A/N- Next chapter ahoy! There was a problem with last chapter. The parts that were supposed to be in italics were NOT! Hopefully you figured out what was and was not a dream. Ok, I do not own any SEGA characters, and I never will. I do own all others though with the shared ownership of Celly. I hope you enjoy chapter three!


Knuckles lies unconscious and completely silent for quite some time before he wakes up. The echidna falls into a lighter slumber, but he continues to lie there quite motionless, showing no optical signs of life. There is a slight burning sensation that he feels in his back and the back of his neck, yet it is not enough to awaken him. The crimson echidna is still in a far off realm, distant from the grating truth that dwells around him.

A short while later the male begins to stir. He cracks his eyes open and only a sliver of pale yellow light pours into his view. He opens them a bit more, however, his vision is slightly blurred from when he was unconscious.

Knuckles notices a dark figure looming silently above him, blocking out some of the light of the luminous sky. The male's eyes dilate and he blinks a few times to help his vision return to normal. He quickly attempts to scramble to his feet and defend himself if necessary. He feels a white-hot pain in his back but swings his fist at the unknown figure, wanting to weaken or injure it in any way possible, just so it does not hurt him in his already weakened state. The echidna's fist makes contact with the opponent and knocks it backwards.

The red male glares at the one he had just previously attacked. He clenches his teeth at the severe pain in his back and neck. It feels to him as though there is a hot knife in his spine and someone is ruthlessly twisting and wrenching it around.

"What the fuck was that for?" asks the female he had just punched in the jaw. Each syllable holds a cold and icy edge. She wipes away some scarlet fluid that is leaking from her mouth.

"You…leave me alone," says Knuckles firmly. "If you come near me again I swear I'll wail on ya, hedgehog!"

"I'm not trying to do anything to you," says the icy blue furred hedgehog calmly. She wipes a bit more blood off of her jaw, leaving a deep red striate on her solid white glove. "I was on the island and I saw you lying there. Considering the condition that you are in I think that anyone would be at least a bit curious."

"Why would you care about an echidna?" Knuckles gives the female a strong glare as a sudden gust of wind sweeps through the beach-like area. The wind picks up the sand, blowing small amounts of it into both of their fur.

The female shakes her head to get the gritty sand out of her face and brushes off her raven black streaked quills that have thinner white strips bordering the black. Her ears flick as well.

She blinks her deep sapphire eyes a few times. "I'm not like that," she says plainly.

Knuckles brings his guard down slowly and stares at the female with his amethyst eyes. The breeze plays with his long crimson dreadlocks.

"You're hurt," states the blue hedgehog. "Do you need any help?"

"I'm just…" The red male trails off as he looks behind himself. He is met with a grotesque sight.

The middle of his back up to his neck is severely burned, and the echidna bleeds freely, as he had opened the wound from his previous attack on the female. Where he had been lying for who knows how long is a mess of muddy sand mixed with bloody fluid that had previously bled out from his back. His large wound is filthy, full of sand and dirt. The still existing fur around the injury is matted and dirty.

The cause of this was the bright pink laser that had been pursuing him, caught up to, and struck him. It had not killed him, however, as it had not hit him correctly. If it had hit him correctly he would have a large gaping slice right through the targeted area, thus killing him almost instantly. Fortunately for Knuckles he was not directly hit.

The burn is extremely tender to the touch and screams with biting pain when Knuckles moves or stretches. His knowledge of the injury's severity makes everything much worse for him.

The echidna's stomach turns into a tight knot and his eyes dilate. He looks back at the hedgehog who is still awaiting the answer of whether he needs any assistance or not.

"You can leave," says Knuckles sternly, not wanting any help from this stranger.

She raises an eyebrow in suspicion. "You can hardly walk without causing intense pain…"

"I'm fine!" shouts Knuckles stubbornly. "Just leave…"

The female, fed up with trying to help someone who obviously does not want any, begins to walk away. As she leaves Knuckles walks stiffly over to a tree and leans against it for support.

The pain grows more powerful every time the male moves. He begins to feel sick and his body temperature rises out of panic, as fear is beginning to grow inside of him like a tiny spark grows into a flame. The echidna's stomach starts to feel strange and he grows weak and shaky. A cold sweat forms on his body as his head begins to spin and the world around him becomes nothing but a swirled and giant botch of colors and blurred shapes. The crimson male closes his eyes as he slowly slips out of consciousness, the sensation too overwhelming for him to handle. The bright cherry red echidna's limp form slides slowly down to the ground, soft with sand and grass.


A/N- Finished! I know it was short, but I wanted to end it here. I hope that you are happy that I finally updated. I'll be working on the next chapter soon. Please review!