Shield asked:" How did the mission go?"

Knuckles knew she was going to say it and said:" Good. And you're going with him." Knuckles punched her into the knight armor behind her and ran away. Shield started to chase him.

It was ten years ago.

Sharvari was 15 years old and just got the job as a knight. She was bowing in throne room. King asked:" You let him go? You had that grizzly bear and you let him go, just like that?" Sharvari said:" Let me explain!" King rose up and walked closer to Sharvari, taking the sword with him. Sharvari said:" Please, sir! I will not fail you again, i promise!" King said:" Saying 'i promise' is nothing to me. But i give you one more change. There's somebody who need to be stopped. Prove me that you can at least injure somebody. If you fail me again then there will be consequences." Sharvari bowed lower and said:" I understand. Thank you, sir."

Shield took out her sword and put it front Knuckles' feet. Knuckles stumbled from it and fell into his face. Shield then grabbed his arms and put them behind his back.

Shield took him to the throne room and said:" He played trick on you." King said:" Prove it." Shield explained:" He talked. And next to you is just round ball with red paint." Knuckles said:" Actually it's fake heart from medical office." Then he realized what he had just done. "Shoot!" Knuckles shouted.

Sonic was frozen in place. Knighters held his hands on his back. One of the biggest knighters walked closer to him and took his chin and made him look his mask. He said:" It was another stupid thing what you have done." Sonic smirked and said:" You'll be suprised how much stupid things i do." Knighter turned to others and said:" Take him to the king. And make sure he won't go away from us. Two knighters said:" Yes, Armor." They were about to leave with Sonic when Armor stopped them. He said:" One more thing." He took Sonic's chin again and changed his fingers to claws. Sonic noticed it and his heart started to bump faster. Armor scarred Sonic's right side of face. Now there was long scar from his eyebrow to the end of the cheek. Armor said:" It's a reminder what will happen if you try to leave."

Amy and Chase saw it when two knighters took wounded Sonic away. Amy lowered Tails to the ground and rose up. She shouted:" You monsters!" Armor punched the cell door and said:" Watch it, girl! You don't want to end up like him." Then he left.

Tails woke up when Armor hit the cell. When Armor left then Tails started to sit up. Amy noticed it and helped Tails rise his upper body. Chase asked:" How are you?" Tails said weakly:" Little dizzy. But you know, i hate thunder." Amy and Chase looked at each other and smiled a little. At least Tails will be alright. It could be relief to Sonic.

Knighters threw Sonic to the ground and he fell on his stomach. Before he was thrown, knighters put stronger handcuffs over Sonic's wrists. It didn't let him use his quills as a key and those things had special feature: it didn't let him use his powers.

Now Sonic was on the ground, useless and powerless. King walked up to him and said:" Did you and your friend thought that you could fool me?" Sonic was able to look King's mask and said:" No, because you are able to do this perfectly on your own." King lowered himself to his level and said:" I rather watch your mouth when you're on that... situatsion." Sonic smirked and asked:" What's fun it that? It's very entertaining to see you mad." King growled and rose up. Sonic is tougher than he first thought.

King walked away from Sonic. Sonic asked:" Where are you going? Are you not going to finish me off?" King turned around to face him again.

King then walked out of the room for a second and then returned again. Sonic saw Shield and another knighter, who were holding Knuckles. King said:" I know one of you has a chaos emerald. So, you'll gonna tell me where it is or..." Shield put her sword near Knuckles' neck. Knuckles said:" Sonic, no!" Sonic sighed and said:" In my head quills." In Sonic's mind he said to himself:" I hope that no knighter noticed i dropped it in dungeon." Shield walked closer to him and started to search for the chaos emerald. Knuckles looked away from them. Suddenly he heard Shield say:" It's not there." Knuckles looked back. Sonic acted like he was trying to remember something. He said:" My bad...it was where i put red chaos emerald and now you have it...so...where i put blue chaos emerald? Let's see...we were trying to go past the quards. Maybe i dropped it somewhere there. No! It wasn't that." Shield then kicked Sonic into the stomach and said:" Think faster or i'll do something worse than Armor did." Sonic replyed:" I'm trying to remember where i put the chaos emerald! Give me some time, will ya!" Knuckles realized what Sonic did. Sonic dropped the chaos emerald fillingly to his friends' cage and now tries to win time so they could find it, if they noticed him dropping the emerald.

Chase has tied Tails' wound with the piece of her clothing. Tails was looking at the blue chaos emerald. Amy said:" Sonic could have dropped it." Tails said:" Let's get out of here! We need to think about a plan to rescue Sonic." Amy added:" And quickly! Sonic has already been very badly injured." Chase asked:" How can we get away from here?" Tails answered:" Like this! Chaos control!"

King started to become more angry. King grabbed Shield's sword and walked closer to Knuckles. Sonic gasped and shouted:" Do not harm him!" King said:" Times up! You should have told me where's that chaos emerald. Now face the consequences." Shield helped other knighter to lower struggling Knuckles to the ground. King walked front of him and rose the weapon.

Sonic felt like dark blue electricity started to come from his body. He ignored it and shouted:" Go away from him!" King looked towards the hedgehog. Knuckles said:" Sonic! No! Breathe!" Sonic struggeled to stand. Shield looked at the king and asked:" What now?" King said:" Forget about the chaos emeralds! Attack that hedgehog!" Shield and another knighter left Knuckles alone and ran towards Sonic. Around Sonic was now dark blue aura as he broke the cuffs from his arms. Shield said:" Impressive!" Knuckles said:" Sonic! Calm down! You're losing control!" Sonic looked at Knuckles as his irises dissappeared. Sonic said:" No change! Time to fight back!" Sonic ran behind Shield and kicked her so many times. Every hit made a dent to her armor. Finally Sonic kicked her into another knighter. King ran towards him but Sonic threw him to the ground. Sonic walked from of him. Knuckles said:" They had enough! Now, let's get outta here!" Sonic turned to face him. Sonic said:" They will never have enough!" Knuckles rose up and replyed:" Sonic! You are showing that you're not better than they are." Sonic said:" I don't care! They will pay for what they have done. I will not lose anybody else because of them."

Knuckles took the dropped sword and cut through the cuffs. When he was free then he ran between Sonic and the king. Knuckles said to Sonic:" You're not thinking straight! Stop this, please!" Sonic growled and snapped:" Get out of the way!" Knuckles refused to move. Sonic then took Knuckles from his arm and threw him to the window next to them. Shield ran towards Sonic. Sonic sensed her and took her from her neck and threw her into the sword of a knight statue. The inpact was so servere that the sword went through her stomach. King shouted:" Shield!" He rose up with his sword and attacked Sonic.

At this time Sonic went through the full transformation. He teleported behind him and stole away the sword. Then he tried to stab king, only to being punched into the face. Knuckles stood there with fist where Sonic's face was. Sonic growled and stabbed Knuckles to the stomach. It was like slow motion to Knuckles. Knuckles was able to say:" If only Tails is seeing you. He is able to calm you down." Knuckles then fell to his knees. Sonic then realized what he has done. He dropped the sword and looked around. Then he dissappeared.

Knighters helped Shield down from the sword. King called the medics to check on Knuckles and Shield.

Chase has called Roy and Grizzly to join with her, Amy and Tails. Grizzly listened to them and said:" Sonic won't be down for long." Amy said:" I start to worry." Tails nodded and said:" I'm more conserned about Knuckles. I haven't seen him after getting captured." Chase agreed with him.

Knuckles asked medics:" Why did that king called you for me? I thought that he meant to kill me." Purple cow answered:" He could be like 'mad man' but he cares about people. He is ready to attack those who attack him. And actually, he doesn't know how to commicate much. The death of his brother was an accident and he got scared of the queen." Knuckles asked:" But how about other mobians? Like Tails and Amy." The answer was:" He saw them as enemies. They were siding with chaos emerald protector, the same creature what could destroy everything." Knuckles sat upwards and said:" Sonic isn't that type!" Cow said:" Really? He did this to you." She pointed to Knuckles' tied wound. Knuckles said:" It wasn't him! Sonic will never harm any living thing without a reason!"

Knuckles lied down and sighed with saying quietly:" Unlike some of us." He looked at Shield. Shield looked to the ground with saddened expression. Cow said:" Shield, or her real name, Sharvari, is like that because she's under lots of pressure. Laura saved her from abusive family and now when she's a knight then she tries her best to please the king." Knuckles sat up again and looked at the cat. Shield was visibly broken. Knuckles rose up and walked closer to the cat.

Shield said:" I failed the king!" Knuckles put his hand to her back and said:" I didn't know about it." Shield looked at him and said:" Of course because i'm random knight of distressed king." Knuckles shook his head and said:" I didn't know what actually happened. The king only tried to protect the kindom from Sonic's evil form." Shield looked away and said:" King never knew how to express himself." Knuckles said:" Reminds me of somebody." Shield looked at him with confusion.

Knuckles said:" The first time i met Sonic i stole his chaos emeralds and almost beat him to death. I was just isolated from everything because of my job to guard the master emerald. After i befriended him i started to express myself more, or at least tried. Still most of my words are just threats when something goes against my plans." Shield chuckled and said:" You remind me of the king, or myself." Knuckles shrugged and said:" Maybe. You are very bad at what you're doing anyway so don't feel angry." Shield hit him with her elbow and said:" I'm best knighter. Only reason why Armor is in second command is because i released the mobian bear from his cell."

Sonic, who still tried to come out from his dark form, was in the cave. He stared at the picture. On his face was four gray scars, just like in the picture. Sonic sighed and tried to calm his form but he then heard a strange voice.
" There's darkness inside of your heart," it said.