Chapter 9: The Third Reincarnation

That night, Jet sensed something. He opened his eyes and looked at the yellow Chaos Emerald.

"Ra?" he asked softly, "Ra? Are you awake? Are you alright?"

The emerald flashed as it rose in the air. Yes, it said.

Jet quickly woke the others who had nodded off. Shadow was quickly on his feet. "Ra! Are you alright? Are you fully recovered?"

I am fine, Anubis, the gem said. I have found my reincarnation.

"Where is he, o Great Godly Pharaoh Ra?" Wave asked, awkwardly fumbling into a curtsy, earning a smirk from Shadow.

Not where...when. 200 years from now, to be exact. His name is Silver the Hedgehog.

The group stood in stunned silence, blinking occasionally. Eventually, Shadow sighed and facepalmed. "Okay, tell us how we find him," he groaned.

Jet turned to look at him. "Um, we wait?"

Shadow glared at him between spread fingers. "I have a feeling it is not going to be that simple." He waved a hand in their companions' general direction. "Plus, these guys' expiration dates come a little bit earlier than that."

The yellow emerald flashed as it hovered above them. We could use Chaos Control, it said.

"That's a far way back to go..." Jet noted.

"It will take quite a bit of energy..." Shadow added.

"We do have six emeralds..." Wave began.

"Why don't we just make him come to us?" Storm asked.

Shadow looked at him. "That is..."

"Actually not a bad idea." Jet finished.

The hawk clutched Hours in his hand, and Shadow grabbed Ra. The yellow emerald flashed once. Will you be accompanying us, children? It addressed no one in particular, so it took a moment for the group to realize that Ra was addressing Wave and Storm.

"Us? Come with...with you?! You want us to...you want...we..." Wave sputtered, her voice slowly dying off until she stood there with wide dazed eyes.

Storm answered for the both of them. "Sure!" He ran over to the remaining emeralds and easily hefted two. He looked to Ra. "We need these, right?"

Yes, Ra answered simply. Storm deposited a green emerald in Wave's arms and kept the turquoise one for himself. Ready? Ra asked.

"Yeah!" Storm cheered. Wave mildly replied, "I guess so..."

Jet looked about. "Wait, where's Tails?"

"I'm here," the Bennu Bird said as it walked up to them. "Shall we go?"

The hawk nodded and held up his emerald. "Chaos Control!"

A light came from the three emeralds as the glow covered everyone and they vanished in a flash of light. They reappeared in a psychedelic sky. The crowd looked about at their ever-shifting surroundings. Storm gasped, drawing the attention. He pointed to his feet and shouted loudly, and directly in Jet's ear, "GUYS, THERE'S NO FLOOR!"

Jet looked down and, rubbing the side of his head, said, "Yeah, it looks like it." Dismissing the strangeness, he asked Ra, "What now?"

This is the space between timelines. Now that we are here, we must summon him to us.

"How do we do that?" Wave asked.

A reincarnation must be a being who has Chaos Energy within him, whether it be dormant or known and used. We can link the energy in ourselves to his and bring him here, Ra explained.

"All right. Let's do it."

The Emeralds glowed. Ra was silent and still for a long while. Wave, Storm, Tails and Shadow glanced at each other, unsure of what to do, but Jet, who had much experience with the gods of Egypt, knew whatever Ra was doing would pay off at some point. Sure enough, eventually Ra flashed brightly and blindingly. He then began to send out thin spheres of glowing multicolored light, like a beacon, drawing magic to him.

A few minutes later, a portal opened and a white hedgehog fell through. He groaned and picked himself up, then looked at the group.

"What happened? Who are you?" He asked.

Hush, child, all will be alright. Ra began, glowing with a soft soothing light, I am-

"I am not a child!" the hedgehog shouted indignantly, leaning forward and pointing an accusatory finger to the sky.

Ra chuckled. All are children to me, child. I mean no slight. Nevertheless, the hedgehog snarled slightly.

"Who are you?" He asked the emerald.

I am the Egyptian sun god Ra, child, the yellow emerald said.

The hedgehog smirked and laughed. "Yeah, h'okay. Seriously, though, what are you? 'Cause even if you were 'almighty Ra/sun god/king o' the world' and all that, what would you want with me?"

You are my reincarnation.

"Your...I think you've had a little TOO much sun, friend."

I speak the truth, child. But if you should not believe me, believe one like yourself. Ra flashed. Horus, Anubis, might you clarify for this young one?

The anthro hawk and jackal walked forwards and looked at Silver before speaking.

"It is true," Horus told the white hedgehog. "You are Ra's reincarnation."

The white hedgehog blinked and looked at the hawk. Jet took over, morphing fluidly into Sonic and startling the hedgehog. "I was like you once. A mortal, an anthropologist, simply mucking about Egypt looking for tombs. Then I released these stones, and the gods within them, from a picture within a tomb. I was chosen as the reincarnation of Horus, god of war, and sent on a mission to find reincarnations suitable for Anubis and Ra, taking up the form of Horus' sacred animal, the hawk. Anubis found his in Shadow, and Ra has found his in you."

"So...it's true?"

Sonic nodded. "Completely."

The silver hedgehog was silent, wide-eyed. "...Wow." He blinked and shook himself. "What do I need to do? Why do you need a physical form anyway? You seem to be a pretty all-powerful rock over there."

It is true, I am powerful as a Chaos Emerald, Ra said, glowing. But when the evil god Set transformed Anubis, Horus and I into Chaos Emeralds, we also vowed to stop him one day, and so we needed to be reincarnated.

Realization dawned in his eyes. "You need to be able to DO things, don't you? Like, with HANDS. That's why you need us."

The yellow gem glowed. We do, it said. It glowed brighter, and Silver began to change. Soon, he was a golden dragon.