Disclaimer: Sonic and friends do not belong to me. They belong to Sega and Sonic Team. Cloud however, does belong to me.

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A/N: Most of my stories are going to go in a series. This is the first of the series and my first story on here, so no flames. If there's something you think could use an adjustment, please politely suggest it. Okay, enough of this junk, here's the story.

Chapter one: A stranger arrives

It had been about a month since everyone returned home and about a week since the World Grand Prix. Tails still hadn't quite gotten over Cosmo yet but he was much better than he had been. Chris had gone home and there was still no news about him or Shadow, who still hadn't returned. Rouge was suspicious that Eggman was hiding something, and was spying on him. No one really had any information on the Babylon Rouges, but everyone's guess was that they were stealing treasure. Knuckles was guarding the Master Emerald as usual when he heard a faint scream.

"What the heck…?" he asked himself, looking around. Because the emerald shrine was so tall, he still had a good view of Angel Island, despite all the trees. He spotted a bluebird on her hands and knees. She appeared to be in great pain.

What's she doing here? Knuckles thought. He quietly walked up to her and hid behind a bush in case she would see him.

As Knuckles got closer to the girl he saw that she was young, about thirteen, and had short white hair with a blue ribbon with what looked like a metal plate on the top. She was wearing blue jeans and a dark jacket. Knuckles could tell that there was kind some pattern on the front but from where he was he couldn't tell what it was exactly. Next to her was a small space ship that appeared to have crash landed.

The girl kept grabbing the back of her neck and muttering to herself. At first Knuckles thought she was crazy. He looked at her more closely and decided she was harmless enough and got out from under the bush.

"Hey what are you doing here?" he said firmly. The girl jumped jumped to her feet immediately, but then grabbed the back of her neck, collapsed to her knees, using her free hand to keep herself from falling all the way to the ground. Knuckles saw tiger claw markings on the front where he couldn't see before. Without thinking, he quickly walked up to her and knelt down beside her.

"What's wrong?" he asked. The girl didn't answer, but let out a loud scream (Knuckles had to cover his ears), and passed out.

I don't know whose side she's on, he thought. Still, if I leave her here, chances are she won't survive. After a having a mental argument on whether or not he should take care of her, he decided that he couldn't just leave someone like this. Before picking up the girl he hid the spaceship by covering it in branches with their leaves still on that appear to have been broken off by the spaceship. He took her into his house, and laid her on his bed. He was still able to guard the Master Emerald from the window, but he occasionally had to walk to the bed because she was breathing so lightly it looked like she was dead from just a few feet away.

The girl slept for the next couple of days. Knuckles was starting to get worried when she finally woke up. She sat up, shook her head as if trying to shake off a dizzy spell, then looked around. It was now that Knuckles could finally have a good look at her eyes. They were aqua blue. When her eyes finally fell on Knuckles her eyes narrowed, and she looked straight ahead, with one elbow resting on her knee.

"Relax. I'm not gonna hurt you," said Knuckles. The girl glared darts at Knuckles for a moment, then looked ahead again.

"Why should I believe you?" she asked. Knuckles got irritated at this comment.

"Would've you preferred me to leave you at the spaceship!?" Knuckles asked angrily. "If I hadn't come by, you probably would have died!" When the girl didn't respond, her glare seemed to have softened slightly. Knuckles cooled down a little at this. "I've got some hot soup if you want," The girl still didn't say anything, but she nodded slightly. Knuckles went to the kitchen and warmed up the soup he prepared earlier and went back into the room.

When Knuckles walked up to the girl she glared at him again, but before he could respond she flipped the dish out of his hands with one hand while looking in the other direction, which sent the soup on the floor, and the bowl crashed to the floor.

"What'd you do that for!?" Knuckles said, stunned and angry at the same time. The girl gasped as if she realized what she did, then, putting her hand down, she gave Knuckles an apologetic look. Knuckles gave her a somewhat suspicious look, then said, "Alright, I'll give you another chance, but if you do that again, you'll only be getting bread and water, got it?" The girl nodded.

Knuckles got another bowl ready and as he set it on the nightstand he kept a close eye on the girl to make sure that she wouldn't flip the food out of his hands again. She picked up the spoon and took a small sip from it.

"Mmmmmmm," She said quietly, though Knuckles still heard it.

"Yeah, it's a secret recipe," he said. The girl blushed and rubbed the back of her head shyly. She finished the soup within ten minutes.

Jeez, I guess she was hungry, he thought. The girl let out a loud burp and covered her mouth. Knuckles looked at her in surprise.

"Uh, excuse me," she said as she uncovered her mouth with a small giggle. "I guess I was hungry,"

"It's okay," said Knuckles. After a moment of silence the girl spoke up again.

"Um, what are you?" she asked. She appeared to be thinking her words over carefully.

"Huh?" Knuckles asked.

"What are you?" she repeated. Knuckles realized what she meant.

"Oh, that's right! We haven't introduced each other yet. My name's Knuckles the Echidna." He held out a hand. The girl looked at it nervously.

"Uh," she stuttered, putting her hands behind her back. "J-Just call me Cloud," she looked to the side.

"Well Cloud, where I come from, we shake hands when meeting new people," said Knuckles with a smile.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude," Cloud said as she they shook hands.

"I'm gonna get some sleep. If you want any food, there's plenty in the kitchen. Otherwise, I'll see you in the morning." Knuckles yawned. He went into the sleeping bag he had set up next to the bed and when he fell asleep he began to snore loudly. She went to the kitchen to get some more food and when she opened the fridge, she saw just about every food you could fit in that thing without it looking cramped.

Wow, he must cook quite a bit, she thought. Still, I don't know if I can trust this guy. Then she thought about what he said earlier. Well, I suppose if he really did want to hurt me, he would have done it by now. She got a "small" slice of lasagna (yeah, right, the thing could barely fit the plate) and went back to the room she was spending the night in. She set it on the nightstand and began to eat it, though she couldn't help but giggle to herself at the sound of Knuckles' snoring. When she finished she put the plate in the sink, curled up on the bed under the covers, and went to sleep.