Chapter 75 PART ONE
Atonement
Knuckles soared through a sky littered with puffy white clouds. Refreshingly warm air gusted beneath him allowing him to glide with minimal effort. He stretched out his arms and relished the euphoric feeling of flight.
A great grassland of rolling hills stretched out beneath him. Hundreds of small stone huts littered the plain. Echidna children paused their play and looked skyward. Many let out cheers as they spotted Knuckles and tried in vain to chase after him. A watcher atop a stone tower noticed Knuckles and pressed his lips to a horn and blew. The horn released a clear sweet sound that echoed across the island.
Knuckles landed at the foot of the shrine in the center of the village. The Master Emerald was encircled by a clean pool filled by many fountains. More echidna children played in the shallow water along with a few white winged Chao.
The laughter of the children and the sweet singing of the Chao made Knuckles pause to drink in the scene. A strange kind of longing sadness imbedded inside his heart. "Why are you crying?"
He turned to see an echidna with faint pink fur. She wore a light tan skirt and a weaved headdress in her hair. In her arms she carried a red bundle. The baby had the same mark of white fur on his chest that Knuckles did. The woman reached out and took Knuckles by the hand. "Is everything all right?"
Knuckles squeezed her hand reassuringly. "Everything is perfect."
The rest of the village had woken up now. Dozens of echidnas were milling through the square. They greeted one another with kind words and set out for their daily labors. No one carried weapons. A great contentment seized Knuckles. He wanted to reach out and take hold of everything in sight. To hold it and preserve it forever. The woman pulled her hand away. "What is that?"
A pink light reflected in the pool. Knuckles looked up and a streak like a comet coming right for them. The woman covered her face from the light. Knuckles pulled her behind him. There was a flash and Knuckles screamed.
Knuckles lurched up. He was sitting at the edge of a long flat shore. Waves foamed against the sand, churning in silence without reaching further up the bank. A gull let loose a solemn cry as it soared through an empty pale sky. The dawn floundered in its emergence, struggling to cast aside the cold stillness which overhung the world.
It only took Knuckles a second to shake off the pleasant ignorance of dreams. He closed his eyes and felt the white flash against his eyelids. Knuckles exhaled slowly. Acid sloshed inside his empty stomach. He felt nauseous and terribly weak.
The beauty of the vista ahead of him brought no comfort. An emptiness grew inside him and spread outward to disfigure his sense of the world around him. Color dimmed and a chill hung in the wind that no sun could dispel. Even the sea felt shrunken and less wondrous.
The ocean was a lie, a false picture of far reaching certainties. It promised a world in which there existed absolutes, powers of nature which no hand could destroy. The sea and its unceasing waves lulled the viewer into a false belief in permanence.
Knuckles had been awakened and was no longer entranced. He saw the sea for what it was, a shallow pool whose depth and length only impressed in comparison to the viewer's own lack. There was nothing strange or miraculous on the far shore, only more lands controlled by humans. Many of whom were in league together. They spoke the same languages, used the same machinery, and shared the same selfish desire to dominate the world. There was nowhere on earth above or below that could escape their influence. The humans had become mighty and were no longer swayed by the false grandeur of nature.
He laid back and gazed up at the sky. Even there he found a trace of human grasping. Far beyond the canopy of the upper waters, the humans had their machines which orbited the world. Every depth had been explored, every crevice and sacred place defiled.
Even the moon, so beautiful and impossibly out of reach had been stormed and eventually blown in half as mere testament to the capacity of human violence. Knuckles turned his head and saw the sun emerge from behind a cluster of clouds. Its light was pale and the warmth it sent was blocked. The sun was all that was left, the last virgin shore untouched by mankind. Yet even that would not last. Humanity would send their crafts into the dark reaches of space, they would find the sun, capture it, strip it down and steal its power for their own.
There was no point in resisting the inevitable. Knuckles had understood that as soon as he had seen the great flash of pink light. Perhaps Rouge understood this as well. She had gone to battle not because she hoped for victory, but it was in her nature to struggle. That was well, but Knuckles had nothing left to fight for, no vain struggle to which to lay down his life.
His eyes fell and he gazed out at the slow moving waters. Knuckles stirred. He saw, or he imagined he saw a faint pink glow upon the water. Knuckles sat upright, his heart racing. Had they already found him? Would the humans fire their weapon again to ensure that he was destroyed? Knuckles felt the adrenaline surge, but he felt no desire to run. A cryptic peace rushed over him. Yes, perhaps this was the best way. Why should he live on when his Island was gone?
Knuckles prepared himself. He would not die like a frightened animal. Knuckles breathed slowly and awaited his fate. Suddenly, the pink glow zoomed forward. Knuckles looked up to see a small pink ball floating right in front of his face. He let out a cry of shock and fell backward into the sand. The orb hovered over him and zoomed excitedly up and down.
Knuckles would have assigned this vision to grieved madness, but he knew this orb. He picked himself up and held out his palm. The orb landed in his hand. "Takal?"
The orb zoomed up and down as a response. Knuckles frowned. "What…this can't be-"
The orb spun in a great circle around him. It stopped in front of his face and then started to float back towards the forest. "Wait!" Knuckles called after it and the orb paused. As soon as Knuckles started to follow, it continued. I'm supposed to follow it.
Knuckles left the beach behind and followed the orb back into the trees. After the explosion of Angel Island, Knuckles had walked aimlessly across the vast forest of the Mystic Ruins. Now the orb led him right back in.
The pink light zigged and zagged through the dense bramble forcing Knuckles to run to keep up. After about thirty minutes, Knuckles questioned whether or not all this was real. He had seen the spirit of Takal manifest as a ball of light before, but that was when her spirit had been trapped with Chaos inside the Master Emerald. She had been released when Eggman awoke Chaos, but had seemingly gone on after Sonic defeated Perfect Chaos.
These questions whirled inside his head, but he did not stop. He would follow the orb until he was out of energy. The sun reached its peak by the time Knuckles emerged out of the dense foliage. He had been led to the center of the Mystic Ruins, to the great temple. The curtain walls were broken down and consumed with vines. Only the great Citadel remained of all the other structures. Knuckles had been here before and had even seen a glimpse of this village at its peak when Takal gave him a vision of the past.
The pink orb hovered in front of Knuckles. "What is it? What are you trying to show me?" The orb streaked forward. It zoomed up the broken dais and hovered near a statue of a great serpent. Knuckles climbed the sheer face of the temple to reach the spot. The entrance into the temple had been left open ever since he had opened it years ago using an ancient key. The orb paused for a second before zooming through the serpent's mouth.
Knuckles crouched and peered inside. Absolute darkness awaited him. Knuckles sighed and climbed in. He felt his way through the tunnel and emerged onto a soft sand landing. The inside of the citadel had changed since he had last ventured here. All the shallow water had dried up and the mystic lights that illuminated the interior were gone. The only light came from a few eerie torches whose flames burned black instead of red.
The air felt different as well. Last time, Knuckles recalled a distinct pressure, a kind of force that pressed down on everything. That pressure was gone now. The temple felt as empty and lifeless as a tomb.
Knuckles took a few cautious steps forward. The black flames casted very little light. He knew there were perilous drops and crevices so he went very slowly. After a minute or so, the pink orb returned. It beckoned Knuckles onward and he followed.
For the next few hours, Knuckles followed the orb deeper and deeper into the temple. Without light, Knuckles crept slowly, narrowly avoiding several precipitous drops. As he delved further, Knuckles became aware of a menacing presence. Knuckles's skin prickled as he had the suspension of being watched.
On and on they went. The darkness became thicker and thicker, pressing down on Knuckles with unwelcome alertness. Knuckles felt he was intruding in the lair of some kind of monster. Every step increased his agitation and foreboding. At last they reached an arch leading into a wide circular room.
Knuckles could hear his footsteps echo as he passed under the arch. The room was massive. He ascended a short dais onto a flat landing. Upon the wall was a massive mural. Knuckles recognized it immediately. It depicted Perfect Chaos destroying the lands of the echidnas.
He approached the mural as if drawn to it. Knuckles was so focused on the image he did not notice that the orb had disappeared. The light in the room had changed to a pale blue. It reflected in the eyes of the monster depicted in the rock.
"Guardian, you have come."
Knuckles turned to see a great wall of darkness inching towards him. Twin figures materialized out of the shadow. They were shapes of black mist given form by skin that shimmered like the surface of disturbed water. The creatures stood at a height of twelve feet with indefinite lower halves and torsos that were mostly humanoid in shape. Grotesquely long arms hung at their sides with three claw-like fingers on each end. Their heads were a monstrous amalgamation of bestial imagery. The skulls were shaped like a bull's with long curved horns while their faces protruded forward like an eagle.
However, it was their eyes that made the blood run cold. They were huge like the eyes of a creature long exposed to darkness, and the only part of the creatures that appeared consistently solid. As their gaze fell on Knuckles, he shuddered. At last he understood the feeling of menacing vigilance that had stalked him since he had entered the temple.
"Who are you?" Knuckles growled.
"We are the Wardens." The two figures moved forward, gliding over the ground. As they moved, their bodies shifted, appearing as slow moving water and then shifting gas. They both raised the opposite arm and pointed directly at Knuckles. "You are the guardian, and you have failed."
"Guardian? What are you talking about?"
"You were charged with the welfare and safeguarding of the Master Emerald. You have failed."
"I've never heard of you before. What the hell are you?"
"We are the testaments. The recorders of all your sins."
Knuckles took a step back. The mural was at his back and Wardens had already closed in around him. "Edgy. Is that supposed to frighten me?"
The eyes of the Wardens sparkled. "We were made by the power of the emeralds, brought to life by the despair and hatred of those unjustly put to death. We are the voice of the voiceless, the pity of those slain without mercy, the judgment of those who escaped judgment."
"I don't understand."
"We are the scars of the land made manifest. The avengers of those who sought to dominate. You are the last of the Kovesh the Destroyers. From generations unbroken the Mantle was passed to you. As atonement you were the Guardian, but now you have failed and judgment has come."
The Wardens attacked simultaneously. Their already long arms extended outward and seized Knuckles around the throat and legs. He was pressed against the mural and squeezed. Knuckles gasped as his throat constricted. He seized the arm holding his neck and tried to pry it off but it was overwhelmingly strong. The Warden responded by increasing the pressure causing Knuckles to see stars.
Knuckles struggled vainly before letting his arms fall. His vision darkened at the edges. Soon he would black out and it would all be over. The fight left him. He would meet his fate with dignity. This was his destiny, and perhaps Knuckles had always known that it would end this way. He had failed, what was left to fight for? The pain was fading. It would be a peaceful thing, like falling asleep. Perhaps he would return to his dream. In death, he would be reunited with his people and would no longer be alone.
Something blue flashed in front of him. Knuckles wrestled to remain awake. Someone was standing behind the Wardens. He watched the scene unfold with his arms tucked at his side, his head shaking in disappointment. "Are you serious? Are you really just going to give up?" Sonic tossed up his hands in disbelief. "Is that really all you can do?"
What's the point? Knuckles refuted. There is nothing left.
"Who cares?" Sonic pointed at him. "You are alive, fight for you, if you give up, you'll die. Who cares what you're fighting for, it doesn't matter. Fight for you."
Suddenly, the pain returned. Knuckles could feel the strong limbs crushing his neck, his bones threatening to break. His entire body screamed out in agony. I'm alive. I'm alive and that means I have to fight. "NO!" Knuckles raised his arm and chopped it down with all his might. The sudden flurry caught the Warden off guard and Knuckles broke free. He kicked his legs free as well and leapt over the two monsters. Knuckles landed behind them and turned back, fists raised ready for battle. "Round two!"
The Wardens exchanged looks. "You cannot defeat us. Your sins weigh you down. Judgment has already been given."
Knuckles smirked. "I don't care. I don't give a damn about my sins or your judgment. If it is a fight you want then it's a fight you're going to get."