Sonic X Fan Fiction ❯ Sonic X: Night of the Vampire ❯ Be still my beating heart ( Chapter 12 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

By: VENOM1

“Cosmo, what makes you so sure this is the way to the place where Gigex's heart is?” asked Cream.

“Chow?” said Cheese.

“I can feel it.”

“Okay…” said Rouge.

“Sorry, I guess I forgot to explain. Let's just say that since my rebirth I have a kind of sixth sense about these things.”

Cosmo, Amy, Cream, Cheese, Rouge, and Bokkun had gone to find the chest that contained the heart of Gigex. Knuckles, Chris, Shadow, Decoe, and Bocoe had run off to create a diversion, and Sonic had run off in search of Gigex.

“Something wrong Amy?” asked Cream.

“I just hope Sonic will be okay. We are ten thousand feet in the air in a castle filled with vampires.”

“Sonic will be fine Amy.” said Cream. “After all he has the Chaos Emeralds with him.”

“Chow.”

“Speaking of which, how are you and Sonic?” asked Cosmo.

“Not as well as I'd like to be… Just the same I guess.”

“Maybe you should try respecting Sonic's space a little more?”

“What's that supposed to mean!?!” said Amy getting angry.

“Calm down Amy. I think it's really cute that you care about him so much, but I don't think he likes it when you just tackle him like you usually do. In fact it probably freaks him out.”

“But sometimes I can't help it. He could've died like a million times already and I can't bear the thought of never seeing him again.”

“Well maybe you should ask him for permission before you show your affection. Or if you just can't help yourself then just try not to tackle him so hard?”

Suddenly they all stopped. The hallway went around a corner and there was a sign pointing down it that said,

Losers Ahead

“Losers ahead?” said Bokkun.

“We must continue, the heart is down this way.”

They didn't get far down the hallway when suddenly…

“DUCK!”

A spinning blade came out of no where and flew down the hallway where their necks would be if they had not ducked in time.

“Oh I get it.” said Bokkun as more spinning blades flew over their heads. “It says Losers ahead because anyone who goes down this hallway loses a head.”

“I don't know what's worse, the traps or the puns.” said Rouge as they crawled their way under the spinning blades.

“You forget, Gigex has a sick sense of humor.” said Cosmo.

When they made it to the end of the corridor they found themselves at a fork with an inscription in between the two doors. The inscription read,

Which way to the men's room?

“Oh great, let's just pick one and move.” said Rouge.

They went through the left door and followed the corridor, but it only led to a dead end.

“Did we go the wrong way?” asked Cream.

“Looks like it. Let's go back.”

Just as they turned around part of the ceiling fell down, followed by what looked like a hundred knives that flew in their direction.

“AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!”

Cosmo did not scream, she just closed her eyes and held her hands out as if pushing some kind of invisible box. The knives stopped in midair, and then Cosmo pulled one of her hands back and then punched forward with it. The knives flew in the other direction and stuck into the wall.

“Wow!”

“You're tele… tele… tele… you can move objects with your mind?” asked Rouge.

“The word you are searching for is telekinetic, and yes. It is one of the new powers I possess as a result of my rebirth.”

They exited the corridor back to the fork. Cosmo took another look at the inscription

Which way to the men's room?

“Of course!” said Cosmo “We went to the left, but in many cultures left is a feminine symbol and right is masculine.”

They went through the right door and continued down its corridor.

“Cosmo there's something different about you.” said Amy “You know, besides the length of your hair.”

“Like what?”

“Well you don't seem to be as much the shy type I remember you to be. And with the idea of Tails becoming one of the Giaki I just assumed…”

Cosmo giggled and said, “Receiving extraordinary powers upon coming back from the dead. It obviously does wonders for self esteem.”

Amy laughed a little and said, “Well when you put it that way.”

“Besides, Tails may be in trouble, but worrying about him isn't going to help. We need to focus on finding the heart so we may defeat Gigex if we are to save Tails.”

At the end of the corridor there was another door. They went inside and saw a giant organ in the center of an elaborate room. But there was no door. However there was a plaque on the organ that read,

FEED the organ and watch the floor.

“Feed the organ? You can't feed an organ.” said Rouge.

“No, but you can play one. I guess we need someone to play the organ.”

“Me! Me! Me! Let me do it! I've always wanted to play the piano!” said Bokkun.

“It's not a piano, it's an organ, there is a difference.” said Amy.

“Let him play it if he really wants to Amy.”

“Yes!”

Bokkun sat at the chair in front of the organ and started playing random keys.

“Okay, let's watch the floor and see what happens.”

“I think we better watch the walls, because they're closing in on us!” said Rouge.

Rouge was right, giant spikes had erupted out of the walls and now the walls were closing in on them.

“Bokkun do something!”

“Okay!”

Bokkun jumped under the organ to hide.

“No! Keep playing the organ! Maybe it will stop the walls!”

Bokkun jumped back onto the seat in front of the organ and started randomly hitting keys very fast. After about 5 minutes of panic the walls stopped.

“Phew…”

“Let's get out of here. I don't like musical instruments with riddles.” said Cream.

“Chow…”

“Wait a minute… Cream this is a musical riddle!”

Cosmo took a good look at the plaque on the organs pipes. And pointed to the word FEED.

“Everyone, why are all the letters in this word capitalized?”

“Because it's important?” asked Rouge.

“Because it isn't a word at all, its musical notes. F.E.E.D.”

Cosmo played the F key on the organ, then the E key twice, followed by the D key. Then a hole opened up in the floor.

They went down the stairs in the hole and found themselves in a room that was completely empty except for a bright burning candle in the center.

“This seems almost too easy.”

They started to make their way across the room, but when they were halfway across the room on the other side of the candle…

“Gu… Gu… Guys…” said Cream.

“What? What is it?”

“Lo… Lo… Look.”

On the other side of the room their shadows started moving, and then suddenly dark figures emerged from them.

“What are those?” asked Amy. “They look like us only all black.”

“My guess is shadow versions of ourselves meant to keep us from continuing any further.”

At that moment the shadow creatures sprung at their original counterparts. Cosmo and the others fought back but their shadowy doppelgangers kept matching them move for move.

Cream came face to face with her own doppelganger and just said politely, “Fighting is not nice.”

But her shadow self didn't care.

Amy and her dark self were swinging their hammers at each other like crazy.

“Like looking in a mirror ain't it? Only I'm darker and better.”

While the girls were locked in combat with their evil selves, Bokkun noticed that there wasn't a doppelganger of him.

“Probably because I'm a machine. But the others aren't so lucky. How are they supposed to beat these things?”

Just then he got an idea. He flew down over to the candle and blew it out.

“Hey! Now we can't see!”

It was a good thing Dr. Eggman installed Bokkun with Night vision capabilities otherwise he wouldn't have been able to see a thing.

“I think your doppelgangers flew the coup.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have night vision lenses and I can't see anyone in here but us.”

“Of course!” said Cosmo. “Those creatures came from our shadows, but you can't cast a shadow if there isn't any light.”

“Yeah well now the only problem is we can't see the door.” said Rouge.

“I can.” said Bokkun “Just a minute I'll take you guys to the door.”

Once the door was opened they walked out of the dark chamber and into the next room.

“Thank you for stopping those shadow creatures Bokkun.” said Cream, and she kissed him.

Bokkun's temperature started to rise.

“I'm in heaven.” He thought.

The next room looked like a cave. There was nothing in the room except a big statue of a serpent like dragon with big horns and ruby eyes in front of two doors.

“The heart is close.” said Cosmo “It's behind one of those doors.”

“Well what are we waiting for?” said Rouge.

They made their way to cross the room but when they got within three feet of the statue…

“None shall pass.”

“Who said that?” asked Cream.

“None shall pass.”

“Oh my.” said Amy “It's coming from the statue!”

“So what?” said Bokkun “What's he going to do?”

Bokkun moved a little closer ignoring the statue, but stopped dead in his tracks when a wall of fire erupted in front of him.

“Hey! What's the big idea!?!”

The statue's ruby eyes glowed and then it spoke again.

“I am a guardian; to my right you see a door

And to my left you see one door more.

One door leads to an endless maze

One in which you will wander all your days

One door leads to riches and all kinds of things

Tokens of my master's victories over sultans, emperors, and kings

But which door leads to wealth and which leads to woe

That is for you to guess and for me to know

But it is of no matter

As is my charge I shall prevent you from passing, don't dare threaten or flatter

But if you absolutely refuse to abandon your mission

Solve my riddle and you may pass with my permission

But I must warn you if you give me an answer and accuracy it does lack

Then you will give me no choice but to attack

If you don't know the answer and make no reply

You may turn and leave freely and won't have to die

But if the correct answer you do acquire

Then you will be granted safe passage through the fire.”

“Okay guardian.” said Cosmo “We accept your challenge.”

The statue's eyes started to glow again, and then it spoke again.

“What is at the beginning of eternity

At the end of time and space

The beginning of every end

And the end of every place?”

For a few minutes they all just stood there contemplating the riddle.

“The beginning of eternity?” thought Rouge. “Creation?”

The dragon statue's eyes glowed and it started to get up.

“Wait! That's not our answer! I was just thinking out loud!”

The dragon statue sat back down and said, “Whatever…”

“This isn't fair.” said Amy “He gave us a brain buster.”

“E!” said Cosmo.

“What?”

“He's asking us for the letter that comes at the beginning and end of certain words. In this case the letter E.”

The dragon statue's eyes glowed again and it said, “Proceed…”

Within moments the flames died down and went out.

“Thank you mister dragon.” said Cream as the walked past it.

“Now which door do we take?” asked Amy.

“Give me a minute.” said Cosmo.

Cosmo closed her eyes. They all assumed she was using the “sixth sense” thing she was talking about earlier.

“That one.” she said pointing to the door on the right.

They opened the door and behold.

“This place is a… Gold Mine!” said Rouge “Look at all these gemstones.”

The room was filled with gemstones, jewelry, old looking books, all kinds of weapons, armor, and many other treasures.

“I'm sure the treasure is booby trapped. Rouge I know this might be hard for you… but please don't touch anything. We need to find the heart.” said Cosmo.

“Maybe it's in there.” said Bokkun pointing to a door on the other end of the room.

He went inside and within the next five seconds…

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Bokkun ran out and slammed the door shut behind him.

“What is it?”

“THERE ARE DEAD GUYS IN THERE!”

When the girls opened the door and took a look… it was TERRIBLE! HORRIBLE!! GRUESOME!!! You don't want to know… Okay I'll tell you.

On the inside there were skeletons that had been run through on rusty iron spikes. Some of them were human, some of them were animals, and some of them were alien species from other planets. Some of the skeletons were wearing armor, some of them had only fragments of clothing on, and some of them were completely naked,

“What the hell is this?” asked Rouge.

Cosmo looked at one of the golden slabs at the bottom of one of the spikes.

“These are Gigex's enemies, it gives their name, position, the date he killed them, and why. This is why Gigex is called The Impaler.”

“What kind of person would do something like this?” asked Cream.

“Chow?”

“We are dealing with a very sick mind.” said Cosmo.

“Hey what's that?” asked Amy pointing down the aisle.

At the end of the rows of impaled skeletons there was an ominous light shining on a white marble coffin. At the front of the coffin there was an engraving in golden letters.

Princess Elizabeth Morganna

Love is the greatest treasure of all

My heart will always belong to you

“The heart is inside.” said Cosmo.

“The last time I opened a coffin I nearly became the walking undead.” said Rouge.

Cosmo used her mental powers to raise the lid and placed it gently beside the coffin.

“Whoa!” said Rouge “That's one good looking corpse.”

Morganna's body didn't look decomposed in the least. In fact her whole body was perfectly intact. It looked as though she were only sleeping.

“It's just a spell.” said Cosmo “And look!”

In her arms Morganna held what looked like a treasure chest. Since no one wants to touch the hands of a dead woman, Cosmo used her mental powers to move it. They all pressed their ears to the chest and…

Thump thump… Thump thump…

“It's real!” said Rouge.

“Now we just need the key.” said Cosmo.

They replaced the lid to the coffin and turned to leave when…

“AGH!”

“What is it Amy?”

“Look!”

Amy pointed to one of the iron spikes. Unlike the others it wasn't rusty, it was shiny, brand new, unused. But what made her shriek was what was written on the stone slab at the bottom.

Reserved for Sonic The Hedgehog