Vector and his group were following footprints of Dimitri's gang, but the snow began to cover them. Vector looked at his daughters' necklace and he was close to tears, one of the others placed their hand on Vector's shoulder "I'm sorry. But we need to get to the pass" Vector gave a slight nod and they all headed off in a different direction. Not far away our trio could see the pass and Shadow chucked "Well, what do you know. The echidna actually did it". Marine smiled at Cream "Did you hear that? You're almost home" she then stopped as the others walked on as she felt heat coming from her feet "Uh guys, my feet are sweating". They kept walking as Knuckles rolled his eyes "Do we need an update every time you do something?" "She's doing it to annoy us. Just ignore her". Marine ran after them "No guy's really. Something is very wrong" they all suddenly heard a rumble "Please tell me that was one of you?" Shadow asked when suddenly a burst of steam shot out around them. The ice began to break, and they were now on a very narrow bridge over a river of what was revealed to be lava, Shadow very quickly handed Cream his chaos emerald and said, "Chaos control" Cream then warped over to the end of the bridge where it was safe.
Knuckles was standing on a column that was separated from the others, Marine was in front of Shadow and she didn't realise she was running in place "Come on, keep up with me" "I would if you were MOVING!". Knuckles jumped from the column onto the bridge with the others which impressed Marine "Wow, I wish I could jump like that" "Wish granted" Shadow picked her up and threw her over to Cream. The part of the bridge in front of Shadow and Knuckles broke, Shadow jumped over first successfully, and Knuckles went next but more of the bridge broke off causing him to hold onto the edge. Marine picked up Cream and the chaos emerald to make sure they were safe as Shadow ran back to help Knuckles, he grabbed his hand "I got you". The ice they were standing on began to break so Shadow quickly pulled Knuckles up and threw him over to Marine. The ice began to collapse "SHADOW!" Marine yelled and she threw the chaos emerald towards him and they both fell towards the river. Marine and Knuckles stared at the edge wondering if he managed to catch it, after a few seconds Shadow suddenly appeared in front of them and he landed on the ground, he looked unconscious. Marine ran up to him "Shadow, are you okay?" he opened his eyes, and he looked a bit drained "Yeah, thanks for the save" Marine helped him up. Knuckles looked confused "Why did you help me? You could have died" Shadow looked over two him "We're a team. We look out for each other" Knuckles looked at the ground "Well, thanks". Marine picked up Cream and chuckled "I don't know about you guys but if we're a team, it's certainly the weirdest one I've ever seen".
At the peak near the pass, Dimitri and his group were waiting, Menniker looked excited "Oh, I can wait until we get a fight that hedgehog". "No one fights the hedgehog until we get that kid, she's our link to the other chaos emerald". This didn't seem to deter Menniker "Once we kill him, I get his emerald" Kragok was getting annoyed "Oh, will you shut up?" "What? My Dad has the master emerald, so I think I deserve the first one". "I said shut up" Kragok was about to hit him but Dimitri stopped him "Save your strength. Listen, all of you, even if his powers are neutralised, an emerald keeper is not to be underestimated". Lien-Da finally jumped off the rock she was resting on "Then what's the plan?". Dimitri smiled "He's a hedgehog, we have to corner him and when he's dealing with you three, I get a shot at the head" he demonstrated by punching a rock that then shattered.
Our trio were walking through a snowstorm "How much further, Knuckles?" Shadow asked as he noticed Cream wasn't looking too good. "About two miles" Marine looked at Cream "We have to get her out of the wind. Let's do the rest tomorrow" "Agreed" Shadow replied. They entered a small cave where they could take shelter and Marine immediately picked up a stone and started drawing on the wall "What're you doing?" Knuckles asked. "I'm letting others know of our story" she showed them crude drawings of moments from their journey. Shadow saw one that showed Marine bravely fighting Amy "Uh, I don't think so" he then took the stone from her and drew Marine cowering on the ground "That's better" he smiled. Marine grabbed the stone back "Very funny" she said sarcastically as she scribbled the drawing out which caused sparks to come off, Marine looked proud of herself "I'm a genius". After a few minutes Marina piled up a bunch of wooden logs and sticks and was able to ignite them. She smirked "I don't even need matches. From now on call me Marine, Captain of the Flame" Shadow raised one eyebrow "Hey, Captain of the Flame, your shoes on fire". Marine looked down and realised he was telling the truth "AAAAAHHHHHH!" she screamed as she started running around the room in a panic. Knuckles rolled his eyes and picked up some snow, when Marine ran past him, he smashed his palm on her flaming shoe.
Marine stopped "Wow, thanks. From now on I'm gonna call you Knuckles-" "Captain of touch me and your dead". Marine gasped but Knuckles then pulled her into an affectionate noogie "I'm just kidding you little aussie" "Hey lovebirds, look at this" they heard Shadow said across the cave. They looked up and saw Cream flapping her ears until she suddenly started hovering above the ground. Marine grinned "Wow, look at that… Wait, rabbits can fly?" Knuckles ignored her and smirked at the kid. Marine put her arms out "Come on, Cream. Come to aunt Marine" Cream however started slowly flying towards Knuckles who looked apprehensive "No, no. Go to her… Go to her" Cream landed in front of him and gave him a hug. Knuckles hesitantly hugged her back "Good job, keep practicing" he held her up and she started flying again. Shadow chuckled and picked her out of the air "Alright, come on. It's sleep time, long ears" he lied her down and Marine walked over to Knuckles. "Look at that pushover. You know, Knuckles, I've never had friends like you guys before" "Yeah well, you're pretty good too" Marine playfully punched his shoulder "Thanks, mate. Well, good night". Marine lied down and Knuckles walked out of the cave and stared at the peak he was leading them too.
The next morning the three of them were entering the mountains to get past the peak. Marine was carrying Cream "What is your Dad gonna say when he gets you back? He'll be so happy". Knuckles stopped walking "Mabey we shouldn't do this" the other two looked at him as if he was crazy "Why not?" Marine asked. Knuckles looked at the ground "Well you know, what if there's more dangers over the pass?" "Considering all we've faced so far I think we can handle it" Marine said as the two of them entered a Short tunnel. Knuckles looked higher up the mountain and saw that they were being watched by Kragok. He watched the other two in the tunnel, he thought for a few seconds, everything they'd been through and he knew he couldn't do this. "Get down!" he yelled at them and he kept them from exiting the tunnel "What?" they said in unison. "Shhh. Get down and follow my lead" "Knuckles, what's going on?" Marine asked. Knuckles sighed, he couldn't look them in the eye "At the bottom of the peak... There's an ambush waiting for you". "Ambush?" Shadow said before his face turned very angry "You set us up" "It was my job. I supposed to get Cream but then-" Marine stepped away from him with Cream "What did you want Cream for?" she said with a look of fear for the child in her hands. "I'm sorry" Knuckles said before Shadow pinned him against the wall with one hand on his throat "You're gonna be". Knuckles looked worried but not for himself "Listen to me, I can help". Shadow looked behind him "Marine, stay close to me, I'll get us out" Knuckles tried to get himself free "You can't, they have a way of neutralising your powers. You have to trust me". Shadow pushed him harder against the wall "Give me one good reason why we should trust anything from you", Knuckles tried to talk through his coughs "Because… I'm your only chance".