It all started with a sneeze. A sneeze started the chaos.

"AAACHOO!" Sonic heard the echo of it in his head. He was in the waiting room at the doctor's office, staring at his knees. Tails and Amy and Knuckles were with him, their body heat pushing in on him, making him feel nervous and calm at the same time. How could a sneeze come to this?

"Sonic?" The nurse standing in the doorway was looking at her clipboard. Sonic smiled weakly to himself as he rose to go. His friends followed, like a train's cars follow its engine. He was the engine…wasn't he? How long it had been, since he'd been to the doctor's? A year? Seven months? The name 'Sonic' must be rusty on his nurse's tongue.

The woman told Sonic to sit on the cot while she did some routine tests. Sonic's friends watched from chairs, or at least Tails and Amy did. Knuckles was standing against the wall, flexing his fingers beneath his mits. All Sonic wanted to do was go home. He smelled…nothing. There were no smells in the doctor's office. His breathing hitched. He was tired. He wanted to go to sleep.

"The doctor will be with you in just a minute," the nurse stated before marking things on her clipboard and exiting. Sonic looked at his friends and smiled. The palms of his hands were beginning to get very itchy. He wanted to scratch, but he withheld the urge for now.

It may have started with a sneeze, but it was so much more than that. It hurt to eat. Sonic could barely swallow a chilidog, much less actually eat a meal! He hadn't told his friends, but somehow they knew. Somehow they knew.

Tails and Amy were both restless, but it seemed Knuckles was almost falling asleep. Sonic wanted to comfort his friends, tell a joke, laugh a little—even nervously! But he felt that if he were to open his mouth, he would be sick. So he stayed mute. Forever impatient, he kicked his heels against the back of the cot, and started a rhythm. Tails started tapping to the same rhythm, and before long, Amy joined in. Knuckles rolled his eyes, chuckling mutely.

When the doctor came in, the beat stopped instantly. Tails jumped, his fox tails stiff and startled. Amy's eyes were wide. Knuckles swallowed. The doctor told Sonic that he would have to get a blood test. Sonic complied, although he'd never had a blood test. He signed a form. Then, the doctor called the nurse, and they stuck a needle in his arm. Sonic coughed, tasting blood, his body shaking. Tails and Amy held him as he breathed heavily, fearing the pain in his arm and the thumping in his head.

After the blood drawing was done, Sonic lay back on the cot, faint and lightheaded. Amy held his hand, and for once, Sonic didn't shrink away. The doctor said he would go test the blood. He asked Sonic if he was okay, and Sonic nodded yes. When the doctor left, Sonic closed his eyes, soothed by the gentle presence of his friends.

When the doctor came back, he was with the nurse…and he had some bad news.

"Unfortunately, Sonic," the doctor was saying, "you have a very rare, and fatal, disease."

Amy gasped, squeezing his hand. Sonic, sitting up now, could only swallow. "Is there a cure?" He asked slowly.

"There is no cure," the nurse replied. Amy sobbed. Sonic shrunk away from her, from that noise. Stop, he wanted to tell her firmly, stop crying! Stop crying, dammit! Stop! "There are antibiotics we can give you that will hold off the disease, but…"

"The disease," the doctor interrupted, "will kill you slowly, you see. It is a disease that makes you allergic to everything. Pollen, dairy, nuts, ect, and even the particles in water!"

"So, what then?" Tails murmured, his voice suddenly very small, suddenly very his age. "He has to drink!"

"Yes. Give him distilled water. That should be fine. The disease's killing blow is the victim either becomes allergic to the other gases in the air he breathes and suffocate from lack of pure oxygen, or he will starve to death." The doctor sighed. "There is nothing more we can do, except measure you for a casket."

There was a deathly silence then. The silence that often accompanies death, before the tears. Amy was shaking violently, still holding his hand. Knuckles wasn't even blinking. Tails had wrapped his tails around himself, as if to shield himself against sorrow, like he had done when he was a little kit. Sonic looked at his friends slowly, then looked at the messengers.

"How long do I have?" He asked, his voice the weakest it had ever been in his life.

"A month, tops," the nurse replied, "if you come to us for regular antibiotics and blood tests."

"Okay. Thank you." Sonic replied. He had to other words to say. He stood, still woozy from blood loss, only to find a stable hand on his shoulder. It was Knuckles, he knew, and he felt glad. Tears came to his eyes, and he accepted the crushing hug from his friends. Tails and Amy squeezed his body to themselves, and Sonic wrapped his arms around them, bringing them closer as they cried into his shoulders. The salt water burned his skin beneath his fur, but he let them cry.

He had no words to comfort them. Not now, not ever again.

The illness at first was not rough with him. Sonic was only allergic to pollen, peanuts, tree nuts, and dairy. He spent every minute with his friends, doing the things they wanted to do. He tolerated roller coasters that were too slow, a tunnel of love that almost made him sick several times (a small child with no business there had smeared peanut butter on the seat), and a Ferris wheel that made him afraid of his own shadow for its unstableness. He even tolerated going to the beach with them…until the salt air made his eyes burn like fire and he had to leave. He hardly left any time for himself the first week, so that he was exhausted when he returned home, but happy, because he was with his friends and nothing else mattered. That was the first week.

By the second week, Sonic was allergic to almost every kind of meat. Even the smell of a hot dog stand would make his throat close up nigh completely so that he had trouble breathing. The air seemed thick with pollen, and he became allergic to smoke, so that even inhaling a whiff from a passing smoker made him double over from the cramps. Sonic was also allergic to wheat, soy, and gluten now. And it was around this time he started dating Amy Rose. He did it because it made her happy. And he wanted to make her happy. She should have the right to say that he was her boyfriend before he died. It was Wednesday by the time Sonic realized that he was wasting his life away sleeping. So he simply stopped going to bed at night.

It was Thursday of the second week that he was with Tails in the small kitchen of the fox's house. Tails was making breakfast and Sonic was sitting at the table making a house of cards with trembling hands; unsuccessful because he didn't have a steady hand, so the house would tumble down every few seconds. There was a box of tissues nearby, in case Sonic suddenly became allergic to something new. This was common. Sonic would suddenly find himself allergic to something else, almost every second of every day.

"I have to go in for a blood test today," Sonic stated in a beaten voice. This was mostly how he sounded nowadays, his attitude from days of old gone, except for the occasional circumstance. "I'm allergic to my medication—again—so I have to get a new one."

"Hmmm," Tails was fixing eggs and putting toast into the toaster. "So?"

"Can you…" Sonic looked at his little brother preparing food, and bit his lip with sorrow to imagine him doing it alone, "can you come with me, maybe? If you're not too busy?"

"You sound afraid!" Tails chuckled, turning around to face his brother with bright eyes. "You've never been afraid of anything!"

"Water! Water," Sonic reminded him, smiling, his eyes bright and pure and full of hope. He hadn't eaten in ten days, but with a smile on his face, he looked better somehow.

"Right," Tails laughed. "How could I forget?"

"But, yes," Sonic chuckled, the laughter moving his body more than his heart ever would. "I am afraid…kinda. In a weird way." Tails looked at him oddly, and then went back to preparing his breakfast. Bacon was sizzling on the stove, and Sonic moved to cover his muzzle with a tissue. "They're gonna stick a needle in my arm—the same place every time—and I don't like it. I mean, I'm used to it, but that doesn't mean I gotta like it." His voice was muffled, nasal, as he was plugging his nose against the smell of the meat.

Tails noticed and flushed. "Oh. Right. I'm sorry."

"S'okay," Sonic responded, waving it off and accidentally knocking over the house of cards for the umpteenth time. He smiled, starting to gather the cards up and put them back into something of a deck. "Will you go with me?"

"Sure." Tails replied, flipping his eggs onto a plate nearby and taking the bacon off the fryer.

"They're measuring me for a coffin today, too," Sonic added nonchalantly as Tails retrieved his toast and sat down to eat.

"What do you mean?" asked the fox, staring at Sonic in horror.

The blue hedgehog shrugged. "What I say. They're measuring me for a coffin!"

"Sonic! That's awful!" Tails cried in absolute misery.

"And blunt! Talk about a rude awakening!" Sonic laughed behind the tissue. Tails ate his bacon only to provide Sonic with some relief. He felt unsettled by what he was hearing. But suddenly, Sonic became serious again, his eyes darker and more serious all of a sudden. "But I don't want a coffin," he spoke in a serene but sorrowful manner, "I want to be cremated. And I want you to tell them."

"What?" Tails almost swallowed his fork in surprise. "Me? Why don't you tell them! You're older!"

"I don't want to tell them. I'm afraid," Sonic blew his nose noisily into the tissue and crumbled it up into his palm, the ball of white nestled safely inside his gloves. "I'm afraid that when I tell them, I'll cry." He looked at Tails, his eyes soft and pleading. Tails couldn't help it. He was enthralled by Sonic's misery, so he listened. "And I don't want to cry…for them. I want my dignity."

"Okay, Sonic," Tails nodded obediently. "I'll tell them. For you."

"Good." Sonic pushed himself away from the table as if he was too full to eat any more. He grunted as he got up and stretched until he was nearly bending over backwards. Tails paid him no mind as he did this and went right on eating because he didn't want to understand that Sonic was frightfully skinny. "I'll go get ready, then! You finish eating," he gave Tails a scolding look as he went into the bathroom. "Every last bite. I don't want to see a crumb on that plate when I come out!"

"Sure," Tails smiled nervously as Sonic closed the bathroom door.

Inside the safety of the small bathroom, Sonic opened up the cabinet beneath the sink and took out a hairdryer. It was silver and nothing very special—probably a reject that Amy had left here by accident, or otherwise thrown out—but it would do the job Sonic needed it to do. He found the plug and unwound the cord, putting the machine on low. The mechanical whine of the handheld device filled the bathroom and echoed in Sonic's ears. He moved it over his body evenly, paying particular attention to his sides, chest, and belly. He moved it over each of his arms, smiling faintly at the way the heat made his fur stick up like a prickle brush. He ran the warm air through his quills and around his neck and cheeks. The rest of the world didn't know he was dying, and the few who knew were sworn to secrecy.

He didn't want the world to know he was dead until it was too late.

When Sonic came out of the bathroom and Tails was putting his dish in the sink, the fox had to marvel at the sight he saw. Besides a slight discoloration in the fur around his ears and thighs, Sonic looked as if he'd just had a decent meal. His fur was fluffy and his chest looked proud. His quills were perfect. It was so hard to believe the slight gurgling, the quiet noises of discomfort from his stomach. For he looked to be only a little bit underweight, instead of severely, as he was. "I weigh 24 pounds," he mused with a chuckle. "Would you believe it, if you saw me? And didn't know?"

"No," Tails admitted, shocked. "Looking as you do, I can barely believe I'm hearing your stomach!"

Sonic looked down, then, embarrassed. He sighed, and then looked back up. "Are you ready?" He questioned with a typical showman's smile.

Tails gave a thumbs-up. "Only if you are!"

"Yep!" Sonic returned the gesture. "Let's do it to it!"

Tails felt himself choke up. It felt horrible to know that he would no longer hear that phrase. There were only four weeks in a month. Four short weeks. Sonic only had eighteen days left, if he was lucky. Eighteen days, and Tails would no longer hear that phrase, that laugh, that voice. Before Tails could burst into tears, Sonic scooped Tails up in his bony arms and sped away towards the doctor's office, the wind pulling his fur away from him. Tails touched Sonic's chest and felt his heart beating beneath the skin and bone. And, unable to help himself, he began to cry.

Eighteen days, and he would never again have the feeling of Sonic speed. No one ever would…again.

It was the Monday afternoon of the third week. Sonic had just been at Amy's house all morning, and now he was spending some time with Knuckles on Angel Island. Both of them were sitting with their legs crossed before the giant rotating Master Emerald, watching their distorted, discolored reflections in its surface, making faces and laughing at each other. It had just now grown pensive, as each hero pondered the future.

"It's so nice here," Sonic mused sleepily.

"Yes it is," Knuckles agreed.

"I can see why you like it." Sonic closed his eyes, just for a moment, even if doing so in that moment risked sleep for days. "The glow is so warm." He felt the wind caress his cheeks and opened his eyes before he could fall asleep. He was going on roughly ten days without a wink of shuteye. It was slowly taking its toll on him, but he didn't allow himself a thread to care about it.

"Yeah," Knuckles yawned suddenly, stretching his mitted fists above him into the air.

"Did I interrupt a nap?" Sonic, giggling, swiveled his head to look at the red echidna, appraising him with wise eyes.

"I should say the same for you," Knuckles teased. "Ten days without sleep? Bummer." He yawned again.

Sonic turned away, feigning injury. "We waste our lives sleeping, Knux!"

"No use livin so tired."

"Or so hungry," Sonic smirked at Knuckles, who flushed promptly. "I definitely heard what I thought I just heard,"

"No, no," Knux reassured him hesitantly.

"Oh yes I did. Now, I've come to know that noise, and I should know it better than anyone on the planet, and I know I do. So that's definitely what I just heard."

"Well, you're wrong."

"Distinctly! Distinctly as a whistle in the wind!" Sonic pointed to his ears with pride. "These babies don't lie."

Presently, Knuckles threw up his hands. "All right, so I'm hungry, okay? I'll admit it!" He was growling, more out of frustration than anger. Sonic listened, his ungloved fingers pressing against his temples, his eyes serene as he listened to the echidna's outburst. "What should I do?" He demanded of the dying hedgehog.

For a long time, Sonic said nothing. He shifted, making himself more comfortable, stretching his legs out before him, his arms supporting him. His gloves were on his thigh, but they slipped off now. Had he just taken them off, or were they always there? Knuckles stared at the shadows of welts on Sonic's hands and, harder to see but there, around his ankles where the fabric he was allergic to had rubbed and irritated the skin. Then, Sonic sighed deeply, a sigh that seemed to move his soul, and said at last: "Never deny yourself. Never deny. Life will be better if you eat when hungry, drink when thirsty, and love when lonely. That is what life has taught me. These fourteen days have taught me."

Knuckles stared at his friend, shocked to hear him speak so. Sonic's voice was like a poet's. He truly was tired and weak—he hadn't lost sense, but he'd somehow lost his guard over this private, soulful part of himself. Then, he told Sonic, almost pleading: "I won't. Not in front of you. I'd be the biggest dick ever."

Sonic chuckled. "Eat, Knux. You make me worry when you don't."

"So don't you know it's even?"

"Knuckles," Sonic faced the echidna head-on. "Please."

"All right," Knuckles stood and stretched. "I'll be right back." He turned around and walked down the steps of the temple and disappeared into the forest.

Sonic watched him go, then switched positions again. On his hands and knees, he crawled over to the Emerald and placed both his hands on it. The shock of life rode through him as easily as the wind and he sighed with longing, his eyes shut tightly as he let the Master Emerald rejuvenate him like nothing else in this world could.

Pure Chaos. Pure life.

It wasn't long before Knuckles returned with a smile on his face, full and sated at long last. He sat down beside Sonic, muffling a burp into his fist. Sonic, who had his knees curled into his chest, swiveled his ear and turned his head toward his friend. "Yo. Feel better now, Knuckie?"

Knuckles shoved Sonic upon hearing the pet name he hated. "Yeah, sure,"

"How long this time?" Sonic asked, raising an eyebrow. At Knuckles' stunned face, he laughed rudely.

"What?" Knuckles snarled.

"Like ya don't know," Sonic rubbed a finger under his nose, and then reached over to tickle Knuckles. "How long since ya last ate, silly! How many days didja starve this time for 'protection of the giant floating gem of doom,' hmmm?"

Knuckles giggled and pushed Sonic away with his feet. "Stop! It wasn't too bad. Maybe a day or two."

"Mmmm." Sonic nodded, rubbing his eyes. "Does it feel nice?"

Knuckles nodded, patting his belly.

"Good." Sonic smiled. Knuckles noticed tears were coming to his friend's eyes. But he turned away, staring at the Master Emerald. A few tears fell, but not many. Not many at all. Sonic had never been one for tears. Knuckles rested a heavy mitted hand on the younger one's shoulder, and then moved closer so he could put his arm around Sonic and rope him in towards him for a friendly hug.

"You all right, Sonic?"

Sonic sniffled. "It's hard to be brave," he admitted with a shaky smile, resting his head against Knuckles' shoulder for a moment. "It's so hard. I mean, I never thought that I—"

"Shhhh," Knuckles soothed with uncharacteristic kindness. "Let it out if you have to. It's all right."

"I'll miss you, Knuckles."

"I'll miss you too, Sonic."

There was a long silence. Sonic was shaking from the effort of keeping back tears, even though Knuckles had told him to cry. But he couldn't very well waste time crying, either. He took a deep breath to rein his voice in somewhat and looked at his friend, the Guardian of the Master Emerald. "Hey, Knux?"

Knuckles looked at him. "What is it?" Their faces were close to each other, because of the way they were sitting, but neither male thought this was inappropriate at all. Sonic could smell Knuckles' breath, and he tried hard not to. It smelled good. It smelled like food. And Sonic was starving.

The blue hedgehog sighed, stifling a yawn. "When I'm—gone," he felt Knuckles shiver in revulsion at the word, "—I want you to…to take care of Tails and Amy. D'ya think you can do that?" He searched the echidna's violet eyes for an answer. "D'ya think you can protect them, as well as I'd protect them?"

Knuckles touched Sonic's forehead with his own, not thinking this might be inappropriate, were anyone else to see. Despite all their squabbles over the years, he thought of Sonic as part of his family. "I'll do it," he replied softly, staring into the green eyes of his dying friend, "I'll try. But I don't think they'll accept me as a substitute for you." Sonic blinked, and the tears began to flow. He shook violently, his lips curving and trembling against trying not to cry. Knuckles put his other arms around Sonic and drew him close. Sonic buried his face in Knuckles' shoulder, unable to stop himself from crying any longer. Knuckles felt Sonic go limp against him as the blue hedgehog cried and cried, the sobs so deafening and wrong.

When Sonic had calmed a little, Knuckles pulled him away and took his wrist between his fingers. He had to be more gentle than he was used to being—Sonic's bones felt brittle, as if they would break in an instant if too much pressure were applied. Slowly, he pressed Sonic's hand to the surface of the Master Emerald.

Sonic felt his welts burning as the fabric he was allergic to held him, but as he felt the electric current of life passing through him from the Emerald, he felt better. Knuckles smiled, watching Sonic take pleasure in this.

"Why?" Sonic asked dreamily. "Why does it feel like this?"

"According to ancient echidna lore," Knuckles explained patiently, "the Master Emerald gave life, not only to the Chaos Emeralds, but to every living being."

Sonic looked at him oddly.

"Well, it's just a theory." Knuckles shrugged.

"You know," Sonic mused, furrowing his brow. "Even though I'm dying, I still don't believe in God."