Krystalwolf: Yay! Old reader came back:) And thank you! I have to leave for a while soon, probably for a year or so, so I want to finish this story before I go. Hopefully it will, I have everything written out, so I'll just update rapid-fire over the next few days. Hope you don't mind terribly. This is about as long as SA3, which is to say, not that long.

Ahead, the rain was finally stopping, and the marshes were coming to an end. The sky lightened, and the ground ahead appeared dry. The sun sent shafts of light down between the tree branches.

The party stopped and washed at a nearby brook. Then they set up camp, as it was nearly evening and they still had a ways to go before the forest ended.

Knuckles and Saermore set up tents while Sonic and Retio lit a fire. Tails made sure Alene was okay, and Alene looked at the wound on Harry's back. It was a fiery red and slightly swollen.

"I think it's infected," said Alene. She put some herbs that she had found on the gash and ordered him to rest. Everyone was thankful for the chance to rest and dry off.

Knuckles sat deep in thought next to Harry, watching the fire throw off sparks into the night. It danced and swayed in a hypnotic pattern. Finally, Knuckles spoke.

"Harry, what do you know about Kerrigan?"

Harry started. He had been half asleep, and used to being ignored.

Harry thought for a while before replying.

"Well, he was the one who hired me to help restore ARK. He told me that he liked my enthusiasm. I never thought there was anything odd about him, except for his eyes. Everyone who knew him agreed that his eyes were strange. They were vivid green, and seemed to pierce right into your soul... like he knew what you were thinking."

Harry noticed the others were listening. Unused to so much attention, he went on hesitantly.

"I worked on the ARK project for several months. During that time I learned that there was another group of scientists living on the ARK. They called themselves the S.E.C.R.E.T. group, short for Secluded Experiment Conduction and Research of Extra Terrestrials. They had been formed recently, and Kerrigan was at their head. One night as I was working I overheard a conversation.

'I think we found it,' said one man. He was talking to Kerrigan.

'That's good. Have you prepared the dosage yet?' Kerrigan replied. This is the part I could never figure out. I did not know what dosage they were talking about. From their conversation, I was able to guess that they had found something in space, and were preparing to give it some sort of medicine."

Harry paused for a minute, and then continued. "That was only a month before you came. After the conversation I heard, Kerrigan became distant and was harder and harder to contact. He was busy with something else, and no one knew what. Then about a day later, I was given a charge. It was a black hedgehog, who, as I said, looked a lot like you, Sonic." He looked at Sonic.

"He had been through extensive lung surgery because of his exposure to the vacuum, and he was still asleep. I cared for him for about a week, and then he woke up. He did not remember anything of what had happened before he was given to me. He did not even know his name, so he called himself Nine. I mentioned this to Kerrigan, and - it's odd - he seemed pleased. Then, about three weeks later, you showed up. And we became involved in all this." Harry gestured at the world around them.

"That's all I know."

The party nodded, and decided it was time for bed. Most lay awake for a long while pondering Harry's words.

The next day Alene checked Harry's wound again. It was inflamed.

"Definitely infected," pronounced Alene. She turned to Sonic.

"I think we should wait here a little while. Continuing walking will only make it worse," she advised.

"We can't afford to wait," said Sonic. "Find some more herbs, and then we'll continue. How do you feel, Harry?"

"Fine," said Harry, although his back was, in truth, aching. However, he had no wish to slow down the party.

"There, see?" said Sonic to Alene. She nodded reluctantly and gathered some more herbs. Once she had administered them, the party continued.

They came to the edge of the forest by midday. Sonic saw nothing but a large plain before them.

"Where's the citadel?" he asked, looking around.

"Sonic, look up," Tails said in an awe-filled voice.

Sonic looked.

Up there, amongst the wispy clouds in the sunny day, was a huge citadel. It was floating on nothing, suspended by air. The underside was rocky, like it had been pulled up from the earth. Huge towers soared up to be lost among the clouds. Despite the fact that it was home to an evil tyrant, the citadel was quite beautiful. It was made out of some silvery, unearthly material. The sweeping towers were surrounded by strong walls. Various birds flew high above it, certainly guards. More were unseen behind the castle walls.

"Wow," said Rouge. "Only one slight problem. Knuckles and I can glide up there, but what about the rest of you?"

"That's no problem," said Retio confidently. He took a whistle out of his pocket.

"We have spies among the guards, the flying ones," he said, gesturing up to the citadel. "If I blow this whistle, they will come. But they will only come when the guard shift changes, so it won't look suspicious. I don't know when the shift changes, so we'll have to guess. Let's wait until sundown." guessed Retio. "That would be a likely time for a shift change."

They waited within the edge of the forest so as not to be seen. When sundown came, Retio blew the whistle. Nothing was heard.

"The pitch is too low for most ears," he explained. "But the guards will be able to hear it. Ah, we were right! Here they come now."

Five magnificent, large cardinals swooped down from the sky. They landed at the edge of the forest and appeared to begin pecking at various berries. But one of them said out of the corner of his beak, "Climb on our backs! We can take two at a time, but one for the human."

Alene and Tails climbed on one, Sonic and Saermore on another, Harry on one, and Retio on the last. Rouge and Knuckles agreed to glide closely underneath the riderless one so no one would see them. The riderless one would approach the castle first so the other guards would see nothing out of the ordinary. Then they would not look too closely at the other cardinals.

They flew up to the citadel, and all went well. The guards did not give them a second glance. The cardinals flew them in under the shadow of an arch.

"Good luck!" they whispered, and then flew off.

Sonic and the others hurried into the citadel. After the arch, the hallways branched off into four directions. The group headed down the center-right corridor. The layout proved to be fairly simple, and they headed in the general direction of the center of the citadel, figuring that Kerrigan would be at the heart of this.

As they were walking along one hallway, they heard loud voices. From the sound of it, about six guards were walking down the hallway towards them!

Sonic and the others waited until the guards had passed them, and then leapt onto them. They were taken completely by surprise and didn't stand a chance.

In a few minutes, the guards (who were all lizards) were subdued.

Saermore picked on the one who seemed most likely to be the leader. "Tell me where we can find Kerrigan."

"Kerrigan?" asked the leader suspiciously. "You should know. There's no need to attack us for..." Then he saw Harry. His eyes narrowed. "There shouldn't be any humans in the castle!" He drew in a deep breath to yell... and Saermore hit him over the head. He dropped like a stone. Then Saermore turned to the five other lizards.

"Would any of you be so kind as to give us directions to Kerrigan?" he asked in a dangerous voice.

One of the lizards put a trembling claw in the direction of a corridor branching off to the right.

"Can you give us more specific directions?" asked Saermore, not trusting the lizard.

Trembling, the lizard said, "I can lead you there if you want..."

"All right," said Saermore, yanking the lizard to his feet roughly. "Can we trust your companions, or are we going to have to tie them up?"

He turned to look at the four other lizards. They weren't moving, or even blinking. Suddenly Saermore noticed that thin sticks were sticking out of their necks. Then the other lizard collapsed on top of him.

Retio pulled out the dart that had appeared on the lizard's neck. "Poison." He quickly dropped it and leapt back into a nearby room. "They may have us in their sights!"

Everyone else quickly ducked into the room Retio was in. No more darts issued forth.

"I think whoever they were, they didn't want the lizards telling us where Kerrigan was," said Rouge.

"Then why didn't they shoot us?" asked Knuckles. No one answered that.

They stayed in there for a few more minutes, and then crept cautiously out. No one shot at them, so Retio assumed that the shooters were gone.

"We can go now," he said in a low voice. They walked quietly toward the corridor the lizard had indicated.

"Wait!" said Alene. She turned and rushed back to the room they had been in where Harry sat slumped against the doorframe.

"It's too much," said Alene as the others followed her. "The gash is infected, and it's too much for him. I told you we should have waited!"

Sonic regretted his decision, but there was nothing he could do now. "He's not going anywhere, but we need to go on."

"Alene, you know the most about healing. You stay with him," ordered Sonic. "We'll continue. Be sure you are well-hidden."