CHT.BI: Heh, thanks ;) I like twisting things when I write :P

XTailsX: Yep, sequel ;) One that's going to be almost pure Knuckles and Tails :P

PyroHedgehog4Ever: (blushes) Thanks :) And yep, there'll be a sequel's sequel, and probably a sequel's sequel's sequel and a sequel's sequel's sequel's seq—ah, you get the idea :P

Kj: Heh. That's a very interesting take; I hadn't thought about it like that. There will be some Sonic and Tails in the sequel, but it's largely (certainly at the beginning) going to be Knuckles and Tails...sort of like starting off with Knux and going onto Sonic towards the end...or there might be one chapter Knuckles, one chapter Sonic and so on...Tails and Sonic will team up towards the end of the sequel though, and that's a promise ;)

FriedBrickWall: Yeah...Tails can't be in every single chapter, at least not of this one ;) (Knuckles: Blackmail? And there I was thinking this person was starting to like me.) And thanks; I'm glad you liked it :D

Moonpaw7: Thanks :D Love the name, btw ;)

Toboe16: Thanks ;) And yes, the void plays a larger part in the sequel

Matri90: Thanks :) Like I said in the last chapter, yes, there will be a sequel ;)

Parslie: Heh...well, if so, then you're one of the few who did :P

Guardian's Log no. 11484

Well. I'll be interested to see how Sonic handles that development; something tells me Bait isn't going to be swayed by a grin and a wink. Sonic must love making life difficult for himself.

I'm almost sorry I had to leave those two though. I'd like to have seen how it turned out. Granted Sonic will probably tell me, but that's not the same.

--Knuckles the Echidna

My Memoirs by Me

I now have a very bruised hand. Bottom line, Bait thought he was viewed as the lesser of two evils and left. He and I had a talk – well, I say talk, it was more him screaming at me and my inserting the odd word whenever he paused for breath – and I think we got over the problem. Bait pretty much cried his heart out on my chest and ribs (which startled the hell out of me) and refused to let go of my hand, which is why this writing is a little wonky; he's currently asleep but he still has my hand in a death grip and I don't have the heart to take it back.

I get the feeling that underneath all his bravado and tough-guy talk, Bait's one frightened and seriously insecure little jackal cub. Poor little guy. I don't know what it is about Emerald Hill Zone; it looks beautiful, but a lot of the people there make my skin crawl. I thought that when I was there the first time and met Tails, and I still think it now.

I'm not bothered about Tails going with Knux anymore. That sounds callous, I know, but it's true; I think Bait needs me more than Tails does right now.

Why is that whenever I go to Emerald Hill Zone, I wind up with a kid?

--Sonic the Hedgehog

Dear Diary

I hope we go soon. Now Scarface knows where I am – and he must do else why would he have come – I'm not gonna feel safe til I'm back on Angel Island with Knux.

--Tails

Bait's Jurnal

So I sed the last entry was gonna be the last one but so wat? I was rong about Sonic and Im glad. I didnt wanna be alone, not agen.

--Bait the Jakkel

Tails was awake and shivering when Knuckles got back, standing in front of the window the echidna had left through and staring into the darkness.

"Haven't you any more sense than to stand in a draft at this time of night?" Knuckles demanded. Tails jumped and spun round, looking guilty.

"You're back!"

"Yeah, I'm back, and I thought I told you to go to sleep."

"I did but then I woke up and you weren't there." Tails came to stand in front of the echidna, looking up at him with large eyes. "Where'd you go to, Knux?"

"Bait went missing. I had to go help Sonic look."

The fox stared hard at him. "Since when do you do what Sonic tells you?"

"He didn't tell me to do anything! If you must know, he practically blackmailed me into it!"

"He did?" Tails' eyes grew, if it was possible, even larger. "Wow. What'd you do that was so bad?"

Knuckles opened his mouth, shut it again and then said, "Never you mind."

"Aw, c'mon Knux. I won't tell anyone. Promise."

"Damn right you won't tell anyone because you're not going to know. Now either go back to bed or get back in your beanbag, I don't care which."

Tails put one hand on his hip. "I'm not going anywhere 'til you promise not to abandon me again, Knux!"

"What are you talking about, again? I've never abandoned you."

"You did so! When I woke up and you weren't there—"

"Tails, I've told you before; much as I like you, I do have more important things to do than sit and listen to you snore."

The fox glared at him. "I don't snore, Knucklehead, you do!"

"I'm not getting into this debate now," Knuckles informed him; despite being told the same thing by Sonic, Mighty and every member of the CDA on numerous occasions, like most people he still remained convinced that he was a silent sleeper. "You can sleep in your bed or your beanbag. I'll give you three seconds to decide."

"Beanbag. But...uh...don't you, uh, don't you wanna change my bandages first?"

The echidna rolled his eyes. "Just what have you got against sleeping, anyway?"

"Nothing!" Tails said too quickly, then squirmed. "Well...I...uh...I get bad dreams, Knux."

"Everyone gets bad dreams, kid."

"I know. But...don't you wanna change the bandages anyway? Jus' in case?"

Knuckles sighed. He was tired – and like most tired people, he was also pretty irritable – and he thought he had the beginnings of a dull headache starting behind his eyes.

"Fine," he said ungraciously. "Get into your room and I'll see what I can do."

"My room?"

"Yeah. I can't do much to them when you're buried in a beanbag." Knuckles folded his arms. "Or you could go back to your beloved beanbag and sleep."

Tails shook his head stubbornly. "Nuh uh! I'll go for the bandages, Knux, thanks."

Knuckles sighed again. "Alright. Go lie down and I'll be there in a minute."

In fact it was considerably more than a minute when the echidna finally showed up to find Tails still awake by the simple method of holding his eyelids up with his good hand. Knuckles groaned inwardly. That had been his last hope, that if he spent long enough away, Tails would have fallen asleep again.

"Kid, your body needs rest."

"It needs bandages more," Tails mumbled, but Knuckles was already propping him up and unwinding the wrappings. The injuries underneath were starting to heal, but the echidna thought that Tails would be in for any amount of back trouble when he got older; some of the lacerations had sliced right through the muscle.

"You'll never lose the scars," Knuckles said quietly. Tails shivered.

"I don't care. I'm away from that place, Knux. That's worth any amount of scars, right?"

"You bet it is. You're lucky; your fur'll hide most of 'em except the one on your ear, and that's not too bad; it'll fade in time."

"That's okay. I like a coupla scars anyway. Drives the girls wild."

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Don't start with that, Tails! No amount of female idolisation is worth mauling yourself for!"

Tails abruptly lost his cool poise and shivered. "Yeah. I know." He paused. "Knux?"

"Yeah?"

"Is it true? About scars driving girls wild?"

The echidna closed his eyes. This was just like the little chat they'd had about the facts of life all over again.

"I don't know. If you find a girl, ask her." He opened his eyes again and studied Tails thoughtfully. "Though I'd wait a while. Your fur's still mostly dyed with your own blood. That'll take a lot of washing out. I can see you spending most of your time up at the hot springs."

"I don't wanna stink of rotten eggs, Knux!"

"Would you rather stink of blood and infection?"

"If that smell didn't make me wanna puke, then sure!"

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Trust me, it would. And if the smell didn't, the sight would. You ever seen someone rotting away, kid? Not a pretty sight." He finished the dressing, slid the tray onto a chair and stood. "Alright. You got your bandages, now go to sleep." So I can do the same thing, he added in the privacy of his own mind. It really had been a very long night.

Tails yawned widely. "C'n I get 'nother story, Knux?"

"No."

"You promised...if I didn't tell Sonic you promised you'd..."

"Sonic already knows; he overheard the whole thing," Knuckles said, then relented. "I guess a promise is a promise though, so okay. But not until tomorrow, and not at all if you don't get some shuteye."

Tails started to protest, then thought of something better. He'd been meaning to tell Knuckles about this for a while now, and there was no time like the present.

"Can I tell you something?"

"If you shut your eyes and get some rest straight afterwards, then sure."

Tails nodded. "Okay. Knux, you're never gonna believe this in a million years, but there's an echidna down in the tunnels."

Knuckles stared at him. "What?"

"Jus' thought you'd wanna know...night." Tails closed his eyes and Knuckles growled in frustration.

"Don't play this game with me now, kid! There's a what down in the tunnels?"

Tails opened his eyes and looked at Knuckles. "An echidna. Like you, only he doesn't have that crescent thing you got. He's got a kind of bib type mark though."

The echidna continued staring. "Tails, if this is some kind of joke, it's—"

"It's true, I swear," Tails interrupted. "I thought you were the last one."

"I am! I mean...I thought I was..."

"He's kinda cute, actually. Big eyes, big fists, big feet and these really small little spines and climbing spikes starting to grow, and this tiny little tail and..." Tails caught sight of the stricken expression on Knuckles' face and glanced away. "Sorry Knux."

The echidna was thinking rapidly, trying to work out what this latest development meant.

"How big is he?" he said suddenly.

"About so big." Tails held one hand up somewhere around waist height. "I don't think he's very old."

He couldn't be at that size, Knuckles thought, not quite randomly. Four, maybe five...or seven or eight, if you took into account the likely stunted growth and malnutrition, he amended.

"He's...well, he's not red like you, he's more crimson like you were when we first met you."

"That's a maturity thing," Knuckles said without thinking. "It's not unusual for echidnas to darken as they get older. Tails...are you sure?"

"Oh yeah. It's easy to be sure about echidnas, 'cause there's not much else he could be. At least, I think it's a he. How do you tell the difference, Knux?"

"Shut up and let me think. No, scratch that, first tell me when and where you saw him. Then shut up and let me think."

"He was in one of the minor tunnels, Knux, near to where you found me. I heard a couple of overseers talking and they said his mother gave him to them willingly with his sister, on'y she died a week in. Knux, I thought echidnas hated slavery."

"We do." Knuckles' mouth was working on automatic and his brain on overtime, trying to make some sense of this. "How did you...when did you find this out?"

"After they put me into that tunnel. I saw him going past with a tray. He must've bugged the overseers big time or they'd never've given him feeding duty, huh Knux?"

"What? Yeah, sure kid, whatever you say," Knuckles said, not really paying attention. His mind was fixed on that damn iguana. Had the lizard known and assumed that he was looking for the other echidna? He supposed it wasn't an unreasonable assumption, under the circumstances, but still...if he'd only thought to ask!

Well, he still could. The iguana had been awake in the TV room; Knuckles had seen him when Sonic had got back with Bait...and the echidna still wasn't sure whether he was glad or sorry that those two had made it up.

He glanced at Tails.

"I'm going down to the TV room."

"You are?" Tails started to sit upright. "Wait up, Knux, I'll come—"

"You'll do no such thing." Knuckles reached out and caught hold of Tails' shoulders. "You stay put. It's been all I can do to get you into bed; I'm not letting you wriggle out that easily. I gotta get the medical stuff back anyway."

Lifting the tray, he strode out of the room, then reappeared just long enough to say, "And go to sleep!" then turned and walked down the corridor to the TV room.

Sonic was kneeling next to a sleeping Bait and just debating with himself whether the jackal's peace of mind was worth the pain in both the hedgehog's knees and the increasing numbness in one hand when Knuckles crashed the door open, tossed the tray he was carrying to one side and folded his arms across his chest, staring hard at the iguana.

"Who did you think I'd come to find?" he demanded by way of greeting. The iguana shrugged.

"The other echidna, of course. Who else would an echidna come down to find?"

"There's another echidna?" Sonic looked up from his position at Bait's side; despite having fallen asleep, the jackal was still refusing to let go of Sonic's hand. "Wow. So much for your I'm the only one claim, Knux."

"What?" Jerked awake by Knuckles' abrupt entrance, Bait sat up. "Whassappnin'?"

"Nothing," Sonic told him. "Knucklehead's just having a midlife crisis. How'd you find out, Knux?"

"Tails told me. Just like that. Decided to spring it on me." Knuckles started to pace rapidly, then whirled to glare at Bait. "Did you know about any of this?"

"Wha?" Alarmed, Bait started to struggle to his feet, but Sonic caught hold of him.

"Don't listen to Knuckles; he's taking the piss."

"I'm damn well not, Sonic. Did you know, kid?"

"Know what, mister?" Bait said groggily.

Sonic hushed him, then stared hard at the echidna. "Knuckles, how much longer are you gonna keep persecuting this poor cub?"

"Poor cub?" Knuckles echoed. "Sonic, narrow brushes with death involving Bait notwithstanding, that poor cub is behind all this crap!"

"I thought we'd been through all this. Bait's not responsible; Raker is."

"Yeah? So why didn't the kid just refuse to do what he was told?"

"Could you say no to someone like Raker? Not everyone can punch through walls like you can. And on the subject of Raker, has anyone heard from him?"

"Not a thing," Knuckles said flatly. "Oh, I believe Bait's not out to betray us or Tails now, but as far as I'm concerned, that doesn't change what he did before. And it doesn't answer my question."

"Yeah, but mister, what is your question?" Bait wanted to know. If he was upset by Knuckles' caustic remarks, he gave no sign. "'Cause you been yellin' an' sayin' things like did I know but you still haven't tole me what it is I'm s'posed to know or not know."

"I think what Knucklehead's trying to say," Sonic cut in before Knuckles could open his mouth, "is, you remember what you did to Tails?" When Bait winced and nodded he went on. "Did you do it to anyone else?"

The jackal flattened his ears. "Well...yeah, mist—"

"Ah?"

"—Sonic! Yeah, I meant Sonic. An'...yeah, we did do it to other kids."

"Ever do it to an echidna? Or have you ever seen any other echidna besides Knuckles here?"

Bait shook his head vigorously. "Nuh uh. I dint know there was such things as echidnas before I met your buddy, mist—Sonic. Look, if I done anythin' wrong—"

"You haven't done a thing, Bait," Sonic told him calmly. "Knuckles usually gets irritable like this whenever he tries to think. His brain gets overheated; it's not used to such vigorous exercise."

"Screw you, hedgehog."

"Not a chance." Sonic settled Bait comfortably in the crook of one arm and then became serious again. "I'm guessing it was a puggle, Knux."

"A what?" Bait said.

"Baby echidna," Sonic translated.

The jackal grinned. "They're called puggles? Aw, mister, that's so—"

"If you so much as think the word cute I will slam dunk you into the ceiling," Knuckles said through clenched teeth. "And yeah, it was. At least, judging from Tails' description. You sure you didn't have anything to do with it, kid?"

"I won't tell you again, Knuckles; leave him alone." There was a warning note in Sonic's voice. "Raker's gang can't have sold all the slaves down there."

"Why not?"

"Because the kind of money involved would see them all lounging about on silk and velvet cushions stuffed with peacock feathers," Sonic answered simply. "Even Bait."

Bait ducked his head. "Nah, Raker'd jus' make me into one a them cushions."

"You get the point though," Sonic said to Knuckles. "And what about the other echidnas?"

"What?" Knuckles skidded to a stop and stared at Sonic. "What other echidnas?"

"Knuckles, how old are you?" Sonic said very patiently.

"What? Sixteen. Seventeen, almost. What's it matter?"

"It matters," Sonic answered, still keeping his voice incredibly patient and reasonable, "because if there is a younger echidna down there, then that echidna's parents are likely to be around. And where they are, there might be others. If he was born after you and after your parents died, doesn't that mean that there must be more echidnas out there? Ones who don't live on Angel Island?"

Knuckles opened his mouth, shut it again with a snap as this hit home for the first time, then opened it again to say, "We have to get him out."

Sonic snorted. "Get real. There are probably over a hundred overseers down there. Even if we sorted out Scarface, we'd still have to deal with all them others."

There was a pause as Knuckles slowly turned to stare at Sonic, who flushed.

"Uh...I meant those others."

"You have been hanging around with Bait for far too long, Sonic."

Sonic could see Bait interpreting that as his own eviction notice and cut in, "Yeah, and I've learned something new every day of that time." Granted that the things he was referring to hadn't been things he'd particularly wanted to know – to wit, Bait's stealing and Raker's treatment of him – but that wasn't the point. "And besides," he added, "you can't abandon Tails."

"Sonic, you don't get it! There are still kids down there, kids who—"

"—never really mattered to you until you found out that there might be echidnas as well," Sonic cut across sharply.

"I'm going after them."

Sonic surged to his feet, spilling Bait sideways into the beanbag. "You're damn well not, Knucklehead, and if you want to get clobbered by me again, just you try it! You said you were willing to look after Tails, fine. I won't stand in the way or bug the kid about that, but I won't let you wander off and leave him. He needs you."

"And what about what I need?" Knuckles demanded. Sonic snorted.

"What about it? Jeez, Knux, I thought even you'd figured this one out; you're looking after someone, you fix their needs first and your own second."

Knuckles glanced away, mind whirling.

"Look at it this way," Sonic added, "you'd have more chance of getting in and out in one piece if there's two of you—"

"Are you saying I can't do it?"

"I'm saying it'd be quicker and easier with two." Sonic eyed Knuckles keenly, although there was a slight glimmer of humour in his eyes. "C'mon Knux, you claimed Tails as your kid brother. Prove it. Be completely selfless for once; it'd do you good. If they haven't killed that mystery puggle by now, they're not likely to."

Knuckles didn't answer but Sonic sensed that the danger was past.

"Even if he doesn't come – and frankly, Knux, I wouldn't blame him if he never wanted to go within fifty miles of either this or Emerald Hill Zone again – he could probably tell you about the layout."

Knuckles considered this. He supposed it seemed reasonable enough, although that didn't mean he had to like it. Still, perhaps he could—

"Promise me you won't go back until Tails is fully recovered," Sonic said sharply, obviously following the echidna's train of thought.

"What?"

"You heard. Promise me, Knux!"

The echidna glared at Sonic, who returned the stare steadily, then he gave in.

"Alright! Fine! I promise that I'll come back only when the kid's back to his old self again, or as close as he can get. Happy?" Without waiting for an answer, he whirled and stalked out, slamming the door behind him, not stopping until he reached the window in his and Tails' room. Looking out into the bright lights, he saw that the building housing Sekko's Salves was ominously dark. Briefly he wondered if Amy had found another job yet.

In the bed, Tails stirred suddenly and Knuckles glanced at him. Sonic was right; sort the kid out first. Then bring that place to its knees.

A slight smile touched the echidna's mouth as he looked back out the window. Destroy the mines, free the slaves and find that damn echidna Tails was talking about!

"Knux?" Tails opened bleary eyes. "Knux, are we going home yet?"

The echidna shot him a look. "Yeah. We'll go just as soon as you're ready." He returned his attention to the window, feeling strangely light. Maybe they were going, but they'd be back, or at least he would.

After all, he had a promise to keep.

Okay, so it's finished :) It does leave a lot of loose ends, but most of 'em will be tied up in the sequel Sins of the Mothers, which was posted at the same time as this one. Thanks so much for reading and if you read this final chapter and note, please leave a review :)...and thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far :)

Kj: Yep, it's another echidna ;) And thanks, glad you liked it

XTailsX: (blushes) Wow, such praise...thanks (big happy smile)

Awdures:) Thanks. It's something I'm having a lot of fun with :P

Pyro Hedgehog4Ever: I hope so. So far I'm not sure what the sequel to the sequel's gonna be about, but I tend to start writing sequels to stories before the stories themselves are halfway through, so something'll turn up (although this particular story got some very dramatic rewriting at the beginning :P) Uh. Does that make any sense?

Moonpaw7: Heh, really:D I'd never have guessed. And thanks :)

Matri90: Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it ;)

SaffraEchidna: Thanks :D (Tails: Hey, I had a lot on my mind, okay?)

Parslie: Thanks :)

Asher Tye: Heh, no worries :D Thanks...and yes, there shall be plenty of crushing (possibly in the sequel's sequel ;))