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VI: Future Knuckles

"I don't understand." Sonic said as he and Sky walked out of the store after Cream and Amy left. "How many people are after you again? What did you do?"

Sky sighed. "My mother probably sent them to look for me." She answered biting her lip and refusing to look at him.

"I really don't understand you kid." Sonic muttered as they made their way back into the centre of the city with the two chaos emeralds.

"Look, things are pretty complicated and the least of my worries is my mother looking for me." Sky sighed and marched on ahead slightly.

Sonic sighed and also picked up the pace to walk next to her again.

"Can you please just tell me exactly what is going on?" He asked. "You seem to be keeping a lot of information from me and maybe if you told me, I could help."

"I appreciate what you're trying to do, but trust me, the less you know, the better." She said, glaring straight ahead of her.

Sonic frowned. This girl was starting to really annoy him. What was the big secret he felt like he was missing out on?

"Sky, it sounds like something I have the right to know about." He insisted.

"You don't have the right to do anything!" Sky snapped turning around to glare at him. "You're a lot different from the person I thought you were and I brought you here to help, not to ask a million and one questions."

"Hey!" Sonic yelled which forced her to stop walking. "I could have decided not to help and I don't understand why you're being so cagey all of a sudden, but I haven't done anything wrong. I'm just trying to help and I think I deserve answers considering you were the one who dragged me here."

Sky didn't say anything as she refused to look at him.

"I don't know whether I should be happy or offended that you haven't figured it out." She mumbled and Sonic cocked his head her.

"What do you mean?" He asked quietly and carefully.

Sky thought for a few seconds. "Nothing."

Sonic groaned. "See, there you go again with the secrets. What's so bad that you can't tell me?"

"There's lots of stuff that I'm not telling you." She said folding her arms across her chest.

"I give up!" Sonic moaned, exasperated as he slapped his hand against his face.

Sky sighed before finally looking up to meet his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be so closed off, but trust me when I say it's for the best." She answered more calmly.

"I don't understand." Sonic said with a sigh.

"Let's just forget about it for now and focus on finding Knuckles." Sky said and began walking down an alley way.

Sonic huffed, but decided not to argue with her anymore and followed her. The girl almost reminded him of himself when he was younger. It was almost creepy.

They both walked out into a more dirty area of the city. Buildings were darker and many of them had neon signs on them, most of them with various letters missing or they kept cutting off.

"Err, why are we here?" Sonic asked as he walked up next to Sky who didn't seem at all afraid of the area.

Sonic and Sky both stopped when they saw a red echidna being tossed out of one of the bars.

"What kind of service do you call this?" The future knuckles slurred as he struggled to pick himself up off the ground. "I should smash your face in."

"Knuckles?" Sonic gasped out before bursting out laughing at the sight of the drunk and scruffy looking guardian. His red fur was sticking up in random directions and he looked like he hadn't washed in ages. His purple eyes were dull and intoxicated as they looked up to see Sonic and Sky a few feet away.

Sky elbowed Sonic in an attempt to get him shut up.

"Hey Knuckles." Sky said slowly, beginning to approach him. "Been kicked out again?"

"Oh it's you." Knuckles hiccupped. "Sky, my favourite little hedgehog unlike a certain father of yours who never makes time to see his old friend anymore." He folded his arms across his chest and groaned like a child.

Sky cleared her throat awkwardly and her eyes darted to Sonic and back again.

Knuckles looked up and noticed Sonic. "Wow, Sonic, you look younger every time I see you. Finally come to see me eh? After you left me to waste away." He snapped and Sonic stepped back, holding his hands up defensively.

"It wasn't Sonic's fault, Knuckles." Sky tried to reason with him.

"Oh no, Mr Perfect is never to blame is he? I don't know how you cope with him Sky; waste of space that he is."

"Hey!" Sonic yelled, glaring at the pathetic mess his hot headed friend had become. "What happened to the once strong and fearless guardian of the master emerald?"

Sky cringed awkwardly.

"Like you don't know." Knuckles growled finally managing to stand up and then burped loudly.

"Actually he doesn't." Sky interjected. "This is Sonic from the past, I sort of ran away from home and picked him up along the way."

Knuckles began laughing and Sky slapped her hand against her forehead.

"You what? Ran away from home?" Knuckles gasped out between fits of laughter. "And travelled through time? That's amazing! Oh I'd love to see your dad's face when he finds out what his precious eldest daughter has been getting up to. I think he might die of a heart attack." He continued laughing and Sky hid her face in her hands.

"Why does everyone insist on reminding me of how my father is going to react?" Sky cringed.

"I'm sure your dad isn't all bad." Sonic said trying to cheer Sky up, but this just seemed to make Knuckles laugh even harder. "What did I say?" Sonic asked and Sky glared at the drunk echidna.

"You know." Knuckles gasped out once he had finished laughing and stumbled over to Sonic, throwing his arm around Sonic's neck. He smelt of alcohol and it made Sonic want to gag. "You were alright buddy, until you changed." He added sinisterly.

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked feeling slightly frightened by what Knuckles had just said. What does he mean by change?

Sky groaned and tried to pull Knuckles away from Sonic, but Knuckles continued to cling onto him.

"But I was the great guardian of the master emerald. The only one left in my clan, the duty was heavy, but I accepted it." Knuckles spoke dramatically while Sky sighed and let go of him. "Everything was going fine until Sonic went and stole it."

"He had no choice Knuckles!" Sky snapped.

"Quit defending him!" Knuckles yelled back. "He knew the risk, but he was as selfish as always and cared more about having his own little fun, than the safety of everyone else."

Sonic gasped as these words sunk in. Why did his future self steal the master emerald? What would he need with that silly rock?

"But of course he knew very well that Eggman would double cross him and when Jade was born, the crazy doctor went back on his word as always. Sonic of all people should know about that, but no. That's when all hell broke loose. This whole mess is Sonic's fault." Knuckles spat, finally letting Sonic go.

"My my my, you haven't been scarring big blue have you Knuckie?" A familiar seductive voice called down.

Everyone looked up to see the future version of Rouge the bat land gracefully to the ground. She placed her hands on her hips and winked at Knuckles.

"Wow, aren't you a sight for sore eyes." She snorted as she looked him up and down. "I didn't know you'd take our break up that hard."

Knuckle's eyes widened. "We only had one date!" He yelled.

Rouge ignored him and winked at Sky before looking at Sonic.

"Don't worry big blue. Knuckles has just had his knickers in a twist for the past year over the whole master emerald incident which no one blames you for." She reassured him, but Sonic still wasn't convinced. There was more to the story, he could tell.

"Have you seen my dad anywhere on your travels?" Sky asked Rouge hopefully.

"Sorry honey, I haven't, but I've been keeping an eye out for him." She replied. "Now a certain little fox told me, you're interested in the chaos emeralds."

Sky and Sonic nodded their heads

"Good because I've got two right here and I don't feel like sharing them with anyone else." She said holding out the pink and yellow chaos emeralds.

"How did you…?" Sky gasped.

"Being an amazing treasure hunter like me." Rouge said and Knuckles gagged but she ignored him. "Precious babies like these practically call out to me. I found them in the woods just lying there so I helped myself."

"Really? They were just lying there?" Sonic asked feeling unsure. "Something doesn't seem right about that."

Rouge shrugged. "Well nothing happened when I took them so I just assumed I got lucky."

"Who cares?" Sky shrugged as she inspected the emeralds in Rouge's hand. "Now we only have two emeralds left to get."

"I know that one is with Sonic and the other is with Dr Eggman." Rouge said as she put them away.

"Let's go then." Knuckles said wobbling over to them again. "I have an overdue date with Eggman that I'll never let him forget."

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