Before the bark got to the water purification plants that were the true heart of the Hydrocity Inc, Knuckles and Myla got out. He led her towards one of the many exits, knowing that the next part of their journey would be even less pleasant than the initial drop into the Hydrocity Inc. He said to her, "This will be quite hot, but follow me. Stay close! This is the fastest way to the Hidden Palace, but it is intentionally dangerous."

She obviously was not overly enthusiastic, but before Knuckles could change his mind she waved at him. "Go on! We do have a time limit, right?"

"Right," he said, recovering badly. With that, he pushed through the door.

Whoosh!

A blast of hot air rushed past him, forcing him to close his eyes. Myla gave a short cry of surprise, but when he looked back at her, she was determined to follow him.

Knuckles looked forward, wondering how he was going to proceed with her to handicap him. For this was the Lava Reef, and it was designed to be hazardous.

He checked the temperature. Quite a bit above his normal body temperature, he noted; if he could have shed, he would have. The heat impaired both movement and vision. The ground was rock, very uneven; over time he'd beaten some of it into a rough path. The path led through the various caverns and chambers all around the volcano. They were evidence that echidnas had made some sort of building there, as machinery and controls were in many places, but its functionality was gone and wouldn't have mattered to Knuckles in the first place. Rather, they gave Knuckles a splendid chance to booby-trap one of the two main routes to the Emerald. All of them, however, were dangerously close the mighty volcano; even now, he had but to jump to the top of the path and he would be able to see the lake of lava that gave the area its name.

On second thought, he'd given it its name, but he'd named it after the lava.

"This must be the geothermal power plants," Myla said as she stayed with him.

He kept a paw firm on hers, clamping it to his shoulder. "What?"

"We get electricity from the heat of the Earth," she explained. "But… if it's been away from the Earth for so long, how is it still so hot?"

"The Emerald," he said simply. "The lava protects the Emerald. I had to set it up, but the Emerald's power is more than enough to keep the lava hot."

"Makes sense," she said, gritting her teeth.

Knuckles recognized the area they were in. He slowed his walk to a crawl until he felt the ground beneath him tremble; then he took an Emerald-assisted leap out of the way, pulling Myla with him.

Behind him, a few stones broke out of their places, and a geyser of superheated air blew upwards.

It was operating perfectly, he noted with an odd mix of satisfaction and resentment. That blast of heat would have ignited flesh. To be caught in it would be certain, all-but-instant death.

"Lovely place," said Myla, coughing. That sarcasm thing again, thought Knuckles, proud of himself that he'd caught it quickly.

He led her further down the winding path towards the entrance to the Hidden Palace. Similar booby-traps led to several close calls, though the sentries Knuckles could dismiss with naught but a thought.

As they approached the bottom of the volcano, they came upon one of the last few defenses. "Please say you're not serious," was all Myla could say.

"I am," Knuckles replied sadly. "We must cross this part of the lava."

He moved on to explain how this would work. He did not relish it; even with his time to prepare, there was no good way to explain it. As a rule, he avoided this way unless absolutely necessary.

"We are standing above the lava bed, and we must reach the other side. You see the platforms between us and the other side—they are how we will get there, by jumping from platform to platform. However, the platforms are unstable. If we land too much on one side or the other, the platform will tip."

"And dump us into the lava," she concluded.

"Exactly."

"How are you planning for us to do this?"

"I will hold you firmly. We will both jump, together, but holding each other for balance."

The only real way, he thought. If they went individually, he was all but guaranteeing her death.

She looked down. "That's a huge fall! Can we make it?"

It was several echidna lengths from safety to the platform, but the platform would "give" a bit upon their landing. "Yes."

"You hope."

"That, too." They closed together, then, on Knuckles' command, jumped.

Right into a veritable wall of heat.

As hot as it had been before, standing so close to the lava felt as if the heat was boiling his blood away.

Sill, it wouldn't matter how he felt if he'd missed. He looked down.

There—whump!

They safely made it.

Myla grimaced. "One down—nine to go!" Her throat rasped from the heat, and her eyes watered profusely. Knuckles' eyes were, too, and it was making it difficult for him to judge distances. He knew it in his mind—or so he hoped; his eyes weren't helping much.

"Jump… jump… jump!"

And… whump!

NO!

As they landed, Knuckles felt Myla going forward—she'd botched the landing! It happened too fast—Knuckles lost his grip!

She stumbled forward—one step—two steps—she was trying to stop…

The platform dipped forward ever so slightly.

"AAIEEE!!"

Knuckles was already moving. He jumped on the other side of the platform as hard as he could. His end nearly flipped over, catapulting Myla back towards safety. As soon as he landed, Knuckles had launched himself into the air. He and Myla connected in the air.

They landed in the middle of the first platform.

Immediately alarms went off. Knuckles had all but forgotten about those—if one of the platforms tipped—

No time to think about that! Without a second thought he threw Myla back up to safety. Even as he threw, the platform began to sink—rather, the lava began to rise.

Knuckles hurled himself up towards the beginning. Myla's paw appeared at the last second; he grasped it and used it as leverage to drive his other paw into the wall. With that, he easily scrambled over the top.

With a little time now, Myla let loose a horrible cry of pain. "Aiiieee!"

Without hesitation Knuckles placed his hands over her ankles. He performed the only method of healing he knew—raw empathy. He absorbed some of her wounds and pain unto himself.

Now that he felt it, Knuckles realized why she was screaming so hard. He joined the discordant chorus with a huge bellow of pain.

They screamed for several long moments—so long Myla actually blacked out, and Knuckles approached the brink of joining her.

However, his healing had worked. His own body rapidly healed the wounds he introduced from her, thus allowing him to absorb more of her pain. Slowly, ever so slowly, the pain subsided.

As he let go of her ankles, he kneeled beside her and held her close to him. He felt many things—some his own, such as his compassion, but through his empathy many of hers, as well.

Her emotions were new to him, and strong. He felt them as if they were his own, closer to her than ever before. Through it all, however, the chief thing on his mind was an overwhelming gratitude that she was alive at all.

At last able to do so, he looked back down at his feet. The lava had splashed him as he'd fled it. To his surprise, it'd only melted through the bottom of his shoes—no "real" damage had been done.

It simply hurt beyond compare.

Sometimes being the guardian of the Emerald was no fun at all.

Myla stirred against his chest. He looked down at her with great affection.

And sometimes it was.

"I hope that wasn't the only way into Hidden Palace," she whispered.

Despite the heat, Knuckles' spine froze solid. The mission! He'd all but forgotten in the rush to get them out of danger and out of pain!

She laughed lightly. "Don't worry, I'll be ready in a moment or two. Whatever you did really helped." She looked at him suddenly. "You really like me, don't you?"

Knuckles was helpless to respond.

"Your empathy works both ways," she said. "Your mind is so structured… is that how you're able to guard so effectively?"

He was still unable to speak, but managed a nod.

"You really do—" she looked up at him in surprise, then stood.

Knuckles had no way to know what she was looking at or feeling; he tried to read into her with empathy but found nothing solid, just confusion. Then she turned back towards the path. "We have to hurry, right? What's the other way in?"

"Through the Ruins of the Sky," he said, able to react when it had to do with protecting the Emerald. "This way."