Chapter 5

Secret of the Legend

"That was amazing how you were able to fix the Blue Typhoon in two little seconds! I've never seen anything quite like it ever! Now that we're actually in the air, could you explain to us how you did that, what you are, and also where you came from?" Sonic asked. He didn't want to be delayed on finding out.

Kaira looked around and then took a breath. She was going to need it. This told Sonic and his friends that it was a long story…

"I am one of the last of my kind, a great and powerful people who were wiped out by these evil metaltrons many years ago. They were known as the Drayans and they were really powerful. The Drayans hatch from eggs, so I was still within my eggshell. The metaltrons were our rivals, but yet also enemies. They destroy anything that they fear is more powerful than them. It was a totally normal day, but then they just attacked out of nowhere and the defenders couldn't defend!" cried Kaira at the memory.

"Defenders?" asked Knuckles giving Kaira a sideways glance.

"Oh, that's right. I didn't tell you that part yet… Drayans come in three forms. You see, they're the defenders, the attackers, and the spellcasters. The spellcasters create and do magic. If they make good magic, they'll sell it for the public to use. Drayans were also the greatest people ever when it came to trading goods which made us totally rich! Attackers are the masters of the battlefield. They are the only ones allowed to inflict damage with their own fists. Spellcasters can fight, but only with magic. The defenders are very peaceful and can only defend, so they are sort of at a disadvantage. They can't hurt anyone, but this isn't a problem because they all don't like to fight. With the unstoppable combination of spellcasters, attackers, and defenders we were the most powerful race in the world!" Kaira announced proudly.

"So, how do you know if you are a spellcaster, attacker, or defender? Also what kind are you? How could your planet be defeated if your race was the strongest and most powerful?" asked Amy curiously.

"It's all based on personality. Defenders are peaceful, Attackers are more hostile and never seem to back down, and spellcasters are crafty and clever. Once you've discovered which kind you are, you've got to get your wingspan!"

"Wait! You're not born with your wings?!" asked Sonic in a surprised tone.

"Nope, you have to earn your wings. The whole thing is basically to prove if you are worthy to even be a part of the race. Only the best ones will do! All that really needs to be done to get your wings is walk out and wait for something to attack you. The wings just right for you will… uh… try to kill you. All you have to do is touch it though and then they're all yours. Defender's wings are big and round, sort of boring if you ask me… Attackers have sharp pointed wings that are not as wide, but longer. Spellcasters have spiral wings. Not a spiral design I mean literally spiral shape wings, so they can't exactly fly," Kaira replied.

"What about you? How did the whole disaster happen?" asked Tails.

"Me? Well, I don't exactly have a specific type. This is why the design upon my wings is spiral and why they are round and sharp. The best kind of all of them! Perfectly suited for a princess!" cheered Kaira.

Everyone eyes stretched wide with wonder. Kaira is a princess?! How could it be?!

"Yep, I know what you're thinking because I most certainly am a princess. I thought that I'd actually get the chance to lead though…," Kaira sighed.

"I can't believe it! How could you not ever get the chance to rule such an awesome place like that?! If I were you, I'd walk right up to their base and destroy them all! You have no right to let them push you around!" snapped Amy.

"Well, they didn't exactly just walk up to the atmosphere of Draynia and say "Hello everyone! I was wondering if I could just take you over right now and wipe you all out! Hope you don't mind." Kaira replied in her fake metaltron voice.

Everyone laughed. They all did have to admit that she made a valid point. The metaltrons must've had a strategy.

"The planet's name was Draynia right? How exactly did it happen? Were you captured right off the bat or what?" asked Amy.

"Draynia was just randomly attacked, we were outnumbered, an attacker named Benjamin swooped in to save my life right as the planet blew up, flew as far off as possible, crash landed on a random planet, I hatched (I wasn't born yet), but found him nowhere to be found, and turned out I was on your home planet. The reason that you haven't seen me is because I spent all my time fighting metaltrons," Kaira finished. That was all she had to tell, but it certainly was an interesting story that left Sonic's crew in awe.

"Did only the Drayans live on Draynia?" asked Cosmo.

"No because there are mermaids, dragons, griffins, unicorns, plant people, and…," Kaira thought for a few moments trying to think of more things to add to her list.

"Did you say plant people?!" asked Cosmo.

"Yes. Draynia collided with another planet a long time ago, the planet containing the plant people. It was thanks to the Spellcasters that the planet didn't blow up. Also fearing that the newcomers would be hostile, the Spellcasters put up a barrier, so that the plant people wouldn't ever know that we were there," Kaira explained.

"I am the last of the plant people, or in my case, my clan. They were wiped out by the evil metarex!" cried Cosmo.

"Those were not the metarex. We knew that your kind was strong and that you'd easily be able to put up a good fight against those things. Those were metaltrons. When the metaltrons attacked us, that was when they attacked you," Kaira replied.

"You mean,… I have been fighting the metarex just to discover that it wasn't really them?! This just can't be! One member of my clan actually became the leader of all the metarex and got other members of my clan to join! It makes no sense that it wasn't the metarex!" Cosmo replied.

"Okay, well, if he was the leader and wasn't a metarex leader yet, how did he attack? He wasn't the leader! There was no metarex back then. He created the metarex to go up against the people who were destroying his people, but went crazy and lost sight of his original goal when he got all that power. When you defeated the metarex, you didn't get rid of the real enemies. You only got rid of the planet egg thieves," Kaira explained.

"It wasn't the metarex? It was the metaltrons who destroyed my clan? My family?" asked Cosmo.

"That on the other hand, was the metarex. They obliterated the ship you were on, but they didn't destroy Greengate," Kaira replied.

Right at that very moment, Lily went wide-eyed, gasped, and fainted for some reason. Lily fell onto the floor with a loud, "Thump!" Everyone fell silent.

"What just happened?" Amy asked in a low voice. Due to the sudden change of events, Amy kept on casting nervous glances at the unconscious, purple hedgehog.

"Hm… I'm going to have to study this…," Kaira said. She instantly took out a notebook and scribbled something down onto the notebook paper. Once finished she nodded and summoned for Rabby to follow her into another room. Instantly they vanished.

"I'm never going to get any of this." Sonic sighed and then sprinted away. He hated to leave Lily on the floor, but he knew that his friends would tend to her.

Meanwhile…

"Black Maple, how could you fail us?! We gave you one simple task! Now you're in for it!" the metaltron growled.

"Listen, I can explain!" begged the metarex leader desperately.

"I don't want to hear your excuses! Our leader is angrier than ever at us for this catastrophe! She says that she'll dismantle all of us if we do this again! For your mistake, you will have to suffer the consequences! Black Maple, we just can't afford to make mistakes," the metaltron replied. He began to rotate his hands in a particular motion. A magical force appeared between the metaltron's hands. It seemed to swallow the leader who was fighting back a scream of pain.

"What are you doing to me?!" cried the leader helplessly.

"I'm sending you, Black Maple, to another dimension where you can't interfere with our plans anymore. I would destroy you, but I just don't have the time. I was going to get the day off, but after your failure, I had to work twice as hard as usual! No time for a fight!" snapped the metaltron angrily.

Then in a flash, Black Maple was gone. The other metarex looked around anxiously. The shock of their leader being gone greatly troubled them. They all looked at the metaltron angrily.

"Mad at me are you? Well, your leader should have seen this coming! Good luck surviving without a leader!" the metaltron turned its back to them.

"All hail Blue Sycamore!" cheered all the metarex suddenly.

"What are you saying?! You have another leader?!" asked the metaltron in confusion.

A blue metarex stepped out of the shadows. It had a bright blue coating of metal and looked almost indestructible. It had the symbol of the metarex on its arm and it stood tall and proud as it entered the room. It was a new and improved Blue Sycamore.

"Black Maple guessed that this would happen, so he made me his second in command. I'm very sorry that Black Maple failed, but he just wasn't suited for this, so I will fill in and make the metaltrons proud to call us their allies," Blue Sycamore said boldly.

"Fine, our leader might grant you one more chance. She's bound to let you help some more now that there's a leader who can actually lead this group of evil metarex without as much fail. I will explain everything to her, but don't get your hopes too high. She might say no and then I'll have to destroy you all. Just a fair warning and I shall return once I have her answer," the metaltron replied before marching back out of the base.

"We shall not fail them again. Metarex, we need to be as strong as possible. You shall spend all of your free time getting stronger and upgrading your armor. Anything else that you do other than that will get you destroyed. Now go and do something useful," Blue Sycamore commanded. "We need to be more careful. No more mistakes for us, or we shall be done for. I am our last hope…," Blue Sycamore mumbled to himself.

Meanwhile with Shadow and Rouge somewhere on a mysterious planet known as Drolica…,

"This is getting us nowhere Shadow! What are we doing here if there's nothing, but trees and grass! I can't stand all of this sunlight! I need a cave and fast!" complained Rouge.

"Quit your complaining and come on! If you want to follow me around everywhere, you can't annoy me to the point that I want to go and jump off a cliff! Now be quiet, so I can find what I'm looking for!" snapped Shadow.

"Just what is it you're looking for Shadow? Answers to questions about your past? Any trace of Molly? Something to help you remember more about Maria?" asked Rouge.

"I thought that I told you to never speak of that name! You may have used it against me once, but never again! I'm looking for the chaos emerald of course! Now do as I tell you!" Shadow growled.

A little ways away, someone was eavesdropping on them. This person also had the chaos emerald. The person was up a tree and really liked the fact that Shadow and Rouge weren't getting along.

"You can't escape from me…"

"Did you hear that Shadow?" asked Rouge.

"It's just your imagination. Now help me find that emerald!"

"No Shadow! It said that you couldn't escape from it! Would I make something up like that?!" asked Rouge.

"Yes."

"I will see you again soon Shadow, but not now. You are part of my plan and as a reward for you coming this far, I'll leave you this…"

"You heard that right Shadow?! It sounded closer than ever! Right over there in fact! It said that it left you something over there! It also said that you are part of a plan! Don't you get this Shadow?!" yelled Rouge.

"Hmph… I guess, but if this is a trick to get that chaos emerald, you are going to be in a lot of pain." Shadow shot Rouge a glance.

They walked through the trees and found the chaos emerald lying on the ground! Shadow plucked it from the ground.

"I suppose you were right, but if what you said was true, well, who was that?" Shadow asked Rouge with a sideways glance.

"Don't ask me, but if I were you, I'd keep my guard up. Don't lower it for a second. You may regret it," Rouge told Shadow.

Shadow nodded and then ran off with Rouge at his heels. He was going to find out everything he could about this mystery person. He felt unusually uncomfortable about this, and he didn't know why. It was probably nothing…, but it might have been something… He didn't know.

"Shadow, do you think that the chaos emerald was left there for you, or just lying there. If there really was something there, it must have a reason," Rouge said to Shadow.

Shadow didn't reply.

"Thinking about something?" Rouge asked.

"No. Nothing that matters," Shadow replied hastily. His eyes revealed something about his emotions, but Rouge couldn't quite put her finger on it. Longing? Sadness? For all she knew he was happy!

"Going back to Eggman? You don't really have much use for those emeralds," Rouge said with her eyes on the chaos emerald. "They're just so beautiful."

Shadow took a step away, and Rouge's heart sank. She wanted to "hang on" to the chaos emeralds, but she knew better than to mess with Shadow.

"Eggman can wait but I can't. There's another chaos emerald on this planet, and I'm going to find it. I know there's something in me that knows that there's something other than the chaos emeralds that I'm interested in."

"Let's hope that this force that's calling you isn't love. That would be creepy if you were to fall in love with someone," Rouge replied.

Shadow only shuddered. It had never occurred to him that it could happen again, but it most certainly could. Then he began to wonder what force made Rouge bring that up. It didn't matter to him anyway. Or so he thought.

"I fall desperately in love with someone? Hmph! I don't have time for that!" snapped Shadow. "What even made you think it?! You know that it just can't happen! I am solo!"

"Wow! Shadow, why are you getting so worked up? Is it because of a person that you met a long time ago?" asked Rouge.

She expected for Shadow to snap back at her, but all he did was stand in front of her. He did nothing. After twenty seconds of silence, Shadow finally responded.

"Why bring it up? It's pointless. My heart suffered enough to even try to get me to do that sort of thing again," He finally replied.

"I was kidding! I didn't know that it would upset you so much! Listen, forget I even said it! We'll change the subject!" Rouge suggested.

"Whatever! It doesn't matter! Not anymore. Why I get worked up about it I don't know! All I know is that I need to find the chaos emeralds, and that I have a purpose. I just need to find it. All you need to know is that I can never fall in love again!"