Kj: Thanks (laughs) You never give up, do you? You should know by now I never give any of the story away in advance ;)

Private somebody: (nods sadly) I am indeed evil. My evility encompasses the realm of the Hanger Cliffs, with my borders occasionally crossing into the Land of Tortured Characters :P

Awdures: Thanks :D Not for much longer I hope (weg)

Ba: Heh...you did? Really:P Good call!

Shadow-spawn180: Thanks; glad you're enjoying it! Cliffhanger? Me? (innocent look) Nonono, I just finished work at that time and so had to stop to go home and...and...okay, yeah, it's a cliffhanger :P

FriedBrickWall: Tempting as it is to have Tails and Sonic miss each other...hmm...actually, that is VERY tempting, maybe I'll do it after all :P

Matt Lans: (c/o Metal Sonic) (laughs hysterically) Oh man, thanks! That review was just what I needed to psych myself up for a long day at work:D (Knuckles: You might extinguish Raker and Lara-Le at some point so we can get on with the story) Yes, Knux, in a minute

Maverick87: Oh, I sleep wonderfully knowing that people are on the edge of their seats eagerly awaiting more :P Mostly because (sometimes) I know what's coming next ;)

Asher Tye: Well...hmm, maybe yes, maybe no ;)

Riven: Thanks, glad you liked it :P

Draxidean Icefire T.: Ah, what indeed? ;) (Knuckles: Yeah, that's what I'd like to know!) Hmm...you make a good point; I hadn't considered Bait's speech to be hard for non-English speakers to understand (hangs head in shame) Puggle is the word for a baby echidna (yes, it really is :P I looked it up online and it was too cute not to use)

My Memoirs by Me

Bait's in trouble. Big trouble. I know that note was supposedly sent by him, but I also know he never wrote it. It can't be Robotnik – though the presence of that messenger bot means that he at least had something to do with it – so it's gotta be Raker.

I have to get up to the Egg Carrier, and that means I have to find a way up to Angel Island!

--Sonic the Hedgehog

Dear Diary

Knuckles let me go. I didn't expect that; I thought he was gonna drag me kicking and yelping into one of those homes. Maybe he's not as mean as I thought.

I don't know what to do. I want to go back and help him out – cause I know he'll need it against Lara-Le – but what if he tries to have me committed again?

I'm in Seaside Hill Zone; it's the first place I was able to land safely. I wish I could get a message to Sonic.

--Tails

Tails looked around. He'd never been to Seaside Hill Zone before, and he liked it. There were no bots, nothing to worry about and the tropical sun felt wonderful. It would have been perfect if he hadn't been so hungry.

The Tornado had had a somewhat shaky landing – Tails had been so desperate to escape that he'd forgotten he only had one hand to fly with – and was currently hidden on the top of a mesa. Tails had no idea how he was going to get back up to it, but he supposed that it didn't really matter.

He sighed. He'd been on the bridge linking the mesa in question to a larger island – Seaside Hill Zone seemed to be all islands, from what he could make out – for four hours now. He'd spent at least eight on it yesterday, just staring out over the azure waters. Something about the scene made him feel calm, at peace with himself.

There was a surge of power and two sleek, black and white shapes erupted from the water on either side, leaping cleanly over the bridge to cross in midair and crash down again on opposite sides, soaking the fox to the skin.

Tails stared, awed. He'd never seen such creatures, had no idea that such power and grace could exist in a single animal.

"Tails?"

The fox yipped and spun so fast he almost fell, coming face to face with a familiar blue figure.

It wasn't too surprising, now that Tails thought about it. Sonic was, after all, a drifter, and if you stayed in one Zone long enough it was practically guaranteed he'd turn up. Suddenly he wondered if that was why he'd spent so many hours on this bridge.

Sonic's face split into a broad grin. "It is you! I wasn't sure if it was. Finally decided to come down off Angel Island and mingle with the commoners, huh?"

Tails stared at him wordlessly for a few minutes, then something inside him shattered and he hurled himself at the hedgehog, clinging to him tightly and burying his face in Sonic's chest, quivering all over.

"Hey, hey, hey." Momentarily knocked off balance by Tails' unexpected reaction, Sonic staggered back a couple of paces. "What's all this about? Where's Knux?"

"He..." Tails looked away. "He...he couldn't come." Loyalty flared up in him at this point and he added, "He's had lots of stuff going on, Sonic. Lots of stuff. Yeah."

"And...what? He sent you down here to get you outta his quills?" Sonic said lightly, then caught sight of Tails' downcast expression and realised that this might well have been what had happened. "Damn. I'll kill that two-faced echidna when I get my hands on him!"

Tails' head snapped up. "Don't ever tell him I told you, Sonic! Not ever! Promise me! And don't ever tell him you've seen me or that I'm here or...or anything! Promise!"

Sonic quirked an eye ridge. "You don't mean to tell me you're afraid of ol' Knucklehead." The echidna had his faults, but Sonic found it impossible to believe that he'd ever hurt or threaten a little kid like Tails.

"No," Tails mumbled, "not Knux."

Something in the way he said it got through to Sonic; the hedgehog paused and said, "Alright then; who?"

"Sonic..." Tails opened his mouth, started to tell the hedgehog about what had happened, then lost his nerve and settled for saying, "What were those things?" He pointed and Sonic looked to where another of the creatures was leaping next to the bridge, this time high enough to turn a complete somersault before plunging back into the ocean. His grin widened.

"Orcas, little buddy. Don't tell me you've never heard of them."

Tails shook his head. "Uh uh. They don't have 'em back on Angel Island. I didn't know you could get fish that big."

Sonic winced and glanced over his shoulder. "Don't call them fish, Tails. Ever. Last time I made that mistake one of them chased me across three separate bridges in an attempt to eat me."

Tails frowned. "How could it eat you if you were on the bridge?"

"It was eating the bridge too." Sonic rubbed his stomach. "And all this talk of eating's making me hungry. What do you say we go get a couple of chilli dogs, huh?"

"Each?" Tails said hopefully. Sonic laughed aloud.

"Sure, why not?"

"Sonic..." Tails hesitated, then abruptly flung both arms around the hedgehog's neck hard enough to knock them both flying. "Sonic, I'm really sorry 'bout what happened! 'Bout everything I said."

"Hey." Sonic hugged the fox. "Forget about it, lil bro. It doesn't matter."

"Where's Bait?"

Sonic tensed. Seeing Tails again had momentarily driven the jackal from his mind. "Gone. Someone – I guess it was Robotnik – caught him and teleported him up. I was hoping to get to Angel Island, use it to follow him."

Tails shook his head. "You don't wanna go to Angel Island, Sonic. You really don't wanna go to Angel Island."

"Oh really?" Getting to his feet, Sonic scooped the fox up into his arms, settling him on one hip as Tails locked both legs firmly around his waist. "Why not?"

"Knuckles doesn't want me anymore, so he's not gonna want you there. You better just forget it."

"Tails, I can't forget it. I'm not going to abandon Bait, no matter how hard it is to get to him. He needs me."

Tails fixed the hedgehog with huge eyes. "I need you too, Sonic."

"Yeah. I know, kiddo, and I'm not gonna abandon you either. But I have to help Bait out as well." When Tails was uncharacteristically silent, Sonic pressed on. "He's not so bad, Tails."

"I'm not gonna be friends with him, Sonic, not ever. Last time I did that, he led me right to his brother an' they sent me down to that place."

A slight smile appeared on Sonic's face. "I seem to remember, Tails, that last time you and I really talked, you threw a rock at my head and told me to go to hell."

Tails flattened his ears. "I'm sorry, Sonic!"

"I know, lil buddy. And so's Bait." Sonic shifted his weight. "And what do you mean, Knuckles doesn't want you anymore?"

Tails pressed his lips shut. He didn't want to tell Sonic about Knuckles planning to have him committed, just in case the hedgehog decided to do the same thing.

"Nothing," he mumbled. "Except..."

"Yeah?"

Tails swallowed. "I kept having nightmares, Sonic. Like...I found you an' asked you for help but you didn't wanna know me. You're not mad, are you? You're not mad that I went with Knux and not you?"

Sonic shook his head. "Mad, no. I was a little hurt – actually, a lot hurt, if I'm going to be honest – but never mad."

"You're not gonna call me a freak and tell me to piss off? Or hit me and knock me down?"

"If Knuckles—"

"Nuh uh, not Knux! You. Least, in my dream. You hit me and said piss off you little freak."

Sonic took a deep breath. "Tails, no matter how hurt or angry I was, I would never, ever do something like that to you."

Tails continued looking at Sonic in mute appeal. "Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

The fox shifted his weight. "C'n we be buddies again? Like before?"

"Tails." Sonic pulled Tails into a hug, careful not to jar the injuries. "Tails, we've never not been buddies, not really." Looking down at the fox, he winked. "There's a good hotel up there. Let's get some room service, huh?"

A vigorous nod, and Sonic grinned. "Yeah? C'mon then lil bro. Let's get some food into you." He deposited Tails on the ground and the two of them walked over to the hotel in question. Sonic had been understating when he said it was a good hotel; the newly refurbished Sea Manor was one of the best on Mobius. Sonic had spent the odd night there, although their lack of any junk food usually made him avoid it like the plague half the time.

In this case, the rarity of his visits worked in his favour; the manager was so thrilled to see Sonic that he immediately put the hedgehog in the penthouse suite and informed him that the house would be picking up any expenses.

Up in the suite, Sonic managed to shoo away the personal butler and chef after only ten minutes of arguing, then turned his attention to Tails, who had headed straight into the jacuzzi and closed his eyes with an expression of bliss. Grinning slightly, Sonic reached out and picked up the phone, dialling reception.

"Hi, room service? Yeah, do you do chilli dogs? You don't, huh?" Sonic sighed. Well, it was always worth an ask. Time for Plan B. "Okay. I'll have one pella crumble, one portion of your chilli with rice, hold the rice, four finger rolls with sausages and a ladle—"

"And an apple pie," Tails piped up.

"—and an apple pie," Sonic agreed. "Actually, make that two and cancel the pella crumble." Covering the mouthpiece with his hand, he glanced at the fox. "Tails, what do you wanna drink?"

"Terapha juice!"

Sonic rolled his eyes. Teraphas were the rarest fruit on Mobius; a glass of juice cost upwards of two hundred Mobiums. "You won't like it, kiddo, but okay. One glass of terapha juice, and a carton of pella juice." There was a pause and he sighed. "Alright, make it a jug of freshly pounded pella juice if you must, but to be honest I'm just as happy with the pre-pounded variety. How long's that gonna be? Yeah? Okay, thanks." He hung up. "Half an hour! Can you believe that?" He sighed. "Oh well, might as well get started. C'mere, lil bro; I want to get your bandages off."

Tails scrambled out and came to sit next to the hedgehog.

"I miss Knuckles," Sonic heard him mumble and took a deep breath.

"I know, kiddo, but you'll have to make do with me for the minute." He risked a wink. "C'mon, I'm not that bad, am I?"

Tails shook his head. "Uh uh. Least I know you're not gonna—" He broke off suddenly and looked away.

"Not gonna what?" Sonic asked.

"Nothing. You gonna clean me up now?"

"Yeah. Yeah, kiddo, I am." Reaching out, Sonic took hold of a bandage and unwound it as gently as he could; it was crusted with dried blood and pulling it off took most of the scabs with it.

Sonic tightened his lips as the fox's back was revealed. Most of Tails' injuries were healing nicely, but there were a couple that looked like they were infected. Did infections spread from one injury to another? Sonic wasn't sure, but he had a nasty feeling that they might.

"Couldn't you have cleaned these?" he asked. "When was the last time your bandages were changed?"

"Dunno. Knux was gonna but...he didn't."

"Yeah. I figured as much." Sonic shook his head. "C'mon kiddo. Let's get you fixed up, huh?"

It took twenty minutes and three hastily ripped pillowcases before Tails' back was clean and bandaged again, and by that time the fox was almost asleep in Sonic's arms, only waking up when the food arrived.

"Here." Sonic scooped some chilli up in the ladle, dribbled it into a bun and then added a sausage and gave the finished chilli dog to Tails, who snapped it up in three bites and followed it with two others and his apple pie, washed down with one mouthful of terapha juice and about thirty more of pella. Big surprise there, Sonic thought wryly. Terapha was something of an acquired taste, and the hedgehog had decided very early on not to make the effort.

"So," he said idly, "suppose you tell me what you're doing down here now?"

"It was great, Sonic." Tails was now clinging determinedly to the hedgehog, something which worried Sonic. Tails was affectionate, but he wasn't clingy. "Me an' Knux, it was great, we had Angel Island all to ourselves. Then she came along."

"She? She who?" Sonic asked.

"Lara-Le. She seemed nice at first but then she changed. She murdered Knux's dad, did you know that?"

Sonic went very still, then he said, "No. No, I didn't."

Tails sniffed. "'Sokay, Sonic; I don't think Knux knew either until I told him. But she told me what happened an' even showed me the bones an' she said if I interfered or spent too much time with Knux that she'd send me back to that place where you'n'Knux rescued me from." He shivered and twisted away, trying to bury into Sonic's chest in a way he hadn't done since he'd been a very young cub. "Then...then Knux..."

"Knux what?" Sonic asked quietly, after several minutes had gone by with no sound from the fox.

Tails looked up at Sonic beseechingly. "Sonic, am I nuts?"

It was unfortunate he chose to ask the question in those words; it had been a favourite exchange between Sonic and Tails when the fox had been younger, and so Sonic gave the time-honoured reply, "No, Tails, you are completely and utterly psychotic."

"Oh Sonic!" Tails twisted away from him, buried his face in the pillow and burst into tears. Taken aback, Sonic reached out and rested a hand on Tails' shoulder.

"Don't!" Tails jerked away. "Don't do that, Sonic! Not ever!"

"Does it hurt?"

Tails hiccuped once. "N-no, but...you can't."

"Why not, squirt?"

The use of his old nickname made Tails quiver all over before bursting into fresh sobs.

"Tails." Sonic reached out and stroked the fur on the fox's head. "Tails, c'mon, this isn't like you." He felt Tails cringe away and swallowed. "I'm not gonna hurt you, lil buddy."

"You can't, Sonic." Tails looked up at him, eyes still brimming. "You can't touch me any more, not ever."

"Why not?"

"'Cause..." Tails' voice trembled, along with the rest of him, and then he said, "'cause when people touch me I go feral, Sonic, an' I don't wanna go feral on you."

Sonic was silent for a few moments, then said, "When you asked me if you were nuts, Tails, you weren't kidding, were you?"

Tails shook his head, huge blue eyes fixed on Sonic, who sighed.

"Then let me answer that again, seriously this time. No, Tails, you are not nuts. You're not nuts, you're not crazy, you're not psychotic and you're not any other word in existence which means the same thing." He took a deep breath. "Tails, what happened on Angel Island? What did Knuckles say or do to you?" Sonic couldn't imagine the echidna actually hurting Tails. Whacking him one or yelling at him in a fit of temper, quite possibly, but not deliberately and coldbloodedly hurting him.

"He..." Tails broke off abruptly.

"Yeah?"

"He said..."

"Said what?" Sonic prompted, after a few minutes silence.

"He said...he was gonna put me in a home for wild kids." Tails quivered under Sonic's touch. "I don't wanna go in a home, Sonic an' that's why you can't ever touch me again, not ever, 'cause I don't wanna go feral on you. You gotta promise."

"Tails, listen to me," Sonic said very quietly. "I don't care if you do go feral on me; I'm not going to make you that promise, and damn that echidna for ever making you ask for it!" he added tersely.

"You gotta." Tails looked up at Sonic. "I chewed Knux up in the mines. Maybe next time I'm gonna chew you up too, an' I don't wanna do that, Sonic."

Sonic quirked an eye ridge at him. "I'd be a pretty lousy national hero if I couldn't escape one fox, wouldn't I?"

"Someone else might not, Sonic. If someone brushes against me or pushes me an' I go feral..." Tails let the sentence trail off.

"When was the last time you went feral, kiddo?"

Tails frowned. "I guess...back in the tunnels, when Knux landed on top of me."

"Exactly. That was a long time ago, Tails, and frankly, if Knuckles used me as a landing pad, I think I'd probably go feral too," Sonic added with a wink, then became serious again. "Are you sure it was Knuckles?"

A nod. "Uh huh. At first he said he'd never do anything like that to me, then I fell 'sleep an' when I woke up he was saying to Lara-Le it might be for the best."

Sonic frowned. "That doesn't sound like him."

"Then who was it?"

"I dunno. But…Tails, do you remember when we first met Knuckles?"

A nod. Tails was clearly torn between seeking shelter in Sonic's arms and staying away in case he went feral, so Sonic settled the matter by pulling the fox into a hug.

"You remember how, at the end, he still didn't want to believe us? Not because he thought we were still after the Master Emerald, but simply because it would mean admitting he'd made a mistake?"

Another nod.

"Then you should know by now that the only thing harder than getting Knuckles to accept a new idea or concept is getting him to let go of an old one."

There was a silence.

"I missed you, Sonic," Tails said suddenly. "Knux is nice but he's not as easy-going as you."

The thought occurred to Sonic for the first time that this could well be the reason that Knuckles would have made a much better role model for Tails, and he smiled slightly.

"Guess I didn't do such a hot job of looking after you either, huh?"

"You did!" Tails' voice was muffled against Sonic's shoulder at this point, but there was no mistaking the vehemence there. "You were nice to me, Sonic, and nobody else ever was when I was a little kid. You bought me food an' sneakers an' played with me when everyone else jus' called me a freak an' ran away."

"There's more to looking after someone than feeding and clothing them." Sonic looked away. "I'm sorry I dragged you into all this, Tails. I should never have taken you into the fight."

"Yes you should! You couldn't've left me, Sonic; I wouldn't let you!" Tails looked up at Sonic. "And I'd do it all again too!"

Sonic looked down at him and managed a smile. "Yeah?"

Tails nodded. "Uh huh! An' if I hadn't been with you, you wouldn'ta been able to follow Robotnik into his fortress or get enough rings to get the Chaos Emeralds."

"And if you hadn't have been with me, we wouldn't have fallen out in Robotnik's fortress and you wouldn't have gone off on your own and been picked up by those slavers," Sonic said quietly.

"They'da done it anyway, Sonic," Tails mumbled, "and if you hadn't met me and wanted to save me, I'd have spent years down there and you wouldn't even know about it. Least now you know."

"Yeah," Sonic said very quietly. "And we managed to save that iguana, and Bait."

"See? It worked out okay after all." Tails looked away, then back at Sonic determinedly. "But I'm going back, Sonic. Lara-Le's gonna kill Knux if I'm not there. Knux can throw me out after if he likes or I'll leave 'cause I'm not going to any home, but I'm not gonna let him die either."

"Okay, kiddo, but I'm going with you. I want a little word with Knuckles as well," Sonic said ominously. Reaching down, he pushed Tails down into the bed, not ungently. "Now go to sleep."

"Can't. We gotta get to Angel Island." Tails' voice was a bare whisper, however, and he didn't protest when Sonic tucked the blankets around his small form.

"We can get to Angel Island in the morning, lil bro. Get some rest." Sonic lay down on the other bed. He'd only been there for two or three minutes when Tails padded over to him, dragging his blankets behind, and clambered in next to him, snuggling underneath the hedgehog's arm. Startled, Sonic edged over to make room and reached across Tails to adjust the now rumpled blankets, then drifted off into a troubled sleep that only lasted a few hours before Tails' nightmare – horrific even by the fox's normal standards – kicked in and Tails kicked out as hard as he could, scoring a direct hit on Sonic's shin.

"Ow!" Sonic sat bolt upright, spilling Tails sideways and started rubbing the affected area, then caught sight of Tails' rigid body and forgot his own pain. "Hey kiddo, are you okay?"

"They're gonna kill him." Tails' voice was barely audible and Sonic was prepared to bet every Mobium he possessed that the fox hadn't heard him. "They're gonna kill him an' rip him an' tear him an'—"

"Tails. Tails." Sonic spoke as soothingly as he could, reaching out to stroke the fur on the fox's head. "It's okay. It was only a dream. You're safe."

Tails blinked up at Sonic. "Knux?"

Sonic closed his eyes. "No, lil bro, it's me. It's Sonic."

"Sonic?" Tails looked away, resting his head on Sonic's chest, already more asleep than awake. "Sonic, I want Knuckles. Where is he? I gotta tell him something. I gotta tell him 'bout Lara-Le."

Sonic hardly dared breathe. This could be a major breakthrough, if he played it right...

"Why don't you tell me and if I see Knuckles before you do, I'll pass a message on?"

"Can't. Lara-Le said if I told anyone, she'd send me back to that place."

Sonic swore inwardly. Echidnas! Male, female, all alike. What gave them the ability – and more importantly, the right – to pick someone's deepest fears out of the air and exploit them?

"I know where that place is, Tails. I also happen to be the fastest guy on Mobius, so if she does send you back, all I have to do is run on ahead and rescue you as soon as you get there."

Tails blinked up at him owlishly. "You promise, Sonic?"

"Yeah, sure I promise." Sonic rubbed the uninjured part of Tails' stomach, surprising a giggle from the fox. "Now go on back to sleep. We got a busy day tomorrow."

---

Pain shot from Knuckles' shoulder down to his hand and he winced.

"You're crazy," he managed to get out.

"Far from it, Knuckles," Lara-Le told him pleasantly. "Far, far from it. You don't have to be insane to do something like this; after all, I wouldn't call Robotnik insane."

"Robotnik isn't the one who just stabbed his own son." Knuckles' breath rasped in his throat; he wanted Lara-Le to think he was badly hurt, almost dead, wanted her off-guard…

"No, but then Robotnik was never crazy enough to have children." Lara-Le shook her head. "I never wanted a puggle, but Locke insisted, and then when I found out about those mines I decided to plant my own agent there."

"How old is that puggle?" Knuckles demanded. Lara-Le had released him now, was turning to go and was also almost in reach of a certain pillar…if he could only distract her long enough to grab it…

"Almost five. When she gets old enough, she'll do for my purposes. I can wait until then and the people responsible for the tunnels were very amenable."

"You didn't create those tunnels, then?"

Lara-Le snorted. "Of course not! Those tunnels and that slave ring have both been in place for almost a hundred years now!" She shook her head. "At any rate, I can't hang around here, Knuckles. I have an appointment." Favouring him with an acidly sarcastic smile, Lara-Le added, "It was so nice to see you again. We must do this more often."

Turning, she strode away. Behind her, Knuckles' breathing abruptly smoothed and he stepped forward silently. Seizing the pillar in both hands and grunting slightly with the effort, wincing from the sudden pain in his shoulder, Knuckles ripped his target free from the surrounding masonry and swung it at Lara-Le, catching her by surprise and scoring a direct hit. The female echidna dropped to her knees, swaying slightly, then pitched forward onto her face.

Striving to make the move appear effortless, Knuckles tossed the pillar over his shoulder (accidentally shattering two more) and strode over to his mother's prone body.

"Sorry," he told her, a little curtly but sincerely, and walked out, wincing at the hot spikes of pain in his shoulder. He thought he might have pulled something there. Great.

It followed that by the time he got to Marble Garden Zone – with the intention of taking a running transport and using it to throw his mother off the edge of the Island – and caught sight of Sonic, Knuckles was in no angelic mood.

"What do you want?" he snapped.

Sonic folded his arms. "There's a welcome, Knucklehead."

Knuckles frowned slightly. The words lacked Sonic's normal light tone, were almost…angry.

"Sonic, if you brought Bait with you—" he began.

"I didn't. Bait is currently a prisoner of both Robotnik and Raker. I was going to ask you to use Angel Island to chase the Egg Carrier, but after everything you've done, I'll be damned if I accept help from the likes of you!" Sonic coiled back into a combat stance. "How could you, Knuckles? Just tell me that. How the hell could you?"

"How could I what?" Knuckles said, baffled. "Sonic, have you been drinking?"

The hedgehog shot towards him and Knuckles barely managed to jump out the way in time.

"Damn, what's your problem?" he demanded angrily. "First the kid throws me off a mountain, then my own mother stabs me and now I've got you on my case!"

"Tails told me what happened between the two of you," Sonic said, his voice dangerous.

"Did he? Well, I'm glad he told you! Now would it be too much to ask for someone to tell me?"

"You really need reminding, Knucklehead?"

"Yeah. Because you show up on my island, insult me, attack me and all without giving me any reason! I have a lot of crap going down in my life right now, I have someone who has come back from the dead to kill me, my kid sister's been tossed into slavery by our mother and I don't need this as well!" Knuckles paused for breath, then added in a calmer tone, "So what the hell's going on?"

"You were going to have Tails committed. I know he went feral on you, but if you can't hack that, you should never have agreed to take him."

The echidna stared openly at Sonic. "Is that what he told you? That I was sending him to some kind of…of home?"

"Aren't you?"

"No I'm damn well not! Lara-Le suggested the idea and I shot it down in flames, and Tails was there at the time!" Knuckles shook his head. "I can't think of any reason why the kid would want the two of us to fight, but if Tails said that I was planning to ship him off to some home or local nuthouse, then Tails is a damn liar!"

"I don't think Tails is the one who's lying here, Knucklehead!" Sonic shot back, not missing a beat.

This time it was Knuckles who charged. Sonic waited until he was almost on him, then darted to one side just in time to receive the full blow of Knuckles' fist to his ribs; the echidna had learned from past mistakes and moved with Sonic.

Sonic literally flew back a full twelve feet, cracking his head hard against a rock. Dazed, blood trickling from a nasty gash on his forehead, he staggered to his feet, swaying slightly as the echidna closed in a second time.

"No!" Moving as fast as he could, Tails raced between them, arms outstretched in a bold effort to defend Sonic. "You want Sonic, Knucklehead, you're gonna have to come through me first!"

"The way you've behaved and the way I'm feeling towards you right now, Tails, that really would not be a problem," Knuckles said in dangerous tones.

Tails flattened his ears, but stood his ground determinedly. "I mean it, Knucklehead! I'll fight you. To the death," he added, with a slight tremor in his voice; he knew full well whose death it was likely to be.

Knuckles stepped forward and Tails braced himself, but the echidna simply lifted him up – not ungently – and placed him to one side.

"Don't go making threats you can't carry out," he told the fox coolly. "You're no killer, Tails."

"I am!" Tails dodged and came to stand in front of Sonic again, his good hand clenched into a small fist and raised in front in a classic fighter's stance. "An' if you come near Sonic, I'll prove it!"

A hand dropped onto Tails' shoulder and he was moved aside for the second time that day, this time by Sonic himself.

"It's okay, kiddo." Limping slightly, breath rasping in his throat, he stepped forward. "This is between Knuckles and me."

Tails' ears flattened even further. "I don't want you two fighting 'cause of me, Sonic!"

"I'm not fighting because of you, kid," Knuckles said, taking Tails' comment to himself. Staring at Sonic through narrowed eyes, he added, "I'm fighting because this lunatic attacked me without a word of explanation."

"Lunatic, is it?" Sonic echoed. They were circling now, moving around each other with deadly grace. "Let me tell you something, Knucklehead. I spent hour after hour comforting your so-called little brother when he kept yelling and crying for you. Are you planning to have me committed as well?"

"I never planned to have anyone committed! I thought you knew me better than that, Sonic!"

"Funny, that," Sonic said flatly. "So did I."

Tails looked from one to the other. "Sonic, forget it! Please! Let's jus' say I was wrong, okay?"

Sonic ignored him, all his attention focused on Knuckles.

"I still don't know where you got this crazy idea, kid," the echidna said to Tails out the corner of his mouth.

"I heard you! You were talking to Lara-Le an' she said it'd only be for a month or something an' you said that maybe it'd be for the best! An' then you came and told me you were sending me away!"

"Yeah, I know! I meant you were going to stay with Sonic or the CDA!"

Tails opened his mouth for a stubborn retort, closed it again as the echidna's comment hit home and then said, "Oh," in a very small voice.

"Yeah, exactly! 'Oh'." Knuckles stared at Tails. "You decided to sic Sonic on me because you thought I was planning to toss you in some nuthouse? I guess it never occurred to you to actually ask instead of just running away?"

"You were gonna put me in a home!" Tails accused, still unwilling to banish the memory of Lara-Le and Knuckles' conversation.

"Why the hell would I do that when you already have a perfectly good home here on Angel Island?" Knuckles demanded. "Have some sense, would you?"

"It was perfectly good," Tails mumbled sullenly. "Least until she came along."

"You ran crying to Sonic because you were jealous of my mother?" Knuckles said incredulously. He shook his head. "Damn, kid, I thought you were more mature than that, I really did."

"I did not cry!" Tails denied untruthfully. "Not ever. Did I?" this was to Sonic, who had followed the conversation with no small amount of confusion.

"What? Oh. You say so, Tails. What the hell's going on?"

Knuckles folded his arms. "You attacked me, Sonic, and you don't even know why?"

"Well, that's the sieve saying the colander leaks!" Sonic retorted, mind scrabbling for a foothold.

"Oh no." Knuckles fixed the hedgehog with an icy stare. "Not at all. I have never, ever attacked or fought you without due cause, Sonic. I might be mistaken in that cause—"

"Might, he says," Sonic muttered, not quite under his breath.

"—but I have always known why I was fighting you." Knuckles shifted his weight. "So would it be too much to ask for an explanation?"

Tails sat down suddenly, ears drooping. "It's my fault, Knux."

"Why am I not surprised?" the echidna said heavily. "Keep talking."

"You remember when you an' Lara-Le were talking an' Lara-Le suggested putting me in a home for feral kids?"

"Yeah. I also remember slam-dunking that into the bedrock and telling her to get the hell off my island because of it while you were in the room, so how did that make you think I was going to put you in a home?"

"You said you were! When I left an' fell asleep in the Lava Reef Zone, an' then I woke up again and went back and you were talking to Lara-Le and she said that it wouldn't be permanent and that the hospital she had in mind specialised in treating ferals an' then you said that it'd be for the best!"

Knuckles took a long, deep breath. "Tails, I swear by the Master Emerald that I never had any such conversation with my mother."

"Your what?" Sonic said.

Tails hesitated. "But…then…who—?"

"His mother?"

"I don't know," Knuckles retorted waspishly. So far he'd been thrown off a mountain, bitten, kicked, pounded, then stabbed by his own mother – who was currently lying unconscious in the Lava Reef – and he felt that he shouldn't have to put up with Sonic and Tails ganging up on him as well.

"He has a mother?"

"Yes, he has a mother," Knuckles snapped in an aside to Sonic before returning his attention to Tails. "Kid, when you left I went to guard my hoard and then moved it to somewhere Lara-Le won't find it. The last thing I said to her was Sorry, and that was only because I'd just clobbered her with a pillar. I moved the Master Emerald and was going back to the shrine to retrieve the rest of the Chaos Emeralds when I found you." He paused. "Well, Sonic, that's my side of the story," he added acidly. "What's yours?"

"I got grabbed by Tails in Seaside Hill Zone and he told me he overheard you plotting to put him in a hospital."

"Am I a plotter, Sonic?"

Sonic took a deep breath. "No, you're not."

Knuckles nodded slightly and seemed to relax. The atmosphere shifted slightly, became less antagonistic and more focused on Tails, who squirmed.

"Let me make sure I understand this," Sonic said, after some time. "I have just fought the mother of all battles with Knux for no better reason than you eavesdropped on his conversation and couldn't be bothered to get your facts straight?"

Tails hunched his shoulders, ears flat. "I'm sorry. I jus'...I thought...I got scared an'...Sonic, we're still buddies, right? Right?"

"Hm." Sonic considered Tails seriously. "I don't know, Tails. I'll have to think about that."

It was a joke, a joke in bad taste with even worse timing, but still a joke. In his heightened state of anxiety, however, Tails took it at face value, turned and raced away.

"Damn!" Sonic swore and started after the fox, then skidded to an abrupt stop as the ground inexplicably darkened. "What the—"

"Robotnik." Knuckles looked up to the Egg Carrier, which was casting a vast shadow on the ground, making it almost invisible in the night air. "Great. That's all I need."

Sonic hesitated. Robotnik…Bait was up there, wasn't he?

"Bastard!"

Startled, Sonic glanced at Knuckles, who was shaking his fist at the Egg Carrier.

"What's your deal, Knux?"

"He's trying to land here! Here! On my island!" The echidna shook his head, spines flying wildly. "I'll show that filthy, obese, two-faced son of a—"

"Take it easy, Knuckles!" Sonic darted to stand in front of him. "Bait's up there. I don't want you blasting it out the sky before I've had a chance to get to him." He glanced over his shoulder. "And Tails…where'd he go?"

The echidna looked up at the Egg Carrier, then back at Sonic. "Never mind Tails. I'll sort him. You deal with Robotnik."

"You think I'm going to just blow Tails off for Bait?" Sonic said disbelievingly.

"I think that you can't save them both." Knuckles shook his head. "Go to Bait, Sonic. I'll look after Tails."

"I can't abandon him!"

"You're not." The echidna turned Sonic around and gave him a shove towards the rapidly descending dark shape that was the Egg Carrier. "But you can't do it all. Like you say on the surface, you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs."

Sonic looked away, hating it but knowing that Knuckles was right.

"Yeah," he muttered, then glanced up. "What's the Sargaryarn equivalent of that, anyway?"

"Wu-siyat-ma yuli bihan gali," Knuckles reeled off.

"Woo sih yart me...ma..." Sonic gave up. He had many talents, but languages weren't among them. "What's that mean?"

"'Never blame the rainbows for the rain'." Knuckles abruptly swerved to one side and started tearing up clumps of bracken while Sonic watched, bemused.

"Not that I'm not in favour of you taking up a non-contact sport like gardening," he said carefully, "but is now really the time?"

"You'll need this," Knuckles said, not bothering to answer such an inane statement. Catching Sonic's arm, he pulled him forward and shoved him onto a round platform. Sonic frowned slightly.

"Hey, I remember these. Don't you…you run and then they fly and—"

"Great, you got it. Now move." Knuckles turned to head after Tails, glancing over his shoulder to say, "And remember not to jump this time; as soon as the weight leaves it, the platform goes back to its starting point! It's been rewired to be a little more sensitive to direction though."

Sonic shot him a look. "I didn't realise you were such a mechanical genius, Knuckles."

"My people's technology was far, far in advance of your own, Sonic, and besides, you don't spend weeks and even months in the company of someone like Tails without learning a couple of things."

He broke into a run, scanning the surrounding area, and almost yelled when Lara-Le rose up in front of him like an avenging angel with a headache.

"Going somewhere?"

Knuckles, torn between shock at seeing his mother still alive and relief that he hadn't actually killed her (along with a good measure of anger at being relieved) seized her by the throat and threw her away from him like a rag doll.

"I don't have time for this! Get out of my way!"

From her position in the dirt, Lara-Le smiled. "You say so, Knuckles. But first tell me one thing."

Knuckles, already tired from his fight with Sonic, stab wound throbbing angrily, half turned. "What?"

"Did I just see Sonic the hedgehog go past on a running transport?"

Knuckles continued staring dully at his mother. "I don't know. Why didn't you stop him and ask?"

Lara-Le rolled her eyes. "Because if it was Sonic, he happens to move faster than the speed of sound, Knuckles. That means that by the time you hear him shout Hi, he's already passed you."

The echidna shook his head. "I don't have time for this, Lara-Le. I have to find Tails, I have to apologise to him and convince him I'm not out to have him committed." He paused. "You have until then to get the hell off my island before I come looking for you."

"And you have two minutes to get off my island," Lara-Le said, her tone now dangerous. "You can consider yourself lucky I don't just kill you now. You hit me with a pillar!"

Knuckles shrugged. "I said I was sorry, didn't I?"

Lara-Le slammed into him without warning, knocking him back and towards the edge of the cliff. Struggling to get a foothold, Knuckles brought his head forward hard, but Lara-Le had anticipated it and dodged easily.

"You hear that?" she whispered, almost into his ear. Knuckles, listening, found that he did; the sound of splashing from the river followed by the snap of teeth.

"Iksors have an incredible sense of smell," Lara-Le practically purred. "They can trace blood better and faster than sharks, and I tossed a dead bird into that river not too long ago. They're probably all too eager for something a little meatier, though."

A tan and white blur shot past to ram Lara-Le hard, sending all three combatants sprawling and taking Lara-Le over the cliff with it towards the iksors. Knuckles, whose body often reacted faster than his mind at the best of times, flung himself down on the edge and seized Lara-Le in one hand and Tails in the other.

"Knuckles! Thank the Emeralds!" Relief was obvious in Lara-Le's face and voice and, Knuckles thought acerbically, with a school of iksors leaping and snapping only a few feet below her, that relief was probably genuine this time. "Pull me up, quickly!"

Knuckles tried and found he couldn't. The problem wasn't strength, but leverage; if he tried to pull both Lara-Le and Tails up, he'd only end up sliding over the cliff himself.

"Knuckles! Knuckles, please!" Tails' grip slipped and Knuckles tightened his hold.

"Help me!" That was from Lara-Le, who now had both legs drawn up to her chest to avoid the leaping iksors. "Knuckles, your loyalty is to your family and to your duty, not to some person you barely even know!"

Knuckles stared down. His grip was slipping; if he didn't do something soon, he was going to lose them both. On one side was his mother, dead and somehow miraculously restored to him. They'd had hardly any time together, and despite everything that had happened, he suddenly realised that he didn't want to lose her again; she was someone who could understand what it was like to be alone, who understood the necessity of guarding the Master Emerald. Damn, she was another echidna, when he'd thought he was the very last survivor of his race. She could lead him to his sister – and Knuckles' brain still shut down every time he thought of that – or at the very least, tell him how to get her out. On the other was Tails, a kid that Knuckles would never even have met if Robotnik hadn't come for the Master Emerald and who the echidna had already saved countless times.

Knuckles closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said hoarsely, and made his choice.

Well, after planning towards this point ever since the beginning of Caves, it's finally reached (with only a couple of major plot changes :P) Anyway, Chapter 14 will be up very soon and in the meantime, if you read this, please review :)