Dear readers, I haven't forgotten you or this fic. I've been busy with other fics and this has drifted onto the back-burner. Hopefully I have redeemed my-self with this chapter, and if anyone's got a TARDIS can I borrow it?

Chapter 9.

The planet of Azaliea was one big, never-ending jungle. The ground was covered with the softest layer of moss; the blue sky almost lost to the high and dense canopy of the trees. Thankfully the canopy had other uses, in the dark shadows a shape lurked and waited, suddenly in the distance came a faint high pitch whistle. Ears drew back and a growl passed white teeth as another shape, this one more stream–lined and human looking, broke through the bushes and into the small clearing. A second later, after checking the coast was clear, the lone shape was joined by a second and a third and so on until five human shapes stood in the middle of the clear space. The hulking mass of fur and fangs crouched, ready to sneak away, when a sixth human appeared.

Oh shoot!

The sixth, looking very different in a brown suit and cream sneakers, put on a pair of thick rimmed glasses and held up a thin tube. He turned on the spot, the whistling picked up again and the shadow ducked further into the covers of the bushes. After doing a couple of short circuits of the clearing the brown-suited human stopped, lowered the tube and sighed.

"REPORT DOCTOR."

The Doctor shrugged, "What do you want me to say? It's wasn't my idea to be paired up with him, it was your Master's! It was your fault you lost him and you blaming me!" The group of Egg Knights raised their guns aiming right at his chest; "Whoa!" the Doctor waved his arms. "Hold on… a tiny tick…a tiny whiney tick…"

The shadow watched as the Doctor tried to delay the metal men, failing miserably with each passing second. They rolled green eyes sky-wards at his bumbling. Enough! They decided, crouching down, ready for action.

The Doctor had just enough sixth-sense to get out of the way as something big and power burst through the trees on the opposite side of the clearing and smack into the nearest EK. The rest of the unit turned away from the Doctor to take down the attacker only to be knocked back in numerous directions, letting out mechanical screams as they bodies struck the tress surrounding them. When the fighting was over the Were-hog stood in the middle of the clearing, puffing heavily and surveying the damage he'd done. The Doctor made the basic mistake of stepping on a twig, thus snapping it and drawing the beast attention to him.

The Were-hog turned suddenly, teeth bared, but upon seeing the Doctor relaxed. He walked over to him and, to the Doctor complete surprise, crouched beside him and jerked his large head backwards. The Doctor blinked, "Are you sure?" he muttered stepping back, slipping his specs into his pockets. The creature huffed and pawed the ground nodding. "O…K…" cautiously the Time Lord approached and lay an unsteady hand in Sonic's head. The Were-hog huffed again and bumped his hand. The Doctor looked down at him; he looked back and then swiftly rolled his green eyes skyward. "Look, I'm nervous alright. Not ridden a hedgehog before." Sonic shoulders shook with silent laughter, the Doctor flushed realizing what he'd said. "Oh, shut up!" He hissed swinging a leg up and over Sonic's back, settling comfortably as he could (minding his back quills) and rested his hands hesitantly on heavily muscled shoulders. Sonic suddenly leaned forward on his front legs causing the Doctor to yell out in surprise and wrapped his arms more securely around him. "You did that on purpose!" Sonic chuckled again, looked back at him and grinned with a wink. The Doctor scowled and then laughed too. "OK, let's try again."

The Were-hog waited until he was seated and then reared up, a howl left his throat and he took off, dashing through the dense forests as fast as he could. The Doctor hung onto the bulky shoulders as hard as he could, his fingers threading through the soft yet thick fur there. Sonic made some sort of noise (a purr maybe?) and increased his speed. The scenery flew by in a blur a green, the wind whistle all around them as they journeyed forward, where to the Doctor had no idea but it seemed that Sonic did. The whistling around them grew in volume and changed in tempo. The Doctor chanced a look back, frowned for a second and leaned closer to Sonic's ear.

"We got EK's!" he shouted. Sonic grunted, ducking his head and raced on. The Doctor followed, curling himself as close as he dared without falling off. Soon the area around them was spotted with black. The Time Lord whipped his head this way and that, "They can fly? Oh…Brilliant!" Beneath him Sonic gave a growl of annoyance. "Sorry, got carried away there." A quick head count, "There's maybe ten of 'em. You got a pla-aahh!" Sonic stopped unexpectedly making him fly over hedgehog's head and land in a heap a few meters away. "OW!" Before he could get up the Doctor found himself trapped under fur and muscle. He looked up and gulped: staring down at him was the Were-hog who narrowed green eyes. He smiled back, "I'm fine." Sonic smirked in response and then growled deeply, turned swiftly on all fours and stood his ground against the group of EK's stomping towards them. From his place under the Were-hog the Doctor watched as beast and machine faced off: the EK's raising their guns and demanding they return to Eggman, Sonic slamming his palms against the ground and roaring while scratching the ground behind him with his spiked trainers.

It was this that drew the Doctor's attention from the face off. He raised himself onto an elbow to get a look and his moth opened in surprise. During the display of macho-ness Sonic had drawn a wonky arrow with the toe of his shoe. The Doctor followed said arrow and found it headed towards the trees. He glanced back, Sonic caught his gaze and winked, he nodded in understanding and counted to three in his head before moving. The Doctor wriggled out from under Sonic as the Were-hog charged forward with a thunderous howl keeping the EK's attention solely on him while the Doctor made his escape to the woody cover.

The Doctor dived behind a fallen tree, lying face down with his hands over his head as laser shots flew every-where. He curled into a tight ball hearing the unmistakable sounds of a fierce scuffle: more shots being fired, bodies hitting the ground or trees, shouts and yells…and then the one sound he didn't want to hear…

A high-pitched whimper of pain.

"SONIC!" He cried, completely forgetting he was meant to be hiding, scrambling over the tree trunk and rushing to the clearing, coughing and spluttering as the air grew thick with smoke. "Sonic!" he called again hands stretched out in front of him. Wandering in the smoke cloud he gasped in surprised hitting something solid and moving, "Please be Sonic…please be Sonic…" he muttered under his breath. For an answer a wet nose nudged his finger tips and an equally wet tongue lapped the back of his hand. The Time Lord fell to his knees, grinning, wrapping his arms around the Were-hog in a friendly hug while nuzzling into his neck. As the dust started to settle he pulled away slowly taking in Sonic's appearance: apart from being slightly winded, the hero seemed uninjured. "Are you OK? I thought I heard…" He looked down and his eyes widened, "You're hurt!" Reaching for a muscled arm he pulled out the sonic-screwdriver and ran its blue tip along the wound.

"It's nothing." Said a gruff voice.

"Don't say that, just hold-" The Doctor nearly dropped the sonic tool in shock as he looked up open mouthed. Sonic looked back: a grin slowly snaking it way over his lips. "You…I-I mean…WHAT!"

Sonic leaned closer, the tip of his nose brushing the Doctor's, "It's just a scratch, Doc. Heal in no time, now let's go." The Were-hog turned and headed back towards the clearing leaving the Time-Lord squatting on the ground, screwdriver in hand and mouth still hanging open. "Yo! You coming?"

"But how can you…I-I mean you still 'gruh-argh' with the fangs and such." Sonic tossed something over his shoulder, it rolled along the ground stopping at the Doctor's feet. The Doctor studied the charred lump of metal and then ran the sonic over it, "Oh…They broke the harness. What does that mean?" Pocketing the sonic he scooped up the burnt harness, got to his feet and trotted after the Were-hog. "Well?"

Sonic looked at him and then his trade-mark smirk found its way on his muzzle, "It means, that while I'm still in this form I have control of Dark Gaia, just like before. I can't turn back until we find the Eye of Earth, which should be around here somewhere according to the book." The Doctor's shocked face came back, Sonic huffed and started to explain, "Before we teleported down here the book started translating, and Celosia loves to read to her brother, I remember every-word." The Doctor nodded, "There should be a temple or shrine nearby, that's where I was heading before the run-in with the Knights, and that's where we're going now. But first…" Sonic snatched the burnt harness from the Doctor and suddenly shot up a tree, the Doctor could just make out a muffled yell and Sonic jumped back down with a smug grin. "One thing I love about is form…" he flexed his arms, "I can throw for miles! We can look for the Eye while the others are on a wild goose chase. Cool, huh?"

"Yeah… uh, cool." The Doctor stuffed his hands in his pockets and rocked on his heels, "So…which way?" Sonic pointed to some-where off in the distance. In the light of the setting Sun dark shapes appeared. The Time-Lord nodded and they set off at a steady pace into the trees.

The Doctor had no idea how much time had pass when he opened his eyes. He remembered walking a lot until the sun started going down and then finding a strange rock formation/cave that seemed to have appeared out of no-where…oh, and he seemed to have picked up a nice cozy, fuzzy blanket from some-where…

Wait, what?

"Sleep well?"

Slowly turning around inch by inch the Doctor found him-self face to face with a half-awake Sonic. The blue hero's green eyes met the Doctor's own brown, slightly nervous, ones and he grinned tightening his hold around the Time-Lords middle.

"Uh…Well…I…" The Doctor cleared his throat and tried again, "We…um…"

Sonic chuckled deeply, "We fell asleep after finding the Eye, Doc. It's over there. See?" He nodded his head back and the Doctor looked over his shoulder. Sure enough, in the middle of the rock-face, was a small crude shrine. Perched on a pedestal and glowing a soft green sat a perfectly round stone. The Doctor made a move to sit up but Sonic held him still, "No, moving. Not done yet." The Doctor raised a brow and looked closely at the shrine, it was only then he noticed the thin lines of light coming from the base of the stone, down the front of the shrine, across the floor connecting to Sonic's back. "Spirit of Gaia going home." He grinned, "And good riddance!"

The Doctor grinned back, "You're amazing, you know that?" Sonic shrugged, "Well you are." The Were-hog sighed again, his eyes slowly drifting shut. "I'm going to out-side for a bit, OK?" A nod. The Doctor extracted himself from Sonic's grasp and patted his head affectionately. "Back soon." Sonic grumbled a reply. The Doctor smiled softly making his way out of the cave and into the blinding Sun-light.

"Doctor! Look out!"

Before the Doctor had time to react he felt a sharp, piercing pain across the face and was knocked to the ground. "What..?" A shadow blocked the Sun's rays and he looked up, his eyes widened, "You?"

Celosia stood, staff in hand, and fangs showing in a sadistic grin. Behind the Goddess, to the Doctor's dismay, stood the others guarded by a group of EK's. "The Eye, Doctor. Give me the Eye or you will die." When he shook his head she lashed out again: this time using her hands. Her talons soiled quickly with his blood, the front of his suit darkened as he fell to his knees screaming. "Give me the Eye!" She screeched.

The Doctor grunted as he fell. He could feel the poison from her claws making its way around his body, it would reached his hearts in a matter of seconds and he would die. He looked at his hands, knowing what he would find and nodded sadly. Slowly and painfully he got back onto his knees and then his feet, swaying slightly. Celosia, confused and scared, raised her staff again. Behind her the Freedom Fighters let out a collective gasp.

Feeling the change already beginning the Doctor grinned sadly at the others, "I'm so sorry. I'm... I'm regenerating." Throwing his head back with a hoarse shout he threw his arms out and exploded in a fire-ball of golden light…

Another cliff-hanger!

A long one but might trim it down later. Feel free to R and R.

M.x