Sonic spent several impatient, anxious hours waiting for it to be dark enough for the streets of the village to empty. The wait wasn't made any more enjoyable by Knuckles' newfound penchant for talking in his sleep.

"There's no one," he murmured, again.

Sonic sighed. "I can look after myself too, Knux." He spoke quietly, knowing he didn't dare broach this subject aloud. Not after Knuckles' reaction the last time he had tried to convinced him it wasn't his fault they knew about him.

"You could have just told them I was here. You didn't have to..."

Have to what exactly? From Knuckles' behaviour last night he'd been drugged at the very least, and the condition of his injuries was worse than could be explained by a struggle during his capture. Knuckles was one of the most stubborn people Sonic knew. He found he didn't like to think to hard about what it must have taken to coerce him into revealing something he didn't want to reveal.

Sonic curled his hands into fists in frustration. But then there was the man back at the base. He'd clearly been upset by the actions of his--what? Boss? Colleagues? And the people's reactions in the news reports Chris had shown him didn't tally with this brutality. People had been disbelieving, scared, excited, more than hostile.

It occurred to him that he didn't even know who was in charge on this world and whether the actions of the rulers bore any relationship to what the ordinary people thought. He hoped he hadn't endangered Chris and his grandfather by enlisting them as allies.

Knuckles stirred again and Sonic winced. He was starting to feel guilty himself and wasn't sure he could sit through another rendition of Knuckles' repeated, broken protests that he was alone.

He moved to wake him but stopped when instead of the insistent monotone, Knuckles quavered, "How can there be no one?"

Sonic paused, puzzled.

"How can it be empty? A whole island..."

Abruptly Sonic realised what Knuckles was dreaming of, slipping from one troubled memory to another. Even more than before, he was struck by an uncomfortable sense of eavesdropping on something not meant for his ears.

"Why would they leave?" Knuckles rolled over restlessly. "Why would they leave me here?"

"All right, that's enough." Sonic said, decided. This wasn't restful sleep by any definition. "Knuckles. Wake up." He pushed at the echidna's shoulder. "Come on."

Knuckles started awake, glass-eyed, his fur matted with sweat, his breathing noisy.

"Still here?" he said, the dry tone not quite covering the tension in his voice.

Sonic kept his voice carefully light. "Well at the risk of sounding like the dramatic high point of a bad movie 'I'm not leaving without you'."

If he hadn't known about the dream of a moment before he wouldn't have spotted Knuckles flinch, or noticed the subtle release of tension which followed it. As it was, he just pretended not to.

Knuckles closed his eyes. "We're not far enough away," he said.

"I'm working on it," Sonic said, fully prepared for an argument, but Knuckles had already drifted back into sleep or unconsciousness and didn't answer

Sonic looked from Knuckles to the darkness and stood up.

A phonecall was the first job, and it proved easy enough to find a telephone booth. The small town was fortunately without much in the way of nightlife and the streets were deserted early.

To Sonic's relief the call was answered by Chuck.

"Sonic? It's good to hear from you. Did you find your friend?"

"Yeah," Sonic watched warily through the glass of the booth for any late night passers by. "But there's a problem. He's been hurt. Quite badly. I didn't want to have to ask this..."

"Anything you need."

"I don't want to put you or Chris in danger."

Chuck laughed.

"Don't worry. We can keep a secret. No one need know you're here."

"All right. Thanks. We'll try and make it tonight."

"We'll be waiting." Chuck also gave Sonic some details of medicines to pick up, if he could, in his night's foraging.

Sonic managed to get most of them before leaving the village and returning to the rock outcrop where he'd left Knuckles.

He was asleep. Silently for now.

He was still out when Sonic had finished heating up the water to clean and re-bandage the wound, and didn't stir throughout the procedure. It was already worse. Sonic hoped the antiseptics Chuck had recommended would help. He woke him long enough to get him to swallow some of the painkillers and antibiotics he'd also managed to acquire.

That Knuckles didn't protest or question this, was yet another sign of his now rapid deterioration. Sonic was certain, he'd have resisted the idea, even yesterday. He couldn't be coaxed to eat anything, though did swallow a few mouthfuls of water.

"We need to move," he mumbled, struggling to stay awake.

"I know." Sonic stood and kicked sand over the fire. "You up for another ride?"

Knuckles climbed slowly to his feet, hobbled a step or two and nodded. "Just don't drop me this time."

"Don't let go this time!"

Sonic smiled to show he was kidding, but he quietly harboured a number of doubts on that score. He suspected he'd have to hang on for both of them if he wanted to reach Chris's tonight.

In fact, he was forced to slow, after less than half an hour, when Knuckles grip slackened.

"Knux? You awake back there?"

There was no answer, and Sonic sighed, tightened his own grip and ran on. This was going to take all night.

Dawn found Sonic across creeping the garden he'd first landed in. He felt horribly conspicuous, even in the half-light, as he lobbed a few stones at Chris's window. It flew open and Chris leaned out and waved before disappearing again.

Moments later both he and Chuck were at the door.

"Sonic!" Chris whispered, running over.

"Hi kid, thanks for the houseroom."

"Quickly." Chuck strode out with a blanket and Sonic led them back across the garden.

"How's Knuckles?" Chris asked, following.

"Not great," Sonic admitted, pointing through to where Knuckles was slumped unconscious beneath the copious shrubbery around the border of the garden.

Chris let out a small gasp, and Sonic wished he'd given him more of a warning. Knuckles was rather an alarming sight at the moment, bloodied, fur matted with sweat, he looked almost dead if you didn't watch carefully for his breathing.

"All right," Chuck said. "Let's get inside." He turned to Sonic. "Did you get the stuff I told you about over the phone?"

"Yes, but I don't know how much it's helped."

"Well I know a vet I think we can trust who'll be able to get hold of some stronger stuff."

"What's a vet?" Sonic watched as Chuck scooped Knuckles up as easily as lifting a child and carried him into the house. There were advantages to being a taller species, he decided.

"Sort of a doctor, but for animals. Really I don't know which is more appropriate, but I don't know many doctors and I do know this guy."

"You think you can trust him, or you know you can trust him?" Sonic asked. "Seems like half this planet thinks we should be shot as invaders and the other half thinks we should be in a lab."

Chuck looked down at Knuckles.

"The guy I know wouldn't send anyone--anything ­even--back to be treated like that."

Sonic waited quietly in the next room, within easy earshot as Chuck greeted his friend the vet.

"Thanks for coming, Terry."

"So what's the big emergency? I didn't think you kept pets."

"Um, well it's not exactly about a pet."

There was no answer to that and Sonic assumed that 'Terry' was waiting for further explanation.

"Maybe you'd just better come and see," Chuck said

Sonic moved back from the doorway and took a seat on the couch, next to Chris. They'd discussed this and decided he probably looked less of an alien menace that way and it would minimise the shock.

Chuck came through ahead of Terry and stood aside.

"Hi," said Sonic.

Terry stared. Then he glanced at Chuck, stared back at Sonic again and gave a short half-laugh.

"This is a joke right?"

"No, but I know a good one about an iguana and a barmaid." Sonic stood up and something in the movement must have convinced Terry because he paled.

"That junk in the papers..."

"Wasn't junk." Sonic nodded. "Yeah." He stuck out a hand. "Sonic the hedgehog. Pleased to meet you."

"Hedgehog?" Terry stared at Sonic's hand as he slowly reached out to shake it. "But the pictures in the paper, they weren't of you."

"That's why we need your help," Chris interjected.

Terry gave another half-laugh, and addressed Chuck instead of answering Chris directly. "I hope you don't expect me to mount some sort of alien jailbreak."

"Nyah, we've done that bit," Sonic grinned. Terry's attention snapped back to him.

"He's here?"

"Please, Tel." Chris interrupted again. "He's hurt."

Terry looked from Chris to Sonic, to Chuck, and nodded.

"Guess there's not many vets can add aliens to their client list." Another odd snort of laughter. "Lead the way then."

Upstairs, in the spacious attic bedroom, Terry hissed through his teeth at the sight of Knuckles, and opened a large lack bag, spreading a few items across the table.

"Who did this? Not the police? They said he was involved in a fight but--"

Sonic shook his head. "I don't know. He was at a military base when I found him. I don't know when the police handed him over, he didn't say, he's been a bit out of it."

"I'm not surprised." Terry sized up Knuckles' injuries.

"Speaking of the military," Sonic continued. "What's the news saying about how they lost their alien prisoner?"

"They're not admitting they had him in the first place." Chris grinned. "Denying everything. But a couple of UFO spotters out in the desert reckon they saw a control tower get blown up at some top secret base. I read it on the Internet, they reckon it's alien revenge from the sky for kidnapping one of their scouts."

"I could use a bit of air support--pity they're not right," Sonic commented.

Chris laughed.

--End Part 4--