A/N: School. I AIN'T SAYING ANYMORE!

Sonic closed his eyes briefly, and opened them again. He strained his ears against the uncomfortable quiet. A few things registered. Faint chatter in the distance. The soft whisper of energy-Chaos energy, to be exact. The sounds of his footsteps, fast and light. The slower, heavier footsteps of someone near him.

The blue hedgehog turned to the red echidna walking besides him. "Hey, Knux?"

Knuckles turned towards him irritably. Unlike Sonic, he had been rather enjoying the peace and quiet. "What."

"Do ya get the feeling that the odd one out won't be there?"

"That's ridiculous. Have you ever heard of an emerald, real or fake, moving around for no reason at all?"

"Yes. Yes I have."

Knuckles decided not to say anything and overtook Sonic, his steps going faster and faster until he reached his destination.

The engine room.

Yesterday, another emerald, a pale blue one identical to theirs, had just appeared in the engine room along with the seven others. Knuckles had found it that morning, just lying there when he had gone to check on the Master Emerald. At first he thought that someone had misplaced it, but when he found all the emeralds in their respective slots, he could only deduce that it was a fake. However, that didn't make sense because its energy signature was identical to a real Chaos Emerald's. Even Tails' top notch scanners couldn't tell the difference.

Knuckles walked up to where the supposedly fake emerald should have been. It wasn't there.

"That's strange…it should be here…" Knuckles ducked, looking around for the blue emerald and not finding it. He walked around the room, scrutinizing it, but he had no luck. At last, he walked up to the slot for the other sky blue Chaos Emerald. He picked it up gently, closing his eyes and feeling for any difference form the other emerald. It wasn't as accurate as he would have liked, but as far as he could tell, there were no differences in the energy signature.

"Hey, lemme see!" Knuckles stifled a groan. Sonic had finally caught up with him.

"For your information, this is the real emerald."

"According to what we know, that other one is, too." Sonic's voice had taken on a serious tone. Chaos Emeralds were not to be messed with. One little mistake could be all it took…to cause Chaos.

"Well, 'that other one' is missing." Knuckles turned around and glared at Sonic, like it was his fault the emerald was gone.

Sonic shrugged. "Don't get so worked up about it. We'll just ask if someone took it…"

"Sonic…"

"What? "

And it was with that conversation that Knuckles finally put down the Chaos Emerald and walked out of the room, making a sharp turn towards the control room, where everyone was gathered, talking. He turned an accusing eye towards Rouge, who was talking to Shadow. If anyone had stolen it, Rouge had. She was the queen of jewel thefts.

Knuckles silently walked closer, listening to what she was saying.

"…if they don't want it, I'll take it! It's almost as pretty as a Chaos Emerald, so it isn't like it's a fake or anything…"

"No," Shadow replied, annoyed. "That "fake" could be dangerous, and you know it."

"He's right," Knuckles said, walking up to them. Rouge shot him an interested glance. However, she never had the chance to say anything, because Knuckles beat her to it.

"However, your question only raises my suspicions that you took it."

Rouge gave him an incredulous glance. "…"

" I have every reason to believe you took it. I don't trust you, and I never have. You like gems too much for your own good. And…" Knuckles paused for dramatic effect, narrowing his eyes dangerously at Rouge. "And the emerald is missing."

"You don't really think I took that fake, do you?" Great. Rouge was trying to charm him into thinking her innocent. He would not let that work on him!

"I heard you telling Shadow about how 'It's almost as pretty as a Chaos Emerald, so it isn't like it's a fake or anything.' If he'd said 'yes', you could have used as an excuse, as in if someone found it, you could say Shadow gave it to you."

"Not true!"

"Break it up, guys." Sonic had arrived on the scene, and just in time too. If he'd come one second later, he would have found Knuckles and Rouge in the middle of a fight. "Amy and Cream baked a cake, and they'd be offended if we didn't try it." He cast a meaningful glance at Shadow. He was grumpy and reserved, but he did have something of a sweet tooth…

Ten minutes later, their mouths full of chocolate cake, Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and Silver were talking about how neat the forest was, but how it was too bad that the navigational system was broken and jammed which made it almost impossible to fix, which meant they were stuck there.

"Boy," Sonic said, taking a bite out of the cake, "Amy and Cream know how to bake, that's for sure!"

Tails and Knuckles nodded, but Silver looked uneasy, biting the teeth of his fork.

"Don't do that," Tails told him, out of loyalty towards Cream(she really cared about the utensils, for some reason). "You'll break the fork with your fangs." He paused for a second, before adding," Why are you doing that, anyway?"

Silver's gaze shifted from one person to another; it was obvious he was nervous about something. "C-Cream, Fauna, and Amy are missing. Blaze went out to…l-look for them." He gulped.

"They just vanished liked that. Sure. And their ghosts baked the cake, didn't they?" Knuckles muttered sarcastically.

"Stop it!" Tails said, shooting Knuckles a 'be quiet' look. Turning to Silver, he asked, "When did you notice their absence?"

"Just like you, Tails, to use grown up words," Sonic said, shaking his head and smiling, but he was ignored.

Silver was trembling now. " I didn't. Blaze did. Do you remember about five minutes ago, Blaze walked up to us and whispered something to me? That was her telling me they were gone…she went out to l-look for them." Silver looked down, a tear threatening to slide down his cheek as he remembered the part he had left unspoken.

Silver's eyes widened. "Missing? I'll come with you. You can't go by yourself."

Blaze looked away. "Silver, I'm sorry…you lost your telekinesis…You…you should stay here…"

Silver took a step back, deeply hurt. How dare Blaze bring that up!? That fierce pain, the pain of knowing his telekinesis would never come back, started to come over him again. And…and a different pain, that Blaze would ever say something like that-he knew she was just trying to protect him, but it still hurt.

"Hey? You OK?" Silver looked back and noticed Sonic giving him a worried look.

"Yes, fine." Silver watched as Blaze walked out the Typhoon's door and set out to find her friends. He took a small bite out of his cake. At that moment, however, dust would have tasted better.

"Silver? Silver…helllooooo? Silver!" Sonic yelled the word in his ears, which was very unnecessary. Silver cringed at the harsh noise and looked at Sonic. "What?"

"There you are," Sonic said with subtle teasing in his voice. "For a second, I wondered where you were."

Silver smiled. "No. On the contrary, I was wondering where you were. Kind of hard to see people that weren't involved in past events." He walked off, chuckling, as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles gawked at him, wondering what the heck he was talking about.

In his room, Silver chuckled. The look on his friends' faces had been priceless. His temporary light-heartedness had left him feeling happy-a bit of nonsense is always nice for one's humor. But as his mind drifted, he vaguely thought of Blaze. That one thought was enough to make him remember that conversation. Blaze's words echoed in his ears and his head.

"Silver, I'm sorry…you lost your telekinesis…You…you should stay here…" … "Silver, I'm sorry…you lost your telekinesis…You…you should stay here…" …

Silver hugged his knees, and this time, he let his tears flow.

She ran, ran for all it was worth. She looked behind her at her friends, a blur of pink and golden yellow. She looked at their pursuer, a ghostly white dog-like creature with red eyes and huge fangs. Fresh terror coursed through her at the sight of its fangs, and she forced her small legs to go on, her best friend flying at her side. She forced herself onwards, but her fear tired her. The trees seemed to spin around her. No…Must…Keep…Going…Typhoon's that way.. Her left boot slipped off, and she tripped on a tree root. She squeaked with terror, grabbing her boot and running on, not caring that the twigs and hard ground were slicing the sole of her delicate foot. She bumped into a tree, and collapsed; her eyes widened as she locked gazes with the red-eyed wild dog she had been running from. She squeaked and tried to get up, but the wild dog pinned her down with one paw. It was obviously enjoying the terror of his victim. As she struggled and kicked to get free, it snarled and bit her- right in the arm.

She screamed, and it echoed throughout the forest. The wild dog clawed and bit her over and over again, relishing the taste of her blood. Her friends screamed for her to fight, driving her to attempt escape, though she knew it was impossible. She screamed again; the last thing she saw before passing out was a purple cat bursting out of the bushes, a horrified expression on her face and a blue-and-yellow chao by her side…

Sonic was, well, feeling just a little dull. Not really. Silver had walked off laughing a long time ago, and Tails and Knuckles were getting riled up about how 'Cream is not a pipsqueak!" In other words, he was bored to death, just standing there with the aftertaste of that delicious cake in his mouth (well, forcing himself to restrain from the last slice did keep him a bit busy…). So of course, the last thing he expected was Blaze, Amy, and Fauna to burst through the door, Blaze carrying Cream in her arms. Sonic eyed Cream disbelievingly, beside him, Tails gasped and rushed up to them. Sonic ran to Silver's room and called out. "Yo, Silv!"

Silver's head popped out of the door. "What?"

"Blaze found them! And they don't look so good…"

Sonic didn't need to elaborate on who 'they' was, because Silver was already running out the door, nearly knocking Sonic over. With a shrug, Sonic caught up to him.

Everyone was staring at the four girls. Amy, Cream, and Fauna looked horrible. They had little cuts and scratches all over them, even though they weren't bleeding much, and a few rips in their clothing. They were panting and sweating, as if they'd been running from something. Knuckles' eyes widened as he took in Cream, who was the worst of all. She was in Blaze's arms, unconscious and bleeding badly, with claw and bite marks all over. Her bright red dress was shredded at the edges, blending in with all the blood oozing out of her wounds. Cheese was bleeding from a scratch on his little orb, and anxiously poking Cream while 'chao'ing.

"Chao chao, chhaaooooo…"

"Whoa…" Rouge had arrived, and was now staring at Cream with uneasiness. "What happened to you?"

Amy and Fauna looked towards Blaze. The fire cat began to talk.

"From what Amy told me, they encountered some sort of white wild dog with red eyes that was hungry and a little mean, and it started to chase them. It pinned down Cream and nearly killed her. It was luck that Cheese flew off and found me. I had to fight off the creature for them, and find our way here."

"It took a really long time to do that," Amy panted. "It was mean… we kept running and running…it wouldn't give up…it nearly killed Cream! It was really scary, especially to watch that happen to Cream, and we couldn't do anything…." Amy turned to Blaze. "Without you, Cream would have died…and we could have too..." Amy looked away briefly, and then looked at Cheese. "Cheese, thank you as well. You're the one who brought Blaze to us."

Cheese flitted around happily, with a few 'Chao' 's. He seemed to be saying, "Don't mention it!"

"I'm getting Cream to the medical room," Amy said. "Come on Fauna, you and I both need a look at."

After everyone had been treated (no need to mention the gory details), Blaze went to talk (ahem, apologize) to Silver. She was forgiven easily enough.

Amy got talked to by Sonic. "What were you thinking?"

Amy's eyes shone guiltily. "I wasn't thinking anything, really. I saw them leave without telling anyone, so I followed them. I didn't want them to get hurt… I tried to fight the wild dog, I really did. But its fangs were so big, and it was so fast…"

Sonic sighed, interrupting Amy. "I've heard enough. You shoulda told us. You just followed them, so all three of you got hurt. And then Blaze had to follow you, and she got hurt too. Ya see what I'm sayin'?

Amy looked away and nodded.

Fauna was in her room, sitting on the bed, just quietly reflecting. She looked when she heard the door open, and saw Tails look around walking in.

"Are you okay?"

Fauna nodded.

Tails looked at her more closely. "I don't think so. Do you want to talk? After all," he added ruefully, "I can't talk to Cream, now, can I?"

Fauna considered it for a second, and then spoke. "It's my fault. I wanted to go outside, and I wanted to take Cream with me. It took some convincing, but she came. Now I wish she hadn't." Fauna looked at Tails almost guiltily. "Is she really okay?"

"Yes, she's fine," Tails replied. After a few minutes of silence, he asked, "Do you like your room?"

Fauna nodded again. The theme was green, which didn't make her feel quite as claustrophobic. It reminded her of trees.

"Well, in that case," Tails said, smiling, "I should go. Sonic will be waiting for me. Bye!"

"Bye," Fauna said quietly.

That evening, Cream woke up.

"W-Where am I-the wild dog!" she gasped. "Where is it? Where am I? Where are Miss Amy and Miss Fauna?"

"I'm right here," Amy said. "Fauna's in her room."

Cream relaxed, then tensed up as she remembered how awful it had felt, nearly being ripped to shreds. Those red eyes seemed to be watching her everywhere she looked.

Amy noticed this and frowned. "Are you alright, Cream?"

Cream sat up and shook her head to clear it. "Yes fine, Miss Amy, thank you."

"It's just 'Amy'," Amy chuckled. Casting a look at the clock in the medical room, she said, "Whoa, 8:57 already? You should sleep, Cream." As Cream struggled to get up, she added, "In here."

"Oh. Okay." Cream got back into the bed and pulled the white sheets over herself. "Good night, Amy."

"Good night, Cream." Amy turned off the lights and closed the door. Cream fell asleep in the soft blue light of the night lamp in the room, with her head on the white pillow, hugging Cheese with one arm, her sleep surprisingly peaceful.

A/N: Well, we end on a rather peaceful note. If you couldn't already tell, this chapter, the one before, and the ones to come are merely what happens in 7 days (or a week, smart one.)

…That being said, please read and review!

-ABCSKW