You readers are probably wondering how the story is going to end. Well, you're about to find out because this is the last chapter.
Knuckles led us to the hidden palace under the surface of Angel Island. I haven't been down there since I fought him when he was tricked into thinking that I was going to steal the Master Emerald. When we got to the palace, he was looking at a spot where a boulder was next to a tunnel. I don't remember seeing either the boulder or the tunnel before. The boulder must've been blocking the tunnel's entrance earlier because it had been moved out of the way so anybody could enter it. The red echidna led the way through the dark tunnel and into a strange room.
Sure enough, there was Typhoon standing in front of a wall with stasis tubes. He was standing in front of one with a similarly-shaped steel door in front of it and holding that echidna girl on his left shoulder. The dark gray echidna reached into the pocket on the right side of his jacket and pulled out a key. Then, he fitted it into the lock on the door and turned it. The door made an electronic noise as it slowly lifted up allowing access to the stasis tube behind it. When he pulled the stasis tube out, I couldn't believe what was in there! It looked like the girl he was holding, but she looked more solid.
The girl had a muzzle that was the same light beige color as Tikal's, but the color of her fur was more like a light coral than a peach. She was wearing a white sleeveless top that went past her hips and a dark turquoise blue skirt that was just a couple of inches away from her ankles. On her feet were tan sandals with a plastic white flower each on the top of the straps that went across her toes. The gloves she wore on her hands were the same as Tikal's except around each one of her wrists was a bracelet of plastic flowers that matched the ones on her sandals. She had a rainbow-colored headband that went around her forehead with a white flower design in the middle. Around her neck was a necklace that went all the way to her belly with beads that matched her skirt.
Typhoon took the ghostly form of the girl on his shoulder and placed it into the solid version in the stasis tube. The transparent form vanished into the solid one the same way Tikal, Typhoon, and Eclipse did when they went into the portal. A few seconds passed before the coral-colored echidna girl in the stasis tube mumbled and slowly opened her sapphire blue eyes to look at the dark gray echidna happily gazing down at her. She looked shocked, like she didn't expect to see him. Then, she finally broke the silence, speaking in an unsure voice.
"Typhoon?"
The dark gray, smiling echidna nodded his head once as another way of saying "yes." The echidna girl sat up in the stasis tube and wrapped her arms around Typhoon. He responded by lifting her and wrapping his arms around her as he held her. I turned to Knuckles and asked him if the girl was Summer. Knuckles told me in the temple that he saw Summer in one of Typhoon's memories, so I assumed that he would know if the echidna girl was her.
"Yes," the red echidna replied.
So, that's why Typhoon jumped into the portal. Knuckles told me that a hand came out of the portal and grabbed Summer. Or at least it snatched her soul and pulled it back into the portal. Typhoon must've grabbed her body, fled to Angel Island, and placed her in the stasis tube. So when the portal reappeared, he went back for her soul so he could have her resurrected. After a moment of their embrace, the two echidnas pulled away and gazed into each other's eyes, like they were both in a trance.
"What happened to your eyes, Typhoon?" Summer asked the dark gray echidna. "There's no darkness in them anymore."
"I don't know what happened, Summer," he replied. "All I know is that I'm not a vampire anymore."
Summer turned her attention away from Typhoon and looked at the rest of us. When she did, the expression on her face went from a confused look to one of fear, like we were going to hurt her.
"Typhoon, who are they?" she asked pointing at us.
The dark gray echidna turned his head in our direction. Then, he turned back to her and answered, "They're friends of mine."
"So, Typhoon," I said to the charcoal echidna. "Now that you're not a vampire anymore, does that mean you can no longer use that strange green energy of yours?"
"What are you talking about, Sonic?" Typhoon said. "I've had that ability before the night my master put that spell on me."
"What about gliding?" Knuckles asked. "Tikal and I are the only ones that can do that."
"The same as my green energy. I've had it before I became a vampire."
"But how is that possible?" I asked him.
"I've been exposed to a huge gem with mystical powers."
"Like the Master Emerald or that blue gem you used to get us out of the temple?" Knuckles asked.
"Not quite. The gem I was exposed to was more of a power source brought down by my people's ancestors."
"Speaking of your people, Typhoon, how exactly did any echidnas survive?" I asked the dark gray echidna.
"Yeah, Knuckles and Tikal were the only echidnas on the planet until you and Summer showed up," Tails explained.
"They're probably the only ones left of their people," Typhoon answered. "The people that Summer and I are descended from have been living on the surface for over three-thousand years. And it's also possible that there could be other echidnas living somewhere else on the planet."
"But nobody's seen any other echidnas around," Tikal said.
"They could be living in places that are far from the city," Summer said. "My family lived in a small town."
"Our people preferred to live without humans or other groups," Typhoon explained. "Maybe you haven't seen any other echidnas because they won't let themselves be seen by others."
Typhoon was really a strange echidna! He had been around for nearly a thousand years, but he was a teenager like most of us. I know Tikal had been around for about three-thousand years before being sealed in the Master Emerald, but Typhoon was even more different without being a vampire. He was able to use that weird green energy and glide like Knuckles before Eclipse had cast that spell on him.
In lots of ways, Typhoon was like Shadow. They had both been around longer than Knuckles and I have, they had both been in stasis tubes for many years, they had our abilities, and they were even more powerful than we were. One problem that Shadow and I had was that we usually never got along. It was the same way with Knuckles. It usually didn't take long for the both of us to get into a fight. If Typhoon was planning to stay on Angel Island, I wonder how long it would take before Knuckles got in a fight with him?
(Knuckles)
I led the way out of the Hidden Palace and back towards the bright surface of Angel Island. I let out a joyful sigh as the sun shone on my fur. It felt so good to feel the warmth from the sun again.
"So, what are you guys going to do now?" Sonic asked the two echidnas that were in the stasis tubes.
"I think I want to go home," Summer answered. "I want to see my parents again."
"Are you sure that they're even still alive?" Amy asked.
"I'm pretty sure they are, Amy," Typhoon said to the pink hedgehog. "It's only been about forty years since we were in the stasis tubes."
"So what are you going to do Typhoon?" I asked the dark gray echidna.
"What do you mean? I'm going with Summer."
I was a little surprised by what he just told me.
"You're leaving?" I asked him. "You're not going to stay here?"
"I'm staying with Summer, Knuckles. I love her and I think it would be best for her parents to meet me."
"Isn't she a little too young to be getting married?" Shadow asked.
"She won't be after a few more years," Typhoon said.
I felt a feeling of disappointment come over me the same way the guilt I had when I thought Sonic was dead did. The only other male echidna I knew was leaving. After all the things he had done to me, good and bad, I was now upset that he was leaving.
"I thought that you were going to stay on Angel Island," I said to Typhoon. "I was starting to think of you like a brother I never had and I was kind of looking forward to having you live on the island with me."
"Knuckles," the dark gray echidna said to me. "I stayed with you because you didn't know what had happened to you after I bit you. Now that the spell has been broken, you don't need me anymore."
"So, you're leaving for good?" I asked while slowly lowering my head.
"I wouldn't say that," Typhoon told me. "Who knows? I may come back someday."
"Hopefully not as a vampire again," Shadow said.
Typhoon scooped Summer up in his arms and took off into the sky. The coral echidna placed both her arms around the dark gray echidna that was holding her in his. When they were in mid-air, they floated for a moment to wave goodbye to the rest of us. We waved back and said our farewells to them before they turned away from us and continued to fly in the air. We watched them look like they were getting smaller until they became a tiny speck in the sky and then vanished from our sight.
"You know what," Sonic said. "I think we should be going too."
"Why do you think that Sonic?" Shadow asked.
"Well, for one thing, you've got to return the unused blood packets you stole from the hospital last night. Now that your girlfriend and everybody else is back to normal, you don't need them anymore."
Shadow gave Sonic an annoyed look after the blue hedgehog's statement.
"Rouge is not my girlfriend! We're just partners!"
"Sure you are," Sonic said with sarcasm in his tone. "Why else would you be blushing?"
The red-streaked hedgehog became even more infuriated as he clenched his fists and bared his teeth at the smirking blue hedgehog with his
arms crossed.
"I'm not blushing!" Shadow said in an angry tone. When he said that, his muzzle was a little red. Sonic was right. He was blushing. He just didn't want to admit it because he wasn't the kind of person with a noticeable soft spot.
"So, Shadow," Rouge said to the jet black hedgehog while taking hold of his hands with both of hers. "Are you sure we're just partners?"
When she said that, Shadow's eyes grew bigger and the color of his muzzle went from a light red to the color of my fur.
"Why don't we discuss it back at my place," the white bat said with a seductive tone as she gazed into his crimson eyes and slowly ran one of the fingers on her right hand up the hedgehog's white tuft of fur on his chest. Shadow's expression didn't change, but he did slowly lower his hands and let them hang by his sides as he continued to look at Rouge.
"So, what are you and Tails going to do when we get back to town, Sonic?" Amy asked the blue hedgehog.
"Amy, " he said. "I was kind of thinking...that maybe if you wanted...maybe we could go out later for lunch."
Sonic sounded kind of nervous when he spoke. I was starting to think that maybe he was kind of shy asking Amy out. The pink hedgehog didn't seem to care about his stuttering though. Her emerald green eyes lit up and a smile spread across her face after hearing the blue hedgehog's stammering offer.
"Oh Sonic," she said excitedly as she wrapped her arms around him. "I can't believe it! We're actually going out!"
"Amy, I meant going out for something like burgers, not a fancy expensive place where I have to wear a tie."
Sonic turned to Shadow and said, "Shadow, why don't you use Chaos Control to get us out of here?"
"No way!" the jet black hedgehog replied. "Not after the way you were messing with me earlier."
"Oh, come on. You're our only way off of the island. If you're that upset, we can duke it out later."
"No."
"Rouge, could you please get your boyfriend to Chaos Control us out of here?"
"Sonic!" Shadow clenched his fists again and the furious look on his face told us he was at the edge of losing his temper.
"Come on, Shadow," Rouge soothingly said to the red-streaked hedgehog. "Your Chaos Control is the only way out of here. Besides, we can have some time to ourselves after we get back to the city."
"Okay," the jet black hedgehog said reluctantly.
"All right, Shadow," Sonic said. "Go ahead and say the magic words."
Before he did say the "magic words", he lowered his head and said to Sonic in his ear, "I'm going to get you for this."
I waved goodbye to everybody as they disappeared in a flash of light and I was alone again. I went back to the altar and up the steps were the Master Emerald was. Then, I sat down to resume my job of guarding it. As I sat at the top of the stone altar, I was feeling so down that I had to use my right hand in order to hold my head up. Typhoon was gone and who knows if he was ever going to come back. If he had stayed, I wouldn't have had to feel lonely anymore. I let out a long depressed sigh as I sat there, guarding the Master Emerald.
"Knuckles?"
When I heard that familiar voice, I looked down at the stone steps where Tikal was standing, looking up at me with her hands behind her back.
"Tikal, what are you doing here?" I asked her. "Why didn't you go with Sonic and the others back to the mainland?"
"I was thinking that maybe you would want some help guarding the emerald."
My heart was filled with delight by her words! Before Typhoon had bitten me, Tikal was the only one I wanted to be around. And now she wanted to guard the Master Emerald with me.
"Sure," I said to her. "I could use a little company for a while."
The peach echidna walked up the stone steps of the emerald altar until she had reached the top where I was perched and sat next to me on my left. Then, she placed her right hand on my left one and let her head rest on my shoulder. Her actions startled me, but I didn't push her away. I let her hold my hand and rest on my shoulder as we sat on the top of the altar. The sun was shining brightly as a gentle breeze blew on my face and through my dreadlock spines. It was just like the day when all that weird stuff happened. Only this time I wasn't just thinking of Tikal, I was sitting next to her.
The End.
This is the first fanfic that I actually finished! Yay! Feel free to review and let me know what you thought of it.