The two hedgehogs approached the shrine.

"Knuckles," Shadow replied.

The echidna looked old. His dreadlocks were streaked gray, and muzzle was looking gray was well. A necklace of crystal points and bands of material wrapped around his dreadlocks were new, as are the ornately carved silver bands around his upper arms.

"It's good to see you again," Knuckles said, getting to his feet and descending the shrine to meet them. "What brings you here?"

The sound of something crashing through the underbrush catches all of their attention. A red echidna who looks identical to Knuckles came into view, though where Knuckles was wearing bands of material on his dreadlocks, this one's dreadlock stripes are obviously part of his fur pattern. His necklace, though in the same style as Knuckles,' has mostly blue crystals on it.

"Dad, I saw something strange land here. Is everything okay?" The new echidna glanced between Knuckles and the two hedgehogs.

"Yes Hunter, everything is fine. Just a visit from an old friend." Knuckles shared a glance with Shadow. "This it Shadow the Hedgehog."

"This is Silver the Hedgehog," Shadow, in turn, introduced the younger hedgehog.

Hunter nodded. "Nice to meet you," he glanced between them.

"How are things back home?" Knuckles asked.

"Good," Hunter nodded.

"We're going to head that way. Tell your mother that we have guests tonight and we'll need two more plates. We'll be taking the long way, though," Knuckles said. Hunter nodded and headed back off through the underbrush.

"Taking the long way?" Silver asked.

"I want to know some things. Come on. We'll get started."

The trio set off, Knuckles and Shadow walking side by side on the trail, while Silver bounded around, looking excitedly at the different plants everywhere.

"This place is beautiful! The whole world must have looked like this before Iblis!" He shouted back to the others. Silver was out of sight in the thick growth.

Knuckles glanced at Shadow. "Where did you find this kid?"

"You might say he found me," Shadow replied.

Knuckles nodded. "Alright. When you went back after that fake Emerald, what happened?" He asked, then both he and Shadow turned. Silver was hovering over their shoulder.

"He's psychic?" Knuckles asked.

"And nosy," Shadow added flatly.

"You never told us why you were locked up in that base," Silver pointed out.

"Because people needed a scapegoat, and he was the handiest one around," Knuckles replied.

"But why?" Silver pressed. "You know so much about what's going on with Iblis! Why would they lock you up for that?"

"Because people were afraid of me," Shadow snapped. "And they thought that I was the one who unleashed Iblis on the world."

Despite Blaze's fears, this thought has apparently never really dawned in Silver's mind until just now if the blank look on his face is any indication. "Did you?"

"If I had done that I would not be working to undo it now," Shadow said icily. "I made a promise to protect the world, and I intend to keep it."

"And those of us who knew him back knew he didn't do it," Knuckles added. "Fifty years ago, when Sonic was murdered, we came up with a plan to stop Iblis before the world became what it is today. A lot of that hinged on Shadow's help."

"Then what went wrong?" Silver's desperation in this question is clear. He longs to see a world where Iblis is no longer a threat to everyone's daily existence.

"We, uh, couldn't get him out after the military took him away." Knuckles admitted. "We tried. But a monster called Mephiles got in our way."

Shadow did not look comfortable at the turn conversation was taking. "Never mind the past. It's the future I'm concerned about."

Knuckles nodded. "What brings you by then?"

"The Chaos Emeralds."

"Iblis destroyed them!" Silver interjected.

Knuckles glanced at Shadow. "Something about this kid seems familiar. Have we met him before?"

"Yes, but I think Mephiles had something to do with the fact that he doesn't remember going back in time to try and stop Iblis from happening," Shadow replied.

"I'm right here and neither of you are talking very quietly!"

Knuckles considered it and started walking again, with Shadow keeping pace and Silver bringing up the rear. "It might be me getting forgetful too, as my son frequently reminds me that I am not young anymore."

"I thought you were the last echidna," Shadow said.

"Funny story. So did I, until another clan showed up to try and take the Master Emerald. I made sure they failed. But that's how I met my wife, and how my son met his wife. I promised them the Master Emerald if they can defeat Iblis."

"And how is that working out?" Shadow asked dryly.

"As well as can be expected," Knuckles replied without batting an eye. "But it keeps 'em out of my quills. I won't be handing the Master Emerald over any time soon. But you were never big into social calls, Shadow. So, the Chaos Emeralds. I watched them get destroyed. What do you plan to do?"

"I want to find whatever's left of the Chaos Emeralds an use them to stop Iblis." Shadow told him. "The Master Emerald has been broken and restored before."

"It has," Knuckles admitted. "But I've never heard of the Chaos Emeralds being broken and then put back together."

"That it's not known to have happened is not proof that it can't be done," Shadow replied.

"That's true." Knuckles thought it over. "Where do I come into this?"

"Can you use the Master Emerald to locate the Chaos Emeralds?" Shadow asked.

"I mean, I can recite the mantra, maybe make any shards out there light up. But how would you see them if that's the case? There's no satellite feeds that can view Earth anymore. Tails was trying to find the pieces of the Chaos Emeralds too. I don't know if he ever did."

"He found a piece," Shadow said.

Knuckles considered that information. "Good for him. But I don't think it helped him very much."

"You know that he's..."

Knuckles nodded. "Heard about it when it happened. He had some family, didn't he?"

"I met his grandson," Shadow admitted.

"Do you feel old yet?"

"I was older than you before I met you."

"Stasis doesn't count."

"Then no, I don't feel old. Where do you think I've been?"

"I know what you've been in, though not where you were," Knuckles replied.

"Excuse me," Silver had been floating along behind them. Now he floated around to be in front of them. "What are you talking about? How did you know what happened to Shadow, and if you knew, why didn't you do anything about it?"

Now all three of them have stopped moving. Knuckles just stared at the white hedgehog. Shadow had suddenly found the vegetation along the side of the road to be very interesting.

"Uh, I knew because we almost rescued him after he was locked in stasis but Mephiles got in the way and the last I knew, a lady named Rouge was trying to find Shadow, and I came back to Emerald Island after that." Knuckles finally said. "I told Rouge I would come if she needed me but she never came to find me. I don't know what happened after that."

"She's gone," Shadow's tone was flat.

Knuckles sighed and started walking again. "Yeah. It's hell getting old. Come on. Let's eat and after that we can figure out what to do about the Chaos Emeralds.

The house that they came to appeared to have been made out of yellow clay, but it was snug-looking. A tall wall ran around the perimeter of the house, and the two hedgehogs would come to find, also encompassed some outbuildings and large garden, with a secondary gate at the rear.

A pink echidna was bending over a fire in a low iron stove. She looked up when they came in. That she was Hunter's mother was clear from the fact that the bands of white coloring in her quills matched his.

"Shade, I want you to meet and old friend and a new one. This is Shadow and Silver. You two, my wife Shade." She nodded at them and went back to pulling flatbread off the top of the stove.

Knuckles led the way to a dining area. "You've already met Hunter. This is his wife Julie, from same clan as Shade, and my grandchildren Dusk and that's Shikari on the table." Julie was closer to an auburn color, and Dusk was brick red with the same crescent moon marking that his father and grandfather had on their chest. He had only two banded dreadlocks, in comparison to his father and grandmother's markings. Shikari, a small puggle, was the same shade of red as Knuckles with a white chest mark and no banded quills. Both of the women were dressing in skirts and tank tops, though where Julie favored sandals, Shade wore sturdy boots.

"Take a seat," Shade said, bustling past them with a basket of bread. "Food's on the table."

Conversation during dinner stays on safe topics, like what's been going on in the mainland since Knuckles left, though Silver admitted before he began that he had nothing good to report. Silver spent a fair amount of time gushing about how beautiful the island was, to the amusement and immense enjoyment Hunter and Julie talked about the work that they had been doing in the garden, and Knuckles related a story about the last time he heard from Shade's clan.

Everyone also pretended not to notice that Silver was eating like a ravenous wolf, since the food Knuckles' family had was far better than anything he could find on Earth short of the things that Techno grew underground.

After dinner, they all retire to the living room, with Shade and Julie leaving the dishes for later.

"I've been thinking about what you asked on and off while we were eating," Knuckles admitted. "I'm willing to try it but I don't know how you want to do it. Even if the Emerald shards light up, how will you find them? You'll have to chance being nearby when they light up."

"It's not like I haven't hunted for the Chaos Emerald before," Shadow pointed out. "We'll take our chances."

Silver leaned forward. "Why don't you try to make the Emeralds light up," how exactly this was supposed to work was a bit confusing to him, but he would try anything to stop Iblis and Shadow seemed confident in what he was talking about. "At the same time every few days? This way we can know to be on the lookout for them?"

Knuckles and Shadow were looking at him now.

"It's not a bad idea." Shadow said. "If Tails was hunting for the Emeralds, I wonder why he never thought of it."

"He had a lot on his plate after, well, everything that happened," Knuckles said. "I'll do it. I'll recite the mantra once a week, in the morning, but if I think that doing so if attracting to much of Iblis' attention to the Island, I'll stop."

Shadow nodded, while Silver added, "that's fair!"

"You're not planning on going back tonight, though, are you?" Shade asked.

"We didn't come to impose," Shadow replied.

"Nonsense! Spend the night with us. You can leave tomorrow," Shade said. "We'd be glad to have you."

Silver looked at Shadow, who nodded once, with a lower quieter "hmph," that simply meant he agreed. "We'd be happy too." The white hedgehog said. "Thank you!"

(-)

For the second time in a few short days, Silver found himself sleeping in a real comfortable bed. To be fair, it was a straw pallet, but there was plenty of straw in it, clean straw, and a pile of clean blankets to sleep under.

He was asleep almost as soon as his head his the pillow, but sometime later found someone shaking him awake. Still half asleep and not immediately sure of where he was, he asked sleepily, "Blaze? Wassit? Iblis?"

"No," a lower, deeper voice replied, and then in the dim light Silver can see the glint of red eyes. Shadow. "Come with me. I want to show you something."

Silver stumbled out of bed and managed to get his boots on after a couple of tries, then trailed the black hedgehog through the house. "Good you thing you got red stripes or you'd blend into the dark completely," he muttered, only for Shadow to shush him.

"The family is still asleep," Shadow whispered. He led the way to the back door and they quietly slipped out of the house. Standing on the brick terrace outside, Shadow said, "look up."

Silver did, not sure what he was supposed to see, then his eyes widened. "Wow!" Fully awake glanced back and forth between Shadow the the sky. "Are those…?"

"Stars," Shadow replied.

"Woah." The sky seemed to be filled with a million tiny points of light over their heads. "There's so many of them! This is beautiful."

Silver thought that he could have spent all night staring at them, but he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and realized that Shadow had turned away. "Aren't you gonna stay?"

"No. I've spent a lot of time looking at the stars. I just wanted you to see them," Shadow replied, and Silver watched him slip around the side of the house.

"Did the sky always used to look like this before Iblis?" He asked. He had thought that he was talking to himself and that Shadow was too far away to hear, but the other hedgehog must have stopped to listen because he heard Shadow answer.

"Not in cities because they had their own lights. But outside the cities, yes."

"That's amazing." This time Silver does hear the quiet crunch of leaves as Shadow goes, but he doesn't pay attention to that anymore. His attention is back to the twinkling lights overhead.


A/N: So...admittedly, I've been gone awhile, but I knew people have been reading this. Could someone please review? This is kinda how I lost interest last time was everyone seems to like reading it but no one wanted to provide feedback.

Shade is that Shade from Sonic Chronicles. Dusk's name alludes to hers, and Shikari's name alludes to Hunter since it's an Indian word that means something equivalent to Hunter.