-1Chapter 7

Sonic was the first to wake up the next day as light lined the cave, he had been woken by something moaning and burying deeper into his chest, he opened his eyes and lifted his head slightly to find Knuckles curled up against him with his head on Sonics chest, as Sonic had an arm around his waist, he moved a bit move to see Shadow spooned up behind Knuckles holding him tightly. He lay his head back down as pain filled his head, he heard a moan as the black hedgehog moved and come fully awake.

"what the hell?" he gasped as he saw that he had been hugging Knuckles.

"don't remember either?" crocked Sonic looking at the other hedgehog.

"what?" snapped Shadow sitting up.

"Can you remember what happened yesterday apart from Robotnic coming to Angel Island?" said Sonic sitting up.

"Lazardo" came a mumble next to them as Knuckles moved to stand up but fell back down to the ground releasing a hiss of pain.

"you alright?" asked Sonic concerned.

"Brilliant" growled Knuckles as he stood again "all I remember is that Lazardo bloke"

"anything with him can't be good" stated Shadow as he stood up holding his head. Sonic followed before walking out of the cave.

"we're in Morbius" he stated slightly shocked.

"I have to get back to the Emerald" said Knuckles as he started to walk out of the cave limping slightly.

"I think we should look over each other first" said Sonic as he ran to head Knuckles off.

"there is nothing wrong" growled Knuckles as he continued to walk away.

"then why the limp?" asked Sonic

"because I want to" growled Knuckles. Sonic just raised an eyebrow and grabbed Knuckles wrist feeling the flinched he pulled Knuckles towards him and looked down at Knuckles wrist to see it had been rubbed and it had been bleeding, Sonic looked into Knuckles eyes before he leant forwards and kissed him. Knuckles pulled back in shock before his fist flew into Sonic's jaw, the he stormed off. The Echidna found a lake and knelt down putting his hands into the water to sooth his wrists. A leaf with some kind of cream on it was thrust into his face.

"here" came Shadows voice, Knuckles just glared at him and went back to what he was doing. Glowing in frustration Shadow pushed Knuckles so he was sat down before he grabbed each of the wrists and applied the cream, Knuckles kept trying to pull away.

"try that again and your be sorry" stated Shadow, Knuckles just glared and pulled his wrist backwards as he raised his other hand into a fist as he moved to kneel.

"an what exactly are you going to do?" asked Knuckles glaring.

"Do you really want to know?" glared Knuckles as he pulled Knuckles wrist forwards but this time hard enough to the Echidna to fall forwards over the black haired hedgehogs lap face down, he lifted his hand and brought it down twice on his backside before pushing Knuckles back to where he was. Wrenching backwards Knuckles stumbled away from him growling before punching Shadow and jumped into the water. Sonic had come into the clearing as Shadow had done that to Knuckles, he walked over to the black hedgehog and gave him a hand to get up.

"I think something has happened that we can't remember" stated Sonic as he released Shadows hand to find blood in his glove. "you bleeding?"

"No" said Shadow "that's from Knuckles"

Both looked at the water as Knuckles surfaced, the Echidna felt eyes on him he turned and glared at him before ducking underneath the water again, he swam and moved to some rocks that they couldn't see behind and pulled himself out of the water as he stared into it.

"What can't I remember?" he said before he turn to the side and threw up, he moved away from the mess and more questions filled his head.

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Sonic had been watching the water as he had been checking Shadow over for any injures only finding a bite on his neck, Shadow had found the same on him.

"you think its Knuckles?" he asked the Black Hedgehog.

"No idea" he muttered as he traced it, he stared ahead of him an image flashing into his mind. "we where in a lab, chained to a wall" he suddenly said.

"I had that, and Knuckles was strapped to the table" Sonic added.

"so we can conclude that what Knux said earlier, Lazardo was right. We where in his lab" Said Shadow

"talking of the Echidna, where is he?" pointed out Sonic. They had just noticed that Knuckles had not been seen for a while they stood on the bank looking over it, before shouting his name.

Knuckles started as he heard his name being called but ignored it, it was only the hedgehogs. He hadn't realised he had been gone so deep into thought he had tried to force his mind to remember what had happened yesterday, he only got snatches of the lab and Shadow touching him, he growled in frustration as the shouts got louder and Sonic sounded panicked, he stood up and walked to the top of the rock formation.

"What?" he shouted.

Both hedgehogs looked at the Echidna before running towards him, he raised an eyebrow at them as they stopped before him glaring. "what?" he asked again.

"do you realised how worried we where?" said Sonic.

"you've never bothered before. Why now?" stated Knuckles before turning back and walking to where he had been before sitting staring at the lake. Sonic was stunned at the question he didn't understand why they where so bothered now, Something must have happened something they couldn't remember, of course he had cared for Knuckles as a friend and maybe more but he had had that trust in Knuckles ability but now he was protecting the Echidna as he was Tales, that wasn't making sense.

Shadow was in the same quandary because he had never liked these losers, well he had thought that Knuckles was cute when they first meet but then he had had major PMS and the image was ruined but only slightly but why did he care now if this Echidna got hurt but he kept bringing up blanks.

Sonic snapped out of his thoughts as his stomach rumbled announcing that he wanted food.

"Come on the Knothole is not far from here, we should probably eat" he said as he looked at the other two, Knuckles nodded and stood beside them as Shadow joined them from his thoughts, he nodded also and the three started to run towards Sonics home town.

Tales was really worried now, the rain had stopped and still there was no sign of the other three, he paced around the Emerald then it clicked he turned to Amy who was looking around the cave.

"Knuckles wouldn't leave the Emerald this long" he stated looking at the pink hedgehog. Amy looked at the fox she knew he was right.

"we should stay here anyway if Knuckles his stuck somewhere we need to guard this green rock" she said her words laced with worry. Tales nodded and stared at the Emerald it had become a little brighter than the night before but it carried on spinning. The two tailed fox stared at the green glow thinking about what could have happened to them.

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"Home sweet home" smiled Sonic as they entered his house,

"Nice dig" said Shadow sarcastically as he looked about at the mess.

"well we left in a hurry, when we went to see Knuckles" said Sonic picking a few things up so they could sit down.

"I don't remember you coming to see me" said Knuckles frowning.

"you past out from something, Amy and Tales where there, more robots attacked and after that its only flashes" said Sonic

"The Emerald" exclaimed Knuckles as he ran out of the house and started to run to where you could see Angel Island, he carried on running when the Island came into view screeching to a holt when Sonic appeared in front of him.

"where are you going?" asked the blue hedgehog.

"Home" stated Knuckles.

"Food first, Amy and Tales are up there" stated Sonic.

"I'm not hungry" snapped Knuckles as he went to walk passed Sonic.

"I know that your lying, you haven't had anything to eat the same length of time as me at least"

"But I am NOT hungry" spelled out Knuckles before he gripped his head.

(Have fun escaping, I'll see you in a couple of hours?)

"Knuckles" called Sonic as he put a hand on Knuckles shoulder.

"I'm fine" snapped Knuckles but let Sonic's hand stay on his shoulder, it felt comforting. Sonic lead Knuckles back to his house where Shadow had readied some lunch, Chilli dogs. Sonic sat at the table and shared it between them, Knuckles at on the opposite side to Sonic looking at the chilli dog.

"What is it?" he asked poking it.

"A Chilli dog, a meat sausage thing in bread" explained Sonic as he eat his. Knuckles picked the sausage out and picked at the bread.

"Just because I cooked them doesn't mean that it will poison you" snapped Shadow. Knuckles glared at him.

"Actually I'm vegetarian. I don't eat meat" he statedShadow looked shocked before recovering.

"But your sharp teeth" said Sonic.

"Defence. I can bite people" said Knuckles before his mind flashed back again. "I bite Robotnic"

"Hu?" asked Shadow.

"I remember biting Robotnic for something" explained the Echidna.

"I remember you falling" said Sonic, Shadow sat quietly eating the rest of his food, images of the lab flashing in his mind. Sonic looked at each of his companions as he thought he retreated into his mind trying to find something, to remember what he was missing in the last few hours but nothing but the image of Knuckles strapped to the lab table.

"I've eaten, are you happy now?" came Knuckles voice through his thoughts "can I go now?"

Sonic looked at Knuckles as violet eyes locked with his, he didn't want to let Knuckles go but he didn't have an excuse to keep him here. Knuckles got annoyed at the blue hedgehog that kept staring at him, he made a frustrated noise before storming out of the house, once again he ran to the place you could see Angel Island, he climbed the tallest trees that if he caught the right wind he could glide home, he tested the wind before extending his quills behind him letting the wind taking him on to the island. He was home.