It was a normal day on Master Island. Knuckle was laying next to Master Emerald, thinking about all of his recent adventures. Knuckle's meeting Sonic, Tails, and Eggman for the first time was such an enlightening experience. How long had it been since he had any real communication with someone before then? He couldn't tell. Beyond being taught his purpose and how to protect the Master Emerald, he had no one to interact with before then. He wondered what he should do with his time here, he felt him defending the Master Emerald by himself was inefficient. He wanted to interact with the world down there, but he didn't want to abandon his post.

What he most wanted to do was interact with his friends more. Tails is one smart kid and knew a whole lot he didn't. But at the same time, he was also naive in ways Knuckles wasn't, so he wanted to impart some knowledge onto the kid. Amy is similar, she was a strong-willed girl who was fascinated by romance, especially her imaginary one. He wanted to help train her to be strong, both physically and mentally.

There was also so much more. He wanted to get to know Rouge more. He wanted to fight Shadow a couple more times to test his Chaos energy knowledge. He wanted to visit the Chaotix again and hang out. There was so much he wanted to do. Especially with Sonic.

His thoughts were lost as the Master Emerald started glowing. That was rather unusual, but he felt it. The Chaos Emeralds were together, or at least most of them were. He couldn't tell where they were, but by the looks of it, they were close. Getting closer as well. He stood up and readied himself. He saw Tails' Airplane coming from afar, along with an Eggman Robot? It looked like the Death Egg, but he couldn't be sure. Was that Amy?

Tails landed and Knuckles ran up to him as soon as possible. "Help! Eggman has 6 of the 7 Chaos Emeralds!"

"He has what? Where's Sonic?" Knuckles asked, getting in his fighting stance. Tails couldn't even look him in the eyes. Tails was trying to hide his face for some reason, but he couldn't tell why.

"He's dead," the cold, hard truth came from Amy Rose, another one of Knuckle's friends. In a contrast to Tails, she looked perfectly fine. Her face was the epitome of calmness. Which didn't put Knuckles in a good mood.

"He's what?" he yelled, getting angry. Eggman was able to kill Sonic? The same hero who's defeated Eggman easily before, multiple times? The same guy who could fight with him on an equal level? He couldn't believe it. Amy tossed him the white Chaos Emerald before taking out her hammer. She turned around and faced the direction Eggman was coming from.

"I plan to take him out for good. He'll pay for what he did. "

The surprisingly guttural anger from Amy caused him to calm down. It must have been true. But, even then, he wouldn't allow them to throw their lives away. Should he teleport them? But nowhere is safe now that Eggman has 6 Chaos Emeralds, and since he also had the green Chaos Emerald, he assumed Shadow was also defeated or similarly...killed. It choked up Knuckles, he didn't know what to think of it. While he didn't like Shadow, he could understand him. He understood his passion, his anger, his pain, and his powers.

Unable to come up with a plan, the Death Egg landed in front of them. They could see Eggman inside the robot. He was laughing hysterically with his iconic laugh. Knuckles couldn't stand it. Did murder seem humorous to him?

"As you must know now, Guardian, Sonic is dead. Hand over those emeralds, and I'll spare you in my new kingdom. "

"You must have lost your mind Eggman!" Amy rushed towards him, swinging her hammer at the Death Egg. It was futile. Every hit bounced off it as if a barrier was on it. Regardless, she kept on swinging. She hit it harder and harder, never letting up her ruthless aggression.

"This is for Sonic!"

"You are pure evil!"

"How could you?"

She was wearing out. Her anger couldn't last, nor could her attacks. She still tried, she kept on hitting the Death Egg. The attacks got slower and softer. Her hands were shaking. She did everything she could to keep standing. She couldn't even hold the hammer at the end of it. She tried to swing with her fists, but Eggman had enough. He gripped her with his left arm.

"Poor child, I'll put you out of your misery," Before he could squeeze the life out of her, he noticed Knuckles running to the Master Emerald. He yelled for him to stop. Knuckles turned around, not even close to it yet. "Keep moving towards the Master Emerald and I kill another hedgehog. " Shit! He should've never left its side. He wasn't fast enough to reach it. Tails tried to spindash the Death Egg. Eggman groaned, not another useless rat trying to stop his ascension.

Tails kept on spin dashing the robot, but to no avail. Eggman smacked him, causing him to crash into Knuckles. Knuckles caught him, causing them both to fall to the ground. Knuckles looked at the young fox.

Tails was crying. He had been crying, and he was still crying. It pissed him off to no end. He knew what he had to do now. Even if it was a bad idea, he still had to. He told Tails to hide, which he obliged. Poor kid, it must've been tough without his big brother.

"So you think because the big shot hero is gone, you can take over huh?"

Eggman scoffed. "And what does an imbecile like you think you can do? You've never been anything but Sonic's rival at best, and sidekick at worst. You can't stop him, so what makes you think you can stop me?"

Knuckles, for once, actually chuckled. He figured he had this kind of reputation among the people who knew him. Sonic was always saving the day, so everyone else could only know so much about the other people. He didn't imagine a day would come where he had to step in and stop Eggman himself like this, but death is always sudden. He knew that well.

"That's what you think of me? Can't blame you, but that's not who I am. " He walked up to Eggman and started glowing white. Eggman knew he couldn't do anything to him, the Death Egg was being powered by all the other Chaos Emeralds, there was nothing he could do. Runaway? Who cares, he'll take over the whole world at this rate. So Eggman watched.

"I'm not anyone's sidekick, and I'm certainly no rival of Sonic's. The reason I follow Sonic, the reason I followed him was to become a better me. " He started flying into the air, while flashing white. Eggman was curious, he still had something up his sleeve?

"Sonic was who I wanted to be. A hero who could inspire everyone. I've had daydreams of being just like him, in a world where I was special. But I realize something. "

"And what was that?" Eggman had to ask, he might as well document his last words for any future historians looking into the Echnida's.

"I am nothing like Sonic. He would've been able to cheer up those two, and defeated you without such risky methods. " Risky methods? What is he talking about? Knuckles' eyes began to turn red.

"But I am here to protect him. Everything he was, everything he is. His heroism, his carefree attitude, and his hatred of oppression of any kind. " His energy combusted onto itself, causing a mini-explosion around him.

Knuckles was flying. He was no longer the red echidna everyone knew, he was now something more. He was glowing magenta, in the same way Super Sonic glowed gold. His fur was now magenta as well. He dropped the black emerald he had in his hand, before pointing at Eggman.

"Give it up Egghead!" He punched through both of the Death Egg's arms, alarming Eggman. Amy was on the ground, falling before Knuckles caught her. He planted her gently next to Tails.

"Knuckles?" She was barely able to get the words out, before passing out. He didn't know why, but it looked like she had been working herself out even before coming here. He should have tried to stop her before, he was an idiot. He shook his head, now wasn't the time for that.

He flew closer to Eggman who was panicking. Eggman tried to move the Death Egg but it wasn't working. How? How could this possibly be? Him, defeated by Knuckles?

"What are you?"

Knuckles smiled. "I'm just a guy who has a lot to lose. I'm Knuckles, Knuckles the Echidna. And you're in my way. "

He blasted a hole through the chest of the Death Egg Robot, snatching every Chaos Emerald inside of them. Putting them down with the rest of them, he grabbed the Death Egg. It would be so easy to kill Eggman now and destroy his whole legacy. It took a lot of will to not do it, this is not how things should end. Sonic wouldn't do such a thing, so begrudgingly he stopped himself. He threw the Death Egg into the atmosphere, far far away from the island.

"And never come back. " He depowered down, which was a mistake on his part. He passed out immediately, causing Tails to have to catch him. Tails appreciated that Knuckles saved them, but how?

The other Chaos Emeralds were black as well. Did he drain them of all their power so he could go Super? He must've, but Tails had never seen someone use 1 Chaos Emerald to deactivate them all. Knuckles must've exerted a ton of energy into doing that.

He would be sure to say how grateful he was about this, but he let him rest for now. Looking at him, Knuckles was being zapped currently by pink energy. Tails didn't feel it, but it must've been the unbalanced Chaos energy. No wonder Knuckles ever told anyone about this method, it must've been very dangerous. Would he be ok? He didn't know what to do, but he knew what he could do.

Tails waited until Amy woke up, and let her fully grieve. She was totally focused on taking down Eggman, which is why they even had an emerald in the first place. She beat up one of his robots to get it. The last time she had slept was at least 4 days ago. But now her emotions had caught up to her, and she couldn't help but cry. Tails couldn't help himself, and he started to ball with her as well. It was gonna be a long time to heal, but at least they both could release these emotions together.


A simple one-shot about a dream I had about the same situation. I wanted to make it fit as a before Sonic Forces thing in my mind, but that's not a necessary connection. In a world without Sonic, they would be fine. They all are incredible in their own way. But yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed it! Review and favorite if you want to do so, I would appreciate it.