Mist sat on the floor trying to get his breath back, the static caused by the chaos energies had dissipated and the hedgehog was still trying to question him, he couldn't hear the hedgehog's words, he was too deep in his own thoughts, going through the last memory he had been given.
The monster had resembled the figures he had seen from inside his pod, when he had become this, this...creature, a being capable of switching to a gaseous form and back, what was he? Who had he been? It may be time to start listening to the hedgehog, he thought.
"I said where did you come from? And why are you here?" shouted the blue hedgehog at the echidna sitting on the floor, who lifted his red gaze to the hedgehog's
"Who are you? Why are you here? I have told you my name, what is yours?" he said in a calm, emotionless voice, he was testing the hedgehog, a voice like that creped people out...how did he know that?
The hedgehog was taken aback a bit by the voice and the creature's gaze, why did he have red eyes? "I am Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog, now, where are you from? And why are you here?"
Mist smiled slightly, "I have no idea where I'm from, or why I'm here, probably the emerald though" he said, remembering how the emerald shard in his necklace had drawn him to the hut
Sonic frowned, "The emerald? Are you working for Eggman? Cause if you are you won't leave here with that emerald," he said, dropping to a fighting crouch
Mist got up from the floor, "Oh please, I could beat you easily, so don't bother trying to fight me, and I have no idea who this Eggman character is, as far as I'm concerned he won't get the emerald, but neither will you, it shall be returned to it's proper place" and with that he sprang towards the emerald, turning gaseous as he heard Sonic start towards him.
Mist had decided that having someone pass through you was not a pleasant experience, Sonic had spin dashed straight through Mist as he dashed towards the Emerald.
Closing his hand around the crystal he became solid again and he grabbed hold of his necklace with his other hand,
"Oh crystal of chaos, holder of power, return to your place around the master, return to the vigilance of Chaos" with that incantation he became a grey mist, vaguely echidna shaped, as chaos energy washed over him, there was a green flash and he was gone along, with the emerald.
Sonic stared, mouth open, "C...Ch...Chaos Control? I thought me and Shadow were the only ones who could do that, Tails? Tails are you OK?"
Tails was also staring, where Mist had been there was still a bit of excess chaos energy creating sparks in the air, "Wha? Yeah, I'm fine. He didn't seem to know Eggman, where's he been for the past year or two?"
Sonic silently agreed with Tails and grabbed the radio on the worktop, keying in a frequency, "Yo, you there? Look, I need to talk to you Knuckles"
Mist re-appeared on the floating island the green emerald returning to the top of it's plinth, it was only then he noticed how deserted the place was, and the absence of both the other emeralds and the master emerald.
Scowling he looked around, the place seemed to have been abandoned for sometime, he wondered why. Taking the green emerald from it's plinth he walked over to where the master emerald had once sat, and felt a familiar stab of pain in his head, he dropped the emerald and fell to his knees, clutching his head as he blacked out.
Flashback
Mist's eyes snapped open, he was lying in the bottom of the tank, looking out into the lab, his vision had a red tinge to it, almost like he was seeing in infer-red, he could see the heat of the creatures outside, and his friend's heat signature in the far pod, he could also see the gas in the pipes above his friend's pod, the same gas that had just fallen in around him.
Roaring he smashed his claws into the pod wall, taking chips out of the glass, he focused on the power of the chaos shard, but instead of the small explosion of chaos energy that usually happened, he felt himself becoming lighter, he could see things happening before they did, he saw the creature spin and point at him about two seconds before he did actually turn and point, he began to thrash around inside the pod, his claws passing through the pod but he could not follow, his necklace couldn't pass through, and it had melded into his new form.
He tired himself out quickly and he reverted back to his true form, but as he did lines and cracks, chips and chunks began to appear along the glass, the pod then gave way and shattered, shards of glass bursting out and flying across the lab. His escape filled Mist with new energy and he bounded out, slashing a lab technician to pieces, as he became his mist form, chaos energy rippling around him, his blows solid whilst his body being not, he could hit them, they could not hit him.
He saw everything before it happened and saw the gas begin to drop into his friend's pod, he dashed across and smashed the front in, pulling the red echidna out of the glass prison. Shots flew past them and Mist dragged his friend out of the lab and down a long corridor, the door to the outside world closing, he flung his friend outside yelling at him as he tried to dive through.
The door closed on him, his necklace still inside the building, he knew he couldn't escape so he looked at his friend, solidifying as much as he could without becoming trapped in the stone. He turned his head to his friend, looking like a ghost as he had become semi-transparent,
"Flee my friend, return to the island, warn them"
"But..."
"Run, go, GO! Save yourself, Knuckles"
End Flashback
Mist was curled up in a ball on the floor, he had found the second part of his first flashback, he had become some kind of monster, he had been an experiment, and his friend had almost suffered the same fate. He could remember a little bit after that, he had returned inside the tomb and had fought off guards until he was both exhausted and waist deep in dead bodies, he had become solid and passed out, after that his memory was still a black void, an empty hole as black and bottomless as his black hole pupils. He could see a backpack lying on the floor, inside was a pair of sunglasses, he put them on and placed the emerald inside the pack, hefting it onto his back he walked off to see what had become of the island.
Knuckles had used the teleporter aboard ARK and had found himself on the edge of the old Sandopolis Zone on the island, not where he wanted to be. Ever since Sonic and Shadow had Chaos Controlled ARK away from the planet that teleporter had been acting funny, at least he was on the side closest to the shrine, he didn't fancy a trek across the deserts of Sandopolis.
When Knuckles finally got to the shrine, taking a shortcut through the Hidden Palace and the ruins of Sky Sanctuary he found it empty with no emeralds or echidnas in sight, just as it had been for a long time, at least the master emerald was safe aboard ARK, he was the only one with access to the teleporter, Tails had changed all the access codes after Eggman had left, and any ship approaching would be impounded just within the atmosphere until Knuckles gave it access.
He was about to press the button on his watch that would signal the teleporter to 'Beam him up' when his innate sense for chaos energy alerted him to an emerald's presence, the low energy signature meant it was the green one, and according to Sonic, the strange echidna had possession of the green emerald. Not a wasted trip after all, thought Knuckles as he took to the sky and followed the energy trail from the emerald, wondering who this mysterious echidna was, and where he had been hiding after the destruction of his people.
Mist could sense this newcomer, he knew the newcomer was an echidna but he couldn't remember that energy pattern, he couldn't remember a lot of things, he decided to wait for the echidna to catch up so he pulled some fruit from a tree and sat eating it as his pursuer came closer and closer to his position.
He had his back to the echidna when he walked down the path to where Mist was sitting,
"Hello, and who are you?" Mist said without turning
"I could ask you that same question," replied the other echidna, a male by the sound of the voice, a voice that sounded oddly familiar to Mist
He stood up and turned round, and almost fell back down on as he saw who the other was, it was a red echidna with a silver crescent moon mark curving around the base of his neck,
"G...G...Guardian! Knuckles! You're alive!" he said, wide eyed and staring
Knuckled frowned at Mist, "Do I know you?" he asked