The next day, Rutan walked onto the balcony to consider his thoughts. Stay loyal to his mother and loose his true love? Or turn on his mother and peruse his true love? He had to decide.

"Okay—" He said to himself. "I have to tell her today. Oh... where do I start?"

Rutan started to rehearse his speech. "Laura... Lien-Da had a plot— and I was part of it. But I don't wanna be, because— it's because I love you.'"

Not the best speech, he thought, but… it was better than bottling things up.

"Oh, she'll never believe me." He muttered. "But I gotta try."

Rutan then ventures to Laura's room and knocks on the door.

"Yeah, Rutan?"

"Laura… I need to talk to you."

"Laura!" Came a firm voice, "I don't want you talking with him."

Not now of all times, dad…

"I want to talk with him."

Laura's face brightens; Knuckles winks at her, and he and Rutan go outside and down onto the main surface of the island.

Locke II and Pachacamac II had seen everything from their room, and Jani-Na and Jane saw it from they and Laura's. They could not believe that their father/older cousin was now beginning to trust him. And the worst part is that the two had gone alone. Alarm bells went off in their heads. They felt that something bad was going to happen.

"We must follow them before something bad happens." Locke cried.

"And before we lose sight of them." Pachacamac II agreed.

"Hurry guys!" Called Jane "Don't let them get away!"

"Wait for me, boys!" Jani-Na trailed behind.

But before they could leave were held back by their grandmothers/great aunts Lara-Le and Gala-Na.

"Where do you think you are going without breakfast." asked Lara-Le.

"Sorry grandmother, but we must hurry." Locke II protested.

"We'll have breaky when we get back." Added Pachacamac II. "This is really…."

"We'll have none of this." Gala-Na said firmly. "If you don't eat breakfast, you're not going anywhere."

"We're not hungry." Jane tried to say.

"Please let us..."

"No!" Lara-Le and Gala-Na cut Jani-Na off.

The four kids knew they couldn't leave, because their grandmothers/great aunts were a little strict about breakfast time, so they had to do as they were told. They hoped that when they were finished, they wouldn't be too late.

After a while, Knuckles and Rutan were walking through the newly burnt section of Angel Island.

"Finitevus couldn't let go of his hate..." Knuckles explained sadly, "and in the end, it destroyed him."

"I've... never heard the story of Finitevus that way." Rutan sighed. His 'tribe' always said he was 'a great guardian', 'someone to be reckoned with', and 'a conniving mind'… now, Rutan knew he was a tyrant.

"He truly was a killer."

"Fire is a killer." Knuckles went on, taking note of all the burnt ground below. "Sometimes, what's left behind can grow better than the generation before..."

The current guardian places his hand down and raises some dust; when he lifts it, a young plant is there.

"...If given the chance."

Rutan smiles at Knuckles' wise words.

"You truly are your father's son." He complimented.

"Oh, well… maybe a little bit like him."

Before they could go on, an evil chuckle from the dust surrounds the two echidnas. Rutan gasped as he realizes what's happening. Many dark echidnas appear from the clouds of dust, surrounding them. Their eyes glow a bright, sinister yellow.

"No... oh, no... no..."

"Why, Knuckles..."

"Lien-Da!"

"What are you doing out here," Grinned the evil echidna, "and— so alone?"

The other echidnas encircle Knuckles and Rutan.

"Well done, Rutan..." Lien-Da smirked proudly at her son, "just like we always planned."

"YOU!" Knuckles snapped angrily.

"No!" Cried Rutan. "I didn't have anything to do with this!"

"Attack!"

"NO!"

The Dark Legioners attack. Knuckles is fighting off several at once. Rutan tries to help Knuckles, but is battered off by Jaker and falls to the side, hitting his head on a rock. Knuckles is thrown to the bottom of a ravine; the Legioners slide down the slope towards him.

"Yes!" Cried Lien-Da "We've got him!"

Riki-Le and the other echidnas attack again, forcing Knuckles to flee down the canyon.

"Remember your training! As a unit!" Lien-Da called from the sidelines.

Knuckles was trapped; he tried to climb up the walls of the canyon, using the piled-up logs to gain purchase; Rutan is above him on the ledge.

"Knuckles!" He cried.

"Get him! Rutan!" Called Lien-Da. "Get him! Do it now!"

Jaker then jumps from the crowd.

"I'll do it— for you, mother!" He shouted, bounding up the logs, laughing.

"Mother— are you watching?" He called down below. "I'm doing it for you... and I'm doing it for me!" he added.

Jaker chased Knuckles up a slope with several broken logs strewn across it. Just as Knuckles reaches the top, Jaker grabs his ankle.

"This is my moment of glory!"

Knuckles angrily punched Jaker down and the log on which Jaker has his leg breaks, causing Jaker to slip and fall.

Knuckles reaches the top, but the pile of logs rolls down the slope with Jaker among them; they all land in a heap at the bottom of the ravine. Jaker lies trapped under a large log. He looks up to the top of the slope to see one final log rapidly falling in his direction.

He grimaces, terrified, as the log hits him. Rutan rushes down to help free Jaker, but he is swatted aside by Lien-Da, who pulls enough logs aside to see Jaker's face.

"Jaker…" Gasped Lien-Da.

"I'm sorry, mother..." he said quietly. "I tried..."

"Ssshh." Hushed Lien-Da.

"Well... I finally got your attention, didn't I?"

Lien-Da smiles tenderly at her son and cradles his face in her hand.

"Didn't I..."

Jaker dies. Riki-Le appears next to Lien-Da on the edge of the logs.

"Jaker..."

Back in the middle of Angel Island, Knuckles is walking wearily back to the Master Emerald Shrine. Laura sees him from a distance off.

"Father..." She called, but noticed something was very wrong, "Father!"

The future guardian turned to Espio.

"Espio! Get help!"

"Oh yes!" He stuttered, "Help... at once! Of course!"

Knuckles is walking with great pain. Laura, Tails, and Sonic reach him.

"Father…?"

"Knuckles!" Cried Tails. "Talk to us! What happened?"

Knuckles coughed, wheezed, and had a hard time getting the words out. "Rutan... Ambush..."

Knuckles collapses on his side, unconscious, groaning in pain.

"No…" Laura whispered. This couldn't be right.

Sonic and Tails placed Knuckles between them, as they had done when he was just a child when they first found him alone in the desert.

"It's all right, buddy..." Sonic whispered, "we're here for you."

"We need medical help, now!" Tails cried.

"I've seen Espio back for help."

"You're a good daughter." Sonic smiled weakly.

"Hurry guys." Locke II, Pachacamac II, Jani-Na and Jane called to their friends (cousin in Gideon and Emma's case) as they ran.

Behind them came Gideon, Emma, Amanda-Su, Henry, Bian-Ca, Rift, Matthew, Jani-Lu, Jeremiah and Buddy. The ten of them yawned as it was early in the morning when they awoke.

"What happened?" Rift stretched as he walked along the path. "I mean, what's so important that you had to wake us up so early."

"Dad walked off with Rutan this morning and hasn't returned." Locke II explained, Jane dragging along a sleepy Jane.

"We fear that something bad has happened." Added Pachacamac II, as Jani-Na rushed round the back to get their friends to keep moving.

"That sounds dangerous." Amanda-Su cried.

"Let's hope we're not too late." Henry said.

They ran until Bian-Ca gasped sharply. "Look!"

Everything looked and saw where she was pointing. Sonic, Tails and Laura were bringing the unconscious Knuckles to the shrine.

"Oh no. We're too late." Cried Jani-Lu.

"I knew Rutan was trouble." muttered Matthew.

"We all knew he shouldn't have been trusted." agreed Jeremiah.

"We should have acted before this happened." Groaned Buddy.

Locke II, Pachacamac II, Gideon, Emma, Jani-Na and Jane could not say anything. Seeing their wounded father/uncle/cousin and him being unconscious was the worst they had come to see in their young lives. And they were trying to suppress tears, as there was no time to mourn.

The 14 friends went quickly to help the wounded guardian.

Back on Devil Island, the Dark Legioners were gathered in a memorial to Jaker.

"Finitevus..." Lien-Da whispered, "watch over my poor Jaker."

Riki-Le looked over her deceased brother, and Lien-Da turned to Rutan angrily.

"YOU!"

She swatted Rutan in the face as he winces in pain. He soon turns his head, glaring at Lien-Da. She recoils at the sight, shocked; Rutan now has a scar over his left eye just like Finitevus'. Lien-Da recovers quickly.

"What have you done?" She said menacingly.

"I-I-I didn't mean to..." Rutan stuttered, "it-it-it wasn't my fault, I..."

My mother's a tyrant, just like Finitevus. He decided at last. Don't turn back.

"I did nothing!"

"Exactly!" Lien-Da shouted "And in doing so, you betrayed your tribe... betrayed Finitevus!"

"I want nothing more to do with him!"

"You cannot escape it! Jaker is dead because of you!"

"No."

"You've killed your own brother!"

"NO!"

Rutan crossly ran off, with the dark legioners growling and snarling at him as he left.

Riki-Le looked on, worried, as if she were going to go after him, but Lien-Da stopped them.

"Let him go." She advised. "Knuckles has hurt me for the last time... now he's corrupted Rutan! Listen to me... Knuckles is injured and weak. Now is the time to attack! We will take his entire island... by force!

The Dark Legioners cheered, except Riki-Le, who looked into the canyon space with doubt.