Author's note: Hey guys! A bit late, but I've had SD to worry about. Sorry.

Chapter Six: Never Again

The first thing I was aware of was a throbbing head-ache. I wasn't too concerned about anything else. I opened my eyes once, only to find a bright white light shining in my tired eyes. I closed them again and tried to go back to sleep. Sleep never came. I wanted it so bad. My head was throbbing with every heart beat. I wasn't entirely sure how long I had been out, but all I knew was that I wanted to go back to sleep. After a while, my breathing became harder and it felt like there was a large weight on it. After a few minutes like that, I began struggling. "Hey!" A voice yelled. "I know it hurts…" I felt a hand on my shoulder and I tried to calm down. My breathing became harder until it felt like someone was crushing my chest. This time the struggling was unavoidable. "Calm down!" The voice called.

"What is it?" I gasped. I still kept my eyes closed.

"Just stop struggling! It'll be over in a second."

"What is it?" I gasped again. This time there was no answer. Sure enough, though, the pressure began to lighten up. A few minutes later, I could breath easy again. "What was with that?" I asked weakly.

"Look, I can't explain, but if I hadn't done that, you'd be dead right now. Believe me… I should know." The voice was male.

"What happened?"

"That's what I want to know." The voice said. I opened my eyes and was finally able to see who I was facing.

"Tails?" I asked. The fox nodded. "What did you do to me?" I demanded suddenly.

"Nothing! I just saved your life!"

"What was it?" I asked again.

Tails sighed. "It was a medication that I'm on that helps with head-aches."

"Does it do that all the time?"

"Well, when you take it with hot sauce, it does…"

"And how did that save my life?" I asked angrily

"Listen, I wasn't trying to poison you. I found you practically dead at the train station muttering something about the black echidna. I didn't know what to think. I gave you a pill dipped in hot sauce. It may hurt, but it empties your system of most poisons." Tails explained.

"I was poisoned?" I asked. He nodded. "What kind of poison?"

"Dunno. I took a blood sample before I gave you the medication, but I can't identify it. It's a more sophisticated poison. It seems to evolve to its victim's blood. When I added my own blood, we made a different blood type and the poison particles changed shape, as if they were trying to change with the blood. Since we didn't make an actual blood type, the poison withered away and died right in front of me." He shook his head. "I've never seen, or heard, of anything like it before. It sort of scared me."

"What were the side effects?" I asked quietly.

"Very high fever. You still have one, but it's gone down some. Some other side effects include rambling and a lot of struggling. I thought you were going to kill me when I tried to give you the pill." He pointed to his head, which was bleeding some. His fur around the area was incrusted in dried blood. "I had thought I had killed you when you just stopped moving after I gave you the pill."

I looked at him and tried to sit up. I ended up falling back on the bed and the world began spinning very fast. My eyes rolled and I closed them. When I reopened them, it was night time. "Welcome back," Tails muttered. "Good to see you."

"What happened this time?" I asked.

"You tried to get up too quickly and passed out," he answered. I tried again to get up and this time Tails had his hand on my back and helped me to a sitting position. He handed me a glass of water and I drank it slowly. My stomach wanted to reject it, but I was able to keep it down. "Nauseous?" He asked. I nodded slowly. "Well, whether or not it's because of the medicine or the poison, I'll never know, but the fever's gone down some. "How are you feeling?"

"Like someone tried to drive a spike through my head," I answered. "I thought you said that the medicine you gave me was supposed to get rid of head-aches."

"Yeah, well when it's combined with hot sauce and a deadly poison, I'm sure it won't completely get rid of the head-ache." He stood up and walked over to his closet. In it was my cloak. He picked it up and threw it at me. I wasn't able to react fast enough to catch it and it landed on my head. "Sorry."

I shrugged and pulled it off my head and then put to over my body. "So, when did you start taking medication?" I asked. Tails jumped and looked around. He didn't answer, but busied himself with cleaning the room. "I asked you a question."

He sighed. "There were times after you and Sonic left when I couldn't sleep. This caused huge head-aches and I started getting migraines. The doctor gave me medicine to help me sleep and to help get rid of the head-aches." He shook his head. "We're all messed up, Knux, and sadly, it's not your fault. You had the right idea, faking your own death. You were spared this kind of pain."

"I didn't want to leave you guys. I knew that if I came back, Ceaira would to. I just didn't think she'd bring a homicidal freak with her!" Tails cocked his head. "Yes, there are two of them." I rubbed my head. "I just don't understand how Quiden can be here. I left her in the past!"

"Wait, Quiden? That black echidna from the past that befriended Shadow?" I nodded. "That's illogical! There is no time traveling technology that far back. Hey, we don't even have time traveling technology." I opened my mouth to retort. "That was a fluke, Knuckles. The Chaos Emeralds have been known to send people to different time zones. We have those, but we can't predict a warp, or control one." I shook my head.

"Well, someone's trying to kill me," I muttered.

Tails sighed and bowed his head. "Actually, someone's trying to kill all of us. I've been doing some of my own detective work about the Shade. I even fought her once or twice, but she's trying to kill all of us. I didn't know her and Ceaira were working together, though. I didn't really think about it. Anyway, after the first fight with her landed me in the hospital, I did a bunch of research, but as it turned out, I wasn't the only guy on this case. Someone else is trying to find out who the Shade is, and it isn't Chaotix."

I sighed and shook my head. "Who is it?" I asked.

"Shadow," Tails answered. I stared at him. Sure, Shadow had befriended the echidna during the warp, but he wasn't one to obsess over anyone's identity but his own.

"You sure?" Tails nodded. "Why?"

"Dunno. We can never really understand that guy, can we?"

"I guess not, but Shadow doesn't get into anyone's business but his own. If it doesn't concern him, he stays out of it. Why is he digging?"

Tails shrugged. "Search me, but he's digging deep. I saw him in the library one time with a stack of old books surrounding him. I didn't bother him because he seemed pretty angry about something."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Shadow was digging? Shadow doesn't dig. Shadow stays out of messes that he didn't make, and now he's trying to clean up mine? Or was he trying to make it worse. "And then there's Rouge…" Tails muttered.

"Whoa! Rouge is digging too?" Was there anyone not in on this?

"No! Rouge couldn't care less about the Shade. She's helping the police to find Sonic. Knuckles, it's all one big trail of conspiracies. Everyone is working for one purpose, and the one guy everyone is after is the only guy no one can find!"

"So everyone's looking for Sonic?" Tails nodded. "And no one can find him, and apparently he's the center piece to this dinner table. This is great! So, what does this mean?"

I heard a loud crack and looked at the fox. He was holding a broken picture frame. "This means one of us has to find him before the cops or the Shade and Ceaira."

"And how, my twin-tailed friend, do you propose we do that?" I asked. Tails handed me the broken frame. I looked at him, and then at the picture in the frame. "I don't get it…" He didn't answer. The picture didn't seem to be of anything. It was the skyline of Metal City. I hadn't been there in a few years, but I still recognized some of the larger buildings. It was night time in the picture, and apparently there had been a black out at the time the shot was taken because there were no lights on in the city. "Tails, why do you have this? Especially in a frame?" Once again, I got no response. I looked closely at the picture, but I still got nothing out of. "Tails!" I yelled. He looked at me and shrugged. I turned the picture over and there was something written on the back. You may not understand my intentions right now, but it all makes sense, I promise. I've made my own mistakes, and I have to fix them. I don't want to be found, but now you know where I'll be. I never left you. You may not understand, but I promise, I will make you understand. I'm so sorry for what I'm putting you through. I turned the picture over and looked at it again. This time, though, I saw what Tails wanted me to see. Standing on one of the buildings was a spiked figure. I shook my head. "Who took it?" I asked quietly. When I turned to Tails, he was pointing to himself.