Author Note: And now, in a sudden and unexpected change of course, the plot moves forward. Also, if your reading this and like it, please review to say why. If your reading this and want to barf, please suppress your vomit for a minute or two so you can review and say why. Both would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy the story.

Chapter 24

"We're moving slow. Deppen's is still a few days away and we're not even sure if it's the right place. By now those two could have already attacked them, and I doubt the Mobians could beat them."

OOOOOOOOOO

Athair ducked under the monster's larger arm and side stepped the real attack, a quick punch from the smaller arm. He drove his fist into the monster's head and jumped back as the monster collapsed into a puddle of water on the ground. The puddle tried to shift around him, but Athair tracked it closely. Thwarted in its attempt the monster rose up again, slowly this time. It swung its giant arm and the echidna easily stepped back. The demon jabbed forward with its smaller arm and Athair stepped to the side before bringing both his hands up in an uppercut that tore through the monster's head, leaving it to collapse on the ground. The puddle shifted slightly, but became still.

"Not bad for an old guy." Sonic said as he walked up. Athair put his hand on his back and stretched, making a distinctive cracking sound.

"I'm not as good as I used to be." He muttered.

"So what was that?" Sonic asked. Athair turned around as the rest of the freedom fighters started walking up, his grandson staying in the back.

"That," Athair began, waving at the puddle on the ground. "Was Chaos, an impossibly dangerous being beyond mortal ken." Athair started fishing through his pockets, looking for something. "It is enough for now to know that the creature shall shortly be dealt with, and you won't have to bother with anymore crazy fools talking about guarding dangerous artifacts." Knuckles stuttered his first few words.

"You talked about it being used as a battery." Knuckles said. It was the first time Sonic could really call him nervous.

"That one was only partly true, I'll admit." Athair replied calmly, still rifling through his pockets. "It is also my duty to prevent the release of the demon inside of it."

"Is there only one?" Sonia asked.

"As far as I know." Athair replied. The movements of his hands were becoming more and more frantic. Sonic frowned at the reply. The puddle of water in front of them might be the same monster from Deppen, and if it didn't die then…

"Are you looking for something?" Manic asked. Athair grunted and pulled out a card decorated in wild colors.

"No-" Whatever Athair was trying to say was cut short as the monster's fist rose from the pool of water and caught Athair in the back. The old echidna let out a single gasp of breath, as the demon called Chaos stood over him, seeming to shed tears on his body. The rest of the monster trickled back down on the ground, but this time it sank into the earth and away from sight.

"Everyone fan out. Sonic, get ready to use a ring." Knuckles started yelling.

"It's… gone…" Athair whispered. Knuckles knelt down besides his grandfather and tried to keep him calm as the freedom fighters waited for Chaos's next attack.

"Don't try to talk." Knuckles said. "You've been hit in the-"

"I know where I was hit." Athiar said grinning. "Try not to let the kid see my body." Athair's head tilted toward Tails' plane.

"Someone check the plane." Knuckles shouted. He turned back to his grandfather but the older echidna stopped him from talking with a shake of his head.

"Take my hand and listen to what I say." Athair whispered. Knuckles grabbed his hand and lifted it gently.

Green lightning raced along the interlinked arms and jolted Knuckles. Athair's arm tightened and jerked his grandson to his face. Athair's next words were sharp and strong, each one spoken with as much strength as the dying echidna could muster.

"The mouse with the jewelry case has the Master. It's the only thing that can hold Chaos. The girl will tell you anything else."

"What girl?" Knuckles said. Athair's grip slackened and his arm fell to the ground.

"Tikal." Athair said, and with that his eyes closed. His chest rose with one last breath and then fell. "time to sleep." He muttered.

OOOOOOOOOO

By no stretch of the imagination could the weather be called cold, or even slightly chilly, but all the same Tails was wrapped up in the thickest quilt the women of Deppen could find. Even with that and the mug of hot tea clenched in his hands he still felt chills all over him.

While they seemed to put up fine with armed occupations, the sight of a dead-eyed fox kid being supported between two hedgehogs moved the natives to fierce action, dragging him away from the "stupid kids" and doing their best to make sure he didn't catch anything, without even the slightest idea of what happened. Tails hadn't volunteered anything while being shuffled between them, and they hadn't bothered to ask him. Tails's ears twitched as they heard someone talking at the door to the house, and then trepid footsteps down the hall. A furless muzzle poked through the doorway to the kitchen, and then the rest of Sonic followed through a second later.

"Hey." He said, coming in and pulling up a chair. "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"I'm fine." Tails mumbled. The look Sonic gave him showed how much he did not believe what the young fox had just said. Their eyes trailed to the ground and looked away from each other.

"The soldier that was with you died." Sonic said. Everyone else had tried their best to concoct some story which wouldn't hurt Tails's young mind, but Sonic decided that the truth was the best choice. Tails closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. "It's not your fault." Sonic said to cut off whatever Tails was going to say. "Nobody could have stopped it. Not even me." Tails looked at him oddly. "Not yet."

OOOOOOOOOO

"If you can't see anything then I won't either." Shanks said, ignoring Knuckles's bared arm to check a kids bandages.

"It was lightning-" Knuckles began to reply before Shanks cut him off again.

"Which would leave: burn marks and scars, which there are none; damage your nervous system, which I wouldn't be able to find; or stopped your heart, in which case you'd be dead."

"I felt it." Knuckles said desperately.

"But no one else can verify that this happened?"

"…No."

"Then there is nothing I can do about it. Have you felt anything since then?" Knuckles flexed his exposed arm.

"Nothing." Knuckles left the house Shanks claimed as a field hospital and made his way to a spot in the village where no one could disturb him. Everything felt different. His eyes were disturbed by odd colors that tainted everything, he felt the most annoying itch, and as much as he knew he was tired he did not feel it.

OOOOOOOOOO

"It didn't seem to care about us." Tails said. "It just swatted Slagar away and put its arm through the Tornado-"

"Tornado?" Sonic asked. Questions helped to break the mood.

"My plane. The army's working on their own, but they didn't have any yet. The monster just punched, threw," Tails spread his arms wide to properly express what had happened. "Stretched his arms really long and it went through the Tornado, and it took the backup source."

"That's the emerald, right?" Sonic said with trepidation.

"As far as I know. The other scientists-" Sonic waved his hands in front of Tails's face to quiet him.

"What happened after the monster took the emerald."

"He… changed." Sonic slumped back. It was exactly as he feared.

OOOOOOOOOO

Chaos… Chaos… The beast was dangerous, that much Knuckles was certain of. War or not something like that could not be left to its own devices, but what could they do? Even a weapon supposedly able to stop the unstoppable proved to have been worthless. His grandfather was the only person who seemed to know anything about it, and he was dead, having left only a few cryptic words to go on. Actually, a mouse with a jewelry case wasn't that cryptic, but he didn't even know how to find her or what he was supposed to look for. The "Master Emerald"? That was supposed to be bigger than he was. The stolen object obviously could fit in a pocket. And who the hell was this girl who was supposed to tell him everything? And why did the monster cry?

"It was a Chaos Emerald." Knuckles opened his eyes to find Sonic talking to him.

"What do you mean?" Knuckles asked, not in the mood for anymore strangeness.

"Tails's plane was running on a Chaos Emerald and this monster that just so happens to be called Chaos stole it and somehow made its entire self bigger by absorbing an emerald about yay big." Sonic said, clenching his fist to display the emerald's size.

"I highly doubt Tails could run his plane using-"

"It wasn't the first machine." Sonic said, catching Knuckles attention. "He said he used it with plenty of machines before that and carefully tested the way some only worked if the emerald was attached. This kid is not dumb."

Knuckles bowed his head.

"We need to tell everyone this." He said.

"Everyone?"

"Everyone who might know something."

OOOOOOOOOO

"Chaos… Emeralds." King Geoffrey said slowly. "You're joking, right?" Knuckles slumped. It was hard communicating seriousness to someone with more authority than him. He pointed towards where Jet was raising his hand.

"Why are me and Big here?" he asked. The aforementioned cat was slumped back in his chair, slowly stroking his pet frog and quite literally looking down on the rest of the assembly.

"Because I thought people from Neworld might have heard different stories." Knuckles said.

"Unless you believe in walking battleships I can't help you." Knuckles let his head fall into his hands.

"This is serious. You all saw that monster, and a kid who seems to be a good deal smarter than most of you here says he saw it take an emerald and suddenly change very rapidly. All I want to know is if anyone knows anything about any kind of even slightly unusual emerald, which might or might not be magical." Knuckles looked around at the people he assembled: the king of Thran, all of the different people from Neworld, the three, that kid who wanted to be a Speaker… finally King Geoffrey spoke.

"The royal family of Thran does happen to own a blue emerald." This time it was Knuckles turn to not believe him. "It has been tested quite recently, and it is very definitely an emerald that just so happens to be blue. It is considered a natural mystery."

"What does it look like?" Knuckles asked.

"Blue obviously; Starburst cut, which is very unusual for an emerald; and about yay… big." The king said, clenching his fist to display size. In that moment he began to remember more of what he had learned about the Bard's works as a young prince, and how unusual the Chaos Emeralds were described to be.

"Where is it?" Knuckles asked.

"Well usually it would be stored with the crown jewels in the palace…"

"Where is it now?"

"It was moved to keep it safe when the Robotnik invaded, along with the scepter it was affixed to."

"Where?"

"Armenz, east of here."

OOOOOOOOOO

"Chaos… Emeralds." Edward Gareth Goering said slowly. "You're joking, right?" His hands began the working off peeling another soft-boiled egg for his stomach.

"I am simply informing you of what the rebels are basing their actions off of." Espio said from the other end of the radio.

"Are they joking?"

"Apparently not. Even then, if their information about Chaos-"

"Chaos?"

"I apologize. Chaos is the name they have begun to refer to the monster by. I believe it is linked to their belief about the Chaos Emeralds involvement."

"Their insane." Edward said before popping the egg into his mouth.

"Most likely. However, my associates and I all saw the altered beast, and can verify that it was both significantly different and similar to the one that appeared at Deppen. No matter what happens, it is clear that this beast is a great threat to everyone and should be treated seriously."

"I will." Edward said around the egg-meat. With a click he turned off the radio and stood up. With a snap of his fingers the two Enforcers at his side turned to follow him down to the loading bay. When they reached it Edward rubbed his hands greedily at the set of crates recently shipped over from Mobius to his current residence of Thran's palace. He grabbed the one on top first, a thick metal case no bigger than a shoe box. Quickly unlatching the top he took out the note on top and skimmed through it:

Edward,

Enclosed in this box is a gemstone with several highly abnormal electro-magnetic properties. Given your current position of leading the efforts against the "Mobian" anarchists, I have decided that this trinket may prove to be highly useful to your efforts. Some of its properties are…

Edward glanced down into the box. Inside was a fist-sized red jewel, shaped in a starburst cut. Something inside of Edward made him think it was an emerald.