Chapter Ten and we finally get to know more about the mysteries of the collective, the fight scene does no justice to the build up but I hope you can forgive me if I warn you now.

Kai, Bionic, The Collective and anything not in Sega's games is anything in the games is the property of SEGA.

And with no further ado I give you...

Animal Chapter Ten
We Remember

Seven clear glass tubes lay on their sides, in them were seven life forms, while most seemed to be in a state of sleep, two lay awake, facing one another, glaring with raw hatred across the gap between them, one was a blue hedgehog which would easily be mistaken for Sonic, in all but his eye colour he was the exact same as the blue blur. The other, a tiger glared at him through the glass, lights flashed yellow and the two tubes were carried on a conveyer out to a grassy yard, which was walled in.

Here they were pitched against each other in a series of tests, speed, agility, stamina. In most test the hedgehog surpassed his counterpart, finally they were ordered into hand-to-hand combat. Slowly they circled one another, sizing each other up. The hedgehog maintained a sort of cocky spring in his step, while the other only stared daggers as he circled his adversary.

"We, I remember you."

"Go!"

The two rushed each other and the outcome was most staggering, the tiger was sent straight to the floor and the hedgehog was sent flying backward, regaining his composure the hedgehog propelled himself off one of the compound's high concrete walls, what was left as he shot away toward his foe could hardly be described as any sort of construct. The tiger was up by now and managed to duck under the flying hedgehog, only to have him bounce from another, lower wall and nail him to the ground.

"Enough!"

But despite The Director's cries it wasn't nearly enough for the tiger, as he was let back up he punched the hedgehog both fists at once then pinned him at the wall where he landed.

"Stop, that's enough!"

The tiger punched at his hated rival until what was left on the floor was little more than a bloody mess. He extended his razor sharp claws and slashed at the beaten body.

"Freeze, we have you covered."

"That's enough!"

The tiger picked the hedgehog up and sprang to the high wall, he ran along the top heading for the rear gate, fewer guards. He eventually reached the rear wall and stared down into the broad, deep perimeter moat. He lifted the hedgehog up by the throat and looked in his eyes.

"It's not…" With that the hedgehog was flung through the air and hit the water. Kai turned away and stared defiantly at the director, "Its never enough." He heard a single shot and looked down to the dart in his leg.

"You think that's going to stop me?"

The Director produced a 9mm pistol from his uniform, one shot, two, three, silence.

"What did I do"

"You see now? See how you are just as guilty as I?" Bionic asked.
Kai's fur dyed black somehow crackled with what appeared to be red Chaos energy, his stripes dyed white glowed in the dim light.
"No." Kai stammered, "I'm not like you. You're a murderer"

"That I am, as are you. You ruined my life and believe me turnabout is quite fair play"
Kai dropped Bionic to the floor.
Bionic looked at Sonic and Shadow, still restraining Miles., "Kill him"

"NO!" Kai screamed, Bionic was propelled across the room on a streak of red and Kai now levitated from the floor. "I cannot… I will NOT, take responsibility for you, you monster"
Bionic shrugged, "Better to be a monster than a savage animal"
Kai's shoulder's drooped, "I… we hate you." Kai's eyes flickered from their usual emerald green to pure white, the red energy swept Bionic off the ground and shot him toward Sonic, leaving only Shadow to guard Miles, who was quickly dispatched. The two hedgehog's lay still, their fur returned to normal from exhausting their ring energy, only Bionic remained.

Miles stepped forward to face Bionic, Kai put a firm hand on his shoulder and Miles understood the message, he grabbed Sonic and Shadow and headed for the surface.
"I thought it best that we had some space." Kai said, "No threats, no tricks, just you and me."

There was no need for further words, just violence, Kai Chaos Controlled behind Bionic and jammed his knee in the hedgehog's back. He then grabbed Bionic from behind and swung him head first into the nearby cavern wall, pursuing his foe he leapt forward, foot first and connected with only stone.

"You're not as fast as you were once." Bionic taunted, "I don't knowwhy Tails looked up to you at all"

"Maybe you can ask him, after I break you in half!" A beam of red Chaos Energy carried Bionic across the room and he struck into the wall, a large gaping crack was left in the rock that crept into other, smaller crevices. The web of cracks began to meet up and chunks of rock began to fall around the room, one barely missed the duelling pair as they met in the room's centre, Kai was now utilizing a red Chaos Sabre and Bionic a white Sabre. The blades clashed and crackled and all the while the whole room shook and began to cave inward. Kai was not curious why Bionic's weapon was white, he didn't even think about why it would be.

"I've just realising something!" Kai yelled over the roar of the collapsing walls, "I'm not sorry I crippled you, I'm not even sorry for trying to murder you, I'm sorry I didn't finish the job"
Bionic smiled past the entwined blades, "You always were sick Kai, It goes to show a tiger doesn't change his stripes, you can hide behind whatever mask you want but I'll find you're true self, root it out for all to see and then destroy you!"

Kai gave one last almighty push and Bionic was sent down to the floor, the arm which the Chaos Sabre had spawned from now lay on the floor, severed from the body. Kai's eyes went from white to a deep blood red, "No!" His eyes reverted to normal, "However much it may seem, I'm nothing like you. I'm no murderer."

The cavern shook again, Kai and Bionic were torn apart by a piece of falling rubble, which fell directly on top of Bionic, he lay pinned between the wall and the rock, one word ran through Kai's mind, settled. The way out was blocked and the cave was coming down fast. "Chaos Control!" There was a red flash and all at once Kai felt a bizarre tingle up his spine and then his body was jerked to one side, into nothingness and for an eternity he orbited the same nothingness. And then he found himself dropped in Station Square a few feet above the sidewalk, his legs flailed in a failed effort to stop his collision with the pavement, his lip struck it, cracked and a drop or two of blood splattered on the slab where he lay and continued to lie upon, even when after ten minutes had passed thoughts raced through his mind as people began to gather in a huge crowd wondering what to make of this strange phenomenon.

"What in the heck was that?" Kai wondered, "Never experienced anything like that before in my life, was it Bionic? No, he was dead. It's over." And all of a sudden Kai felt the overwhelming urge to just… die. "No." he said in a voice little more than a whisper, "We are not ready."

Sonic arrived soon after and Kai soon found himself lay on the coach in Tails' former home, Miles was down in the basement workshop, endlessly tapping away at a computer console trying to figure out what had happened. Shadow had left to go back and see if he could find anything to give them an idea as to what had happened to him and Sonic. Sonic was outside sitting on the edge of the runway Tails had built and Max had not left Kai's side for hours.

"What happened to you?" Max asked, he didn't expect an answer, "Was it something Bionic did? Was it Ta… Miles? I just wish someone had a straight answer"

"I think I might have." Miles said coming up from the stairs, "Come down here and take a look." Max was out of his seat before Miles could say anything else, in a couple of seconds they were looking at a wire frame image of both the Cyan Emerald and the Red Emerald, "You see here." Miles pointed to a fluctuating line beneath each Emerald, "These are the ambient energy frequencies emitted by each Emerald and here," Another line appeared between the two, "Is the energy that Kai's own body emits, now if I overlap the frequencies," Kai's line drifted to cover the Cyan frequency and they more or less matched up, "But with the other." The same thing happened with the line for the Red Emerald, "You see they're further apart by a marginal difference, my theory is that Bionic had the Red Emerald on his person and without realising it Kai accessed the power in the Emerald, that's why his powers were distorted and he must have undergone some kind of shock. Otherwise he's completely healthy"

"But what about…?" Max began.

"We remember you?" Miles finished for him, "I have an idea about that, recently as you've all realised I've become a little Chaos Sensitive and while we were down in the cave I caught a glimpse of what Kai was remembering, I think after that GUN must had performed some kind of mind wipe procedure on Kai and what he said in the cave was a result of his dormant personality trying to resurface"

"That leaves one question, who exactly are you? Judging from the resemblance to some of the photos around the house and a couple of things you said you could be the real Tails but something doesn't quite line up"

"Ah well." Miles sighed, "Alright I suppose we have the time to discuss things now, you see during the Prison Island incident you've undoubtedly heard about by now, I was hit by a Chaos attack and was blown out of my body, but I wasn't just a floating mind, the left over Chaos Energy helped me create a new form, although I didn't know I was doing it at the time I created a pure genetic replica of my old body, but the Chaos Energy also had some after effects like cutting a few years out from under me and"

"The scar?" Max interrupted.

"No actually, that's a different story, but back to what's important, because this body was created from Chaos Energy it served to awaken the dormant Chaos Sensitivity I had gained from prolonged exposure to The Chaos Emeralds and other sensitive beings like Sonic and Shadow, sort of like what happened to you. Anyway I was confused and scared, I thought I was dead and so didn't reveal myself yet, instead I watched the fight from a hiding place in the forest, I saw Sonic win and I decided it would be better if I vanished for a while and got things together, eventually I found myself on Angel Island while Knuckles was away and it was there that the Master Emerald revealed what had actually happened to me"

"And the scar?"

"Don't press you're luck." Miles joked.

Although unknown to both of them Kai could here every word they were saying and was filled with relief, after a couple of minutes he managed to haul himself up and go down to join them. "So that's what you meant when you said you weren't the Miles that died." Kai said from where he was leaning on the door frame.

"Kai! You're awake, you alright?" Max asked.

"I'm fine, anyone get the number of that truck that hit me"

"I just might have." Miles said, "You heard"

"Yeah, every word, but I've used other Emeralds before and nothing like this has ever happened, so why now"

"Well why's always the most difficult question, but I might have an idea." He tapped a few keys and a new window popped up, Kai took the seat next to Miles and Max continued looking over his shoulder, "I managed to set up a few simulations based on past battle data and energy readings from the black box of the Tornado two and the onboard computer of the Tornado Legacy, as you guys call it, anyway we have Kai's energy signature on the left indicated by this fluctuating bar on the graph, the others are vital signs and so on but it's not that important, now the graph on the right shows those of Bionic sorry about the vagueness of this but his cybernetic defences often block the Tornado's automatic sensor sweeps, I could get a better reading if I had a chance to do a target specific scan but this will work as well"

"The point?" Kai asked.

"Is this, look when you two come in close proximity the bar fluctuates so much more rapidly, eventually they just go off the chart, it's a resonance reaction it's how you know when one of your brethren is skulking nearby. However, it's always strongest around Bionic, maybe it's something to do with adrenaline or some other vital factor"

"No." Kai said, "All of the collective are more or less similar but me and Bionic we're different, we're the same, just a stones throw away from being one another, we're so much closer than the other collective members. I don't understand how that effects my Chaos power though"

"I can answer that." It was Shadow who had crept up on them and was followed in by Sonic, "Before using Chaos Control your body has to more or less match up with the frequency of the Emerald, you must have made the jump when the frequency you were emitting spiked"

"Well that's cleared up." Miles said, "I guess we can go back to what passes for normal"

"No. Bionic's still alive." Kai scowled as the words left his mouth, "He'll be back"

"But until that time we're free to spend some time on relaxing for a change." Sonic pointed out, "Now, to the beach!" Sonic zipped out of the room closely followed by Miles and Max. Shadow rolled his eyes and began walking to the door before Kai spoke, "Shadow?

"Hm"

"Do you believe in karma"

"Not a bit. I believe in me." Shadow reassured.

"That's what I hoped.. Now in the immortal words of Sonic, to the beach!"

Clank… clank… clank… the metal fingers tapped on the chair arm as he watched a computer screen, "Sonic."

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