First, I would like to apologize for the following Author's Note. This is the longest it will ever be. I just need to explain a few things first.
This story has been in my head for over five years and I just had to write it. It is my first and will probably be my last.
WARNINGS:
Though I normally despise them, there are quite a few OCs in this story. Over 10 I believe. Only 2 play a major role (one being the villain) and the others will only appear when necessary to the story.
Character pasts will be screwed with, though it will mostly be just Knuckles' since he has the greatest connection to the emeralds (surprisingly, Shadow's will stay true to the games). The others are nothing major so deal with it. I also will try to keep the characters in character as much as possible. I apologize if they stray a little.
Though this is not mainly a romance story, there will be some fluff. As of right now, all couples are undecided, though I will probably stick to the generic ones.
My grammar may be off at times and I apologize. I'm not the best writer but I am trying my best. I am only human so I do make mistakes now and then.
Feedback would be nice. All kinds of reviews are appreciated. Good ones, bad ones, and even constructive criticism. I don't care if you like my story or not, I'm just writing it to finish what I started years ago.
Disclaimer: (I am only doing this once. I will put up a proper disclaimer for all my individual characters once they are named in the story, though they may appear before then.) I DO NOT own Sonic the Hedgehog or any related characters or story plots. They belong to SEGA. I do however own the plot to this story and any other characters and ideas that do not belong to SEGA.
Maiden Of Chaos
'The servers are the seven chaos. Chaos is power. Power is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the chaos. Chaos will awaken the source from its slumber. The source is life. The source is death. The source will bring about the end…'
~Prologue: The Beginning of the End
The skies grew dark over Angel Island as storm clouds began to set in. All around on the island animals of all kind could sense the approaching storm and quickly began to take shelter. That is, all except for one.
The first drop of rain fell from the imposing clouds, making its way to the surface below. It made contact with a small 'plop' and scattered upon impact. Knuckles' eyes opened as the cold water droplet hit his sensitive nose. He turned his head to the sky, soon becoming pelted with more droplets as he watched the looming clouds overhead. It was times like these that he wished he owned an umbrella.
Usually the weather was nice on Angel Island. It was fairly warm and sunny most of the time, being that the island was floating high in the air amongst the cloud formations. When he was sitting in the warm sunlight with the gentle breeze blowing across his face, he didn't mind his job at all. It was that rare occasion when clouds would pass over the island and bring about a rainstorm, leaving him wet, cold, and miserable as he guarded the Master Emerald. This was one of those days.
The rain had now begun to fall harder and it didn't seem like it would end anytime soon. But Knuckles just sat there on the shrine trying to ignore the hundreds of icy cold droplets dancing on his flaming red fur. He sighed rather loudly, knowing that there was no way he was going to be able to continue his nap now. His amethyst eyes began to wander and soon came upon an image on the horizon.
The silhouette of Station Square could be seen approaching on the horizon. He saw the first sight of it a few days ago and since then the island had slowly been moving towards the bustling city. Knuckles realized it had been a while since he had been to the city. Not that he minded of course. There were too many people and wasn't enough nature as far as he was concerned. He preferred his solitude type of lifestyle, guarding his rock on his island. However, going into the city would give the echidna a chance to see his friends again. It had been a while since Knuckles had seen Sonic or the others. The last time he had seen the blue speedster had been when Dr. Eggman attacked the city a few months ago and Sonic and Tails had flown over to Angel Island asking for help. And after that battle had ended, he said his goodbyes and made his way back to finish his duty.
The last of the echidnas turned around and came face to face with the Master Emerald. Even in the dark and dreary weather, its still glowed with the same radiance. The rain that fell upon it and rebounded reflected the color, making each droplet look like a tiny emerald itself.
Sure guarding the Master Emerald wasn't the most exciting thing in the world, but it was his duty and he was proud to do it. A small smile crept onto Knuckles' face as he placed a hand on the emerald. He could feel an immense power flowing within it. Of course it would have this much power, being the only thing able to stop the Chaos Emeralds.
Slowly, the guardian took his hand off the emerald and turned back around, sliding down to a sitting position with his back against the jewel. He then decided that he would take some time off to go visit his friends once the city was in range with the island. It would be fun to mess around with Sonic like he did in the old days. He could also keep an eye on that thieving bat to make sure that she wouldn't try to steal his emerald again.
The rain soon began to lighten up and was now nothing more than a very light drizzle. Knuckles closed his eyes, finding this light rain to be much more bearable as he tried to resume his nap. His thoughts began to fade as sleep approached the tired guardian. Alas, sleep never came. He was rudely awoken by a large shatter and his back making contact with the hard surface of the emerald's alter. Amethyst eyes quickly shot open as he jumped up, quickly turning around to check on the Master Emerald. His eyes grew wide as he saw a pile of emerald green shard scattered about his feet. Only a small fraction of the shards that made p the emerald were there though. The rest were blown away to parts unknown by the sheer force of what ever had hit it. Knuckles quickly began to try to figure out exactly how this had happened. He had been awake a few seconds ago and he had no sensed any other presence on the island other than his own. It couldn't have been the doctor or that bat girl. Could some other figure have appeared on the island without him knowing? And how did they do this much damage to the emerald? It had been shattered before, but never this drastically.
Knuckles soon lost his time to try to figure out what happened as he felt a hand roughly grasp him around the neck. Instinctively his own hands latched around the one cutting off his airflow and he tried to pry it off. He poured all his strength into releasing those crushing fingers from around his neck, but even with all his strength he couldn't even make them budge. The world around him soon began to grow dark as he began to feel himself slipping out of consciousness. Before he was about to pass out a deep voice from behind him hissed into his ear.
"….Where is it?....."
Knuckles felt the fingers belonging to the voice slowly ease up on his throat. He still could not break free, but it allowed him to breath a little better. The echidna only wheezed as he took this opportunity to take in more air and fill his lungs, completely ignoring the question that had been directed at him. Just as he began to get his breathing back to normal, the hand around his throat squeezed tightly as the voice hissed again, only this time it was louder.
" …WHERE IS IT?!..."
This time the guardian felt the warm breath of the creature on the side of his face and it sent a chill up his spine. He struggled with his breathing once again as he attempted to answer the being.
"…wha....are….yo…talkin…..bout……."
Apparently the creature wasn't too happy with Knuckles' response. Red fur collided with the ground and his face made contact with stone. He got a sudden relief when he felt the oppressor's hand remove itself from his neck, but soon found more discomfort as a foot was forcefully placed down upon his back, close enough to his neck so that he was unable to lift up his head and face the other.
"DON'T MESS WITH ME GUARDIAN!" it shouted, "WHERE ARE YOU HIDING IT?"
Knuckles desperately tried to get up, but was unsuccessful with every try. "I don't know what you're talking about." The echidna replied with his face in the ground. He was really starting to get annoyed with this creep.
"THE SOURCE!" is shouted as it dug it's heel deeper into Knuckle's back. This caused said echidna to grunt in pain. "WHERE ARE YOU HIDING THE SOURCE?"
Knuckles knew he wasn't the brightest guy around, but this guy was really starting to confuse him. What the heck was he talking about? The source? The source of what? And what made this loony think that he even knew where it was?
He felt the weight above him shift again as more pressure was applied to the foot, digging it deeper and deeper into his spine. This time, Knuckles let out a cry of pain as he began to fell the bones in his vertebrae begin to shift and crack. "Don't mess with me guardian…" the voiced hissed again. Knuckles felt the warm breath on his neck again as he struggled to try to get out of this situation. "Tell me where you have hidden the source before I force it out of you…" More pressure was applied again and this time a sickening crack was heard. Knuckles cries out in agony as he felt some of his bones begin to break. He clenched his jaw together in hopes of suppressing some of the pain.
"I… don't know… what… you're talking… about." Knuckles managed to get out as he tried his best to ignore the pain.
A deep chuckle was heard from behind him as he felt a sharp claw brush up against his cheek. It dug in, causing the echidna to wince as he felt his own warm blood ooze out of the wound and drip onto his face. "Well then…" the voice was much quieter this time, "I guess we'll have to do this the hard way…"
The Next Chapter will be uploaded along with this one since I find prologues to be short and boring and the next chapter is also kind of an intro.