Mystics

The small path was winding through narrow places between big trees and thick undergrowth. In front of him Knuckles stopped and pulled an armful of branches aside, gesturing to him to step through the gap.

Sonic stopped right after he did. He stood on the edge of a large, almost round meadow in between of thick forest; the grass long enough to reach past his ankles and still heavy with remains of dew. The midst of the clearing was occupied with ruins; the rocks they had been built from centuries ago slightly shimmering in all shades of grey and partly covered by layers of dark green moss. Sonic's eyes trailed along the circle of pillars, still recognizable even after all those years that must have passed, and to the long stairway it surrounded.

"What is this place?", he asked, voice quiet with awe.

"It used to be the Temple of Chaos," Knuckles replied from his side. "Before the big war, the release of the Chaos Creature and all that, before Hidden Palace was built, my ancestors kept the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald here."

"And then they got it underground?"

"Yes. For safety."

Sonic turned to Knuckles. "Safety? Then it didn't help that much, did it?"

The guardian shook his head, seeming to ignore the small needling. "No, not really. If we manage to get rid of the Drakons and everything, maybe I'll take the Master Emerald back here. It is the original place after all…"

Sonic watched Knuckles' eyes trail over the ruins with a rarely seen touch in them. Regret? Sadness? Or just thoughtfulness? The hedgehog frowned and forced his gaze away. Not his business after all.

Knuckles seemed to have caught himself a short moment later, he slowly stepped out onto the meadow to walk towards the ruins, his feet leaving deep prints in the damp grass. Following closely behind, Sonic's gaze kept trailing around. Each of the toppled or broken parts of the ancient building offered a new view once you closed in on it and walked around.

As they stepped through the circle of pillars, the beams of sunlight seemed to break on the top of the nearest column, sharp lances of brightness striking down and forcing the droplets of dew on the ground and in the moss covering the stones to turn into shiny balls of light. "Wow," Sonic breathed, stopping his walk to stare.

When he looked around for Knuckles again, the echidna stood aside of the stairway and slowly Sonic walked up to him.

Knuckled pointed at the big piece of architecture he stood in front of. "This is the Emerald altar, on top of it there is a platform that held the Master Emerald… long ago. But I didn't come here for sightseeing. I came for this." The guardian stepped aside, revealing a part of the wall made from a much bigger stone, and as Knuckles brushed a hand over it, the moss fell off and Sonic found the stone was carved with symbols of a kind he had never seen before.

The hedgehog blinked and gave the echidna a sheepish look. "Eh… pretty. Translation, please?"

A brief smile flickered over Knuckles' face at the short hint of Sonic's usual playfulness, but when he spoke a second later the guardian's voice was deep with the importance of the ancient words. "The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power enriched by the heart. The Controller is the one to unify the chaos."

Sonic blinked again. "I've heard this before... when I was in the past... What does it mean?"

Knuckles leisurely leaned against the rock at his side. "You tell me."

"What?"

"If you don't remember everything, I'll read it to you again…"

Sonic shook his head. "That's not it. It doesn't make sense!"

A small smirk flashed on Knuckles' lips. "These are the most important words on this island, Sonic. Every one of them was thought over very thoroughly before being written and has a very important meaning."

Sonic folded his arms. "Hello-ho? Just in case you forgot: I'm no freaking echidna philosopher!"

"Think about it. It won't help much if I try explaining." Casually Knuckles sat down on the steps of the stairway with his feet crossed at the ankles, and closed his eyes.

Bewildered by his behavior as much as his demands, Sonic just stood and stared at him. "You're a freak!" Much to the hedgehog's disappointment and not near as expected, the echidna just smiled.

"So are you."

Sonic gazed at him a little longer, then when he didn't move at the weird carvings, then at the echidna again. "Just what is that supposed to help me?"

"Use your brain, hedgehog. I said there is much about chaos to learn. We start with this."

"You know what, Red? You suck being a teacher. You're supposed to explain things to me, not tell me crazy old puzzles!"

"I'm not supposed to anything." One of Knuckles' eyes opened a slit again. "It is not a puzzle. It is just something to think over."

Sonic was starting to get angry. "Now what do you want me to think over? I don't know what controller there is or who serves who or… This is stupid!"

Knuckles opened his other eye. "This is not the way to think about it. You start grouching before you start thinking. How about a deal: You take some time to really think it over, and if you get a result you tell me and I explain the rest, okay?"

Taking a deep breath, the realization he wouldn't get out of this started sinking in, and Sonic frowned. "Do I have to stay here looking at you sitting around?"

Knuckles' eyes closed again. "No."

"Then I'm off." Sonic turned around. "What tells him I'll even try thinking about his nonsense?", he muttered and accelerated out into the forest. He was... annoyed, confused, and a little angry about Knuckles' ignorance. 'Cause that was what Sonic thought the echidna was doing. Ignoring him... and his problems. For a moment Sonic had felt as if Knuckles would actually try helping him. Now he wasn't so sure anymore. All he'd done so far was constantly contradict everything Sonic said and felt, and throw some 'facts' at him that didn't serve to give him any answers to the questions and worries filling his head but adding a bunch of new ones. "Just awesome, Red. You're perfectly helpful..."

Hopping over a fallen tree in his way, Sonic was for now glad to get to be on his own again. Without un-helpful echidna wise-guys around. Just him and the wind. Running. And as he had grown used to throughout his life, with the reassuringly familiar wind delightfully caressing his face, Sonic felt his anger, and whatever else of a disturbing cocktail of emotions was there, slowly beginning to cease. At least Knuckles had not yet gotten the idea to take him and throw him into a small room full of Chaos Emeralds and see if he turned into a monster or not.

What didn't mean he wouldn't.

Sonic was already running a few miles away when Knuckles looked after him, the sharp wind left by the hedgehog's sudden departure still tugging on his long spines. The echidna smiled and answered Sonic's question although it certainly had not been meant for him. "You're curious, hedgehog."

The guardian shook his head. He wasn't sure how far this would get him, but he willing to try and force Sonic to think for once. To be honest, Knuckles didn't think of the hedgehog as stupid; quite the opposite, he even considered him rather intelligent. Sonic learned and understood quickly, a fact giving Knuckles some hope now... No, the problem with Sonic wasn't a lack of intelligence. It was that the blue hedgehog never seemed able to pay attention to anything for long. Always restless, he wasn't finished with one thing before having started two others. Knuckles didn't know if this hyperactivity was just really in Sonic's nature or if at least a part of it was a result of having grown up fighting, in the middle of a war. Probably it was a mixture of both.

Slowly Knuckels closed his eyes again, Sonic having for long disappeared from sight anyway. It seemed one thing was for sure about the blue hedgehog. He seemed the most comfortable running around. Knuckles knew from experience when Sonic had something on his mind, troubles, needed to think, he ran. The last run of that kind had brought Sonic to the decision to go with Knuckles' idea. He'd decided to face his fears, and Knuckles respected him for that. The old philosophers said: 'No warrior is without fear, but he who overcomes it is a real warrior'; and Knuckles could always find respect for genuine bravery.

Anyways, if Sonic thought best on his feet... fine. Knuckles couldn't care less. Let him run then. As long as the hedgehog was gone, trying to find out something about the 'stupid puzzle', Knuckles was given some time to consider his next steps.

"Doctor Robotnik?" Grimer carefully poked his head through the door; interrupting his boss during some kind of important thing was a crime, and he didn't want to experience the punishment an enraged Robotnik put upon him.

The large chair at the desk swung round so its occupant could face the visitor. "What is it, Grimer?"

"I am to inform you Master that the first in the series of battleships is leaving the assembly today," the green skinned thin man delivered his message, now fully stepping through the door that automatically closed behind him.

A grin grew on Robotnik's face. "Brilliant. Wonderful. Prepare everything; I am going to examine this masterpiece of engineering immediately!"

"Of course, Sir." The assistant nodded eagerly. "There is just one more thing."

"What is it?", Robotnik snapped, and Grimer was glad it was good news he had to tell him for once.

"The new model of infiltration robot is also making progress," he said, fingering his white coat. "The units will be available as soon as you need their services."

The broad grin returned to Robotnik's features. "Very good, Grimer. They all contain the new model of small bombs?"

"Of course, Sir." The green-skinned nodded again.

"Excellent!", Robotnik exclaimed, standing up and pounding his right fist in his left palm. "This plan can't fail. As soon as these fools of fishy creatures have served my plans and wiped these filthy little pests off this planet's surface, I'm going to send them right after the rest! Then, Mobius will be mine, the Chaos Emeralds will be mine, and I will be the ruler of everything!"

"But Sir," Grimer dared to interject, "You promised me a piece of land to myself, for my good services. Just a tiny bit, Sir, of course…"

"I have not forgotten my promise," Robotnik nodded. "If you prove yourself loyal through this important operation, you will be liberally paid."

"Thank you, Sir, thank you!" Grimer turned to the door. "I will prepare everything now so you can visit the assembly, Master Robotnik!"

Robotnik stroked his moustache as he watched his assistant exit in a hurry to fulfil his wishes. "Fool," he mumbled.

It was almost one hour later when Knuckles looked up as a strong gust ripped on him. In front of him stood Sonic, not near to being out of breath, but a strained expression on his face. "Care to listen?", the hedgehog asked, starting to bounce on the balls of his feet.

Slightly annoyed by the fact he had to nod his head continuously to be able to look at him, Knuckles agreed anyway, secretly glad his plan seemed to have worked and Sonic had thought about things. "Shoot."

"The 'seven' is the seven Chaos Emeralds."

Knuckles forced himself not to grin at the hedgehog's look. "Yes."

"Then there is the 'Controller', and that is the one they serve," Sonic continued, starting to look actually exited now.

Knuckles nodded. "Yes."

"The controller is the Master Emerald."

"Yes… and.. no."

Sonic's face fell, his ears flattened, and Knuckles now forcefully had to fight off a laugh at the miserable look his guest gave. "Now what? Yes or no?"

Alright, Knuckles. You'll have to explain it now... He wants to know more. Out of himself. You have him. "Could you stop hopping?"

"Yes… and… no," Sonic mimicked, a grin spreading on his face.

"Funny, hedgehog," Knuckles groaned. "Could you or not?"

"Yes, I could, but no, I won't," Sonic grinned broader. "Am I annoying you?"

"Yes," the echidna grumbled.

Sonic looked down on him and stuck out his tongue. "Good."

Knuckles took a deep breath. Don't punch him now, he begged himself, you're just starting to make progress…

"Knuckles?" Sonic's smile was pure innocence.

Pretending more interest in his feet than the hedgehog, staring down on his shoes as if concentrated, Knuckles kept him on tenterhooks just a little longer. "What?"

"I thought about it. How about you explaining it now?"

The echidna looked up again and bit his lip against the laugh that wanted to jump into his throat at the pleading look on the hedgehog's face. "Okay, fine. If you sit down."

Sonic flopped down onto the grass. "I'm sitting," he announced unnecessarily.

"Good." The guardian inclined his head and didn't waste any more time getting to the point. "The controller is not always and not only the Master Emerald. It is true, the Master is one controller, it always keeps the Chaos Emeralds balanced, it channels their powers. This is one way of control. It restrains the chaos; it chains them to a controlling rule."

"Rule?", Sonic echoed. "What sort of rule?"

Knuckles shrugged vaguely. "Master Emerald rule."

"Hmm," Sonic mumbled, visibly not happy with that explanation, but it was all the guardian wanted to give him. Knuckles did know more about how the Master Emerald balanced the Chaos Emeralds out, but he didn't want to let Sonic in on the details. The knowledge wouldn't help him, so Knuckles thought it would either confuse his 'chaos student' or at least be a totally needlessly broadcast secret.

Skipping on any details on the Master Emerald and its properties, the echidna continued speaking. "But there are other ways of controlling them. A controller is everyone and everything that unifies the seven fragments of chaos power the Emeralds are to one." Knuckles paused. "The Chaos Creature for example could do that. And -"

"Super Sonic," the hedgehog finished, a small shudder ruffling his spines.

Knuckles shook his head. "No. Super Sonic is the result. Just as Perfect Chaos was a result. You are the channeller, Sonic. You can be the controller, the one the seven chaos serve."

Sonic's features darkened and his eyes lowered to stare down on the strainedly entwined fingers of his hands. "They never served me. It was much more the other way around."

"You're forgetting something. You're forgetting the second line. Chaos is power, yes, but power enriched by the heart." The red guardian spoke his last words slowly and although they came out quieter than the rest of his speech, Sonic slowly looked up at him. "The Chaos Emeralds," the echidna continued, "take what is in our hearts and turn it into power. They take the strongest of emotions we feel. In case of the Chaos Creature, it was sadness and hate. In case of Super Sonic... rage and fear."

Sonic blinked slowly; once, twice. "Super Sonic is not just a crazy part of me going outta control. He could survive separated from me, as a single… thing, you remember? And he might as well be still… in here…" The blue hedgehog pointed at his forehead.

"You have to understand this, Sonic. Super is… like an incarnation of the negative energy the Chaos Emeralds contain having taken control of your body. With enough chaos power stored, he could exist without you, but not forever. If he hadn't gotten fresh chaos energy he would have just stopped to exist." Knuckles looked Sonic over for a moment, seeking a way to put some emphasis into his next words. "If you learn to control yourself, there is no place for the Emeralds to generate a separate being into you."

Sonic frowned, disbelief written all over his face. "You mean… I could… kill that beast forever?" He merely whispered the last words.

The guardian nodded. "Yes. You can, and you're the only one who can, but I can show you the way."

Sonic tilted his head, a little, fragile sense of eagerness in his green eyes at having heard Knuckles' last words. "What's that way?"

"Oh, you gotta learn to control both the powers and yourself. Don't think it's gonna work anything like fast." Knuckles shifted. "We'll start with the second point… for I guess it's a little easier. You need to learn letting things go. Being scared and angry is not the way to control."

Doubtfully Sonic quirked an eye ridge. "How can I do this now if I never could before?"

"You need to know the powers, Sonic, you cannot expect to get in control of anything you're not familiar with."

"I know chaos, Knuckles," Sonic contradicted.

Knuckles shook his head. "No. But you will. Wait here." He stood up and slowly walked away, not looking if Sonic did wait or not.

Out of pure boredom Sonic had started exploring the ruins of the temple, first of all looking at all the pillars, the fallen ones as much as those still standing, trying to imagine how the place had looked when all the buildings had been brand new… thousands of years ago.

Finally he had ended up climbing the stairs and now he stood in front of a low shrine, the shape of the dent carved into the stone clearly implying what was supposed to be put there and for a moment Sonic thought it would be an imposing sight having the Master Emerald overlooking the clearing and the forest around from up here.

The hedgehog hopped up onto the altar's very top and shielded his eyes from the sun as he looked out across the island, standing on the tips of his toes to get the farthest view.

"When I said 'wait here' I did not ask for you to stand on sacred places."

Sonic jumped at Knuckles' voice and span round, finding the echidna standing right behind him, silently appeared out of nowhere, but in spite of his words, the guardian didn't look angry.

"You didn't say I had to sit around while you went who knows where," Sonic grumbled back at him, still standing on top of the stone pedestal.

"No. I will make sure I do it next time." Knuckles gestured and something about his gaze told Sonic to step down now. The echidna nodded and pointed at the stairway. "After you."

Sonic turned over his shoulder as he walked down the stairs, by nature sure of his steps and not worrying about falling down the treads. "Where've you been?"

He expected some sort of cryptic reply or the comment to mind his own business, but Knuckles' answer came directly. "Hidden Palace."

Sonic swallowed. "And? What did you do there?"

Having reached the bottom of the big shrine, the echidna gestured to the ground. "Sit down."

"Again?", Sonic mumbled, but leaned against one of the rocks and let himself slide down. "Now what did you do there?"

"I got this." Knuckles sat across of the hedgehog and held his right fist out at him, and when he opened it revealed the green Chaos Emerald resting on his palm.

Sonic would have backed away if it wouldn't have been for the wall behind him. "Ah great…"

"Don't worry, one Emerald is too weak to induce any sort of transformation, and I will not leave you alone with it. I sense the Master's control. Always. On instinct. I will know when something happens before it does." Knuckles' violet eyes locked with Sonic's greens. "I just want you to hold it now."

Feeling the bewilderment return all the way, Sonic stared at him and his brow wrinkled. "Hold it? What should that help, Red?"

"It's like… meditating. Before we can go on about any attempt using the Emeralds and their powers you need to practice letting things go even with that powers around." Knuckles held the Emerald closer to Sonic. "I chose the green one, for it is the most serene of them, the calmest. It holds the power of life. It will not harm you."

Sonic just stared at the green gemstone, seeming small compared to Knuckles' big hand. The beams of sunlight broke on the edges of the crystal to a blinding contrast against the continuous glow of the stone itself. Even just sitting and watching, Sonic could feel a twinge at his nerves.

Slowly he dared stretching a hand out at it, bringing just the tip of his index finger into touch with the glazing gem. The moment he made contact, even through the layer of his glove's fabric, a short jolt – more guessed than truly consciously felt – ran from his finger through him and the glow of the Emerald pulsed up.

With a gasp Sonic withdrew his hand. "What was that?"

Knuckles tilted his head, giving a small nod towards the powerful stone. "It knows the channellers; it recognizes them."

"It freaking WHAT?"

Knuckles took a slow breath. "Sonic. You got the, well, physical requirements to interact with chaos energy. A simple little reaction is to be expected."

"I – what?"

Knuckles sighed. "You got a link to chaos, Sonic. You've always had. I guess the few people who are like that are born that way. And it isn't a bad thing. Have you ever thought about why you are the only person we know capable of moving along a line of rings, even through mid-air or upwards? Defying gravity?"

Sonic felt another frown form on his brow. "The light speed dash? I could do this only because of these new shoes I got."

Knuckles suddenly grinned. "So… If I wore these shoes I could do it as well you think?"

Sonic shrugged. He'd never considered the concept before. The ring dash worked, and it was practical... "No idea. We could try it out…"

"Maybe. But we don't need to; I can already tell you the result. Besides the fact your shoes most likely don't fit my feet, the effect won't work on me. To me rings do what they do to everybody else: Heal injuries, and that's it."

"But... you said you use the Master Emerald. It's also chaos energy, just as you claim the rings are…" Sonic cocked his head aside. Now find a good explanation to THAT, smarty.

Knuckles shook his head, replying to what Sonic had thought to be a good comeback with a simple sentence. "It's not the same sort of it."

"But rings also heal me." Stubbornly the blue hedgehog folded his arms.

"Sure... but you can use more of their powers. For example for that light speed dash move of yours." Knuckles looked down onto the small stone in his hand. "You gotta accept this, Sonic, it's a part of what you are."

"But... I held Emeralds before; none of them ever gave me that sort of a... whatever..." He grimaced throwing another short enough glare at the crystal on Knuckles' palm.

"What you had were not complete Chaos Emeralds but fragments, Emeralds torn in half. The other halves were always here on the floating island. When Robotnik got them from you and came here with me-"

Sonic snorted. "Aren't you forgetting something? You stole them from me, because you'd let that Egghead outsmart you!"

Knuckles' facial muscles twitched with something Sonic would have almost called shame. "I am not forgetting it, hedgehog. I will make sure I never will," he said a lot quieter than he'd been speaking before. A few awkward moments passed until the guardian continued, the familiar, somewhat casual seriousness back in his tone and features. "Everything you guys experienced about these Emerald halves, like them swallowing up evil, being stabilized by low temperatures and all that... was results of chaos' internal powers dragging them here, but never strong enough to succeed with it. What you held for some time wasn't truly Chaos Emeralds. The half of an Emerald has the power of a few dozen rings; it's gravely weakened by being incomplete."

"Did a lot of strange stuff for 'a few dozen rings' if you ask me," Sonic noticed, not sure if he believed Knuckles. "Robotnik getting his hands on the halves was dangerous enough."

"Robotnik knew they were splintered when he came here the first time. I think he searched for the other parts and found Angel Island that way. I don't think he expected much use from the things you had then." Knuckles shrugged. "Any more questions?"

Sonic slowly shook his head. "Not now, thanks," he grimaced.

The red echidna nodded. "Fine. Now are we gonna try this here out?"

For a moment Sonic just kept staring at the echidna holding the shining gemstone out at him again, then back down on the Chaos Emerald. Best he carried through with this now… No way back anymore, right? He reached again, winced once more at the feel of sudden energy at the contact, but kept his hold and found it ease away within a matter of seconds. Cautiously the hedgehog took the crystal with both hands.

"Now just relax," Knuckles said quietly. "You're tense like a catapult ready to shoot."

"Ah, am I?", Sonic snapped, sharper than intended. "What do you expect I think with that thing here in my hands?"

"Stop thinking! You have to feel."

"Great plan, Red," the hedgehog growled, not noticing the slight pulsing of light from the Emerald in his hands as he glared at Knuckles.

Today somehow utterly immune to Sonic's moods, the echidna just looked at him. "I mean it. Close your eyes, try not to think of anything in particular."

"Hmm," Sonic grumbled quietly to himself, but tried to calm himself and leaned back against the rock. How does one not think of anything? Was that even possible?

Still, 'no way out of this' was still applicable; and so Sonic sat, and breathed, and tried to think nothing, no matter how impossible he thought that was. After a while everything he heard were the sounds of his own breathing and the tiny sound of Knuckles' that claimed the guardian's presence. The warm beams of Angel Island's summer sun were starting to succeed diving their warmth through Sonic's skin and fur into his muscles, and together with the fact that nothing bad had happened yet they were easing a slight relaxation into the hedgehog.

The small crystal in his right palm was not as hard as it looked, its glazed surface feeling smooth and almost soft, and while Sonic began to lose some of his nervousness he noticed the strange form of warmth radiating from it.

Hesitantly his fingers closed a little around the Emerald, fingertips feeling over the brilliant shape testing its edges, while his mind cautiously sensed the small pulsing echo of the energy the stone held within. Or consisted of. Or something in between these options. Feeling this energy, Sonic found himself inwardly edging away from it at first. Somewhere in the very back of his mind, he knew he'd felt it before. For a small second just this sensation might have been there before it had pulled him down into mindless horror.

This time it didn't. It was still there, unchanged, softly lying in his hand, and even though more than willing to avoid it, fearing it, he found himself wanting to keep it right there, but still that painful, insane craving for it didn't come over him. Slowly Sonic's concerns were fading away under the warmth of the sun that soothed his strained body in spite of himself, and his thoughts started melting like ice in the Emerald's warmth, drop by drop.

Speedy's note: My spell-checkers and dictionaries keep telling me 'channeler' wasn't a word. If it really isn't, well, then I made a neologism for a person channeling stuff, and in school I was taught that's usage of awesome rethoric means ;)
With regard to Knuckles' mentioning of Sonic being the only one capable of performing a ring dash, please note that at the time the story is set Shadow is still unknown of.