Kj: Well, all shall happen (at least the all you mentioned) in this chapter ;)
PyroHedgehog4ever: (blushes) Okay, I'll try :)
FriedBrickWall: Erm...thanks, I think :S (Knuckles: You've done it now; seems this reviewer's completely and utterly speechless.) Yes, Knux, but speechless good or speechless bad? (Knuckles: Given how often they insult and threaten me, I'd say it can only be good!)
Treasurehunter: (blushes again) Thanks for the review; I'm glad you're enjoying it!
Saffra: (grins) Yeah...it was about time Knux unbent a little :P
Matri90: Thanks :)
Samantha27: Jeez, for some reason Fanfiction didn't send me an alert about your review (shakes head) On the other hand, they also erased the total number of hits to all my fics as well; this is not my day :( Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed Tails' reaction ;) It seemed the most likely way for him to react. Sonic and Tails' reunion...yeah, you'll have to read on to find out :P
Guardian's Log no. 11467
Tails freaked out big time when I broke the news to him that Sonic was still alive. I guess I can't exactly blame him; I reacted much the same way when I came face to face with the guy.
Good news: he's accepted it.
Bad news: he's determined to go in and rescue Sonic, so we're leaving tonight. I don't want to think about what's going to happen when he comes face to face with his hero again, not least because I have a nasty suspicion that whatever happens will be blamed on me; Tails is in one of his It's-All-Knuckles'-Fault moods again.
--Knuckles the Echidna
Dear Diary
It's all Knuckles' fault. I tried to tell him Sonic was still alive, that a fall like that couldn't have killed him, but he wouldn't believe me. Ha! Well, who's laughing now, Knucklehead?
Actually, not me. I'm so...I don't know what I am. I'd started getting used to the idea that Sonic was really gone for good, that I'd never see him again, and then Knux springs that on me. Part of me wants to believe it and the other part of me doesn't think it can possibly be true, that Knuckles is playing some mean trick on me.
I was worried sick when I woke up and he wasn't there. I didn't mean to hug him like that; it just...I was too relieved to see him again. I know it makes him uncomfortable so I try not to do it too much.
But even if he doesn't like it, he didn't have to hit me! My head still hurts, thanks to him! He could've just stuck with pushing me away! And then he went and hugged me a few minutes later, just after almost bashing my brains in! Sometimes I think he acts weird and unpredictable just to bug me.
--Tails
"How much further?" Tails asked in a stage whisper. Knuckles rolled his eyes.
"You can talk normally, kid; we're well out of earshot. And to answer your question, about another ten minutes. You'll see it once we're over this ridge."
Tails subsided, edging closer to the echidna who, for once, didn't object. If it helped the kid go on, do what had to be done, then fine. Hell, Knuckles was almost wishing that he himself had someone he could edge closer to.
They clambered over the ridge in question – Tails hadn't flown since...since...actually, now that Knuckles thought about it, Tails hadn't flown seriously since Sonic's fall – and Knuckles felt every muscle in both his and Tails' respective bodies freeze simultaneously.
Robotnik's fortress was not just huge, it was positively grandiose, bristling with weapons and sensors. Knuckles hadn't been in much of a position to appreciate it before; Omega had insisted on the echidna's playing the part of a prisoner right up until he was actually inside, and Knuckles had been resigned to staring at the ground.
Tails shot a sidelong glance at Knuckles.
"Knux?"
"Hm?"
"Do you...do echidnas ever get scared?"
"No."
Tails' shoulders slumped slightly, but he rallied to the challenge.
"Good! Me neither!"
There was a short pause.
"We may sometimes feel...cautious about certain things," Knuckles went on, sounding as though he was choosing his words with the utmost care, "but not scared."
"Ah." Tails looked from the echidna to the fortress and back to the echidna again. "You feeling cautious now?"
Knuckles never took his eyes off the black structure as he replied, "Now? Yeah. I think it's safe to say that just now, I'm feeling very cautious."
"You know that prison you told me about?"
"What? Oh. Yeah. What about it?"
"How're we gonna get inside if you couldn't punch through the glass?"
The echidna smirked. "Don't worry about that. I got it sorted."
"Sorted how?"
"While you were leaping and bounding around the place like a demented flea, I slipped the Chaotix a little backhander to send Omega and Espio in to, ah, prepare things."
Tails shot him a look.
"What do you mean, prepare things? What things?"
"Explosives," Knuckles said simply. "We get down there, push the button and stand well back."
Tails stared.
"Oh, sure, and watch Sonic's brains and insides get splattered all over the walls!"
"See? A plan with no drawbacks."
"Knuckles!"
"Sorry, kid. Couldn't resist. And like I said, the explosives are contained; the blast itself is powerful enough to shatter the glass but it radiates inward, not out. Sonic'll be fine. Or to put it more accurately, the bomb won't hurt him."
Tails lay down on his stomach, folding his arms and resting his jaw on them as he stared at the fortress.
"You sure?"
"Oh yeah. The CDA are very, very good at what they do. Trust me; the only thing damaged is gonna be the chamber. Why d'you think I wanted to wait until tonight? I had to give 'em time to get this ready."
Tails turned to stare at Knuckles.
"You..."
"Yeah." When Tails continued to stare, the echidna added, "I wasn't about to wander back in there unprepared, kid." In a rare moment of levity, Knuckles grinned reassuringly at Tails. "We'll make it, you'll see. It'll work out okay."
He wished someone would grin reassuringly at him, tell him the same thing. The truth was, he didn't think they had any more chance of making it than they had before, didn't have a chance of doing anything, in fact, besides royally pissing off Robotnik.
"Knux?"
"Yeah?"
Tails floundered slightly, trying to find a way of expressing what he wanted to say. Eventually he settled for, "You know what you told me about Sonic? About...about his feet? It's true, right?"
"Yeah. Yeah, it's true."
"Well...if Robotnik...if we screw it up and Robotnik's gonna take us prisoner, you won't let him chop my tails off, will you? You won't let that happen, right? Right?"
Knuckles stared openly at him, understanding with terrible clarity what the fox was asking him to do.
"Tails, you're eight years old!" It was ridiculously inane, but for some reason it was all he could think of to say.
"Robotnik's not gonna care about that though, right?" Tails stared at Knuckles and the echidna realised for the first time how scared the kid was.
Fair enough. If it wasn't for echidna pride, Knuckles himself would be crapping hot bricks and throwing them out the window.
"Knux, you gotta promise me."
"You...you're seriously asking me to—" When Tails nodded mutely, Knuckles shook his head in disbelief. "Alright. I'll say it, because someone has to and I'm the only one around. We don't have to do this now. If you want to wait a week or two, get a lot more people behind us—"
Tails was already shaking his head.
"Uh uh! We gotta do this now, before Robotnik finishes Sonic completely!"
He's already had a damn good try, Knuckles thought grimly, but didn't say.
"'Sides, Sonic wouldn't give up, so he wouldn't want us to either."
Tails was wrong on both counts, Knuckles knew. He had a nasty feeling that Sonic as he was now would not only have given up, he wouldn't even have attempted it.
He sighed and tried once more to explain.
"Tails, I told you...the Sonic you'll meet in there isn't the Sonic you remember. He's changed. And not for the better," the echidna couldn't resist adding.
"And I told you, Knuckles; it's gotta be a ploy to trick Robotnik!"
Knuckles sighed. It didn't seem worth arguing over; he'd already learned that Tails could be exceptionally stubborn when it came to bad news.
"For both our sakes, kid, you better be right," he told Tails wearily, although he knew better.
"I am right," Tails said, unmistakable fervour in his voice. "Like I said, we gotta do this now!" He hesitated. "Uh. But it's okay if you don't wanna come, Knux; I don't mind if you wanna go back to your friends."
"That bite and assorted poundings you gave me didn't make me quit, Tails, and neither will asking nicely. I swore by the Master Emerald, remember?" Knuckles looked up at the fortress, then back at Tails. "We're not gonna get a better chance. Or at least, if we stick around, we might get hit by something."
"Promise me, Knux. You gotta promise me you'll...you'll sort me out!"
Knuckles took a long, deep breath, then regarded Tails through steady eyes.
"If we wind up in that situation, kid, I'll sort us both out. If I can."
Tails stared at Knuckles, clearly unsure whether to believe him or not.
"You promise?" he said again.
Emeralds protect me, he's only a kid, Knuckles thought wretchedly. Aloud, feeling like the worst kind of coward, he said, "I promise. Now let's go."
The two of them made their slow and silent way forward, pausing every so often to hide behind rocks in an effort that probably made no difference whatsoever, but which nonetheless made them feel a lot better.
Getting in was almost easier than it had been before; there were no guards posted and the huge guns that pointed threateningly at the entrance were dull and unmoving.
"I don't like it," Knuckles observed edgily, as he and Tails made their way to the switch the echidna had encountered previously. "It's too quiet."
"Maybe Robotnik moved."
Knuckles shook his head. "No. He's not the kind of guy who ups and moves fortresses just because an echidna and a two-tailed fox are on the warpath. Hit the switch."
Tails eyed it warily.
"What's it do?"
"You'll see. Just keep your tails ready. I'll stay on the ground and watch out for robots."
"Well, okay, I..." Tails broke off. "What do you mean, you'll stay on the ground?"
Knuckles cursed his slip – echidnas really weren't good at anything underhanded – then shrugged and said, "Figure of speech."
"I don't like that look in your eyes, Knucklehead."
"What look?" Knuckles said innocently.
"Okay, and I really don't like that one!"
The echidna rolled his eyes. So much for that idea.
"Trust me! I'd never do anything to hurt you, Tails, you know that."
"Well...okay." Reaching out, Tails pushed the switch and yelped in surprise as he rose through the air to land squarely on his head. Getting to his feet, he glowered at Knuckles, who had learned from his earlier experiences and followed him up somewhat more gracefully.
"That was a dirty trick, Knucklehead!"
"We're in a dirty place, Tails. Come on. Sonic's this way."
Whatever retort Tails had been about to make was eclipsed by the fox's desire to find and rescue Sonic and he shut his mouth again, his thoughts unspoken as they made their way to the prison.
"Where's Sonic?"
"Up there." The echidna nodded to the containment chamber, then grabbed Tails as the fox started towards it. "Tails, Sonic's—"
"You think he's changed, yeah, I know. Let go of me, Knuckles!"
"I know he's changed. Psychological damage notwithstanding, he's in the worst physical shape I've ever seen anyone in in my life. Be ready for that. I don't think he'd like it if you flinched or looked shocked or anything like that." Actually, Knuckles didn't think Sonic was going to like seeing Tails at all, but it seemed there was nothing he could do about that.
"Okay, fine, no shrieking, got it. Now let go!"
Knuckles obliged, the resulting physical laws shooting Tails forward several feet before he managed to right himself opposite the containment chamber.
The echidna could pinpoint the exact second when Tails recognised Sonic; the fox's eyes widened and he started to quiver very slightly, barely even noticing when Knuckles came up next to him.
"I tried to warn you, kid," he said very quietly. He himself hadn't forgotten Sonic's state – and he didn't think he ever would – but the sight of the hedgehog's battered and bloody form still sickened him. Sonic had his eyes closed, either asleep, unconscious or faking.
"How do we blow this thing?" Tails demanded, looking around for the explosives Knuckles claimed were planted.
A slight smile appeared on the echidna's face as he pulled out a remote that Espio had given him.
"Like this." Grabbing hold of Tails and pulling him out the way, he pressed a couple of buttons and ducked behind a crate.
The explosion rocked the entire fortress, shattering the containment chamber and jerking Sonic into wakefulness. He blinked around, not really focusing, then caught sight of the pair.
"Tails?" he said groggily.
"Sonic!"
Sonic stared hard at Knuckles.
"You shouldn't have brought him, Knuckles," he said coldly.
"He brought himself."
Tails scrabbled over the rubble, using debris, computer workstations and Knuckles for a foothold, then paused in front of Sonic and looked him up and down.
"Sonic, are you okay?"
The hedgehog shot a killing look at Knuckles.
"Is he taking the piss?"
"Why don't you ask him yourself, Sonic?" Knuckles said coolly.
"Did Robotnik really cripple you?" Tails asked, then squirmed uncomfortably as Sonic shifted the look onto him.
"What do you think?"
Tails looked at Knuckles for help. The expression of hurt bewilderment on his face was so vivid and so pronounced that even the echidna felt sorry for him.
"We're getting you out of here, Sonic," he said.
"I understand the kid not being able to grasp this idea, Knuckles, since he wasn't with you last time we discussed this, but what part of get out was too complicated for you?"
"Funny," Knuckles shot back, "I was about to ask you the same thing."
"Read my lips, echidna; there is no damn point anymore. Robotnik's won. You were crazy to think you could ever storm this place. Get out, go back to Angel Island. That won't save you either, but it'll probably take Robotnik a little longer to get around to destroying it. Get out and take the kid with you."
Tails stared up at Sonic, who met his gaze stonily.
"What are you waiting for? I told you to get out, kid. Stick with the echidna; he'll watch out for you."
"But Sonic, I...I thought we'd—"
"You thought wrong, then. It's over. Sorry you came all this way for nothing."
"Sonic, I...I..." Tails took half a step back, eyes full and suspiciously bright, then turned a quivering look on Knuckles. "Knux?"
"Sonic, snap out of it!" Knuckles said sharply. He didn't like the kid's expression; nobody deserved to be hurt that badly, least of all Tails.
Sonic laughed, a hollow sound.
"I told you, Knuckles, I already have."
"Just because you screwed up is no reason to take it out on poor Tails! What did that kid ever do to you except try and help?" Admittedly that in itself could be grounds enough to want to avoid him; the incidents in the cave had taught Knuckles this lesson all too well. Not all of Tails' inventions worked perfectly first time around. But that was still no excuse for Sonic's attitude!
"I never asked for his help," Sonic said flatly. "Though based on that, if I didn't know you to be an arrogant, cold-hearted prick, Knuckles, I'd almost say you liked the furball."
"The furball has a name, Sonic."
"So what?"
"'Sokay," Tails mumbled. "Honest, Knux, I don't mind—"
"No, well, I do!" Knuckles stared hard at Sonic. "You would have done anything for Tails, once upon a time."
"Yeah," Tails added suddenly. Reaching out, he grabbed Sonic's hand. "Remember? You were my big brother."
The hedgehog curled his lip scornfully and pulled out of Tails' grasp. Whether that was deliberate or whether he was doing it because the fox's hold had exacerbated one or more of his extensive injuries, Knuckles didn't know, and looking at the stricken expression on Tails' face, found he didn't much care either.
"Oh, grow up." The contempt in Sonic's voice and face was so pronounced that Tails fell back a pace or two, staring at him wide-eyed. "We were kids playing kids' games, that's all. No more, no less. You're still a little kid; this stupid dream of crushing Robotnik just proves that."
Tails sucked in his breath sharply. His expression couldn't have been more shocked or hurt if Sonic had slapped him.
"Little kid or not," Knuckles told Sonic icily, "I for one would trust him with my life." Yeah, he thought, surprised at the realisation. I really would.
"Aw...Knux..." Trying not to appear too pleased by the echidna's flat declaration, Tails scuffed a toe along the ground, smiling sheepishly.
Sonic's lips curved upwards in a sneer.
"Well, that's pretty damn stupid of you, Knuckles. After all, I trusted the kid with my life and look what happened to me."
"That's enough, Sonic!" Knuckles said, the sharpness of his tone covering up the danger underneath. "What happened to you wasn't Tails' fault, and you know it."
Sonic snorted. "Oh, I'm not blaming him for that rail not being there. I'm not unreasonable, Knuckles—"
"Funny," Knuckles cut across, "because it sure seems that way to me."
Sonic continued, ignoring him. "All I know, as you put it, is that one minute I'm grinding and the next I'm falling through the air. Hey, no problem, I think to myself. Tails will save me, he's my best buddy, my little brother." He spat the words, coating them in poison before dropping them into the hot, angry silence. "Tails can fly. He'll get me out of this. Only he didn't, did he, Tails?"
Two small hands gripped one of Knuckles' tightly. The echidna let it happen. The last thing Tails needed was to feel that Knuckles was turning his back on him as well.
"And when I look up – still falling, of course," Sonic added, "what do I see but Tails and Knuckles grinding happily on into the station. What's wrong, kid? Got bored trying to keep up with me and decided to move onto someone not quite so fast?"
"I...Sonic, I..." Tails shook his head, crowding next to Knuckles for whatever meagre comfort and sympathy he could glean from the echidna's bulk. He'd been prepared for sadness from Sonic, for humiliation and irritation as a direct result, but not this all-out, no-holds-barred personal attack. "I didn't mean not to catch you. Honest. Right Knuckles?" He turned a pleading stare on the echidna.
"It's true," Knuckles informed Sonic in tones of iron control. "He spent nearly a full week looking for you."
"Yeah? Pity he wasn't so keen on the idea of catching me. I don't suppose it occurred to either of you that after all that time, I would have hit the bottom?" Sonic added with delicate sarcasm.
"Sonic..." Tails began, then broke off, at a loss for what to say.
"What?" Sonic sneered. "Sonic this, Sonic that." He smiled coldly, almost cruelly. "D'you want something, kid?"
"We gotta get you out of here."
The hedgehog closed his eyes irritably. "Don't you start. You can't hope to help me now."
"We gotta try, though! You once said you'd never give up, no matter what."
"Kids' games," Sonic said again, not opening his eyes. "When you're not so naïve, kid, you'll realise that for yourself."
"And what about me, Sonic?" Knuckles said, his voice now dangerously quiet. "You think I'm naïve?"
"Oh no, not at all." Sonic pretended to consider, then added, "Been fighting any more Master Emerald thieves lately?"
Knuckles stiffened. "Say that again?"
"If it pisses you off enough to put me out of this, Knuckles, I'd be glad to." Sonic cleared his throat. "Been fighting any more Master Emerald thieves lately?"
"As it happens, no. I've been too damn busy looking after someone's little brother and trying to think of a way to break you out!"
"Yeah?" Sonic snorted. "Well, you've been wasting your time then."
Tails released Knuckles' hand and came to stand in front of him, fixing him with a beseeching stare.
"You don't really mean that, Sonic."
The hedgehog's jade eyes snapped open again to stare at him so fiercely that Tails pulled away, almost afraid.
"Don't tell me what I do and don't mean, kid. Grow up, get a life and stop hanging around in other people's the whole time. Then maybe you'll be in a position to criticise me. But I sincerely doubt it," he added, just loud enough for Tails to hear.
The fox's reaction astonished even Knuckles; Tails continued staring at Sonic for a full ten seconds, then abruptly brought one hand across in a blow that knocked the hedgehog clear into the opposite wall.
"You are a pathetic loser who doesn't even deserve to die," he informed Sonic, his voice shaking. "I hope Robotnik keeps you alive down here for a very, very long time."
"Tails," Knuckles reprimanded him, but without any real severity.
"Well, I do! If Robotnik chopped off my tails and tortured me as much as he could, I'd still never give him the satisfaction of knowing he'd won! And I wouldn't treat other people like dirt either!" Tails turned away from Sonic and kicked debris back into his face, then marched over to Knuckles. "C'mon Knux, let's get out of here. You were right; he's changed. I don't want that Sonic anywhere near me. I wish we'd never come." Pausing in the doorway, Tails turned to Sonic to deliver a parting shot. "I thought you were a hero, a good guy, but you're not! You're right; we did come all this way for nothing. Because that's exactly what you are, Sonic; nothing! You're just a weak nobody, a pathetic coward and you make me sick! I never wanna see you again!" He paused. "I know I said that in the Casino Zones too, but this time I mean it!" Turning, he raced out, whirring his tails for an extra turn of speed, leaving Knuckles and Sonic alone.
There was a long, horrible silence. Knuckles was looking at Sonic with an expression of both contempt and cold loathing.
"You utter, utter bastard." He spoke the words intensely, with an icy fire and conviction that was no way diminished by the low tone of his voice. "I'd match the blow the kid gave you if I didn't think it'd put you out of your misery too damn fast. There was no need to say all those things to him."
Sonic stared dully at him. Blood trickled from a split lip, but he was past feeling such trivialities.
"You do care for that kid. I thought you did."
"That kid," Knuckles mimicked the hedgehog's voice bitterly, "is worth fifty of you, Sonic."
"Then go find those other forty-nine of me. One of 'em's bound to keep him happy."
"You didn't tell me all this last time I was here."
"Believe it or not, Knuckles, last time you were here I was almost as stunned to see you as you were to see me. You're not a great one for helping people and self-sacrifice, and we both know you don't give a damn about what Robotnik does just so long as he doesn't do it to your oh-so-precious island. You should've just sent Tails on his way and gone on home."
"His way?" Knuckles echoed scathingly. "And exactly which way would that have been, Sonic? You were all he had."
"Got you now, hasn't he?"
"He damn well has, and unlike you, I'm not gonna abandon him first chance I get!"
"Abandon him?" Sonic stared hard at Knuckles. "Who failed to catch who here?"
"He needs you, Sonic."
"Yeah, and I need some kind person to give me a spare pair of feet, and you need to get back to Angel Island. Doesn't look like any of us are going to get what we want, huh?"
"I'll get back," Knuckles told him tightly. He couldn't ever remember being this angry. "I'll get back to the Master Emerald, Sonic, and I'll take that poor kid with me!"
"What a good idea. Why don't you start right now? The exit's that way." Sonic lay back, wincing and closed his eyes.
"You know something?" Knuckles growled. "I'm with Tails on this one. You deserve to die down here."
"So I keep hearing, but nobody seems to have the courage to make good on their threat yet."
"Who said anything about it being a threat, Sonic? Usually I refuse to give Robotnik what he wants on general principles, but in this case I'll make an exception. He wants to play with you himself before putting you out of it? He's welcome to you." Spinning on his heel, Knuckles stalked away in search of Tails.
He found him among the remains of a robot that hadn't been destroyed so much as annihilated. Tails was in the middle of the wreckage, still pounding on any piece larger than a grape.
"Tails. Tails!" Knuckles caught hold of the fox around the waist and dragged him away. "Leave it. It won't help."
Tails twisted around, trying to break free, but Knuckles refused to let go.
"It won't help," he repeated immovably. "Tails, c'mon. You're better than this."
Deprived of his chosen target, Tails rammed his fists against any part of the echidna's body he could reach. By the time he'd run out of energy – which was mercifully soon – Knuckles was bruised, aching and tired, but his grip hadn't lessened.
"You were right, Knux," Tails muttered, his voice somewhat muffled; at some point, he'd buried his face in the echidna's torso. "You were right all along. Sonic hates me."
"He doesn't hate you," Knuckles said honestly. What he'd seen in Sonic's face had been almost worse than hate; the hedgehog was past feeling anything at all. "He's just...all mixed up inside."
Tails snorted.
"Yeah. Nice try. I just remember when I was a kid—"
"Was?" the echidna couldn't resist echoing, smirking slightly.
"You know what I mean! When I was a younger kid," Tails added, glaring at Knuckles, "when I was a younger kid, I got picked on all the time 'cause I like to build stuff. If I ever tried talking to one of the other kids, they'd just look at me as though I was a complete stranger and not an important one either."
"Is this going somewhere, Tails?" Knuckles asked. "Because in case you hadn't noticed, this isn't a good place to go rambling down Memory Lane!"
"That's how Sonic looked at me back there. Like I wasn't even worth talking to. But he was the one who helped me out as well back then. Maybe you're right, Knux. Maybe he is just a little mixed up."
I don't think he's the only one, Knuckles thought, eyeing the fox resignedly. The idea of him comforting Tails was strange enough, but comforting Tails in the middle of his enemy's stronghold...that was insane!
"I mean, if we can get him out and cheer him up, he'll be just the same as before, right?"
Knuckles met the fox's gaze and held it, not unsympathetically.
"Tails, he'll never be the same as before, not after what's happened. He may start to want to live again, yeah, that's entirely possible, but you can't just pretend that the fall never happened."
"Knux, what he said...when I said he was like my big brother and he said—"
"He didn't mean the things he said, Tails."
"Why'd he say them, then?"
Knuckles floundered. How the hell did you explain the effects of torture on the mind to a kid like Tails? Frantically he cast about for an analogy and his mind hit the Casino Zones.
"You remember when you wrote that stuff about Sonic and me in that note you left for us?"
Tails winced.
"Knux, I didn't mean all that stuff I said. Least, I did, but I...well, I sort of did, but—"
"You meant it at the time." Knuckles' mind raced, trying to put things in order. "It's...kinda like that. Sonic means it now, but if we get him out of here and he recovers, he'll probably feel as badly about his actions as you do about yours back in Casino Night Zone." He hesitated. "Uh. Does that make any kind of sense?" Please, please let him say yes.
"I...guess so."
Close enough. "Good. Now let's get out before it's too late."
"Knux?"
"What?" Knuckles said edgily. Was it his imagination, or had he heard something from down the corridor.
Tails swallowed once or twice before continuing bravely, "Is what Sonic said true? Was it my fault he...you know."
Knuckles turned from scanning the corridor to see the pain and guilt written on Tails' face, and he softened.
Damn you, Sonic. Damn you all the way to hell.
"No, Tails, it wasn't your fault. You can't start thinking like that."
"He's right, though. I just kept on going and going and by then I was too far ahead to know what had happened, and you said he didn't scream. He didn't, right?"
"No. No, he didn't scream."
"You wouldn't just say that to stop me getting upset?"
"I would, as it happens, but I don't have to here." Seeing Tails still looked uncertain, Knuckles dropped to one knee in front of him, putting him on an eye-level with the fox. "Listen to me, Tails. I've said it countless times before and I'll keep on saying it until you believe me; Sonic's fall was not your fault. We can talk about this all you want back in the cave, but let's not do it here, okay?"
"Sonic—"
"I'll get the CDA to sort something out. Omega or Espio could get him out without arousing suspicion. But we have got to get out of here before—"
The hum of machinery cut him off and Knuckles whirled rapidly, coming face to face with what looked like an entire army of bots, more than he could handle. Hell, more than five or six of himself could handle.
Tails edged back, pressing closer to the echidna.
"Sonic was right, Knux. It was crazy to think we could just storm this place. We never had a chance really, did we?"
Knuckles hesitated. That was a little too reminiscent of Sonic's attitude for him to be entirely comfortable with it.
Maybe, but it's true. I'm not going to die lying.
"No," he said aloud. "Not really."
Tails shifted away from the nearest bot, determined not to appear weak by seeking security with Knuckles but unable to help himself.
"Knux? Knux, remember what you promised?" Tails screwed his eyes tight shut in preparation, then snapped them open as a pair of metal hands seized him and lifted him bodily into the air.
"Tails!" Fear, an emotion the echidna was unused to feeling and one which was almost crippling in its unexpected intensity, exploded in every nerve of Knuckles' being. "You bastards, let him go!" Without thinking about it, Knuckles lunged forwards, fists striking not quite at random and destroying everything they came into contact with as the echidna whirled.
"Knuckles!" Out the corner of his eye, Knuckles saw the robot hauling Tails away and redoubled his efforts, struggling to get past the rows of bots now blocking his way.
Something cracked the echidna on the back of the head and he dropped to his knees, dazed. His last vivid image was of Tails screaming and thrashing around in his captor's hold, then the something struck him on the head again and he collapsed into darkness.
Okay...so, 'nother chapter done :) If you read it, please review :D