The Ruby Eyes of Affection

Part two of a forgotten chronicle

"The entrance has been opened. Now remember, you are not to touch anything besides the items you came for. I do not want the AIPI getting on my ass for destroyed public property. Also, stay close to Rob. He knows a bit about the history so he should know, in general, where to go." Knuckles explained clearly before returning back to his typical relaxing pose against his beautiful emerald.

"Says the guy that had to be TOLD there are a prince and princess of Chaos." Rob replied before snickering slightly as he thought this was a pretty good insult.

"Don't get started with me, smart guy. Some things get lost in translation and when you have something passed down for many generations, information gets lost and sometimes even replaced. Now get going! Sonic's life and the life of this planet rests in your hands. Away with you." He finished firmly as a flick of his hand gave quick notification that the crew better get going.

"Okay. Thank again, Knuckles. Keep the emerald safe." Amy replied kindly before walking over to Rob and nodding at him slightly.

The brunet responded with a slight wave, commanding the group to follow. They quickly rushed down the stone stairs as they all ran to the side of the altar. A secret door had pried itself open. Inside the complete darkness was some very ancient stairs that were barely visible.

"I wonder how deep it goes... They must have wanted to keep this place safe. It looks absolutely horrifying." Rouge contemplated out loud before looking over at Rob for some kind of answer.

"Well, I assume it goes as deep as the island or else we would fall down to the town." He replied slyly before releasing a half-sarcastic laugh.

"You're funny... Anyway. Anyone have some kind of lighting device?" Tails said sarcastically as he looked through his bag before noticing he didn't bring a flashlight.

"You said to bring tools to go underground and.... You didn't bring a lighting device." Amy replied annoyedly before crossing her arms in slight disbelief.

(Of all the things you could have forgotten, Tails.)

"Don't worry babe. I gotcha covered!! Rob to the rescue!" The brunet hedgehog replied confidently before giving her a slightly flirtatious wink.

Abruptly, Rob closed his eyes tightly and concentrated very carefully. Within a few second a bright light glimmered from his rings and into his hands.

"Woah... That's so cool." Rouge and Amy responded in pure wonder as both they're eyes beamed with curiosity.

"Chaos energy in its purest form. A little thing Shadow and I have perfected over the years. Now, is everyone ready?" The brunet asked heroically as he felt his ego growing larger every minute while he was around these easily impressed women.

"You're not going to explain how your hand just randomly burst into flames?" Tails replied back skeptically as he noticed no signs of his gloves burning meaning it must not actually have been that hot.

"Maybe when we have more time but right now I have a prince to save!" Rob replied assertively before taking a large deep breath and gazing down the long stairwell to what looked like hell.

They all glared at him frustratedly as even Amy seemed to kind of brush off his comment.

"We... I meant we..." The brunet chuckled slightly as he nudged both his lady friends uncomfortably.

"Sure sure..." Tails replied sarcastically as rolled his eyes causing Rob to growl in response.

They all collectively took a large and deep breath as they started down the very ancient and somewhat dangerous steps. They followed close to Rob as he was the only source of light when they got to the bottom. The place smelled like old almost mildew-like paper and damp soil. It was filled with dozens of little rooms each serving some kind of purpose unknown to the crew. Even though it was hard to see, the team knew it was practically barren with nothing left on the walls. Probably meaning pillagers came in and ripped the place apart, such a shame. As they walked through little critters crawled along the floors and walls scaring both the females into almost horrific silence. Most of the doors to these small rooms were locked shut but a few were wide open, allowing the group to see into them. They looked fairly empty but all had a small bookcase, little pedestal only 6 inches above the ground and a blurry, old, huge and expensive looking painting. What could have possibly been the use of these rooms... Finally, they arrived at the biggest set of doors they had seen so far. Both of them were covered in gems and the chaos emerald locater started beeping at an insane frequency. They all tried pushing against them but they would not budge a centimeter.

"Ugh, we came through all these icky bugs for nothing..." Amy whined sadly as she tried to brush off all the cobwebs strung across her dress.

"I wouldn't give up so easily Miss Rose." Rob replied slightly caringly as he gently closed his eyes before concentrating deeply like he did before.

He could feel the power traveling from the bottom of his spine and rocketing up to his inhibitor rings. Before long they were complete charged and the brunet was ready to release.

"Chaos spear!" He exclaimed as the forceful beam of light collided with the door, not leaving a dent in it.

"What the HELL do you think you're doing?! You're going to destroy this beautiful artifact of ancient Mobian life!!!" Tails exploded as he smacked the back of the brunet's head before growling in complete ferocity.

"If that was the case, it would have been destroyed years ago. You see how very little stuff is left? I bet people have tried desperately to destroy this door. Now look." Rob countered before standing his ground and nodding his head.

A few clicking noises could be heard inside the door as one click led to another. Finally, the door unlocked itself and all the members rejoiced... Well besides Rob of course.

"What's wrong hon...?" Rouge queried gently as she noticed the immediate panic and fear in his eyes when his plan actually worked.

"Well it's just... My entire life... I have been waiting to figure out what everything means... Why I was created with no family or bloodline... Why I have been chosen for this really challenging and frustrating purpose. This might just give me the answers. I mean I know almost everything about Shadow but I have little knowledge of how I was involved with him." The brunet hedgehog stuttered slightly as he couldn't seem to regain control of this powerful sense of terror.

"Are you saying you're scared of knowing the truth?" The bat replied calmly as she gently patted Rob's back.

"Absolutely horrified. But I must for both my princess and Voziti." He answered strongly before gazing over to Tails and Amy before taking a large deep breath.

They all looked at each other before nodding... Whatever was behind that door had not been looked at in probably thousands of years... They knew it was going to be big. Finally, after some mild delay, they placed their hands against the door and pushed as hard as they could. Squeaky noises of a very ancient door echoed through the sacred temple as the door slowly opened. Finally revealing what exactly the ancients were studying this entire time... They could barely see anything at the moment but after some general touching, they noticed there were torches hanging around everywhere. Rob quickly used chaos spear to light them... One at a time, before they could see everything. And the first thing Rob saw was a huge beautiful watercolor painting made with only the best paint. In the picture were five posing figures. The only character he really recognized was Miran, standing in her beautiful and elegant midnight black dress. He also recognized what looked to be like a younger version of himself. Placed right beside Princess Miran was a golden hedgehog with a very vibrant green princely outfit on with very crisp emerald green irises. Finally, Rob tried to interpret the two other members which he hadn't really recognized. After a few seconds of contemplation, his eyes widened as he could not believe what he was witnessing. They looked eerily familiar and he took a large gasp of air as he realized who they probably represented.

"How is this possible... Maria... AND... Ivo?!"