Dark Gaia is a spirit of destruction and darkness from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Appearing in the game Sonic Unleashed, this gargantuan creature is a hyper energy organism that resides within the centre of the planet and has existed since the dawn of time. Dark Gaia periodically awakens every few hundred millennia as part of a cycle of global destruction and rebirth, cleansing the world of life until it is confronted by its counterpart Light Gaia, which lays Dark Gaia to rest and rejuvenates the ruined world before returning to sleep and continuing the cycle.
Contents
History
Sonic Unleashed
Dark Gaia is prematurely awoken
In the modern era, the mad scientist Dr. Eggman hatched a diabolical plan to awaken Dark Gaia in order to harness its immense power, intending to use the creature's energy to fuel the foundation of the Eggman Empire. To awaken the great beast, the doctor constructed a space station that housed his latest world-shaking superweapon, the Chaos Energy Cannon. Eggman assembled a fleet of battleships in orbit above the planet to lure his arch-enemy Sonic the Hedgehog into a trap, knowing that Sonic would collect the Chaos Emeralds as he made his way towards a confrontation with the doctor himself.
As anticipated, Sonic pursued Eggman into space and used the Chaos Emeralds to become Super Sonic. The doctor lured Super Sonic to the Chaos Energy Cannon satellite where he sprung his trap, neutralizing the Chaos energy and reverting Sonic to his normal self as his machine siphoned off the energy. The cannon was charged and it fired on the planet below, splitting it into fragments and releasing Dark Gaia. The beast had not yet fully matured upon awakening and could not sustain its mass, and so it dissolved into a noxious black vapour that spread across the shattered world and coalesced into a series of dark monsters that ran amok across the divided continents. Another unexpected side effect of Dark Gaia's premature release was Sonic's transformation into a bestial Werehog form.
With Dark Gaia released, Dr. Eggman jettisoned Sonic and the Chaos Emeralds from the satellite and returned to earth to carry out his conquest. He built a device that would attract the fragments of Dark Gaia to one place, allowing him to usurp its energy and construct Eggmanland, the capital of his global empire. Of course, Sonic survived his fall back to earth and, along with the mysterious sprite Chip (which was, in fact, Light Gaia) began seeking out the Gaia Temples scattered across the world so that he could re-energize the Chaos Emeralds and bring the fragmented planet back together. In spite of Sonic's interference, Dr. Eggman would complete Eggmanland's construction and restore Dark Gaia.
Sonic would eventually invade Eggmanland and fight his way through the doctor's robot army to the Gaia Temple located beneath the twisted city. After defeating the doctor's latest mecha, the Egg Dragoon, Sonic and Chip confronted the restored Dark Gaia which absorbed the dark essence from Sonic's body that had turned him into a Werehog. Chip, whose memories and powers had been restored after the Chaos Emeralds had been placed into each of the Gaia Temples, summoned the temples together to form a massive golem-like construct, the Gaia Colossus. The Gaia Colossus battled against Dark Gaia within the planet's core until the monster transformed into its ultimate form: Perfect Dark Gaia.
Summoning the power of the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic transformed into Super Sonic. He and the Gaia Colossus were able able to shatter Dark Gaia's defensive barriers and destroy its weak points, causing the beast to collapse into the molten core of the planet where it returned to its slumber. With its dark counterpart defeated, Light Gaia/Chip also disappeared, put to rest until the cycle next began.
Forms and abilities
Dark Gaia
Dark Gaia is an immensely large and gargantuan creature of such size that it makes characters like Sonic seem like no more than grains of sand by comparison. It has brown skin with its lower body and torso resembling that of a snake's, two thin arms with long neon-blue claws, and scaly shoulders. Its head itself is very wide, much wider than its main body and is mostly composed of its jagged mouth (which remains closed until it transforms) and has a single green eye on each end of it. Its central face looks like that of a reptile, with four small horns on the top of it, white eyes and one large green eye on the middle of its forehead.
On its back, Dark Gaia has seven purple flaming energy tentacles sticking out from it, and neon blue scaly fins that runs from its lower back, up to its head. It also possesses "hair" in the form of purple energy that emits from its head and back, giving it the appearance of a mohawk.
Dark Gaia is one of the most powerful beings in the Sonic series, possibly only second or equivalent to Solaris. At the peak of its power, Dark Gaia is strong enough to injure a Super State with sheer force alone. Additionally, it could fight Super Sonic to the point where Sonic fainted from exhaustion, something no one has been capable of, and at the same time, take on Light Gaia who is supposedly just as powerful as itself.
As the sole reason for its existence, Dark Gaia has the natural ability to break an entire planet into pieces, though elements such as gravity, atmosphere and sea levels are still maintained on the various fragments. Due to its immense size, Dark Gaia has vast amounts of physical strength; in its immature form, it can lift masses weighting potentially hundreds of tons with just one hand and throw them effortlessly. Even in its immature form, Dark Gaia has large amounts of physically durability and endurance, being able to withstand a series of pummelling from the Gaia Colossus and still continue to fight and resist. Additionally, Dark Gaia has such a resistance to heat that it can touch molten magma without being burned.
Dark Gaia is capable of projecting extremely powerful and large blasts of energies; it can either shoot beams from its mouth or as concentrated points around its body, or create small energy orbs that can shoot themselves at enemies. Similarly, Dark Gaia's body is composed of an unknown form of energy that is sinister, dark and corruptive. It has complete control of this energy as it was able to rip out its energy from Sonic the Werehog by will alone. Energy fragments from Dark Gaia can take the form of various dark and destructive monsters, which have various powers and are able to possess people, and can mutate beings or the environment into corrupted creatures. As revealed by Eggman, Dark Gaia's energies can also power machinery, such as the Egg Dragoon.
Dark Gaia can manipulate darkness on a global scale. It can unleash a well of darkness that can envelop an entire planet. This, in turn, can bring it into total darkness and eventually extinguish all life on it. It can also draw power from the negative energies of the world to empower itself and help it mature. Additionally, it can also manipulate emotional energy, allowing it to gain strength from the negative emotions manifested by the people on the planet as well, such as hatred and sadness.
As a being of darkness, and therefore one of the eternal forces alongside light, Dark Gaia is completely immortal and can therefore never truly be destroyed, as its presence is needed to preserve the world's balance.
Dark Gaia's only known weak spots are its various green eyes which are highly sensitive to damage, since Sonic could inflict significant damage on Dark Gaia by attacking them. Also, when in its immature state, it can use its powers on a basic level, such as using it hands to pick up magma rather than by levitation and it can lose focus on its energy blasts if attacked.
Perfect Dark Gaia
Perfect Dark Gaia
Basically, Perfect Dark Gaia is identical to its immature Dark Gaia form, except that it now has gained extra features. Once matured, it grows four extra, identical arms, giving it a total of six arms. Its large mouth, which makes up most of its head, has been opened, revealing hundreds of tiny tongues which give way to reveal seven green eyes; three smaller eyes in each side and one large, central eye where its (former) visual mouth once was. It also gains two more tongues, which hang out from each side of its central eye, similar to a dog's tongue, as well as a more human-like tongue barely visible below it.
Its seven tentacles move down from its spine to below the magma that it resides in. Their ends also gain more shape as well, resembling a serpent head with a small mohawk, and each with one green eye in their mouth.
Perfect Dark Gaia possesses the same powers as its premature form, but can use them in a more refined and focused manner due to reaching full maturity. Being at the peak of its power, Perfect Dark Gaia stands as one of the most powerful beings in the series, being able to injure a Super State through brute force alone. Additionally, it could fight Super Sonic to the point where he fainted from exhaustion, something no one has been capable of, while taking on Light Gaia who is supposedly just as powerful as itself.
Like before, Perfect Dark Gaia has immense levels of super strength, capable of completely immobilizing the Gaia Colossus in its grip and overpower said foe in extended hand-to-hand combat. Likewise, it is capable of projecting extremely powerful energies into a variety of attacks; its can shoot large beams from its central eye, project purple orbs, launch black balls with paralyzing effects, and channel its energies into its claws for enhanced slashes. It can as well channel its energies through its tentacles to form a force-field around itself that not even Super Sonic can break through, though destroying the tentacles will lower the shield. Unlike its immature form though, Perfect Dark Gaia does not lose focus when charging its energies when attacked and can launch its beams at a much faster rate.
Minions
When Dark Gaia was awakened by Dr. Eggman, it was still premature and it de-stabilised as it emerged from the planet's core. Its essence spread across the shattered world and gave rise to many dark monsters of various shapes and sizes that went on a destructive rampage during the night. These Dark Gaia Minions have been listed below.
