Episode 15 Reunited Tikal hated being at school. The teacher barely noticed that she hadn't been going, and due to her natural intellect, she was able to do any work set before her. normally she wouldn't ind, but if Loki went back to their apartment, or tried to phone. A thought hit her, suppose he'd been kiddnapped again, or mugged and left for dead. She got through the day with help from her friends, most coming from Knuckles, but with the absence of Rouge.

"Where's Rouge today?" she finally asked.

"Er..." Rouge had been avoiding the guys since lunch yesterday, so Amy coverd for her, "I think she's showing Scarlette around."

"We'll probably see them later," Tails smiled.

The final bell rang, and Tikal let out a sigh of relief. The sooner she got home the better, she had a good feeling about today. She sat slone on the bus ride home, Amy was sitting next to Heero, making a big show of their relationship, mostly for Sonic's benefit [lost cause luv lolh], as he was in front of them with Knux. Rouge was still nowhere to be sen, although Scarlette had joined them.

The guys got out by Chao Tower, and Tikal knew she had to get back to her apartment, so she ran ahead, and took the lift up alone. She ran to her door, and threw it open, to reval an empty apartment. She had hoped he'd be back, but obviously, Loki wasn't home. She was almost crying when she heard his voice.

"I know this wont even begin to help, but all I can do is say sorry." He had thought about hiding until they had gone out again, he'd even considerd going out the bathroom window, but he knew he'd have to face them all eventually.

The cat-boy didn't know what to expect, so was happily shocked when Tikal ran to him, and hugged him close to her.

"I'm so happy you're back," she sobbed with joy, "But, where were you?"

"Thinking," was his only response.


Horatio was exhuasted. During the night and following day he hadn't slept, eaten, or had anything to drink. His head swam with nausea, but he had to know the truth about himself. The fact that he gave off a Chaos resonance scared him almost beyong belief.

The best way for him to find out the truth was to see how his body reacted to a Chaos Emerald, but he wasn't supposed to know about the, let alone that his father had one, so he went to plan B, and started running every test he knew on himself. He restlessly awaited the resukts of his latest, a blood screening.

A phone next to him began to ring, he ignored it, he didn't care. The seconds passed like hours, and the phone continued. It began to annoy him. Why hadn't Fenrir answered it? Eventually it stopped, only seconds before the machine printed out the results. He looked them over, then again.

"I'm not human..." he said. It made sense, he was better than most humans, and now he knew why. The shets dropped from his fingers, and he began to laugh, a low chuckle, that was much worse than any megalomaniacs cackle.

"How very interesting." Horatio was calmer now, "This must be father's doing. He and I need to speak."

With that, he headed out of the room, not even bothering to tidy up the discarded printouts. Very few people could even fathom them, so there was no need.


Tikal hadn't wanted to let go of Loki, but she had to get changed, and Amy had finally caught up, so he promised not to move. When both girls were ready, Loki said,

"I suppose I'd better let the rest of the guys know I'm back."

"They should be at Ame's," Amy said, helpfully.

They made there way across the hall, with Loki almost wearing Tikal like a necklace, until Ame opened the door.

"Loki!" they all gasped in unison, all happy to see him, bar one.

"How dare you!" Ame slapped him, hard enough to make a red mark, but not bruise, "Do you know how worried we all were?" Now the wolf guy hugged him, "Don't you ever do anything like that again," he said quickly walking into the kitchen, tears in his eyes.

"Has he forgiven me, or does he hate me?" Loki really didn't know.

"I'll check on him." Luc said standing.

"And dinner?" Paz caled after him, "What? I'm hungry."

"God to have you back, lil' bro'." This time Felica wasn't teasing.

"Thanks sis I just needed some thinking time."

Ame walked out of the kitchen, with Luc in tow, and more in control of himself, then said,

"Dinner will be ready in 5, anyone want drinks?" With the sudden barrage of answers, most for cola, but with Scarlette and Paz asking for strange concoctions, Loki felt like nothing had changed, until he caught Luc's eye for a second, then Tikal's.

He knew he'd have to talk to both of them about his feelings, but he didn't know how or where to begin. At least everyone cold be happy for the moment [see, happy!].


Fenrir wasn't happy [sorry, someone has to be miserable]. After several attemps at phoning his boss/lover, he was worried. Horatio hadn't shown up for any of his meetings, but luckily, Fenrir was able to cover, but the board was asking questions.

With work finished for now, Fenrir began to look for Horatio. He had the highest security clearance, so could enter any room Horato had access to, but in a building as large as The Kintobor Headquaters, it could literally take days to find someone, and that was if they were staying in one place.

After checking the penthouse sweet, his and Horatio's rooms, he started moving down, missing Dr. Robotnik's floors, and getting to the labs. Hearing an active terminal, he walked into a bio-research room. It was currently empty, but looked like it had been used recently, for a long series of tests.

From discarded printouts, and active monitors, he discoverd it was all on Horatio's password, and from security playbacks, he saw that the tests were done on Horatio himself. The cat-boy began to worry. was his lover il? Could he do anything? was he dying? Was he daed? Fenrir began to check every peice of paper, no matter how small, and learned about the Chaos resonance, but didn't fully grasp its importantance.

Finally he saw the last, fallen, printout. He picked it up and began to study it. He had made himself fully aware of Horatio's equipment [lab machinery!], and how to understand most of the information. It was his duty as an aide to know these things. He suddenly realiesd what it meant.

"Horatio isn't fully human?" He checked, double checked, then triple checked. "This says he's one quater Echidna......"


D had missed the last train home. Luckily there were tents, and food, but she was the only person at the Mystic Ruins dig site. Being a terminal optimist, she decided to continue working, she still had a few hours of light left, and she could make herself something to eat later, simple. Problem 2, she couldn't work the exo-suits needed to shift massive amounts of dirt, solution, she'd contiue where she was earlier.

Returning to where she was, D climbed down the ladder, took out her tools, and began to work. After about an hour, she had found something strange,glyphs. Expanding the work area, she found more.

"This could be the major find I've been waitng for!" she squeaked with delight. Her work took her until the sun had set, but she barely noticed. Beneath the rabbit girl was a perfect square, exactly 10ft by 10ft, covered in glyphs.

"Now where do I start?" D circled the stone, looking where to begin translating. Finally she found the begining, "Know you who read this that after the fall of the kings/lords and the death of cities/civilisation that the center of nature/earth was put to rest here and it will sleep until her preist/preistess claims it." after several readings, she noticed a small hole dead center of the tablet.

"Of course, it's not the center of eart or nature, but the heart of Gaiya! This is where the green Chaos Emerald is!" She dusted her nose nervously, "But I wonder where."

The more she looked at the small hole, the more it looked like a keyhole. Kneeling down, she blew the dust out of it, and saw she was right.

"I wonder..... no.... it couldn't be..." around her neck, on a silver chain, was the first thing she'd ever dug up. She was allowed to keep it, because even though it was old, it seemed to be a worthless key. Undoing the clasp, she placed the in the hole and tried to turn it. It didn't move.

"Didn't think so." she sighed. D then placed her hands either side of the key to get her balance, and it turned by itself.

The stone moved back, gliding as if minutes had passed since its sealing, instead of centuries. From beneath it rose gaiya, in all its glory, resting on an altar of flowers.

"I'd better hide this" D said taking the stone, and running back to her tent. Now all she had to do was explain how she moved the stone, and why the treasure was missing.


With the long evening drawing to a close, the guys had gone to bed. Tikal hugged Loki, and was hugged back while both slept. Ame lay awake next to a sleeping Luc. Tails slept deeply. Felica was working, and Paz was walking Sacarlette home. Amy dreamed. Her dreams were, as normal, colourful and extravagant. She was at a ball thrown in her honour. All her friends were there, dressed in fancy gowns or smart tuxedo, but hers was the best. she now noticed that eveyone wore masks, except her, she was a princess.

The music started, and everyone partnered off to dance. As people passed her, they complemented her hair, make-up, dress, or just her. Even Ame, who wore a stunning purple balgown, for some reason, said how much prettier she was.

Amy was now the only one not dancing, and at this point, she recognised the dream. Sonn a handsome stranger would appear, ask her to dance, and at the end of the night would reveal himself as Sonic. She waited, and on cue, her 'mystery man' turned up. They danced and laughed, and soon everyone was watching them. Amy loved this bit of the dream.

The clock struck 12, and it was time for the unmasking. Everyone already knew who everone was, but it was tradition, and a dream. In the crowd, she saw Sonic take off his mask.

"If that is Sonic, then who?" Amy whispered to her partner.

"Who do you think?" Heero said removing his mask, and kissing the pink hedgehog girl softly.

The clock began to strike again, and again, getting harder. Amy wanted to stay kissing him, but couldn't. She rolled over and turned off her alarm. "Wow," she said dreamily, before getting up.


Felica had got up early, partly to avoid Paz, partly to find out what was going on between Luc and Ame. On the surface they looked happy enough, but underneath....

Knocking on their door, she was greeted by Luc.

"Hey, um.. breakfast isn't quite ready yet, I kept Ame in bed longer than I should, but feel free to come in." he said moving aside.

"That's okay, I wanted to talk to you both. Is Tails up?"

"No, he likes to slep in on weekends [ok, so I haven't got a timeline going on.i don't even know if it is the weekend]." Ame said walking out of the kitchen.

"Good, I need to ask you something kinda private." Felica wasn't good at serious stuff, so was nervous.

"I don't know where your panties are." Luc blurted out.

"It's..... What? Aren't you gay?"

"Yes, but..." Luc was going red.

"Oh no," Ame sighed, "You're wearing them, aren't you."

"They are silk." Luc was crimson.

"Don't worry," Ame told Felica, "I'll get them back for you, even if I have to tear them off him with my teeth."

"Is that a promise?" Luc pulled Ame into a kiss.

"You're both sick." felica said shaking her head, then laughing.

"What's going on?" Loki had eneterd, followed by the guys.

Seeing the oportunity to talk gone, Felica coverd quickly.

"I was just seeing if any of you guys wanted to see my show."

"Wow, stripshow at the casino? I'm there!" Paz said throwing himself into a chair.

"Heh, why not?" Loki laughed, "but the only girl I'll be lookin' at is Tikal."

"Love to, but can't," Ame said standing up to finish breakfast. "I'm banned."

"Why?" Felica called after him.

"I'm too good with cards, I don't lose unles I want to. It's a knack. I won one game to many, I guess, so I can't go back."

"Really?" she turned to Paz and Luc, who both nodded. "I'll talk to the owner, please?"

"Like I said, I'd love to." Ame came back carrying a tray of mugs, "But will everyone get in?"

"I'm the star, they'll meet any of my demands, trust me." Felica had seen a chance to impress everyone. if she showed off enough, then Ame could be hers. She felt an evil laugh coming on, but stifled it.


Klonoa had got a phonecall from D early in the morning. It sounded urgent, but his cousin usually made too much out of everything. nevertheless, he agreed to meet her at Station Gardens at 10:00. It took about five minutes by bus to get there, so he took his time getting ready, and set out at 9:50.

When he got there, he noticed that she was already waiting, carrying a bag and looking round nervously.

"Hey Gany," he called, "This must be important, you're on time for once."

"What? Well, yeah, I suppose." She knew that everyone always joked that she was never on time, "I need to show you something. C'mon." she said dragging him into the park.

"Okay, you're on time, and you're not talking, I'm worried." Klonoa tried to stay light-hearted, but didn't know what to expect.

"You're worried? Just wait till you see this!" she held up the bag. "Okay, this should do."

They were at the bench overlooking the waterfall. very few people went there during the morning. D looked around, dusted her nose, then lifted Gaiya out of the bag.

"Is that...?" Klonoa began.

"Yes!" he was interupted.

"Then shouldn't you...?"

"They wouldn't know what to do with it."

"Then how about...?"

"But I'm worried about getting too many together."

"So what are...?"

"I don't know!"

"Are you gonna...!"

"Sorry, I'm just nervous."

"And I think things are gonna get worse." Klonoa stood up.

"Huh? Why?" D turned around to see the security drones behind her. "Oh."


Rouge and Scarlette were sitting at the breakfast bar, eating and discussing there plans for the day, well, Rouge was talking, Scarlette was trying to ignore her. As usual, their parents were off on a cruise, or away on buisness. Rouge preferred it this way, and Scarlette didn't care.

"So I'll need you to cover for me if Knux turns up or calls." Rouge finished.

"Huh? I'm sorry, my mind was elsewhere, in fact, I'll be honest, I really don't care." Scarlette replied, yawning.

"I said I'm meeting a guy called John at the mall, and since I doubt you have plans, I'll need you to cover for me if Knuckles turns up or calls."

"Since you'll be out with this guy called John, you should dump Knuckles, stop leading him on."

"I don't tell you how to run your life, stay outta mine." Rouge said storming off.

'So I'm stuck in all day by myself' Scarlette thought. 'Well, maybe not. Wonder what Paz is doing.' Checking the clock, she saw it was 10:15. 'If I phone him now, will I seem, desperate, or just keen?'

A brief smile crossed her face. A few weeks ago her biggest concern had been wether or nor she felt like getting out of bed. Ame's number was on speed-dial, and Scarlette figured Paz would be there. The phone rang a few times, then was answered with,

"Hi this is Ame, I'm not in right now...."

"Damn." Scarlette cursed.

"Hi miss sunshine, strange, normally everything you say rhymes. You want Paz, right?" Ame continued, laughing.

"Sorry 'bout that," Paz said when he had the phone, "He refuses to answer the phone like a normal person. So what's up?"

"Have you got any plans today, I'd like to see you, if I may." scarlette said, feeling foolish.

"Sure, hows the beach in 30? Just yes or no, no need to rhyme it."

"Yes, see you there." Hanging up, she thought about what she had that was black, and suitable for the beach.


Klonoa and Ganymede stood facing a five drone squad.

"Can we help you?" klonoa asked as D re-bagged the crystal.

"HAND OVER THE BAG QUIETLY, OR YOU WILL BE ARRESTED." came the response.

"Erm..run?" D whispered.

"Yup." Klonoa agreed before both broke into a sprint. "Have you tried using it?"

"I wouldn't know how."

"Do you feel anything when you hold it?" Klonoa was grasping at straws.

"Does awe count?" she replied hopefully, "Argh!" the rabbit girl screamed as she tripped.

"Gany!" Klonoa stopped, but the drones were on her before he could help. She threw the bag to him shouting,

"Take this to the guys!"

"No, I gotta help you!"

"HAND OVER THE BAG AND YOU CAN BOTH GO FREE."

"Okay, here!" Klonoa took out the Chaos Emerald and threw the empty bag at the lead drone. "C'mon, Work!" he shook the emerald, hoping something would happen. It did.

The bushes nearest grew ad swallowed two drones, two more were grabbed by trees, and the final was eaten by the ground itself.

"How'd you do that?" D asked, stunned.

"I didn't!" Klonoa had dropped Gaiya, "I mean I don't know, but I'm not touching that thing again."

"I hate to admit it, but I'm way over my head here, lets get this to an expert." They grabbed the gem, then ran to Ame's.


Horatio had finally tracked down his father, in a meeting with some of his less reputable friends. He burst through the doors, then calmly looked at each person present.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!! This meeting is of upmost importance!!!"

"But it's over, these people are leaving." he spoke to the peole seated, and one by one they left, as commanded.

"What?! How did you?" Robotnik was getting angrier.

""I needed some 'quaility time' with you, father."

"There are better times than when I'm in a meeting!"

"I thought I handled the buisness now."

"Is that what this is about?!!!"

"No. I ran some tests, and I found the strangest thing. I'm not entirely human, am I?"

"No, You were made from my DNA, some of Dr. Kintobor's, and Echidna DNA."

"Why? Why play god with your child? And your wife?"

"To explain that, I'll need to tell you about the Chaos Emeralds. You see..."

"I know all about them," Horatio snaped.

"Obviously you don't, otherwise you wouldn't be asking these questions."

"Then explain. Tell me what I couldn't find in your encripted files."

"You know that if someone brings together all seven of the Chaos Emeralds, they gain the power of the gods, right?"

"Yes, go on."

"If that person is of Echidna blood, even if it isn't pure, then they become a god. You are my key to that power!!!"

horatio couldn't speak. All this man saw him as was a tool. The look of horor in his eyes was only matched by the insanity in his fathers.



Not as long as the rest, but a good a place as any to end. happiness is returning, but only as a guest star, and it could leave at any time [lolh]

Ame-chan

E-mail Ame.

On to episode 16

back to misc fics

p.s. a big thank you to the band Steps, and H and Claire [formerly of Steps]. without them, this fic would probably never have been.