red, blue, yellow, green, white, cyan, purple
"We wanna hear another story!" Chorused the young Mobians. The blue-eyed hedgehog standing in front of them smiled sweetly. She really did love kids.
"Sure. What do you want to hear?"
She got various answers, but one stuck out to her. A little guinea pig girl had cried out for a story about the Chaos Emeralds, which had disappeared ages and forever ago. The hedgehog put her hands up in a soothing gesture. "Alright, I think I know..."
Immediately, the kids settled down. It was apparent that they were frequent visitors to this particular storyteller. She grinned, revealing slightly pointed, pearly white canines.
"A long time ago, longer than even before your great, great grandparents were born, there were Chaos Emeralds. These emeralds were powerful, and had a strong hold over different emotions..."
Red for anger and passion
Blue for kindness and calm
Yellow for cheer and worriless hearts
Green for wisdom and intelligence
White for naivete and purity
Cyan for fear and trouble
Purple for quiet and shy
"Their power was near limitless, so long as they were given time to recharge. The Chaos Emeralds were nothing when compared to their Master, the Master Emerald, however. The Master Emerald controlled all, and had limitless, unthinkable amounts of energy..."
The sky flickered, and the green glow of the Master Emerald dimmed. The earth started to rumble. Winds picked up; Mobians felt weaker.
"..so they thought, anyhow. In all actuality, as the Chaos Emerald were used more and more often for Mobius' purposes, too much energy was being drawn from the Master Emerald, which is where its servers get its power. The Master Emerald was, for lack of a better term, running out of juice, and thus, so was the universe.
"The Guardian of the Master Emerald stated that the jewel demanded seven sacrifices, with which it could save the galaxies.."
Knuckles gave a frustrated shout, which was caught by the high winds and carried away. He couldn't, could not, leave the Master Emerald now. He'd delivered the message, and now all he could do was wait. Mobians, seven of them, would come. The Master Emerald said so.
But dammit, he was getting impatient!
"Seven did come; seven true heroes, willing to give their lives to save all that they cared about. The Guardian ushered them to the Master Emerald, impatient. These seven, whose names have been forgotten overtime, vanished that night, along with the Guardian, and all of the Emeralds. Just like that, they were gone!"
The blue-eyed hedgehog finished off her story by clapping her hands together. She earned a few startled looks from the children listening to it, but she just smiled knowingly and shooed them off. "That's the last story for today! Run along!" All fourteen kids got up; some dashed off immediately, down the busy dirt roads. Others dawdled for a few minutes, hoping to get a less weak ending to her last story.
When they didn't, they ran off too.
"That just sounds faker and faker ever time you tell it, Amy," Said a gruff, grinning voice from behind the pink, blue-eyed hedgehog.
Amy didn't even turn around, knowing who it was. She didn't want to see his blood red eyes.
"I know, Sonic. I know."
There had been a lot of debating over who would be a sacrifice and who needed to stay home. Sonic was, at first, immediately booted off the list. Then, everyone realized that Sonic would go whether or not they let him, and put him back on the list.
Tails would loyally follow Sonic, always and forever, so there was no question as to if the two-tailed fox was coming or not. Amy had managed to force her way onto the final list with the use of her Piko Piko Hammer; there was no way she was getting left behind.
Shadow also forced his way onto the list, stating that it was his destiny to save the planet, no matter what the cost. He owed that to Maria. It took only a weak brawl with Sonic; with the Master Emerald flickering, no one was feeling too good.
The fifth to volunteer was, surprisingly, Rouge. No one complained. Silence lasted for awhile, and then Espio stepped up, much to the tearful, wailing regret of his teammates.
That was it. No one else stepped up; a seventh person could not be found. There was an awful half-hour period, in which tension grew so thick that it was difficult to move. At last, shaking with terror, Cream took a little lope forward.
She was immediately rejected. She was so young! She had her whole life ahead of her! "No!" Cream slammed her foot into the ground, startling everyone. "We all have our whole life ahead of us! None of us is going to die, so I don't see a problem!"
Cheese 'chu'd' his agreement. There was a mournful yes; Cream wasn't not going without a tantrum. It was inevitable.
The seven sacrifices were assembled.
They started off toward Angel Island in Tails' plane, and got there fast. Knuckles ushered them to the Master Emerald altar, looking displeased with some of the choices. Nobody wanted Cream to die, and Rouge... Knuckles didn't want to not see her again.
He didn't have time to complain, though. The echidna just set them up in a circle around the Master Emerald and backed away respectfully. The red Chaos Emerald started to shine with its inner-power, floating down behind the blue blur, and Sonic was lifted into the air by a red glow.
Another emerald lit up, and then another. As each emerald lit up, another Mobian started to glow in its color, until they were all suspended in the air by a glow of color. A brilliant green flash of energy filled the air from the Master Emerald. Its servers started to spin, around and around and around.
The sacrifices' eyes started to change color, matching the hue of the color they were hovering in. Colors grew brighter, noises grew louder, and the world was on a momentary high.
THUNK!
The universe was back to normal, and the seven Mobians hit the ground with a simultaneous bang. Their respective emeralds hovered down and landed on their backs.
Each Chaos Emerald now had a Guardian.