion. The glaciers were sweating while I was freezing. It was like they were laughing at me as they basked in the sun. I couldn't even feel its warmth; the light winds wafting around were enough to keep me distracted from any happiness.

"Can you feel anything?" Robin asked. "It's a good thing Cyborg checked the ship before we came. I wouldn't be surprised if an Emerald was in the water."

I shook my head. "I can't feel any positive or negative energy. I can only feel myself turning into a block of ice."

"So we need to help you focus," Starfire said.

"Let's try again, Sonic," Raven said. I groaned. We had already tried searching by 'combining our power' three times. I couldn't sense anything. "But this time, sit in the warmth of the ship."

I rolled my eyes. "There is nothing here! There might be one somewhere else in the water, but there isn't one around here!"

"We can't take chances," Robin said, glaring at me. "Do it one more time."

"Fine," I snapped, climbing into the ship and rubbing my hands together. It had been a bad ride in the T-ship flying slowly in the water. I nearly decided to run above it, but if I had fallen into the water, I really would have turned into a popsicle for the sharks to munch on.

"Get ready," I heard Raven say. Her voice was muffled from the inside of the ship, but it was audible enough.

"Yeah, whatever," I muttered. The last thing I wanted at the moment was to actually find out there was an Emerald on the bottom of the sea - and being on the ship while we sailed in darkness to find it. "Ready," I yelled back to Raven.

The giant form of complete darkness started covering the sea again. At least I didn't have to look at it when that happened. It put my fears at ease a bit.

I did focus for any sign of energy. But there was nothing. There was nothing to explain the glaciers melting. It had to be the work of Slade instead. Maybe he was doing it for some peculiar reason.

A full minute passed, and I yawned. "There's nothing, Raven," I shouted. "No energy at all."

"Keep focusing," she ordered. I rested my head on my hands and relaxed. The further out the darkness got, the less I felt of anything. I could barely sense Starfire and Robin's bodies. 

"Still nothing," I sighed. "This is completely pointless. She's just-"

Suddenly, something seemed to grip me. I squeezed the arms of the chair I was on tighter and tighter, no longer needing to focus. An overwhelming fear of the water overcame me; it was as if I was drowning in my own fear. My vision was filled with bright lights, and I cried out and put my face into my hands. I didn't want to be there anymore. Being surrounded by water with the feeling of one of the fake Emeralds nearby apparently didn't sit well with me. I was almost incapacitated with the fear.

Which gave me a great idea...

"Did you find it?" Robin asked, pulling open the door. "Did you-"

I turned my face a bit and smiled. It must have been unsettling, because Robin took a step backwards. I must have still had crazy-eyes from the fear I had felt, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh, I found it all right," I said. "Don't look at me like that! I'm not crazy yet!"

"If you say so," Robin chuckled.

"I know how you can stop me," I said. "Easily."

Starfire frowned. "What do you mean by that? We have no reason to stop you if we are able to find these jewels before the enemy."

"We all know that won't happen," I said. "But as I felt the presence of the Emerald, I felt an overwhelming fear. A fear of the water. I literally felt like I couldn't breathe. My power may be increased with the gems, but so are my fears. I think."

"That makes a little sense..." Robin muttered. "But let's find the jewel first. Then we'll get back and discuss everything."

They all got into the ship, and we were back in the water before I could say anything. Everyone was silent. Then I realized something. "Raven, did you feel it, too?" I asked. "You're awfully quiet."

"Yes," she sighed. "I felt a fear - but it wasn't my own. I felt your fear."

"Wh... wait," I shook my head. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Really, because it made complete sense to me."

I narrowed my eyes. "You're messing with me, aren't you?"

"Glad you can tell me that much, hedgehog."

"Is this about where you two felt it?" Robin asked. "We've gotten pretty far out."

I slumped in my seat. "Yeah, this feels about right. Worse than usual, in fact. No, I don't know what that means. Just go a bit farther."

"Fair enough," Robin replied.

"Maybe we should transport the bad Emeralds to the other base," Starfire suggested. "Then we could have the other Titans keep full surveillance on it."

"We sent them on a mission a long time ago," Robin replied. "They haven't gotten back, yet. They were spying on that academy or something that those three losers were from."

"They would be unable to come back even in an emergency?" Starfire asked.

"Hey!" I shouted, "I like this idea. Not like I'm butting in or anything. You don't have anyone to spare?"

Robin didn't say anything for a few minutes. "Well... I have a little bit of an idea, but it could be a major risk..."

"Okay, I'll bite," I said. "What?"

"Well..." Robin hesitated. "You know that guy that made you ruin your shoes?"

"That was, like, more than a week ago," I said. "There are so many enemies... was that the guy with the red 'X' shaped glue things? You plan on getting my shoes screwed up again or something?"

"He's not necessarily a bad guy, is the thing. He's just... kind of confused and greedy. He probably heard about the gem from Slade, and wanted it for himself. This way, the risk would be him taking the dark Chaos Emeralds as opposed to the pure ones."

"And what if he really is working for Slade? How bad off would we be?"

Robin laughed, "we'd really be in trouble."

I stopped for a minute, my hand on my chin. I was looking out the window, but I didn't really notice the water. There were fish out there, some small, some large, and some ginormus. It was survival of the fittest out there, and in that ship, it was more like that was a laughing joke. Being the loser in such a high-stakes battle wasn't something I wanted to be a part of.

"It's up to you," Robin said. "We might be able to send Cyborg or Beast Boy over there as well, but Red X is pretty sneaky. I wouldn't be surprised if he ran off with an Emerald or two."

"If he only took a few, it might delay Slade's plans," I said with a smile. "And that wouldn't be as fun, would it?"

"I am not sure this whole battle is about your amusement, Sonic..." Starfire replied.

I laughed. "Yeah, I suppose it really is more about getting through it all alive, isn't it?"

"There's still the possibility that he could bring them to Slade," Robin suggested, "though he was never known for that."

Raven made a sort of laugh. "How would you be able to tell him apart from Slade's kid?"

Nobody answered. She had a point there.

"She is still in our captivity," Starfire reminded us. "Perhaps we will get lucky and she will not have escaped by the time we get back."

"There it is!" I heard Robin shout. The ship jolted, then paused completely.

I looked out the window to my left and saw it there as well. This one was a very dark blue, almost black. I stared it down as if I was having a staring contest with it. It made me shiver, and the Emerald won. "I hate this job."

"There!" Robin said. "Got it. Now we can go home."

I frowned. The Chaos Emerald was still there. "Robin...?" I said slowly. "What color is it?"

"It's kind of a... very neon yellow. It hurts to look at."

That sounded so absurd that I almost laughed. "Neon yellow? That doesn't really make sense. Especially since I'm looking at a black one over here."

The ship was quiet, and no one even dared to breathe for a few minutes. Robin was probably looking for it on a scanner, but I felt like everyone had become scared. Scared for me.

"Hey, it's cool," I said, "it's not like we wouldn't have found more at some point anyway. What's the hold up?"

"The hold up...?" Robin asked. "Nothing. I was just... surprised. How many does that make now?"

I looked down. We had a dangerous number of the Emeralds. I could feel their energy, and I pulled my knees up to my chest. After a moment, I put my head on top of them, looking at the wall to my right. It was blank, but it had pictures moving on it like a projector was displaying it. I saw my friends, having fun; Tails was running next to me, trying to keep up. It made me smile. I closed my eyes, because I wanted to leave that movie on a good note. Were the Emeralds making me hallucinate now?

No one asked how many Emeralds there were again. The thought of there only being two of them left that we hadn't found was enough to frighten me. We were going to have to go through with the Red X plan. It was really one of our only hopes.

I shuddered all of a sudden. Chills were going up and down my spine like it was some crazy roller coaster. I kept telling myself that everything was going to be okay, but that did little to reassure me. I wasn't going to wallow in my own self pity though. I was done with that. It was stupid, unhelpful, unnecessary, and totally embarrassing. I had to be confident that we were all going to figure out a way to stop this from happening.

When we got back 'home', Cyborg was making waffles, and Beast Boy was looking for something to watch on the television. Tails was probably still studying the stupid Emeralds. Robin took them away from where they could reach me quickly. He just jumped out of the T-ship and ran.

Cyborg greeted us wildly, as would be expected. "Hey guys! Good to see you didn't crash the ship. Unless, of course, you swam all the way back."

"Yeah, like that would happen," I rolled my eyes. "I'd make Raven teleport me away or something. Or, just maybe, she would do it out of the kindness of her heart...?"

She scowled, and I laughed. "Ignore that all you want."

We could hear Beast Boy's tummy growl from the kitchen. "I'm starving, Cyborg. What kind of waffles are these that take so long? Are they made of glass or something?"

"I have literally been here for five minutes, dude," Cyborg replied, pouring some batter into the waffle maker. "Give me another minute, if you think you can live that long."

"I don't know if I can!" Beast Boy shouted.

"You guys are so stupid," Raven muttered.

"Who exactly does that include...?" I asked. I was sure I was going to regret it, but it just kind of slipped out.

"You boys..." Raven shook her head. "Even Robin can be slightly immature. It doesn't match all of you, however. You are so. Loud."

"Perhaps you should try and lighten up, Raven," Starfire suggested. "Maybe play one of their video games and have some fun."

Raven shot a look at me, then glanced at Starfire. "I am content sitting in my room and reading my books."

With that, she flew away, most likely into her room to read some of those books. Beast Boy shrugged. "She'll get over it and come back and eat. Or she'll steal a waffle when no one is looking and go back up to her room."

"Those are two completely different things," I said.

"He's not the sharpest tool in the shed, Sonic," Cyborg chuckled. "You should know that by now. Beast Boy! I assume you want the first batch."

"Thanks!" Beast Boy said, turning into a monkey to get his food. He ate it one bit at a time, with his fingers.

"Perhaps you should eat like a normal human, Beast Boy," Starfire said.

Beast Boy looked at her, then turned back into himself. "I guess, if you want me to..."

He grabbed a seat at one of the few tables, and I sat face to face with him. For a moment, I just watched Cyborg make the waffles, one at a time, my stomach growling and muttering...

"Hey," Beast Boy said, "you can have a bit of mine."

I shook my head. "They'll be ready soon, I can wait."

Beast Boy stopped eating for a minute and stared at me. Starfire was in a conversation with Cyborg. "Remember when you saved me from that lava trap we fell in to?" he chuckled. "I don't know how fried pterodactyl tastes, but I don't really want to know."

I smiled. "It's no problem. It's my job. But yeah, it was a really close one, wasn't it?"

He looked down and poked his waffle. "Are you... scared?"

I frowned. I hadn't expected a question like that. I looked up at him, but he was still just poking his waffle, as if he had suddenly lost his appetite. And that wasn't like him.

"A little," I said, "but I have faith in you guys. I... I would rather be killed than live with the fact that I killed others. It's just not something I would be able to really live with easily."

"You..." Beast Boy's eyes were suddenly wide. "You want us to kill you?"

I laughed. "If you can avoid it, it would be appreciated. I just want you guys to stop me from harming others, if that's what my goal will become. Trust me, I don't want to die. I really don't. I promise. I'm not going to just commit suicide; that would be helpful for everyone, but it... I couldn't do it. Tails would never forgive me."

Beast Boy smiled again. "That's good to know. Should we play a few races after dinner?"

"Absolutely," I stretched. "I need some relaxation from all this stress..."