Floating in the skies of Mobius, wandering the endless depths of the air, the floating land mass known as Angel Island continually serves to be a legend for those that live on the ground. Not much is known about it, apart from the fact that a fearsome guardian lies upon there, ready to take out any intruders or interlopers. Only a select few Mobians have had the good fortune required to see what the mythical island contains.

But for Knuckles the Echidna, lone protector of Angel Island, such legends and myths mean nothing to him. His many years of living has allowed him to be very well familiarised with the island while being completely detached from civilisation. Knuckles is the last of his race: the Echidnas of the Knuckles Clan. On birth, Knuckles was instructed to become Angel Island's protector and be the sole guardian of the Master Emerald, the controller of the seven Chaos Emeralds. He has never been sure of who exactly gave him this task and he hasn't even known his parents very well. His exact lineage has been a mystery to him, for all his life so far.

Recently, the echidna had been involved in some complicated circumstances. A rather fat scientist had arrived on the island to 'warn' the guardian of some incoming thieves, who were a blue hedgehog as well as a yellow-orange fox. Knuckles immediately took to fighting against them. This battle took place all across Angel Island's many locales, but soon enough, the scientist's true colours emerged when the Master Emerald had been stolen by him. Knuckles knew who the real enemy was. He helped the hedgehog and fox return the emerald back to its rightful place. Once that was all done, Knuckles was able to return to his usual life.

A life full of nothing but solitude.

Currently, Knuckles had been resting on the altar in which the Master Emerald could keep the entire Angel Island floating within the air. His head was leaning against the radiant jewel itself. It was stable enough to support the red furred Mobian's head, meaning it wouldn't tumble over and break accidentally. Knuckles had no idea what would happen if the Master Emerald were to shatter in such a way. He dreaded the thought of having to put it all back together again.

He found himself lost in his sleep, cast away into the world of dreams. This loss of focus proved to be his greatest weakness however, as a light cast from the inner sanctums of the gem shone brilliantly, whisking Knuckles away to a distant, yet close by location.

Luster the Cat: Season 1 Opening 1 (Haruka Kanata - Naruto, English) -

Let's step on the gas and never stop, I will never, ever lose my sight

We'll all go through the night!

I'll keep moving until the end and I won't care about the time we'll spend

We'll whittle days away...

If you open your heart

Just a little...

And bring your friends closer

Your feelings

Must get them or it's over

Yeeeaaah!

So let's hurry up!

We'll let it all out!

Even if my legs shake

I know they can still take

Me even closer to you!

But if you're not there

Can find you nowhere

I won't have time to cry

I'll never cease to try...

To find your way!

I'm going far away...

Knuckles awoke, to find nothing particularly amiss. Angel Island was as green as ever, as beautiful as it always has been and lush as it forever will be. Though he knew something was wrong - he did feel like he had been displaced. As if he stumbled onto one of Angel Island's many teleporters and dropped off elsewhere. In this case, it was like the teleporter had sent him back to where he started.

But Knuckles knew there were no teleporters around the altar. Something felt wrong in the air. There was no way of knowing what, exactly. The echidna stood up and almost immediately after doing so, heard a peculiar noise.

It could be best described as a 'booh'. Whatever it was, it wasn't ordinary and it certainly wasn't your average gunfire.

"Only a machine could make that kind of noise…" Knuckles thought, gathering his bearings. "And there's only five people I know that would purposely bring machines to this place...I suppose I should investigate."

Unknown Date - Unknown Time

Angel Island

Being familiar with Angel Island was a huge benefit for Knuckles, especially in this situation. He had expert and sharp knowledge on every single nook or hidden area, thus allowing the echidna to advance through the densely packed trees without any issue while maintaining high levels of speed. It also meant he could locate the source of the strange noise very quickly.

Knuckles witnessed a peculiar, yet familiar sight. A blue hedgehog and a yellow-orange fox were attacking some machine that continued to shoot fireballs from differing directions. There was a white-grey circular switch on the platform he was standing on, the function of which he knew all too well.

"This...this is the switch that opens up a pathway to Hydrocity Zone...I pressed this about a year ago to trap those two thieves…" Knuckles remembered. "...And those two down there look a lot like Sonic and Tails...just what is going on around here?"

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" a certain voice demanded of the echidna. Knuckles turned around - coming face to face with a Mobian that looked just like him.

"I'm sorry? Who are you?" Knuckles asked the stranger, naturally confused.

"I happen to be the guardian of this island. You look like a thief, maybe some kind of shapeshifter that's taken my appearance to confuse me. I've already heard about a pair of poachers coming onto this island; I wouldn't be surprised if you were with them," the odd Mobian answered with an intense frown, the kinds of which would have intimidated anyone that lacked steely resolve like Knuckles'.

"Now that's just not true. I am the guardian of this island. You'd better back off, or else," Knuckles refuted. He touched his fists together in a mild display of strength.

"A fight, huh? Well, I can already tell that you've lost."

"Try me."

Knuckles allowed the stranger to attack first. Almost predictably so, the stranger took this opportunity to try for a punch, which seemed to have a lot of force and spirit behind it. However, it was far too easy for Knuckles to avoid.

"This guy's weak!" the echidna remarked internally.

He reeled back and released a mid-effort punch - one that his opponent could not evade. The power difference between the two combatants was large enough that Knuckles' punch sent the other Mobian crashing into a nearby tree, knocking him out instantly.

"He really was weak…" Knuckles continued to remark to himself.

The guardian looked around the place to see if anything changed, then remembered the battle that was occurring concurrently to his side. Whatever that machine was, it had vanished and the other two Mobians were looking around, appearing to be lost. As Knuckles was peering over the platform, the hedgehog caught a glimpse of him.

"I can see you up there! You're the guy that stole our emeralds, right?" the hedgehog called out. He was definitely angry, Knuckles could tell.

"What? What are you talking about?" the echidna asked, searching for the truth.

"You stole our emeralds earlier? How can you not remember that?" the fox responded with a similar level of irritation to the hedgehog. "Give them back!"

"I don't know who you-wait…" Knuckles realised something. "Could it be…? This sounds like what happened a year ago with Sonic, Tails and Robotnik...there's no way, I have to find out the truth…"

Knuckles ran away, leaving the past versions of Sonic and Tails alone.

July 8th 1987 - 10:31 AM

Angel Island

A determined Knuckles fled the scene, realising the potential of his situation. If what he was thinking was true, then his actions could change the course of victory. He needed to be careful or else the entire world could be decimated thanks to his carelessness.

"Should I have fought that Mobian just now? Looking back, he could've been a past version of me...no, there's more important things to think about. Like getting back home," Knuckles thought as he returned to the Master Emerald's altar. "My only hope is this thing. I think I remember reading about a Knuckles Clan teleportation technique...I don't know anything about that, though. However it's done, I hope the Master Emerald can bring me back."

Since the echidna was in a rush, it took much less time for him to get to the altar than it did for him to find the machine that was making that weird noise. Even now he was unsure why that noise, of all possible noises, was being made. His attention soon became solely focused on the Master Emerald and the power it possessed.

"If you can bring me back home, then please, Master Emerald, grant my wish! I wish to go home!" Knuckles pleaded as he grasped the large jewel with both hands.

Seconds later, the same brilliant light from before emerged from the endless depths of the Master Emerald. It shined with an intensity matching that of the sun, but Knuckles was able to handle it. Soon enough, his wish was granted and Knuckles was whisked away elsewhere.

Unknown Date - Unknown Time

Angel Island

Knuckles' wish did indeed come true. He reappeared at the Master Emerald's shrine, precisely as he desired. Though, something was amiss. That much was clear to see. Everywhere that he looked, Knuckles could see fire. Fire upon fire upon even more fire. All the trees had been decimated - the colour green was no longer present. It was all brown, orange and red.

Even the altar itself had been damaged immensely. Most of it had been burnt, cracked and ruined entirely; the Master Emerald wasn't even there. The night sky failed to alleviate the gravitas of the situation.

"What…? What happened?"

Fire was so prominent that Knuckles was forced to use his glide ability to manoeuvre around safely. Even then, it was incredibly dangerous as the echidna could not land anywhere in the immediate area. One upside of the ruined forest meant that he had a lot more space to fly around, meaning he wouldn't accidentally latch onto trees and the like.

But that only meant Knuckles would see the meaning behind all this destruction sooner. In the skies above Angel Island (since without the Master Emerald, the floating island no longer became floating) was a gigantic spherical fortress with a familiar face etched onto its front.

"Robotnik...so he's the one behind all this. He probably has the Master Emerald, too. Without that, I can't get back home. But how am I going to get in there?"

Knuckles was stumped. He couldn't glide from the edge of the island because it was no longer floating. There wasn't a tall mountain or anything similar nearby he could climb up and fly from in order to reach the Death Egg.

But then, two Badniks arrived. Knuckles noticed them almost immediately and instinctively got into a fighting stance.

"Isn't that the echidna that Master Eggman captured?" one of the strange-looking Badniks asked its partner.

"He must have escaped. I'll call the master…" the other Badnik replied. It pressed some buttons on itself, confusing Knuckles, who had been ready to fight. He was interested enough to let this happen. "Master Eggman? Knuckles the Echidna is here and...yes sir, I know he has already been captured, but please look at my live feed. You can see that he is right here."

"Captured? Now why would I let myself be captured? Wait, that gives me an idea…" Knuckles began to scheme. He dropped his fighting stance.

"I know that he is in the holding cell, but he is also here...yes sir, we'll capture him again," the short, orange-coloured Badnik finished its call. It turned to its purple, rounder partner. "We've got to do it."

"I understand," the other Badnik approached Knuckles, who was standing still. "You're coming with us. A capture unit is on its way. Do not resist."

Knuckles said nothing as the strange Badnik tied the echidna's arms together, pathetically. It was more than enough for him to break out later. In due time, a large transporter machine departed from the Death Egg and made its way to the edge of the fallen Angel Island. Knuckles was ushered inside by the two Badniks. Efficiently and quickly, the transporter machine returned to its homebase.

Meanwhile, Knuckles took good note of the machine's cockpit for a planned escape.

Alternate Future - 9:30 PM

Death Egg

Arriving at a rather large hangar, the two Badniks forced Knuckles in the middle of a three-man line, the lankier Badnik leading the small group. The wider one was at the back in case Knuckles tried to escape as its wider reach meant that it could easily prevent such a thing from occurring.

At least, if the captured hadn't been Knuckles of all people. He wanted to punch the heck out of these wacky Badniks, but he allowed them to lead him to wherever Robotnik (or Eggman, as he was now supposedly called) was located. Knuckles figured this to be for the best, since if he was on his own, it'd likely take a long time for him to even find his target.

Many elongated hallways later, the three entered what Knuckles assumed to be the central control room. It was massive, dome-shaped and could likely fit around half of Angel Island, guessed Knuckles. Directly contrasting the very large room, a small and comfortable chair which was positioned in front of an immeasurable amount of monitors swivelled around to reveal the face of Dr. Eggman. Knuckles noted that the scientist was wearing different clothes than the last time they met - perhaps as a result of the time travel he presumed to be happening.

"You are dismissed," Eggman ordered the Badniks, who left promptly. "So, Knuckles, would you care to explain to me how you can exist in two places at once?"

"I heard about that. How you somehow captured me," Knuckles began to answer. "But I'm probably not the Knuckles you're familiar with. Wait, you're not going to try and capture me? Uh, again?"

"There's no need for me to do so now, especially when I have countless forces that can do it for me at any time I wish," Eggman explained. "Anyway, I just want answers. Clearly something peculiar has happened and I want to know what. Did you partake in cloning, or something?"

"No, I think what's happened is because of the Master Emerald…" Knuckles found himself warming up to this version of Eggman, but only very slightly. "I was resting beside it, then I found myself thrown into the past. I'm sure that I time travelled."

"Time travel, eh?" Eggman was quite interested. "Anything else you can tell me about your experience?"

Knuckles paused to think. "I did meet someone that looked like me...on further thinking, it was probably the past version of myself. But at the time, I didn't know that, so I knocked him out in my confusion. Or I might have killed him...sometimes it's hard to judge how much of my own power I should use."

"That might explain why I didn't see you after I warned you about Sonic and Tails...thanks for being a no-show, by the way. Without your help, Sonic and Tails were trapped inside that Hidden Palace place, therefore making them unable to reach my Death Egg. That led to my overall conquest of the world," Eggman thanked the echidna. The alternate version of the evil scientist was smiling in a menacing manner.

"So you rule the world now?"

"Yes," Eggman confirmed, continuing to smile. "And it's all thanks to you and your time travelling fiasco."

Knuckles didn't know what to feel. On one hand, he didn't care so much, as he figured with all the time travel shenanigans that were going on, this world was no longer his. It wasn't the (mostly) peaceful world that he knew. His world was definitely not ruled by Eggman. On the other hand, he was the reason why this world was the way it is. If anything, Knuckles felt bad.

"I'll let you in on a secret, Knuckles. I think I know why you time travelled in the first place," Eggman broke the temporary silence. "Ever heard of Chaos Control?"

"Chaos Control? I only vaguely know about that...it's a warping technique created by the Knuckles Clan, many thousands of years ago. But I don't know anything about how it's done, except for the fact that it would require a source of Chaos Energy to activate, like the other Chaos-based techniques." Knuckles had investigated his clan's past before, but not into any great detail.

"I see. Well, after I captured Sonic and Tails and made them into my robotic slaves, I decided to look into Hidden Palace's secrets, since I knew it had some relics of the Knuckles Clan's past. There I learnt about the nature of Chaos Energy, how it's the very energy that makes up the Chaos Emeralds as well as the Master Emerald. Then I found the tablets that talked about the different Chaos-related techniques. Luckily I had a translator on hand."

Knuckles was listening. He too wanted to know what was found down in Hidden Palace, the sacred grounds of the Knuckles Clan.

"That's where I found out about Chaos Control. Supposedly, it can be used to warp to any location, as long as the user has a particular image of their chosen destination within their mind. With enough Chaos Energy, Chaos Control can even be used to warp through time. Since the Master Emerald is the controller of all Chaos Emeralds, I imagine that you somehow initiated Chaos Control subconsciously."

"Really? I was dreaming about the past, so I suppose that makes sense," Knuckles agreed with Eggman's theory. "I'm surprised you're helping me out."

The scientist smirked. "I already have everything I've ever wanted: total domination of the world. Let's just say I'm feeling nice. Actually, because I have been content with myself ever since I finally defeated Sonic, I'll offer you this. I'll let you use Chaos Control to return to the past and do whatever it is that you need to do to return to your own time. I will not try to capture or attack you, I can promise you that. Do you accept?"

Knuckles began to think. "I'm tempted, but I don't know...I'm the one who caused Sonic's downfall, and this Eggman is likely running some kind of awful tyranny. But then, he did say he's content, so perhaps he's much nicer than the Eggman I know...considering he has total domination over Mobius, he probably has a lot of resources available to him, so if I were to fight him now, I could lose pretty easily. Compare that to my Eggman, who just has a few mechs that we can take down without too many problems...this guy is probably much stronger than the normal Eggman."

"Well?" Alternate Eggman questioned, having waited several minutes for a response. "You're lucky that I'm patient."

"If you were the Eggman I knew, I'd never accept. But I get the impression that you're different than he is. You're probably much stronger than he is as well. That's why I can't take any chances - I accept your offer."

"Excellent. Here, I'll bring in the Master Emerald for you," Alternate Eggman turned back around and pressed a particular button on his command board. A glass cage lowered down from the ceiling, carrying the Master Emerald.

Knuckles approached the cage, which disappeared once the echidna touched it.

"Huh, that was weird," Knuckles commented internally. "But now the Master Emerald is in my grasp. Chaos Control...can I do it?" He looked over at the alternate version of Eggman, who wasn't making any move to attack, just as he said.

The red Mobian remembered the method that Eggman used to describe the activation process of Chaos Control. He began to envision his own time within his mind, being in exactly the same state as it was in prior to all the time travelling. With his prior experience of being near the Master Emerald, channelling its energy was a simple task. In due time, Knuckles' world turned white.

October 2nd 1988 - 11:15 AM

Angel Island

And then Knuckles woke up. He had dozed off, sleeping on the job. The protective guardian looked around to ensure nothing was amiss. No fires or past selves were around. Everything was just as it should be.

"It was all a dream…?" he realised, kicking himself mentally for slacking off. "Even if it was a dream, I did learn something. Hidden Palace has a lot of secrets to it - I should check it out sometime."

Knuckles' life returned to the way it had always been and always will be. At least until the next time he's needed in the world below. But for now, Knuckles continued to protect the legendary Angel Island.

Luster the Cat: Season 1 Ending 1 (Can You Feel My Soul? - Overman King Gainer, English) -

Can you, hear my burning voice?

Can you, feel my echoing soul?

No matter how far away we stray

I find myself always sticking close to you

Just so you're not alone in what you do

We'll start running the road of tomorrow

No matter how heavy the storm becomes

The two of us can overcome it

In the pounding downpour of wetness

I will run with you for great success

Can you, hear my burning voice?

Can you, feel my echoing soul?

Can you hear it?

You, can you get my soul?

Can you feel it?

You, can you feel my soul?

Author's Notes: You might remember that in the original, Knuckles' adventure across time wasn't a dream and he also fought the Death Egg Robo (an updated version of it anyway). I decided to change things around to make things more interesting. With what I introduced regarding time travel in Season 2, the original Knuckles' Time Travel Trouble became a contradiction of what I introduced, thus changes were necessary here.

I hope you enjoyed this redux chapter! Please don't forget to favourite, follow and share! I could really do with some more publicity. Except bad publicity - I don't want none o' that. That's a bad. Anyway, see you next time.