Alex: I'M FREAKING BACK!

Alexia: You baka! Leaving the fanfiction for a month without even giving them a fair warning?! What kind of a writer are you?!

Alex: One the writes only when inspiration struck. It gives out better chapters and makes me think harder. So, here's the long-awaited chapter on A Change of Heart, also beta-ed (in a way) by SierLeAn! Enjoy.

Chapter 6 – A Prophecy?

"Where are we going?" Lupe asked as she, Sally and Griff squeezed themselves into a narrow gap.

"Lower Mobius," was Griff's reply as he showed them the tunnel-like slide leading down.

"Lower Mobius?" Lupe asked while Griff helped Sally slide.

"Yes. We escaped Robotnik's SWATbots and built an underground city. There's about thirty of us," Griff explained as he waited for Lupe to go in before following.

The ride down was not long, and soon, they found themselves in a large room that looked quite similar to Robotnik's factories, though by looking upwards, they could tell that they were indeed in the lower levels of Robotropolis.

Sally had to admit, it was not that bad of a sight.

There was a soft swishing noise of a door sliding open and the two jumped in surprise. However, it was just Griff and next to him was a large column where the hidden door had slid open, revealing a strange transportation of sorts packed into the column.

"Welcome to the Pipeline Express," Griff joked with a smile, gesturing them to get on.

Soon, the three of them were travelling through the very dim-lighted pipes in the transport, which turned out to be a hovering car of sorts. 'It certainly acts like one,' Lupe thought when she heard the strange grinding noises coming from the vehicle.

"What was that?" Sally asked, looking at Griff for an explanation.

"Well, I think the gearbox needs a little work," the mobian replied with a slight...laugh? It sounded like a mix of humor and nervousness to Sally, but being polite, she decided not to point it out.

The ride went on for a while before the craft approached a closed door. Griff took out a small device of sorts and pressed a button, releasing a bolt of blue light. When the light hit the door, it automatically slid open. "Keeps the Ratbots out," Griff offered.

"Ratbots? What are they?" Sally asked, having never heard of them before.

"They're tunneling rats Robotnik created years ago, but he abandoned them. Now, they run wild in here. The rats are all dangerous but there's one in particular. You see, he's a mutant, and he's much bigger than the others," Griff explained. When he saw the worried looks on the two mobians' faces, he quickly added, "But don't worry; we're safe in Lower Mobius, as long as the door holds."

That did not sound as reassuring as it was supposed to be though.

Soon, the three arrived at their destination. The roof above them opened, revealing that they had gone underground. Griff stood up and gestured around. "Welcome to Lower Mobius." Being the gentleman he was, he got out first and helped the two ladies down.

The goat mobian then led them down a tunnel and Sally let out a gasp upon seeing what Lower Mobius looked like. "Oh my gosh…it's beautiful…" she breathed out in awe. Compared to the polluted mess of a metallic city Robotropolis was, Lower Mobius looked practically gorgeous with its lovely buildings reminiscent of Mobotropolis' own back in its days. On the ceiling, there was a device of sorts with a large glowing rock that dimmed and brightened in a periodic fashion.

"That is our energy chamber. It supplies all the power for Lower Mobius. Without it, we couldn't survive down here," Griff explained, a strange expression crossing his face at the last sentence. Sally, being distracted by her surroundings (who wouldn't be if they suddenly saw a miniature version of their old home after years), did not notice it, but Lupe certainly did.

'Odd. Why would he be worried…?' she wondered as she and Sally followed Griff into Lower Mobius.

On the way, they met up with a warthog mobian dressed up slightly similar to Antoine. "Welcome back, Griff!" he greeted with a hopeful smile. "Have you a successful trip?"

"No, not really. I'll tell you about it later, but I did meet some Freedom Fighters," Griff replied, gesturing to the two ladies behind him.

The warthog immediately saluted in respect. "We're honored."

Later, Sally was in a control center of sorts filled with various equipment. She was looming over the ones used for communication and was busy trying to get a signal to the Wolf Pack Headquarters. "Nicole, how's the status?" she asked the device in her hand.

"I almost got to them, Sally. Just a bit more," Nicole answered before the green bar projected from the device was completely filled. There was an affirmative beep and the screen in front of Sally lit up, revealing the image of the Wolf Pack's headquarters. "Tails! Antoine! Are you there?!"

There were sounds of something stumbling before a face appeared in the screen. "Tails!" Sally sighed in relief. "Thank goodness you're there."

"Aunt Sally!" Tails shouted in reply, feeling reassured at the sight of the princess. His shout drew the attention of Antoine and the coyote came running, pushing Tails away from the screen so that he could see Sally as well.

"My princess! Thank goodness you're safe and sound! I apologize for not being there to protect you, but please tell me where you are and I'll come flying as quickly as I can!" Antoine blabbered, waving his arms around.

"Thank you Antoine, but don't worry. As you said, I'm safe. However, can I see Tails?" Sally asked. It was not as if she disliked Antoine, but the coyote was not exactly smart enough for the discussion about to take place. As much as it was rather degrading, Tails was a whole lot smarter despite his young age.

"What's the matter, Aunt Sally?" Tails asked, reappearing in the screen.

"Our mission was mostly a success, but we found out a lot…" Sally sighed, deciding to start from the beginning. "We found out why Robotnik was there. He is planning the Doomsday Project…"

Tails was young and he did not remember the day Mobotropolis fell, but even he knew from the word 'Doomsday' that it was nothing good. "We found some files about it from Robotnik's database, but we didn't get them all," Sally continued. "Nicole, bring up the files."

There was a series of beeps before Nicole brought up a hologram displaying a menu listing the files. The names were not explicit, but anyone would know what the initials D.P meant when concerning the Doomsday project.

There were three files in total and Sally selected the first one, revealing the blueprints for the device. "Good. We got the blueprints of the device," Sally commented as she ran through the image. However, there was a piece that was missing, as if it had not been planned yet. "Tails, I'm sending this to you. We need to look through it with Rotor-."

Sally abruptly cut herself off, remembering that they were all separated during that flash of light. "Oh god...how could I forget?"

Tails was worried when he saw Sally's shocked look. "Aunt Sally, what is it?" he asked.

"Sonic…" Sally whispered, but Tails easily picked it up due to her close proximity with the communication device. Add the fact that he was a fox, and it was easy (those ears were not for show).

"What about Sonic? He's here…isn't he?" Tails asked, trailing off at the end when he suddenly got a bad feeling.

"Sonic…Rotor…and Bunnie… I'm sorry Tails, but…we got separated… But that's not the bad thing. It's…we don't know where they are!" Sally replied, her mind running at the speed of light in an attempt to think out a way to find them. "Oh god…I hope they're alright…"

"Don't worry, Aunt Sally! Sonic will be alright! And Bunnie is tough while Rotor is very smart! They'll come through for sure!" Tails replied, his twin tails wagging. While he was indeed worried, he could not help but feel confident for them as well.

For all his young life, Sonic was something like an untouchable person in his mind. The blue hedgehog could do anything, he would think so. Sonic was the coolest guy around and Tails knew that nothing could hold Sonic back.

Bunnie was, as said before, tough. Tails loved her like an aunt and he knew that Bunnie's cyborg arm packed quite a punch (as evident from last week when he found her training with a dummy; her punch sent it flying for quite a distance).

And Rotor…if there was another person he admired as much as Sonic, or as close to Sonic, it was Rotor and Uncle Chuck. It was because both of them were super smart and Rotor was the greatest mechanic teacher Tails ever knew of. Rotor taught Tails a lot, and the little fox knew that Rotor would be able to come through no matter what.

With those thoughts in mind, Tails gave Sally a bright grin. "They'll be alright, count on it!"

Sally sighed, but she offered a smile in return. Tails' words managed to dispel some of the worry, but it did not mean that she was still not concerned about her friends and fellow Freedom Fighters' welfare. However, she knew that there was nothing she could not do about that at the moment. Right now, what she needed to do was focus.

"Alright… As I was saying, I'll send the blueprint to you," Sally continued from where she left off.

"No worries Sally. I have already done it," Nicole cut in. "It should be arriving at Knothole's main computer soon."

Sally nodded and moved on, selecting the second file. It was something she did not expect though. Rather than the modern blue background with white words she was expecting, it was instead of images that showed strange engravings on stone walls.

Not all of them were strange though when she spotted a familiar shape among them. "Those gems…they look like the one Sonic found!" There were words written in a code of sorts next to the images. "Nicole, can you decode them?"

"Of course," Nicole replied, immediately getting to work on translating the ancient writings. There was a fast shifting among the images and Sally waited anxiously.

About twenty minutes passed by. It did not seem like a long length of time, but for those who were waiting each and every minute, it certainly felt like an eternity. There were sighs of relief when Nicole finally finished.

"I apologize for taking too long; the Mobian script was an old one, mostly from the long-deceased echidna tribe," Nicole explained before bringing up the translated paragraphs.

Most were about the echidna tribe, their history and how they came to be. Sally skipped those, knowing that Robotnik would not be interested in a species that was long extinct. Then, she came across a paragraph about, what Robotnik said? Ah, yes, he said 'the Chaos Emerald'. However…there seemed to be more than one.

"Seven…there are seven of those emeralds…" Sally muttered, coming upon an image depicting seven emeralds each in different color. They did not look faded at all, despite the surrounding walls appearing to be as old as time.

Below them were engravings, which Nicole had translated.

The servers are the Seven Chaos.
Chaos is Power, Power enriched by the Heart.
The Controller is the one who unifies the Chaos.

Evil hands reach out from the shadows,
Seeking destruction and sorrow.
Should the servers be corrupted,
Everything will be voided.
Darkness and Light, divided they fall.
But when united, Chaos will answer their call.
Dark is Light, and Light is Dark.
They are both one and the same, forever entwined.
Positive and Negative, together make Neutral.
Green and Red flames will burn.
And the world will be born anew.

"What does that mean?" Sally wondered. "Servers? Seven Chaos? Wait…seven Chaos…" Her eyes darted up to the image once more and counted. There were seven emeralds, seven Chaos Emeralds… "So, the servers refer to the seven Chaos Emeralds…and Power…" It was a no-brainier that the Chaos Emeralds apparently held power, especially after seeing Sonic in action using just one. Just what would happen if he had all seven…

Shaking her head, she continued on. "The controller? The one who controls the Chaos? But who?" An inkling thought of Sonic being the controller passed through her mind, but she dismissed it. Sonic did not seem to be able to control the power if what she saw in the Great Canyon was any indication. "Evil hands? Does it mean…someone bad is after the emeralds? Wait…"

Sally took another look at the lower sentences. They were rhyming in a slight manner, not completely though. And the way they used future tense…did it mean that…the words were of a…prophecy?

"Nicole, is there anything about echidnas and prophecies?" Sally asked, her thoughts running on what it would mean if there was a connection and that this was a genuine prophecy.

"It will take a while to find information about that, Sally. The echidna tribe had been extinct for a long time and information on them is quite rare. I will find it as fast as I can, but it might take a while," Nicole replied as she? It? Anyway, as Nicole got to work.

Sally sighed, but she accepted it and went on to the last file. This time, it revealed Robotnik's plans, though only an outline of sorts.

"Robotnik…he plans to use some sort of relics to power up the Doomsday Project…" Sally told Tails as she skimmed through the numerous words. There were other additional information such as the search for the relics, but there was one thing that popped out at her.

'The Chaos Emeralds hold more power than imaginable. Their power is unrivalled, even more powerful than the Power Rings! With that power, I will conquer the world!'

"Oh my god…" Sally muttered. Her mind flashed her back to the instant where Sonic got angry and decimated Robotnik's forces. That power…if that was what one Chaos Emerald was capable of, what if all seven were used, at the same time…?

"This is serious, Tails. The Emeralds hold a lot of power and if Robotnik gets his hands on them, all will be lost," Sally explained to Tails. "Why, just one Emerald is enough to power an entire city!"

Those words perked the interest of the listener (cough*eavesdropper*cough) as they leaned closer, wanting to hear more about this powerful relic.

"We must stop Robotnik from getting his hands on them at all cost," Sally said out loud. "Tails, can you make a device that can locate them?"

"I can try, but I don't know unless I see a Chaos Emerald myself. If I know its wavelength though, I think I can make a device to find them," Tails replied. At the mention of 'wavelength', something sparked in Sally's memory, but she was having trouble remembering it…

"Um…Aunt Sally?"

Tails' voice snapped her out of her thoughts and she gave the two-tailed fox an apologetic look. "Sorry Tails; I was just lost in my thoughts."

"That's alright. About the device though, if I know either the Chaos Emerald's wavelength or its energy signature-"

"That's it!" Sally shouted, now remembering what Lupe once told her back at the Wolf Pack Headquarters.

'Yes. And as soon as the robots landed, they began to dig for something. It might be a Power Stone, but the energy signature is slightly different. In fact, it seems to be nearly identical to the wavelength of the Power Rings.'

"The Power Ring. Lupe once told us that the object Robotnik was looking for has nearly the same wavelength as the Power Ring. Since the object is the Chaos Emerald…"

"Its power signature is the same as the Power Ring!" Tails finished, his ears perked up and twin tails wagging in excitement. "That's great! I can make a device that can lock onto the Power Ring's energy signature and with it-."

"We can find the Chaos Emeralds!" Both Tails and Sally gasped in unison.

"Alright then. Here's the plan. Tails, you and Antoine head back to Knothole. We'll go there as well. Regroup at Knothole. Then, while you make the device, Lupe and I will try and find the others. Is that alright?' Sally asked.

"Sure!" Tails replied. "We're going right now! See you at Knothole, Sally!" Then, without waiting for Sally to say anything else, the screen flickered and the image disappeared, making Sally sigh.

"Sonic's really rubbed off on Tails…" she commented, thinking of how Tails brushed her off when excited, just like how Sonic would when it came to missions. "I better tell Lupe about this."

While Sally was busy powering down the communication devices, the…eavesdropper quickly left, a plan forming in their mind.