Chapter 6

Many Questions and Few Answers

"So, what happened to Lily, was this your fault?! I don't exactly have all day! Why did she faint at the mention of the word Greengate?! Is she connected?!" demanded Rabby furiously. It wasn't really in her nature to freak out and get mad at someone without enough information to tell her if it really was a person, but if it involved Lily getting hurt, then she's willing to jump to conclusions about her friend.

"You're acting like it was me who did that, but no! I did nothing! I didn't even know about any of this! I summoned you to me because I need to know all I can to solve this mystery! Are you certain that she's always been on your planet because I think that this has something to do with this," Kaira replied. She glanced over to Rabby and tried to read her mind, but Rabby's mind was guarded by a thick fog that not even she could break through.

"Actually, I guess she hasn't because when I first met her it was in a shipwreck. When I say that, I mean a spaceship and not a giant boat. I still don't get how knowing this helps!" Rabby shouted angrily.

"Calm down Rabby! What I was thinking was that maybe I could figure this out if I knew where she came from. It might be possible that she came from Greengate and forgot about it. She fainted because the discovery of Greengate being included with my story, my story has nothing to do with this, caused this little trigger in her mind because it was a forgotten memory that she's been trying to remember. Her whole body shut down to try and remember where she's heard it from. I've seen it happen once or twice," Kaira replied.

"Wow! Will she be all right? I've got this strange feeling that she isn't who she says she is. I think I remember giving her the name Lily because she couldn't remember her name. I thought that it would be temporary and that she'd remember, but she hasn't remembered yet…," Rabby answered.

"W-what happened? Did I pass out or something?" asked Lily groggily as she got up from the floor.

"What's your name, where did you come from, and what are you doing here?" asked Rabby.

"I'm Lily, I come from the planet that Rabby lives on, and I am here because I agreed to come with Rabby on a journey through outer space to stop metarex," replied Lily.

"Why'd she wake up if she didn't remember? Doesn't she wake up when she remembers?" asked Rabby.

"The brain simply gave up on finding what the word meant or was out and erased the word from her mind to make sure that it doesn't bug her anymore. Yes, she wakes up if she remembers, but the brain gives up if she doesn't and she wakes up then also," Kaira replied.

"What?" asked Lily in a confused and groggy voice.

"I'm becoming just as confused as you are Lily. How long does it take for the brain to just simply give up?" asked Rabby curiously.

"It could take a few minutes, a week, a month, or years… We got lucky. I once had a friend who was passed out for about six years because of something like this and he still didn't remember anything!" Kaira exclaimed.

"Hold on a second…," said Lily slowly.

"What?!" asked Rabby.

"Come to think of it… I think that I may know something about that. Are you talking about Greengate? The planet that Cosmo's clan comes from?" asked Lily.

"She remembered when she was awake! I've never seen that happen before! Another thing to add to my list of things that I didn't expect that actually happened," Kaira said. She got out the list and wrote it down.

"She has a list for that?" asked Lily.

"I guess… Yes, Greengate is the planet where the plant people come from. What do you know about it?!" asked Rabby excitedly.

"Only that I come from there and had some sort of connection with the Drayans," Lily replied.

"I think that you should have Tails do an experiment on you just in case if you didn't retrieve an actual memory because that has happened before," Kaira told her.

"Alright and- aaaaaaaaaah!" cried Lily.

Instantly they were falling! Actually, the Blue Typhoon was falling. The alarms went off and they could hear Tails screaming to everyone over the megaphone built into the ship. Everybody was yelling in panic!

"Red alert! I have accidently flown too close to the atmosphere of a mysterious planet that my radar couldn't pick up! All of you prepare for emergency landing!" cried Tails.

"What's the emergency landing?!"

CRASH! POW! BOOM!

"I think that's the emergency landing…," Kaira replied. She looked a little banged up from the fall and being shoved into a wall, but she was fine.

"What happened?" asked Rabby.

"I think that we crash landed on a planet and since I have a lot of experience with identifying strange force fields, I know that a truth telling shield is put up and around the planet!" said Kaira.

"I won't have to doubt anyone anymore!" Rabby cheered.

"Be careful what you say. You don't want to say something totally humiliating. You know, like I'm in desperate need of a microwave," Kaira said.

"Why do you want a microwave?" asked Lily.

"I don't know. I was just using that as an example you know. Besides, the Blue Typhoon doesn't have a microwave," Kaira answered.

"Oh, I didn't know that" Rabby replied.

Meanwhile, the metarex were making battle strategies to use in battle against Sonic if they ever met in combat. At least they weren't playing checkers like they normally do. The metaltron was taking longer than usual, and Blue Sycamore didn't like having to wait for it. It finally returned with news from their leader.

"Blue Sycamore, the leader says that she'll give you one more chance due to how good you did on your last mission. Are you ready for your first task from us as leader?" asked the metaltron.

"Why yes. We have been training ourselves for battle and upgrading our weapons and armor. We are ready!" Blue Sycamore replied.

"Good. You need to split your army into groups because we need you to retrieve something. Actually, somethings," the metaltron told them.

The metaltron whispered something to Blue Sycamore and they began cackling once the metaltron was done explaining. The other metarex just looked around at each other and shrugged. Blue Sycamore then got serious.

"I love the plan, but how are we supposed to do all that? I mean, it seems rather complicated. What if we can't do it?" Blue Sycamore asked.

"Have faith in your men. With you as their leader, we won't fail again! Don't fail for your sake!" the metaltron answered as it walked back out of the metarex base.

"I hope that we don't blow it…," Blue Sycamore sighed.

At that very moment, Shadow and Rouge felt that they were very close to the chaos emerald and didn't expect this one thing to happen…

"Shadow, how do you know if we're close? Do you have a chaos emerald tracking device on you? If you do, I'd love to have it!" said Rouge.

"Never in a million years Rouge. Besides, I don't even have a chaos emerald tracker. I'd like to have one, but Dr. Eggman doesn't let me have one permanently. The reason that I know is because of the force! It's getting stronger. I think that this force is leading me to the chaos emerald. Rouge, fly ahead and see what you can see, anything unusual. Got that?" asked Shadow.

"Sure thing, but if I find a cave, you won't see me much anymore because I won't be leaving!" Rouge answered. She flew ahead and let out a shocked shout of amazement.

"What is it?!" demanded Shadow.

"Look at that! It's amazing!" cried Rouge pointing up at the giant structure in front of them.

Right in front of their eyes was a giant pyramid shaped temple. It had large stairs leading into it and ancient writings were on the outside walls. It had lots of cracks and vines wrapped around the temple and climbed up through the cracks. The temple was obviously very old.

"Rouge, the chaos emerald is inside of the temple. Let's go!" Shadow snapped.

They race up the steps, but right as Rouge was about to fly in, she crashed into something. She was flung backwards and she nearly fell all the way back down the stairs. Luckily, Shadow flipped around and grabbed her and saved her from falling.

"Rouge?!" asked Shadow.

"I'm fine, but what was that?" asked Rouge as she tried to stand up.

"I think that it was a force field of some sort that only I can go through. Why me I don't know. You'll have to stay here. Okay with you Rouge?" asked Shadow.

"Yeah, I just want that chaos emerald…," Rouge mumbled.

"I'll be back soon and don't run off." Shadow nodded and ran into the giant temple. He looked back one more time before plunging into the darkness of the hallways.

"I can't see anything! I wish that I had a torch!" Shadow said to himself as he nearly walked into a wall.

"Hissssssssss words of ssssnakessss…" a voice said to him.

"The words of the snakes? What's that supposed to mean? Whatever! I don't need light or directions!" snapped Shadow.

"Follow the words of the ssssnakessss… The words of the ssssnakessss… They will light your path…," the voice said again.

"I said that I don't need- GAH!" Shadow ran into another wall and he knew that he'd have to figure out what the words meant. He felt the wall that he ran into and noticed that there was something carved into it. A symbol! He ran to the other wall and ran his hand over that one and noticed that there were no markings on it.

"That was easy… If only if I could see! I wonder if this entire place is dark!" snapped Shadow. He ran along the wall with the marks in them, but then felt something else. It felt like a big stone button. He decided to press it. It was probably a trap, but he was willing to try anything.

The floor began to shake just as he did, but only for a moment because out of the corners of the room, fire flew out of the holes in the wall and lit the torches on the walls. Instantly, the temple was very well lit and Shadow jumped in surprise.

"That was too simple…, but I think that there's more here than hallways that light themselves. Why am I talking to myself?!" he asked himself with irritation.

He continued through the endless hallways and was getting frustrated after an hour. He pounded his fist on the wall. The lights all went out!

"Darn it all! I can't see and I'm not going back to find that button! What am I supposed to do now?!" yelled Shadow with great frustration.

"Well, look who's come to our temple. I'm glad that ssssomething's finally come! I haven't eaten in sssix million yearsssss…," a voice in the darkness hissed.

"He must be a chosen one otherwissse he'd still be sssstuck outside because of that barrier at the door that locked us in. What should we do? Shall we feasssst on his flesh?" hissed a second voice.

"Snakes, I should've known. Well, you won't have me. Where is that chaos emerald?!" demanded Shadow.

"What'sss he talking about, thesssse chaosss emeraldssss? Could he be talking of the emerald dark as midnight, but clear as ice? The one hidden here that only we can accessss? He knowsss of the color emerald of the black sssstorm that has been dormant for centuriesss. Well, we are the guardiansss of the black color emerald." The snake slithered closer, and despite the fact that Shadow couldn't see it, he could feel it wrapping around his legs. Shadow sprang backwards to escape its grip.

"Hmph! Hedgehog thinkssss he can find it on his own does he? Fine with usss, but we shall be watching. Any misssstake you make in this labyrinth might be your lassst and if you do, be prepared to feel our fangsss!" a snake yelled as it slithered away.

"Great…," Shadow mumbled to himself.

He continued on and on and on and on still. He didn't know of what lie ahead although, he continued for his sake. Shadow may be the ultimate life form, but not even he could see in the dark. Or fight in it.