This can sort of be considered a prologue to my bigger fanfiction,
Very much inspired by a YGO fic from the infinitely-more-talented-than-I Obabscribbler. At least I think it was her (it so often is. Her ideas inspire me so often that I'm starting to worry about reinterpreting her concepts...), though I couldn't locate the exact fic to find out for sure. Regardless, the inspiration is there.
A Chaos Thing.
'That,' said a familiar voice in a tone which reminded him very much of a grouchy math tutor he'd had once, 'was a stupid thing to do.'
He sounded angry. And really, that wasn't a surprise, because yeah, Chris was staring to get the feeling that whatever it was he had just done, it really was incredibly dumb. And painful, too. Had to remember that bit so he knew why not to do it ever again.
Whatever "it" actually was.
'Knuckles? Where are we?'
'Master Emerald,' Knuckles muttered, still sounding exceedingly annoyed. 'And you shouldn't be here.'
Chris said nothing. Honestly, there was nothing he could say, not without having a better idea of exactly what was going on.
It was Knuckles he was talking to. He was sure of that much, even though the Echidna's form was nothing more than a vague, hazy outline amongst the surrounding green light; more of a sensation than a physical presence. There could be no mistaking Knuckles' moods for anyone else's, and Chris almost imagined that he could sense those moods very clearly from here.
It wasn't a comfortable sensation. 'Are the others okay?'
'I wouldn't know. I'm in here, with you,' Knuckles said, dryly. 'They're out there.'
'Can... We leave?'
'I can,' Knuckles answered. 'You, however, might find it a little more difficult.'
Oh.
Okay, that was... a little disturbing. Chris took a deep breath without realising that there was no air, nor any need for it here. 'So... so wait, I'm... inside the Master Emerald? Actually inside of it?'
'Not precisely, it's just... holding on,' Knuckles said, as if it were obvious. 'Wrapped around a part of you and keeping it in place.'
Chris took another unnecessary breath. 'A part of me?'
'More specifically, your soul. The Master Emerald can do that to people, if it so desires. If it feels the need is great enough.'
Chris glanced uneasily down at his hands. They seemed real enough –solid and tangible and very much not encased in some kind of gigantic, magical crystal. It was so strange in here; bright, and confused and... Chris imagined he could feel everything, from Knuckles thoughts, to the warming essence of the Master Emerald itself.
'I don't understand.'
'No, neither do we,' Knuckles said. And then his voice softened. Chris felt a pressure on his shoulder, similar to how a hand might feel there, except that there was no hand to be seen. 'Stay right here, kid. I'll be back soon. Try not to die.'
He tried not to feel worried about how serious Knuckles sounded.
He returned after a while. Chris couldn't be certain just how long precisely. The presence simply winked back into existence again, a shadow appearing within the nothingness of green.
'Is everything alright?'
'Considering,' Knuckles sounded no more agreeable than he had earlier. Something in the back of his tone told Chris "you've really screwed up this time, kid," but since Knuckles was polite enough not to say this aloud, Chris didn't comment. 'Things could've turned out a lot worse than they have.'
'I... they're all okay out there, aren't they?'
'Put it like this: If Eggman is lucky, Sonic might let him live to see the morning.'
Chris shivered and hoped Knuckles was joking. He probably was. Probably. Sonic wasn't like that.
'...Amy also says you're no longer allowed to make travel decisions involving the Master Emerald and Teleportation.'
Chris smiled faintly. 'Well, she's definitely okay, then.' Figured. Amy could bounce back from anything, including, no doubt, whatever it was that had gotten him in this situation in the first place. Knuckles was being oddly... vague about explaining that to him. All he would really say was 'there's been an accident. We made a mistake and you decided to take matters into your own hands, whether you were capable of fixing things or not,' and Chris had to draw his own conclusions from that.
'Not that I want to terrify you but... we'll run out of time eventually. You can't stay here.'
'I know.' Chris managed another half smile. It's not like I really want to be here.'
Knuckles appeared to shuffle, shifting in and out of focus, and Chris heard him mutter something which sounded like: 'You seemed fairly willing to be earlier,' before his presence disappeared again.
Chris figured that Knuckles must've been at the back of the queue on the day they handed out sensitivity.
They knew he was there.
Whoever "they" were. He could feel them and he imagined that they could feel him, too. Aware of his every movement within the vast greenness that they called "home". They seemed... disconcerted by him, but not afraid. Not so much as he was, anyway. They hung in the shadows of the Emerald's power and watched him with the same curiously as Chao might. But they weren't Chao. They were something else altogether.
The return of Knuckles' presence distracted him. 'You realise,' was the first thing he said, 'that this whole thing has thrown the Master Emerald utterly out of whack? It's not supposed to absorb people like this you know. It'll take weeks, if not months to recover the energy it's using up.'
'Um... I'm sorry?'
Knuckles' sighed uncomfortably. Wrong, Chris felt. This is all wrong... 'It's not really your fault. This is just so... frustrating.'
Well, he didn't need to tell Chris that. He was the one stuck in here with the weird sensations, after all. 'Um. We're not alone here, are we?'
'You mean that you're not alone,' Knuckles corrected. 'I'm not really here. Just an extension of me. And no, you're probably not.'
Chris wished he'd stop being so vague.
'What's going on out there?' he asked. It seemed a reasonable question. One he thought Knuckles couldn't skid around or avoid responding to directly.
Knuckles grunted. 'Your human body's in a coma, for one thing. And Sonic is being the biggest idiot I've ever seen him being in his life for another.'
'Is he alright?'
'He will be, as soon as we get you out of here. Don't worry about him for now.'
Chris couldn't say anything to that. It didn't sound like Sonic. Didn't sound like how Sonic would behave... He shivered with a body he knew wasn't really there. Knuckles' image seemed to glimpse to the side at the same moment as Chris did himself, as if they were both aware of movement in a corner where no movement should have been. 'What are they anyway? I mean, why are they there?'
'They're supposed to be here. Where do you think the spirits of Guardians past reside?' Knuckles asked, calmly. 'And Tikal? Chaos?'
Chris glimpsed into the surrounding light, trying hard to see what wasn't there. 'They're here? Right now?'
'They've been here all the time.' Knuckles said. 'All around you. No one but the Guardians and those who possess Chaos Control have ever looked upon their forms; not from within the Emerald itself, anyway... it's a Chaos thing,' he added, as if in explanation.
'But... I can't look upon them,' Chris mumbled, confusedly. How could he look at mostly-invisible beings who's presence he was only barely aware of?
Knuckles laughed faintly. 'I suppose you can't. You don't have Chaos Control, and you're certainly not a Guardian.'
He didn't seem so angry anymore, and Chris could sense that he was leaving again. 'Whatever it is you're hearing, Chris, you should probably stop listening to it. It's not healthy, to spend too long dwelling on the voices of spirits.'
He was still breathing.
He couldn't really help it, because he was thinking about it. What? It was a habit. He'd been breathing all his life, so it wasn't like he could just stop on demand. Besides, if he did manage, then he'd only be in trouble once he had to start again and...
Okay, so he'd probably just been staring at the bright green walls for too long.
'Knuckles?'
'Hm?'
'Is... Is the Master Emerald alive?'
There was a pause as long as several heartbeats. 'In a manner of speaking. Its power certainly is. Does that frighten you?'
'No,' Chris answered honestly, much to his own surprise. 'Not really, it's just... I never knew whether I believed in things like that.'
Knuckles grunted. 'He knows us, and yet he says he's not sure whether he believes in souls. You're an odd one, Chris; I'll say that for you.'
There was no malice in his tone, but Chris frowned at it anyway –at least the sensation felt very much like a frown, whether it was truly there or not. 'Some things aren't that easy to believe in.'
Knuckles' presence shrugged. 'Maybe not for humans. But the Master Emerald believed in you, so maybe you owe it the same courtesy.'
Chris opened his mouth to respond, paused, closed it again and rethought his sentence: 'What?'
'It accepted you.' Knuckles said. That hasn't happened before. Not in such a long time... 'And that's the reason you're here now and still have a body to go back to. It'll keep you alive for as long as it can.'
'But that's...'
'Not forever,' Knuckles finished. 'I'm figuring it'll last a while longer. Hopefully long enough for us to work how to get you damn well out of here.'
'Knuckles...' Chris started. And then he hesitated. Anxious. Afraid. Not entirely certain whether or not what he was about to say was true. '...I had to do it.'
Knuckles didn't answer. Perhaps he couldn't.
She was there now. Right in front of him. Her eyes were bright and wide and her expression was one of vague concern, though the rest of her form was as vague as Knuckles' had been. Chris supposed seeing souls outside of bodies must have been difficult for humans. Maybe that was why they always seemed so... not quite there to him.
'Um... hi.'
It seemed like as good a greeting as any.
'Hello.'
He remembered her. Remembered seeing her once before, when Chaos destroyed his city. She was a vague and incoherent memory, but she was inside of him, nonetheless. Maybe she was inside of something deeper, too. If he really was just a soul without a body right now, and if the Master Emerald has accepted him the way Knuckles said it had...
'...You're Tikal, aren't you'? You're an echidna. You look after Chaos. You hide inside the Emerald's power and you've been watching me for... for however long I've been here. Maybe you were a Guardian once, or something, I'm not sure...
She –Tikal– smiled. A hand which wasn't really there brushed lightly against his face. Her answer was silent, created only by the lightness of the contact. 'Yes.'
It took Chris a second to realise that this was what it felt like when one person's soul tried to make contact with another. It was the strangest sensation he'd ever felt in his life. Stranger even than holding a Chaos Emerald in his hands, or running with Sonic. It wasn't unpleasant.
'Um... sorry about... You know. Invading your home. I'm not sure how long I've been here, exactly, but it feels like I've outstayed my welcome.' This choice of words seemed sort of right, so far as having manners went. He remembered his dad saying something like it once, after visiting a neighbour.
'Oh, it's not my home. Not exactly.'
'It's not?'
'No.'
'...Well then, where is your home?'
Her smile changed at that, fading into something so unbearably sad that he could barely stand to look at her. 'It's been a long time since I last saw my home, Chris.'
'You must miss it...'
'Always. And you yours?'
Chris shuffled; vaguely uncomfortable. 'Yeah. Right now, more than anything. Knuckles seems kinda angry with me, but I still don't know what I did, or why I'm here or...' he trailed off. Really, he was sure that he had nothing to complain about compared with whatever story she might have to tell herself.
'You were trying to help your friends,' Tikal answered quietly. 'It's what any good person would have done. He isn't angry. Merely afraid. Ask him. He'll tell you.'
Somehow, Chris knew that she spoke from experience. After all, he'd encountered Perfect Chaos, too. He knew that Tikal knew all about pain.
An echidna. That was all she was, really, no matter how long she had been a spirit in here. She was still the species she was born as: Just like Knuckles.
'Please understand,' she said. 'I'm not unhappy here, Chris. Or alone. Not like you will be, if you stay. It's hard for any human to understand the kind of things we do.'
Chris only vaguely understood what she meant by that. Her hand brushed his face again, texture and contact where none should have existed. Two souls touching with the weight of what felt like a thousand years behind them. It was enough.
'Okay. I hope you're ready to come home, because the Master Emerald is about spent.'
Chris stood up. The green world around him seemed to tremble, which probably wasn't a good thing. 'Really? I can get out of here? You're serious?'
I wouldn't get your hopes up if I wasn't. Or at least, we think we can manage it now. Can't promise it won't hurt, though.'
Okay. He could cope with that. Heck, after the sheer boredom and exasperation of being in here for so long, he was fairly sure he could cope with anything. 'Knuckles, you have no idea how glad I am you said that... How long have I been here anyway?'
'Too long, in your time. But we'll work through all that once we're out of here. You've have to be quick. We can't hold Chaos Control for long or else we risk damaging you and everyone around you.'
Chris wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but he figured they'd explain later when it wasn't quite so imminent and frightening. 'But wait... What about her? Tikal? The spirits...'
'Nothing will come of them,' Knuckles said, softly. 'They've been here for a long time, Chris.'
'Oh.' Chris wasn't sure, exactly, why that thought upset him so much. Maybe it was the sadness that he saw in Tikal's eyes. 'She seemed so... alone here. Even with the other spirits.'
'She probably is,' Knuckles seemed to nod. 'But there's nothing either of us can do about that.' he paused. 'You empathise, don't you? You understand what it's like. Being alone.'
Chris looked up, and his eyes sought out Knuckles', vague and transparent as they were amidst the emerald green light. 'So do you.'
Knuckles' presence faltered and the air glittered with gold.
'That's Sonic. Looks like this is the only chance we'll have, kid. Take my hand.'
Chris only hesitated for the vaguest instant before doing so. That instant, however, was all the time it took for Tikal's image to glimpse at him, her distant expression caught somewhere between smiling and frowning.
'Thank you...'
'Did... did he just say... he did say something, didn't he?'
'I think he did.'
'Thank you for what, Chris?'
Cream.
It was Cream's voice. A hand was holding onto his, and somewhere behind him, someone else was muttering about how long it would be before they could take a mallet to him for being such an absolute idiot and scaring them all half to death. Probably Amy.
...Definitely Amy, in fact.
He blinked, and realised that being connected to your body really was a very different sensation from being separated, after all. Heavier and colder. He knew Sonic wouldn't be there. He would be off somewhere doing Chaos Control, and Knuckles...
Knuckles would be with the Master Emerald as always.
'Um... did I say that aloud?'
'Yes, you did, but I'm afraid we're not sure what you meant by it. Thank who for what, Chris?' Cream was smiling at him, her warm brown eyes seeming nothing like the memory of Tikal's. Chris tried not
to feel too disappointed about that. He supposed no eyes could match those seen in a soul without a body to contain them.
He managed to smile back. 'It's nothing really, Cream... Just thinking, that's all.'