It was no use. As I lay there in the bed I was certain was meant for Tikal, I found myself opening my eyes every time I closed them. They just kept drifting right back open.

Don't get me wrong. I got sleep... but it was maybe two or three hours at best.

I looked around the large bed barrack, taking note of my surroundings in hopes that I might fall asleep from boredom.

The cavernous room was well built, despite being incomplete. The walls were all metal painted an army camo green. Been noticing more of that lately, even though no builder could possibly share the same ideas as us. Regardless, the ceiling was incomplete. It had the templated metal beams both on the ceiling and acting as support, but when it came to actual Ceiling, there was still the rock crust over all of that. The structure was more than stable, but definitely seemed the reason why there were echidna construction tools all over the place.

Looking at the beds, mine included, They were essentially identical in both their metal frameworks, spring mattresses resting atop mattress boxes, but seemed to have a different story for the blankets and sheets. Everyone had a different style that fit them. On my bed, the sheets were plain white and the blanket was actually croche'd to fit the patterns of Tikal's skirt. I was only really laying atop it all, my head back on the pillow and my shoes taken off, resting beside the bed, Cindy placed beside them.

I looked to the door of Knuckles' room, sitting at the far side of the room. Amy had gone in there, being that it was the only open bed otherwise. I hadn't wanted it, since his bed is a king and I don't have a use for that at my size.

With a huff as I tossed to the side of the bed, I shook my head a little. Sitting up at the side, I slipped on my shoes as I made a quick tying job, then picked Cindy up by the sling, resting it around my shoulder as I stood up. Walking out of the room quiet as I could, I made my way to the steps leading back up to the cellar door.

This place had more to it than being a bed chamber, but the other rooms were no further use to me.

Opening the cellar door, I tossed the door open as they clacked to the sides of the cement door frame. I stepped outside into the misty, cool air of late night, looking up at the dark night sky briefly. With the pass of the moment, I moved to the cellar door and gently shut them back closed. Turning away and walking out to the edge of the isle, I sat down and stared out at the sea.

Waves had precious little light to reflect off of their surface with no moonlight in the sky tonight. It was a new moon, meaning that I couldn't even see it. We were so high up, I could hardly hear them crashing into one another. I couldn't hear much more than the breeze.

Taking a moment to breath in the fresh, soothing and cool winds, I then exhaled and closed my eyes for a moment... Blinking them back open, I took a hand and eased Cindy from her sling as she spoke.

"Trouble sleeping, Master Miles?" Cindy's screen turned back on to show the map.

I shrugged my shoulders and thought for a moment. "... I guess. But before we talk, let's try Bunnie again."

"Ah yes. At once." The dish atop the device spun half way around and locked it's position as a dial tone went through.

It almost immediately picked up, but there was no picture other than a still image of Bunnie hugging Antoine, overjoyed while Antoine seemed nervous, but blushed through an honest enough smile. "Tails? That you, sug?"

I nodded. "Yup. So, you wanted to talk?"

"Right down t' business then, huh? Well, alright. S'fair with how I acted..."

I shook my head and frowned. "No. Bunnie? Sorry Amy said that to you. I think it had a lot to do with me. Just give her time. I'm sure that she'll come around to you again." I put on a small smile and continued. "As for me, you KNOW I'm a friend."

"... Y'all are just... I-... Thanks, pard..." Her tone shook a bit. She might have been taking that closer to heart than I thought.

I nodded to myself and crossed my legs while resting Cindy's tablet in my lap. "Any time! Just don't beat yourself up. We all slip from time to time."

"Hah! Ain't that there the truth~. But naw. Ah didn' just call for that all. Ah got somethin' to send over t' Cindy there. Might come in handy. Seems pretty... weird...? Ah'm not good at this science mumbo-jumbo... But aside from that, Ah also got somethin' t' show y'all... It's some logs our people found on both Eggman an' his Grandpappy... A-actually, naw. The stuff on his grandad came from a weird place."

I cocked a brow at all this, but especially so at the stuff about Gerald Robotnik. "Gerald Robotnik? ... And what's the source?" I almost leaned in over the screen.

"It's uh... it came from Rouge. That bat gal that's got some'in' to do with Shadow?"

I felt a weird mixed feeling in the pit of my stomach as she mentioned Shadow... much less Rouge. I hummed as I took the tablet in my hands again, a stern look on my face. "I see... Send them over right away."

"... Gotcha. Anything t' report, by the by?"

I thought for a moment as I laid back in the grass, tablet held over my face. "Well, right now, we're on-..." i thought for a moment, then corrected myself. "Okay. We are and are NOT on Angel Island. We're more on Shrine Isle, which no longer shares the same location transported here by some sort of space time portal Knuckles placed in the mountains. Complicated, don't ask." I pointed at the screen as if she could see with a smirk. "got the ultimate knucklehead to join us, though~."

I heard a whistle come from the tablet before she responded. "Well shoot. That sounds like the trip, sug. Ah don' think Ah can rightly say Ah understood ya 'bout that portal stuff, but KNUCKLES, eh? Whut, y'all bribe ém?"

"Nope." I cocked my brow as my hand took hold of the tablet again. "He kinda just... agreed when I told him a few things. You don't need to know the specifics, but it worked. Still can't really believe it." My eyes laxed as I rested the tablet to my chest, staring up at the stars. "... When I really think about it, this is almost a complete team of the best fighters. If we'd have taken it a step further and roped Sally into this crazy train, we might have a full party. Two members would have to be on the wings, though. Still wondering if Knuckles will really be okay on the wings, though. The tornado is faster than it used to be."

"Pff! That guy can handle bein' uh wing-man. Too stubborn t' fall off. Just watch me be right."

With a sigh, I smirked. "Yeah, I'm not gonna doubt it. The wing will fall off before he does. He could always stay on the tail, too."

"Hah! Yeah... ... ... So, Tails. Gotta ask myself... Whatcha gonna do... iffin' y'all ... ... ... come up... empty-handed?"

My eyes closed for a moment as whatever smile was on my face before was replaced by blankened lips... "You don't have to tip toe. I know it's possible... Very possible..."

"... A-ah..."

"I can't remember the last time Sonic's disappearance hasn't left me lying awake at night or waking up prematurely. I'm so used to half nights of sleep that I made it into a part of the schedule... Heck, one of those times resulted in me totally overhauling the Tornado and making it how it is today. That took me five nights to do. Five whole nights without proper sleep... And now, it has an ugly form I don't ever want to use..."

I felt pure shame, a frown growing on my face as I placed a hand over it. "... I regret giving it that every day, because... the whole reason I did it was because I wanted to move on... I just ended up making it hurt worse, because afterwards I started to realize I KILLED the plane me and Sonic loved..."

I took a breath and sighed, placing my hand over Cindy's screen. "So yeah... It's gonna hurt. It'll be worse than that and burying nothing, because that will be certainty... It's not what I want, but I have to deal with that if it ends up being the truth..." I shook my head and closed my eyes. "And that's the last time I'm going to say it... I hate revisiting this feeling every time someone thinks I couldn't handle that possibility. I didn't decide to go on this journey to be told that again and again."

"... A'right... Is it fine if Ah help mahself t' tellin' Sally what yer' doin'? She came by yesterday, which'd be why Ah missed yer' call."

I blinked out of my funk and nodded as I affirmed with words. "Yeah. Just be prepared. I haven't talked with her in a month. I don't know how she'll react to you dropping Soni-"

"Tails~!"

I gasped at the sound of Amy's voice and jolted up into a sit! I looked around and spotted her off a small distance from me!

"Pardner? Hey, y'all oka-"

I leaned into the screen and whispered. "I have to cut transmission. Out. Cindy?"

Cindy didn't speak a word, ending thew call just as Bunnie started to object. Too late. The screen changed over to the map again. Just in time, too.

Amy came walking up to my side, crouching down and cocking a brow at me, even as she smiled. "Can't sleep?"

I turned to her with a nervousness in my smile. "U-uh... Well, yeah. Too much to think about, I guess."

"As brilliant a mind as my master is, it appears he knows not a proper bedtime~." My head sank a bit with that, a dull expression on my face.

Amy just giggled and sat down next to me, crossing her legs while she held her upper boots. "It's fine! I'm the same way, tonight. I've got more ideas swimmin' around in my head than I know what to do with."

"A-ah," was the first thing that came out of my mouth. I grinned a bit. "Well, you got me here if ya wanna share them."

She smiled down at me and giggled a little. Letting her eyes trail from me, she responded. "Well... I know it'll be great to have Knuckles with us. It'll definitely be a party. What kind really isn't clear, though."

My first thought? To chuckle and lay out on the grass, just thinking about all of the crazy stuff that was bound to happen. As a team, We were brains, brawn and more brawn. "It's definitely gonna be interesting. Knuckles is sorta... No, VERY unpredictable. You can tell what a smart person will do, if you just pay attention, but Knuckles is borderline impulse. He kinda does the first thing that pops up in his head."

Laying down next to me, the pink hedgehog rolled her eyes and grinned at that. "You got that one nailed~." Relaxing her grin into a smile, she went on. "Honestly, I myself don't think he has a thought process. He just sorta does whatever he feels like."

"No kidding."

"The two of you do not seem to give your friend enough credit." We both looked at Cindy with surprised expressions. "Might I remind you both that the one who seems to have saved the Entrapped is ultimately the one you are poking fun at?"

"Huh..." The pink hedgehog cocked her brow as she stared up into the sky. "Yeah, come to think of it... How DID he do all of this?"

The same thought on my own mind. I shrugged my shoulders and furrowed my brows. "Ya know? That's the question I just couldn't figure out the answer to. I'm gonna have to ask him when we get going. Probably something to do with Chaos Control, though. That power has way too many uses."

"Hah, yeah~!" She took a moment to just lay there and look on at the sky... before her smile vanished. That much I saw while I was turning to look at her, blinking. She opened her mouth to speak, hesitating... "So... Tough bit to swallow, that whole use too much power and lose your powers thing... huh...?"

I just stared at her, lost for a while before my eyes tightened to the realization. Dropping my gaze to the grass beneath my head with a grimace. "... It does bother you, then. What T'symel said..."

"... It sorta both does and doesn't."

And to that, all I could do was lift my head and stare at her with a raised brow.

She closed her eyes. "I still have no idea what the limit to the power is. For all I know, I'm not capable of hitting it or I've been tipping it without ever realizing it... It bothers me, but it also tells me something else..."

My concern turned to curiosity as I blinked into a stare,, tilting my head. "Y-yeah? What's that?

"T'symel said that if I go too far beyond the power, anything it gave me before storing itself in my body would be taken away... That basically means that I can choose to give up this body for my youth or keep it..."

I understood it right then. It was that whole "grew up too fast" thing again. I glared at her and shook my head as I sat up on my side. "Are you forgetting the last part? He ALSO warned you that trying to do that would be painful."

She sat up and glared right back. "Hey, all I'm saying is that I might be okay with it. What's the problem with that?"

I opened my mouth to argue back, but stopped... Closing it back, I just shook my head. "Look. Just don't try to make it happen. We have no idea how much pain we're talking about here. Not only that, but you wouldn't just turn back into your younger self. You'd lose ALL of your power. Not just this body."

She nodded and sighed, her glare dissolving into a frown... "If you woulda just heard me out, that's the part I don't want to happen. I don't want to go back to being totally useless. Okay?"

I frowned and nodded. "I get it. I really do. Remember who you're talking to, here."

She scoffed a bit at that and shook her head with a smirk. "Who? The chosen one or the genius fox boy?"

I rolled my eyes and sighed heavily through a groan, flopping back in the grass. "You know what I mean. The whole 'I'm not as strong as everyone else' thing?"

She chuckled into her hand a bit. "I'm just messing with ya~."

"Mh..."

I looked down at Cindy with a cocked brow. "Huh? Did you say something?"

"... It is nothing. I merely felt that I could have been speaking more. Perhaps I have taken a liking to simply sitting in silence and listening to the two of you speak."

I blinked, not entirely sure I liked that answer, especially with the pause. I figured that was just her way of saying "I'm not at liberty to speak in this company." Shrugging in spite of this, I smiled and stated, "if you say so."

Amy and I continued to speak for a while longer. Eventually, we both fell asleep out on the edge of the isle, but I'm pretty sure I did first...

When I next awakened, I could see the lit morning sky blinding me overhead... not to mention Knuckles, Tikal and near every other guardian there looking down on us with amusement in varying degrees.

Murring awake with my hand blocking as much sunlight as it could hope to, I realized as much. Then, I gasped totally awake and sat up with wide eyes scanning the faces around me. "Wha-ha- I'm awake!"

They all erupted into laughter around us while Amy was coming to, leaning up with her hand to her head. "Muh...?"

After that welcome back to the real world, Amy, Knuckles and I said our goodbyes and started to climb the stairs of light leading back to the caveway. We tossed a look back as we watched every echidna's smiling face and waving arm wish us luck. We wouldn't be coming back here until we found what we were looking for.

Knowing this, Knuckles turned totally to face them and bowed for a moment...

In that moment, I realized something. Knuckles really WAS different. He seemed... more matured and respectful. I don't know how I missed it...

Either way, walking back into the cave way rift, we took our first steps back on Angel Island.

I looked back to Knuckles when we were far enough through the dark cave. "So uhm... Knuckles?"

He nudged his head up in acknowledgement.

"It's been bugging me and I'm sure the same can be said for Amy, so I'll just ask. How did you free all of the Entrapped echidna from the Emeralds?"

With a huffed laugh, he closed his eyes. "That's kinda complicated." He smiled either way and held out his hand... eventually, as it twitch, a flame created from raw green chaos energy ignited and burned in his palm. He brought it in front of his face as he spoke, the light both lighting the cave and his face's features. "See, in honesty, I didn't really know any of them were within the Emeralds. I gathered each and every one of them together with the help of my fellow guardians and brought them back to the shrine where I plan to keep them from the world for as long as I can. Upon gathering them all, nothing happened at first, aside from the unification of powers with the Master Emerald."

He intensified the flame as it grew larger and licked the air with it's long, flaming tongues. "But then, when I fell asleep at my guard post in front of the Master Emerald, I suddenly found myself in their very own Zone. I myself had been caught up by the power..."

We both stopped dead in our tracks and turned to look at our echidna friend with shock. ... I spoke as I stepped over to him. "But then... how did you and they get out...?"

He went on. "Chaos, Tikal and myself. We were the three keys. All of our chaos power was powerful enough in the rawest form to break away from our confinement. Though, I had to push myself passed my limits to make that true." He clenched the body of the flame in his hand as the fire was snuffed and smoked out at it's source, dead embers sparking out and vanishing... He smirked. "When I did that, we made a portal out and all emerged from our emerald prisons, safe and free." He huffed another laugh and waves his hand back, furrowing his brows ever so slightly. "Basically a total accident that I even ended up there, but I'm more than grateful for it. There are now significantly more echidna in the world."

I hummed in intrigue, crossing my arms at the word choice. "More echidna in the world..." I then gasped, snapping my fingers and dropping my arms. "Hey, hold on- that's right!"

Amy seemed to grow as lost as Knuckles, both raising their brows at me. She spoke and asked, "Uhh... What's right? Am I missing something, Tails?"

I shook my head and ignored her, waving her off as I asked Knuckles, "So, another question. Do you know any echidna by the name of Klive? Amy fought a new team in the freedom fighters that had the same guy. He was all talk, but still echidna all the same."

She thought for a minute and shook his head. "No, but- Wait..." He thought harder and groaned, scratching the top of his head. "Well, hang on. I... think that I met someone by that name in old Albion long ago... but that place's echidna were more or less wiped out." He pointed at nothing in particular as he looked up with a squint. "Maybe the guy came from there? There could have been echidna that survived the annihilation if he just wasn't there. That's only a guess, though."

... I was sure of it, now. Nodding my head, I folded my arms and looked at the ground in thought. "You definitely met him. The guy knew your general fighting stance, even if he never really got to throw any real punches. He HAD to have seen you fight, I think. That or maybe he's idolized you."

With a fully furrowed brow, the echidna groaned a bit and tilted his head. "I guess that could be? Just don't really see myself as the idol to anyone..."

I just shrugged and smiled. "I'd think you would be flattered, but at least we know why he could know your moves AND why I felt like he was familiar, somehow."

We all got back to walking the length of the cave, but Amy seemed to hold her chin, wondering aloud. "I wonder how Cream and Vanilla are doing? I sent that guy there way because he was actually the only one that seemed half way decent."

She dropped her hand back to her side as she huffed through a nervous frown. "Hopefully, me taking him back there to help was a good call."

Good question, Amy. I looked down at Cindy's tablet. She was being silent again... I silently wondered if this had something to do with those logs Bunnie sent...

(Update 9/16: So... I had the next chronological chapter FINALLY done and fully edited out just mere moments ago... Care to guess what happened? ... I have a very finicky laptop mouse, see? I had been meaning to save for a while there. Instead, what I did was waited until I was done with correcting unimportant spelling errors that could have waited five seconds... I went ahead and corrected most of them anyways because I am a perfectionistic twat. And for that, when I finally DID go to save, I lost track of where exactly my mouse's cursor was... So I accidentally put two fingers on the pad and that made my mouse wig out right over some other button or link, so! Instead of saving an extra 700 words that I don't fully remember, I effectively deleted my progress. I tried to back button back into the document, but no. Fanfiction doesn't cache documents that have not been saved. I had to resubmit the form data to get back on that page and no. That doesn't bring your progress back. That refreshes your page. And you lose all of that precious and golden progress... I hate my fingers, my memory and that I have done this before. ON THE SAME CHAPTER.

...So yeah. What could have been out tomorrow morning after a quick proofread is now gonna take a bit longer. I am so sorry... Honestly, that really cut deep into my drive to write. I feel so friggin terrible for losing that... I can rewrite it. It's just a trudge, as many of you know. Anyway, stay tuned. It shouldn't be another two month wait. It just really sucked that it happened. Again.)