XTailsX: ;) Thanks for the review...as for what Tails is gonna do...you'll have to wait and see ;)

Treasurehunter: (giggles) Knuxie-woo? Oh boy, I love that! (Knuckles: No. No! NO!) I'm glad you're enjoying it as well; I'll do my best to keep it up ;)

SaffraEchidna: Yep, another Tails chapter ;) I'm planning to alternate between the two :) I don't think Tails will ever give up :P Bait calling Sonic and Knux by name...I've read and reread Chapter 6 and...nope, doesn't happen. At least, not to their faces; the closest he ever gets is Mister Sonic ;)

Kj: (smiles) Thanks; I will indeed update ;)

FriedBrickWall: Heh...maybe (Tails: (looks at hammer) Well...I guess it's gotta be worth a try. Thanks.)

Ri2: Tails might have been able to fly out, but don't forget he only has one working tail now (the other one was broken as mentioned two or three times in Chapter 5 ;))

Toboe16: Thanks for reviewing...glad Tails is starting to grow on you (kinda ;))

TC Chan: (blushes) Thanks...I do my best. As for Tails...maybe I am, maybe I'm not ;) You'll have to see. Glad you liked the tray and pickaxe thing :P

Matri90: Thanks :)

Guardian's Log no. 11476

Well. That really was an eye-opener. I confess I genuinely hadn't realised that about Bait. It explains more than it doesn't, and I don't believe he's a traitor now. At least, not a complete one. I'm still not gonna forgive or forget what he did to poor Tails.

I wouldn't like to be in Raker's shoes when Sonic catches up with him, though. The guy's sense of justice is annoying, but I'll say this much; it's never misplaced and he hates bullies almost as much as he hates Robotnik.

--Knuckles the Echidna

My Memoirs by Me

Damn, what a can of vipers. No wonder Bait wanted to come with us so badly. Poor kid. I can't believe he really thought I was gonna beat him. I...oh man. This is so screwed up it's not true. I'd say that Knuckles was making it up, except I know full well he's not the type to invent something like that and besides, Bait's reaction to me was too real to be fake.

When I get my hands on that Raker freight marn, I'm gonna...I'm gonna...I dunno what I'm gonna do, but I'm gonna do it and he's not gonna like it!

One question though; if Bait really thought I was going to hit him, why'd he come out so promptly? I'll have to ask him.

--Sonic the Hedgehog

Bait's Jurnal

I wish Sonic wood hurry up and get on with it. He swor on that emruld that he wasnt gonna hurt me but I cant beleeve that. Raker always used to say that and then go ahed and do it anyway as soon as I came close enuf. I know the emruld's sposed to glow if you lie but Nux probly turned it off. Then agen, maybe Sonic was telling the truth, but its to weerd to beleeve.

--Bait the Jakkel

Raker flexed casual muscles as he stepped closer to Sonic.

"How was your swimming lesson?"

Knuckles had to hand it to the hedgehog; Sonic didn't even blink before saying, "Great, thanks. Next time I plan to go out to sea, do a little bodysurfing." He shook his head. "What do you want? Because if it doesn't involve telling us where to find Tails, chances are we're not interested."

"What do I want?" Raker feigned astonishment. "Don't you know? I came for my brother. I understand you're upset over losing your own, but that's no reason to go stealing mine."

Sonic shot Bait an incredulous look. "Raker's your brother?"

"Yeah. Dint I tell you?"

"No." Sonic returned cold eyes to Raker. "No, you didn't. It's bad enough another gang member does that crap to you. But your own brother...!"

"What crap would that be?" Raker said lazily. "Sure I give him the odd slap if he really screws up, but hey, we don't have the luxury of counselling back home."

"And what about that burn?" Sonic said, his voice now deadly quiet. "The one where Bait claims you held his arm in a fire until all the fur and skin was burnt off."

"Bait claims. Bait claims. He's a liar as well as a thief, haven't you figured that out yet?" Raker looked at Bait, smirking. "Go ahead, little bro. Tell 'em. Tell 'em that was all a lie, a ploy to gain attention." He glanced back at Sonic. "He's been so unmanageable ever since our parents died. Some days I don't know how to handle him."

"Why don't you try selling him as a slave?" Sonic said in the same killing tones. "I understand you're good at that."

Raker heaved a sigh, the sigh of one wrongfully accused. "Well, I can see how this is going to go. I wasn't the one who tricked Tails into coming to meet those guys. That was Bait. He really is very good at what he does."

"Is that true?" Knuckles demanded sharply, staring at Bait, who writhed under his stare.

"I...it's not...I dint know what they was plannin', mister, honest! It's true I did get your bud close enough for them guys to capture, but it wunt my idea, you gotta believe me!"

"I believe you." Sonic's voice had changed slightly; there was a hard tone in it now which said he would shatter before he would bend. For all his faults, Sonic had no malice or spite in his nature, and he'd been genuinely shocked by Bait's revelation. He'd never been involved with any gang in his life, but he'd always had the thought that they fought other gangs and did what they did because they believed in what they were doing, no matter how wrong it was. It had never occurred to him that they might do it because they'd get the crap kicked out of them if they didn't.

"You want him?" His voice was soft, and none of his listeners missed the danger there. "Come and get him. But you better be good, because you're gonna have to come to him through me."

"Mister." Looking scared, Bait edged away. "Mister, don't, they ain't kiddin' around."

"Good. Because I'm not either."

A mocking gleam crept into Raker's eyes.

"Well, I think this is easy enough to sort out, don't you? Why don't you ask the bait what he wants to do?"

Sonic heard Bait's sharp intake of breath and glanced at him.

"Alright," he said aloud. "Bait, if you want to go, you can. If you want to stay with us, you can do that too; nobody's gonna force you out." He looked back at Raker, his stare hard again. "I guarantee it."

"You sure you want him, are you?" Raker drawled. "Did you know he's a thief?"

"He's never stolen anything of mine," Sonic said, which was, strictly speaking, the truth.

"Only because you probably don't have anything for him to steal." Raker smirked. "Still, I agree to your suggestion. Bait, you're gonna leave these people in peace and come home with me, right?"

Sonic opened his mouth to protest angrily that this was a loaded question, but Knuckles kicked him on the ankle and he shut it again reluctantly.

Next to him, Bait swallowed once, hard.

"No," he said, a little shakily but determinedly. "I promised these guys I was gonna help 'em find their buddy, and that's what I'm gonna do." He looked up at his brother, who was no longer smirking. "You find summun else to do your dirty work, Raker, 'cause I ain't playin' no more."

A cool smile appeared on Sonic's face.

"Well? You heard him. Take a hike."

Raker lifted his jaw. "Are you going to make us?"

"Sorry. There's nothing big about beating the crap out of little kids."

Knuckles flexed his namesakes coolly. "I agree with Sonic. And do you realise how much you're gonna have to pay for making me say that?"

Raker eyed him warily, but also with a large dose of arrogance thrown in.

"I'm going to pay? What do you think I'm going to make you do?"

"Enough talk." Knuckles took half a step forward and swung from the heels. The resultant blow sent Raker flying through the air to crack his head on a tree trunk. There was a spate of nervous murmuring and the rest of the pack seemed to melt away into the shadows, massing either for retreat or retaliation.

Raker staggered to his feet, blood dribbling from a cut on his forehead, and glared furiously at the echidna.

"You're dead. You hear me? Dead!"

"Anytime, kid." Knuckles' tone was at its most dangerous, that silky note only ever crept into his voice when he was about half a nanosecond away from explosion point. "Anytime at all."

Raker looked around, seeking backup and finding none. For a long, long moment he and Knuckles stared at each other, then the jackal abruptly whirled and stalked away into the forest.

"Coward," Knuckles muttered. "Not so big when he doesn't outnumber us by two to one, is he?"

After a quick scan to make sure they were alone, or at least, not being watched too closely, Sonic turned his attention to Bait.

"The bait?" he said, staring openly. Bait saw the hedgehog's appalled expression and ducked his head, playing with his tail again.

"Yeah. I tole you that's what they called me."

"Yeah, you said, but...I never thought it was...eesh." Sonic shook his head. "What's your real name, kid?"

Bait shrugged. "Dunno anymore, mister. I was on'y a cub when our folks died."

"You're only a cub now," Knuckles retorted bitingly. The jackal shot him an indignant look.

"I'm ten years old! That's on'y...what? Six months younger than you?"

Sonic laughed delightedly at Knuckles' expression. "Ooh! Slam. Dunk. Score."

Knuckles grunted noncommittally, then turned and strode away.

"Don't mind him," Sonic told Bait, who was looking petrified at his own daring. Raising his voice, still grinning broadly, the hedgehog added, "He had a sense of humour bypass when he was in the egg."

Bait managed a tentative smile, although the nervous looks he kept casting in Knuckles' direction said he was far from happy about it.

"But seriously," Sonic added, no longer grinning, "do you really not remember your name?"

Bait shook his head. "Uh uh. Like I said, I was on'y about three when our dad died, an' mum...went a bit later. I don't hardly 'member what they called me before that."

"Went?" Sonic probed as delicately as he could. "You mean...she died?"

"Oh yeah, mister." Despite his effort to put a brave face on things, Bait's voice quivered slightly. "She killed herself."

Sonic's jaw dropped. "She what!"

"In the lake. She tied a rock round her neck an' jumped. They fished her out next day."

The hedgehog stared at him wordlessly.

"Why?" he managed at last.

Another shrug. "Dunno. Raker said she left a note sayin' it was 'cause she couldn't face raisin' a dumb brat like me wi'out dad. I dunno what I did that was so dumb, but it musta been bad, right mister?"

Sonic continued staring at him, sickened. That was...damn, to lose a parent like that so soon after the other one was bad enough, but to twist it around to make a little kid blame himself for it...

"That is sick." He spoke the words unthinkingly, with feeling, separating each one distinctly from its fellows.

Bait squirmed. "Yeah, mister, I know, but I dint mean to do...whatever it was."

Sonic shook his head. "I didn't mean you. I meant..." He shook his head again, hands snapping in and out of fists at his side. "If I had your older brother here right now I'd break every bone in his damn body!" he snarled so fiercely that Knuckles looked over from the campfire in surprise.

"Where's your folks, mister?" Bait asked, changing the subject with unusual diplomacy.

"Dead. They both died when I was too young to remember them. I grew up with my friends in the Green Hill Zone." For the first time, that knowledge sent a shiver down Sonic's spine. Green Hill Zone wasn't very far from Emerald Hill Zone. Fifty miles across and he could have ended up like Bait.

"Can we go back to the campfire now, mister?" Bait added. "It's kinda cold."

Sonic shot him a startled look, then nodded once. "Yeah. C'mon."

"Can I have another swim?"

The hedgehog shuddered dramatically. "Jeez, Bait, what is it with you and water?" Seeing the jackal's pleading eyes still fixed on his, he shrugged. "You wanna dice with drowning, you go right ahead. Just don't expect me to join you."

Bait promptly turned and raced away before Sonic could change his mind. A few seconds later, a loud splash and disgusted exclamation from Knuckles caused a broad grin to appear on the hedgehog's face as he jogged over to join him.

"Will you tell that little squirt that cannonballing within a ten foot radius of me is not allowed!" Knuckles demanded.

Sonic's grin widened. "C'mon Knux, you'd be laughing if it was me."

"It's me, though, which means it's not funny. Is it any wonder Raker did what he did, if Bait's like this at home?"

Sonic sobered instantly. "That's not funny."

"Who said anything about it being funny? Physical discipline's normal among echidnas."

"What Raker did wasn't like a clip round the ear for being naughty, Knuckles. It was sadistic bullying, pure and simple."

"And we all know how you hate bullies, Sonic."

"Don't you?" Sonic demanded.

Knuckles glanced away. "Yeah. Yeah, I do. You were right; we couldn't have abandoned him to those guys."

"Damn right! You...did you hear what he was telling me?"

"Eavesdropping is extremely dishonourable, Sonic."

"Yeah, you're right, Knux. So did you hear or not?" Without waiting for an answer, Sonic plunged on. "His dad died when he was three and his mum killed herself right after. And if that wasn't enough, Raker told Bait their mother left a suicide note behind saying that she didn't want to have to deal with, and I quote, 'raising a dumb brat like you without dad'."

Knuckles actually lifted his head to stare at Sonic. "That's a hell of a thing to lay on a three-year-old."

"You're damn straight! It'd be bad enough if it was true, but from what I can make out, Raker just did it to amuse himself."

Knuckles was uncharacteristically silent, thinking back to the death of his own father. His mother had said that he'd left to go on a journey and wouldn't be coming back. Knuckles had felt plenty guilty about that, and Lara-Le had been doing her utmost to convince him that it wasn't his fault. To have something like that, to have to live with the belief that you were so unwanted your own mother killed herself rather than stay with you...

"That Raker is one sick bastard," he said aloud.

"Yeah." Sonic frowned quizzically. "Is what you said true? Do echidnas beat their young?"

"We don't beat them, Sonic, not in the sense you mean. But if a puggle really pisses off the adults, it's likely to get a clip round the ear, as you put it."

"Including you?"

"Yeah, my mother knocked me into a pricklebush when I was five. Took me two damn hours to pull out all the thorns."

Sonic's jaw dropped. "Wow! What'd you do?"

"Skipped guard duty to go rooting for termites. I told her I was bored with staring at some dumb ol' rock. Lara-Le told me that it wasn't some dumb ol' rock, it was the Master Emerald and I said damn the Master Emerald. That was when she whacked me."

"Wow," Sonic said again. "No wonder you're so obsessed with guarding it. What about your dad?"

"My father?" Knuckles shrugged, although there was a slight cloud in his eyes. "I don't really remember him that well, but no. Lara-Le was always at him for being such a soft touch, as she put it." He took a deep breath. "Makes you wonder if it's worth fighting Robotnik when things like this are happening all over Mobius. I feel kinda sorry for the kid."

"Still think he's a traitor, Knuckles?"

The echidna met his gaze calmly. "This doesn't change anything, Sonic. No, I don't think he is a full traitor anymore – he's had his chances to betray or kill us – but nothing you say or do can make me trust him completely either. I won't do that until Tails is safely back on Angel Island."

There was a silence.

"You're planning to take him back there, are you?" Sonic said, the idleness of his tone in no way concealing the daggers underneath.

"Get real, Sonic. Assuming that what we've been seeing is accurate – and bear in mind we're trekking all the way around Mobius on that assumption – he's gonna need somewhere to rest and recuperate."

"And you think he'll get that with you?" Sonic snorted. "Dream on. I know you, Knux. You'll keep him so busy helping you with this, that and the other that the kid won't have time to breathe, let alone heal."

"I've never done that, Sonic, I don't intend to start and even if I did, that would be better than your rushing about and expecting him to keep up."

"When we get him out, he'll need something to help take his mind off it."

"Agreed, but that something isn't going to be racing around like a maniac."

"Always works for me, Knucklehead."

Knuckles shook his head. "That's you. Tails is Tails. Anyway, the first step is to get him out of wherever he is. And speaking of which..." He raised his voice. "Hey kid! Which way from here?"

Bait, who had been swimming round in circles in a nearby pond and trying not to hear what was being said about him, scrambled out, shook himself dry and raced to join them, almost running Sonic over.

"If they're takin' him where they said they was takin' him, mister, we wanna head..." Bait scratched his head for a few seconds. "D'you know the Oil Ocean Zone?"

Sonic winced. "If I say yes, are you gonna try and drag me there?"

"If he doesn't, I will," Knuckles informed the hedgehog caustically. "D'you want to save Tails or not?"

"Yeah, I do, but isn't there another way? Man, I've been through that Zone once and once was one time too many!" Sonic shuddered.

"You're only saying that because you're terrified of getting your feet wet."

"That's not—!" Sonic broke off. "Yeah, okay, so maybe that is true. After what happened here, can you blame me?"

"It's the last Zone with water in it we gotta go through, mister," Bait said apologetically. "After that we go through the Scrap Brain Zone an' from there to Mystic Cave. That's where the entrance to that place is," he added. "'Sides, there ain't much water in Oil Ocean Zone. Not real water, anyhow."

"He's right there," Knuckles said with a shrug. Sonic glowered at him.

"How would you know, Knucklehead? You hardly ever leave your nice comfy island!"

"My nice, comfy, floating island, Sonic. I've seen most Mobian Zones, if only from above. If Bait says we go to Oil Ocean to find Tails, we go to Oil Ocean."

"We could go the long way round," Bait offered to Sonic.

"You mean we're not?" Knuckles muttered, not quite under his breath.

"What's the long way round?" Sonic said hopefully.

"We cut through Jungle Zone an' Labyrinth an'—"

"Labyrinth?" Sonic echoed. He shook his head. "That underwater maze? Forget it! I'll take my chances on the oil slicks!"

"Good." Knuckles lay down next to the fire. "I'm so glad we got that sorted. Now, is there any chance of you letting me get some sleep?"

"You rest, kid," Sonic said in response to Bait's questioning look. "I'll keep watch." He shivered again. He didn't think he could sleep now anyway. One more nightmare about Tails or Robotnik and he'd lose it completely.

From Aquatic Ruin to Oil Ocean. Sonic shook his head, trying not to think of the last visit he'd paid to that particular hell. Man, why do these things always have to happen to me?

"Mister?" Bait spoke up softly from the darkness, not wanting to disturb Knuckles. Sonic suppressed a sigh.

"Yeah?"

"Mister, you wanna watch out. You wanna keep a close eye over your shoulder, mister."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's Raker, mister. He's crazy. Crazy-crazy, not jus' normal-crazy. He's not gonna be happy with you, mister. He's not gonna let me go without a fight."

"Neither are we, Bait."

"Yeah, but you ain't nuts an' so you dunno what he's capable of. Jus' watch your back, mister, is all I'm sayin'." Bait rolled over and stretched out, relishing the warmth of the fire, and closed his eyes.

Sonic stared into the darkness for a long while. He felt strangely cold, as though someone had just walked over his grave. Maybe he had managed to postpone the bad dreams, but something inside him kept whispering that it didn't matter, that he'd just stepped right into the middle of another, waking nightmare.

Okay, another chapter finished :) If you read, please review :)