Chapter 3 – The First Union

One thousand kilometers away, the destruction wrought upon Floating Island had caused an old salamander to awake from his hammock and walk into the foamy green waters offshore.

            He stood among the waves. They crashed indifferently onto his unmoving body. Wet salty air filled his lungs and he exhaled slowly while foam bubbled down his craggy face.

            So, they had told him to wait. He had asked them the most profound question of all: Why? They had responded, Wait.

            You could not argue with gods once they made up their minds.

            The heavy splash of salt water against his wrinkled skin reminded him that he was alive. It stung. It coldly kissed his eyes.

            One thousand years of life and not a single explanation as to what his purpose was. He felt the sea run down his arms and legs in briny rivulets. The sea could not think; it was unaware of being, and yet its purpose was to support all life on Mobius.

            But what was the purpose of life? What was the end result of reality? The question had bothered him since he was six years and very, very old for his age.

***

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles had retreated to Corona Den with the Master Emerald. Julie Su and the Chaotix were helping survivors of the Great Divide of Floating Isle, so it would be recorded in History.

The trio contemplated the Master, fixed in the air, casting its gentle green glow about the golden walls.

"What's the plan of action, Red? You said the Walkers prepared you for this, this Thanatos thing."

"Yes. He is powerful, but the Seven will win if they all agree to help."

"Why wouldn't they help?" Tails said, "This is worse than Robotnik…"

Knuckles nodded at Tails.

"You've had nightmares for weeks now, I know, but you never told anyone. That is because you are one of the Seven, Tails. You are destined to stop the Dark God Thanatos with the help of six others."

Tails' eyes resembled dinner plates.

"Hold up, Thanatos is a god?"

"Yes Sonic, a god, like Destiny and Fate. In fact, very much like Destiny and Fate, but that will be revealed later. What matters now is our union. We are three…"

Footsteps reached their ears. Darting glances at the entrance/exit tunnel, Lazer appeared.

"…And now we are four," Knuckles finished.

"Hello," Lazer began, "I was called here, although…"

He beheld the Master for the first time and said, "Oh."

Knuckles and Lazer were introduced.

"The Walkers are frustrating, aren't they?" Lazer asked, shaking paws, reading the echidna mind.

"Endlessly," Knuckles sighed, "They overdo the 'mysterious' side of being gods."

Before more questions could be asked, the light of Corona Den dimmed and a dark, shapely figure swept in, tail and cape flicking behind her.

"You!" Lazer cried, reaching for his sword.

"It's her!" said Sonic, bringing up his fists.

"Whoa!" shouted Tails, jumping backward.

"What?" she gasped.

The hedgehogs and kitsune glared at the bewildered feline. She still wore a black, reflective cape but the jersey and flares she wore were a startling white.

"Why couldn't I sense you before?" Lazer demanded, paw ready on the sword hilt.

"A Block spell! I didn't want you following me all over the city!"

"You should be followed, you escaped from Dark Jewel Isle again, didn't you?"

"I did not! The Elders let me go…"

Knuckles stepped between them.

"Stop. Internal conflict will lead us to failure."

"Excuse me," she said, composing herself, "Why did the Master call me?"

Knuckles grinned at her.

"You will fight against the new darkness, Hannah Nyress."

Her jade eyes lowered.

"I was a servant of a servant of Darkness. I thought I was called to serve the Darkness Himself, the master of my former master."

Knuckles rested a paw on her shoulder.

"Fate has a way of bending itself double. Not all servants are meant to follow their master forever. Indeed, the servant may overcome her master."

Hannah looked into Knuckles' eyes, the same colour as hers.

"If we fail?"

"We will not."

Turning to address them all, Knuckles stood beside the Master Emerald.

"The Four of you will now place a paw each upon this Emerald. What happens after, the Walkers do not say. Trust in the Master, and Destiny, and you will find out."

"What about you?" asked Sonic.

"Me? I know my destiny. It remains for the four of you to understand yours!"

Without other options, Sonic, Tails, Lazer and Hannah touched the Master Emerald.

***

Hannah Nyress.

Dark Jewel Island. First a bird's eye view she saw, and then moved nearer until she stood upon one of its five beaches. Others like her were running, or trying to hide, or merely standing with eyes upturned. She looked upward and the sky was black, a deeper more intense darkness than she had ever seen.

What purpose does he have here, on Mobius? Is he here to conquer? Or is it the Chaos Emeralds?

Hannah heard the telepathic speech of the three Elders speaking amongst themselves. People, living inhabitants of the Island, were surging around the Elders, kneeling before them, crying their names, and imploring the Elders to save them from the new horror. The Elders looked upward while their people groaned.

His immediate purpose is to free that which belongs to him.

But can he set free, what the Ancient Walkers themselves imprisoned?

A shaft of black light fell upon the heart of Dark Jewel Isle. The people screamed.

He knows.

He will be set free.

But the prophecy…

The Elders died then, and the entire Island with them, as the black light shone darker. Thousands of screams faded into shocking silence.

A terrible thing was awakening upon Dark Jewel Island. Hannah saw it stand up, heard it shout a cry of victory, and the black light strengthened it.

Hannah wept.

***

Lazer.

Flying: not what Nature intended for a hedgehog, but he loved it. The surreal feeling of unsupported flight outmatched any airplane journey he had taken so very long ago. Machines were heavy, unnatural, and awkward. When he flew, it was the most natural, weightless and carefree sensation. Rebecca loved to fly with him…

But his thoughts were drifting. Four islets formed a green and brown ring against the dark blue ocean beneath him. The water in the center of the islet ring was greenish gold. The will of the Master Emerald guided his thoughts downward for a closer look at the tropical palm branches and white sand beaches.

"I've been here before… it's been six years," he thought. When that thought crossed his mind, a Voice spoke. It was male, fathomless, and eternal in its tone.

"Lazer, your wish will be granted there."

"My wish?"

"For death."

He and the Voice became silent. In a blur of movement the Master pulled his mind's eye to a small waterfall on one of the islets. At the base of the waterfall, water vapour created a rainbow as the strong sunlight passed through it.

"Seven colours. Seven Super Emeralds were destroyed just now…"

Just as suddenly his mind's eye was lifter to a higher plane. Light, colour, matter and non-matter all flowed through his body. At the center of his vision was a place where all the points of the Universe converged. The Master led his mind toward that point.

"What? It's Sonic!"

Sonic opened his eyes, clenched his paws and exploded with golden light. His fur became gold; even his quills changed shape…

"But it's not the end of his power," Lazer said, not knowing how he knew.

Tails emerged from the focal point of infinity and was beside Sonic. He powered up to become Turbo Tails, cape and all.

Then Knuckles arrived, his eyes burning bright as Hyper Knuckles.

And finally he was there.

"Me?"

Lazer looked at Lazer. His mirror image became transparent, allowing him to see the five Chaos Emeralds within his being. They began to glow with an intensity he had never seen or felt before, even brighter than when he had first used Wanrikken!

Lazer transformed into Hyper Lazer. But he did not glow gold, he instead wore blue metallic armour that fitted like a second skin: a helmet with an image of the Master Emerald on his forehead; body armour, also with the Master Emerald upon his chest; his gloves were now gauntlets; his boots were of the blue metal, as well. His quills were coated with the flexible blue metal, becoming even deadlier and sharper.

"I look like a Mecha Lazer, not a Hyper Lazer," he thought, "Why do I need armour?"

If he had resembled a red sun before, he was now a red supernova of Chaos energy, beside the other three Super forms. The sword he carried on his back was also of the blue metal.

"Our purpose is to fight, then, we have always fought for the side of Good."

"Yes," the Voice began again, "But do you fight on the side of Life?"

"I do!"

"Then why do you wish for death, Lazer?"

"Because… I don't want to be alone."

With that, eternity receded from view and all became white silence.

***

Sonic floated in the deep green ocean with pale golden sky above, his vessel a small canoe. He had awoken thus, and now peered around at the shore-less green, the canoe bobbing gently. He reached one paw tentatively overboard… and brought up a fistful of green Chaos Emeralds.

"What am I doing here again? I didn't collect a billion rings since before!"

There was no Ancient Walker sitting in the canoe with him, though. He decided to wait for something to happen; he wasn't going swimming if land wasn't in sight.

            Somewhere between thoughts of Sally and how hungry he was, the canoe rocked once and was still.

            Sonic blinked and Tails was there. The young fox was panting for breath, one arm over the side of the canoe and the other paw holding his heart.

            "Didn't you… see me?" he asked.

            "Uh… absent minded?" Sonic grinned, and then frowned, "What were you doing?"

            "Fl… flying!" Tails gasped, "I was flying forever! There was nowhere to land and then I saw this boat with you and fell into it…"

            "Calm down. It's not a real ocean," Sonic showed him his paw full of glittering Emeralds. Tails gaped and also took a fistful of green jewels from the ocean.

            "It's what you said happened years ago. Where're the Ancient Walkers? And shouldn't you be running around a big gold Ring?"

            In answer to that, the golden sky became darker and the ocean became angry. The canoe was soon being tossed by tall, shining Emerald waves, although there was no wind. The millions of Emeralds were making a curious, soft ringing music as they churned over each other.

            Sonic and Tails held on, not bothering to speak. They did not speak, even when they were sucked into a whirling Emerald funnel that shot them upward to the dark sky.

            The canoe was gone, now, and they were flying upward beyond any imaginable speed.

            Suddenly, they were on firm ground.

            "Now this makes no sense," Sonic complained, "Why couldn't we have been put here in the first place?"

            "Maybe we had to pass through a portal to get here?" Tails thought aloud.

            They were on a clump of rock that was, oddly, suspended in outer space. The star constellations were unfamiliar and strange.

            A Voice, as expansive as the Void about them, yet gentle and feminine, spoke.

            "The test of your friendship will be to bring forth seven new Chaos Emeralds from the Void, mighty among their kind, to replace those Thanatos destroyed. Without these seven Emeralds, the Union cannot be completed with Mobius and the Seven beings."

The Voice paused, and became grimmer.

"Thanatos knows no friendship, he trusts none: because of this, friendship is a weapon against him. Nurture it, and you will live."

***

Knuckles saw Hannah fall to her knees beside the Master Emerald. Sonic, Tails and Lazer removed their paws from it and looked at the stricken feline. Lazer gasped as his mind touched hers.

"What's up with dark sorceress here?" Sonic asked. Hannah glared at him, tears stood in her eyes.

"I am no longer of the Darkness! At home, the Elders converted me to Light. I thought that over time I would ignore their teachings and return to the Darkness, but now I am convinced, it is a path to death!"

With those words she stood up and ran from Corona Den.

"Leave her be," Knuckles warned, "She is returning to a home that no longer exists."

Lazer was still in shock by what he had seen in Hannah's mind. Dark Jewel Isle was no more! Her home was gone… just like his home…

Sonic was waving a paw in Lazer's face.

"Wake up, samurai boy."

            Lazer snapped himself to attention.

            "What?"

            "I was saying that me and Tails have to find seven new Super Emeralds. What do you have to do?"

            "To have a rendezvous with Fate, once more," he replied darkly, and walked out of the Den. Sonic shook his head and spread his paws palms up.

            "As mysterious as you are, Red."

            "All is uncertainty. Now, about your task."

Knuckles stepped toward the Master Emerald and touched it. He held out his free paw.

"Come with me, Sonic and Tails! To the place where Chaos Emeralds are born!"