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Sonic the Hedgehog: The Last Guardian

Chapter 1: Desert Palace

Time is cruel.

Time makes a mockery of mortals and their efforts. Time marches on, uncaring of who or what it tramples in its march. Time even marches at different speeds, at times cutting endeavours short, at others drawing out its progression to the point of torture. Time is, at times, a monster.

Yet time is also a means of measuring progression, of how far one has come...of how far one as fallen. Angel Island, drifting through the skies of Earth for time immemorial, is one such example. And of that example is Sandopolis...a desert in the clouds. Temples, pyramids, the crypts of the dead...all ruined. Its builders gone. All that is left is for time to let their achievements stand as tribute to their former glory. And then, when all memory of them has faded, to sweep them under the sands of the desert. The sands of time itself. To sweep away the testament to their grandeur.

Their failings however, may live on longer. Only because the last of their kind has failed only recently. Briefly, Angel Island was no longer a land in the clouds. Briefly, Angel Island was threatened with being swept under the seas of the world below, more swiftly and terribly than even sand could manage. Briefly, the fate of the entire world was at state before the island was returned to its place in the clouds. Briefly...but a brief moment of failure is all that is needed. For that is how time operates. It is not the march of time that is remembered, but the events that interrupt its movement. And sometimes, those events are shameful to remember.

Glory is fleeting. Ignominy is forever. Shame is eternal.

So thus Sandopolis stands, in testament to both glory and shame. Its glory is reflected in its crumbling architecture, the rotting walls of the Desert Palace being but one of many examples. Its shame is reflected by that which scurries around these monuments...badniks. Sandworms, skorps, rock'ns...monuments to a monster more cruel and caspicuous than even time itself. Monuments to how far the civilization that once stood here has fallen. And how much further it could still fall...

But if Angel Island is to fall, there is one that intends to postpone that day for as long as possible.

It happens in an instant. One moment the badniks are moving around, operating without direction. The next, they are being felled, the animals inside released to the merciful light of the sun. A red demon moves among them, destroying the metal prisons before they have time to react...if they are still capable of such a thing. Skorps flail their tails, hitting nothing before losing their tails altogether. Sandworms poke their heads out of the ground, only to lose their heads altogether. And even the sturdy rock'ns are no match for the strength of raw fury.

Within moments, the slaughter is over as soon as it began. A blip in time, before it marches on. A blip in this island's history...an attempt to preserve its monuments for as long as possible. And to erase the shame of the one that guards them.

It's not enough to erase the shame. It never will be.

And Knuckles the Echidna knows it.

The Guardian didn't watch the animals scamper away. He didn't think he could bear to meet their gaze.

Nor could he bear to meet his own, hence why he simply sat down by the pool of quicksand and toyed with following the badnik casings he'd thrown into it. Sinking down, suffocated...it couldn't be much more unpleasant than his current situation. And the point of being released from his woes would come much sooner...

No. I can't...not yet at least...

Not until Angel Island was free of every badnik that Robotnik had left behind. After that...well, time would tell. And time, as Knuckles had found, could move far too slowly for his tastes.

Yet only now had the echidna experienced it. For as long as he could remember, he'd guarded Angel Island and the Master Emerald that kept it afloat, despite being the last of his kind. He'd never shied away from his duty, and despite no threat ever manifesting over the years of his guardianship, he'd honed his mind and body the whole while. Waiting for the hypothetical day when his strength and knowledge would be put to the test. For the last echidna in this world to make his stand and either succeed, or perish in the attempt. It was, simply put, all Knuckles had lived for. And a week ago, such a time had come.

And time was allowed to march on...the echidna reflected bitterly, squinting as he gazed up at the sun above, concluding that it was past mid-day. Only I wasn't the one that allowed it to be...

Knuckles had failed and he knew it. All those years of isolation hadn't allowed him to grasp the concept of duplicity-a concept that a human called Doctor Robotnik had employed to full effect upon his arrival on the island. He'd let himself be used by the scientist, tricked into thinking that two "thieves" were after the Master Emerald. Thieves that Knuckles had ended up hindering at every opportunity, all the while buying Robotnik time to learn the location of the Master Emerald, repair his Death Egg and combine the two together. Thieves that fulfilled the role that Knuckles was meant to by saving Angel Island. Succeeding where the Guardian had failed...

The echidna had never brought it up to either the hedgehog or fox, or "Sonic" and "Tails" as he learned their names to be...the first time he ever really knew someone on a first-name basis. He'd been too tongue tied and ashamed to do so at Hidden Palace (not to mention the hedgehog's "I told you so" routine shutting him up) and his battle with Mecha Sonic had left him too tired to talk bar a muttered "thank you" at the supposed thieves not only retrieving the Master Emerald, but saving its 'Guardian' as well. But now, as he was left on the island, destroying the remaining badniks and freeing the animals inside...animals that he'd let get put in there because of his ignorance...it wasn't enough. It never would be. Venting his frustration had worked at first, but now Knuckles felt as hollow as the now empty casings of Robotnik's robots.

They're not even putting up a fight anymore, the echidna reflected, closing his eyes from the sun's glare as he once again let guilt consume him. There's no challenge in it...

At least when the badniks had fought back, he could put his prowess in martial arts to the test. But now, he couldn't even do that. Robotnik had left his legacy to the Guardian and in doing so, taken away the last ounces of his dignity.

So this was it then. A life of shame, of sorrow, of guilt. Life in the knowledge that his life had lost its meaning. That he'd failed. That he wasn't fit to bear the mantle of Guardian.

Failure had a bitter taste.

Echidnas...monotremes...only logical that they'd near extinction.

Once again, the being was reviewing video feed from the badniks the Guardian had destroyed. Once again he marvelled at the echidna's similarities and differences to his hedgehog counterpart-red in place of blue, dreadlocks in place of spines, a monotreme instead of a placental...and apparently, far more susceptible to emotion.

It was a routine that the being had become used to. Without direction from Robotnik and with the doctor's Death Egg destroyed, the badniks the scientist had left on Angel Island were reduced to wandering aimlessly, just waiting for the Guardian to destroy them in a misguided endeavour to regain his honour. Apart from the setting of the Desert Palace-a ruin situated in the lowlands of Sandopolis, there was nothing new here at all. The badniks were different from those fought in the other areas of the island, but that was a moot point. They were all equally hapless.

But not without use...the observer reminded itself. As these tapes show...

As hapless as they were, the badniks Robotnik had left at least had enough sense to turn to face their attacker, even if the only thing they saw was usually a spiked fist. It had taken time, but he'd been able to gather data on the Guardian's strengths and weaknesses-namely that his strength was infinite, but his will to unleash its full force was about as non-existent as his sense of dignity. He had his sword, but left it sheathed the whole time. And somehow, the observer doubted the echidna was mentally capable of drawing it.

He hasn't been corrupted by absolute power...but nor is he capable of reaching the point where he could be.

This could be easier than the observer thought.

Still, as it gave the order for badnik production to increase-badniks that could be co-ordinated, the observer knew the ease or difficulty of this endeavour was a moot point.

All that mattered was the goal.

A/N

Believe it or not, this stemmed from an attempt back in my 'newbie days' (a.k.a. the time before I registered on this site) to do a novelization...of the multiplayer of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Yes, those time attack/race levels. What became of that novelization? I'll address that later. Regardless, I redesigned it as this-an interquel between Sonic and Knuckles and Knuckles's Chaotix, focussing on the red echidna himself. After writing numerous stories with Sonic as the main character, I felt a change of protagonist would be good for a challenge, from everything to personality to fighting style. Whether I 'pass' or not remains to be seen.

Update (24/03/13): Corrected the story summary.