Ch.5: Purpose And Longing
"Where are we this time?" asked Sonic, when the green light vanished.
The others were just as confused as Sonic. The surroundings around them didn't look familar at all. Stone shelves were lined with books, there was desk with book and a quill pen sitting on it across from them, and a small bed laying againist the left wall.
"Hey" said Espio, looking at Vector " didn't Knuckles once say he had a secret hideaway no one ever knew about,"
"Yeah, I remember that" said Vector, realization dawning " this must have been the place he told us about. Man, it sure is neat here,"
"Hey, look at this" said Sonic, picking up the book that had been lying on the desk " it's Knuckles Diary. Maybe this what the Master Emerald wanted us to see,"
"Well don't just stand there" said Rouge " read it!"
" I always did wonder just what was going on in that echidna's brain," said Shadow, perking his ears in interest.
Tails, Vector, and Espio were a little unsure on whether or not to read up on Knuckle's personal thoughts, but given the peer pressure they finally caved in. Sonic opened the book to page one and began to read.
" Something crazy happened today. I was on my way back to Angel Island with some supplies, when something caught my interest at Sonic's house. From the sinister looks on thier faces, Amy and Tails were up to something,"
"I saw Tails go behind the garden shed while Amy marched over to Sonic and started flirting. As usual Sonic tried to run away from her affections and made a dumb decison to hide in the garden shed, where I knew Tails was waiting for him,"
"Not two seconds later, Sonic was blasted out the shed by a streaming jet of water. I couldn't help but laugh as Tails started to chase Sonic around with that garden hose. And of course Amy was still trying to steal a kiss. Between Tails, the waterhose, and Amy there was no way Sonic was getting out of there anytime soon,"-Knuckles Diary Page 1.
Everyone laughed as soon as Sonic finished reading the first entry. Tails and Shadow had to be laughing the hardest.
"They got you good Faker," said Shadow, ceasing his laughter.
"I can't believe he wrote about that time" said Sonic " it was so embrassing,"
"Yeah, for you" said Vector, grabbing the diary and flipping to the next entry " hey, this one is about me and Espio, listen!"
"This has been one bad day. Thanks to this stupid cold, I'm forced to stay in bed, while the Chaotix try thier best to protect Angel Island and take care of me. Charmy had taken charge of watching over the Master Emerald while Vector and Espio were in the kitchen making lunch,"
"I could hear the two argueing all the way to my room. I caught the smell of smoke about three times, sounds of broken dishes about four times, and the splashing of water about six times. there was no way this could possibly get worse...I was wrong,"
"A huge explosion suddenly thundered through the house, shaking me off the bed. Anrgy, I got up and stomped towards the kitchen to find it, and the two cooks, covered in whatever dish that had supposedly been in the microwave,"
"Vector and Espio were just sitting there in fear, waiting for me to make a move. Smiling slyly I grabbed a gunk of food off the wall and threw it at them. Before I knew it, we were all in the middle of one big food fight,"
"Charmy heard our screams from all the way outside and decided to come in and refferee. Finally, things settled down and we cleaned up the mess. After that was done, we were all to exhausted to cook anything so we had to order out for pizza instead,"
"If there's any lesson I learned from this, it's one thing. Never!...Ever! Put Espio and Vector on kitchen duty!,"-Knuckles Diary Page 2.
" Ah" said Vector " that was a good time,"
"But it was also very messy," said Espio.
"Did Knuckles ever put you guys on kitchen duty again?" asked Sonic, cocking an eyebrow at Vector.
"Yeah" said Vector, handing the book to Tails " but it took a few months,"
"Hey" said Tails, flipping to the next page in the book " this next entry is about Rouge,"
"Really?" said Rouge, surprised " what does it say?"
" That annoying bat was here again today, trying to get her paws on the Master Emerald. As Guardian, it was job to scare her off. It took awhile, but she finally got tired of the fight and left. Once she was gone, I was begining to wonder. Why did she even bother flying up here, if she knew it was my job to protect the Master Emerald?"
"That crazy bat had really got me wondering. Ever since the first moment we met, we've been at on each other's bad side. But there is one time with Rouge that I'll never forget,"
"It was back on the Space Colony Ark. Me and Rouge were fighting over the last of the Master Emerald's pieces. We were both standing there on top of a metal stucture, glaring at each other. Our breathing was hard and heavy, and our bodies were tired from our most recent battle,"
"Rouge ran over in order to attack me again, but a simple mis-step sent her plummeting off the girder. Without thinking, I reached down and grabbed her hand, stopping her drop. As I pulled her back onto the girder it was like our eyes were staring at each other for the first time,"
"It took a moment for me to realize that we were still holding hands. She jerked her hand away from mine, and accussed me of having a slight crush on her before giving me back the rest of Master Emerald. I apologized for hurting her and ran off before I could say anything embrassing,"
"Truth is, Rouge was right, ever since that one moment, and many others, my crush on her grew. But I knew it would never work out between me and her in the end. Not only because of her past as a thief, but for more personal reasons,"
"The curse of the Guardian, as my father said, is stated as follows...There is simply no time for love,"-Knuckles Diary Page 3.
Everyone in the room was silent as soon as Tails finished reading that entry. Rouge didn't know what to think.
"Knuckles loves me?" she thought.
Shadow took the diary from Tails and was shocked to find the next entry was about himself. The entry read as follows;
"Shadow, the most mysterious one out of my ragtag group of friends, yet he has had a past almost similar to mine. Only my enemy hadn't been humans, they were echidnas, just like me,"
"This nasty group called themselves the Dark Legion, a sick orginization where echidnas tried to enhance themselves by replacing thier flesh and blood limbs with robotics. I can still feel the life-draining force from those flames as they burned through the city, eliminating the members of my race one by one,"
"I remember the tears pouring down my cheeks as I cried over my father's bleeding, lifeless body. I remember Eggman being involved too, seeing as that he was my father's friend at the time. Hearing Shadow's own story, about the loss of his friend Maria, and Eggman's involvement had me thinking. He's not any different from me,"
"It's nice to have someone around who I can relate to, but everytime when Shadow dies and becomes reborn, his memories fade again and we have to fight him just to get him to trust us again. It gets annoying after awhile, but at least, this time, his memories decided to stay intact,"
"As I watched him battle with Sonic later on today, I couldn't help but feel jealous of the black hedgehog. Not because of his power, but because of his memories. Sure his memories may have been tragic, but they were also very inspiring,"
"Since the day he was created, he was born to be a hero. We learned that the hard way when the Black Arms had decided to attack. My dreams, are dreams of darkness. A demon lurks inside my mind, yelling, screaming at me, that it was my fault that the echidna's had been erased from exsistance!"
"If I had never been born, my people would still be alive and would have never had suffered such a terrible tradegy. I keep on whispering in my head that the voices I hear are wrong. But this truth is, I'm starting to feel that thier right,"
"Please let my friends keep me in shane mind, I don't want to drift into the darkness agian,"-Knuckles Diary Page 4.
"Whoa" said Sonic, as Shadow finished reading " that's pretty deep,"
"Let me see" said Espio, taking the book away from Shadow " hmm, there's only one more entry in here, and it's dated yesterday,"
"Trail of the Present" said Tails, a lightbulb going off in his head " read it Espio! This must be what the Master Emerald wanted us to see,"
Conceding to the fox's demand, Espio began to read.
" All these memories about my friends, my job, my family, all lead back to one thing... the Master Emerald. I am a prisoner trapped on my own island. Bound by a duty that has been passed down in my family through generation and generation. Cursed with a power others seek to control,"
"I envey my friends and thier normal lives. Thier free to do whatever they want whenever they want, while I'm stuck here guarding the Master Emerald. For once, I would like to be normal just like them, to leave my title behind and live my own life. But that can never happen,"
"I have bonded with the Master Emerald and can never leave it. This is my prison and this where I will die. And once I do, no one will care. There is no one to carry on after me, the Master Emerald will be stolen, and the world will burn,"
"Heaven help us all when that day comes,"-Knuckles Diary Page 5.
No one knew how to respond after Espio had read that entry. But as soon as the chamleon finished a bright green light suddenly engulfed the whole room, transporting Sonic and his friends to thier final destination; the future.
"Now" said the Master Emerald " the real test begins,"