Sofi's up! What? You knew that… Okay, let's just move on.

Comments on Reviews!

ultimateCCC: *shivers* I don't want to imagine that. (Thanks for that image, CCC.)

StarlightSparks: Eh… Shadow probably didn't notice or really understand what Sonic was talking about. I feel like he'd respect Sonic's past and remain quiet. Hope you liked the Cover Art. Thanks, and hope you continued to enjoy! (Thanks for checking out my page!)

Autumn: ALL HAIL SHADOW! Okay, I couldn't resist. We had a pretty good weekend… I had a ton of homework. Not sure about Halo. Hope you're doing well! (Never Turn Back, dear readers! For you are all of you, and I Am All Of Me!) *face palm* HALO! (Was it something I said?)

juancastri111: *blushes* Well thanks. I personally think Shadow deserved some good character building. As for the character chapters… I think we're sort of going to do that. I wouldn't say it's too crazy, and it won't be as specific as Shadow's chapter, but I do want to have at least a few paragraphs of character explaining (in Sonic's head).

qwencarson126: Whoever doesn't like Shadow… well, I'd like to have a conversation with them. (My conversation would be without comprehensible words, but with several fists.)

Maxi-T: Shadow in a Burger King line. Oh Chaos… Shadow and Cream's relationship is a very sibling one in this story. I love a brother sister relation between these two in other stories, so I thought, "Why not?"

Um… Okay just warning you right now. Big foreshadowing in this chapter. Oh the fun! Let's just get going.

Sofia's POV:

The past week had been a hard one. My boss needed me to work a little later than usual on Thursday so Knuckles and I had to reschedule for Thursday morning. I am NOT a morning person.

So around eight am I drove groggily over to the breakfast place we had agreed on. When I pulled up in front of the restaurant, Knuckles was already standing at the door, waiting for me.

I swung off my motorcycle and parked it, slipping a few coins in the parking meter.

Knuckles smiled cheerfully at me, "Morning!"

I didn't respond but grunted and we walked into the building. The waiter already had a table waiting for us so at least the wait was short. We sat down and ordered our drinks. As the waitress walked away, Knuckles glanced over at me, "You feeling okay? You don't look so good."

Pressing my hands up against my face, I moaned slightly, "Sorry, but I am not a morning person. Let me get some orange juice and I'll be fine."

Knuckles shrugged, "Some people do better at night. I get it."

A small smile appeared, "I take it you're a morning person."

"Yep."

"What time do you get up?"

The waiter appeared with our drinks and I gratefully took the glass. I took a sip and motioned for Knuckles to continue.

He shrugged, "Depends on the season and the day of the week. On Wednesdays I like to watch the sunrise. During the summer I usually wake up around… four? Four thirty?"

I nearly did a spit-take. "What?"

"Winters are nice, I get to sleep til about six… I'm up with the sun about ninety percent of the time." He continued as if it was normal for people to get up that early every day.

"What about the other ten percent of the time?"

"Before the sun."

I stared at him. "Why?"

"It's kind of part of my job…"

This caught my interest. Sometimes, he ask me about my job, but rarely hinted at his. "Are you a farmer, or do you just have a job that starts really early?"

Knuckles rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "No to the first thing, yes to the second."

"What do you do?"

The echidna tensed up slightly and picked up a menu. "Is there anything on here that looks good to you? I'm personally not a fan of waffles."

Okay then… random subject change. "Why aren't you a fan of waffles?"

"Um…" Knuckles looked a tad bit embarrassed. "I don't really like the squares. It's just… squares inside other squares. I don't understand. It's worse when the actual waffle is round. I dunno. It bothers me."

I started laughing and ignored the look I got from Knuckles. Still chuckling, I glanced at the menu. "Omelets sound good... And they aren't squared." Knuckles rolled his eyes, but eagerly pounced at the suggestion.

After we ordered our food (two omelets, his had ham and sausage while mine was just filled with veggies), we struck up a conversation about life. Well, sort of. We just talked about subjects of interest, such as Montana Badger, and… okay, so maybe we need to move on from that. With that thought in mind, I finally decided to bring up the dropped subject previously mentioned.

"So, Knuckles. What do you do for a living?"

Once again the echidna tensed up slightly. He took a big drink of orange juice then began humming loudly and rather tunelessly. I raised an eyebrow and repeated the question.

Knuckles sighed softly, "You'll either think I'm insane, a complete freak, or you just won't believe me."

"Um…" I raised an eyebrow, "I'm a professional fashionista. How is that not insane or freakish?"

"My job is an entirely different brand of insanity."

"Meaning…?"

"You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"Nope."

"Alright, here goes nothing." Knuckles took a deep breath, "What do you know about the Echidna race?"

I scrunched my face together. "Um…" Vaguely I recalled reading about the ancient Echidna tribe in an ancient artifact book, "Well... according to legend they were some sort of Guardian Tribe. It's said that they were favored of Chaos and protected something very valuable to him. And something about a flying island." I shrugged. "That's all I got."

Knuckles stared at me, his mouth dropped open in shock.

I stared back, a little confused. "Do I have something on my face?"

Quickly, the echidna straightened out, "Um, no. I just... Every person I've ever had to explain this to had absolutely no clue about the Echidna legends. How… how do you know about that?"

"Well," I smiled slightly, "I took about three mythology classes in high school, plus I love studying ancient artifacts. My town's library had a surprisingly good selection."

Knuckles just stared. After a few moments of processing whatever thoughts were heading through his mind, he finally managed a slow reply, "Oh… well then, this shouldn't be too difficult to explain. Um… As you've mentioned, the Echidna tribe was a Guardian over something very...valuable to Chaos."

I nodded slowly, but was still a tad confused, "Isn't that just a legend?"

"Not entirely. Legends are almost always based around some truth. In this case, it's mostly true. I'm a Guardian." After that sentence he just stared at me, waiting for something. Probably a reaction of some sort.

Instead, I just blinked at him, very confused. "A guard over what? What's a Guardian? How does that have anything to do with the Echidna legends?"

Knuckles smiled a little sheepishly, "I guess that was a bad explanation... Let me start over." As he gathered his thoughts our food arrived.

The echidna then suggested that we wait til after we ate because it was going to take a while to explain. My interest peaked; it's no surprise that it felt like a very long meal.

So after the longest ten minutes of my life and the only thing that remained on our plates was crumbs, I finally managed to get the stubborn echidna to start explaining again.

"Um… Okay," he started again, "So without going into too much detail, I guard something that my ancestors have guarded for generations. Sort of like a very powerful artifact that could destroy the world if in the wrong hands." Knuckles gave a nervous laugh, "You probably think that's pretty freaky."

My mind flashed back to kids at school calling me a freak. "No. I've seen weirder."

"Seriously?" he raised an eyebrow.

I shrugged, "My life is a mess. I've gotten used to it. At this point, I think an alien could abduct me and I wouldn't be surprised."

"Uh… okay?"

That was when I decided to change the subject. "The other day at my job, some lady came in and demanded to see all of the dishwashers we had on sale."

Knuckles nearly choked on his water. "What?"

"I have no idea. I politely informed her that she was in a clothing store, not Seals."

"How did she react?" He asked with a smile on his face.

"She told me that I was wrong and she was right. We ended up getting in this big argument about what store she was in and it ended in my manager having to call security because we couldn't get her to leave."

"Some people are idiots."

"Agreed. This is why I prefer my apartment."

"Join the club." We laughed a little bit, then Knuckles paid the bill and we left the restaurant.

Walking down the street, we continued to chat about times we met some idiot in our lives and how it's much nicer to be alone. Never realized I was this much of a hermit until now.

Anyway, at some point, when we came to a last second crosswalk, Knuckles grabbed my hand and pulled me across the street. I couldn't help but smile on the other side when neither of us let go.

Perfect breakfast, funny conversations, and a handhold. Best. Date. Ever.

Of course that is when my luck goes wrong. Right when everything was perfect, I had the first 'episode' I'd had since I left my home.

Actually, I had almost forgotten about my visions at this point. Back in my old town, I had one almost every other day. Sometimes I was lucky and it was once a week. But ever since I left, I hadn't even had a dream. At first, I had been a little confused by it, but eventually I forgot about it.

Really regretted that now.

I was in the middle of answering one of his questions when my head felt like it had split open with pain. Letting out a sharp cry, I pressed my hands against my head and dropped to my knees, my hands shaking and eyes streaming.

Knuckles gripped my shoulders and I heard him cry out, "Sofi!" Then every sound and feeling seemed to fade and the world went black.

A female echidna suddenly grabbed my wrists with no indication of letting go, her eyes glowing an unearthly green...

"My name is Dodger. I'm looking for Maniac."

...Wind whipped past my face as I gripped my arms around a green hedgehog. "Manic, I'm going to kill you!" I shouted over the uproar...

...With a completely calm and straight face, the black and red hedgehog spoke, refusing to look me in the eye, "Get out of here. Now."

...A Dark presence…

...Glowing Gems…

"MAURICE! WAKE UP!"

My eyes snapped open as I gasped for air.

Knuckles was gripping my shoulders staring at me with worry in his eyes, "Sofi! Are you alright? What happened?"

Shakily, I stood up, "I- I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You're all pale and-"

"I'm fine, Knuckles." I steadied my voice. "I sometimes have, um, migraines that hurt my head. Sort of like a seizure, I guess. Forgot that I haven't told you about them."

He looked pretty concerned. "Can you walk?"

"Uh, yes. Honestly, it's not a big deal."

The echidna hesitated, "Is there anything else about these…. seizures? Anything… uh, strange?"

My body tensed up slightly, "No. Why?"

"I-" Knuckles hesitated, "I thought I felt… never mind. It was probably my imagination."

I didn't question him; my head hurt too much. "I need to get home."

"Of course." Knuckles offered his arm, but I ignored it. I was too frazzled to be very polite. Knuckles must have understood and settled with just watching to make sure I didn't fall on the ground again.

At my apartment, we exchanged goodbyes and Knuckles told me to call him if I needed anything for my migraines. Politely, I thanked him, then closed the door. I let out a small sigh and collapsed on the couch. I closed my eyes and tried to make sense of what I had seen.

Only three times in my life had I been able to have a clairvoyant vision. Yes, I had my 'instincts' but I didn't count those feelings as 'visions'. The past popped up all the time and the present was a pain, but the future? Very rare. The first time was right before Maurice and my parents died, but I didn't realize then what it was. It just seemed like a really, really detailed nightmare. The second time was in second grade. It wasn't really anything important (I had a vision of Manic failing a pop quiz. I tried to get him to study- he didn't. The vision came true, needless to say).

The last time was before Manic ran away. And you know how that turned out.

But this time… this time was different. It wasn't a small flash-forward or even a complete vision, but a collection of snapshots through time. I didn't know what to think.

'Okay, Sonia. Let's just think this through logically.'

The woman who had grabbed me was definitely an echidna, and Knuckles was the only other echidna I'd ever seen before. This woman had been wearing something that I'd call a tribal outfit. I had no idea why she grabbed me or what was with the eyes.

The second thing was a voice. My voice. I was talking to someone and introduced myself as Dodger. Perhaps I was in gang territory…? I wasn't completely positive on that bit.

Shaking my head, I moved on to the third scene. Lots of wind and I was holding tight to someone. Sounded a lot like a motorcycle ride. And I was yelling at Manic about wanting to kill him. Sounded accurate. My heart sort of leapt forward a few paces. Manic was still alive (part of me had been worried that he'd been brutally murdered on the streets). Now, I just had to find him. And I guess I do, according to my 'migraine'.

Next: the black and red hedgehog. I'd never seen the guy before. I think I'd remember someone like that. And why did he want me to leave, 'Now,' as he put it.

The next thing was more of a feeling than anything. Something dark was nearby. Something cold. And something… wrong. Unnatural. Terrifying.

Visions of gems, all similar in size and shape, but the colors were completely different. I could recall four; red, white, green, and yellow. But the others were a little harder to remember. There may have been a purple one… but it might have been pink. I might have seen black, but it may have been a blue. And then another green or perhaps it was turquoise. Maybe there was another. I guess I'd figure it out later.

The last one made absolutely no sense. I only had known one Maurice and he wasn't exactly around to yell at for most of my life. And besides, why would someone (I knew the voice wasn't mine. If anything, it sounded like a kid's) be screaming for him to 'wake up'? I guess maybe I had seen the past…? But everything else was obviously the future, and I'd never had an overlapped time in a vision before.

"Ugh!" I moaned aloud. Why did this have to be so difficult?

I felt like something (or someone) was trying to tell me something. Trying to warn me to prepare for… something.

But what?

Well, foreshadowing like a madwomen here. Oh boy, that was fun. If any of you wish, you can try and connect the dots. And here's a HUGE hint: The visions go in order of appearance. Holy Chaos, big spoilers in this (if you can catch them).

And I'm willing to spoil some things right here! Remember 'Seals'? THAT, my friends, will play an extremely important role in the plot! Not only is it a play off of 'Sears', but it is also a code name for an Ancient Mobian artifact! Simply unscramble the letters and you'll see that it spells the word 'Alses'! What does that mean? You decide! (And if you believe all that, there's some swampland in Florida I'd like to sell you.)

Um… ignore that. I really don't want to have some of you staying up until midnight trying to understand that. (It's not really a spoiler.) No derr. By the way, the word 'gullible' is written on the ceiling.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed. Please review!