Chapter 3 "About the Cage"

"Argus…"

Everyone opened their eyes, and what they saw was not something they expected.

There was a pure black sky; full of stars…they were in space.

There were about a few miles of land collected as the piece of the Island separated.

"CURSE YOU PACHACAMAC! You planned for this to happen!" Ix screamed.

Shade rubbed her eyes.

She'd held on so tightly, the stone had marks on it.

"Lord Ix, where are we?" Shade said; alarmed seeing the stars.

The soldiers turned their electronic lights on, so they could see in the darkness.

It was so very dark out, you could barely see the faces of the others, and the stars were out but not nearly bright enough for them to see well.

"Pachacamac has used the chaos emeralds against us." Ix said gravely.

The soldiers all looked panicked, saying things like, "What are we to do?" and "how can we live out here?"

"You need not worry." an Echidna spoke.

Ix turned his attention to the one who spoke.

"Nestor! You traitor! Why are you here?!" Ix spoke out.

Shade watched with full attention, Nestor the Wise had come with them.

"I may not have gone along with your war, but I am still loyal to The Nocturne," Nestor said.

The echidna looked about the age of Ix, but he was stronger in build, and wore older garb.

"I am here, to see our Tribe does not die out." said Nester.

"YOU MEAN YOU KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN?!" Ix screeched, stomping his foot.

Nestor stood there as Ix yelled at him, with perfect composure.

"I never supported the Rebellion, you selfishly split the Echidnas up and launched them into war," Nestor spoke.

"So that justifies this?!" said Shade.

"No child, I suppose it doesn't, but in a way, I suppose you might say I let the war end," said Nestor. "You don't have to worry though; we will only need to wait until we enter The Twilight Cage."

"What is The Twilight Cage?" Shade asked.

"The Twilight Cage is a Prison Dimension," said Nestor. "It's about a few hours away from now, though you can't feel it, the Chaos Emerald energy around the temple is pushing us into it."

"But how?" Shade said. "Will it destroy us?"

"Quite the contrary," Nester said. "You see, when the piece of the Island we are currently inhabited on, is pushed into the wormhole, we will enter The Twilight Cage. The Cage is a dimension unaffected by space and time, we will not need to worry about dying, for time won't move, and your bodies will not age. There will be no need for water; we can live without the problems of mortal life, though at the same time, it's a curse, for we will never be able to leave the cage."

Ix smacked Nestor down.

The soldiers all whispered to one another.

Nestor looked as if he saw it coming.

"You worm! How did you know this? And why were you all right with it?!" Ix shouted.

"Because, you were going to kill the Knuckles tribe, without warning, I knew of the ambush as well. You turned on your people for your own gain." Nestor said.

"And you didn't?!" Shade said. "At least he cared enough for our tribe, you claim to be loyal and yet you let this happen to all of us?!"

Nestor sighed. "I feel no more need to explain myself to you all, you obviously don't care, but never the less, what's done is done, we are to enter The Twilight Cage,"

Shade looked up into the sky, it was beautiful, and there was something very ominous about it.

Shade sighed. "What is to be done Lord Ix? What are your orders?"

Ix looked lost in a dream, he never fathomed this happening, and now all the soldiers were relying on him.

"If it is true, we only have a few hours before we hit the cage, we must prepare for it." Ix said gravely. "If there is no avoiding this happening, I want to find a way to unlock the secret of it; our tribe MUST be allowed to Mobious again. Have the strongest of the scouts assigned to holding the temple together, we don't want it destroyed by the impact so see if they can find some way to support the weight of the roof. The most intelligent are to watch closely when we hit the wormhole, have the Giziods scan and take pictures; they're machines and should have the ability to store a few simple snapshots of the wormhole for us to study later. You Shade, you make sure you are in a safe place when we're impacted."

Shade nodded and immediately began carrying out her orders.

End chapter