It took a few hours on Knuckles' shoulders to reach the top of Angel Island. Sonic clung to him for dear life, realizing that if he took another fall from his ever increasing height, he'd be broken and back in a cast again. Knuckles couldn't help from laugh sometimes when Sonic would make nervous sounds, finding different places to grip on his arms, until once he pulled on his dreadlocks and he yelled at him to cut it out or he'd throw him off himself. The sense of relief Sonic felt when being hurled over the edge of the island was almost palpable. He landed on his back, and his hand went to his chest directly as he tried to slow down his breathing. He really hoped this anxiety around heights wasn't going to stick around; that would make life much, much harder as a hero-adventurer.

He sat up eventually once his heartrate slowed a bit, looking at the wildlife around him. Palm trees and small critters lined the ground, but otherwise, nobody was around. It was quiet - not the eerie, imposed quiet of The Taken, but a natural, peaceful quiet. Sonic felt his eyes widen with surprise. Remarkable… it really was uninhabited by anyone except Knuckles.

It almost seemed suspicious to Sonic - there's no way, with literal hundreds of people who only read books in libraries all day contributing to the planet's collective knowledge, that not a single person in the hive mind knew about the existence of Angel Island. But, he guessed, the book knowledge about Angel Island would have just referred to it as a ruin, not mentioning that any of the echidnas survived or that the Master Emerald was any more than a historical relic. That was good news, Sonic thought. It would buy them some time. Maybe after this mission was over, the Individuals could move here instead. It was certainly warmer than their current hideout, and probably safer too.

It felt weird to go to a place that was exactly the same as before the nanites took over. Most of the cities had buildings stripped down to their frames in order to use the metal for reproduction, then rebuilt on top once the nanites read about architecture. As it turns out, they probably realized, taking away the structural integrity of your building was probably a really bad idea. But the new building surfaces were made of a mishmash of materials, varying from one to the next; buildings that used to be metallic chrome would now have solid stone exteriors, or sometimes even wood or plastic. Keeping full buildings had never been The Taken's priority, since they just needed the bare minimum to sleep and do their other nefarious tasks.

All the ruins here were the same as they'd always been, almost completely the same as when Sonic had last come here. Carvings of echidnas past, spanning several generations, lined the inside of the temple walls like the stained glass windows of a church. Echidnas working with Chaos, echidnas with the Master Emerald, echidnas keeping watch over the island… all of them, going further and further out until their details were so worn down by time that they were barely distinguishable. And yet, Sonic could guarantee that Knuckles knew every single one of their stories in excruciating detail, using these as a solid reminder of his people's past. Sonic couldn't help but trail his hand over the side of the walls, as awed as he always was when he came here. He took a deep breath, unable to entirely shake the feeling of intrusion upon sacred space.

He was glad nothing disrupted this place. Having a physical relic, with your own story inside of it… he couldn't even imagine such a thing. Hedgehogs were a dime a dozen, and after he left his birthplace, he'd never gone back. He had no idea what his ancestors were like, or what they'd want him to do. They'd certainly never imagine a scenario like this.

As they approached the inner sanctum, he saw Knuckles' own carving. Not as skilled as many of the others, but then again, there was nobody to teach him how to do it. It struck Sonic in the chest, catching him off guard. When he thought about it, all of them were so similar. Knuckles had to make it on his own, knowing that there was a grand history he knew but had been cut off from. Sonic knew he had a past elsewhere, but had to figure out how to live and fight on his own terms. Shadow had been created as the only one of his kind… the only real Ultimate Lifeform… but felt like that meant he was cursed to be alone. They each were just trying to make it in this world, trying to make sense of where they fit. It was one of the few things he envied about the Hivemind - at least with them, everybody knew exactly what there place was. How they belonged. How they interlocked.

Sonic couldn't help but remember the last several months he'd had with Shadow. They called each other boyfriends, but the word was confusing. Was it a serious relationship, or one of necessity? Was it just about the physical stuff, or did they share with each other as well? And how long did they expect it to last - or, as Sonic thought with a pit forming in his stomach, how would he know if it was over? And then there were the other questions he had based on their current predicament. What did it mean to be in a relationship with someone who was only around every few weeks? When you spent almost all your time together talking about what you did in the other's absence, never fully acknowledging what you were thinking and feeling right then? They'd skirted around it, not particularly fond of talking about their feelings… but now that Shadow coming back was in question, he wished they had. There wasn't an excuse for it; even though it wasn't all the time, they'd spent plenty of nights curled together, waiting for the light to dim, talking about nothing in particular. The two of them were constantly redefining what being 'boyfriends' meant, and after four months, it was starting to wear on him. He wanted more explanation - if for no other reason than for himself.

"I've got the Master here," Knuckles said, shaking Sonic out of his reverie by his booming voice. "Here, look at the dirt beneath it. That's where I put the message down."

Sonic withdrew his hand from the wall like he'd touched something shocking. He turned and walked toward him, keeping his eyes on the ground. A series of dots and dashes were scrawled in the dust, visible but marred by obvious wind.

"Sorry it's not any clearer," Knuckles said, crossing his arms. "Couldn't exactly tell the one sending the signal to stop so I could get a pen and paper."

"Nah, it's fine. I can make it out if I squint." Sonic bent down and narrowed his eyes, looking at the collections of letters. K, I, B, W…. "It looks like nonsense, but it's not. It's a cipher," he said.

"Well, yeah. Didn't I tell you that earlier? You know, back when we were attacked by mind controlled drill diggers? The ones you were so concerned about keeping alive even though they were literally creating giant holes in my island?"

"They can't help it, Knux," Sonic said, looking up annoyed. "I mean, it looks like… what did Shadow's book call it? A Vigenère cipher."

"Shadow's book?"

Sonic blushed a little, even though he had little to actually be embarrassed about. "Yeah. Shadow grabbed me a book about ciphers once from one of The Taken's libraries, while he was grabbing supplies. I guess when you communicate entirely through your brains, you don't need to hide anything behind different alphabets or grammar rules, so I don't think they missed it."

"Why would Shadow bring you a book? You don't read."

"I, uh, kind of picked up the habit while my leg was broken. Gave me something to do, you know?" Not to mention it sometimes served as my only connection to him while he was miles away, in danger, not guaranteed to return….

"So what is a… Vi-shen-air cipher? Can we crack it?"

"Maybe, with some effort." Sonic grabbed a stick and tried to sketch out a graph in the dirt, only to realize that the little ground that wasn't covered in Morse code was covered in footprints, illegible. Instead, he pulled out his journal. "You know that one kind of code where you just shift letters by, like, three, and you get the originals? Like A is written as C, B is written as D, whatever?"

"I… think? Gotta be honest, Sonic, I never really got into that kind of stuff. Enough to learn and memorize around here without filling my head with spy stuff."

"I never was into it either, until Shadow brought me that book about it. I taught myself all the things, and we started using them since was easier to read." Sonic pulled out the journal and, apologizing to himself for marring it with something like this, started writing the letters down on the back page. Kibwkxtbselhypusiqlktfxinroyrttmoectno. "It's called a Caesar cipher. You pick a letter, and that's what 'A' equals, and you just keep going." He scribbled on the page, filling the page with ink at rapid speed until it was nearly unintelligible. "But this looks like gibberish if you do that with just one normal letter, no matter which one you pick."

"Really? I thought that was just your handwriting."

"Ha ha. And if it is Shadow-"

"-and I don't see how it could be anybody else-"

"-then he wouldn't make it so easy. So he'd use Vigenère, which is like the Caesar cipher with a codeword. And that codeword would repeat and be the amount of letters to shift for each one."

Knuckles tilted his head. "You're losing me," he said, as though that wasn't completely obvious already from just his face.

Sonic scribbled in the page, writing down a word. "So, like, if 'emerald' was the codeword, then the first letter would use a Caesar cipher where A turns into E, the second as if A turns into M, the third as if A turns into E, and on and on until the word is over before repeating itself. They're not too hard to crack if you know the word, but really tricky if you don't."

"And you're sure that's what this is?"

"Well, no… but we've got to try it. It's his favorite, 'cause it's hard to crack." Sonic sat down, flipping the filled page over until he could see a blank sheet to fill. "Like, even computers have a hard time with it. But when you figure out the keyword, it's super easy."

"…But we don't know the keyword."

"Just means we have to think like tall, dark, and grumpy for a bit to guess," he said, smiling to himself. After all, if the Medic back at the Individuals shelter was to be believed, nobody was more qualified to think like Shadow than him… well, except Shadow himself, of course.

Knuckles nodded his head. "Those things down there don't exactly understand empathy, so they can't really guess what another person would think. So this would be perfect!"

"Especially when that person hardly has any written stuff saying they exist in the first place. It's hard enough to predict Shadow when you see him all the time - my guess is, he thought nobody could work around something personal to him. You got any ideas?"

Sonic's forehead creased as he tried to think. "I'm not too sure… he'd want to pick something that couldn't be guessed easily. Something nobody else would think to use."

"Robotnik?"

"No, he wouldn't pick something like that."

"Chaos Control?"

"No, that doesn't work."

"Maria?"

"No, too likely for Eggman to know about it too….

Just in case, Sonic started scribbling charts and tables for each word they guessed, putting in the letters of the words in at the top. To be honest, this kind of thing always gave him a headache. He liked it, mind - it was just like solving a riddle where only he and Shadow would know the solution. The idea made his stomach fill with butterflies. There wasn't much of a need for things to be encoded for real before - Shadow's secrets were secrets from everyone, including him, and Sonic really didn't have any from Shadow anymore - but it was fun to trade snippets with him, whether it was kind words or inside jokes.

Inside jokes? That's… Sonic bolted upwards as had a small epiphany, grabbing the pen like it was his final lifeline. "Wait. Oh, Chaos, I think I've got it!" he said, furiously scribbling. The new letters fell into place, becoming a stretch of text that, while still confusing, at least was intelligible.

"First Stronghold, Night of New Moon, Come alone." Sonic stopped, almost amazed that he figured it out. "Is that what-"

"Sonic, you thought of the code word? You got it?"

Sonic looked up at Knuckles. His face didn't have any excitement or concern in it anymore, but he could see the other's hands shaking - the echidna was just as invested in this as he was. "Yeah, I think I got it. Take a look."

Knuckles bent down, glancing at the page before looking back up at Sonic. "'First Stronghold.' What's that?"

"I think he means the first place we set up shelter. Like, a semi-permanent one. It was in the caves outside of the Mystic Ruins." He remembered the place with some fondness; it was a wooden enclosure, hidden in a cave behind a waterfall. If the world wasn't ending, it might've been a romantic vacation spot - he remembered spending early mornings with Shadow, watching the sun rise through the curtains of water, scattering rainbows everywhere through the refraction of light through liquid. And while he was still unable to run back then, he did sometimes poke his head out from behind the enclosure to see the miles and miles of jungle, stretching out into the horizon….

"And 'come alone?' I can't come alone! I can't leave the Master Emerald, not when the world's like this."

"You won't have to, Knuckles. It's… it's a message for me," he said, as the reality of it finally hit him. Sure, Knuckles recieved the message, but he wasn't the only one who could use Chaos. And if it was his and Shadow's inside joke…. He took a step back, clutching the journal to his chest.

"How do you know?"

Sonic handed the book to Knuckles, showing him the deciphered words. "The code word was 'FAKER.'"

"Faker? Why would he pick something like that? And what does that have to do with you?"

"It's what we called each other when we first met. Or, at least, it's what I called him…."

Knuckles looked confused. "Why would you call him that?"

"It's when the government was framing me for things he did, and he was kind of pretending to be me, or so I thought, and- you know what? It doesn't really matter right now. The point is, I'm the only one who would know that. And if he sent it through the Chaos Emeralds-"

"-then only you, me, and Silver would be able to get the message." Knuckles snorted. "Well, what do you know? Shadow's still got a sense of humor."

The mention of Silver made Sonic's stomach sink. "Silver… I forgot about him."

"What do you mean you forgot about him? He's in the future, right?"

"No, he was here when this all started. The nanites took him really early, I think."

Knuckles crossed his arms. "So you're telling me that one of the only four Chaos users in the entire world is under the influence of mind controlling robots?"

Sonic gave off a nervous laugh. "He, uh, may or may not have been part of the original group that infected Empire City-"

Knuckles slammed his fist into a wall nearby, causing dust to come off of it. "What the heck was Shadow thinking, then? He endangered all of us!"

"I don't think so. Silver probably doesn't know he can do stuff with Chaos anymore. We've barely seen him, but he's never used his powers since the nanites took him. He's either playing it close to the chest, or he doesn't remember what he's capable of. And we can use that to our advantage if we ever see him!"

Knuckles did not look satisfied by that answer at all, but let it go. Instead, he cleared up the dust, then scattered the Morse code until it was gone, disappeared from sight. Then he put his hand on the Master, as though asking it whether it was true. "I've never been able to tell before. If individual people are using the power of Chaos." He looked frustrated at this admission. "The stories go, other guardians would know when their loved ones woke in the morning because they'd feel them in the Chaos. Now, I can't even tell if one of four doesn't tap in for months at a time." He clenched his fist again, and for a second, Sonic genuinely wondered if Knuckles was going to punch the Master Emerald out of sheer frustration. "This is humiliating," he grumbled.

Sonic moved up next to him, clapping his hand on the other's shoulder. "I don't think you need to be embarrassed, Knuckles. You're doing the best you can."

"And what good has that been doing, Sonic?" His grip on the Master tightened, and the echidna closed his eyes. "I've been so absorbed in protecting the Master that I didn't think it was strange at all when I didn't hear from you - or anybody else - for a third of a year! The Guardian is supposed to help keep the world in balance. Does the world look balanced to you?" Knuckles' shoulders were shaking. "I'm a failure as a guardian. I should have never allowed this to happen."

"Okay, now you're just being silly." Sonic took his hand off the other's shoulder and started to lean against the Master. He could feel its energy pulsing beneath him like a comforting heartbeat, and he smiled. "In case you haven't noticed, Knux, there's always been wars and problems. You think any of the other Guardians singlehandedly prevented every disaster that happened in their times?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Your job is the keep the Master safe and keep Chaos balanced. Of all the messed up stuff happening right now, Chaos being off balance is not part of it. So you did your job, right?" In fact, from all I can tell, Chaos has been weirdly stable this whole time for the rest of the world being this out of whack… Sonic thought. He didn't say anything about it though, instead turning his attention to the stone. "As far as I'm concerned, you're doing better than all the rest of us combined. So quit worrying about what you could have maybe sort have done sooner if you had known what you didn't know, and start thinking about what it is you want to do now."

Knuckles stepped back from the emerald, looking at it with wide open eyes. "I guess you have a point…."

"You know I have a point. I'm the brains of this operation, after all!"

Knuckles huffed. "Ha! You wish." He stepped down to the dirt, tracing spirals in it with his hand. "Now that I know this is a problem, I should re-up the defenses around the emerald. Check the traps, make new ones, train harder…. I've got a lot of work ahead of me."

Sonic nodded. "Knuckles, can I stay here tonight and get some sleep? New moon isn't until tomorrow night, and I doubt I'll find a better place to set up camp."

Knuckles took his hand off the ground, his rough sketch of a spiral around the Master becoming more clear. "Sure, but do you know how to get to this 'first stronghold' place? You hardly seemed to know where you were yesterday."

Sonic laughed, closing up the journal and tucking it away. "Trust me Knuckles. I can figure it out. Just point me to the closest town, and I can move from there."

Knuckles nodded. "Alright. You can sleep by the emerald and protect it for a night. I have to come up with a strategy anyway."

Flashing a thumbs up, Sonic wandered away from the stone. The sun would set in a few hours. Just enough time to write a long journal entry. This time, when he found Shadow, he'd share all of the writings with him too.

With a jerk, Sonic startled awake by the same dreams he always had. Water, everywhere, flooding Station Square, demolishing buildings, sweeping away people…. He'd had this same dream every once in a while for the past few years, since he had to face Perfect Chaos for the first time. It still felt real every time, even though he knew upon waking that any danger was long since over, that the lives were long since lost. He was never given the luxury of lucidity, always feeling like this was the first time Chaos overwhelmed the city over, and over, and over again.

It was exhausting.

He yawned, stretched his arms, and got off of the stone slab. He peeked upward at the overhead, seeing the deep night sky. The stars stretched across the expanse like specks of white paint on a dark canvas. Before the calamity, seeing the stars was a luxury he didn't normally have; light pollution ruined it all. But now that he lived in remote places, constantly moving from far flung place to far flung place purposely far from civilization, he got to see them all the time. Still, even after all these months, the night sky never got old. Shadow was right.

Come to think of it, he thought, he never had dreams about Chaos when Shadow was around. Did he help those somehow, or did Sonic's subconscious just feel more at ease in general when he was near? Sonic found The Lyra in the sky, tracing the shape of the harp with his index finger. The story itself was just a faint memory at this point - frankly, Sonic was surprised he remembered the word 'Lyra' - but the words Shadow told him at the end of it hung in the back of his mind like a fleeting dream. What else was it that Shadow said? 'You have to trust others, and you can't look back'?

Sonic kicked a pebble, watching it fly into the night. He let out a loud groan to the sky, tilting his head upward. Why was all this so hard? He wanted to talk to Shadow, to make sure it was really him… but he also was wary. Of course he trusted Shadow, but in the end, he couldn't even know if it was really him.

That comforting feeling in the Master felt even more familiar than he was normally used to. It felt almost like… like the joy he'd get from a high speed race? Why would he think of- Shadow… the thought came before he shook his head. There's no way.

Still, his curiosity getting the better of him, he looked directly at The Master. It was glowing like it always did but something strange - something deep inside him - told him to come closer, to touch the stone. Figuring there wasn't any harm to it, Sonic took his glove off and tentatively outstretched his fingers.

The second he touched it with his bare hand, he felt Shadow's presence like a flood. It didn't make any sense… how could he tell it was him? Why would Shadow be in the Chaos? Knuckles' words from earlier echoed in the back of his mind - 'other guardians would know when their loved ones woke in the morning because they'd feel them in the Chaos.' Was that what this was?

In any case, he let himself feel relieved. He didn't care much about the 'why' or 'how' he could tell Shadow was there. Instead, he felt joy knowing that he was listening, breathing, communicating with him….

A flood of ice went through Sonic's veins. Wait, he thought. I should tell him something. Let him know…what, that I heard him? That I'm okay? That- alright, sure.

Reluctantly moving his hand off the emerald, Sonic pulled his hand away and moved out the journal again. Encoding a message was the safest way to do this, he thought, and it would be what Shadow would want me to do.

Sonic scribbled, using the makeshift chart in the back of the journal to encode his chosen phrase. His fingers started to show ink spots. This part was never hard. It had been two months ago, when Shadow first got him the book about ciphers and encryption, and he had to struggle through. But it was fun - Sonic had been instantly entranced with the concepts inside, especially since he was still in recovery and couldn't move much. It was like making and solving puzzles at the same time, and even though he'd never been great at them, Sonic loved puzzles. It was even better when Shadow was around, teaching him about the more confusing ones and helping some of the trickier steps click into place. They'd swap notes, Sonic for practice and Shadow for amusement, and while Shadow would use tactical notes from past missions for fodder, Sonic would send him jokes. He'd know when Shadow finished decoding because he'd either roll his eyes or, even better, stifle a snorting laugh.

Maybe Shadow knew something like this would happen, and that book was meant to be more than a diversion, but he still treasured those times. And now, it was hopefully going to pay off.

Same code, same key… yeah, this should work. He shortened his message again and again, because who knew how long he could touch Chaos. Or how much The Taken would notice fluctuations in the underlying energy of the universe. He'd only tweak it a little bit. Just enough to let Shadow know he was there. That he was coming.

Looking over his finished work, Sonic braced himself to actually talk to him. Journal in one hand, Sonic's other gloveless was placed on the emerald once again. Please, please still be there… Sonic thought, but when his fingers made contact, the warmth of the feeling he received told him everything he needed to know. Shadow's there. He's alive. He's okay! This shouldn't have been surprising to him, but it still made him feel relieved. All he had to do was send this message, find Shadow, and -

Sonic stopped. Wait. How do I send a message in Chaos?

Suddenly embarrassed, Sonic drew his hand away in a snap. Of course he would get this far, only to realize something so small holding him back. He could wait until morning, but what was the guarantee that Shadow would still be there, listening?

He put it on, closed his eyes, and tried reaching out for that part of the Chaos, the one he knew Shadow was staying behind. Okay. Think like Shadow. How would he do this? What would he be doing? He pictured the many fights he'd had with Shadow. He pictured the races from before his injury where Shadow would cheat, sneaking ahead just at the end. That red emerald, it glimmered from between Shadow's fingers, even in Sonic's memory. Is this… is this just like Chaos Control? Sonic found the thread in Chaos again, that comforting heartbeat, and had to fight not to snap his eyes open. He's there! Alright. Alright. I'm going to try it. Focus. What's the first letter?

Careful not to drop his connection, he opened one eye. "G," he whispered to himself, looking at the paper quickly, then closing his eye again. "Dash, dash, dot. Okay, let's do this." He treated the dashes like long Chaos Controls, holding it steady for a second or so before releasing it. Then he did the same again, tired from the first time but still determined. "One…more…bit…." With a burst, he pushed Chaos Control for barely any time at all, immediately taken aback by the impact. He almost got blown back by the force of it, but held on with true grit alone. He wasn't going to lose this final, drifting hint of Shadow. Not now.

Dash, dash, dot. One letter down.

Sonic started on the other letters, first slowly, then slightly faster.

"…E… dot… D… dash dot dot…L-"

It felt hard to do this, more than Sonic would like to admit. The Morse faded into his mind, becoming seamless with the letters, and he could feel himself swimming in the strong currents of energy.

"…V…W…E…C…S…."

There was a possibility it was all psychological, he knew. He could be so desperate to talk to Shadow, to make sure he could connect with him in such a stressful time, that he could be imagining his ability to send this message. In fact, he wasn't even sure if this 'connection' he felt was really real, or if it was actually Shadow at the other end.

"F,S,I,V,S…."

But if he didn't try, he'd have wasted that opportunity. And that, he couldn't tolerate.

"M,J, YYY."

He fell back with the final dash dot dash dash, finally letting the rush propel him backwards. He could run off back to bed, proud of his efforts. Those words would continue to move, encoded three ways and bouncing through the Chaos of the world.

Sonic tried to walk, but found himself stumbling. It was like he'd just run a marathon - okay, for Sonic, a hundred marathons. His legs felt like lead, wobbling beneath him from strain and exhaustion. Sonic tried to walk a little more, but soon gave up, instead collapsing on the dirt just by the Master Emerald. This is alright, he thought. I just pushed myself. He fell asleep out of exhaustion, but still peacefully given the circumstances. He didn't know how, or when, but somehow he knew that Shadow was out there somewhere. Hopefully, he'd get the scrabbled words. He'd use their strange makeshift password. And eventually - of this Sonic was certain - he'd parse out the words Sonic had meant to say.

Be there soon. I love you.