A/N: Ok, lots of people have been complaing about me typing in italics. Well, I'm really sorry, but that's just my way to show thoughts. When I don't put them in italics, people complain that they can't tell when the characters are thinking, or talking. I'll try to not use itallics as much as possible, but there won't be no italics at all. As well, I think I can cope with doing a chapter a week, so expect an update on Saturday or Sunday unless I have something happening on one of those days.

Rating has changed!

Age Changes:

Sonic: 23

Amy: 20

Tails: 16

Cream: 14

Eggman: Unknown

Metal Sonic: Unknown

Knuckles: 24

Rouge: 26

'Sonic attacked me… again…'

Amy felt tears stinging her eyes, but she would not let them fall, especially in front of so many of her friends. 'I don't get it. It can't be him…it just couldn't. I said I'd love him no matter what… but I'm just not so sure anymore…'

"Amy…"

'I do owe everyone an explanation…'

"Amy…"

'That's twice they saved me now… '

"Hhheeellllloooo?"

'I guess what Sonic said was true…'

"EARTH TO AMY!"

"Hmm?" Amy was snapped out of her thoughts. She stared into the eyes of the white bat Rouge, who was waving an arm in front of her face.

"Finally… I thought you never wake up…"

"What? Ya… sure…" answered Amy vaguely.

Cream sighed. "Amy…" she started, "Is there something you want to tell us?"

Amy squirmed uncomfortably as the attention was averted to her. So she tell them? How Sonic had become a killer? That he was after her now?

"You know, you can always ask us for help," offered Tails.

'No… I don't need help," she thought to herself as Sonic's words flooded back to her: 'You're an annoying, persistent little brat…'

'I'm no brat! I can protect myself. How many times have I proved myself? I don't need them to protect me… I'm not a stupid little naïve girl anymore…'

"How many times do you think I have to scream in her ear to get her to come down to Earth? Anyone?" asked Rouge sarcastically as Amy, once again, became lost in her thoughts.

"Oh… sorry…" the hedgehog replied mildly. Everyone sighed. It was obvious to them that she wasn't going to open her mouth to explain anything.

"Look," said Knuckles forcefully. He was no good with emotions, but he might as well try. "We're your friends. We'll always be there for you."

Amy let a small smile grace her lips. "Thanks, Knuckles."

"Aww… Knuckles turning into a softie?" asked Rouge teasingly. Knuckles turned bright red at this.

"WHAT? As the guardian of the Master Emerald…"

"Ya, ya. We know how big and tough you are oh-great-guardian," Rouge smiled, almost tenderly at the Guardian. He smiled back at her, and the two unconsciously sat nearer to each other.

'Everyone's so happy…' The pink hedgehog mentally sighed. 'Is this how life is going to be for me?' She felt like she was staring through a window… into another world, another time and place, where everything was perfect… she just needed to be out of the picture. 'Maybe… just maybe…' she let that thought trail off. For some reason, she didn't want to finish it. A deep dread seemed to settle in on her heart.

"So, Knuckles…" began Amy, trying to distract herself from her thoughts. "What are you doing here anyway? Not that I don't appreciate it…"

Knuckles fur suddenly seemed to stick straight up, as if it had been electrified. "The Master Emerald has been stolen again…" he managed to growl out thorough clenched teeth.

Amy blinked. "Didn't you say something about…" she hesitated, not wanting to finish the sentence.

"…about Sonic stealing the Master Emerald?" he nodded at Amy, relieving her of having to say Sonic's name. "There were traces of the Master Emerald's essence all over him. I'm pretty sure he didn't have it with him though."

"Wait, wait, wait. Hold on." Tails put up his hands, imploring Knuckles to stop. "That can't be right. What would Sonic do with the Master Emerald?"

"I don't know," replied Knuckles, looking grim. "All I know is that I have to get it back… no matter what."

"How about telling us how it got stolen?" asked Tails.

Knuckles sighed, putting his hands behind his head. "It's a long story…"

'There's not much action going on lately,' thought Knuckles to himself as he stared down at the Master Emerald from a high tree branch. 'I wonder what everyone else is doing?'

He took a flying leap and landed on another tree branch, farther away from the shrine then he usually would be.

'Well, nobody said that guarding the Master Emerald would be fun, and I swore to protect it…'

Suddenly, there was a slight rustling sound coming from his right. Immediately he froze in battle position. 'I guess I got my wish,' he thought with a small smirk.

"Show yourself, whoever you are! You are on sacred grounds!"

"Geez, Knux. You don't need to sound so worried."

Knuckles relaxed a bit as he recognized the sound of Sonic's voice. "What are you doing here? And how did you get here? I didn't see the Tornado…"

Sonic stepped out from the green foliage. 'What the…' Knuckles looked at Sonic a little strangely. He looked the same, hell; he even acted like his same old layed-back self. His instincts of danger were kicking up into high gear, but he could see nothing wrong.

"What's with the weird look?" asked Sonic, looking up coolly at him.

Knuckles flinched slightly. It wasn't his usual friendly sort of cool look. This seemed more menacing somehow… was this really Sonic? He needed to find out more.

"Oh, nothing, Sonic. There was just a… nice looking flower behind you." He mentally slapped himself. 'That was pathetic!'

"Planning to give it to Rouge, eh?" asked Sonic with a sly look in his eyes.

"What do you mean?" replied Knuckles, narrowing his eyes.

Sonic just smiled. Abruptably, he changed the subject. "So, how's life been as the Guardian?"

Taken aback by the sudden subject changed, Knuckles answered, "Oh, nothing. Same old thing. The Master Emerald could be taken any second, you know." He carefully gauged his reaction.

Seeming indifferent, Sonic just said, "You're right. One second, it could be standing there in that shrine, and the next second, it's gone, as quickly as you can blink."

Knuckles as getting more and more suspicious by the second. "Why are you here anyway?"

"Just to explore," answered Sonic simply.

"Just to explore?" asked a confused echidna. "That's all?"

"Oh, right. There was something else I was gonna do. What was it? Let me think…" Sonic scratched his head idly. "Oh, ya. I also came…" here, he paused. Knuckles didn't know why, but he got back into his battle stance. "… to steal the Master Emerald." With that, he zoomed off towards the direction of the shrine.

"What?" Knuckles started racing after Sonic. "Damn!" he muttered to himself. He should've pummeled Sonic when he had the chance. Oh, why didn't he listen to his instincts? Knuckles was regretting it more and more every second as the sound of Sonic breaking through the forest was getting farther and farther away.

'Well, he might be faster, but I know the island better.'

He dived to his right, into a hidden passageway under the roots of a huge tree that he had dug a while ago. It would take him right to the Master Emerald Shrine.

'Too easy,' thought Sonic, dodging tree branches and huge roots. Nothing could've been simpler. He was simply too gullible. He was nearing the shrine, and was just about to enter it…

…when Knuckles jumped out, lounging at him at tackling him to the ground.

They began to fight. Knuckles attempted to give him a powerful punch that should be enough to knock him out, so that he could get to the bottom of this. He didn't know what was happening, but he knew that he couldn't hurt him.

Just when he was about to throw a punch, Sonic managed to grab his fist. He widened his eyes in surprise, before Sonic flung him into a tree, which promptly toppled over on top of him.

Confident that he had won, Sonic entered the shrine.

The broken pieces of the tree began to shift and move, as Knuckles threw them aside angrily. Finally breaking free, he ran into the shrine after Sonic. 'I must protect the Master Emerald!'

A dim, green light was shining ahead, which must mean that Sonic hadn't gotten to it yet. With this dim hope in mind, he picked up his pace. Stopping before the entrance, he peeked in.

Sonic, with a grin of satisfaction, was staring at the Emerald, a greedy look in his eye. "Oh, no you don't!" shouted Knuckles, grabbing Sonic from behind. Sonic looked surprise, and didn't have time to react as he was thrown hard at the wall.

As the dust cleared, Sonic stood up, looking completely unharmed. "We can do this the easy way… just hand it over."

"Keep dreaming," answered Knuckles. "What would you do with it?"

"Orders from the top," Sonic quipped.

"Wha-" before Knuckles could finish, Sonic had ran past him, grabbing his arms in the process. He threw him high up into the air, and used a homing attack on him. He fell to the ground, stunned.

"You know you can't beat me…"

Knuckles growled. He stood up; his battered body feeling every little breath, every heart beat amplified a hundred times. He felt enraged, and betrayed. He didn't want to hurt Sonic… but now, he had no choice.

He ran straight towards Sonic, who yawned, as if he was bored. Just as he curled into a ball to attack Knuckles, he took an abrupt turn to the left, catching him off guard. He quickly unfurled from his ball, but Knuckles had grabbed his legs and flung him onto the ground. He jumped up high, fists first, ready to strike him. Sonic recovered just in time, and rolled out of the way, where a huge crater appeared where his head was a few seconds ago. Getting up quickly, Sonic ran toward Knuckles, who quickly brought up his fist, which Sonic quickly dodged. He was now right beneath Knuckles, and before he could do anything, Sonic had plunged his hand into Knuckles's stomach.

Knuckles's eyes widened. Cruelly, Sonic withdrew his hand, grinning wickedly. 'Blood…' his clouded mind seem to whisper.

Knuckles staggered back, coughing up blood. "Sonic… you bastared…" he croaked.

Sonic stared at his hands for a few moments, as if trying to figure out if he had done this or not. Slowly, he turned to Knuckles. "I told you to give up…" a wicked grin seemed to spread over his face. "I'll take what I came here for, then."

Knuckles felt helpless as Sonic took the Master Emerald. 'I failed…'

As Sonic touched the Master Emerald, something happened. His body went rigid, his eyes widened. It was as if thousands of tiny stars were exploding in his head. He felt something start to awaken inside him, as if telling him to stop, to stop taking all this innocent blood. It was reaching towards the Master Emerald, as if it was a light that was found in the darkness.

'NO!' he growled in his mind. 'I will not lose control!'

With a gasp, he let go of the Master Emerald.

The red echidna stared in awe as Sonic let go of the Master Emerald. Why had the Emerald deflected him? Any other person who tried to take it had always been able to touch it at least. Why him?

Suddenly, he went cold as cold, green eyes were turned to him.

"Take the Master Emerald for me," he commanded.

Knuckles blinked. "As if!"

"Oh, I'm sure you will comply…" he waved his hands, and a blue Chaos Emerald appeared in his hands. It glowed, and someone else appeared in his arms, gagged and bounded, eyes wide.

"Rouge!" cried Knuckles in horror. "How…"

"Your girlfriend here tried to take the Chaos Emerald from me. Not very nice of her," smirked Sonic as the white bat continued to struggle. "Anyway, back to the point. If you take the Master Emerald for me, I won't have to kill her."

Knuckles didn't know what to do. Luckily, the wound to his stomach wasn't that deep, but he was still losing blood. He wouldn't be able to fight him again, nor would he let him kill Rouge. But he couldn't let the Master Emerald go either. He stared at the Master Emerald, which shone as if saying, "It's your choice."

He looked at the white bat, whose life he had saved once already. 'Why should I save the life of a thief? Why didn't I just let her die in the lava the first time I met her? Yes, she had the pieces of the Master Emerald, but the Master Emerald could easily survive lava, and would've floated to the top anyway…' What was this strange thing he was feeling? It was like a mix of all the emotions in the world all put into one.

"Well?" asked an impatient hedgehog.

Without speaking, he staggered up, clutching his stomach. Without taking his eyes off Sonic, he walked slowly towards him, putting his face right up to his. Then, turning away, he quickly grabbed the Master Emerald, put it in Sonic's hands, and grabbed Rouge.

Sonic smirked. "Good choice," he said. Then turning away, he cried, "Chaos Control!" and disappeared as if he was never there.

Knuckles made quick work of untying Rouge's arms and legs. Taking the gag out of her mouth, she cried out, "Knuckles, your stomach!"

"It's… not that bad…" he smiled faintly.

Everything seemed to blur. He fell into the welcoming arms of darkness.

"And so, I took care of his wounds, and as soon as he got better, he was up and ready to find the Master Emerald," finished Rouge.

Silence fell like a blade over the group. It was thick… suffocating. Cream desperately tried to lift the cloud of silence. "So, Knuckles… Rouge," she said in am overly cheerful voice, nodding to them both. "Do you want to stay here tonight? We have plenty of room."

"Thanks, Cream. We appreciate it," returned Knuckles.

Knock, knock, knock.

"I'll get it!" Amy jumped up, and ran over to the door.

'Who could it be? At this time of night?' Amy hesitated at the door for a moment, her hand just inches away from the handle. Her heart was racing, her breathing shallow. 'Could it be…?'

She opened the door.

So many emotions were running through her heart. Fear, sadness, pain… and happiness?

She felt as if time had stood still. It was if the one in front of her was so far away, yet he was standing right in front of her.

Finally, the silence was broken by the blue hero.

"Hi, Amy."

A.N: Thank you very much for the reviews, everyone. Accept one, but that was just a stupid one from my friends LOL. Anyways, thank you so much again!

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