Akves clutched a handful of dirt from the ground in anger. "We have failed Shade!!"
Rouge, who had regained consciousness but still suffered a bad headache and was bruised. She crossed her arms angrily as she listened to Akves yell and scream.
"Curse that hedgehog, that echidna, that fox!" Akves yelled.
"Sitting here screaming isn't going to help us Akves." Said Rouge angrily. They may have beaten us once, we'll just have to steal the Master Emerald from them some other way."
"Any bright ideas?!" Akves snapped.
"Don't look at me, you're the one who supposedly has mystical powers. I have too much of a headache to think right now…"Rouge replied.
Akves grumbled, "I bet Shade has already seen our failure by now in that mirror of his, if we don't act soon…wait a minute…"
Rouge looked up at Akves, and he stood up with renewed confidence. "yes…?"
"That fox Miles, he had another Chaos Emerald on him, didn't he?" Akves asked.
"Well I'm pretty sure that's what he uses to power that airplane of his." Rouge answered.
"Alright then…there's a one in seven chance that this might work…" said Akves, as he closed his eyes, preparing for something.
"What might work?" asked Rouge.
"If he indeed has the orange emerald of Sandopolis, I should be able to control its power. Remember, I am the guardian of that emerald." replied Akves with a grin.
Rouge smirked. "Now we're talking, if you can somehow get that plane to crash land they'll have a much harder time running from us."
"Indeed…"said Akves, "now silence, I must detect their location, clear my mind, and focus my energy with that of the emerald's."
"So let me get this straight, " said Knuckles, "Shade is Sevag's son, who was sealed away in the Hidden Palace Zone and somehow awakened, and now he wants to bring Sevag back?"
"Yes, that's pretty much it." Said Tails, who was busy piloting the airplane.
"And Shade is also your brother?" Knuckles asked.
"We have the same mother…" Tails replied, reluctant to refer to anyone as evil as Shade as his brother.
"Just when I thought I knew everything about the Floating Island…" Knuckles sighed.
"So you don't know anything about Shade, Knuckles?" Sonic asked.
"There had been rumors of Sevag and Midiana's illegitimate offspring, but nothing valid. My guess is that the entire thing must have been kept under close wraps." Knuckles explained. "I do know who that wolf guy, Akves is though."
"Really? Who is he?" Tails asked.
"He was a high priest of the god Shadefretep, the patron diety of Sandopolis. Who coincidently…was half-jackal and half-fox."
"Just like Shade…" breathed Tails.
"That would be my guess as to why he's taking orders from Shade." Said Knuckles, "He probably thinks Shade is some divine incarnation of that god."
"That's pretty scary…"Amy commented.
"It still doesn't explain why Shadow and Rouge are following him, but maybe we'll find that out all in good time." Said Sonic.
"Well, at any rate Akves' long time connection with Sevag could be yet another reason. It started as a sort of teacher-student relationship between them, until Sevag's power grew ever more, and Akves became one of Sevag's underlings during the time he searched for the emeralds to bring back Midiana, while also destroying the echidna race in the process." Knuckles explained.
"So no wonder he'd want to bring Sevag back. Anything else you can tell us about this guy hat might help?" asked Sonic.
"Well, aside from being priest of Shadefretep, he was also keeper of the orange Chaos emerald, the emerald sacred to the god Shadefretep." Said Knuckles. He was then interrupted by a gasp from Tails.
"What is it?" asked Sonic.
"The orange Chaos Emerald? Th-that's what's powering the engine of this plane!" Tails exclaimed.
"Of all the luck!" Knuckles lamented, "Tails, this could be dangerous. Akves has total control of the powers of the emerald in this plane's engine."
"What does that mean? Can he track us?" asked Amy.
"Well, yes. But he can also do much worse. If he hasn't done anything by now though it must mean he doesn't know we have it." Said Knuckles." If we're lucky, maybe he's too delirious to think of using his powers."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Tails.
"There's one more thing I didn't tell you." Said Knuckles " One day after performing some sort of secret ritual with the Chaos Emeralds, something backfired on him and he got accidentally infused with a large amount of chaos energy, as did Sevag. Sevag later learned to control it…but Akves…he was driven insane by it."
"Driven insane? Wow…"said Amy.
"Yes, and he had to be locked away. But the thing is, with the high priest out of the way, it gave the Echidna king just the excuse he was looking for to invade Sandopolis and take what he wanted."
"…my mother…" Tails muttered.
"Huh? How did you know?" asked Knuckles.
Tails shut his eyes for a moment, beginning to feel strange. "I don't know…it just came to me…"
Return the emerald to it's rightful place…A voice spoke into Tails' mind, overwhelming him. The other's looked on, wondering what was wrong.
Return the emerald to the kingdom of the sand…"Return the emerald to the kingdom of the sand…" Tails repeated.
"What's going on with him?!" Sonic shouted.
"It must be some sort of mind control!" Knuckles exclaimed.
The orange Chaos Emerald, it belongs to me!This time everyone heard the booming voice, and after it spoke there was a heavy jolt as sparks flew from the plane's engines.
"It's Akves! He's realized we have the emerald!" Knuckles exclaimed.
"Tails, snap out of it! We're going to crash!" Sonic yelled, shaking him as Amy cried in panic.
But just then the glass of the windshield shattered as they heard a loud howl. Tails came to, and realized with a shock what was happening.
"Hold on you guys!" Tails yelled." This plane is going to crash!"
Tails pressed some buttons on the dashboard, but it was seemingly in vain as the airplane plummeted down into the jungle below.
Akves and Rouge stood watching as they could see the smoke from the plane crash in the distance.
"Heh heh…they should have known better than to use my emerald in their engine." Akves smirked.
"Th-they aren't dead, are they?" asked Rouge, trying not to show her concern for them.
"Well they wouldn't be any use to us dead now would they? No, they should live. And thanks to that orange emerald, I'll always know where they are." Akves beamed.
"Wouldn't they have guessed you could track them with it though?" Rouge asked.
"They might, but no matter. They're trying to gather the emeralds too you know, and they know letting me get it would be disastrous. No…they'll keep it with them if they know what's good for them." Said Akves. "Come rouge, let us go after those fools…"
Akves turned, his cloak flowing behind him, as he and Rouge went after the plane crash.
Yes, I know it's been centuries since I last updated...accept my deepest apologies. A bad case of writer's block plus a hectic time in college will do that to an author.