The Echidna screamed it at the top of his fiery red lungs, making sure the gods would feel the pain and emptiness in his broken and shattered life. The gods would know how he cursed them for sending him...that hedgehog…to his island… Perhaps they would be kind enough to pass on the curses to his ancestors for leaving him there to his fate…
Everything…
Was…
Gone…
Rouge was the first to try. "Knuckles, I…"
He turned his face from her and simply stood. He stood on his own accord and turned and started walking down the green beach. Wait… Green…?
Sonic eyes widened as soon as he realized that the beach was covered in the same green ash that they had found all over Knuckles and now the body of his chao. He looked back at his friend, watching him wobble for a moment. "Knuckles!" He was right under the guardian when he fell. He caught the heavy load of mussel with Espio's help.
Rouge whimpered as the ragged corpse rolled out of the echidna's bloody arms, the blood being his own. Espio told her to go back to the house and get some bags and a box for the chao, letting her leave the scene.
She nodded hastily as the two males staggered up the beach with their unconscious comrade and laid him out in the cool grass as they collapsed on either side of him.
They were quite for a moment and then Sonic looked over at the Chaotix on the other side. "What do you think happened…?" he asked, turning and beginning to tighten some of the loss wrappings on the echidna.
The chameleon on the other side was silent for a moment, his face creased with a worried scowl. His frown dipped even deeper as he said, "Do you remember the report on the destruction of station square a few months ago…?"
Sonic winced and nodded, remembering the area of nothingness where there used to be thriving buildings and hundreds of people.
He nodded and continued. "The only thing that was left was the skeletons of the buildings and a few… remains… and the ashes…."
The blue blur looked up in realization. "…were green…" he opened his mouth to question further but the renewed Vector and Tails, and the girls -Sally and Rouge- were returning with the first aid kit, the bags and the box.
Tails was sent out to collect samples with vector while Rouge and Sally tended to the re-opened wounds on Knuckles with the first aid kit. Sonic and Espio tended to the remains of the chao, sealing it in the box properly and shut it tight. They would take care of the Chao once everything was cleared up here.
Soon, everyone was off to knothole where the rest of the freedom fighters were already in mourning…
"What's going on here…?" Sally asked, turning to rotor for some insight into the problem. The fact that the guardian was hurt wasn't enough for this sort of tension.
The walrus' face was drawn tight, a worried look written hard across it. "I'm sorry Princess… The negotiations were cut short and the King returned early saying that the Ambassador had to report home on some urgent business." He paused, looking off in a different direction as Dr. Quack bustled down the hall way and into the E.R. to take a look at Knuckles.
Princess Sally looked a little crossed that he didn't continue and urged him on. "So what was it…?" She crosses her arms, sharing the frown that Rotor wore. Something had happened and she wanted to know about it…and Rotor was delaying it. Dangerous.
He coughed and then looked at the princess, immediately shrinking back from her angry glare. "Er…well…ya see…"
She began to tap her foot and he instantly continued. "The ambassador was to contact us as soon as he had discussed it with the ruler …" He shrugged. "He didn't report back so we sent Colette out to see what had happened." He paused again but with another forceful glare he continued. "When he came back, he reported that the entire place was nothing but a pile of rubble and green ash…"
"Green ash…?" She put her hand to her chin, her eyes wandering up into thinking mode. "That's the same thing that we found all over Knuckles and it also lined the beach in mystic ruins…"
Rotor nodded. "Something might have happened to Angel Island." He looked up at her with an overly worried look. "I hope it's not like the ambassadors land…" he squeaked.
Sally nodded, taking this all in. There was now a great possibility that Angel Island did not exist… Then there was the possibility that the Master Emerald was either lost in the ocean or that, it too, had been lost along with the island. This was horribly awfully bad...
"Thank you Rotor. I'll have to set up a search party to see what has become of the Island. I hope it's nothing to serious…" With a wave of her hand, she dismissed the walrus and headed for the royal chambers to talk with her father over the matter.