Saffra: Thanks; I'm glad you approve ;)
Samantha27: Well...yeah, I kinda had some spare time (whistles innocently and shoves manuscript under table) As to all your points...keep reading and all shall be revealed in this chapter :P
FriedBrickWall: Okay, okay, you'll find out about Tails in this chapter! I did try writing him into the last part, but it didn't seem to fit :P (Knuckles: And yeah, I remember swearing on the Master Emerald; why do you think I've stuck by the kid all this time?) Oh, leave off, Knux; you know you like Tails really (Knuckles: Hmph!)
Ri2: What indeed? You'll have to wait a while to find out ;)
PyroHedgehog4ever: (grins) Looks like it indeed ;) As for updating...is this soon enough for you? ;)
Kj: Heh, thanks :P
BlueCheetah: (goes red) Wow...thanks :) I don't think I've ever got a review like that before (happy smile) (Now, if my agent can just convince the publishers, I may be able to finally start making a living at this!) Anyways (fights off Sonic-hating mob) Wait! Wait! At least wait until the end of the story and then try and kill him if you want! (No Sonic no more updates)
Treasurehunter: (returns glomp) Okay, okay, I'm writing, I'm writing :P
Ryopon: Alright, here ya go; you wanted to find out what happens next, you got it (weg)
Guardian's Log no. 11469
Ha! In your face! Call me Knucklehead again, Robuttnik! Go on, I dare you!
Ahem. What I mean is, my ploy worked to perfection. I wasn't sure if Robotnik had bugged the cells or not, but I knew he'd find out I'd been to see Sonic, and he'd torture him to find out what we'd said to each other. I couldn't lie about the Master Emerald, but I lied pretty well about the Chaos Emeralds. Not bad for a guy who suffers from compulsive honesty disorder.
I'm healed, I'm going to find Tails and get him out, and if I have to drag him backwards by his ankles, so be it. The hell with Sonic; he betrayed us all just because he believed Robotnik would keep his word. Only a complete and utter fool would believe anything Robotnik said – even if they'd never met him before, it's easy to tell he's a liar – and...actually, on second thoughts, I think I'll stop that train of thought right there.
--Knuckles the Echidna
My Memoirs by Me
YEAH! You little con artist, Knux! Oh man, I shouldn't be pleased about this since Robotnik's likely to take all this out on me later once Knuckles and Tails have left but I can't help it! Maybe Knuckles can get the kid out after all. I sure hope so.
Tails, what I did...what I said...I had to. I know that may be hard for you to understand, little bro, but I had to. Knuckles'll look after you. You'll be safe with him.
--Sonic the Hedgehog
Dear Diary
I think I've figured out where I am. I'm in one of those crates Knuckles'n'me saw earlier down in the prison. I'm all curled up but there still isn't enough room to move. I got a cramp in my left leg and I can't walk it out; it hurts so much!
Knux, where are you?
--Tails
"You liar!" Robotnik's expression was one of shocked hurt, as though Knuckles had been his closest friend. "You..."
"Turnabout is fair play," Knuckles said flatly. "You didn't honestly think I believed you wouldn't find out what I'd said, did you?"
"Your brain has never been your greatest asset, Knuckles."
"Took the words right out of my mouth," Sonic said. Knuckles shot him an icy stare.
"I'll deal with you later."
"Can't wait," Sonic murmured very quietly. Knuckles glanced back at him sharply; there was the barest hint of a gleam in the hedgehog's eyes. Hope or anticipation?
"You wait!" Robotnik rummaged around in a compartment before extracting something and flourishing it at Knuckles. "See?"
Knuckles and Sonic exchanged looks. For a brief instant they were back on their old footing, then Sonic winced as one of his captors jerked him and the moment was lost.
"Doctor?" Knuckles said, his tone unusually polite.
"What, Knucklehead? Planning to beg for your life? You should have heard Sonic crying," Robotnik drawled. "He did give in in the end, although he wasn't happy about it. But he chose to submit of his own free will."
"Let me guess. The alternative was choosing of his own free will to be tortured further."
"Not at all. I'm not an unfair man, Knuckles. I always gave Sonic a choice before indulging in our little sessions. Either I would torture him, or I would hunt down and torture Tails." Robotnik smirked. "He always chose himself, no matter how many times we played that game. I did try to get him to pick Tails, but he never even hesitated, even when he had to trade his speed for the cub's safety. It was always the same, me, leave him alone, torture me instead. I imagine it put something of a dent in his day when he saw you two and realised it had all been for nothing, that Tails had walked voluntarily into my hands."
Knuckles stared at Sonic, momentarily speechless.
"You..." he managed at last, then cleared his throat and tried again. "Sonic...why didn't you—"
"What?" Sonic said flatly. "Tell you? Why? Would you have believed me, either of you?" He shook his head. "You were determined to think the worst of me and I let you. I hoped you'd tell Tails that there was no point coming here, that I was finished."
"I tried."
"You should've tried harder."
"Excuse me!" Robotnik's voice cut like a knife across the argument. "Excuse me, but I would like to get some torturing done today! You can argue about this later." He thrust the object towards Knuckles, who had suddenly gone poker-faced.
"That's a pella fruit," he said as politely as he could. "I don't think it would do me very much damage, Robotnik, even if you threw it at me."
"What?" Robotnik glanced at the orange fruit and hurled it away in disgust. Knuckles supposed that with their hard covering and general shape, a pella fruit might feel a lot like a Chaos Emerald if you were rummaging in a hurry.
The fruit hit the far wall and shattered. Knuckles winced. If he'd known it was fully ripe he wouldn't have been quite so bold; pella fruits started off soft and hardened from the outside in. When they were fully ripe – ie, rock-like all the way through – they became too heavy for the branch to bear and dropped, shattering on the ground and spreading their seeds that way. Knuckles vividly remembered racing through a grove when he'd been ten and having one crash down on his head. It had been two hours before he'd come round, and he'd been walking somewhat unsteadily for the rest of the day.
"Aha!" Robotnik pulled out the red Chaos Emerald and pointed it at Knuckles, who smirked.
"Go ahead, Robuttnik. Please."
Robotnik narrowed his eyes.
"Why does everyone think they're being clever when they call me that?"
"For the same kind of reason they think they're being clever when they call me Knucklehead," Knuckles answered. "Like I was saying, go ahead. I could use a little super strength right about now."
Robotnik hesitated.
"You're bluffing."
"Only one way to find out, isn't there?" Whirling abruptly, Knuckles rammed his fists onto the bots behind, smashing them to pieces before leaping and landing with pinpoint accuracy on Sonic's guards, catching the hedgehog before he fell and slinging him over one shoulder. Holding him firmly there with one hand, he clambered up the side of the egg. He didn't waste time trying to wrestle the emerald away from Robotnik; instead he simply plunged his hand into the alcove and seized the first two emeralds it encountered, then backed off with a mocking bow. "Thanks. I owe you, and echidnas pay their debts. So I'll tell you this much; this fortress is gonna blow one day and you're gonna be in it. You're a dead...well, whatever kind of creature you are, you're a dead one."
Turning, he raced lightly down the side of the egg and bolted for the door, narrowly missing the grab Robotnik made for either him or Sonic – or both – and got clear just as it slammed down behind him.
"Where are we going?" Sonic demanded.
"Down to the prison. I think that's where Robotnik put Tails, and I'm not leaving without him." Knuckles picked up the pace, swerving around corners not quite at random and not slowing down until they reached the prison in question.
"Any chance you could go a little more smoothly?" Sonic said tightly. "All this bouncing around is damned uncomfortable!"
"Hey, having my face three inches away from your butt isn't exactly the highlight of my day, either," Knuckles retorted. "If you want, I can dump you back in your nice little cell, leave you with Robotnik. You like that?" He considered. "Maybe I should do that anyway, after what you said to the kid."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Sonic said waspishly. "Would you like me to have told him that Robotnik did all this to me because I refused to let him have Tails?"
"He'd have tortured you anyway. That was just an excuse."
"You think so? Okay. Why don't you explain that to the kid? Tell him that if I hadn't had to protect him, I might've been put out of this a lot sooner. Isn't it bad enough he already blames himself for the fall?"
"Where is he?" Knuckles said, somewhat evasively.
Sonic shrugged.
"No idea. Maybe you can get one of your friends to spy out the land or something, or if we could reach Robotnik's command centre and somehow find a way to hack into his mainframe, we might be able to locate him, or if—"
Knuckles rolled his eyes.
"TAILS!"
"Or yelling is good," Sonic conceded, once the echoes had died away.
From up ahead, there came a plaintive answer. "Knuckles?"
Relief exploded in the echidna, the sheer intensity of it almost making him drop Sonic.
"Tails, where are you?"
"I'm here!" A brief flash of white showed against the darkness of one of the crates up ahead and the echidna deposited Sonic squarely against the wall and picked up the pace.
"Tails!" Knuckles seized the door and tore it from its hinges, reaching in. "Are you okay?"
"I guess." Tails gripped the offered hand tightly and emerged, looking somewhat shaken and limping heavily. Catching sight of Sonic, he bit his lip and turned away pointedly to look at the echidna. "Is he coming with us?"
"Don't start. Yes, he is. Are you sure you're alright? Robotnik didn't hurt you?"
Tails shook his head.
"Uh uh. I got a cramp though and couldn't stretch it out, and one of the robots got some of my fur caught in the door when he locked me in—" one tail was actually looking a little ragged, the echidna noticed— "but they didn't actually hurt me. Are you okay?"
"Yeah. The robots didn't hurt me either."
From his current position upside-down against the wall, Sonic snorted.
"Sure they didn't. C'mon Knuckles; if it hadn't been for Robotnik, you'd be looking almost as hideous as me."
"I never looked as hideous as you, Sonic, even when we were both fully healthy."
"Ha. And another ha," Sonic informed him coolly. "You, Knuckles, could not get a date off a palm tree."
"I never wanted one. Come on." Knuckles hauled Sonic up and across his shoulder again, then looked back at Tails. "We have to get out of here. Quickly."
No longer inclined to argue, Tails broke into a shambling run, strongly favouring his aching leg.
"What about Robotnik?" Sonic demanded in a somewhat shaky voice; Knuckles was really racing now and the resultant bouncing was affecting the hedgehog's speech.
"The explosives on the containment chamber weren't the only ones the Chaotix planted, Sonic. This whole fortress is rigged to blow at the push of a button, and if we don't get out and get back by dawn, that button is gonna be pushed! I got a smaller remote on me; we can blow it from outside. Actually..." Knuckles paused and pulled out the remote in question, then threw it to Tails. "Go on. Take it and get clear as fast as you can; we'll catch up! Wait!" he added as Tails turned to speed away. Knuckles threw him a Chaos Emerald. "Take that as well. That way if we're...if Robotnik..."
He didn't have to finish the sentence. Tails stared at him, then nodded once and bolted down the passage, using his tails for added velocity.
"Leave me," Sonic grated through teeth clenched with pain. "I'll only slow you down."
"The hell with that." Knuckles started to run again. Under ordinary circumstances he was faster than Tails at full pelt, but carrying Sonic and trying not to subject him to any more pain than strictly necessary was almost halving his speed. Even if Robotnik did reclaim the emeralds they'd taken, he wouldn't get all the emeralds, not with Tails taking one and Knuckles having hidden another a long way from the fortress.
Doors flew open behind them and a small army of bots marched out, all armed to the teeth. Knuckles hesitated. Even Sonic in his prime hadn't been fast enough to outrun bullets.
Twisting around to see what was happening, Sonic grabbed Knuckles' shoulder, pushed himself off and shoved the echidna hard towards the exit in the same movement.
"Go! Get out of here! I'll hold them off; they'll go after me first!"
Knuckles stared at him in open disbelief.
"That's suicide."
Sonic glanced down to the side, then back up at the echidna. When he spoke, his voice was very quiet, yet somehow Knuckles heard every word.
"I'm dead anyway, Knux. I died the moment I couldn't run anymore. The kid used to look at me like I was some kind of god. Now he just..." Sonic shook his head.
"You don't expect me to believe you want his mindless adulation back again, Sonic."
"No...well, not really. But I want his pity even less."
In that, Knuckles was behind Sonic one hundred and ten percent. Sympathy and compassion was one thing, pity another. But still...!
"I'm not gonna abandon you again!"
Sonic held his gaze for a long time, then shook his head.
"You didn't," he said quietly. "Go on, Knuckles. Go, while you still can. And tell Tails I...tell him...oh hell, you know what I mean! Just tell him."
The echidna caught hold of Sonic's arm.
"Sonic, don't be so stupid! You don't have to do this!"
"Someone has to." When Knuckles refused to let go, the hedgehog shook his head again. "Look. I'm screwed, Knux. I can't run. I can barely walk. I always said I wanted to go out fighting and now I got that chance, I'm not gonna let you take it away from me to force me into a life I don't want. Tails is just a kid; I can't ask him to do it. And you, you have to get back. You have to get home, have to protect the Master Emerald—"
"Damn the Master Emerald!" Knuckles snarled, not knowing the words were going to come out of his mouth until he heard himself say them. Automatically, he sucked in a scandalised breath, almost as if it had been someone else who'd spoken. He'd said those exact same words to his mother before, when he'd been no more than a five year old puggle who thought that foraging for termites was more fun than guarding some dumb old rock. His mother's response had been short, sharp, to the point and knocked him tail over snout into a pricklebush. It had taken him two hours to pull all the thorns out of himself.
It certainly made Sonic smile, really smile, and Knuckles was grateful for that much at least.
"Those four words are probably the last I ever expected you to say, Knucklehead, at least in that order. You have any idea how tempted I was to say them during that trip of ours?" When the echidna still hesitated, Sonic thrust his journal into Knuckles' hands. "Give Tails that as well, and tell him it's from me." Knuckles still didn't move and Sonic closed his eyes with a grimace. "Knuckles, for Tails' sake, will you go!"
The mention of Tails convinced Knuckles, as Sonic had known it would. Reluctantly, glancing over his shoulder every step and feeling like the lowest of the low, Knuckles broke into a run, gradually increasing his speed until he was going full pelt, not sure if he was trying to run away from the fortress, the bots or Sonic. He didn't stop until he was outside, and then it was only because he'd met Tails coming the other way almost as fast, and the resulting collision knocked both of them flying.
"Ow!" Tails sat up, both hands pressed over his snout, massaging tenderly. Several feet away, Knuckles was doing the same thing to his chest.
"Sonic was right, Tails; your head really is a lot harder than it looks."
"Sonic!" His own injuries forgotten, Tails leapt to his feet. "Where is he? Did you drop him?"
"He dropped himself," Knuckles retorted, then saw the fox's stricken expression and relented. "If I tell you he's still down there, are you going to rush off on some crazy rescue mission?"
"I gotta go save him!"
Knuckles was ready and caught him as Tails blew past, keeping well out the way of the fox's suddenly flailing fists and feet.
"Just checking," he commented.
"We gotta get him out, Knux; he'll die in there!"
"I know," Knuckles said very quietly. "I know, Tails. And so does he."
Tails abruptly went limp and stared at him.
"Knux, you don't...you can't..."
Sensing that the danger was past, Knuckles released Tails and pulled out the journal.
"He told me to give this to you. And he told me to say that he..." Knuckles floundered, the exact word feeling too strange and alien in his throat for him to say it. Echidnas had no word for love in their native language, not because they were incapable of it but because they believed more in showing it than simply talking about it.
"He what?" Tails said.
"He said he was sorry for everything he said back there. He wants you to know that he didn't mean it, that he only said it because he wanted to drive you away before Robotnik caught you."
"He did?" Tails stared at the journal morosely. "Sonic really is a hero, right Knux?"
"Yeah," Knuckles said quietly. "Yeah, kid, he is."
"He started writing again," Tails said, leafing through the journal. "Guess Robotnik let him have some ink. It's a weird colour, though, look." He showed the latest entry to Knuckles. "I've never seen that kind of reddish-brown ink before."
There was a long silence.
"That's not ink, Tails," Knuckles said very quietly at the end of it.
There was a longer, more terrible silence.
"You mean—" Tails began, looking ill.
"Yeah." Knuckles rested a hand on Tails' shoulder, nudging gently. It was all he knew how to do; the echidna way of comforting friends and family. "Tails, we have to do it. We have to blow the place. Otherwise Robotnik will escape and everything the three of us have been through will have been for nothing." The thought occurred to Knuckles that it had already been for nothing, but he kept that particular gem to himself.
Tails took a deep breath, then nodded once, shakily, and handed over the remote.
"Do it, Knux. Do it quick before they catch Sonic again."
The echidna started to depress the button, then stopped as he caught sight of a familiar machine flying away.
"Robotnik!" Before Knuckles could stop him, Tails had leapt into the air, namesakes beating furiously. "You're mine!"
"Tails, no!" Torn, frozen in an agony of indecision, Knuckles hesitated; if he blew the fortress now, Tails would get caught in the blast.
Then he caught sight of the figure hanging off Robotnik's carrier and promptly forgot about everything, explosives included.
Sonic? How the hell...how did he...Staring openly, the echidna watched as Tails saw the hedgehog and abruptly changed course, grabbing Sonic and pulling him off. For one long, terrible moment, Knuckles was honestly afraid that the fox was going to drop him – accidentally or otherwise – then Tails seemed to secure his grip and pull away. As the echidna watched, something happened, something too high up for him to see, and Tails started to plummet.
The shock kicked Knuckles into action and he raced forward, timing his leap into the air to coincide with Tails' fall and catching the fox – and, indirectly, Sonic – neatly in his arms and flaring his spines to slow his own descent. With the combined weight of Sonic and Tails, the landing was rougher than usual and the resultant jolt sent all three of them sprawling. Knuckles shoved Tails behind a boulder, ducked behind another one and then hit the remote.
The explosion and sheer power was more intense than anything Knuckles had ever experienced – with the possible exception of when he'd been fired out of that giant cannon – and he cowered under it, bringing both hands up to protect his head. Turning in the aftermath to see if Tails was okay, the echidna saw the fox get to his feet and felt his blood run cold.
"No! Don't!" Knuckles yelled over at Tails, raising his voice over the steadily increasing rumble. "Get back down! Wait for the vacuum!"
"The what?" Tails shouted back, and then it hit, wrenching his grasp off the rock and buffeting him back towards the devastation.
"Tails!" Digging his spikes into the rock, Knuckles reached out and managed to seize the fox by the wrist as he flew past, and hung onto him grimly.
A few minutes later, Knuckles got to his feet, pulling Tails – who seemed determined not to let go – with him.
"Two parts to an explosion, kid," Knuckles said, his voice sounding faint in his ears. "First part, the part everyone knows about; the part that pushes heat and air out. Second part, the one nobody thinks about; the vacuum effect when the air rushes back in again."
Tails stared at him dully, then nodded in an absent fashion and looked around, dazed.
"Where's Sonic?"
Knuckles shook his head slightly, privately admiring the kid's loyalty.
"He fell over there. It's okay, Tails," he added, "he rolled up against a rock ledge. The blast didn't get him." Knuckles glanced over at Sonic's body and was amazed to see the hedgehog move. For one terrible, hopeful moment, he thought Sonic was going to stand up and dust himself off, just like always. He certainly tried, but his feet gave way underneath and spilled him sideways onto the rock.
Knuckles was at his side in an instant, Tails close behind.
"Sonic?" Knuckles said. "Are you going to be alright?"
A bubble of blood formed at the corner of Sonic's mouth and burst, his breath rattling in his throat as he tried to speak. Knuckles crouched closer.
"Robotnik? Is he...did we...did we win?"
Knuckles didn't need to look at Tails to answer.
"Yeah. He's gone."
There was a ghost of that familiar grin on Sonic's face as he let his head drop back. For some reason, that made Knuckles feel even worse.
"Liar. I saw him. I hitched a ride...saw him...leave in that...in his machine. We didn't win. We lost."
"We didn't lose," Knuckles told him quietly. "We didn't kill Robotnik, but that doesn't mean we lost."
"Alive. Robotnik."
"Yeah. Yeah, he's still alive, Sonic, but he's gonna lie low for a while."
"Tails?"
"I'm here, Sonic." Tails grabbed one of Sonic's hands and tried not to wince as the hedgehog seized his in a death grip and focused on something beyond either Knuckles' or Tails' vision.
"Hey little bro. Whaddaya say you and me take a trip to ol' Knucklehead's island, see if we can't rope him into this little journey?"
Tails shot an alarmed look at Knuckles, who mouthed the word Delirious and shook his head.
Sonic's gaze shifted, and he focused on the echidna.
"Knux? That you?"
"Yeah. Yeah, Sonic, it's me."
Sonic grinned at him. It was a grin that would have been less intimidating if his teeth hadn't been stained with his own blood. But it was still the same cocky Sonic grin.
"Guess you were right all along, huh Knucky?" He shook his head, the grin fading. "Guess I didn't learn fast enough..."
His body jerked spasmodically, back arching as he let loose a sudden pain-racked scream, then fell back gasping and sweating.
Both Tails and Knuckles stayed beside him late into the night.
Okay, that's it for this chapter. There's gonna be one more and then it's on to the sequel! If you read, please review :)