a/n I don't usually preface my stories with spoiler warnings, but this story contains spoilers for the identities of the servers of Chaos. If you've not read Voices or Unreality, and don't want this ruined, turn away now. This is also the obligatory side story for Disappear, though weirdly, it doesn't spoil that.
Of course, if you don't care about any of that, just enjoy a series of seeming non-sequitur chapters to a larger series of stories:
Knuckles looked at the Master emerald. It glimmered in the sunlight in the way only a perfectly cut emerald could. Its sides were all perfectly smooth, almost supernaturally so. The emerald was made by someone who clearly knew a lot about cutting gems.
But Knuckles didn't know anything about that. He was the emeralds guardian. And after the day he had just had, he was glad to see it, still there, exactly where he left it. It alone sat in the central pillar of the emerald chamber. The once glistening alter, now a shell of its former self, and something that the Echidna was slowly working on restoring.
But not today. Today the last living Echidna was too tired to consider the extra work. He climbed atop the emerald, the best position to see anyone approaching it. As he did he smiled. To the emerald guardian, just being near the emerald had a somewhat reassuring feeling. As if everything was somehow better just to know it was safe.
For a moment he closed his eyes and felt at peace. Then a distant whirring forced him to reopen his eyes. After a day of getting tangled up in another one of that stupid doctor's hair brained schemes Knuckles had hoped his latest defeat at the hands of Sonic would be the end of things today. Sadly it was not, as from a pillar of dust came a familiar looking figure.
"You!" Knuckles said angry. He leapt of the master emerald and tensed himself up. As knackered as he was from today's earlier adventures, he was still ready for a fight if needed.
"I wish to talk to you," the robot, a red metallic machine shaped to resemble Knuckles himself, said calmly.
Knuckles raised his fists, "I ain't gonna talk to Robotnik about anything," he spat, "After what I just went through the last few days, I don't want to meet with him at all, unless it's to put my fist into his face."
The robot whirred slightly as it looked first at, then behind the echidna, "Robotnik is not my master," it said calmly.
Knuckles lowered his guard momentarily. This was a surprise to the echidna. Though he didn't profess to have much experience with robots, all the experience he did have suggested all robots came from Robotnik.
"I don't care who your master is!" Knuckles replied, "You attacked me and my friends earlier. Take one step closer and I will break every bone in your body." The echidna said, demonstrating a clear lack of understanding in how robots worked.
"I'm not here for you," the robot said, still stood in the exact same place.
"Then you're here for the Master Emerald," Knuckles said, "Which means we've got a problem as it's my job to guard the master emerald from all threats!"
The echidna ran forwards, ready to strike only to throw his fist into the air. The robot had anticipated this attack and jumped clear away, using it's thrusters to however in place above its organic counterpart.
"Come down here and fight me!" the echidna demanded shaking his fists at the hovering robot. Knuckles was getting antsy about having this fight, and he wasn't keen in this robot flying above him like that. It gave the robot an unfair advantage, one that Knuckles wouldn't be able to easily counter here.
"I'm only here to obtain a blessing," the robot said, still hovering out of reach of the echidna. The robot moved around erratically, a conscious effort to stay out of striking range from the emeralds guardian.
"A blessing? This is some sort of trick!" Knuckles concluded. He had absolutely no idea what this robot was on about.
As Knuckles looked at the robot, he failed to notice the Master Emerald was rattling in place. Knuckles however was more focused on the machine than the emerald. "I dunno what you mean about a blessing," he continued, "but as guardian it's my duty to get you off my island."
"Is that what your emerald wants?" The robot said as it lowered itself, but still kept some distance from the angry echidna. "Do you claim to represent the emerald and..."
"Yes, I represent the emeralds," Knuckles interrupted as the Master Emerald shook harder behind him, "this is my island and I speak for everything on it and what my island, and my emerald needs," Knuckles said, only vaguely aware of the noise that the emerald was making due to its rattling on its pedestal in the centre of the chamber, "is to be left alone by thieves and madmen like you and Robotnik! I have no idea what you're after, but the only blessing you're getting is the blessing to leave!"
The master emerald stopped rattling. Calmly the robot landed on the island. "Consider it done," it said. As soon as it had, it turned around and flew as fast as it could away from the floating island and its emerald. The robot had got what it wanted, and it had been much easier than it had anticipated.
"Yeah, you better flee!" Knuckles yelled confidently. The echidna turned around smiling. He was willing to have fought that robot one more time, but a small part of him, still tired from earlier fights, was glad he didn't have to.
The echidna returned back to the emerald and looked at it, slightly puzzled. Somehow it looked ever so slightly dimmer than it had before. But Knuckles could still feel it, that signature feeling that only the Master Emerald gave him. Knuckles was happy. As far as he was concerned he had done another good job as guardian deterring another would be thief from getting their mitts on his emerald.
As the robot flew away it chuckled to itself. Becoming a myth had brought its own blessings.