Dark Guardian: Chapter 17

"It's getting late," Tails said as he looked up at the darkening sky, "We've been at it for almost four hours. I thought he would have been back by now."

"Who knows what that guy is up to," Sonic replied, walking over to the wheelbarrow and leaning against it, "I'm tired. Can we quit now?"

"Yeah, I am too," Tails said, standing from where he had been crouching next to the partially filled foundation. He looked down and noticed how filthy his gloves were, giving them a tug as he took them off and threw them over to the wheelbarrow. He then approached Sonic, standing beside his friend as they continued to converse. "I mean, I kind of expected him not to be back anytime soon seeing as he's... well... him, but four hours?"

"I don't know," Sonic replied, "You don't think he's out causing trouble again, do you?"

"I don't think so," Tails said, "Kai seems to have gotten a lot better lately. I think he's kind of cool, even if he is sort of a- uh..."

"Jerk?" Sonic finished for Tails.

"Yeah," Tails admitted in a low voice, "Maybe he's just misunderstood though. I mean, people didn't like me because I had two tails. Maybe people don't like him because-"

"He's a jerk," Sonic interrupted again.

"No, I was saying that maybe they don't like him because of his powers or something. I mean, humans don't usually have powers like that. Maybe he's some kind of mutant."

"I guess he would have to be if he's that much of a jerk," Sonic said again causing Tails to grow irritated.

"Okay! I get it! Kai's a jerk! You shouldn't say things like that though. You can be a jerk sometimes too!"

"Hey, I was just saying!" Sonic replied, throwing his hands up in a defensive gesture, "Still, it was kind of mean to just leave you here working on HIS house."

"I'm sure whatever he's doing is important," Tails said, "why else would he-"

"SONIC!" A voice suddenly yelled from the distance, causing Tails and Sonic to turn their heads quickly in the direction of the cry. They were both surprised to see Knuckles sprinting toward them with a look of sheer panic on his face. Tails and Sonic quickly ran to meet the echidna, wondering what could be the cause of his worried state.

"What's up, Knux?" Sonic asked the echidna, who came to a quick stop in front of them panting heavily from having run so hard, "You look like something's wrong."

"The Chaos Emeralds," Knuckles huffed out, "they're gone! He's at it again!"

"WHAT!?" Sonic yelled in response, "He can't have, not again!"

"Wait, how do you know it was Kai?" Tails asked trying to remain optimistic, "Did you see him take them?"

"No, I don't have to!" Knuckles growled, "You're smart, put it together! He's not here, and the Chaos Emeralds are gone! He's the only one other than Eggman that seems interested in them! Do the math!"

"Dang! We don't have time for this!" Sonic said angrily, "Let's find Amy. We're going after him!"

"Wait guys! We don't know if it was him!" Tails tried to reason, "Eggman wants them too! Besides, he brought Cosmo back. He HAS to be good!"

"It was him," came another voice from behind them. Everyone turned to see Shadow approaching them, his eyes burning with fury, "There can't be anyone else."

"But how do we know that?" Tails insisted, "There's no evidence that-"

"COSMO'S BEEN KIDNAPPED!" Shadow yelled, getting in Tails' face as he did. Tails stood stunned, not knowing how to respond to what had just been said. He then backed off slightly as he continued his rage filled explanation. "I saw Eggman take her away using one of his robots, WITH KAI'S HELP! He used his power to knock her out! It's only logical to assume that he stole the Chaos Emeralds too! You were foolish to put your faith in that man, and now you're paying the price!"

Tails was silent as he stared blankly at Shadow, unable to process what had just been said to him. Cosmo had been kidnapped, and Kai had helped? Was that where he had been all this time, Tails wondered, and why would he do it? Why would he resurrect Cosmo only to hand her over to Eggman? He had promised to protect Tails and Cosmo, and was now betraying them in the deepest sense of the word. Now that he thought about it, Tails realized that the trust he held in Kai had all been based around the fact that he had brought Cosmo back to life. Beyond that there had never been any other reason. Quite the opposite in fact, he had been an antagonist for over two months and had only recently become an ally. Even when he had said he was helping the group Kai had never made any attempts to be tolerable or friendly. He was always stoic, straightforward, and in some cases outright spiteful. It was then that Tails came to realize that he had made a mistake. He had placed his trust in someone based off of an emotional attachment instead of logical thought, and because of that he had placed his love in danger.

As Tails continued to stare blankly tears began to form in his eyes. Slowly he sank to the ground and began to weep. "This can't happen again," he croaked, "I can't lose her... I just got her back. He said he would protect us- HE SAID HE WOULD PROTECT US!"

"Tails, calm down," Sonic urged, "We can't help her if you're like this. We need to-"

"IT WAS ALL A SET UP!" Tails screamed, "THE HOUSE WAS TO DISTRACT ME! I SHOULD HAVE WATCHED HER! This is all my fault!"

"TAILS!" Shadow barked, catching his attention. He then reached down and grabbed Tails' shoulders, pulling him to his feet as he looked directly into Tails' eyes. "You're not helping the situation! You made a mistake, but we can still fix this! We knew this would happen and we've been preparing for it."

"What do you mean?" Tails asked, "You planned for this?"

"We didn't know exactly what, but we knew he would do something to get at you guys," Knuckles stated, "Shadow already has a plan to put an end to this."

"How?" Tails asked, "He's more powerful than-"

"I beat him once before by taking my inhibitor rings off," Shadow said, "I can do it again, only this time..."

"This time, what?" Asked Tails anxiously, "What are you going to do?"

Shadow reached behind his back, pulling a small ten-millimeter pistol from where he had been concealing it. He gave a slight smirk as he cocked back the hammer causing Tails eyes to go wide.

"When he's down, we take him out," Shadow finally said in a low voice.

"NO!" Tails yelled, stepping away from Shadow, "I won't! It's wrong! I won't kill anyone! He hasn't-"

"He took Cosmo!" Shadow yelled back angrily, "He has never shown any problem with hurting others and almost killed Sonic and I once! You need to get it in your head that this guy was never as good as he seemed! It's him or her, you pick."

Tails bowed his head for a moment as he began to think. He had never killed anyone intentionally before. What would it say about him if he were to to take a life out of desperation? He did not like what choices he was being offered, but he knew that in the end he would chose only one.

A thought then occurred to Tails that he had failed to consider before, he had killed in the name of love. The difference was that before it had been his love herself that he had killed. Now he would kill to defend her. It seemed as though it was a sort of retribution for every crime he had committed during the war with the Metarex. He hated it, but it was necessary. He would not let anyone take Cosmo from him again, and if it came down to it Tails would do whatever he had to in order to keep her alive.

After a long moment of silence Tails finally directed a silent not toward Shadow. Shadow returned with a nod of his own before pivoting around and looking in the direction of Eggman's base. "We should hurry," Shadow said, "If we move we might be able to catch him before he rendezvous with Eggman." The group then took off, racing in the general direction that they knew Kai would be heading. They could only hope that they would be able to reach him before he could hand off the dead Chaos Emeralds to Eggman and prevent any harm from coming to Cosmo.

Kai walked slowly along the coastline, heading in the general direction of Eggman's base. Although he could feel the others drawing closer he was in no hurry to escape from them, he had no reason to be. He had long since reasoned in his mind that this was the best course of action to take and was willing to play to everyone's disbelief until there was absolutely no way to hide his true intentions. One thing that he had to insure was that Tails and Cosmo would remain alive. Without them his entire plan would fall apart. Regardless of his certainty he still could not help but wonder if this was the best way to go about the situation. Questioning himself had become second nature to him, but he usually did not have the time to debate it, only act. Now that he was free of the rules and regulations imposed on him by those supposed "higher beings", he had the opportunity to change what he had always despised about them. Why then, was he continuing to distance himself from others when he no longer had to? Perhaps he had just become comfortable with being alone. You could not be hurt when you were alone.

As these morbid thoughts swirled about Kai's head like bits in a snow globe, the familiar sound of a sonic boom erupted from further up shore behind him. Instantly his demeanor went from solemn to aggressive as he unclipped the inactive hilt of his beam-like sword from his belt. Kai would not fight this time, but he would not refuse to defend either as the group drew closer to his position.

Kai stood stock still as Shadow skidded to a stop just a few feet away from him, with Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and Amy bringing up the rear. There was silence as the group of five glared at the man in black robes and glossy armor. Surprisingly it was Kai that spoke first.

"You seem to have tracked me down in haste. Is there a problem?"

"Yeah, there is," Sonic said in an ill tone, "Cosmo's gone missing. Know anything about it?"

"Is there a reason that I should have?" Kai asked in a monotone voice.

"I thought you might care a little more considering you said you were her 'guardian'," Amy chided.

"I do not form emotional attachments to my charges," Kai rebutted, "It is dangerous for me to do so."

"Alright, cut the bullshit!" Shadow snapped, "We know about the whole thing! I saw you and Eggman kidnap her! You can't hide it anymore!"

"I hide nothing hedgehog, and your tone is sitting ill with me," Kai said in an irritated tone as he began to run his fingers along the activator switch for his sword.

"Kai," Tails suddenly whimpered, causing the man's attention to shift toward the small fox. He seemed slightly surprised when he noticed that Tails' eyes were red with small tears trickling down his cheeks. Tails approached Kai slowly, stopping and looking up at Kai as a small child would. His lips quivered uncontrollably as he spoke. "Please... tell me you didn't. Tell me where she is. I- I want to believe that you didn't do it. P-please, you didn't... did you?"

Kai was silent, staring down at Tails with an empty expression on his face. Tails continued to look up at Kai waiting for him to respond, hoping that everything was not what it seemed. Slowly the expression on Kai's face changed, going from apathy to guilt. "Yes," Kai replied in a low voice, "I did, and she will remain safe as long as you do whatever Robotnik tells you to do."

Tails was stunned, staggering backward and shaking his head as if to deny the entire situation. He continued to step backward until he ran into Sonic, who put a hand on Tails' shoulder comfortingly.

"HOW COULD YOU!?" Screamed Tails, his voice full of rage, "YOU BROUGHT HER BACK- AND TOOK HER FROM ME! WHAT DID WE DO!? WHAT DID WE DO TO YOU!?!"

Kai did not respond, only staring at Tails with unfeeling eyes. Tails then turned to Sonic, burying his head in Sonic's chest as he continued to bawl. Sonic narrowed his eyes at Kai, giving him a glare that was colder than any Kai had ever given. Finally Shadow stepped forward, balling his fists as he prepared to expunge this hindrance once and for all.

"You've done more to us, to him, than Dark Oak ever did," Shadow snarled, "You caused this, and now it's time that we end your antagonism once and for all!"

"I will not fight you, hedgehog," Kai replied, "You have no idea what's going on here, or what I am doing. If you did then you would know why I helped him."

"Then you'll die," Shadow said, taking an aggressive step closer to Kai, "I don't care why you did it. You aren't going to bother them anymore!"

"You're making a mistake," Kai cautioned, igniting his beam-sword as he did, "I know what he is going to use her for. Don't you want to know?"

"We won't listen to your lies anymore!" Shadow yelled as he released a volley of Chaos Spears at Kai, "Whatever your plan is, IT ENDS HERE!"

"You are deceived!" Kai yelled in response, deflecting the spears to the side with the energy beam in his hand, "At no point have you been lied to, least of all from me!"

"We don't want to hear any of it!" Amy screeched, running in from behind Shadow and swinging her hammer, "They've been hurt enough!"

Kai dropped to the ground, narrowly avoiding the blunt of Amy's mallet. He then rolled to the side before jumping to his feet and righting himself. "You don't know what you are doing!"

"THEN TELL US!" Tails yelled from the sidelines, "If we're wrong then tell us so we can help!"

"I don't answer to you!" Kai snapped, but was suddenly struck in the back of the head by a fast moving blue ball. Kai he fell to the ground and looked up, seeing Sonic unroll from a homing attack. Sonic glared at Kai, balling his fists in anger.

"You're finished, Kai!" Sonic said, "You aren't going to hurt my bro anymore!"

"You're all fools!" Kai yelled, rolling to the side and standing up again. No sooner had he climbed to his feet than did Knuckles lay a punch to his gut, which threw him into the air. Upon striking the ground Kai released his grip on his sword, causing it to tumble away from him and land in front of Tails. Tails reacted quickly, picking up the hilt and igniting the blade, holding it vertically at his side.

"TELL ME HOW TO SAVE HER!!!" Tails screamed, approaching Kai while nervously welding the laser-sword.

Kai held out his hand, ripping the sword from Tails' grip much to his surprise. The sword flew through the air, landing back in its owner's hand while Kai only looked crossly at the fox. "I hope you weren't serious about that," Kai taunted.

Tails was furious as he dashed toward Kai with tears in his eyes. Weapon or not, he would protect his beloved. He was sorely disappointed however, when a light blue energy appeared between himself and Kai as he bounced off of one of the man's psychic barriers and landed on the sand beneath him. Kai grew relaxed as he de-activated his sword, seeming confident now that he was safe behind a wall of energy.

"I told you, I will not fight," Kai said, "Now retreat and wait for Eggman to bring you word. It won't be long now."

Tails was now in panic. While it was true that they could hurt the man, they were unable to touch him when he was covered by one of his force fields. Nothing they could do could hurt him now as the field was impenetrable by any of their normal attacks. Shadow had been able to breach the barrier when in super form with a Chaos Lance, but he could only perform that attack as Super Shadow, that or...

Tails quickly turned to face Shadow, speaking in an urgent voice. "Shadow, take off your rings! Use a Lance!"

"Right," Shadow growled, giving both of his rings a twist as they fell from his wrists and onto the sand. A red aura began to enshroud Shadow as he concentrated Chaos Energy into the palms of his hands. "Chaos..."

"Shit! Shadow! You're wrong about this!" Kai said, almost pleading, "Don't-"

"LANCE!" Shadow finished. A bright beam of light enshrouded in a red aura similar to Shadow's shot across the sands and toward Kai. Upon impact the beam burrowed into the bright blue barrier with tremendous force. Kai struggled as he attempted to maintain its integrity, but was unable as the barrier disintegrated in front of him. The recoil of the barrier collapsing was enough to send Kai tumbling onto his back, striking the ground painfully hard.

"KICK HIS ASS!!!" Knuckles yelled, charging toward Kai with his fists raised. Shadow released another Chaos Lance, which struck the ground just in front of Kai. The explosion sent him flying through the air again, this time causing him to land on his face. As he tried to stand Knuckles was there to land another hard punch to his chest, making him airborne once again. "THAT ONE WAS FOR TAKING MY MEMORY!!!" Knuckles hollered angrily. As Kai flew through the air, seven black, diamond shaped objects began to fall from the recesses of his cloak, landing in the sand with soft thuds. Kai struck the ground, this time refusing to stand back. "THE CHAOS EMERALDS!" Yelled Knuckles as he rushed over to the black gems lying in the sand, then looked over at the beaten Kai, "I knew he had them!"

As Kai lay in the sand, bruised and bloody, Shadow and the others slowly approached the fallen man. Kai looked up to see Shadow reach behind his back, revealing a concealed pistol. He came to a halt in front of Kai, pointing the gun in between the man's eyes. Kai did nothing, only staring hatefully at the black and red hedgehog as he spoke in a low voice.

"I have done nothing but aid you, and you were plotting to kill me," Kai spat, "You honestly thought I didn't know? No, I knew. I was just hoping you would be better than this!"

"Enough!" Shadow barked, "You're manipulation ends here! I won't let you get away this time just to do the same to someone else!"

"You idiot!" Kai snarled, "Have you bothered to think any of this through thoroughly? Out of all of the incriminating information you have on me, how much of it is coincidental? Or, a better question, how much have you fabricated unconsciously just because you fear me? And out off all of that information you have yet to answer one singular question..."

"And what's that?" Shadow asked, glaring at Kai.

"Why?" Kai said, "Why did he introduce himself? Why did he remain with us despite the hate we showed him? Why did he defend us against Eggman? Why is he aiding him now? Why has no one died if he is an enemy? But most importantly, why did he bring Cosmo back at all?"

Everyone was silent as they began to ponder the question posed to them. None however, could come up with a reason that was viable enough to answer what Kai really wanted. Perhaps there was none, and he was just a madman with too much power. He seemed far too coherent and well thought out to be insane though, which would indicate that he did indeed have a motive. Which side did his motives benefit though? Eggman's goals were relatively simple; conquer Mobius and destroy Sonic, two things that Kai could most likely do in little to no time. If that were the case would he have not already done so? If his motives were too complicated for Eggman though then why did it seem like the Freedom Fighters were taking all of the heat from Kai's endeavors? What goal was hidden in the dark recesses of Jaran Kai's mind?

Shadow decided that he had had enough, and that thinking about it too deeply was exactly what Kai wanted them to do. The black hedgehog gritted his teeth as he pressed the gun barrel to Kai's head, speaking hatefully as he did so. "I won't be manipulated by you," Shadow said angrily.

"You poor fool," Kai chuckled, "You're so narrow minded; you see the world as if looking through a straw. Has it occurred to you that you're not the one I am manipulating?"

And then in a flash of light, Kai was gone. Just like before, he had narrowly avoided death by using Chaos Control. This surprised everyone, save for Shadow, who threw down his gun in rage, cursing loudly.

"DAMN!!!" Shadow yelled, "HE MADE ME HESITATE! I SHOULD HAVE KILLED HIM WHEN I HAD THE CHANCE!"

"At least we got the Chaos Emeralds back," Knuckles said, sounding somewhat relieved.

"But we don't have Cosmo!" Tails yelled frantically, "Eggman could have done anything to her by now! We have to save her! I CAN'T LOSE HER AGAIN!!!"

"You're not going to lose her!" Shadow said, calming down, "Kai's out of the way for now. We can get into the base, find Cosmo, and burn it to the ground. We WILL win this!"

Tails stood still, breathing in deeply in an attempt to quell his own hysteria. After a long moment of silence Tails looked up at the others, his eyes showing a level of determination rarely shown by him. "You're right," he said in a serious voice, "I promised her I wouldn't ever lose her again. We're going to go to Eggman's base, find Cosmo, and give that fat guy what-for. Let's go."

As Tails tromped off in the direction of Eggman's seaside base, everyone gave a slight grin as they followed behind him. This was a different Tails from the one they had seen two months ago. He had come a long way from being the timid, scared little fox that had been devastated by loss and pain. Now he was brave, courageous, and ready to face whatever evil waiting for him at Eggman's base. It was clear to everyone why this was, and even Tails himself had become slightly aware of it too. It was his love, and his desire to see Cosmo safe. He only hoped that this would give him the power to do so.

The crack is made, and widens as I speak. It won't be long before I find my way through, and once I do... there will be... silence...