Lies and Revelations

[Sarath Crescent]

The gentle quiet of the Angle Island jungle was interupted by the sudden shriek of an engine. The sound soon dropped to nothing only to be replaced by a low throbbing sound as the crafts anti grav engines came online and held the craft in place over a clear section of the jungle. Slowly it descended to the jungle and went quiet.

After a moment the large access ramp at the rear of the craft lowered to the ground. At the threshhold stood Sarath, his cape catching the wind and fluttering behind him a little. Beside him stood Latooni, the mouse looking a little edgy but otherwise calm. Lefina stood behind him, her head drooped and eyes staring at the ground.

"Lefina!" snapped Sarath quickly, "Tell me what you feel! I know this Island holds our prize."

"N-Nothing my Lord, I don't sense anything yet," replied Lefina with a stammer.

Sarath looked over his shoulder and glared at her.

"B-But it is an unusual energy...perhaps if I got closer to it I would be able to sense it properly," continued Lefina quickly.

"Very well, proceed."

"LIES!" hissed Lefina's mind. She could sense the energy of the Master Emerald perfectly, she had been able to sense it for quite some time now. Why was she doing this? Why after all this time was she doing this now? What good would it do her now?

The wolfess swallowed and stood up properly, walking past Sarath with a firm purpose. She was doing this for this world! She was doing this because she didn't want to see another world suffer like her own and hundred since! Things were already in motion...there was no turning back now.

[Sarath Crescent]

"I hope you know where you're going..." hissed Latooni as the mouse sidled up beside Lefina, "Our Lord is getting impatient!"

"I know exactly what I'm doing Lat, its this way," replied Lefina in a low tone. She didn't bother to look at the mouse as she spoke, simply kept her vision focussed on the path ahead. It wasn't much of a path at all, covered as it was with various vines and branches.

Latooni gave another scowl, the rune cut into her upper shoulder glowing briefly before she stepped back and fell into step just behind Sarath. Going was proving slow and it wasn't showing any signs of getting quicker. Lefina didn't even know where she was going; only that it was in the opposite direction to the way she sensed they should go. The last thing she wanted was to lead Sarath to the Master Emerald, not now. She just had to bide her time until the call came in. She swallowed, took a short breath and carried on.

[Sarath Crescent]

Lefina ran her hand along the rockface that stood in their way. The jungle was proving to be a rather difficult place to trek through and the sheer cliff wall she had just found herself upon was causing the going to be even harder. Behind her she could feel the eyes of Sarath burning into her back like a laser, the feeling only serving to cause the wolfess to become even more nervous.

Sarath meanwhile watched her carefully. He was growing more and more displeased with the situation and would likely have already voiced this if it had not been for the soothing hands of Latooni who was currently massaging his shoulders.

Just then a faint crackling was heard. Sarath glanced away from Lefina to the communicator located around his wrist. He raised his arm and tapped a button causing a small screen to appear in mid air above his wrist. "I thought I said to maintain communication silence until the operation was over...this had better be good."

The captain on the other end seemed to pause before he began to spill his words in quick succession. "My Lord! We've just had a major security failure. The automatic overrides have been activated and we're locked out of the system. All cell blocks have opened, all outer hatches are currently open and we've lost all form of internal scanners and protocols!"

"What?!" Sarath leaped from his seat a moment later. Latooni jumped back, startled by the sudden movement. To his side Lefina just dug her claws into the cliff wall. "What do you mean an override?! Who activated it?!"

"My Lord, MOTHER confirms that the override command came from...Lefina Milo."

Sarath went completely silent for a moment. While his face refused to show any emotion nis paws flexed lightly, the tips of his fingers twitching lightly. "Get security protocols activated..." His tone was dry, low and harsh. It held no form of emotion at all which only furthered the effect it created. The captain gave a quick bow and closed the communication link, he diudn't need Sarath to finish his sentence to understood what his voice meant.

Sarath meanwhile turned to look at the wolfess. She still had her back turned to him and her head was drooped slightly. "So you finally show your true colours my dear...?"

[Sarath Crescent]

"These have always been my true colours Lord!" snapped Lefina, the wolfess spinning round to face Sarath directly, "You've just been too blind to see them! When I agreed to join you I didn't do it for your benefit, I did it to try and help those that you overpowered and enslaved!"

Sarath twitched slightly but otherwise remained silent for the moment. The pair stared at each other, neither seemingly willing to back down from their position.

"So what do you plan on doing now my dear little wolf," asked Sarath slowly.

"I've already done more than I had planned. I've led you on a wild goose chase across this island and helped all those you have captured to escape! I'd sooner die than help you conquer yet another innocent world!" replied Lefina with a firm tone in her voice.

"I can help you with that you traitorous little wench!" came a scream from behind Sarath. Latooni stood off to the side, multiple colours of light dancing around her body as the crests carved into her body glowed brightly. "How dare you betray our Lord! I'll see you dead for this! Elemental Cannon!"

With that the swirling lights around Latooni's body contracted to a point in front of her outstretched hands. It took but a moment for the charge to reach its peak and the magic released itself. Flying from Latooni's hands the beam of light shot across the small clearing and slammed straight into the cliff face. The sound was deafening, the sudden impact and force of the hit sending a massive shockwave through the ground. Rock was torn asunder, trees were uprooted and vapourised and Sarath promptly found himself knocked off his feet.

[Sarath Crescent]

Latooni surveyed the smoking trail of destruction before her. The cliff face was now a smoking chasm, a giant ravine carved out of the rock. A trench several feet deep extended from her feet into the chasm, the trench smoking lightly and crackling with magical energy. Latooni's eyes burned with rage as she surveyed the damage.

Just then a bright flash lit up the sky. Latooni looked up just in time to see the streak of blinding white light slam straight into her. The blast erupted like a nuclear blast, filling the area and sky with a massive white pulse of light. Latooni barely had time to cry out as her eyes began to burn. She stumbled backwards, tripping over a fallen tree branch and crashed to the floor.

Above her Lefina was hanging from a ledge in the cliff side just to the side of the carnage the mouse had created. She was panting heavily, seemingly the spell and evasion had taken a lot out of her. Her attention was snapped away from the fallen mouse by the gentle sound of clapping.

Sarath stood just to the side of the mouse with his eyes closed clapping slowly. "My congradulations dear, that was fairly impressive...but then you do know poor Latooni's style. Let's see how you deal with a slightly more dangerous opponent."

Without pausing he reached for his sword and drew it from its sheath. "You've disappointed me, betrayed my trust, insulted me, and now you seek to stop me entirely. I'm afraid this is something I can't forgive and you shall now feel the full wrath of my new powers. Make your peace with whatever god you worship Mianolian! You shall be meeting them shortly!"

A dark hue began to form around Sarath as a scowl crossed his face. "Release seal!" At his words his sword gave a small click and the Elementia seal on his sword released itself. With a crack his sword began to glow a deep purple black colour and separated into twenty small pieces, each connected by a magical tether. At the same time a strong magical pulse was released, it rushed out from Sarath, shaking the trees and ground.

Lefina was thrown from the cliff face, landing with a thud on the ground a few meters below. She looked up at Sarath, his whip like sword now snaking its way around him like a giant serpent. Lefina's eyes filled with fear, she hadn't expected this. She swallowed and edged backwards onto her feet as Sarath began to approach.

[Tails]

Tails observed the mayhem from the cliff on Angel Island. He scanned the area and saw that it might very well be too dangerous to intervene.

He asked CT23 in a whisper. "Odds?"

CT23: Because of the weapon the mouse has and plus based off of his strength skematics, you will have a 10% of success.

Tails pleaded in his thoughts. "If only Sonic were here, he'd know what to do. Because my odds are extremely low, I'm gonna turn back and just head back to my workshop.

(back in camouflage)

[Sarath Crescent]

[Next time bare this in mind, you only just arrived, you wouldn't have seen anything that has happened so far so you wouldn't know a thing about what's going on. Plus Sarath is currently believed to be dead, that may have set off a few alarm bells.]

A blinding crack of energy rung out over the air as Lefina dived to the side. The end of Sarath's sword snaked through the air, slamming into the ground where Lefina had been stood a moment before. The wolfess stumbled as she landed, collapsing to the ground with a thud as she glanced back over her shoulder.

She wasn't used to direct fighting, in fact she wasn't used to fighting at all...it was something that appauled her in facty. She respected all life and to seek to end it was something she could never bring herself to do. Sarath on the other hand had long since cast off any kind of reservation he may have had to such a thing.

Lefina didn't have time to dodge the next strike, the purple shrouded whip blade snapping round at her and striking across her left side. The scream in her throat was cut short as the blow landed, the blades ripping straight through the thin gown that she wore and tearing directly into her flesh. Blood quickly started to ooze from her stomach, left arm and back as she tried to push herself up and away from the fox approaching her.

She was scared for her life but she couldn't just give up. As Sarazth approached again she flung her arm up, a bright pulse of light filling the sky before it shot towards Sarath. The fox sidestepped slightly but the ray still hit the ground next to him, exploding in a bright flash of white light. As he let out a startled scream Lefina pushed herself back more, also blinded by the intense light.

She brought her right hand up to her left arm, resting her fingers gently across her torn flesh. Slowly rings of golden green light began to irradiate from her palm, washing over her beaten body in a steady pattern. Lefina gave a few deep breathes, she couldn't do much in the time she had but if she could just heal her injuries a little she could...

She gasped, a dark cold feeling running over her body as the glowing rings faded to nothing. Lefina tried to restart her spell but nothing happened. She panicked slightly, what was going on? Why wasn't her magic working? A moment later she froze as a cruel yet pleased laugh rung out from her side.