Impatiently, Knuckles waited for the two girls to wake up. "I hope it doesn't take too much time," he grumbled. "I don't want to know what Eggman or other subjects would do if they find the Master Emerald pieces."
When suddenly, a bright ball of light came down descending on him.
He only had time to mutter: "Wha...?", then everything went white.
----
When Knuckles could see again, his surroundings had changed. He blinked. Then he rubbed his eyes and looked again. The image stayed the same.
He was standing in a big village of stone huts that were surrounded with numerous bonfires. The streets were being paved with stone slabs, and in the middle of the village, an enormous pyramid rose. It somehow looked like an ancient Inca temple.
But Knuckles knew better. He knew the ruins on his home island good enough to realize that this was a village of the ancient echidna civilization.
And he didn't really need that knowledge to find out, as all over the paths and coming out of the huts, purple-furred echidnas wearing ancient tribe garments were walking, working, talking and taking care of their young ones.
"What the..." he muttered. "Where the heck am I? This is very strange..."
"Knuckles!" A red echidna girl ran up to him.
"Rei!" he shouted in surprise. "What happened? Where are we?"
"No idea," she shrugged. "I talked to some of the inhabitants, and they just told me this was the 'Kraal of Echidnas'. They really didn't seem to be surprised with my presence. But just what's going on here? You told me you, I and my grandfather were the three last echidnas."
"I don't understand it either," Knuckles mumbled. "Perhaps we are in some hidden valley, where the echidnas managed to live their old ways as they did hundreds of years ago."
"That doesn't sound too probable," Rei said. "How would we have gotten here? When I fell asleep, I was still in Station Square."
"Me too," Knuckles replied. "I was just waiting for you and Rouge to wake up, when suddenly some light surrounded me."
"Perhaps..." Rei pondered. "Perhaps this is some kind of vision. I had several ones in my childhood, and they all showed me pictures of the echidna culture."
Knuckles blinked, then pinched Rei's arm.
"OW!" she screamed. "What's the big idea?"
Knuckles smirked. "So much for your idea of a vision. If this were a vision or dream, you wouldn't be able to feel pain, right?"
"I guess so..." Rei sighed and rubbed her arm. "Perhaps we should better..."
But then, a young echidna girl was walking past them. She was muttering something: "The servers are... the seven Chaos..."
The two modern echidnas blinked. "Excuse me, but what did you just say?" Rei asked the girl.
"Oh, I'm sorry," the girl said while turning around. "I was so in thought that I didn't see you two there. I don't think I ever saw you around the village. I'm Tikal. And you are?"
Rei smiled. "I'm Rei, and this is Knuckles. Pleased to meet you, Tikal!" Knuckles just nodded.
The girl had orange fur and was wearing an ancient garb, echidna style. She wore a short dress with green and red stripes, a white top, and blue bracers. Her shoes were just white bandages wrapped around her feet comfortably, and on her head, a golden tiara was resting.
"I was just saying something my grandmother told me," Tikal explained. "She raised me almost completely by herself after my mother died... and my father never had time for me... Well, anyways... It was an old, traditional saying. I'm never to forget it... It goes like this:
'The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power. Power is enriched by the hearts. The Controller is the one that unifies the Chaos.'
But I'm still not too sure what it all means."
"Sure seems mysterious to me," Knuckles agreed. Rei thought about it. Chaos? Seven Chaos? Could it be...
Tikal continued: "But the number seven... is the same number of emeralds there are."
Rei gasped. "Emeralds? Do you mean the Chaos...?"
Then, a bright light surrounded them.
----
"Rei? Rei, can you hear me? Earth to Rei, please answer!"
Rei shook her head and got up. Next to her was her friend Minako the Bat, looking at her with a worried face. Rouge was there, too. She was just helping Knuckles get up.
"You almost got me worried," the white-furred bat said. "After I woke up, both of you were still out cold. It was creepy... it was like you were in some kind of trance."
"Did you have another vision, Rei?" Minako asked.
"Ssshhh," Rei hissed. "Let's talk about that later." Her blonde friend could be so careless sometimes. Her dream about the silence that was threatening the Earth was nothing she wanted to discuss with Knuckles... and less then ever, with Rouge.
"I just had a... dream, that's all," Knuckles mumbled. Rei nodded. "Yeah, me too! A very strange dream..."
"Well, good to see you're okay," Rouge said. "Oh, by the way... you were looking for this, right? Well, here you are!" And she handed Knuckles several emerald shards.
Even Minako looked surprised at her friend. "Rouge! But... having that emerald was what you always wanted. Well, I would've done the same thing in your place, of course. But still... why?"
Rouge sighed. "You wanna know? Fine! I could have just taken them, but that would spoil all the fun. I don't want to have a broken emerald whose shards just happened to lie on the ground. So you can have it."
Knuckles took the pieces and looked at Rouge. "I still don't know if I should thank you or smack you one..."
The bat thief grinned. "Don't thank me just yet. But you better hurry and put all the pieces back together... and when the emerald is put together again, I will be back. So, until then... ciao!"
She winked at the puzzled echidnas and walked away. "Minako, you coming?"
"Um, maybe later, Rouge... I have something to take care of first, okay?"
Rouge nodded. "Okay, whatever you want. But remember that I won't train you if you start slacking off, you hear?"
Minako sighed. She really didn't like the situation: Being scolded by Rouge and being glared at by Rei and Knuckles. But she said: "Yes, Rouge..."
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(Posted Sun, 13 Aug 2006 22:41)
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