The colours were flooding back into the landscape but the relief on Knuckles' face had faded into shock as he stared around.
"Where..." His voice trailed away and he shook his head slowly and changed the question. "How?"
"I'm not sure," Sonic admitted. "That thing that grabbed you is grabbing places too. Places out of time."
"This is -"
"It's Sky Sanctuary. I know. That's the one of the reasons I'm thinking time travel!"
"It's gone." Knuckles sounded dazed and didn't seem to have heard Sonic's interruption. "This place is gone. I couldn't save it. It fell." He reached out a hand to one of the trailing vines, as though he expected to pass straight through it.
"Yeah, well, it's here right now." Sonic stepped closer, and put a hand on the echidna's shoulder. It was a mark of the depth of his shock that it wasn't immediately shrugged off.
"Knux? You okay with this?"
"No." The brutal honesty clashed with the faintness of his voice but after a moment he drew a deep, shaking breath and spoke more calmly. "No. Not really. But it is what is it." He looked round once more and sighed. "Let's just do what we have to do here and get back where we..." For a moment the haunted look was back on his face and he let his hand fall from the vine. "...belong."
Sonic tried a smile and stepped away to take another look around. "Yeah. So, the other Sonic - the younger me - Tails is with him. His Tails. Erm, younger Tails. Tails from then. D'you think we need to find the other you?"
Knuckles turned a bewildered expression on him. "How in all the skies can I know that? You think I've got any idea what's going on?"
Sonic shrugged. "Just thinking out loud. But it can't hurt to have more help, right? Whatever's happening?"
Knuckles shook his head slowly. "I don't think I… he… would believe us."
Sonic quirked an eyebrow. "You wouldn't believe yourself?~
Knuckles looked up. The Death Egg rose slowly through the clouds. Briefly, Sonic wondered if there was yet a third one of himself here, chasing after it, or already aboard.
"After what's just happened?" Knuckles continued. "No. I'm not sure I would. And I…" He hesitated, eyes drawn upwards again. "I don't think I'd be much help."
Sonic frowned. "I know it's a shock but-"
Knuckles cut him off. "I mean me-then!. Me-now. Whichever." He looked up again at the rising Death Egg. "You can see when this is, Sonic. Look at it. The Master Emerald is there, not here." His eyes were still wide and shocked. "You've gone on after it, gone on ahead. I'm no use to anybody here and now!"
Sonic hesitated to argue further with Knuckles so obviously rattled by the situation but he still didn't know why people were being snatched away by the thing that had landed him here, he still hadn't worked out if the younger Sonic and Tails had been snatched here too. He didn't know what would happen to him or Tail or Knuckles or any of them if something happened to their younger selves. They couldn't be here if they'd been wiped out years earlier could they? Did that mean they didn't need to worry? Or that they should worry?
As if on cue his own younger self dashed up, looked between him and Knuckles, with, "What are we waiting for" written all over his face. Sonic glanced down at him.
"Okay, two hedgehogs for the price of one then. That makes it easier." He grinned. He pointed at the younger hedgehog. "I'll go find out what's going on here."
With the same hand he'd pointed at the younger hedgehog he jerked his thumb towards himself instead, glancing at Knuckles to check he was keeping up. "We'll go see if you need any help. Or if we can persuade you to help us instead of punch me in the head. Again."
The younger hedgehog was still looking at Knuckles with unabashed curiosity but now sprang to a mock salute to his older self and pelted off again. Presumably that meant yes, he agreed with the plan. Sonic returned his attention to Knuckles.
"Make sense?"
Knuckles frowned, though it was slightly unclear whether it was in confusion or because he didn't like the idea. After a moment he sighed.
"I don't have any better options."
Knuckles led Sonic through the unstable structures with only half his attention on the route. It was easy to find the place. Familiar even after the gap of years. It hadn't changed after all. Had not had time to change if what they were experiencing was really the past. Except how could it be? Sonic would have remembered meeting an older version of himself surely?
Not that he was exactly the right person to comment on what was and wasn't possible to forget. But this place and time he remembered. Mostly anyway and the gaps were the entirely explainable gaps of exhausted oblivion. He hadn't stirred from where he'd left Sonic to run on without him back then. Hadn't had either the strength or the inclination. He had simply let himself slide from his knees to his side and let go. He was there now, and Knuckles leapt lightly onto the platform and stopped, staring at the limp, red bundle of fur and spines curled loosely on the smooth stone.
He heard Sonic jump down a second behind him and had to fight back a ridiculous urge to try and obstruct the hedgehog's view. As Sonic didn't already know how thoroughly he'd been beaten.
Their approach had been noted and Knuckles watched himself stir, clawing for consciousness, eyes barely open, arms trembling as he pushed his way back to his knees. Any lingering doubts he may have had that this was their own past and it was real, evaporated as he watched. He remembered the desperation too well. It had been more humiliating to send Sonic on without him than it would have been to go with him and fail on the way, but he'd borne it - sent Sonic on, because that was the better chance - he couldn't have risked slowing the hedgehog down. Not just for the sake of his hurt pride.
But it had hurt. Hurt worse than the injuries, the fight, the shock, the fall. Hurt second only to the gaping mental wound that was the separation of the Master Emerald. He could feel the echo of that separation - even over the reassuring sense of his own link with his own time's version of it which seemed unaffected by this displacement through time. But he could feel this time's Master Emerald too, faint and strange, but there and crying out in protest.
To his surprise he'd made it to his feet. It was more than he'd done in his own recollection but clearly unsustainable. He was shaking from head to toe, barely able to lift his head to look at them. Too spent to either question their presence or do anything about it.
"Woah… Knuckles…"
Sonic ran past him - to him - catching the reeling echidna a moment before he'd have fallen, looping his arm around his shoulders, burbling inane reassurance.
"S'alright. I gotcha. Take it easy."
Knuckles looked away, involuntarily. Hadn't he been shamed enough in his original time? Did he have to watch this helpless display as well?
By the time he looked back, Sonic and his other self had ended up half-sitting half-kneeling on the stone, the echidna slumped against the hedgehog, not even struggling any more.
"It's okay," Sonic was saying. "It'll be okay." He smiled. "Betcha don't believe me, but, really, it comes out okay." He looked up. "Tell him."
Knuckles stared at Sonic's expectant face, his own dazed one. What did he want from him? He had no convincing lies to tell.
"Tell him what?" He had nothing to reassure with. "Tell him he failed completely but it's not going to matter? That you'll sort it out. That he'll live with it. That this zone is the only one that will be sacrificed for his mistakes?"
"Knuckles!" Sonic looked more dismayed by this than the echidna sprawled against him who seemed only intermittently aware of their words.
Before Knuckles could respond to Sonic, they were all thrown off balance by a violent tremor through the stone and the wild tilting of the segment beneath them which dropped away beneath them before stopping in the air and tipping giddily sideways. Knuckles was thrown off his feet, digging one clawed fist into the surface and in the same motion grabbing for Sonic who was skidding towards the edge trying to simultaneously regain his feet to run against the slope and keep a grip on the semi-conscious echidna whose uncoordinated struggles were not making the task any easier.
He missed the hedgehog's arm, got a handful of spines instead, grimacing as they gashed his hand but not loosening his grip.
Sonic yelped. "Oow ow ow ow ow! Let go!"
"No." Knuckles hung on grimly.
The platform tipped, tipped, almost to the vertical before swinging back, Knuckles gritted his teeth as it overshot and for a moment they were all dangling in the other direction before it steadied slightly, rocking wildly still, but not more than 30 degree or so. Manageable.
He let go. Sonic slumped for a second then finished getting back to his feet, carrying the now very definitely unconscious echidna with some difficulty.
"Err, thanks and all, Knux," he said "But no grabby spikes, yeah? That damn well hurt."
"Yes." Knuckles displayed his bloodied hand, palm out. "It did. I can assure you it was not my first choice."
"Oh." Sonic frowned. "Sorry. Thanks. You okay?"
Knuckles nodded. He could already feel the Master Emerald at work upon it. It wouldn't hinder him.
"It's fine. But we have to get down from here. This whole place is going to fall. Do you know what'll happen if we're still in this time when it does?"
"Not a clue." Sonic grinned, almost as though it would be worth it to him to find out.
"What about him?" Knuckles pointed.
Sonic grin fell away. "We're not leaving him, if that's what you're asking."
Knuckles sighed.
"He survives, Sonic. I survived."
But Sonic's face was fixed into a too familiar, stubborn scowl and they had no time.
"Fine." Knuckles gave in. "Give him to me."
Sonic hesitated.
"I'm not going to argue about it, Sonic. But I can carry him easier than you can and we need to move."
Knuckles took the limp echidna from Sonic's arms, fighting off an overwhelming sense of unreality.
He had no time to think about it thought because the moment the transfer was accomplished he was overwhelmed by another sensation. The warming, tingling energy that was the Master Emerald's response to its Guardian's injury. Except he was fine, mostly, his hand almost healed already, but everywhere red fur touched red fur the energy leaped and spread. He watched the body in his arms stiffen then relax, the pained, anxious frown which had been on his other self's face even in unconsciousness smooth to nothing.
"Knuckles, what are we waiting for? What are you doing?" Sonic was bouncing on the spot, clearly keen to be on the move.
Knuckles glanced up at Sonic. "It isn't me." He shook his head. "I mean… it's is me… that's the point. It's the Master Emerald."
"Its healing him?"
"It was healing me - my hand. It doesn't seem to have realised that he's not me - it just carried on."
"He is you," Sonic pointed out.
"That's what I meant."
"Uh… Okay… Confusing much?" Sonic rolled his eyes. "Can we just-"
He was interrupted by the newly-recovered echidna's eyes snapping open and his instant struggles. Knuckles tried to disentangle himself but hadn't managed it before getting a clout across the face.
He dropped himself abruptly, almost shoving him away to land with a thump on the stone where he leapt at once back to his feet keeping his balance on the shifting surface with ease. Knuckles stared at him, watching him try to assess what threat they posed, try to catch up with what was going on. Eyes full of suspicion.
He didn't look that much younger to his own eyes. Smaller, yes, but younger? No. There was almost none of the younger Sonic's childish bearing to him, none of the wide eyed optimism. He was only more ignorant, not more innocent.
"Don't you dare start with us," he warned him, because he did look ready to - outnumbered and confused or not. As he'd expected. Time travel on top of everything else would seem so implausible. But they didn't have time for his confusion or suspicion, not with the place falling down around them. Not if it meant he was going to stand in their way.
"Let me get you caught up." Knuckles snapped. "Sonic just went to get back the Master Emerald you lost." That got through to him. He saw the reaction in his eyes. Without waiting he jerked his hand at Sonic. "And this one just stopped me leaving you to fall with the ruins that loss is going to make of this zone. That was my Master Emerald you just used to even be standing there awake and your idea of gratitude was to hit me in the face. So don't you dare start with me!"
"I don't…" the smaller echidna began and the next words would have been 'believe you' and Knuckles had known it, had warned Sonic so but it was still too infuriating to hear and he darted forward, intending to either shake or smack some sense into himself.
Instead he found himself dashed sideways by Sonic who'd jumped between them.
"Lay off him!"
Knuckles stared incredulously at the hedgehog. "Lay off him? He's me!" He dodged round Sonic. "And he's a fool."
"Yeah, well, " Sonic couldn't apparently restrain a smirk. "Some things never change. So give yourself a break" His face sobered. "Seriously, Knux, look at him. Don't you think he's been through enough for one day?"
"If he has, some of it was dished out by you, Sonic, so don't give me that," Knuckles snarled, but he did look. Watched himself staring between himself and Sonic, still trying to work which, if either was the threat. Saw his hand stray to the crisped, matted fur at his temples where the electrical burns that had shocked him from the stolen Emerald had perhaps not quite healed, saw the glimmer of barely controlled panic in his eyes at the empty sense where the Emerald should be and wasn't.
And there was something else as he stared back at him. Something that didn't have the unhappy familiarity of the rest of this.
"Who are you?" he asked suddenly. "You used the Master Emerald. You're a Guardian."
Hope. Hope was what that unfamiliar look was and Knuckles realised his other self hadn't caught any of the important detail of who he and Sonic were. Didn't know Knuckles was his own older self. Thought - or maybe that was too strong a word - hoped that he was one of the lost echidnas returned. But returned just in time to see his almighty failure, and hope warred with shame in his face.
Knuckles shook his head, at a loss for where to start and they didn't have time for this!
"I'm sorry," the younger Guardian was saying. "I tried. I was wrong. It's my fault." He pointed at the sky. "It's out there, somewhere. The hedgehog says he'll try to get it back but…"
Sonic gave Knuckles a vigorous shove towards himself, accompanied by an urgent eyebrow-raised look.
"Tell him!"
And this time he looked at the despair in his own eyes and he did.
"Knuckles," said Knuckles. "Sonic will bring the Master Emerald back." Bring it back, that was the important thing. Getting it back from the Death Egg was one thing. Returning it to the Island another. He knew well enough what he'd feared. But it hadn't happened.
"You can trust him." Knuckles half expected a remark from over his shoulder at that but none came. His other self didn't look wholly convinced though so he went on. "I promise."
"How can you?"
Yeah, that was the sticking point sure enough. Knuckles frowned. How to be believed?
"Look at me," he said. "Look at him. That is Sonic. I'm-"
He was staring now, that other him, but it was shock, not disbelief. "Me?"
Knuckles nodded. He didn't speak. Knew this was both reassurance and disappointment. The Master Emerald would be safe. But he was still the only Guardian.
Sonic spoke instead. "Yeah. Kinda weird time travel thing going on. So, you gonna come with us and find out what's going on?"
Both echidnas shook their heads, the smaller in denial, the other in understanding.
"I have to get back down to the Island. If the hedgehog - Sonic - makes it back with the Emerald in time I could still keep this place afloat."
Knuckles opened his mouth but stopped short of contradicting himself
Sonic smiled. "Good luck!"
"Don't you know what happens?"
Sonic shrugged. "Meh. Time travel. Who knows, right?" Without warning he bent down to pull the smaller echidna into a startled hug. "Take care. And don't listen to this grumpy git of a you - this wasn't your fault, okay? Just a mistake - we all make 'em."
The young Guardian frowned but nodded. Then he took a considering look at the edge of the platform and ran from it, launching neatly into a glide as he reached it.
"You realise he probably won't remember any of that, since I don't?" Knuckles said to Sonic's back.
Sonic shrugged and turned round. "So what? It needed saying. I'd say it again to you, now, if I thought you'd believe me."
Great chunks of the platform were falling away beneath their feet now, it was past time to be gone.
"Just run, Sonic." Knuckles took off ahead in demonstration, leaping to the next platform, retracing their steps to steadier platforms. Some of the familiar ways were already gone. Those that remained led up not down but they had no choice left.
And then with very little warning they were out. Back in the strange, suspended, pale between-worlds from where they'd found themselves stepping through to Sky Sanctuary.
"Knuckles?" Sonic said with the same wary concern as when they'd realised where they were.
Knuckles sighed. "I'm okay, Sonic."
"Sure?"
"Past is past." He hesitated, looking at Sonic's worried expression. "Including the mistakes."
Sonic smiled faintly. "You believe that?"
Knuckles made a face.
"I did just tell myself to believe you, hedgehog. Who am I to argue?"
-END-
This came out of two things - a kinda disappointment that we never do get to see little Knuckles in the game and the fact that Sky Sanctuary was an interesting choice for stage because it really is somewhere that could only be visited in the past, destroyed as it is at the end of S3&K... And it seems like Knuckles must have missed it. In fact a picture came before the fic and can be found on DeviantArt under this same username Awdures and the title Lost Sanctuary - I'd link but y'know, FFnet and html links...
