Gerald's Notes:

I was successful in contacting the echidnas, although they were suspicious about my motives, apparently my interest in their history was something of a surprise to them, since every previous occasion that the echidnas have encountered outsiders has been a grim tale of bloodshed. They've since revealed to me that there are seven chaos emeralds left on Mobius, although they do not know the location of all of them and aren't about to divulge the hiding place of the one that they've managed to recover. When asked about the colony itself they explained that it and other like it were originally refugee camps from the destruction of Urachii. They have yet to explain how Urachii came to be destroyed or what happened to the hundreds of chaos emeralds that existed according to the Gizoids memory banks.

Apparently the events are too terrible for them to repeat.

End Note.

Weeks later

Khalac paced furiously outside the hospital ward. He hated having to wait outside during Tikal's visits to the soldiers, mainly because he despised unsatisfied curiosity. He wondered what they said to her and what she said to them.

In spite of his impatience, he didn't really begrudge her this visitation, since he'd known this soldier since the war began. It didn't stop him from feeling restive, of course. The fact that the yelethi had surrounded Megalopolis was anxious, especially as the messages received from the remaining echidnas across the continent was increasingly grim. Not only was the city cut off, but it was becoming the sole island of echidna control on the continent. Even if they were able to weather the now continuous attacks, they would starve unless there was support from outside the city soon.

He was brought out of his gloomy reverie by the beeping of his pager, which he hastily withdrew and examined. Apparently Ventreles wished him to meet with him in the emerald chamber, immediately. The young echidna briefly considered waiting for Tikal, then thought against it, for if the oligarch of science had discovered something that needed his help it was better given sooner than later.

*************

The old echidna moved around the chaos reactors, making sure they were in exact alignment. What he intended to do was not only dangerous, it was going to cost him the assistant he'd spent years grooming to be his successor. Unlike anyone else he knew of the spiritual presence of the war god here. This presence noticed that this was taking longer than usual, but then, his high priest, Ventreles, had sent away the rest of his crew so this event could take place with the appropriate privacy.

Vichama gazed on carelessly, feeling a bitter disappointment in his high priest powers of persuasion. It wasn't that the young assistant wouldn't do, but the war god's first choice of host had rejected him beyond a shadow of a doubt, much to Vichama's displeasure. Of course, now that Knuckles was incapacitated he'd lost interest in the stubborn echidna. He needed a healthy host to begin the work he had given himself, and one had been provided. The visions he'd sent Ventreles were only the last salvo in his attempt to claim this world once and for all.

The old echidna started, causing Vichama to shift his divine sight to see what had spooked the elder. He felt the young Khalac arriving, alone, via the transport tubes. The war god felt Ventreles frantically check the emeralds one last time before the younger echidna could arrive. As Khalac opened the door the white furred echidna placed himself directly beside the master emerald control system, the war god sharing his wariness of the master emerald. If anything could prevent his return it was this gem, a fact which frustrated Vichama, since in this form he was unaffected by it, but soon, it would be his bane.

He noticed that Ventreles was talking to Khalac, his face a mask of grief. The war god wanted to scream in a vision for the elder echidna to get on with it, his eagerness for a body in which he could kill according to his whim almost overwhelming his patience.

As Khalac approached the emeralds, Vichama's anticipation rose, and he moved directly in front of the young echidna, unseen due to his spirit form. He examined the echidna closely, since he was going to be using his body after all. The echidna meanwhile stared in wonder at the chaos reactors which were placed in equidistant positions around the master emerald. It filled the war god with pleasure to see his shock as the master emerald suddenly sank to the altar level and the chaos reactors began to brighten further.

*************

"What's happening?" Khalac's squeaked in fright.

"I'm sorry, so sorry." Came the semi coherent reply. Khalac glanced briefly at the older echidna, noticing him visibly trembling "It's the only way." Sorry about what, he wondered, and what was this 'way'?

He didn't get the chance to ask as the light from the reactors further intensified, blinding him. The lack of awareness only added to the terror as chaos energy began to suffuse every cell in his body. Khalac screamed, not in pain but in horror, as he could only imagine what this much chaos energy could do to an echidna.

He looked at Ventreles, expecting him to likewise be affected by the chaos energy, but for some reason the light of the reactors never reached him. In fact, the light seemed to bend and turn on itself in order to flow completely into the younger echidna.

"What's happening?" Khalac demanded again

"You're receiving the blessing. You'll be able to stop the Yeleth that have broken into the city." Ventreles said mournfully

Khalac briefly forgot that he was being irradiated by chaos energy "What?"

"They broke through our defences fifteen minutes ago, when I called you." The older echidna didn't meet his eyes. "This will allow you to stop them, at a cost."

"What's the price?" Khalac demanded as another presence began to invade his mind. He didn't hear the reply, as his consciousness was suddenly forced to the back of his mind, his access to his own senses cut off in the process.

*************

Ventreles felt the change in chaos energy as Vichama seized control of the young echidna's body, so he then raised the master emerald back to it could deactivate the chaos reactors.

"You were going to tell him." The voice that sounded from the now glowing white echidna before him was displeased. It turned its eyes, which had been replaced with a blue white glow now, towards him.

"Khalac had served loyally for many years. I owed him the truth." The old echidna said with a much conviction as he could muster. Even so, his voice trembled.

The avatar of the war god stood silent for a few seconds, evidently deciding if it should kill him for his meagre defiance, then decided against it, turned and walked purposefully out of the temple. The old echidna could only follow as Vichama calmly walked to the ancient cave entrance to the hidden palace, then began to punch at the edges, shattering rock with each blow.

"Milord, wouldn't the transport tubes be quicker?" Ventreles said as it occurred to him that the war god intended to simply jump off the mountain.

The old echidna trembled as his god paused, shrugged off his advice like an irksome fly, and then smashed the entrance wide open, letting in the freezing mountain air into the temple complex for the first time in aeons, then leapt into the air.

Ventreles expected the glowing echidna deity to crash down to earth, but instead he rocketed to the city, his entire body glowing even more intensely.

It then occurred to the old echidna that Vichama might not want to help the race that had betrayed him. He then called back the rest of the team behind the master emerald project.

*************

Vichama sensed more than saw the fight below, and angled directly for it, almost instantly arriving in the battle.

As he landed the battle paused, yeleth halting their charge and echidnas ceasing their fire as they stared at the glowing creature before them, trying to discern if it was friend or foe.

'Time to show them where my allegiances lie.' Thought Vichama as he rushed over to an echidna soldier and seized him by the leg. He was then instantly within the yeleth line, swinging the unfortunate soldier like a club, transforming a semicircle around him into a pulverised mess of broken and screaming bodies.

The war god discarded the now destroyed echidna warrior and drove his fist completely through the nearest living thing standing, a yeleth soldier who didn't even get the chance to scream. Vichama noticed the overpressure from his punch forced many of the warriors behind his victim to fall to the ground, but his attention was diverted as an enterprising soldier swung and axe at the back of his head, causing the weapon to break at the handle. The war god contemptuously swung his elbow behind him, causing the luckless creature's head to explode.

Vichama turned his gaze on the now retreating Yeleth, sensing that the echidnas, too, were fleeing the area, although they'd made use of the buildings, which would make them harder targets for now. Vichama briefly considered the rewarding aspects of hunting down the echidna soldiers against the easy mass slaughter of the yeleth fleeing down the street. It then occurred to him that he could sense the echidnas wherever they went, so they couldn't hide from him, a luxury he didn't have with the yelethi. This, coupled with the fact that the yeleth might not come and fight him so readily if his presence was reported, made him turn his attention fully onto the fleeing primitives that were about to turn a corner and get a seconds reprieve.

His decision made, Vichama focused energy into his eyes and let loose a bolt of energy that cut through the ranks of the yeleth unit like butter. It only took a few seconds until it was over and the almighty god of death strode across the broken and dismembered corpses of the detachment of the yelethi. Even though the fighting in this street was finished, he could sense the conflict all around him, fuelling his divine power.

This pleased him, since this battle had been unfulfilling, cowardly and weak as his opponents were. He only hoped that there were worthier opponents to be found in this battle.

*************

Far from the city, safely protected by a platoon of his elite guards, the emperor of the yeleth gloated. Although the casualties had been heavy, several units of his crack soldiers had broken through the city's defences. It hadn't been a siege in the conventional use of the word, since the echidnas had really held them back with a wall of bullets that cut down any soldier who came within range.

Now his troops had finally broken through, the echidnas retreating in disarray. He telepathically directed reinforcements to the districts of the city that had broken, intending to widen the gap in their defences.

As the first of the new squads arrived he felt a brief flicker of fear from one of the detachments already fighting within the city, only for it to disappear from his senses entirely. Ko-dorr immediately leapt to the conclusion that the echidnas had been setting traps and that he'd been 'let' in so his troops would be demoralised and refuse to continue the attack.

This irritated the diminutive overlord slightly, causing him to direct several squads of the reinforcements to their last location.

What? You thought that the last chapter would stop the yelethi? After they'd conquered several cities, each powered by a chaos reactor? Although there ARE going to be merely seven chaos emeralds by Sonic's era, that doesn't mean there weren't more for the yelethi to use.