Notes: Welcome to Sonic Chronicles of the Dark Brotherhood. Rather, the way it SHOULD have been. I'm sure I wasn't alone in all the wasted potential, so here's my adaptation of it. ^_^ Or my take on it...

The language 'spoken' in this game is nothing more than Al Bhed. (final Fantasy X players will be familiar with this) Al Bhed translators can be found online as well as cyphers for it, so I'm not just posting gobbledegook.

It was a question that hung in the air, waiting to be answered. It was silent, but it was always hanging at the back of the monotreme's mind. A warm breeze ran through his dreadlocks while his orchid eyes gazed out at yet another perfect day on Angel Island. Despite the warm grass and sunshine... Knuckles the Echidna was alone.

In silence, he nibbled on a cluster of grapes while he sat there thinking about it. It was his lot in life to protect the Chaos Emeralds, and always would be. It was a legacy of a failed culture who once sought to rule the world. He knew some things now, like how Pachamac had been interested in conquest and wished to use the Chaos emeralds to do his bidding. He also knew how those wicked intentions had turned the world to ruin as Chaos was released on the world. But for Tikal's sacrifice, the world would have been lost. It still left the guardian with little comfort, knowing he was the last.

In spite of himself, he let the warmth of the day run over him and force him to rest. His purple eyes closed and his mind wandered. It awoke in the realm of dreams, a much younger echidna, maybe no more than three years old, and adorned with a strange gold necklace bearing resemblance to earth's Aztec culture. His dreads also bore ivory beads and he was walking in the echidna city Sonic had been given visions of back when Tikal had helped them. In fact, he was sure he saw her in the crowded city and ran after her "Wait!"

Knuckles lacked almost everything that made him who he was in the dream. He was small and clumsy and despite being in a city overflowing with his own kind, he was still alone. Tikal was moving further away from the city, but eventually, he lost sight of her as he tripped over the root of a great tree. He also yelled and then broke into tears, tears he'd never show in the waking world.

"So meddma Alrehuc." a female voice called to the boy and he was rooted on the spot. A pair of arms wrapped around him, soft but firm, though Knuckles was in no position to see the one embracing him. There were gold bands on her arms etched with the same picture writing he was used to from the ruins, though he was far from understanding them. He couldn't even understand the words spoken by the other echidnas for that matter, yet he didn't resist the arms around him, having a strong feeling if he knew where he was, he would never want to wake up again.

"...Tikal," he said at last and reached in the direction he saw her.

"Tikal?" The other asked softly and followed his gaze. "Huf fryd luimt buccepmo pa cu ehdanacdehk ujan drana?"

"Mad sa ku sysy! Bmayca!!" Knuckles found himself replying in the strange tongue. He just wanted to go after Tikal, and only because his consciousness felt she could answer his questions. He never thought for a minute that his questions might be answered if he'd only stay and listen.

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Darkness overtook Knuckles once again as his nap in the bright light of day was overshadowed. "Nnnngg... huh?!" As soon as he'd began to discern black clad shapes, he was just as quickly knocked unconscious.

Knuckles was alone again. He was standing at the top of a step pyramid. He could see the expansive jungle ahead of him, and behind him, he could see a lush spiral of land cut with marble. Someone else was next to him this time, with a hand on his shoulder. He had to be 6 now, but the man was older, much older, with a beard dragging down to his waist. The beads in his hair were more colorful and his wrinkles deep, and he looked out at the spire of greenery that should not have been that shape.

"Dra sadym sah yna lusehk." he said.

"Metal men...?" Knuckles replied, knowing what sadum sah meant.

"Oac, Alrehuc." were the elder echidna's words.

Knuckles thought about it. It was familiar, yet different. It didn't make sense. "Why do you keep calling me Alrehuc?"

There was an uncomprehending look in the man's eyes as though he'd never heard the language Alrehuc spoke. "E's cunno drec ryc du pa uin makylo, so knyhtlremt. Huhadramacc... ryja hu vayn. Oui femm veht ouin baubma ykyeh."

"Wait! Who are you? Why can't I understand you? What is this place?" A thousand questions verbalized themselves in short order, but there would be no answers for him.

The old man began chanting something in a language even more bizarre than the first, scattering leaves and herbs to the wind and shaking a stick with a dried gourd at the end about like a madman. In actuality, he was giving him blessings and prayers for a better life. In the old man's eyes, when Knuckles could see them, there was a sense of mourning for something that had not even happened yet. Nothing, until Alrehuc found himself suddenly pushed from the top of the pyramid to its base.

There was again, the darkness.

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An orange, two tailed fox yawned while he pulled himself into a sitting position in his workshop. He must've fallen asleep last night while working on his newest set of blueprints for the Tornado. The plane was his pride and joy, no matter what other things he might build. It was well after noon at this point, but he didn't mind, he had nowhere to go and he liked the view his workshop had on the Mystic ruin zone.

Tails set the plans aside and walked over to an old looking tape deck with a radio antenna. It was every bit as junky and old as it looked, but the boy didn't care, he liked old pieced of technology. Some got polished up and turned into new items, and some looked deceptively old but held only the most modern equipment. The tape deck was... old. He'd gotten it out of a pawn shop on earth for fifty cents. The door on it had fallen off, and it liked to eat as many cassette tapes as it played, but the radio still worked... though admittedly not very well. The only reason it picked up anything out in the middle of nowhere was the fact the Mystic ruins were seated near an anomaly in space and time that had become known as a World Gate. He fiddled with the stations until he came upon one that worked, starting with a weather report.

He poked around a chest of tools, pulling out a monkey wrench for starters, and a grease rag before heading to his beloved plane. He kept an ear to the radio, humming along to the broken tunes from the garbled reception. It was just perfect for the genius fox because it somehow seemed... right to him.

"--strange happenings in the Green Hill zo-- animals have been--" The fox's attention was grabbed as he heard snippets of a news report. He set down his tools long enough to play with the reception, "--Egg-- robots -- seen in the area -- Researchers have no explanation for th---zzzz"

"Hey!" Tails smacked the box, but it just wouldn't bring in the station again. 'Trouble in the Green hill... Man, it's been a while since we've been that way...' He sauntered over to the doors of his personal hangar and pushed a button to open them. He didn't even wonder if Sonic knew about it, chances were he would. All he had to do was go help his friend.

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Black clad creatures of Mobian stature had been on the loose. They called themselves the Brotherhood, but hidden behind their armor suits, it was hard to say who or what they were. They came and left like ghosts, but for the time being, they had set up camp in Eggman's abandoned bases. They had seized control of old robots and sent them to work, it was very efficient.

Knuckles awoke, bound in chains, sitting in the basement of one of Eggman's bases, though exactly where he was he couldn't tell. The dark interior didn't look much different from what he was used to, though the more humanoid sentinel robots watching over him were unfamiliar. They clanked about, moving through the area carting boxes and such. He also saw the Brotherhood.

"Hey! Let me out of here!" he barked, but the Brotherhood members just laughed.

"Why should we let you out?" One asked. It did seem like a stupid request, but the guardian couldn't think of a response. "How about you concern yourself more with why you're here, still alive?" the voice asked mechanically.

"What's Eggman up to now?"

The figure shrugged, "Search me. Never heard of him."

That was news to Knuckles, he was sure this was his kind of base. "What? Wait... who are you guys? What's going on."

"We are the brotherhood... You'll see soon enough."

The one he'd spoken to walked off, but with a different gait than the others. He'd also noticed the symbol on the forehead of his helmet was different, meaning he was probably of higher rank than the grunts milling about. For now, all he could do was watch.

"Damn... this sucks."

"Rao! Hu cmaabehk uh dra zup!" one of the dark mobians called, and another lazier soldier managed a complaint.

'That language...' He recognized it from his dream, though the translation remained lost. 'The symbols on their suits are glyphs... I've seen them before... where...?'