This story arc starts with "Chapter 20: Lack of Strength".

Chapter 22: Falling Apart

Tails was sitting alone in his workshop, starting at Shadow. After the drama with Knuckles, Amy, Cream, and her family went home, while Sonic went on a run to clear his head. Shadow, on the other hand, refused to leave, as he wanted to wait and see what happened with Knuckles.

And this was awkward for the two-tailed fox. He... didn't exactly have anything to talk to the hedgehog about.

"So..." Tails ask, deciding to at least try to find something about. "Is... work good?"

Shadow looked to the fox. "It's fine, though my team is separated for the moment. Rouge is on a scouting mission. There is suspicious activity in southern Central City, the warehouse district. We suspect that it is Eggman activity. Omega is off wondering, looking for something belonging to Eggman to break. I'm on leave right now."

"Right..." Tails responded. "Same old, same old, huh?"

No response.

"...Should we let Sonic know about that possible Eggman activity?"

"Best not. That is G.U.N. business," Shadow said.

"Right."

Tails went back to tinkering. No use talking to the black hedgehog. They didn't really have much of a friendship, they were more like common acquaintances.

Then the front door opened.

"Tails, I'm back!" he heard called out. "We need your help!"

He turned over to look who had come in, and he found that Sapphire had come back, along with an annoyed-looking Knuckles, a silver hedgehog that he recognized, and a big purple cat... who had to squeeze through his front door.

"Sapphire! You're back! Thank goodness!" Tails exclaimed.

Then Shadow got up and walked up to Sapphire, placing his hand on her shoulders. "Sapphire, are you okay?"

Sure, he'll talk to Sapphire just fine, Tails thought. Not out of annoyance, he was just surprised that the black hedgehog had an easier time talking to his apprentice.

"I'm fine... but we were attacked... And Silver and Knuckles need some help."

Shadow glared at Knuckles, which set the echidna off.

"Hey! This isn't my fault. It's the Eggman Nega's fault!" Knuckles countered.

"Eggman Nega!?" Shadow and Tails exclaimed at the same time.

"What is he doing in this dimension?" Tails continued.

"Dimension? I thought he was from the future," Shadow noted.

"We've already had this discussion, and no, I don't know what the deal is," Silver said. "But Nega had taken m- someone important from my time." Shadow and Tails noticed that he stopped himself in the middle. "And just now, Angel Island fell. So we think he went after the Master Emerald."

"Just now!?" Tails exclaimed. He checked his Miles Electronic, and indeed, an area scan, plus general security footage, did show that the floating island was indeed no longer floating. Tails sighed. "One of the disadvantages to soundproofing my workshop, I suppose. And Shadow and I were too distracted after Saph ran off."

"Huh? Why did she run off?" Silver asked.

"Ask Knuckles," Shadow told the silver hedgehog.

"Hey! I apologized!" Knuckles shouted back.

Knuckles was ready to spare with the black hedgehog, but then Big got between them. "No fighting."

Shadow groaned, turning to Sapphire. "Are you sure you're feeling okay?"

Sapphire was silent for a moment, then put on a brave face. "Yeah. I-I want to help Knuckles and Silver."

"Okay," Tails spoke up, "what do you need then?"

"I-I heard that you may have an Emerald tracker?"

"Well... yes, my Chaos Emerald tracker could locate the Master Emerald, they share the same energy wavelength and frequency. But I'll need something to tune the tracker, meaning I'll need a Chaos Emerald."

Then Shadow held out his hand, where there was a green flash, and a glowing, diamond-cut emerald was in his hand. He then tossed it to Tails, saying, "I'd like this back."

"Figures Shadow would have one," Knuckles noted.

"Okay, Sapphire, I can quickly install the tracker in your device," Tails said. "That would probably be the most convenient way for you to have the tracker. The upgrade should only take me an hour."

"Right." And Sapphire handed her Miles Gear to Tails.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, I want to help."

"Don't worry," Silver stepped in. "I know she is a novice fighter. I'll stay close to her."

"Thank you..." Shadow sighed. "Okay, I was telling this to Tails, but we've heard some rumors of Eggman activity. It's possible that it's actually Eggman Nega."

"...I thought that was supposed to G.U.N. business," Tails noted.

"Well, this may be a new development," Shadow told the fox.

"It's a lead," Silver replied. "Thank you."

"...So where are we going?" Big asked. He was having trouble following along.

"A lot of complicated stuff," Sapphire told him. "Don't worry about it."

"Okay, this will take a bit," Tails said, as he had begun working on Sapphire's device. "Think you can wait that long, Knuckles?"

Knuckles wasn't happy with this, but it was the best chance he had to get his charge back.

Hours later, as the sun had just set, the group was now standing at the city's warehouse district.

"Reminds me of what happened with Gemerl," Sapphire noted.

"What happened?" Silver asked.

"He was stolen by a criminal weapons dealer. Me, Shadow, and some detectives had to go into an old factory to save him."

"Well, regardless, any Eggman will probably have something hidden deeper," Knuckles said. "Traps, robots, any kind of danger you could think of."

"Pit traps?" Sapphire asked.

Knuckles and Silver raised eyebrows.

"Sorry, someone in my old orphanage dug out a pit when I was younger, covered in a blanket, and... said we were going to have a picnic," Sapphire explained. "That was a lot of work for an unfunny 'prank'."

"...Right. Okay, We'll keep our eyes out for those," Knuckles replied.

Sapphire pulled out her Miles Gear, and began to use the new tracker. And instantly, she got a ping. A STRONG ping!

"Guys, it might be here," she told the group. "Follow me."

She guided them through the district, until they found themselves in front of one of the larger warehouses. The tracker was now pinging like crazy.

Sapphire looked up at the building. "This must be it." She then looked at Knuckles. "So, what should I do? Do you want me to stay back, and shoot?"

"Just stay out of my way," Knuckles replied.

Sapphire stopped, stunned. She thought that she was fixing things with the echidna. Did she do something wrong? Was he still not impressed?

"You okay, Sapphire?" Silver asked.

"I just... I want to be stronger, but Knuckles... he said that... I wasn't cut out for it. But I can't just ignore the bad stuff anymore," Sapphire explained. "I thought that I maybe impressed him in the ambush fight, but..."

"I think he's just annoyed that the Master Emerald got taken," Silver told her. "I've worked with him before, and this kind of stuff gets on his nerves."

"Alright..." It was nice to hear that Knuckles might not have been specifically mad at Sapphire.

"Hey guys, let's bust on in there, and-!" Knuckles shouted, but Sapphire interrupted.

"Hang on, let's not just rush in," she said. She looked around outside the warehouse, and found a path to a potential plan. "Hey, Big, could you lift me up to the ladder?"

"Huh, okay." And Big grabbed Sapphire, lifting her up to a ladder just out of her reach normally.

She grabbed and began climbing the ladder. Once she was on the platforms above, she found a broken window and looked inside.

"What do you see?" Silver asked.

"...Uh, nothing... I'm sor- Wait!" Sapphire started. The interior was empty at first, but then a pair of black-and-red Egg pawns, like the ones from before, walked out from behind a corner, guiding a large, mobile, laser turret into the space. "There's a couple of robots, and a turret of some kind."

That's when Sapphire had a thought, and pulled out her bow.

"Um, what are you doing?" Knuckles asked, seeing Sapphire from the ground.

"That turret looks dangerous, so I'm going to disable it," Sapphire called down to him.

"And if you miss!?"

"It's pretty big," she replied. "Chances are that I'll hit it." Though she didn't mention the greater chances of her not hitting something important. She was just confident that she could knock it out.

Being careful around the remaining broken glass, Sapphire stepped back, readied an arrow, and took aim.

"This is a bad idea," Knuckles dismissed.

"No, I think she's got it!" Silver countered.

"The stars look really pretty tonight," Big mused.

Taking in Silver's encouragement, Sapphire smiled, and fired.

...And she hit the ground in front of the turret.

The robots, of course, noticed this, started making alarm sounds as they looked up to where the arrow came from, saw Sapphire, and the turret powered up, and turned to aim at her.

"Eh heh, oops..." she sounded. "...I missed. And they're looking at me."

"Of course," Knuckles replied. "Alright, I'm going in-" But then he was stopped by Silver's psychokinesis.

"Wait for it," he said.

"Huh!?" Sapphire and Knuckles replied together. The hedgehog girl was in danger, and the echidna just wanted to rush in there already. Why was Silver telling them to wait?

The barrels of the turret began to glow, as the robots pulled out laser pistols.

"Ready?" Silver asked Knuckles.

"Yes!" he angrily replied.

That's when Silver smirked, and made his move...

A large burst of psionic energy blasted the doors open. The robots were too focused on Sapphire to react in time, as Silver then used his power to throw Knuckles at them.

Knuckles was surprised, but instantly took stride in this, spinning the air, and threw a punch, straight through the turret, thanks to the combined power of Silver's throw and Knuckles' sheer strength.

The unprepared robots attempted to turn to take aim at Knuckles instead, but then Silver and Big rushed in. Silver, using his psychokinesis, launched the one robot into the ceiling, then slammed it back down at meteor speeds. Even being built to withstand his power, it couldn't resist being broken apart from the force. Big, on the other hand, just grabbed the other bot in his arms, jump up, and flopped on his belly, ...which crushed the robot underneath him. Build to withstand heavy impacts, but not a heavyweight.

Sapphire was ecstatic. She screwed up, but Silver was able to turn her mistake into a strong distraction, saving the day.

But of course, an alarm was sounded before...

And more robots came pouring in from below the building's interior, including some of more of the Hammer Pawns.

"Finally, time to rumble," Knuckles exclaimed, pounding his fists together. And he, followed by Silver and Big, rushed into battle.

Watching from above, Sapphire was impressed by Knuckles' display. It seemed he had learned from the last battle, and since they were resistant to his powerful blows, he was now aiming to strike at joints, damaging their limbs, even knocking the heads off of some of the bots. It was incredible that Knuckles was showing to have as much skill as he had strength.

Big wasn't as clever, and was struggling with the robots, but he had begun lifting them up and slamming onto the floor, into walls, or other robots. If that didn't shortcircuit them, it at least stunned them a bit. At one point, he took his fishing rod, and hooked the missile rings of one of the Hamm Pawns that was preparing it. Big's tug seemed to be an attempt to pull it off, but instead, he only pulled off one missile...

...Which collided into the rest of the ring, and blew the whole thing up!

"Sapphire! Give me some ammo!" Silver called up.

The snapped Sapphire back to reality, and she began to shoot arrows towards Silver. She knew she didn't have to worry about aim, as Silver grabbed the hardlight arrows, and guided and threw them with his more precise aim.

The arrows tore through the broken leftovers of their power fighter's ramage, cutting their number down bit by bit.

As the battle came to its end, Knuckles jumped onto one of the Hammer Pawns with their missile ring out, tore out said ring, and then he leapt off of the giant bot while throwing the explosive ring back into its shoulder, the resulting explosions tearing through the machines structural supports.

As the robot fell, Knuckles landed behind, smirking at his work. Unfortunately, he wasn't paying attention.

Sapphire was, however, and saw the robot coming up from behind the echidna.

"Knuckles, watch out!" she shouted, as she took a drastic action, taking aim, and firing at the robot.

Unfortunately, her aim was off...

Knuckles barely looked up at Sapphire when the arrow hit him in the side. "GAH!"

Sapphire dropped her bow in horror. She didn't mean to do that! She didn't mean-

"WHO'S SIDE ARE YOU ON!" Knuckles shouted.

...Still failing to see the robot coming up to him.

The echidna got up, and pulled the arrow out. Not a bad wound, he was tough, and fine. But he was very angry.

He was about to give the girl a piece of his mind when...

...A cyan glow appeared to his right.

Looking over, that's when Knuckles finally saw the attacker, stopped moments from hitting him, only interrupted thanks to the timely intervention of Silver.

The psionic hedgehog lifted the robot above them, and then, using all of his power, tore it into two.

As the pieces of the broken bot fell to the ground, Silver turned to Sapphire. "Are you okay!?"

"Why are you asking her!?" Knuckles angrily shouted.

"It was an accident," Silver calmly said. "She was aiming at the robot walking up behind you."

Knuckles growled. "She's not the one fighting the stupid robots!"

Silver sighed. But while those two were arguing, Big came over to the distressed Sapphire.

"Hey, it's okay," Big told the hedgehog girl.

"I hurt Knuckles..." she cried, "how... how can I-"

"I almost sat on froggy sometimes," Big said. Froggy ribbited in response. Big continued. "He was really mad. But then I apologized to him. It makes all things better."

"I... right..."

Big held out his arms. "Can I catch you?"

Sapphire nodded, carefully stepped around the broken glass, and hopped down, into Big's arms and bouncy belly, where he safely let the girl onto the ground.

Sapphire and Big approached the arguing pair, who had calmed down a bit.

"Knuckles, I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to hit you, I just was trying to-" Sapphire started.

"I don't care! You should leave!" Knuckles interrupted.

"Wh-what, Knuckles, I-"

"You're not cut out for this!"

"Knuckles!" Silver shouted. "She wants to help. And she's new to this. She's going to make mistakes!"

"Well, why is this so important to you!?" Knuckles shouted to the white-ish hedgehog. "We don't even know who we're saving!"

Silver looked down, trying to contain his anger (something he was better at doing than Knuckles). "It's because this isn't her time. She can't know that this is the past!"

"She?" Sapphire asked, but was ignored.

"Okay, so what!? We can help! But she...!" Knuckles pointed to Sapphire. "She's not cut out for this!"

Silver took a deep breath. "And how else do you think she's going to learn." He turned to Sapphire, before continuing, "I think her problem is that you keep putting her down. But I think she has potential. She's smart, she just needs that chance to show off her capabilities, and grow into her strengths."

Sapphire smiled, tears in her eyes. "Th-thank you, Silver."

Knuckles growled. "You know what, I'm going after the Master Emerald. You handle your stupid missing person, or whatever they are."

"Knuckles...?" Sapphire asked.

He didn't answer, as he walked deeper into the warehouse, planning to search for his charge alone.

"Silver, thanks for defending me, but I... I don't know anymore..." Sapphire said. "Am I really that bad...?"

"That's okay," Silver replied. "Maybe this isn't your time. Go home, train harder, and I hope to see you again. It's best that I find my- that I find who I need to find alone."

And with that Silver left to delve into the warehouse, too.

Sapphire looked down. She wanted to try. She wanted to try so hard. But why could she not mesh well with others? Why could not be helpful?

Sapphire turned to leave, planning on leaving the area...

...But then she ran in something soft.

And looking up, she found Big, standing in her way.

"They're wrong," Big said. "I think you should keep trying."

"Big?" Sapphire sounded.

"I don't like it when people hurt other people. But you're trying to help other people."

"But I did hurt someone..."

"Were you mean to him?"

"N... no... I didn't want to be..."

Big then hugged Sapphire. "Silver thinks you are strong. But he doesn't know how to help you... But you want to help him, right?"

"Yes..."

"Do you think you can?"

"You mean... do I... believe in myself?"

Big thought for a moment (must've been hard for him), but said, "yeah."

"I... I want to... But..." Then Sapphire stopped. She understood what she had to say. "No, I will believe in myself. I can't let myself get dragged down. I need to prove myself!"

"Then let's help our friends."

Sapphire looked down at her bow. She had to keep trying. She had to help. In any way she could.

"Yeah... Let's do it!"

Knuckles, fuming, continued to delve deeper into the underground base hidden under the warehouse. With the first room cleared of robots, it wasn't hard to find.

Now alone, he began to his hunting sense to track the Master Emerald.

And it was close...

As he tore through the odd robot getting in his way, eventually, he made his way to a door. It was seemingly unassuming, but he could sense his quarry... somewhere behind it.

With no patience, Knuckles punched the door down, and rushed inside, where he found someone.

He looked like Eggman. But he had a white mustache instead of the reddish-brown that the echidna recognized. He also wore a black and yellow jacket over a red jumpsuit, with boots similar in style to his jacket. And his goggles were more of a visor set.

"So, you must be Eggman Nega," Knuckles exclaimed.

"And you must be Knuckles, no?" the man replied, with a voice like Eggman's, but higher and thinner. "A pleasure to meet you at long last, outside of a ruse."

"Where is the Master Emerald!?"

"Straight to the point, eh?" Nega began to pace in front of the echidna. And then he laughed. "And you think you deserve it?"

"Deserve it? You're the one trying to abuse its power!"

"And have I hurt others?"

"What, the heck is that supposed to mean?"

"I've been watching you, Knuckles. In your quest to be strong, to be the best 'guardian', you've put others down. Just like Silver... Speaking of which."

At that moment, the silver hedgehog appeared from the doorway.

"So eager to split up for your individual goals, that you've forgotten both of those goals lies with me," Nega said as Silver joined the group. "So, tell me, which is more important, the Master Emerald..." Then he looked straight at Silver. "Or her?"

Then the ceiling opened up, and a mechanical chair was lowered into the room. Sitting in the chair, was a hedgehog girl, with silver fur and quills, a tanned muzzle, and yellow-and-green eyes. Her quills were styled into two spikes, curves to her back, with a couple of smaller spikes brushed down along the sides of her head, the tips of all these spikes fading into a cyan color. She wore a cyan jacket over a white shirt with a small v-neck, blue and cyan bracelets with white gloves, a blue skirt with a belt with a gold buckle and over black shorts, and blue shoes that were similar to Sonic's, with long white socks.

She was gagged and held down to the chair by metal lock-cuffs. But upon seeing Silver, she seemed shocked.

Knuckles, however, was equally shocked. She looked a lot like...

"You aren't going to get away with this, Eggman Nega!" Silver told madman.

"He-he-he!" Nega laughed. "Aren't you such a good guy, Silver. Coming here to help such a helpless little girl! But does she even know what you do?"

"Wh-what?"

At this point, Knuckles had enough. "Okay, tell me what's going on here, already! Silver, is that girl you came here to safe!? And why does she LOOK like you!?"

"Oh, he didn't you?" Nega teased. "Of course, he didn't. He has to protect the future, but that apparently includes not telling you about his future time..."

"They know that it's a happy time. Where people live in peace, and are always smiling," Silver explained.

"Oh please," Nega countered. "Perhaps it's better than now, but no matter the time, no matter the place, there will always be someone who is suffering. Like me... like you... like her."

"That doesn't answer my question!" Knuckles shouted.

"Oh, you see it, don't you? You said so yourself," Nega replied. He walked over, and "cutely" used his fingers to squeeze his captive's face, causing her to glare angrily at him. "Why Silver is here to save his dear twin sister, Silvia. Though, of course, he does so under a veil of his own lies."

Author's Note: Gosh, I was so... directionless with what I wanted to write here. I had a hard time figuring out the events for this chapter. Heck, I even forgot that I had Tails make Sapphire an Emerald Tracker after a while... Yep.

Genuinely, I don't have much to say for this one. Obviously, I finally revealed who Silver was looking for, his sister. This is an OC that I made a long time ago, and I really wanted to add her to the story as a friend of Sapphire's. There's more we need to do before she can become a proper part of the cast, about another chapter or two. But it starts here. And there is SOMETHING planned, at least.

Also, I did feel I needed to ramp back up the right between Sapphire and Knuckles. We'll have to see it resolved in the next chapter.

*Sigh...* I'm not sure what to do with this story for the next chapter... I have already written the start of the next chapter, but only because I just so happened to be in a writing rush, and wanted to get the next part up before finishing this. For now, I'm going to focus on the next Smolgear and Undertale chapters.

If you want to see Silva's OC Profile, you can find it (and my other OC Profiles) on my DeviantArt, where I am known as "Cobalt-Gemini".