Some time later, in the Fractured Time, the Master Spirit finished the story. Chaos Cyan listened, out of curiosity. "So…" Omega said. "Each of the true guardians of the Master Emerald reside in the Fractured Time, in a separated piece?"
"Yes," the Master Spirit confirmed. "It is because of Tikal's spell. See, the original Guardian of the Master Emerald was about to get a bit… carried away in his protection. So, she sealed both Chaos and herself here, in the Fractured Time, in a separated piece, using a version of the Chaos Oath."
"The Servers are the Seven Chaos… Chaos is Power, enriched by the Heart. The Controller is the one that unifies the Chaos…" Omega murmured.
The Master Spirit nodded. "That's the one. But it is ineffective in the hands of most people. In order for it to be effective, you need the blood of the Echidnas running through your veins… or a predisposition to Chaos Magic."
"I see. That makes sense. But that is neither here nor there. The entire purpose of this visit was to see what could be done about E-151c."
"Well… I suppose… the best thing to do would to use a variation of the Chaos Oath, to seal E-151c's physical form into a pocket of the Fractured Time…"
"But… that would require Knuckles. And wouldn't he have to seal himself, too?"
"No. Tikal made a costly mistake in her spell: Chaos was at full power. All you'd really need to do would to be to weaken the creature enough so that it can be sealed, without such a permanent sacrifice. Of course, that'll only work with the Queen. But once that is done, the rest should fall in confusion."
"And that'll work, will it?"
"Well, it should. If it doesn't I'll be extremely surprised."
Something about the Master Spirit's tone indicated that Omega would be extremely surprised as well. Dying often does come as a surprise. "Well… in any case, that means that I'll be headed back to the physical plane now…"
"Yes. Now, both of you go. I have nothing to do at the moment, and I would like to be alone."
And with that, Omega faded to gray, and Chaos Cyan left. The Master Spirit sighed. The Fractured Time was re-aligning with the physical plane already… not a good sign. That meant that E-151c was gaining influence. Ah, well. There was much to prepare, even though he had told both Cyan and Omega differently… that was strange. Even though he had never had any problems with deceit… there it was again! Since when had he started identifying himself as male? Too much interference from the physical plane, he supposed. The Master Spirit sighed again, and faded into the amorphous, hominid form that served so well…
