Knuckles saw the chaos emerald and noticed that the emerald was now just a piece of jewely.
He closed his eyes with the sigh. Suddenly Sonic collapsed in his arms. He didn't realize that he started to hold him after he gave a chaos emerald to him. Others looked at Sonic with worry. Knuckles said quietly:" I'm sorry Sonic. I was...too slow." Tails ran towards them and put his ear to Sonic's chest and said:" It's not good. He is breathing but very slowly. Same with his heart." Knuckles looked at Sonic and took the chaos emerald from limp hand. Knuckles whispered:" Sonic, wake up! Please!" Tails asked:" Why chaos emerald is not glowing? What happened?" Knuckles said:" I'm not sure. It has never happened before like this. But chaos emeralds will weaken if something bad has happened to their protector." Amy asked:" Can we do something? Anything?" Knuckles shook his head and said:" It's something what Sonic needs to defeat himself." Tails and Amy looked sadly at Sonic. Tails asked:" But how about other chaos emerald? And can Master Emerald help?" Knuckles said:" Maybe Master Emerald can load the chaos emeralds. It could help him. But the problem is...how we get to Angel Island?"
Suddenly the king and some knighters ran there. Armor looked at the dead body of Shield and started to stare it. King asked:" Is it over?" Knuckles nodded and said:" For now. But we need to charge up the chaos emeralds or the chaos energy could dissappear. Without Sonic to control the chaos energy then we all are in danger."
Roy started to look around and asked:" Where's Grizzly?" Chase said:" I haven't seen him after Amy wanted to attack Shield." Knuckles said:" We need to find him and help Sonic. He's very weak and could die at any moment. When that happens then we need to find the way to live without the chaos energy." Tails said:" We need to get him to Megan. Others should look for Grizzly." Armor said:" No need. Because i already know where he is."
Armor, Roy and Tails went into the castle. Knuckles, Amy, Chase and the king took Sonic to the Secret Village. Amy asked:" Will he be alright?" Knuckles shook his head and said:" It's impossible to help him because his own chaos energy is very low. His dark side drained him from his energy, almost killing him. Chaos emerald's protector can survive without their other side but if we get rid of Dark Sonic while he drained Sonic then this is what could happen." He pointed to Sonic on the bed. Chase asked:" Why our chaos energy will dissappear without Sonic?" Knuckles explained:" Chaos energy is in all of us. Without it our powers won't exist and weak mobians could die. It could happen if Dark Sonic could have killed Sonic and we weren't able to stop it." Knuckles looked at Sonic and went closer to him. He added quietly:" Sonic is the keeper of our life source. I'm not sure why he was chosen. Maybe because he is always brave and will never give up. When he believes in something he'll keep on believing. When he sees anyone fall then he will pick them up. He's just a brother who everybody else wish they had."
Knuckles closed his eyes as he sat next to Sonic and held Sonic's hand. He said with whisper:" Sonic is just somebody who no friend of his want to lose." Knuckles opened his eyes as he felt Sonic move slightly. Sonic lied there, very weak but his eyes were half open. Sonic whispered:" Thanks for believing me, brother!" Knuckles rose up and said with suprise:" You're awake! Keep holding on, i'll go and charge up the chaos emerald." Sonic turned away from him and said:" I'm sorry about everything. How's...how's Tails and others?" Knuckles looked away and said:" One of us didn't make it. You...killed Sharvari when she saved me." He waited for Sonic's reaction but only got:" Oh!" Sonic looked sadder than before. Knuckles said:" It's alright. She was your enemy anyways. But she wanted to tell you something." Sonic wasn't listening and asked Knuckles to leave. Knuckles said:" It's important." Sonic rose up and said louder:" I asked you to leave, Knuckles!" Knuckles was taken aback by the sudden outburst and said:" Sonic, calm down! You're going to hurt yourself!" Sonic shook his head and said:" The monster inside of me killed somebody. How can i calm down? It's lucky it wasn't you or Tails...or Amy."
It was the last word what he said when he suddenly collapsed. Knuckles caught him and lied him back. He said to himself:" Sh*t! I wasted enough time. I need to get to Angel Island."
He noticed that Chase was gone, so he ran out.
Grizzly stood in the hallway of the dungeon. Trio found him there. Tails asked:" Why he is here?" Roy explained:" He lost his wife and the child. It's the place where he last hold his kid." Armor said:" Everybody who hid the princess was a traitor in the eyes of the king. I'm sorry that the child got killed because of his paranoia." Tails looked at Grizzly and said:" Poor thing!" Armor said:" The king just bringed the suffering for all of us. He even asked Shield to murdrer the kid's family just because he was protector of chaos emeralds." Tails said quietly:" Sonic." Roy put his hand to Tails' shoulder and said:" He's tough guy. He'll come through everything." Tails nodded.
Knuckles found the Tornado and went to the cockpit, only to remember why the plane was grounded. Then he heard a footsteps. He noticed some of the knighters. One knighter had a gasoline tank. Knuckles jumped down and said quietly:" Thank you."
Roy walked closer to Grizzly who just stood there. Roy said:" Sir, we need to go. We won!" Grizzly came back to reality and only nodded. Tails walked up the the window and climbed trough it. Armor ran there to look if he is alright. He was revealed that Tails climbed down safely and picked the white rose in the garden. He then climbed back and walked closer to Grizzly. He gave him the blossom and said:" For your family. They could be happy if you leave it here so they could know that you miss them." Grizzly accepted it and said:" Thank you, kid." Tails backed up and said:" I saw Sonic did this one year. When i asked why, he didn't answer. I think that it's for his parents."
Armor said:" His parents? I said that we went to kill them but i never said that we complited it. Actually nobody was in home so we burned it down to lure only Sonic in." Tails asked:" Wait! You're saying that Sonic's family is alive?"
Knuckles flied as best as he could. Luckily there was eagle knight with him. He was a pilot before he joined the knighters.
Eagle had light green head and "hair", dark blue eyes and normal bronze knight uniform.
Knuckles said:" So, Halberd...why you joined knighters?" Eagle said:" I just crashed there one day. I forgot who i was so i joined them. They were actually very nice and helped me. Why did you joined?" Knuckles said to himself:" Yeah! I forgot i still had Shield's armor."
Soon they reached Angel Island. Halberd said:" Flawless landing!" Actually Knuckles almost crashed when they landed and Tornado 2's wheel got little bit damaged." Knuckles now looked at it and said:" Tails will kill me if he finds out." Halberd said:" Don't worry about it! He's mechanic, right?" Knuckles said:" It's just changed version of the plane what got Sonic and Tails together. It's important to Tails." Halberd walked away and asked:" Do you have the chaos emerald with you?" Knuckles walked away from him and said:" Yes. And watch your step!" Halberd noticed that he was very close the edge so he turned around and followed Knuckles.
In the altar of the Master Emerald, there was Rouge trapped in the cage. Shadow just smiled at her. Knuckles said:" Look who's here! You're very predictable." Rouge said:" Ah ah, you got your laugh, now please help me! Shadow just laughs at my...predictament." Shadow said;" Sorry, but it's the best thing i have seen. The great thief got captured by predictable trap!" Knuckles walked past them and said:" Sorry bat girl. There's something more important than you that i need to do. You can wait." Shadow asked:" What are you doing then? Was the queen or the king in another castle?" Knuckles sighed and said:" It's not your business, Shadow. Deal with Rouge by yourself and i'll save Sonic from death."
Rouge and Shadow looked at each other and Shadow asked:" What did he said? Is faker dying?" Halberd asked:" Are they your friends?" Shadow asked him:" Who are you? What kind of knight roleplay is it?" Halberd answered:" I'm Halberd and i'm here to help Knuckles save the world."
Knuckles started to mumble to the Master Emerald and the emerald started to glow. The golden energy went to the blue emerald what Knuckles was holding. Chaos emerald started to glow steadily. Echidna sighed from relief. He turned to Halberd and said:" Let's go. Everything what we need to do now is to return to Sonic."
Knuckles started to follow Halberd, who started to run back to the plane. In midway Knuckles cut through the cage, freeing Rouge. Knuckles said:" There's more traps near Master Emerald. So i recommend to not go near it." Rouge replyed:" Fine! I don't want Master Emerald anyway, so keep it." Then she realized that Shadow is missing.
Knuckles and Halberd noticed Shadow near Tornado. He said:" What's going on? I didn't get satisfing answer." Knuckles jumped into the cockpit and said:" No time! If we won't get to Sonic in time then all of us are in danger." Shadow jumped on the wing and said:" Then you're going to tell me everything in middle of the flight."
Knuckles sighed and said:" Alright then."