A/N: Next chapter, boo-yah!

OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog. I only claim the Original Characters that appear within this story and the plot.

Chapter 1: The Jewel

Six months later...

Snow sat up in bed, breathing hard and drenched in sweat. She ran a hand through her long white hair, wiping away some of the sweat on her forehead. Tired blue eyes cast a look toward the cavern entrance, and an annoyed sigh released itself when she realized the sun had yet to come up.

With no clock in the cavern, she had no way of knowing exactly what time it was until the sun or moon came up. Twilight and the early hours of morning could easily get mixed up there.

Despite this, she stood from her cot on the ground and moved toward the large lake in the centre of her home. As usual, her reflection stared back at her for a moment before distorting into the appearance of something very different.

Breaking her usual routine, Snow simply watched instead of doing whatever she could to make the image disappear. Eventually it became her again, and she smiled. So it did go away after a while.

The Sun was just starting to come up, and she stood to step away from the lake. Then she felt it—a brief but powerful pulse of energy. She was driven to her knees by the sheer force of it, but as quickly as it had arrived, it vanished. It had been massive, more powerful than Dark Gaia had been when he had risen.

And then a familiar presence appeared. She felt relieved at its arrival, and at the same time, she felt afraid for it.

Sonic rounded the corner and walked into the cavern. He noticed Snow on the ground and rushed to her side. He helped her up, a worried look creasing his usually carefree face.

"Snow, are you alright?" He asked.

"Yes... I just... felt something. It was horrible..."She replied. She smiled and slowly pushed away from him. "It's good to see you, Sonic. What brings you to the Lake of Truths?"

"Tails' machines picked up on a pretty powerful energy source near here. I thought I'd warn you that he was coming, in case you wanted not to meet him." Sonic replied.

"Of course I'd want to meet your little brother. I already know a lot about him due to certain abilities of mine, and what you've told me. Lead him here if you must, but I want to meet him today."

Sonic chuckled. "That sounded a lot like an order, but I'll do it anyway, just because I feel like it."

He blurred out of the cavern, off to find his 'brother' for Snow. He'd neglected to tell Tails about Snow, since he figured Snow would want to stay as much out of his life as possible. He could just hitch a ride with Tails and explain on the way, though.

He spotted the Tornado and flagged it down. Tails maneuvered it closer to the ground so Sonic could hop on. Sonic held on and spoke as loudly as he could to the fox.

"Hey, Tails, there's someone I want you to meet." He said. When he saw that Tails was going to object, he went on, "It's not too far from where we're headed anyway, so I figured we could stop by their place first."

Tails nodded. "Alright, but where exactly are they?"

Sonic pointed to a mountain a few hundred yards away. "A cavern at the top of that mountain. There should be plenty of room for you to land the Tornado outside the entrance."

They made their way there quickly, due to the adjustments Tails had recently made. True to Sonic's word, there was a space just large enough for Tails to land the Tornado and go inside.

For a fox who is very hard to surprise after all he'd seen, he was surprised by the girl he saw. Her hair, skin, and clothes were all white—except for her shoes, which were black—and her eyes were an intelligent electric blue. They were the eyes of someone who had lived for a long time and seen far too much.

He knew he'd seen her before, but at the same time, he knew he hadn't. It was confusing, but he tried to ignore it. Until she spoke, that is. Her voice was so familiar, but so unknown at the same time.

"Hello, Tails."

"Uh... Hi."

Realization crossed her face. "Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to do that... I'm Snow."

"It's fine. Snow, huh?" He asked, smiling, "It fits."

She smiled back before casting a look into the lake next to her and shuddering. He was about to go look in for himself, just to see what she was shuddering about, but didn't get the chance.

"That's not a very good idea, Tails. This lake is... Dangerous." Snow said.

He took her word for it and didn't look. But he looked over at Sonic, who was standing off to the side, staring into the water as well, a very put-out expression on his face. Snow noticed too.

"What do you see, Sonic?" She asked.

He didn't answer, and simply turned away. Worry creased Snow's face, but she didn't question him. After all this time, she had managed to not constantly hear his thoughts, but she was regretting trying not to. It would be better if she knew what he'd seen, but since she didn't know, she was going to let it alone.

Tails was worried too, since whatever Sonic had seen had obviously put him in a pretty bad mood. He tried to ignore it, but he couldn't. His big brother was upset, and after years of knowing him, he noticed it easily.

He shifted from foot to foot awkwardly before saying, "Well, I'd better get looking for that source I picked up... If I don't, someone else might find it."

Sonic nodded and said, "Alright. I'll be here when you're done."

"See you around, Tails." Snow said, smiling unsurely.

He waved and walked out. "See you."

He got back into the Tornado and took off. His tracker was going crazy, so he kept going in the same direction he had been, searching the ground for anything that could've caused such a large fluctuation in the normal readings.

And then he saw it, a jewel just a bit larger than the Master Emerald. It was black and glowing brightly. The power it secreted was so strong that Tails actually felt it. It was floating in place, spinning slowly.

He landed the Tornado nearby and walked toward the jewel. The sheer force of its influence nearly brought him to his knees the closer he got, but he managed to stay upright. He examined the jewel from about a foot away for a moment before the feeling of being pushed down disappeared.

The aptitude of the jewel was still tangible to him, but it wasn't so forceful that he felt crushed. He got closer and reached out toward the jewel, curiosity getting the better of him.

The light within pulsed briefly before the entire jewel flashed. He looked away, for fear of being blinded. The jewel shrunk and floated over to him, settling in his hand, completely of its own accord.

He looked cautiously, and was shocked to see how small it had become. Just barely smaller than a Chaos Emerald, but still obviously more powerful. He felt the urge to take it back to his Workshop immediately and not show anyone, and he knew it would be wrong of him to do it, but he also knew that if anyone else saw it, especially Snow, he'd have it taken away.

"No, that's just greed talking... Get your act together, Tails!" He snapped at himself.

But I can't just let someone have it. Something tells me I'm supposed to keep it. Protect it, even... Geez, I sound like Knuckles!

After a few moments of debate, he decided to do exactly like he'd wanted to in the first place and took the jewel to his Workshop for safekeeping. He'd avoided flying past Snow's mountain, just in case she might have sensed the power or seen him.

He stowed the jewel in his room, underneath his pillow. It pulsed, and he thought it seemed... content. He brushed it off and made his way back to Snow's mountain, landing the Tornado outside again. He felt apprehensive for a second, knowing he'd have to lie to Sonic and Snow both, but he shook himself and walked in anyway.

"Yo." Sonic's voice was the first he heard. He was apparently back in a good mood. "What'd you find?"

Tails grimaced internally. "Nothing. I got to where the power source was coming from, and when I was right on top of it, it just disappeared."

He made sure he looked confused and put-out when he said it. Snow tried to see if he was lying, but he suddenly had a very strong mental shield blocking her out. She recognized the power, but didn't remember where she'd felt it before. Her suspicions didn't go unnoticed by Tails however.

"Something wrong, Snow?" He asked innocently.

With that question her suspicions disappeared. He obviously didn't know what her problem was. So she left him alone and let it go. But it bothered her. No one could create such a strong mental barrier so quickly, not without something extremely powerful.

"No. I was just thinking." She said.

"Okay. Well, try not to stare at me. It kind of creeps me out when people stare at me."

Snow nodded and looked back into the lake.

Tails was surprised he could get her to leave him alone so easily, considering the fact that she had obviously been reading his mind earlier. He paid it no mind, however, and asked Sonic if he was ready to leave yet.

"Nah. I think I'll stay and hang out with Snow for a bit longer. She doesn't get many visitors, and I've gotten used to being here when I'm not saving the world." Sonic replied.

"Okay. See you whenever you decide to come back. Bye, Snow."

Tails left, taking the Tornado back to his workshop again, and running inside before anyone who was nearby could say anything. For some reason, he was extremely worried about that jewel. When he found it still under his pillow, he was extremely relieved. He picked it up and took it into his main room.

He sat it down on one of his computers. He began typing on another, larger computer, hacking into the main intelligence mainframe of Mobius, trying to find information on the gem.

When he found it, he wished he hadn't.

A/N: Why won't anyone read this? *sniff* :'(