Chapter 11: SA1 Part 2

"Ugh… what was that…?" Tangle asked as she opened her eyes.

When the blurriness in her eyes cleared, she became even more confused.

"Uh… wasn't I in the middle of a city before?"

She got a look around to see that she was now standing in front of what appeared to be a temple of some sort.

"How in the world did I get here?"

Deciding that answers wouldn't come by just standing around, she began to explore.

"Ok… so there seem to be a lot of Knuckles' relatives here… what in the world is this place?"

Then, she heard a voice. She turned the corner to see a girl, looking at the temple while saying… something.

"Um… hello there!" Tangle said as she approached the girl.

"Oh, hello there friend!" The girl said. "Who are you?"

"Uh, no-one important… hey, what were you saying a second ago?" Tangle asked.

"Oh, just something that my grandmother used to tell me…" The girl said. "The servers are the seven chaos… chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The unifier is the one who controls the chaos…"

"… Uh huh…" Tangle had no idea what any of that meant.

Wait…

"You said seven chaos?" Tangle asked.

"Yes, that is correct."

'Is she talking about the Chaos Emeralds?' Tangle thought.

"It is the same as the number of emeralds that are at the shrine… so maybe it has something to do with them…"

'Yup…'

"Uh, forgive me, but have we met before?" The girl asked.

"Uh, no, I don't think so…" Tangle said. "The name's Tangle, who are you?"

The girl just smiled.

"I am Tikal!"


The two spent a bit of time walking and talking to each other.

"So… you have no clue how you got here…" Tikal said.

"Yeah, pretty much." Tangle said.

"Well… I hope that you find your way home soon!" Tikal said.

"Me too, the others must be really worried…"

"Others?"

"Yeah, my friends." Tangle said. "There's Sonic, he's super cool. Then there's Tails, a genius that kid is… Amy, Cream, Chris… and Knuckles!"

"Wow, you have a lot of friends." Tikal said.

"Yeah, they're all great." Tangle said. "If you ever run into trouble, they are definitely the ones you want to have your back."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"So uh… you mentioned a shrine… mind if I take a look?" Tangle asked.

"Oh… I don't know. It is a sacred place, and the guardian might not like it…"

'Guardian?'

Then, Tikal suddenly looked up in surprise, as if something suddenly started calling for her.

Then, she got up and walked away.

"Tikal?" Tangle asked as she followed her out of the village.

Eventually, they arrived at what appeared to be the shrine that she mentioned before.

"The Chaos Emeralds…" Tangle whispered to herself.

"Oh my… are you sure it's alright for us to be here?" Tikal asked.

Then, a sound rang out, almost like bells.

"So do you… trust us?" Tikal asked.

That noise again.

"I see…" Tikal said. "I guess you are in luck Tangle."

"Y-yeah…" Tangle said. "This is the shrine that you mentioned before?"

"Yes, it is." Tikal said as she went up the stairs.

When they reached the top…

"Whoa… that's a big one!" Tangle said.

'Wait… is this that Master Emerald that Knuckles was always talking about?'

Just what in the world was going on here?!

Then, she started hearing a familiar sound from behind her.

"Chao?"

"Oh, so those are the Chao…" Tikal said as she went over to greet them.

They seemed to shy away at first, but it didn't take long for her to earn their trust, as one of them let her hold it.

"They seem to really like you." Tangle said.

"Yes, I agree." Tikal said.

Then, a couple of Chao went up to Tangle and began hugging her legs.

"They seem to like you as well!" Tikal said with a laugh.

"Yeah, I guess you're right!" Tangle said.

Then, she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye.

'Huh? What was that?'

"…"

"Tikal?"

"My father… I need to speak with him." Tikal said.

"Huh? Oh uh… ok!" Tangle said. "Want me to come with you?"

"No, I want to do this alone. Thank you though." Tikal said.

"Ok…"

A couple of hours later, Tikal had returned.

"Everything alright?" Tangle asked.

"No… not really…" Tikal said grimly. "My father intends on pillaging this place…"

"Oh… yeah, that's bad." Tangle said. "Why though?"

"We've… been at war with some other tribes… over land, power… anything really…" Tikal explained. "He intends to use the power of the emeralds to win those wars but…"

"They'd be ruining these little fellas homes… right?"

Tikal nodded before beginning to cry. "I… don't know what I should do… This place, it is so important to the Chao and the guardian… I can't just let him destroy it…"

"Maybe you can convince him of another way? He's after the Emeralds, right?" Tangle asked.

"Yes, he is."

"Well, maybe he can come to some sort of an agreement with this guardian of yours? Maybe to let him use the Emeralds when they are needed...?"

"I… suppose I can suggest it." Tikal said.

"Great! I'll be here if you need me!" Tangle said.

"Tangle… thank you so much."

"I didn't do much…"

"I know… but to try and help a complete stranger like me…" Tikal said.

Tangle smiled.

"That's what heroes do!"


Things… didn't go well.

Not only did Tikal's father not listen, but he was currently gathering an army to take all the Emeralds by force.

For a couple of days, Tikal tried to convince him to reconsider, but it proved to be useless as the army attacked the shrine regardless.

Tangle tried to hold as many of them back as she could, but the fact that she was overwhelmingly outnumbered made things pretty much impossible for her.

Eventually, she managed to pull herself to her feet, and turned around to look at the shrine.

"Oh no…"

"Tangle?!" A familiar voice said from behind her.

"SONIC?! KNUCKLES?!"

"What happened to you?!" Sonic said.

"I uh… might of gotten a bit over my head, fighting off a mob trying to storm that shrine over there…" Tangle explained.

"What?! How did that happen in such a short amount of time?" Sonic asked.

"I've been here for days! Where the heck have you been?!" Tangle asked.

"DAYS?! You were just helping us out on the Egg Carrier earlier!" Knuckles said.

'Egg… Carrier?'

"Wait a minute… this place is…"

"You know this place?" Tangle asked.

"Yeah, I got visions of this place when I found pieces of the Master Emerald…" Knuckles said. "There was a girl… arguing with I think her father…"

"That would be Tikal. She's a friend of mine… and she's most certainly in trouble!" Tangle said before running towards the temple.

"Tangle!"

"We'll figure out what's going on later! I have to help her!" Tangle shouted as she continued to run.

They shortly arrived at the temple, and looked on in horror as Tikal and all the Chao were trampled by the mob.

"Tikal!" Tangle shouted as she ran to her friend.

When she got there though, she heard the sound of screaming coming from the shrine.

"What?"

"N-no!" Tikal said. "Why… why didn't he listen to me?!"

"What was that?!" Sonic asked.

"The guardian… Chaos…" Tikal said.

"CHAOS?!" Tangle asked.

"They… they angered him… he must of used the Emeralds to… oh no…" Tikal said before she suddenly got up. "AH!"

Turns out, her injuries were worse than she thought, as she couldn't support her own weight on her left ankle.

"Here." Tangle said as she used her shoulder to support her friend. "You need to get up there, right?"

"Yes, please…"

"Right, let's go!" Tangle said as she helped Tikal up the steps, Sonic and Knuckles following behind them.

"I… I think I understand what my grandmother was saying all that time ago." Tikal said as they began to climb the steps. "The Master Emerald… it has the power to neutralize the power of the Chaos Emeralds…"

"Really?!" Tangle asked, turning to Knuckles.

"She's right." Knuckles said.

"The Master Emerald… it might be our only hope." Tikal said as they reached the top.

She began to recite what she said when she and Tangle first met.

Then, the entire area was engulfed in a bright light.

"Tangle…"

"Tikal? What's happening?" Tangle asked.

"I am sending you back, to where you came from." Tikal explained. "None of this… really happened."

"What?"

"I sealed myself and Chaos inside the Master Emerald… when it broke, we were released." Tikal explained. "A piece of my spirit infused with Chaos during our slumber, and when you fought him, it moved to you. I then showed you what happened all those years ago… so that you may act accordingly."

"O…kay?"

"Tangle, please, you are the only one that I can trust." Tikal said. "Please, stop Chaos…"

"Wait, why me?" Tangle asked. "Surely Sonic… or Knuckles!"

"Despite barely knowing me, you did everything you could to help me." Tikal explained. "I know I can trust you… so please…"

"… Alright. I'll do everything I can to stop Chaos!" Tangle said.

"Thank you…"

And with that, everything went white.

End of Chapter 11


And we just knocked out all the Tikal flashbacks! Like I said last time, I wanted to do something different with the game rewrites, so I figured having Tangle experience pretty much all the Tikal flashbacks would be a good idea, after all, we only see the ones Knuckles goes to in the anime, and this is in the animeverse, so I figured we would have Tangle fill in the gaps. Also, let's just say that Knuckles only got visions of the past from the Master Emerald, instead of him being able to interact with them until the last one.

We will be going back to the main anime next time, so I will see you then!