Jade leaned over to watch the ground rush below them. It made Zavok uneasy but she didn't seem to care or take notice. It took several hours until they finally got to the Southern Isles and landed in an open field.

The Southern Isles were comprised of closely knit islands, some only a stones throw away, and each island had ancient ruins. Zavok made his way off the plane, careful not to break the wings, while Jade ran off to check out some ruins.

"Careful, Jade!" Tails ran to her. "Don't touch anything! These ruins have yet to be analyzed."

"Why would you analyze a bunch of rocks?" Jade didn't understand.

"Because it's history."

"Aren't there stories about these ruins?"

"None that we know of and we don't know which stories are and aren't true so don't touch any!"

"Jade," Zavok finally spoke up. He wanted to laugh at her childish curiosity. "We aren't on the Hex anymore. We have to abide by the rules of the earth just as Tails abided by the rules of the Hex when he visited." He felt like he was talking to a child. However, neither him nor Jade had ever wandered outside of the Hex. This whole planet was strange and they had no choice but to listen to Tails.

Jade smiled and nodded. "Sorry, Tails."

Tails smiled with her. "It's okay. Just don't touch anything else." Tails looked at the old ruins, fascinated by them. "Sonic and the others should be here tomorrow. It's quite a long walk."

"I can imagine." Jade muttered to herself.

"We should still start looking for the Chaos Emerald before Eggman finds it." The words felt strange to Zavok. He wasn't worried, nor did he care about this world. But Jade cared, he supposed the only reason he said the words was because she was so determined to save a world she loved to dream about.

"Where should we start looking? This place is huge!"

A laugh escaped from Tails' mouth. "Not really. It'll be easy if we split up."

Zavok didn't like the idea of leaving Jade.

Tails quickly added, "Don't give me that look, Zavok. We'll split up into two groups. You can stay with Jade. I'm not sure which one we're looking for so be on the look out for any of them."

"Alright. We'll go look in the East. Come on!" She took his hand and took off east.

As Zavok followed he could hear Tails laugh.

Jade insisted on looking around on the eastern side of the isles, a random direction she picked from the top of her head but for some reason she felt a warmth in her chest where the pain from coughing so much used to be. She ignored it for now, though, there was no use telling Zavok and it being nothing.

The small islands that made up the isles were scattered but they were so close that all they had to do was walk. It was like walking around the Hex, small and easy.

She missed the Hex. There was a slight, unfamiliar pain in her chest whenever she thought of home.

"Jade?" Zavok's voice broke her thoughts.

"Yeah? I'm fine." She lied. He didn't look like he bought it but he didn't press on. They continued to walk. The warmth in her chest got warmer and warmer until it felt like it burned. Jade finally had to stop and put her hands on her chest. It didn't feel warm at all.

"What's wrong?" Zavok's voice was insisting.

"There's a burning in my chest. I think we're near a Chaos Emerald." She started looking around until she saw a blue glow in the sea. "There it is!" She ran toward it. With each step the burning grew more and more intense until she felt like she wanted to double over. When she picked it up both the glowing and the burning stopped. "The burning stopped, Big Brother!"

There was a small smile to the Zeti's face. It looked out of place to anybody else but to Jade it made him look a little more huggable. "Let's hope that the rest of them are this easy to find."

As she said the words the Chaos Emerald flew out of her hand, Zavok hugged her protectively, and all she heard was a ringing sound after an explosion. It happened so fast she wasn't sure what to do.

Sonic was way faster than the three he was forced to deal with. He hated that he had to be dragged down by the detective trio. "Come on, guys!" Sonic yelled at them for the thousandth time.

"Just go ahead of us! We'll be there shortly!" Espio answered back for the thousandth time.

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Then we'll have to wait for you at the Southern Isles."

"Either way you're waiting!" Charmy teased.

After several hours they reached the beach, but there were no boats to take them to the clustered islands.

"Guess we're waiting here!" Charmy lay in the warm sand but it wasn't for long. The Tornado-1 flew overhead.