Chapter 10 – Xadra revisited

            Althair peered at the sunset through the hole in the wall he called a window. Naki had finally paid him a visit after Destiny knows how long. Then he had started explaining the power that brought Floating Isle to rest in the sea, along with tired mutterings of a quest to some distant land to battle Evil. That boy needed more sleep. Althair told him as much.

            "Due to the foolishness of the Ancients, old friend, I am cursed with indefinite insomnia."

            "Foolishness!" Althair stabbed at Knuckles with his walking stick, "You are the fool, you do not understand why they did this to you."

            Althair turned his head and the beads of his dreadlocks clinked together. Some other young people were walking up his lighthouse, to the room where he always kept a lamp lit. In the sky, that lamp served no purpose. Now that the isle was in its natural element of water, it might guide sailors home. Or warn them off, since this place had a knack for attracting evil gods.

            "What hope do you seven have against this god?"

Knuckles viewed the weathered face of Althair with bleary eyes.

"The hope of Destiny and Fate. It is as you say, what the gods decree, will happen."

            "But what if another god counters their will?"

            A short, coughing laugh came from Knuckles.

            "It's two to one. I'd say the odds are in our favour."

            Greetings were given all around as the six others arrived, Hannah being the last.

            "I've never seen this place before," Sonic remarked, staring about at the simple room with its natural rock table, sole lamp and window, "If it weren't for Tails, I'd never have found it."

            Indeed, this lighthouse was behind a hill that blinded the Isle-dwellers to its presence. It was carved out of the hill that shielded it, making its discovery even more impossible. Except for the wandering feet of Althair, none would have known of its existence. If you did not see the bright lamp shining only to the sea, from what looked like a hill, you would miss it.

            "This is all?" mused Althair, sizing up the younger generation.

            "This is all," confirmed Knuckles.

            "Good. I shall be above. I rather fancy watching the sunset from the hilltop."

            Knuckles yawned at length when the tapping of Althair's walking stick drew away.

            "Cover your mouth," Hannah huffed, "No one here is interested in your teeth."

            "My fault, it's just that…"

            He yawned once more, and none doubted that his dental hygiene was short of perfect.

            "Goddess, I'll be doing this forever."

            "Did we come here to watch him sleep?" Kootan whispered to Sonic, who became cross and shook Red's shoulder.

            "Snap out of it! Last thing we need is a tired guide."

            Stifling his need to express weariness, Knuckles faced the gathering.

            "I know I'm the guardian, but I have no idea where the Master Emerald was taken after Thanatos stole it. He's blocking its energy output completely. But that's why we have Kootan."

            Suddenly the centre of attention, Kootan explained.

            "Mobius is the mother of many magical places. These places, as the gods decreed, exist within me. Water is home to most of these places, thus I am of its element. I feel that one of these places is being disturbed this very moment. Upon Neos, beyond what was Xadra, the Master will be found."

            "The Living Mountains," breathed Lazer, "How dare Thanatos defile the sanctuary of the gods?"

            Focus shifted to the red hedgehog who divulged further knowledge.

            "After the great labour of creation, the gods rested in the valley of a mountain range. While they slept, the mountains closed around them, shielding them from the cold of the North and the heat of the South. In gratitude, the gods gave wisdom to these mountains and marked them as holy. Not even the Xadran government, while it lived, would venture further than the country's borders to see if those mountains really existed. But they do. I've seen them. I've heard them."

            There was silence for a moment while the others thought. Then Hannah scoffed at Kootan.

            "You! A wrinkly old thing, as the focal point of all magic inherent to Mobius?"

            Hannah was not pretty when scornful. Her eyes snapped. Her tail flicked dangerously around her ankles. Kootan's stare was withering.

"And you, a young terror, who believes herself above all others in sorcery?"

            "I will never believe it!"

            "Believe what you may, for you are not above all others."

            "And these living mountains? Foolishness! I've never heard of them!"

            "You know not all things, mistress of darkness," Lazer said quietly. Knuckles intervened.

            "Truly, inner conflict will lead to ruin. Your quarrel is with Thanatos alone, not with each other!"

            "Listen to him," Sonic warned, "Or else we're all gonna die."

            "And what is death? Is it really such a bad thing?" Hannah returned, arching an eyebrow at the hedgehog who grit his teeth back at her. Angry words were ripe on their lips but the voice of Emess checked their zeal.

            "You're all afraid."

            They watched him. He now wore a roomy jersey and long jeans. His feet were bare as usual.

            "But you're not afraid of death. You're afraid of life. Death is easy; it brings peace, but life, oh, life! It is the offspring of chaos. We never know what will happen next. Everything falls apart around us. We suffer. So I ask you, what's the point?"

            "What do you mean?" asked Tails.

            "Don't you all have a reason to fight Thanatos? If there is no reason, there is no purpose. So, everyone, if you're ready for death, then back out now, no one stands in judgment of you."

            A grim silence followed.

            "I am not ready to die!" said Hannah at last.

            "Why?" challenged Emess.

            "Because I want to prove I'm better than him, that self-proclaimed god."

            Emess smiled and clapped his hands.

"Excellent. Any other reasons?"

And he was told:

            "For Sally and Paula!"

            "For Rebecca and Ashlar."

            "For Mobius."

            "For miracles!"

            Then they considered Tails. And what reason did a fourteen year old have to fight?

            "For life!"

            "To Xadra! To the Living Mountains!" cried Emess, and the Server Emeralds heard. Seven saviours were borne aloft through the sky, to the place where Destiny, Fate and all of Mobius would meet.

***

            "He trembles."

            Kootan, above and behind Lazer, was watching the red hedgehog closely. Emess was beside Kootan and, hearing those words, spoke.

            "Strange, that such a strong spirit is afraid of the past."

            "It is his past, present and future. He will never forget the dead. Nor can he forgive himself of their deaths."

            "Why?"

            "He could have killed Robotnik before, but he did not know that Robotnik would go to such ends."

            The black shores of Xadra were visible within a roiling blue fog. Seven Servers flew higher, above the invisible poison that emanated from the dead soil.

            Lazer wept.

The others respected his grief, and remained silent. But R'Thrys, that was following Lazer even among the skies, moved to touch his paw.

"What do you want, sword? Leave me alone, leave me alone."

R'Thrys would not be denied. It pushed its handle into his grasp: he held it, and stopped flying. The others gathered around and waited.

"What is it?" he asked, holding tears in his eyes. R'Thrys pointed itself downward. Lazer looked at his companions and they nodded, understanding that they were not to follow. Leaving the Flame Emerald with them, Lazer and R'Thrys descended to ground zero, the former protected by his Emeralds from the death that permeated the land and air.

"Why do you do this to me? You curious sword, don't you know what happened here?"

R'Thrys serenely replied, "This land is incomplete."

And R'Thrys dove underground, deep into the ground that could never support life… the ground where millions had breathed their last. Confused by its strange words and action, Lazer did nothing and waited.

In the absolute stillness, there was a sound. It was a single, ascending note, which could not be placed on any musical scale, for this note was not heard with his ears. He heard it within the hidden places of his soul. He heard it in places where none have been, places no one knows of, for none have been there.

But the music of R'Thrys was there. And growing louder. Lazer closed his eyes and tried to blot out this music that terrified him, he felt that the core of his being would burst from the non-sound that was ringing within the uncharted territories of his body and soul.

R'Thrys ended. Lazer gasped in relief and opened his eyes.

He wasn't protecting himself: R'Thrys had burst the Chaos Emerald shield that prevented nuclear radiation from violating his body. Alarmed, he expelled the poison air from his lungs and shot upward, until he was among blue skies and the six others.

"I'm going to die, oh Goddess, I breathed the air down there!"

Kootan immediately went (floated) forward and touched Lazer's forehead.

"You haven't been poisoned. You're going to live a hundred years."

Lazer blinked.

"Then what…"

R'Thrys was among them. Lazer stared long and hard at the hollow sword, thinking.

"What did you do?"

"I did what I cannot do for myself. I completed the land."

"Did it say something?" queried Sonic.

            "It said it completed Xadra?"

            And suddenly it was clear to him.

            "It took away the radiation."

            "Eh?" said Sonic.

            "You…" Lazer said to R'Thrys, and touched its unmoving blade with his paw, "You healed Xadra?"

            "It is complete."

            "It is complete," he echoed, mystified.

            "Hey," cried Tails, "The fog is gone!"

            They looked down, and it was true. The blue nuclear fog had dissipated, and the wind down there was moving again. Ruins of a once great nation lay bare before them. Even now, some of Xadra's magnificence remained in its broken structures, as the dregs remain in a bottle that is drained of wine.

            "My home," was all Lazer could whisper, before breaking into fresh tears, tears of joy.

            "And I shall give it the blessing of water," declared Kootan, seeing the water that poured from Lazer's face, "For tears alone will not rebuild a nation."

            He raised his paw, and the Water Emerald, to the clouds. Thunder sounded, and it began to rain.

            And somewhere down there, buried deep in the now healthy soil, a seed began to grow.