This certainly feels familiar... Ecco thought to himself as he slowly navigated through the crevice. Once again the ice waters of the north were gone, the warmth of the strange darkness enveloping and replacing it. The warmth felt closer than before, almost as if he was part of a pod that huddled together on cold nights. It was almost comforting.

Almost.

His thoughts rang with voices and songs...songs he's heard for so many years, on so many journeys. Atlantis gave him their technology...the Asterite gave him strength...too many memories, too many voices.

Recently, those voices were overshadowed by what started it all, the dying song of an Orca calf. And the Big Blue...the last true Keystone Song keeper. Would Sawtooth, having not but the size of the great whales, be able to open the gates of Paradise?

The illusions came back to Ecco, just as real as they felt. His sonar gave him threatening shapes...gigantic jaws, crushing tentacles, horrid death glares from giant moray eels...the mind tricks that served as sentinels were all passed by the dedicated singer. The stars on his head glowed faintly, proof that would be all that was needed of the god-chosen.

Then...sunlight! Blinding his eyes the moment he passed through what seemed like solid rock. His eyes had the need to recover, the pupils rapidly shrinking to minimize the light. Disoriented, the dolphin expected to see what he had beheld before: colorful coral beds, plentiful life, land and water that held the secret of perpetual warmth.

But when his eyes readjusted, it was suddenly dark again...and what he saw was nothing like paradise.

The sky carried colors of coal and flame, with bands of indigo and mauve that criss-crossed unnaturally through the clouds. The sun was nowhere to be seen...the colors themselves were sources of light, shadowing all with bands that the Earth's sky should never see.

As if to come down from the sky, the land was covered. Ecco could see trees, rocks, grass...everything was gray. Covering the forms of life were miles upon miles of pulsating black veins. Ecco could see through them, the blood of life moving via an unseen beating force as the branched weblike course drained the energy from everything they touched. Finally, the veins ended broadly upon the beach, pouring the blood of the land in gallons upon gallons of liquid life force, turning the sea all colors of the shifting sun, unnatural and poisoning.

Ecco's eyes were widened upon the horrid sight as he swam through the once plentiful bay, the only source of comfort being the perpetual warmth that Paradise once carried. His voice was still, afraid of what he might call if he sang outward.

"Ah, there you are," a strong song seemed to resonate towards him...strong so that it filled his mind as well as his inner ears. Ecco turned toward the source, which was floating in a giant dome of clear water that the veins didn't touch.

It was indeed an Orca, as he had told Ecco. A little larger than the largest warrior that the dolphin had ever seen, he had an air about him that signaled danger and yet wisdom from being carried with the Seers for so long. The eyespots hung around his eyes, ovals of white just covering over them. From his left eye, a large scar hung down from his blowhole down to just below his mouth, along with other smaller marks that seemed to criss-cross his flank. He was indeed once a fierce warrior by his looks.

"Ecco," he sang out, "The Seers would have all been glad at your presence now, but sadly they have died."

"I know," the dolphin sighed, hiding back faint tears as he beheld the first Orca, trapped in the dome. "Who are you, and is there a way I can help you out of there?"

The Orca regarded him with a half-blind gaze. "No, there is no way for you to help. It is the Keystone Song, once again ready to open the gates, which will free me." There was a silence, as if the Orca had to think about his name for a moment. "I am Okura."

"Okura..." Ecco repeated, having felt that he had to remember his name. The sight of his surroundings however reminded the dolphin that he was on a mission and released him from the honor of swimming before an ancient immortal. "What has happened here?"

Okura smiled lightly. "I know you seek answers, Ecco...and I will provide them if it is but small payment for the sins of my kind.

"The Seers...they were blind to the dangers of their actions. Their own creations betrayed them, and paradise was in peril. When I was to live in their world, my pod's song long since lost in time...I saw it planted, a seed of negativity and hatred sown by their children, the whales, for their despise of the toothed ones and killers that belonged to them.

"It was a seed that had no tangible form, it just lay hidden. Awakened by the Keystone Song, it held the power of all singers.

"Then one day long ago, a strange rock fell from space and landed in the middle of the paradise in the form of a black crystal, like a black glyph, which contained alien technology. I saw it and watched, wondered, waited...

"Then, when humans started to rise, the Seers had suddenly changed their minds to a new goal, as if possessed. They were beguiled to close their Paradise and freeze the north waters, casting away the whales whose songs so graced it. Only few that had the strange song that it liked could pass...

"Then the last one died, and by then it had taken hold of the Seer's powers...I didn't realize until it was too late that the creation of its beasts...the veins it spread over the course of two days over our Paradise...it was all part of an alien plot to turn the energies of the planet Earth against it...using the tangible seed of hatred that the Seers owned."

Ecco's stars burned with rage. "Alien plot...like the Vortex? Or the Foe?"

Okura shook his head. "Not like either...though perhaps related. I know not. It hadn't the energy we felt of the Vortex before, hadn't the same connection of survival linked to water."

Ecco tilted his head. "And how do you know all of this?"

With a sigh, the Orca hummed. "It told me in my dreams. When arctic pods from outside were brought here."

That made Ecco gasp as he glanced in all directions, the dark water barring his line of sight. "Where are they?" he demanded.

"I can take you," Okura started, "You cannot pass through the barrier alone, the army of beasts that the invader commands will surely overwhelm you. But they avoid me...if only I am freed."

"The Keystone Song!" Ecco exclaimed as he started back toward where he first came in, intending to take the message to Sawtooth. Okura watched as the dolphin sped toward the rocks...and slammed into them.

"Ow!" Ecco squeaked. "Ugh, I thought the exit was here..."

That was when the rock wall started to pulsate black as the veins covering the land. Then, he shrieked as something painfully seized his mind, just like before.

You go nowhere, little Chosen of Delphineus.