I do not own sonic the hedgehog or any of the characters from the games, movies or comics but I do own this story and the other characters, I hope you enjoy it.

Things Only Whispered In The Shadows

Ch6. Truths and Lies

I watched the sunlight creep across the floor for an hour, just watching. I wasn't sure what was bothering me but something was off. I sat up, taking my time as the morning steadily crept into the afternoon, the yellow emerald sitting in my lap I sighed. I was getting nowhere, I had been practicing my teleportation ever since I had obtained the emerald. It had gone well and I had found that there were so many other things that I could use the energy for.

Apparently solving an unknown problem wasn't one of them, not like I had expected it to anyway I just couldn't shake the feeling and the emerald made me feel a lot safer, more in control. I sighed and got up, thinking myself in circles was getting me nowhere and it was almost evening now. If I wanted cooked food I would need to get it now, once outside there would be little time to cook.

I almost had enough materials for a proper weapon and tonight I would retrieve the last of a large vein of minerals to complete my first, and possibly last, creation. Sure I had made a lot of things with my parents or Maxis but none of them were my own, I had always had their help. This would be my masterpiece.

"Where did I put that blasted thing!" On my way past the main sanctuary I could hear Maxis and the others still digging for the thing that he had been looking for when they had arrived. Grinning to myself I quickly snuck past, I would let them find their own lost toys. I had more important things to do. Like practicing with an emerald that shouldn't exist in this world, and finding materials for a weapon that I promised my parents I would never make. When I made it to the cave a few minutes later I felt a sharp tug on my body. It was strange, like I was going to teleport but more like I was being pulled by someone. I ignored it since I was clearly still where I was supposed to be and nothing else had happened. I found the mineral vein deep within the cavern and felt another, stronger tug. I stopped collecting the minerals and pulled the emerald out, it was the only thing I could think of that could do anything like what was happening. It was shining brighter than usual and getting brighter. I would have dropped it had I not needed it so badly, and as far as I knew the emeralds were controlled by whom ever had them, which is why I was now so confused. The light intensified again, I had to shut my eyes in the now illuminated cave to avoid going blind. I was yanked forward, stumbling a couple steps forward and catching myself I opened my eyes again.

The emerald had stopped glowing and it seemed like it was back to its normal self, but I wasn't in the cave any more.

White, empty space spread out before me in every direction, I couldn't tell the difference between the floor and the sky? Or maybe it was a high ceiling, or just emptiness, no not quite empty. In the distance I could make out a figure, maybe two? It was all so confusing, the dream I had years ago and come back with a real emerald had made more sense than this empty place.

I jogged over toward the figure(s) and found that they were further away than I originally thought. I was running now trying to get there, they were distinctly two people now, at least I was getting closer. Two hedgehogs, no that was wrong, as I got close enough I slowed down and saw that one of the two was an echidna, a rare sight for sure. The other was definitely a hedgehog, but unlike any hedgehog I had ever seen his fur was black streaked with red on the tips of his quills and along his arms and legs. His eyes were the same striking red. I wondered how they had gotten here, and where here was. Had an emerald brought them to this blank space as well?

"I told you I could find it with the master emerald." the echidna spoke, pride dripping from his words and an arrogant smile plastered to his face. The hedgehog ignoring him, his eyes locked on me, gave me a look that said he was sizing me up. Didn't he know how to smile? Then again they might be prepared for a fight if they were looking for the emerald.

I was suddenly embarrassed to be holding the real emerald, if they were from the other world then it might appear that I had stolen the emerald, which I sort of had done, unintentionally of course. I must have stood there holding the emerald for a while just staring at the two of them not saying anything.

"Well?" The black hedgehog finally spoke, raising an eyebrow and giving me a 'what are you waiting for' kind of look.

I blushed, "Who are you?" it sounded better in my head, not quite so confused and unsure of myself. I hadn't spoken to anyone other than Fel, Maxis, and Talon in so long I almost forgot what talking to other people was like.

"I believe that is what we should be asking you." The black hedgehog was getting impatient now. I was getting frustrated. I was grateful when the echidna spoke up again.

Pointing to the black and red hedgehog, "Sorry about him, he can be a bit rude sometimes. I'm Knuckles, the stick in the mud over here is Shadow." Shadow humphed but otherwise ignored the comment and kept trying to stare me down. He wasn't getting the outcome he wanted, unless he was trying to rile me up.

"My name's Whisper, I don't quite understand what's going on. How did I get here?" I must have said something amusing because Knuckles and Shadow looked at each other and then back at me.

"I asked the master emerald to bring you, or rather to help us find the missing chaos emerald, and here we are." My eyes went wide, I had no idea that the emerald could be controlled by someone other than the one who had it. Wait, master emerald?

"Wait, whoa there's another emerald? I thought there were just the seven fragment emeralds and the seven real er... chaos emeralds." How many freaking emeralds were there? I was having trouble keeping up now, trying to put it all together at once and failing miserably.

Surprise colored Knuckles face, while Shadow only raised his other eyebrow. "You know about the chaos emeralds and you don't know about the master emerald? And what in the world is a fragment emerald?" Knuckles scoffed

"So there are seven more emeralds that we didn't know about. So much for knowing everything there is to know about the chaos emeralds, not like that is to surprising." He was casual with his insult, then switched his attention to me. "However, there is the problem of you being in position of one of our emeralds. Now if you would kindly hand it over we will send you back to where ever it is you come from unharmed and be on our way." He took a step forward and held out his hand.

I took a step back and readied the emerald for a fight, I shifted into a defensive stance that I could easily turn into an attack if necessary.

"Shadow! What are you doing? We need to get the emerald back not beat up some poor girl to get it!" Knuckles had grabbed Shadow by the wrist to try and stop him.

Although I was somewhat offended at being called some poor girl I hesitated at the chance to avoid a fight. Shadow gave him a look that would kill if it could have but didn't move.

"I don't know exactly what is going on but I can't give you the emerald back, not yet, I need it for..." Shadow pulled his hand from Knuckles grip and stalked toward me.

"If you won't give it to me then I will take it by force."

"Shadow! Stop, at least listen to what she has to say first!" Knuckles was trying to get a hold of him now, without luck.

"Why? If we cannot reason with her then what is the point?" he didn't take his eyes off of me for a second. Everything about him said he was capable and willing to kick my ass to get what he wanted, and every fiber of my being was screaming for me to get out of there. He was powerful and I had something he wanted. It was a bit like facing Salem without any weapons or allies, only I knew that if I gave him what he wanted he would leave me alone. Well at least until we came for the emeralds again.

I stopped retreating and calmed down. Now was NOT the time to be cowering or running. I may not be as powerful but I was more than good enough to surprise him. He obviously didn't think much of me, and that was my advantage.

He was still coming toward me, avoiding Knuckles he pulled out a red gem of his own. I froze for a moment looking at the twin of the fragment that had killed my parents. "Chaos control." I shook the feeling off just in time to watch Shadow disappear.

"Shit!" I dodged to the side just as he lunged from behind me, he could use them to... I teleported above him, trying to be less predictable than him only to find a counter strike waiting for me. I dodged it and circled around him, hopping that a direct attack would work better. He slammed me down hard before I could pick up any speed. He was fast, that was bad.

I had somehow managed to keep a hold on the chaos emerald and used it to put as much distance between him and me as I could. What was that he had said? Chaos control? Was that a command for the emerald? If so then that would explain why it looked so much easier for him to use the gems power.

"You can't disappear here. There is nowhere to hide." I had teleported a good ways behind him in the hopes that I could buy myself a couple seconds. He spotted me just in time for me to take off. I lunged as fast as I could and pushed myself as hard as I could, praying I could get enough speed.

"I can't give you the emerald yet!" running toward me he cut the amount of space between us faster than I expected. With a sonic boom we collided, I tried to brace myself when I realized we were essentially mirroring one another's attacks, but I only lessened the blow.

We both went flying in opposite directions, I was the only one to end up sprawled on the ground.

"What the Hell! How?" Knuckles had given up on stopping Shadow and was more interested in the events that had just unfolded. "How can she use one of the chaos emeralds? And did she just..."

"Yes she did, and if she is from another world with its own emeralds then it would stand to reason that she might be able to use the chaos emeralds as well." Shadow had landed on one knee, standing up but not getting closer.

It was Knuckles turn again. He snapped out of his fascination and rushed over to me. I was trying to push myself off of the ground with one hand on my aching ribs when he held a hand out to help me up. I lay there open mouthed for a moment before swiftly shutting it and accepting his help. I winced at the sudden movement, I didn't know if they were trying to help me or kill me at this point. It was a lot like Talon and me trying to get Fel to join one side or another in an argument.

"Are you alright?" He looked at me with genuine concern, making me all the more suspicious. "I'm sorry, are you hurt?" I nodded, I was totally and utterly confused by now and was just going along with whatever happened.

"You two just can't get your stories straight. One of you wants me dead and the other doesn't..."

"I don't want anyone dead. I just want you to hand over the emerald." He was glaring at me again.

"Could have fooled me, and besides I said I would give it to you after I was done with it."

"What exactly do you need the emerald for?" Knuckles was staring at me now too and I was getting uncomfortable.

I pondered the harm in telling them, and then decided it didn't matter much if they knew or not. "I need it to save my world from the bastard that killed my parents."

"This isn't a toy for your revenge." Shadows face had grown darker, his eyes lost their luster. "And besides why do you need one of our emeralds, just use your own."

"It's not like that! And if it were that easy I would have done it already!" I was desperate now, trying to explain myself to someone I hardly knew. "He's taking over everything, killing anyone and everyone in his path. The fragment emeralds aren't strong enough to stop him and even if they were we only have two and I'm almost certain he has four if not all five of the others." that seemed to be enough to win Knuckles over, but not quite the case for Shadow.

"We need to tell Sonic about this." This Sonic character must have been one of the heroes that the old fox had mentioned, if so then did that mean that these two were heroes too? "Shadow I think the emerald is in safe hands at the moment. If we can get the others..."

"So you're just going to believe her? Just like that and you believe her? We don't know anything about her and you want to leave one of the chaos emeralds with her in another world." He was getting angry again, but managed to keep his cool. "Do you have any idea how stupid you sound Knuckles? Seriously, this is almost as bad as you falling for Eggmans lies."

"This is NOT the same, she needs our help. And I only fell for it a couple of times." I was beginning to question my choice in comrades. If they were heroes then we were doomed. Sure they were strong, but that didn't mean much if they killed us or got themselves killed or worse ended up working for Salem instead.

Shadow shook his head sighing. "Knuckles, I don't think you get it. We can't rescue every sorry excuse for a hero that we come across." My desperation evaporated as quickly as it came.

"And why not? We can at least help her help herself can't we? At least until we ask Sonic and the others what they want to do."

"I'm not a hero." They both stopped to stare at me again. Knuckles seemed more confused at the outburst than anything. Shadow on the other hand looked surprised, he hadn't expected that. Good, maybe I still had a chance then. "If I were a hero I wouldn't need to ask for help from people like you. Yes it's pathetic, I know that already. But if it weren't the emfate of my world/em at stake I wouldn't be asking." I closed my eyes hopping he would at least go away. All I got was silence at first.

I heard a heavy sigh before opening my eyes. "Fine... Do what you want." Shadow threw his arms up in aggravation and turned around.

I almost cried as relief washed over me, "Thank you..."choking on my words they sounded so small.

"Don't thank me. I haven't done anything, if anything you should be thanking him. He's the one who wants to help you." Shadow was still facing away from us, his arms crossed.

"Awesome! Now we just have to go find Sonic and then we can get everyone to help you out!"

"Just one problem, you can't just zip off to another world without knowing where you want to go. She would have to be the one to take emus/em there, not the other way around. Then the only way to get all of us there would be to use all of the chaos emeralds, and in case you have forgotten Eggman has three of them and our friend here has one." he had turned to face us again, doubt and disappointment crossing his face.

"Oh, yeah right..."

I couldn't let this opportunity slip. If I could get their help now then we wouldn't need to get the fragments from Salem after all. "Then I will have to come with you. I can help you get the emeralds from this Eggman and then take you to my world so you can help us." Shadow looked less than pleased.

"That is a brilliant idea!" Knuckles brightened up again.

Shadow was doing a lot of sighing, "Grab my hand, I'll take us back to our world..."

Knuckles put his hand on Shadows shoulder and just as I was about to do as he said, the empty world bent.

Yes bent.

I was thrown back, then the world began to warp. "What the..."

"It's destabilizing!"

"It's WHAT!"

"This world is destabilizing! Dammit! I hopped this wouldn't happen." Shadow reached out to me again trying to get close enough.

I shook my head sadly and pulled my emerald out and held it out. Without another option I apologized to them. "Sorry, but it doesn't look like I can go with you." Their eyes went wide and Shadow cursed. "Chaos control!" I felt that familiar pull, I was in my room again.

I didn't even bother getting up, I no longer cared if I finished the sword tonight or not. I cried silently for a while thinking about how I could have saved us so much pain and suffering, if only I had been faster and taken his hand. Eventually I cried myself to sleep.

I didn't dream that night, nor the night after. It was three days before Talon could get me out of my room and another two before I would talk about it to anyone.

"So let me get this straight. You have had a Chaos emerald for years without telling anyone, let alone anyone noticing, but that aside. You went to a space between worlds and met two of the heroes from the other world, found out there are more of them and that they were willing to help us, and just when you were about to get them to help us the blank world destabilized and you teleported back here without the two heroes that could have at least helped us out in getting the fragments so that we could get the rest of the heroes here." I nodded weakly, avoiding eye contact. Talon had made it sound so much simpler and more my fault than I did. I wouldn't bother arguing with him, I didn't feel like it at the moment.

Fel had been quietly listening the whole time and Maxis was out on one of his rare expeditions looking for more study material that might help him decipher more of the writing in the temple. Fel didn't move, he had his hand on his chin and a very focused look on his face.

"Am I the only one who seems to care that my sister has been Dimension Hopping and came back crying the other night?" I was happy that my safety seemed to be his first concern but he was still angry about that as well. "I hope you know that we are telling Maxis as soon as he gets back. No ifs ands or buts about it." and with that it was final. My life was probably over and I would probably lose the chaos emerald. At least they would have a better chance against Salem with it. I was certain that the old fox could use it almost as well as I could if not better.

I nearly started sobbing again, trying my hardest to hold it in as silent tears streamed down my face.

"Hey, don't cry. We're mad at you not executing you. We're just a bit upset that you kept this a secret and worried that something could have gone wrong and you could have ended up seriously hurt or lost."

I knew that they would most likely only take the emerald from me and I had purposely left out the part where Shadow had attacked me. I sniffled, rubbing my eyes trying to get rid of the tears. I was stronger than this, I didn't want to be but I was.

We went out that night, gathered the materials that I had not gotten the chance to get, and then returned to the temple. I wasn't sure where to start with the weapon so I left it for another day, one when Maxis' potential wrath wasn't looming in my mind.