Chapter 17: Some Knuckles to add some power.

The 2 saddest partd of Sonic X Season 3 (the one where Sonic and friends go and stop the Metarex with Cosmo the Seedrian) are as follows:

1. Chris spends six years improving himself, learning martial arts with Mr Tanaka, studying hard at school, taking a part time job at a diner with Frances and making all kinds of useful inventions to help Sonic. However, he is not able to use his newfound talents and skills when he goes to Sonic's world because he gets turned back into a kid again. This is heartbreaking. While none of Sonic's friends insult him for his weakness, Chris still worked all that time on making himself better all for nothing.

Also, there is a huge montage of Chris doing all kinds of useful things without Sonic or any of Sonic's friends, proving Chris really has more to his personality beyond being another Sonic fan. There are scenes with him spending time with his Grandpa Chuck and all of his friends from school. Most friends from primary school where Chris comes from, break up as soon as they go off to high school and forget all about each other. Chris never abandoned his friends. He learned from Sonic's departure to always appreciate every single moment with those he loves, and has really grown better.

Which leads us to...

2. Helen is desperately trying to hack into Chris's computer with the help of Frances and Danny. They can't figure out the password Chris has used to lock his computer which contains all the information needed to access his device that will let his friends follow him into Sonics world and check up on him. The password is NOT "Sonic". If Chris were really so unhealthily obsessed with Sonic as some of his haters claim, then the password would definetly be "Sonic".

From the fact that Helen and the others have been trying many passwords, we can guess that the password was also not "Tails", "Knuckles", "Amy", "Cream", "Cheese" or any of Sonic's friends names either. This shows that Chris has overcome the trauma of saying goodbye to Sonic's gang, at least partially.

I personally think Chris's password was "Helen" by the way. He seems to have the closest relationship with her as a teenager, and he even thinks about her most when he's in Sonic's world. Alternatively, the password could also have been "Frances" or "Danny" or even "Helen, Frances and Danny".

The fact that Chris's friends don't guess the password and that this is their last episode, sadly means that Sega and the director of Sonic X have thrown them into a bin, and that they aren't able to go see their good pal. We never even get to see how Chris's relationship with Helen continued, and if they took it to the next level or not. Such wasted opportunities.

That episode had only Chris's friends trying to guess his password. His parents, servants and grandpa are nowhere to be seen. This shows that Chris's friends are truly amazing friends that really care.

It would have been especially cool if Helen got to meet Cosmo and Shadow, especially since Helen and Cosmo share the same voice actress (Amy Birnbaum) and they both love flowers and nature. As well, Frances has a similar appearance especially as a teenager to Molly from planet Cascada, who Shadow really looks up to.

By the way, Shadow knows Molly in this story because the events are a little out of order and he has briefly seen her before coming into Chris's world. This way, he is able to make connections between both Frances and Molly, as well as Helen and Maria.

As an even greater piece of trivia: Helen has a lab coat and works with Chris at his science lab a lot as a teenager. Maria is the daughter of a very famous scientist. The connection between Helen and Maria is even greater when these pieces of information are put together.

Knuckles POV

"The world is in mortal danger. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the air." Said my newest and greatest companion to me about an hour earlier as the sun began to set on Angel island. She had been meditating under a tree beside a pond, while I lifted weights and flexed my gigantic chest muscles, which I was very proud of. The wind was unusually strong, and the sturdy oak tree next to her was shaking very viciously. Leaves were blown off it and tossed around everywhere.

It was as I took a pause from my daily workout routine to regard my new female friend, that I remembered how gripped with gratitude I had been since the day she emerged from the Master emerald and aided us in averting a horrible crisis that would have certainly destroyed the entire world without her timely intervention. It had been a beautiful day thanks to her. Even Eggman who we were usually sworn to abjure and revile, aided us in saving the planet and it was a joy to behold; even if it was only because the wicked meglomaniac would otherwise have no planet to conquer or build his empire upon.

But the most defining event of that day, which thankfully did not go away even after I took to bed at night reluctantly fearing that it was all really just a dream, was that I had met another Echidna. A very attractive, polite and amazing one at that. I was no longer the last of my race. No longer doomed to a lifetime in which I feared my inevitable death with every waking moment of my miserable existence of endless terror.

The guardian of the master Emerald who had gladly taken up my offer to stay with me on Angel Island to assist me in guarding the shining green gem that had held her captive in a state of limbo, was named Tikal. Tikal Treeleaf, daughter of chief Pachacamac and his wife Waterlily. The last royal line of my clan before its own arrogance tragically led to its untimely destruction. Tikal was my tribe's priestess, and the only clan member who practiced the ideals of honor, compassion and harmony with mother nature that she rigorously preached day and night, to no avail.

Knowing that it could doom her to an eternity of suffering, Tikal sealed herself in the master Emerald using a forgotten ritual in which she remained in a state that was neither dead nor alive. Not knowing whether she would ever break free of a condition that she recounted was a thousand times worse than being stabbed with a red hot spear heated on volcanic rock found in the volcano core of Angel island.

I had saved her, and she owed me her life. The first living being to actually treat me with decency and respect ever since arriving from my universe into this horrible one. Well actually the second, if Hawk the honest merchant is counted, though he left far too soon to provide me with much comfort when I remember him.

To cut a long story and make a sharp point blunt, Tikal Treeleaf soon became Tikal Burnley after a small but special intimate gathering, in which Sonic and the rest of my "friends" offered a polite round of a applause and threw some flowers over myself and Tikal.

My lucky chain of good events had not stopped there, however. Hardly a few days after our wedding ceremony, Tikal reported feeling ill one morning with a sharp tummy ache. A brief visit to this planet's incredibly skilled surgeons (perhaps the one thing I actually like about this new planet), revealed to me that my days of worrying about the end of the Echidna race were over at long last. Meaning that I could now finally have some sweet dreams instead of horrible nightmares for a change. And that I now had another immense responsibility beyond simply guarding the master Emerald.

But back to the present. "Knuckles. Your friends back in Station Square need you. Desperately. I'm sure of it. I'm reading all kinds of sad and painful emotions in their direction. The Chao colony this morning have been very jumpy and afraid." Tikal told me, all color draining from her usually rosy peach cheeks as she tried and failed to look me in the eye. Whatever disturbance she had sensed with her psionic ability, was clearly a serious one.

"I'm sure they're fine, Tikal. Sonic is a strong and dependable hero and with his good friends Tails, Cream, Chris and..." I had to bite my tongue hard enough to draw blood to finish my sentence. I did not like having to name the cruel, insufferable pink hedgehog who had the audacity to call herself a refined and elegant like a flower. It did not go unnoticed by Tikal who visibly recoiled backward in shock with her hands over her mouth. "And Amy are surely doing an excellent job keeping the city safe whatever is going on there."

Part of me wished that I had been a more convincing liar like Eggman when he kept tricking me time and again that he really changed when he did not and never ever would. Perhaps then Tikal would have settled down, and I wouldn't now having to be taking this dreadful trip through the smelly sewers with the knowledge that if I would be peppeered with razor-sharp bullets if I so much as stuck my head out through a manhole carelessly.

"Ich hasse dich Amy. Je deteste vous Amy. Amy-chan no baka mono ga." I murmured under my breath, my lessons from Google classroom, Duolingo and Linguascope coming in handy in masking my utter disdain for the pink brat that I secretly wanted nothing to do with. It was a kind act for Chris's father to let Chris give me one of the state of the art laptops that his electronics company manufactured. I knew that if I used English, then I would only distress Tikal further and this I could not risk, knowing the health of our future child together was at stake here.

There was a bully, and then there was Amy. There was a spoiled and ungrateful jerk. Then there was Amy. There existed a term called a Tsundere Yandere, then there existed Amy.

Amy was a monstrous vermin, who failed to appreciate me repeatedly for my many heroic actions, which had saved her and Sonic countless times.

"Please go quickly Knuckles. I will stay here and watch the Master Emerald." Tikal pleaded, as another spasm of pain overtook her and she clutched her head with a groan of agony. Such was one of the burdens in being nominated the clan priestess and diviner of portents. When the Earth shook, so did she.

"Grrrr. There had better be a nice reward for me this time, or else I'm washing my knuckles clean of Sonic and his group this time, for good." I said silently to myself as I listened carefully for any sounds of gunfire from the nearest passage upwards from the filth encrusted underground passageway I had been wading through. Most of the grime now splattered across my shoes would take entire days to wash away in boiling water from the Angel island volcanic spring.

Amy POV

I can't fall now. Especially not now. So many amends with my loved ones that I've yet to make. So many important things I've been too mean and spiteful to do, but which must be done.

I need to let Sonic know that I'm sorry, that I'm not a creepy stalker with the sole intention of making his life miserable and that it is okay for him to abandon me and pursue another romantic interest if it's what he knows in his heart to be the right thing to do.

I've not been much better to Tails, or Knuckles either. Especially not Knuckles. He only wanted what I want now earlier; to see Eggman really put aside his villainous ways so that our pointless conflict can finally come to a satisfying conclusion. I gave that poor, bereaved and lonely Echidna a piece of my mind when I needed to give him a piece of my heart instead. I'm not a kind and generous princess of great niceness. I'm a spiteful and ugly monster of great meanness.

I need to set that right. I need to beat these bozos trying to kill Chris, Sonic, Maria and everyone else back to the filthy pit that they crawled out from, and then go apologize. My time in this world with Chris and his kind friends and family have helped me slowly realize the error of my ways. It's wrong for me to give so much unwanted affection to poor Sonic when all he wanted was to be left in peace, while brutalizing Knuckles despite the poor guy's best efforts to help us while also attending to his important duty of protecting the master emerald, that could destroy the world itself if left unattended.

In a similar manner to how Sakura the prettiest ninja who ever lived (at least from my point of view) continued to vex her bleak teammate "Edge lord" Sasuke, when he had absolutely no intention of relating to her in any way other than as a tool to be used and abused in the battles they took part in together. While simultaneously beating her other teammate, the good and friendly Naruto when he actually wanted to help her sincerely. I didn't mean of course that my hero Sonic was cold and mean like Sasuke the jackass, but their shared desire for peace and quiet was comparable and that was nothing to condemn.

If Sonic wanted his peace in my absence, it was only fair that I let him have it.

But my horrific, monstrous mistreatment of Knuckles was an even graver sin. One that would haunt me well beyond the grave if I did not seek immediate atonement.

"I repent. Knuckles. I repent. I repent." I whispered under my breath as I thrashed the soldiers with my mighty hammer, knocking them aside like bowling pins.

It did not go unnoticed by Tails and our new human friend Sakura, who wasted no time in pointless introductions as they joined in the fight against the evil forces now trying to massacre us all in cold blood. Eggman and his cousin Maria included.

I wondered just how long it would take to find all seven Chaos emeralds once again. Or perhaps whether Knuckles would agree to let Sakura use the master emerald just this once. From how she described the horrible war raging on in her homeworld, and how sweet and innocent she made her posse of friends sound; I could feel nothing but sympathy towards her being stranded here with me. She had showed me so much about myself, and provided me so much guidance about my past, present and future. The least she deserved was a trip back to her loved ones as soon as humanly possible.

No POV

Back in Sakura's homeworld, Sasuke was grinning maliciously as he stood over the fallen trio of females who had proven no match for his elusive bloodline powers bestowed upon him by his clan, the feared and respected Uchiha clan.

"Just what do you plan to do next, you big doofus?" The white-blonde high ponytailed Ino Yanamka mockingly spat, her expression still proud and defiant in the face of such deadly danger. "Killing everyone in the leaf village isn't going to bring your dead relatives back, you know that don't you?"

Sasuke simply ignored her.

"I thought you were a nice man with a noble heart. Naruto-Kun thought the same of you. What made you change?" The dark blue bowl cut Hinata Hyuga choked out, as she coughed up a mouthful of crimson blood that stained the soil beside her fallen head.

Sasuke's grin only widened.

"I've always been this way." He retorted, as he stood up even straighter. "I was simply waiting, biding my time until it was the perfect moment to strike. I may not bring any of my loved ones back to life by killing you, but at least you'll be perfect company for them in whatever afterlife they've gone to. You hear that? All of you will keep my lost family good company!"

He stamped his ground and gnashed his teeth, as tears came to his eyes. His last shred of sanity had clearly snapped beyond repair. "If I can't have love and happiness in my wretched life of loneliness and misery."

He inhaled a gigantic breath of air, as he clenched both hands into fists.

"THEN NO ONE CAN!" He shrieked, causing a flock of black crows to fly away with terrified caws. "NO ONE! NO ONE! ALL OF YOU WILL DIE, AND YOUR FRIENDS WILL SOON FOLLOW! I'LL BURN THE WHOLE LAND TO THE GROUND IF I HAVE TO!"

He breathed twice, as he jumped up and down while trembling all over. Then he drew out three razor sharp shurikens from his dirty pouch attached to a belt on his dusty black trousers.

"You don't have to do this. Nor are you the only one with lost relatives." the twin meatball head brunette Tenten Tsukino tried weakly to reason. "Sasuke. For what it's worth. I'm sorry you lost all your family members when you were just a young child. Lots of people lose their family. But it doesn't turn them into raving psycopaths. You're not powerful Sasuke. You're not the strongest ninja. You're just pathetic. It doesn't matter how many new Jitsus you master, or how big of an army you build up, you'll always be nothing more than a weak and pathetic moaner who can't accept death as a natural part of life, or that everyone has problems but that they just learn to live with them."

Sasuke raised a Kunai in his stronger hand, his weaker hand holding the two others. He was clearly impatient just to get these three murders over and done with as soon as possible.

"Go ahead. Throw it. That's your way of solving every problem or dealing with anyone you don't like the look of." Tenten goaded Sasuke, not the least bit frightful. "But I very much doubt your mum and dad who wanted a peaceful world where the strong and weak lived in harmony would be pleased by what you are about to do. So go ahead. Kill me. Kill us all. Desecrate our corpses and urinate on our graves if you want. Let me just tell you right here and right now however, that the ideals for which we have fought will survive longer than any empire you could ever build."

"DIE!" Sasuke madly shrieked as he made a gesture to toss the jagged weapon that would end Tenten's life in one smooth stroke. But he would never get the chance to finish, as he fell down and over dropping all three of his shurikens. As he fell face first into the brown forest floor with his SHADOWY dark hair swaying in the wind, a SILVER shard of ice could be seen protruding from his back.

Standing before the fallen Sasuke clad in a finer silver Kimono than any the three girls had seen at the fanciest theatre in town, was the kindest, wisest and gentlest of any foe that Naruto had ever had the misfortune to have to face in battle. A friendly opponent that always brought tears to the blonde prodigy's baby blue eyes, when the very feminine appearing and admittedly very pretty boy was brought up in conversation.

"I will never forget him" Naruto had painfully wept the first time he was asked to retell the tragic end of the saintly Haku Yamamoto. "Too good for this sinful Earth. Too pure for us all." He cried, clenching his fists so hard that every one of his listener's feared he might burst from his tensed up skin.

The "dead boy" that Naruto had spoken so highly about and praised to high heavens, was now nervously dropping a curtsey before the three very attractive ladies of highborn society whose lives he had just saved. He was clearly not a sociable creature, nor incredibly aware of the typical dressing norms concerning the choice of attire for the two different genders. Since even his ebony dark hair which was left purposefully at shoulder length and decorated with a small white lotus hairclip, only further served to confuse his onlookers as to the truth of his gender.

"Good to see you, er, Naruto's friends. Please do excuse my sudden interruption." He faintly stammered, nervously shielding his face with his arms all the while as if he would disintergrate into dust without doing so.

"Y, you saved us. You saved us all. Arigato." Hinata just as timidly replied, still too hurt to try and stand. The ice in the conversation was not breaking easily, despite the best intentions from everyone involved.

"H, hai. I guess, I guess I did. I'm sorry about your good friend Sasuke over there, but do not worry. I only aimed for his shoulder. He will live. He is not seriously injured, I promise. It was not in my nature to kill when unnecessary when I was still in master Zabuza's service, and it is certainly not in my nature now."

Even Haku's voice gave no clear indication as to his masculanity or femininity. His words soared on the wind like birds, yet dived deep like fish of the ocean. He spoke softly, and his every word seemed to take a great deal of energy to force out. If there were a title for the most reclusive of hermits, it would surely have gone to Haku without a second thought.

"D, do not be frightened. I am friendly. I come in peace. After master Zabuza and I were revived by vengful Shinobi hell bent on disturbing the peace of this serene land to create a twisted dystopia where only the strong would freely and cruelly lord over the weak, Naruto freed us both from the control of our evil revivers." Haku explained, putting up both of his pale hands to show he was harmless, and not about to reuse the extremely dangerous and forbidden jitsu he had just used on Sasuke. A loathed jitsu that had made him public enemy number one the day he accidentally discovered he could use it.

"Zabuza however was badly injured before he broke free from his mind control, and so has finally agreed to settle down to a life of peace with his fighting days behind him for good. And as reward for my loyalty to his cause while I still served him, he has liberated me from his service and let me do as I wish. With nowhere really to go, I guessed I would come and find Naruto's good friends who I've heard very good things about from Naruto-Kun."

"Again. Thank you for saving our... LOOKOUT!" Ino began from her fallen position, only to immediately recoil back in shock, as Haku was dealt a vicious backhand blow from the horrifying dark haired brute who had suddenley jumped up when Haku stepped forward to greet the three women of amazing kindness. Ino had forgotten along with the rest of her friends; that Sasuke like all Uchihas possesed inhuman resistance to injury, and could heal very fast from any grievious trauma inflicted upon him if not outright killed.

Haku moved quickly, steadying himself so that the blow only staggered him back ever so slightly and the following fist from Sasuke's over hand missed him outright.

"Please. Let's not fight. I don't want a repeat of what happened before. I no longer work for Zabuza, and I've vowed to atone for my past mistakes." Haku coaxingly pleaded, even as he conjured up a shield of solid silvery ice from his two outstretched palms. It neatly deflected the shadowy black ball of fire that Sasuke hurled at him from his own tanned and gnarled hands.

The spectacle that ensued before the startled eyes of the three badly injured women riddled from face with agonizing bruises, cuts and scrapes could only be described as the wildest fight that the land of Kohana had seen in at least half a century.

Sasuke snarled as he launched yet more dark and shadowy flames that seemed to darken the sun, and Haku replied with barrage of silver icicle shards that halted Sasuke's fireballs midair. "Revenge is a dish that is best served neither hot or cold. It gets us nowhere and is of no benifit to either one of us, Sasuke." Haku managed to speak as the furious battle was underway. "I understand the sorrows in your heart. I've stood where you once stood. Lost everyone dear to me, been betrayed by everyone I believed I could trust. I don't simply understand, and I don't just feel the same. I both understand and feel the same. Let's stop fighting Sasuke, and we can go look for Naruto and Sakura. Doesn't that sound much better?"

"You animal. You go on your knees to me!" Sasuke retorted, as he hastened his speed of attack. "I should have squeezed your throat apart on the day we met. This time, I'll make sure you die. I'm going to burn your corpse, and scatter your ashes to the winds. You will not cross me or my army ever again. I'm going to break the wheel, and you're not going to stop me. None of you are."

Haku was not a tad offended by Sasuke's impudent demeanour. The one expression the icy orphan regarded the fiery, crazed warlord with was a look of old world kindness and pure pity.

"Sakura can cook us hot, spicy ramen noodles, and I can give you a nice and relaxing full body massage with acupressure to heal all your wounds. Then we can all go enjoy a lovely noh-play in the village. Doesn't that sound nice, Sasuke? Doesn't it sound wonderful?"

"I'd not touch you with a ten-foot barge pole. Not for all the money in lord Hokage's big fat wallet which he cheated from my honorable clan. As for Sakura, I could care less for what happened to that annoying nag. Perhaps being lost is the best for her."

Sasuke attacked with a burning ball of shadowy flame.

Haku defended himself with a silver sphere of compacted ice,

Ice. Fire. Ice. Fire.

Ino tried in vain to lift herself off the ground, to no avail. All she could do along with Hinata and Tenten was lay helplessly where she was, and hope. The one conclusion that could currently be drawn from observing the two evenly matched fighters go toe to toe with one another, was that the fight really could go either way.

Sasuke vs Haku.

Shadow vs Silver.

...

Thank you for reading. Please review if you like this story and want me to continue. Special thanks to Momijifan Low-Ki. and the other guests for your amazing reviews. You're all incredible for making it this far.