Sonic Origins

by Ri2

How did Sonic get his super speed? What made Amy fall in love with him? How did the Chaotix become detectives? Why is Rouge both a secret agent and a gem thief? How did Cream and Big meet their pets? Silver the Hedgehog needs to know the answers to these questions, and far more, for the future might depend on it...

5. Knuckles' Genealogy

Welcome back! Hopefully the super-long chapter last time didn't turn you off…because unfortunately this one's even longer. Sorry. I don't know how it happened, either…I guess this is just what happens whenever I write something. Oh well.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me.

…

"How I became Guardian of the Master Emerald, eh?" Knuckles said thoughtfully. He sighed. "Well, I figured somebody was going to ask me that question sooner or later. It's quite the story, and a rather tragic one at that…"

"In other words, it's going to be totally lame," Charmy translated.

"It is not going to be lame! YOU'RE lame! Shut up!" Knuckles snapped childishly.

"Wow, nice comeback," the bee deadpanned, not impressed.

"Tragic? But Knuckles, I thought–" Sonic started.

"It all began many years ago, on the distant planet of Zircon…" Knuckles began.

"Zir-what now?" Tails asked in disbelief.

"Isn't Zircon what fake diamonds are made of?" Amy asked.

"Yes, but they're more than just a cheap diamond substitute, they can sometimes be valuable gemstones in their own right," said Rouge, who would know.

"A distant planet? I didn't know you were an alien, Mr. Knuckles," said the surprised Cream.

"That's because he's not," Shadow said with a sigh.

"Yep, totally lame. This is gonna suck," Charmy said as the air wavered.

…

In a dome-shaped chamber constructed of glittering crystal, strange machines of incomprehensible purpose and function lining the walls and rising like great monoliths of science and technology from the floor, a beautiful female echidna in a shimmering silver robe paced anxiously around the base of an ovoid capsule that seem to be equal parts crystal and metal pointed upwards at a closed hatch on the ceiling next to a dangling stuffed alligator, various power cables leading away from the harness cradling the device to the myriad machines around the room. As she chewed her lip wqorriedly, the small red echidna puggle she was carrying in her arms, swaddled in a blanket, started crying, as if picking up on her distress. "Sssh, there, there," she crooned, gently rocking the baby. "Don't worry, little Knuck-El, your father will be back soon." The floor trembled, and several of the machines started making ominous sounds. "I just hope he'll be back in time…" She said nervously.

The door to the chamber irised open, and a handsome, rugged, very intelligent-looking white-furred echidna in black and green armor rushed into the room, holding a giant green brilliant-cut gemstone at least half again as big as he was over his head. "Lara, I have returned! Hurry, shut the door, Zod will be here at any moment, and he mustn't interfere before we're through!" he said in a voice oddly reminiscent of Marlon Brando.

The female, Lara quickly pressed a button on a nearby console, and the door sealed shut behind her husband. "You have it, then? The Master Emerald?"

The male echidna nodded. "The single most valuable artifact on the planet, possessing limitless power and containing all the collected wisdom, knowledge, and history of our entire species? It was not easy, but yes, I was able to retrieve it, as you well can see! Is the escape craft ready?"

Lara nodded. "Yes, I followed all your instructions. The ship is fueled, the trajectory is set, all we need to do is load the cargo and we can send it on its way." She frowned. "Though I still don't understand why you couldn't have built a ship large enough for all of us…"

"I told you, Lara, there wasn't any time!" The male echidna, Jor-El, said as he rushed over, opened the capsule, and gently placed the Master Emerald inside. "I only had enough time to build a ship large enough to transport our son and the Master Emerald to safety! If there had been any more time, I would've made it large enough for us as well!"

"I seem to recall you spending six weeks after the Council rejected your claims that the planet was going to explode drinking yourself into a stupor before I suggested that maybe we find a way off Zircon before it was destroyed," Lara said skeptically. "Plus, I'm pretty sure that both of us could fit in there if we left the Master Emerald behind. It'd be a tight squeeze, but–"

"We can't leave the Master Emerald behind, Lara! Our son can use its power and knowledge to one day establish a new echidna civilization on another planet, which would be very difficult for us to do if just the three of us went! Which is more important, Lara: our lives, or the future of our entire species?" Jor-El insisted.

"I actually wouldn't mind living, if it's all the same to you," Lara muttered to herself. Jor-EL steadfastly ignored her.

There was a banging on the door. "Jor-El! This is General Zod! By the order of the High Council, you're under arrest for stealing the Master Emerald, frightening the populace with claims that our entire species is doomed, and generally making a nuisance of yourself! Open the door at once, and turn yourself in, or we will bring you in by force!" A voice shouted from the other side.

"Never!" Jor-El shouted. "Quickly, Lara, that door won't hold him for long!"

Lara kissed Knuck-El on the forehead, hugged him tightly, and gently placed him in the capsule beside the Master Emerald, sniffing and trying her hardest not to cry. "Goodbye, little one. Have a pleasant flight. I hope the world you arrive on will be better than the one you're leaving."

"Well, it won't be without its share of problems," Jor-El admitted. "But I have faith that he shall not only survive, but thrive." He leaned into the capsule, meeting his son's wide eyes, a deep look of affection and love on his face. "My son, at first the people of this new world may not understand you, may even fear you…but do not allow yourself to fall into despair. You will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you. They will stumble. They will fall. But in time, they will join you in the Sun. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders." He smiled. "You will travel far, my little Knuck-El. But we will never leave you... even in the face of our death. The richness of our lives shall be yours. All that I have, all that I've learned, everything I feel... all this, and more, I... I bequeath you, my son. You will carry me inside you, all the days of your life. You will make my strength your own, and see my life through your eyes, as your life will be seen through mine. The son becomes the father, and the father the son. This is all I... all I can send you, Knuck-El. Well, that and a copy of my consciousness, since I was able to imprint my memory engrams into the Master Emerald on the way here, so you can ask me for help whenever you need guidance."

Lara blinked. "Wait, what? You can do that? Why didn't you do that for me, too, so I can–"

"There's no time!" Jor-El insisted, closing the capsule.

"I think there would have been," she grumbled as her husband pressed a series of buttons on a nearby console. As the capsule began to power up, the hatch on the ceiling opened up, revealing a starry sky.

Suddenly, there was a great explosion as the door was blasted open. As the smoke cleared, over a dozen black-armored echidnas carrying energy weapons raced into the room, followed by the imposing figure of General Zod, leader of planet Zircon's military, flanked by his subordinates Ursa and Non. "Jor-El!" the fearsome-looking black echidna bellowed. "Whatever you're doing, stop it right now! Return the Master Emerald immediately!"

"You're too late, Zod!" Jor-El declared, pushing one last button on his console. With a great roar, the capsule rocketed off its cradle and shot through the ceiling hatch, flying off into space. "The Master Emerald is forever out of your hands now! It, and my son, shall be spared from the doom that will befall us all!"

"You fool! Without the Emerald, our civilization IS doomed! You've ruined everything!" Zod shouted as his soldiers looked through the hatch at the receding capsule in horror.

Jor-El shook his head. "Not so, Zod! By my actions, I have ensured that some vestige of our people will survive, somewhere out in the cosmos! For by my calculations, our entire planet and everything on it shall be destroyed in three… Two… One…"

Everyone cringed, anticipating their imminent end… And nothing happened. After a few seconds, the gathered echidnas blinked and looked around, realizing that they were very much not dead. Zod raised an eyebrow. Jor-El coughed. "Er, must have miscalculated…ahem! Three…two…one…!"

The planet continued to not explode. The echidnas continued to not die a horrible death. Zod looked bored. Non coughed. Ursa did her nails. Several more minutes passed, and nothing happened, despite the increasingly frantic and desperate scientist insisting that it was totally gonna happen, any minute now, just hang on a second, the planet's definitely gonna blow up, just you wait, you'll see, you'll ALL see. Slowly, Lara turned to her husband, eye twitching. "Jor-El, I seem to recall you saying that our planet was about to explode, which is the only reason I even CONSIDERED putting my only son into a rocket by himself and blasting him off into space to some planet I've never even seen or heard of before now. And yet, our planet has not exploded, despite you insisting several dozen times a day that it was absolutely going to happen at this time. Even when our friends and neighbors turned against you and the media labeled you as a crackpot, I stood by you, because I knew you were a great man, and was SURE that there was no possible way you could do something big enough to ruin our family, our lives, and your career without good reason. And yet, we're still standing. What do you have to say to this?"

Jor-El gulped. "It's, ah, possible that I may have misinterpreted the data a little bit…?"

"I'LL MISINTERPRET YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" She screamed, lunging at her husband and beginning to strangle him.

Ursa, an attractive green echidna female, smirked. "Should we stop them?"

Zod chuckled. "No, give her a minute to let it out of her system, and THEN arrest him. Non, send someone after that capsule, we should be able to intercept it before it leaves the system –"

And that's when the planet exploded, killing everyone on it.

…

"I flew through the depths of space, eventually reaching Earth and landing on Angel Island. Following the advice and guidance my father left me, I grew up to be a strong hero and the mighty Guardian of the Master Emerald! The end," Knuckles concluded. Everyone stared him blankly. "What?"

"You were right, Charmy, that was lame," Vector said.

"Somebody pick up the phone, because I freaking CALLED IT!" Charmy whooped.

"Knuckles, that's SUPERMAN's origin story!" Sonic yelled.

Knuckles' eyes shifted about. "… No, it isn't."

"It totally is!" Sonic insisted.

"Yeah, you even ripped off Jor-El's speech from two different movies!" Tails agreed.

"Ah, but it ISN'T Superman's origin because Superman doesn't look like an echidna, and he's from planet KRYPTON, not Zircon!" Knuckles insisted rather desperately.

"Then why did everyone in that story have the same names as people from Superman?" Shadow asked.

"…Um…uh…they're…really common names in outer space?" Knuckles suggested weakly.

Everyone glared at him. "Seriously? You really think we're dumb enough to fall for that?" Amy asked incredulously.

"Yeah, who did you think we were, you?" Espio quipped.

Cream nodded. "Even I'm not that naïve."

"That story's so famous, we're still retelling it in the FYOO-CHURR," Silver said.

"Does that mean they're still making Superman movies in your time?" Shadow asked, intrigued.

Silver nodded. "They are indeed."

"And are they any GOOD?" Rouge asked.

Silver made a face. "It varies. They don't have the same rate of consistency as the Marvel movies tend to have…though they STILL insist on rebooting Spider-Man all the time for some reason."

Everyone groaned. "Figures that wouldn't change," Espio grumbled.

"Poor Spider-Man. It must be terrible to be rebooted over and over again," Cream said sadly.

"Such is the life of a comic book character, I suppose," Charmy said philosophically.

"I'm from another dimension, and even THERE we know that story!" Blaze said.

"Really?" Vector asked in surprise.

Blaze nodded. "Superman is a hero whose tale transcends many worlds, like many of his ilk. He is known in many universes, even ones that don't have comic books."

"Huh. Neat," the crocodile said.

"I-AM-DISAPPOINTED-AND-DEEPLY-INSULTED-THAT-YOU-THOUGHT-WE'D-FALL-FOR-THAT," Omega said scornfully.

"And even if all of us didn't already know this story, it still doesn't make any sense because the Master Emerald has existed on this planet for thousands of years, as has the echidna race," Tails pointed out.

"…Uhhh… I'm actually thousands of years old, but I've been in stasis for most that time due to an accident when I crashed… And, uh, the Master Emerald managed to re-create my people as the ancient echidna civilizations, but then they were all wiped out or banished to another dimension before I woke up, so…uh…Yeah, you aren't buying any of this, are you?" Knuckles said with a sigh.

"Nope," Mighty said, happily chewing on yet another chili dog.

"Plus, some of us already KNOW your real origin, and it's not that," Sonic pointed out. "What's the deal, Knux?"

Knuckles sighed. "Compared to the stories that you guys have said so far, my REAL origin really is pretty lame, as Charmy put it. I wanted to think of something cool that would impress everyone."

"Well, you failed," Shadow said bluntly.

"It can't be that bad," Vector said encouragingly.

Sonic made a face. "Well, it sort of is…"

"Well, we want to hear it anyway! Please tell us, Mr. Knuckles?" Cream asked pleadingly.

"Yes, please tell us, Mr.…Er, I mean, Knuckles," Silver urged the last of the echidnas.

"Yes, do tell us, Knuckles," Rouge said in a breathy voice as she pressed herself against the echidna, eyelashes fluttering, lips flush, bosom heaving sensually against his skin. Shadow smirked and rolled his eyes at the display, while privately feeling a little envious.

Knuckles sighed, giving in. "Well, all right, but don't say I didn't warn you. It all started on a sunny day, many years ago…"

…

The floating land mass that was Angel Island drifted blissfully through the heavens, continuing to throw up a giant middle finger to the laws of physics and that bitch gravity as it had for the last several thousand years. On a high hill at the center of the island rested an ancient shrine, seven columns in varying states of disrepair surrounding a central dais, the stone weathered by countless years of exposure to the elements. A gigantic green brilliant cut gemstone slowly hovered on its tip in the center of this dais, utterly pristine and without flaw, despite also being exposed to the elements for ages beyond remembering, a faint, warm glow emanating from its center.

Nestled near the base of the gemstone was a small white egg. The egg shook slightly. A crack formed in its surface, followed by another, and another. Finally, the egg split apart, revealing a tiny red echidna puggle, blinking blearily as its eyes adjusted to the sunlight and the great glowing jewel nearby.

The Emerald pulsed, and a ball of glowing pink light emerged from it, coalescing to form a beautiful female peach-orange echidna with white stripes on some of her dreadlocks, a white tank top, a tribal dress with beige, green, and red triangular patterns, white sandals with white straps, thick cobalt blue wrist bracelets, white gloves, a golden tiara-like band with a blue jewel in the center, a golden necklace with a blue jewel in it, and white bandages. "Welcome to life, little Knuckles! I am Tikal, and I am here to guide you and train you to become the Guardian of the Master Emerald!"

"Mama!" Knuckles squeaked.

Tikal giggled. "While that is very flattering, Knuckles, I am afraid that no, I am not your mother."

The puggle considered this for a moment. "Mama?" He inquired, pointing to the Emerald.

Tikal shook her head. "No, dear, that's not your mother either. It is your sacred charge, and it is your purpose in life to guard it, and protect it from all who might misuse its powers, but it is not your mother."

Knuckles' lip quivered, and his eyes started tearing up. "Mama?" He inquired again.

"Gone, I'm afraid, along with your entire species. Congratulations, you are the last echidna!" Tikal said cheerfully.

Knuckles stared at her for a moment, and then burst into tears. Tikal winced. "On second thought, that might not have been most tactful way to handle it… Forgot that mortals don't take being told that people they care about are no longer around pretty well, because they're incapable of comprehending the transience of physical existence, and the immortal transcendental nature of the soul due to their fleshy brains being limited by three-dimensional thinking. Dang it, I've always been better with Chao than kids…" The Emerald pulsed. "No, no, I can handle this. There's no need for you to come out… I'm sure I can handle this. I'm not going to let him turn out like the last bunch." The Emerald pulsed again. "Okay, yes, I'm a bit out of touch with mortals considering that I've been more or less dead for the last 4000 years, but really, how hard could raising a kid be?"

Suddenly, Knuckles threw up. Both he and Tikal stared at the vomit for moment, and then the baby echidna started shoving it back into his mouth. Tikal scowled and glared at the Emerald, which was somehow radiating smugness. "Not a word."

…

"And that's it," Knuckles said.

Everyone stared at him for a moment. "That's it?" Shadow asked.

"Yep. That's it," Knuckles said.

"You hatched, this ghost popped out and told you who you were and that the rest of your species was dead, threw up, and… The end?" Vector asked in disbelief.

"More or less," Knuckles said. "Now do you see why I wanted to embellish a bit?"

"Yeah, I could probably have gone without hearing about you eating your own vomit," said a disgusted Mighty.

"That was even lamer than the last one," Charmy said.

"And also a lie!" Cream said angrily. "Mr. Knuckles, I thought you would tell us the truth this time!"

"Huh? But that WAS, the truth, Cream!" Knuckles protested.

Cream shook her head, long ears flopping about her. "You said you hatched from an egg! But that can't be right, only birds and fish and insects and reptiles and weird alien things hatch from eggs, and you're clearly a mammal!"

"Actually, Cream, echidnas like Knuckles belong to a small group of mammals called 'monotremes' that can lay eggs," Tails corrected the rabbit. "Aside from echidnas, the only other mammal capable of laying eggs is the platypus."

"Oh," Cream said. "I did not know that. I'm sorry, Mr. Knuckles, I should not have accused you of lying again."

"It's all right," Knuckles said.

"So, who was that ghost girl, exactly? She was kind of hot," Mighty commented.

"Yeah, who'd have thought female echidnas could look so pretty, given our only known male specimen?" Charmy joked.

"Hey!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"I would like to know as well," Blaze said. "I had thought that there were no echidnas other than Knuckles left in this dimension."

"Tikal doesn't exactly count on account of her being sort of… Dead," Amy said tactfully.

"Basically, thousands of years ago her dad, the leader of the tribe Knuckles is descended from, tried to steal the Master Emerald and use its power to take over the world, but in the process, he killed a bunch of Chao, royally pissed off Chaos, and got just about his entire civilization wiped out. Tikal had to sacrifice herself to seal Chaos away in the Emerald before he could destroy the world, and when Eggman inevitably learned about Chaos, let him out, and tried to use his power to take over the world, Tikal did her best to help us set things right and save the day," Sonic explained.

Blaze nodded. "A familiar story, one I've seen repeat itself a few times on my own world. I wonder why it's usually the Princess or high priestess of an ancient civilization that manages to be the last survivor or is sealed away to prevent against a future disaster?"

Sonic shrugged. "Search me. That's just the way these things happen, I guess."

"She also raised me a little growing up, though I wouldn't really go so far as to call her my mom, though I suppose she's the closest thing I ever had to one," Knuckles explained. "She showed up pretty infrequently, mainly long enough to teach me something important or make sure I wasn't starving to death, but often left me to my own devices. It'd been years since the last time I saw her when the Chaos incident happened, and I haven't seen her much since then."

"I've met her a few times, usually after I've stolen the Master Emerald and was waiting for you to catch up to me to take it back," Rouge said. "I don't think she feels like I'm the right sort of girlfriend for you."

"You kind of aren't," Shadow pointed out.

Rouge smirked. "Well, yeah, obviously, but since when has that ever stopped me before?"

"While I thank you for being honest this time, I can't help but admit I'm a little disappointed," Silver complained. "I was kind of expecting a little more than that, Knuckles."

Knuckles threw up his hands in exasperation. "I've told you guys more than once that I'm an orphan and have no idea what happened to the rest of my people! What else were you really expecting?!"

"Tikal never told you?" Espio asked.

Knuckles shook his head. "She told me a few things, but whenever I asked too many questions about what happened to the other echidnas, she always clammed up and promised to tell me some day."

"And that day is today!"

Knuckles started and turned around to see that the ancient echidna spirit princess who was sort of his surrogate mother was standing just behind him. "Tikal!" He cried in surprise.

"Gah! Ghost! GHOOOOOOOOOOOOST!" Charmy screamed.

"Actually, I'm not a ghost so much as an individual who has transcended mortality and is no longer bound by the shackles of time or physical existence," Tikal corrected the bee.

"…Gah! Individual who has transcended mortality and is no longer bound by the shackles of time or physical existence! INDIVIDUAL WHO HAS TRANSCENDED MORTALITY AND IS NO LONGER BOUND BY THE SHACKLES OF TIME OR PHYSICAL EXISTEEEEEEENCE!" Charmy screamed. Tikal facepalmed.

"Gosh, she's pretty," Vector said. "But, uh, not as pretty as my dear Vanilla, of course!" Espio groaned and shook his head.

"Hey, Tikal! Long time no see!" Sonic said, walking over to shake the other echidna's hand.

"Yeah, we haven't seen you since the Chaos incident!" Tails agreed. "How are you doing?"

"Oh, not too badly. Watching with dismay as Knuckles continues to blunder about doing a mediocre job as Guardian of the Master Emerald, exploring the furthest reaches of reality, learning the secrets of the universe, having mind blowing sex with Chaos… Nothing too big," Tikal said.

"…Okay, we did not need to hear that last bit," Amy said after a moment.

"How… How would that even WORK?!" Tails asked, looking horrified.

"Well, you see–" Tikal started.

Knuckles interjected, laughing nervously. "Ah, well, I don't think any of them REALLY need to hear about your sex life, Tikal."

"Actually, I'm kind of curious-" Silver started.

"NONE OF THEM REALLY NEED TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR SEX LIFE," Knuckles shouted. "And what do you mean, I'm doing a mediocre job?!"

"You're the Guardian of the Master Emerald, yet instead of guarding it, you're here having a party with your friends," Tikal said.

Knuckles flushed. "W-well, I WANTED to stay, but they keep dragging me off to stuff like this!"

"And you let yourself get dragged away," Tikal pointed out. "I know it's important to have friends, and I approve of you having a life outside your job––Chaos is fully capable of protecting the Emerald while you're away, to the point where I sometimes think he'd actually be a lot BETTER at it than you are––but I have to wonder if maybe a line should be drawn when you skip guard duty to take part in races or treasure hunts or other sporting events that have nothing to do with saving the world."

Knuckles fidgeted. "Yeah… Well…"

"There's also the fact that you have a rather abysmal track record when it comes to stopping people from stealing and/or destroying the Master Emerald," Tikal added. "Your extreme gullibility doesn't exactly help matters in that regard, even if you DON'T take into account the countless times where you broke the Emerald yourself by accident."

"Yeah, like when you kicked us off the island for breaking the Emerald 10 times in one week when YOU broke it 100 times in a single day!" Mighty shouted.

Knuckles' eye twitched. "I'm never going to live that down, am I?"

"Nope," Charmy said.

"She has a point, Knux. You COULD be doing a bit of a better job protecting that thing, or being less gullible," Sonic said.

"I'm not that gullible!" Knuckles insisted.

Tikal raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

…

Knuckles stood before the Master Emerald, a determined look on his face, every muscle and line in his body tensed for action. He was the Guardian of the Master Emerald, and nobody was going to steal it on his watch!

Suddenly, Dr. Eggman appeared in his Egg Mobile. "Knuckles, Knuckles!" He cried. "It's terrible! Sonic is going to try and steal the Master Emerald!"

Knuckles gasped. "What?! Oh no, he won't! SOOONIIIIIIC!"

He ran off. "Yoink!" Eggman said, snatching the Emerald up in a large claw extending from the bottom of his hovercraft and flying off with it.

…

Knuckles stood before the Master Emerald, a determined look on his face, every muscle and line in his body tensed for action. He was the Guardian of the Master Emerald, and nobody was going to steal it on his watch!

"Hey, Knuckles, can I borrow the Master Emerald for a little bit? I think it would look great as a display in my nightclub, and I promise I'll bring it right back!" Rouge asked, sauntering up to Knuckles and sensually running her fingers down his spine.

Knuckles faltered, his heart skipping a beat in the presence of his incredibly hot and sexy sort-of girlfriend. "Well… I probably shouldn't, but… If you promise to bring it right back… I guess it'll be okay," he said, fighting down a blush.

"Thanks!" She said, kissing him fully on the lips, then picking up the Emerald and flying away with it while he swooned, a look of delirious joy on his face.

It wasn't until she did not, in fact, bring it right back, that he realized he'd been had.

…

Knuckles stood before the Master Emerald, a determined look on his face, every muscle and line in his body tensed for action. He was the Guardian of the Master Emerald, and nobody was going to steal it on his watch!

Suddenly, Dr. Eggman appeared in his Egg Mobile. "Knuckles, Knuckles!" He cried. "It's terrible! Sonic is going to try and steal the Master Emerald!"

Knuckles gasped. "What?! Oh no, he… Wait, that's what you said last time, and you were lying!"

"Yes, but I MEAN it this time! He's really going to try and steal the Master Emerald!" Eggman said.

Knuckles gasped. "What?! Oh no, he won't! SOOONIIIIIIC!"

He ran off. "Yoink!" Eggman said, snatching the Emerald up in a large claw extending from the bottom of his hovercraft and flying off with it.

…

Knuckles stood before the Master Emerald, a determined look on his face, every muscle and line in his body tensed for action. He was the Guardian of the Master Emerald, and nobody was going to steal it on his watch!

"Hey, Knuckles, can I borrow the Master Emerald for a little bit? I think it would look great as a display in my nightclub, and I promise I'll bring it right back!" Rouge asked, sauntering up to Knuckles and sensually running her fingers down his spine.

"That's what you said last time, and you lied!" Knuckles pointed out.

"Yes, but I'm NOT lying this time," said, pouting and giving him an incredibly sexy, pleading look. "And I promise we'll go on a really nice date after I bring it back!"

Knuckles faltered, his heart skipping a beat in the presence of his incredibly hot and sexy sort-of girlfriend. "Well… I probably shouldn't, but… If you promise to bring it right back for real this time, and we'll go on a really nice date… I guess it'll be okay," he said, fighting down a blush.

"Thanks!" She said, kissing him fully on the lips, then picking up the Emerald and flying away with it while he swooned, a look of delirious joy on his face.

This only lasted a few seconds before he realized he'd been deceived again. "DAMMIT!"

…

Knuckles stood before the Master Emerald, a determined look on his face, every muscle and line in his body tensed for action. He was the Guardian of the Master Emerald, and nobody was going to steal it on his watch!

Suddenly, Dr. Eggman appeared in his Egg Mobile. "Knuckles, Knuckles!" He cried. "It's terrible! Sonic is going to try and steal the Master Emerald!"

Knuckles gasped. "What?! Oh no, he… Wait, that's what you said last time, and you were lying!"

"Yes, but I MEAN it this time! He's really going to try and steal the Master Emerald!" Eggman said.

"You said that last time too!" Knuckles argued.

"Yes, but I really MEAN it this time! He's really going to try and steal the Master Emerald!" Eggman said.

Knuckles gasped. "What?! Oh no, he won't! SOOONIIIIIIC!"

He ran off. "Yoink!" Eggman said, snatching the Emerald up in a large claw extending from the bottom of his hovercraft and flying off with it.

…

Knuckles stood before the Master Emerald, a determined look on his face, every muscle and line in his body tensed for action. He was the Guardian of the Master Emerald, and nobody was going to steal it on his watch!

"Hey, Knuckles, can I-" Rouge asked, sauntering up, but Knuckles interrupted her.

"NO! You CANNOT borrow the Master Emerald for any reason!" Knuckles snapped.

Rouge gasped. "I-I was just going to ask if you wanted to have dinner and go see a movie together! You didn't need to be so MEAN!" She ran off in tears.

"W-wait, Rouge! Come back! I'd love to do those things with you! I'm sorry!" Knuckles cried in horror, chasing after the bat.

In a flash of green light, Shadow the Hedgehog materialized on top of the Master Emerald. "Heh, Sucker. CHAOS CONTROL!"

He and the Emerald disappeared in another flash of light.

…

Knuckles stood before the Master Emerald, a determined look on his face, every muscle and line in his body tensed for action. He was the Guardian of the Master Emerald, and nobody was going to steal it on his watch!

Suddenly, Dr. Eggman appeared in his Egg Mobile. "Knuckles, Knuckles!" He cried. "It's terrible-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, Sonic's going to steal the Master Emerald, right?" Knuckles said sarcastically. "Nice try, Eggman, but I'm not gonna fall for that this time!"

"Actually, I was going to tell you that he'd ALREADY stolen the Master Emerald, and you have to go after him before he gets away with it!" Eggman said.

Knuckles gasped. "What?! Oh no, he won't! SOOONIIIIIIC!"

He ran off. "Yoink!" Eggman said, snatching the Emerald, which had been right behind Knuckles the whole time, up in a large claw extending from the bottom of his hovercraft and flying off with it.

…

Knuckles stood before the Master Emerald, a determined look on his face, every muscle and line in his body tensed for action. He was the Guardian of the Master Emerald, and nobody was going to steal it on his watch!

"Hey, Knuckles, can I-" Rouge asked, sauntering up, but Knuckles interrupted her.

"If you want to borrow the Master Emerald, the answer is no. If you want to go on a date, though, I might be okay with it," he said cautiously.

Rouge smiled radiantly. "What a remarkable coincidence! That's exactly what I was going to ask you. As it so happens, I managed to get two ringside seats to the World-Wide Mobian Wrestling Confederacy Championship Match, and figured you might want to go with me because both of us love watching sweaty, hunky, overly-muscled guys beating the crap out of each other in staged fights."

Knuckles perked up at this. "You're right, it's one of my favorite sources of entertainment! But…I dunno, I've kind of been slipping up on guard duty lately…and I could probably watch it on Pay-Per-View…"

"Knuckles, you know as well as I do that watching it on TV isn't anywhere NEAR as involved as seeing it in person," Rouge pointed out. "Especially watching it from the ringside, where you'll be so close you could hit someone with a chair or maybe catch a wrestler's sweaty towel…"

"Well…I have always dreamed of having one of those towels," Knuckles said, chewing his lip in thought. "And the reception up here's pretty lousy anyway…oh, all right, what's the harm? Let's go!"

"I'd hoped you'd say that!" said the pleased Rouge, offering an arm. Knuckles took it, and they walked off.

In a flash of green light, Shadow the Hedgehog materialized on top of the Master Emerald, along with Omega. "Why does he always fall for her lies? What a moron," Shadow grunted.

"HE-IS-IN-LOVE," Omega pointed out. "AND-YOU-KNOW-YOU'D-ALSO-PROBABLY-DO-JUST-ABOUT-ANYTHING-IF-ROUGE-ASKED-YOU-TO."

"Point," Shadow admitted. "All right, let's get this out of here. CHAOS CONTROL!"

The two of them and the Emerald disappeared in a flash of green light.

…

Knuckles stood before the Master Emerald, a determined look on his face, every muscle and line in his body tensed for action. He was the Guardian of the Master Emerald, and nobody was going to steal it on his watch!

Suddenly, Dr. Eggman appeared in his Egg Mobile. "Knuckles, Knuckles!" He cried. "It's terrible-"

"Sonic has already stolen the Master Emerald, and is getting away with it?" Knuckles asked skeptically.

"Exactly!" Eggman said.

"Then how do you explain why it's right behind me?" Knuckles asked, pointing at the Emerald right behind him.

"Oh, it's not," Eggman said.

Knuckles blinked. "It isn't?"

"Nope," Eggman said.

"Really? Because it kind of looks like it's there to me," Knuckles said.

"It's a hologram Tails whipped up," Eggman explained.

Knuckles gasped. "Of course! That sneaky little fox! He's not going to get away with this! SOOONIIIIIC! Oh, and TAAAAAIIIILLLS!"

He ran off. Eggman shook his head. "He's making this so easy, it's not even fun anymore. Oh well. Yoink!" He said, snatching the Emerald up in a large claw extending from the bottom of his hovercraft and flying off with it.

…

Knuckles stood before the Master Emerald, a determined look on his face, every muscle and line in his body tensed for action. He was the Guardian of the Master Emerald, and nobody was going to steal it on his watch!

Suddenly, Dr. Eggman appeared in his Egg Mobile. "Hello, there, I was wondering-"

"Not another step! Or, um, float?" Knuckles said angrily. "Whatever you have to say, Eggman, I'm not listening to it!"

"Oh, but I'm not Eggman," said the man in the hovercraft, and Knuckles suddenly realize that it wasn't. It LOOKED like Eggman, but the colors were all wrong; his coat was black and yellow, his body suit was red with yellow and black striped boots, he had dark blue sunglasses, gray goggles with a single green lens, his nose was longer, and his mustache was white. "I'm Dr. Agen Namgge, a perfectly innocent photographer, and I was wondering if I could just take a snapshot of your prized Master Emerald real quickly."

"Oh, well, I suppose that's all right, then," Knuckles said, mollified.

"Thanks! It will just take a second," the photographer said, taking out a rather advanced- looking multicolored digital camera. "I'm sorry, but do you think you could move a bit to the side? I don't want you ruining the shot. "

"Oh, sure," Knuckles said, moving out of the way.

"Thanks!" The photographer said, raising the camera to his face. There was a flash of light, the camera whirred, and a card shot out of the side. "Oh, yeah, that'll look GREAT in my collection! Thank you so much!"

"No problem! Happy to help!" Knuckles said, waving amiably as the photographer flew away. "What a nice guy… Hey, wait a second, where's the Master Emerald?!"

…

Knuckles stood there, looking even redder than normal, trying very hard to ignore the raucous laughs from his so-called friends. "Th-those situations were taken completely out of context!" He cried shrilly.

"No, they weren't," Tikal said.

"Not. Helping," he hissed.

"I wasn't trying to," she said, honestly.

"Knuckles, man, I love you like a brother," Sonic wheezed, wiping away a tear as he wrapped an arm around Knuckles' shoulder. "Well, not like my ACTUAL brother, you'd never be able to replace Muttski in my heart, but I care about you a lot… Which is why I want you to know I mean you no disrespect when I say that you have got to be the worst Guardian of an ancient sacred relic in the history of ever."

"As a Guardian of sacred relics myself, I find myself completely disappointed and ashamed in you," Blaze said. "The few times when any of my charges have been stolen from me, it certainly wasn't done in such a transparent and pathetic way as any of those. And Eggman Nega certainly never used a disguise as transparent as saying his name backwards…"

"And those are just some of the LEAST embarrassing examples!" Tikal said cheerfully, causing Knuckles to groan.

"What I find most insulting is how Eggman keeps fooling you by saying that Sonic and I were trying to steal the Emerald. Knuckles, why do you always believe the worst of us, your best friends, even though Eggman has shown every single time that he absolutely cannot be trusted, under any circumstances, and yet you continue to listen to him over us anyway?" Tails asked.

"Hey, yeah! That's not cool, Knux! I thought we were tighter than that," Sonic said, looking affronted.

"Yeah, Knuckles, why DO you constantly trust Eggman over your own friends?" Amy asked, indignant.

Knuckles' eyes started about. "…Because I believe in peace and think that deep down, everyone is capable of doing good?" He said weakly.

Everyone stared at him blankly. "Yeah, no, not buying it," Shadow said.

"Yes, that's my thing, and even I don't fall for Eggman's lies," Cream agreed.

"I think it's just because he's not very bright," Espio said. The others murmured and nodded in agreement, believing that made the most sense out of everything.

Knuckles' eye twitched. "What is this, 'Pick on Knuckles Day?!'" He was starting to understand why he was so willing to trust Eggman's claims that his so-called 'friends' were going to betray him now.

"THAT-WOULD-BE-A-FUN-HOLIDAY," Omega commented.

Rouge hugged Knuckles. "Don't worry, sweetie, even if you're a complete and utter lunkhead, we love you anyway, just the way you are. For some reason."

Tikal nodded in agreement. "Yes, despite your incompetence, you are a far better Guardian than your predecessors in many ways."

"Yeah Knux, all joshing aside, you know we care about you, right?" Sonic said.

"Plus, you kind of have to put up with us since we're the only people who'd bother associating with you anyway," Shadow said.

"The same could be said for you, you know," Blaze pointed out. The black hedgehog grunted.

Knuckles smiled at that, his irritation fading somewhat. "Thanks, guys… I think. Anyway, what are you doing here, Tikal?"

"Chaos sent me down here to pick up some chili dogs since you rather thoughtlessly didn't invite either of us to the party," Tikal scolded Knuckles. "Which wasn't very considerate of you, Knuckles!"

"Yeah, Knuckles, that was incredibly rude!" Mighty said, enjoying seeing the echidna squirm.

"How very rude of you, Mr. Knuckles!" Cream scolded him.

"But… But I…" Knuckles protested feebly.

"Also, I wanted to see, all you, my dear friends again!" Tikal said warmly. "So Blaze, when's the baby due? And have you settled that little issue with Borogvia yet?"

Sonic stiffened, and Amy paled in horror. "…This is the first time we've met," Blaze said. "And I haven't even begun my campaign in Borogvia yet. And I'm certainly not pregnant." Sonic and Amy both sighed in relief at that, and Blaze glared at her lover, causing him to give her a sheepish grin.

Tikal blinked. "You aren't? Oh, darn, I got the dates mixed up again! Time doesn't quite apply to me the same way it does the rest of you due to my current state of existence. I feel so sorry for you, having to constantly experience time going FORWARD…veeeery slowly… In bodies that are slowly dying every second of every day. I honestly don't know how you can stand it."

"Eh, we manage," Vector said.

"MY body isn't slowly dying every second of every day," Shadow grumbled.

"Didn't you used to have a body like ours?" Tails asked.

"Yes, but that was so very long ago I can barely remember what it was like, honestly. I don't really miss it that much, especially since I can do all of the best parts of having a physical body even in this form, plus extra!" Tikal said. She demonstrated this by taking a bite out of one of the nearby chili dogs. She made a groan of delight. "Oh man, I really see why you South Island types love these things so much…"

"Yeah, it's practically our national food!" Sonic said proudly.

"There've been a few attempts to put it on the flag. It's only barely failed to pass, every time," Mighty lamented.

"Anyway, there IS another reason I'm here," Tikal admitted. "Knuckles, I believe it's finally time you learn the truth about your past!"

"FINALLY!" Knuckles shouted.

"Which means I'll have something more substantiated than that piece of drivel Knuckles gave us just a moment ago! Excellent!" Silver said eagerly.

"So what happened, Tikal? What happened to my parents, my people?" Knuckles asked. "And why haven't you told me before now?"

"I didn't tell you before now because I knew that now was the time I WOULD tell you," Tikal said. "I perceive time differently from you, after all."

"Oh," Knuckles said.

"So what happened? The rest of us want to know too!" Rouge said.

"YES, EVEN-I-AM-CURIOUS. SOMETHING-CAPABLE-OF-REMOVING-AN-ENTIRE-PEOPLE-FROM-THE-FACE-OF-THE-EARTH-COULD-BE-OF-GREAT-USE-TO-ME-SOMEDAY, WHEN-I-LAY-WASTE-TO-THE-WORLD," Omega said.

"Does it worry anyone else when he says things like that?" Espio asked. There were a few noncommittal grunts and shrugs. The chameleon sighed.

"Well, our story begins 4000 years ago," Tikal began. "As I'm sure most of you recall, back then there was a great war between two mighty clans of echidnas: the physically powerful Knuckles clan—my tribe and your ancestors, Knuckles—and the technologically advanced Nocturnus."

"They're the ones who made Gemerl!" Cream recalled.

"Well, technically they made Emerl, who was rebuilt by Eggman into Gemerl and then reprogrammed by me, but yes, that was them," Tails said.

"I wonder how Shade's doing, back in the Twilight Cage?" Amy wondered. "Hope she's all right…"

"You'll find out soon enough," Tikal said cryptically. As they tried to puzzle out what the spirit meant by that, she continued. "My father, Pachacamac, tried to steal the Master Emerald to use its power to win the war, but in the process killed dozens of helpless Chao, angering their guardian Chaos, which is pretty much exactly what I told him would happen if he did something as stupid as that. Chaos wiped out pretty much our entire tribe, and I had to sacrifice my mortal existence to seal him inside the Master Emerald. The Nocturnus, believing that they were triumphant, prepared to conquer the world with their massive army of Gizoid soldiers, only to draw the ire of the almighty Argus, who banished them to the Twilight Cage, leaving only a handful of echidnas—the last of the Knuckles clan-remaining on our world."

"Why'd he do that?" Mighty asked.

"Argus is an incredibly powerful interdimensional being who imprisons species whom he deems to have become too dangerous in another dimension called the Twilight Cage," Tails explained. "At least, that's as much as we've figured out from what little the inhabitants of the Cage know about him."

"Hey, yeah, we never DID deal with that guy, did we? Weird," Sonic commented.

"You'll get to him someday," Tikal assured them. "Anyway, in the aftermath, the remnants of the Knuckles Clan, showing the characteristic lack of common sense and pattern recognition that their last descendent-as well as most of our species– –sadly seems to share, decided that since they were the only ones left, and Chaos was no longer an issue, there would be absolutely nothing wrong with them harnessing the power of the Master Emerald and using it to rebuild their shattered civilization."

"Wow, Knux, they were as bad at learning from past mistakes as you are!" Charmy quipped.

Knuckles facepalmed. "My respect for my ancestors drops by the second."

"Oh, it'll drop even further by the time we're done," Tikal said. "Using the Emerald's power, they lifted the surrounding land mass into the sky, creating Angel Island. They managed to rebuild and repopulate, soon creating a civilization nearly as powerful, if not more so, than the Nocturnus had been at the height of their power, though thankfully, they no longer had any interest in dominating the world."

"That's good," Amy said.

"Not really," Tikal said. "Mainly, it was because they didn't think the world WORTH conquering. You know how in lots of modern fantasy these days, elves are portrayed as being narcissistic, isolationist, xenophobic, racist assholes who have no regard for anyone other than themselves and wouldn't particularly care if everyone who wasn't an elf died horribly?"

Some of them nodded. "Those don't sound like the elves in the books I read," Cream said, looking upset.

"That's because you read books more oriented towards children, where the ironically-named Fair Folk are portrayed in a more positive light," Tails said. "In the old myths, they're often much crueler. The extent to which modern fantasy shows this varies, with some portraying elves as being completely perfect superior beings who are always right and can do no wrong and love to explain this to everyone who always agrees with them, others of which are horrible monsters like the kind described in the old stories, if not worse, while others—though not as many as there should be-take a bit of a middle ground, where they're clearly older and wiser and more beautiful than other species, but are still just as flawed and imperfect as the rest of us, much like some of the better elves in the Lord of the Rings."

"Legolas is so dreamy," Amy said wistfully.

"Unfortunately, far too many writers focus on the 'wise, beautiful, elder' part when they're trying to base their work off of Tolkien's, and fail to acknowledge the fallibility and problems his elves caused, causing them to come off as obnoxious elitist 'superior beings' to people who don't have a hard-on for elves," Tails lamented.

"I've run into elves a number of times back home," Blaze said. "If they're decent and don't cause any harm, I leave them alone unless they wish to join my empire. If they're hostile and cruel, I gleefully crush them beneath my heel and subjugate them to my will."

"That's not nice," Cream said.

"Far kinder than they would be if our positions were reversed, I can assure you," Blaze said. "If you only knew of half the things they've done, you'd agree I'm perfectly justified in my treatment of them."

"Yeah, those guys were dicks," Sonic agreed.

"Well, let me put it this way: the echidnas of Echidnaopolis had the patent on that idea long before the elves came around," Tikal said flatly. "Ever heard of the great Dingo civilization of Dingorado?"

"No," Rouge said.

"The Professor never told me about it, and he knew about just about every ancient civilization out there," Shadow said.

"Exactly what field did Professor Gerald specialize in, again?" asked a confused Espio. "Considering he made you, I thought he was more into bio-engineering or something like that."

"The Professor considered himself a student of all the sciences," Shadow said fondly.

"Just like my dad," Tails commented. He frowned. "Actually…come to think of it, I don't recall ever seeing a Mobian Dingo before…"

"That's because the echidnas wiped them out entirely, down to the last man, woman, and child, because they thought they were ugly," Tikal said bluntly. "And they're far from the only species they did that too, either."

They stared at Tikal in horror. "That's… That's horrible!" Amy cried.

"Those poor dingoes!" Cream gasped.

"Yep, definitely like some of the nastier elves back home," Blaze said.

"Seriously, Knuckles, what the hell?!" Vector demanded of the shocked echidna. "Is your entire species genetically predisposed to be evil or something?!"

"First, the Knuckles Clan murdered a bunch of innocent Chao to claim the Master Emerald and pissed off a God of destruction enough to nearly wipe out the planet-" Shadow started.

"Actually, it's more likely that Chaos is a Chao that's mutated to a higher state of being due to overexposure to the power of the Emeralds, much like how our kind were transformed from regular animals into sophonts thousands of years ago," Tails interjected.

Shadow rolled his eyes. "First, the Knuckles Clan murdered a bunch of innocent Chao to claim the Master Emerald and pissed off a Chao that's mutated to a higher state of being due to overexposure to the power of the Emeralds enough to nearly wipe out the planet," he amended. "Then the Nocturnus Clan tries to take over the world with an army of fighting robots capable of copying and learning the abilities of any opponent they come across, get banished for it, conquer an entire other dimension, and have every intention of taking over ours should they ever get back. Then your more recent ancestors become genocidal bastards riding around the world on a floating island and looking down their long snout that everyone on the ground below… Should we be worried that you're going to turn into an evil overlord or something?"

"I-I had no idea," Knuckles protested, shocked. "I didn't know any of this, honest! This is just as big a surprise to me––and an unwelcome one, at that!-as it is to you! How could they possibly be so horrible? And…" He swallowed. "Is that my fate, as well?"

"It is not," Tikal assured the horrified Guardian. "You need never fear becoming like your ancestors, Knuckles."

"Because he's so pure of heart?" Cream asked as Knuckles' shoulders sagged in relief.

"I was going to say it's because he's not smart enough to be evil, but that works too," Tikal said, causing Knuckles to sweatdrop.

"Wouldn't some say it's actually stupid to be evil?" Mighty commented.

"In which case, Mr. Knuckles isn't stupid, he's smart!" Cream said.

"Then why does he do so many stupid things?" Charmy asked.

"…Oh…um…because he's so smart his brain works at a level so far above us he seems stupid?" the rabbit said.

"…Yeah, no," Charmy said. "Plus, I'm not sure being evil is stupid, considering how well it pays."

"Charmy! That's an awful thing to say!" said a shocked Amy.

"What? Even the dumbest bad guy we know, Eggman, is rich enough to throw together a giant robot army and airship fleet every few months, and I'm betting our former teammates aren't exactly wanting for dough either," Charmy said. "Whereas we Chaotix are stuck living in a shitty apartment constantly at risk of being evicted and/or eaten by loan sharks. And how many of you lot are fantastically wealthy?"

"I rule the most prosperous nation on my planet," Blaze said.

"I've got millions from patents and royalties," Tails said.

"The money I put in the bank fifty years ago has matured handsomely," Shadow said.

"I'm ridiculously rich, but I didn't exactly get it through legitimate means, so I suppose it doesn't count," Rouge said.

"I'm actually very wealthy," Cream said.

"You are?" Sonic asked in surprise.

The rabbit nodded. "Yes, you see-"

"Can we not talk about money? It's making me depressed about how poor we are," Vector complained.

"Oh, sorry," Cream apologized.

"On the other hand, Vanilla being very rich might be another reason for you to pursue her," Espio commented.

The crocodile's eyes lit up at that. "Hey, yeah…wait, no! I want Vanilla for her heart, not her money!"

"But the money can't hurt," Espio pointed out.

"…Well…yeah…I guess…" Vector said uncertainly.

"Should I feel sad that my not being very bright may actually be an asset in this instance?" Knuckles grumbled.

"YES," Omega said apathetically.

Sonic patted Knuckles on the back. "Cheer up, Knux! Even if just about all of your ancestors were evil douchebags, that doesn't mean all echidnas are evil! Why, we've met plenty of good ones, like… Um… You, and Tikal, and Shade, and…uh…little help here?"

"How about Nestor? He seemed fairly nice," Rouge suggested.

"Right, him!" Sonic agreed.

"And there were those space pirates with a speech impediment," Tails recalled. "Though, given that they were pirates, I'm not sure if calling them 'good' might be entirely accurate."

"Yeah, those guys!" Sonic said with a grin. "And there was also…uh…." He frowned in thought and scratched his head, looking to the others for help. They shrugged. "…Actually, there weren't really any others, were there?"

"Well, it's possible that the majority of the Nocturnus soldiers we fought weren't evil so much as misguided, but even if that isn't the case, eight halfway decent echidnas out of potentially millions of evil-or at the very least antagonistic-ones isn't exactly a very promising look for a species," Shadow said. "Mostly Chaotic Evil isn't much better than Always Chaotic Evil."

Knuckles looked miserable at this again. "Well, there may be hope for the Nocturnus yet," Sonic said, trying to cheer up his friend. "Shade promised that she'd take over and turn things around when she had to go back to the Cage after she helped us liberate the world from Eggman. I mean, assuming nothing horrible happened since the last time we saw her, there's a chance that she's turned them away from the path they're on, right?"

"She has, actually," Tikal said. "But that's something you'll have to ask her about when next you see her."

"Then we WILL see her again?" Tails asked. Knuckles also seemed to perk up slightly at this notion.

The princess nodded. "Yes, and very soon. But right now, we are talking about the echidnas of Angel Island, not the Twilight Cage," Tikal said.

"Yes, please, continue," Silver urged Tikal.

"Yeah, we're just dying to hear more about how awful my people used to be, when they actually existed," Knuckles grumbled.

"Speaking of which, why did you let it get that bad in the first place?" Mighty asked.

"Hey, yeah, you were there! You could've done something! I mean, if you were able to manifest from the Emerald even BEFORE it got broken and let Chaos out, surely you could've manifested back then!" Amy agreed.

"On a related note, if the Master Emerald's broken a lot in the past, how come Chaos never escaped until right before the Station Square incident?" Espio asked.

"Hey, yeah, he should've come out every time we broke it, or especially when KNUCKLES broke it," Charmy agreed. Knuckles scowled at the crocodile.

"In the past, I was able to keep Chaos bound by keeping our essence divided among the Emerald shards until it could be reassembled," Tikal explained. "When Eggman broke the Emerald, however, he did it using some special device that could draw us out from the fragments and force us both to fully materialize. That's why we don't just pop up every single time the Emerald is broken since then, we don't have to if we don't feel like it because we exist on a higher plane that happens to be connected to your reality through the Master Emerald."

"That makes sense," Tails said.

"It does?" Sonic asked dubiously.

"Certainly. The Master Emerald is an artifact that exists simultaneously across the space-time continuum and isn't REALLY a gemstone so much as a physical manifestation of the link connecting our humdrum reality with the higher dimensional plane that is the Chaos Force, the source of all Chaos energy," the Fox explained.

"Ah," Sonic said vaguely.

"I only understood about half of that," Vector confessed after a moment.

"Like that's a surprise," Mighty grumbled.

Tails sighed. "Sometimes I wonder why I bother trying to explain things…"

"You have the right of it, Tails," Tikal said. "And as for why I didn't do anything to stop the echidnas from developing like that…" She sighed. "When the remnants of the Knuckles clan found their way back to the Emerald, and I saw that they clearly intended to try and harness its power once more, I considered manifesting and passing myself off as a spirit, or perhaps pretending to be Aurora, to either scare them off, or possibly try and teach them to become a better people and not make the same mistakes as their predecessors."

"Aurora? Who's that?" Blaze asked.

"It's a very pretty name," Cream stated.

Tikal opened her mouth, but surprisingly, Shadow beat her to it. "Aurora is an ancient deity, believed to have ascended to godhood alongside her husband Enerjak when their studies into the nature of the Chaos Force brought them to the attentions of the mysterious Ancient Walkers, who deemed them worthy of divinity."

"That's correct," Tikal said, impressed.

"How did you know that, Shadow?" Asked the surprised Rouge.

Shadow shrugged. "Professor Gerald taught me a bit of ancient mythology, along with many of my other lessons. I don't believe he was aware that she was an ECHIDNA deity, but then again, there's still quite a lot about the echidna civilization and culture we still don't know about, especially since Knuckles isn't inclined to let archaeologists poke around his island."

"They aren't going to be digging up my island on my watch!" Knuckles asserted.

"You also say that nobody's going to steal the Master Emerald on your watch, and yet, inexplicably, they almost always manage to do so," Espio pointed out. Knuckles grunted.

"Is Aurora real? Is she someone we might run into and/or have to fight at some point?" Sonic asked.

"Yes, she's real, and probably not going to be a threat anytime soon," Tikal assured them. "She's quite nice, and we go on double dates all the time, or the equivalent thereof for beings like us. Anyway, I decided not to go through with that plan, because I didn't feel comfortable pretending to be someone I wasn't, or being worshiped as a deity—especially since, as I said, Aurora was REAL and I doubted she'd be happy with someone pretending to be her. I mean, yes, I had transcended physical existence, was privy to knowledge and wisdom far beyond mortal ken, was no longer bound by the shackles of time, and had access to unfathomable powers, but I did not think of myself as a god. I still don't, for that matter. I decided to be optimistic and left them alone, trusting that they would learn from their past mistakes and figure things out on their own." She sighed. "This was, of course, an absolutely terrible idea, since as I'm sure you've all realized for now, it is incredibly rare for an echidna to learn from their past mistakes. Just look at Knuckles." The echidna in question scowled. "And unfortunately, by the time I'd realized my error, I was too late to do anything to stop it. The Brotherhood of Guardians had hooked the Master Emerald up to so many machines, channeling its power all over the island, I was incapable of manifesting myself without withdrawing the vital power needed to maintain Chaos's seal, and while there were times I was tempted to just release him and let him wipe out my people for a second time, out of some lingering sentiment towards my former kin and desire not to be party to genocide I did not." She shrugged. "Of course, it was all a moot point anyway in the end, but…"

"'Brotherhood of Guardians?'" Mighty inquired." You mean they didn't just have the one back then, like we do now?"

Knuckles started this. "There used to be more?!"

Tikal nodded. "Indeed there were. In those times, the Master Emerald was protected, as it is now, by Guardians…except instead of one defender, it had several, an entire family, the Brotherhood of Guardians…your family, Knuckles," Tikal said.

Knuckles' eyes widened at this. "My family…" Now they were getting somewhere!

"Knuckles had a family?" Asked the surprised Charmy.

"Well, logically he would have to have had one," Espio pointed out. "After all, he can't have just spontaneously sprung into existence, conjured by the Master Emerald… Can he?"

"No, he could not," Tikal said. "He was born in the usual way, his egg conceived by the joining of Lara-Le and Locke, youngest of the Brotherhood. He, along with his father Sabre, grandfather Athair, great-great-grandfather Thunderhawk, great-great-great-grandfather Sojourner, and great-great-great-great-grandfather Spectre, were responsible for watching over the Master Emerald, regulating its power, and deciding how best it could be used to benefit the echidnas of Angel Island, as well as themselves."

"That's a lot of greats," Sonic whistled.

"Wow! You sure have a big family tree, Mr. Knuckles!" Cream said, impressed.

"Amazing…I had no idea there were so many others before me…" Said the awestruck echidna.

"And there were many still before that, going back many generations to the first Guardian, Edmund, your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, long, long ago," Tikal said.

"Okay, that's even more greats," said a dumbfounded Cream.

"Quite the pedigree," Blaze said. "I've known dynasties that weren't around as long as that."

Rouge nodded. "I can't think of many families besides my own that have been around that long, and even I'm not sure I have that many 'greats' in my history. Well, okay, they were all great, but not…oh, you get my meaning."

"What, no girls allowed in this club? Typical," snorted Amy.

"There was a female Guardian at one point, Janelle-Li, but she died," Tikal said.

The hedgehog rolled her eyes. "Of course she did."

"To be fair, it is called a Brotherhood. If they allowed more girls in, it'd have to be called a 'Siblinghood,' which doesn't have quite the same ring to it," Shadow quipped.

"I'm pretty sure 'Brotherhood' can be a gender-neutral term, but I see your meaning. What if they called it a Fellowship?" Tails suggested.

Shadow considered this. "…Huh. The Fellowship of Guardians…that's actually not bad."

"If it's good enough for Tolkien, it should be good enough for everyone else," the fox agreed.

"Wait, those guys must've been really old. How could they still be serving on this brotherhood instead of being retired, or dead?" Vector asked.

"YES, LIKE-OTHER-PATHETIC-ORGANICS-WHO-GET-WEAKER-WITH-AGE," Omega sneered.

"The Brotherhood were able to give themselves immortality, or at the very least longevity, by drawing upon power from the Master Emerald," Tikal explained. "As such, a member of the Brotherhood could remain a Guardian for a very, very long time."

"And was this immortality or longevity shared with the populace?" Blaze asked suspiciously.

"While the echidnas lived long lives, on average they did not live as long as the Guardians. They were a bit less egalitarian with distributing its life-extending powers in that respect than you are with the fruit of your kingdom," Tikal said.

"The people of your kingdom are immortal because of fruit?" Mighty asked in confusion.

"Sort of. I'll explain when it's my turn," Blaze promised.

"Wait…Knuckles is a Guardian. Is he immortal, too?" Amy asked.

"No," Knuckles said at the same time Tikal said "Yes." They blinked and looked at each other in surprise. "Wait, I'm immortal?" Knuckles asked.

"Well yes, how else did you think you've lived for centuries?" Tikal asked.

"I've lived for centuries?" Knuckles asked.

Tikal's eye twitched. "You didn't notice?"

"I've never been good at keeping track of time," Knuckles confessed. Everyone facepalmed.

"Wait… But if he's immortal, then…" Shadow glanced uncertainly at Rouge, who bit her lip, an equally dubious look on her face.

"So…I'm immortal. Huh. That's new. Well, not really, but its news to me," Knuckles said, not quite sure how to deal with this.

"I guess that means you're going to live forever, just like Shadow, then?" Sonic asked, intrigued.

"I suppose so," Knuckles said uncertainly. Shadow scowled briefly.

"Actually, he…ah, but that would be telling," Silver said enigmatically.

"Telling what?" Cream asked.

"Spoilers," Silver said.

"Oh, okay," the rabbit said.

"Wait… He's going to live forever?! But that's awful!" Amy protested.

Everyone stared at the pink hedgehog as if she were a blithering idiot. "Why would you say that?" Asked a confused Mighty.

"Yeah, living forever sounds awesome! I'd love to do it if I could," Charmy agreed.

"But if Knuckles lives forever, that means he'll outlive all of us, his best friends! He'll be all alone!" Amy wailed.

Knuckles perked up at this. He supposed that he should be upset and saddened at the prospect of one day losing his friends, but at the moment he was hard-pressed to think of a good reason why. "Oh, don't worry Amy," Knuckles said gruffly, trying to sound resolute and steadfast. "I managed before, I'm sure I'll manage again."

"And besides, he won't exactly be alone. I mean, I'll still be here," Shadow said.

"AND-ME," Omega said.

"And…ah, well, you'll understand on my turn," Rouge said.

"All alone!" Amy cried, ignoring Team Dark.

"And it's not exactly like Chaos or myself are going anywhere…" Tikal pointed out.

"ALL! ALONE!" Amy screamed.

"It will be hard, Amy," Knuckles said sternly, trying to sound as if he were acting tough to hide some inner pain. "But I can handle it. I am the Guardian of the Master Emerald. I have protected it by myself for years before, and if need be, I shall do it for years more to come."

"Then it's a good thing you won't have to," Tails said.

Knuckles froze. "Why, uh, why do you say that?"

Tails shrugged. "Well, even if you outlive us, there's always our kids."

Sonic snapped his fingers. "Hey, yeah! Once we grow too old to have adventures anymore, we can send our kids by to keep you company and have new adventures with their cool Uncle Knuckles! That's a great idea, Tails!"

"Oh, well, you don't need to go to all the trouble-" Knuckles stammered in a panic.

"And then, once our kids get too old, THEIR kids can take over! And then their kids, and then theirs, and then theirs, and so on, for generations to come!" Sonic continued, much to Knuckles' horror.

Amy gasped, eyes lighting up, clearly enamored by the idea. "That's so beautiful, Sonic! He'll be a part of our family's lives forever and ever and ever and ever!"

"And ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever…" Charmy droned, causing the echidna to pale.

"Isn't that wonderful, Mr. Knuckles? You'll never be lonely again! It'll be like we're always with you, through our descendants!" Cream chirped.

"Who will probably be almost exactly like us, because that's how these things seem to work for some reason," Vector said. He frowned. "Of course, we have to actually GET kids first…"

"So it'll be as if you never left me.… That's… That's great, guys… Really, it is… Thank you so much…" Knuckles said morosely, not looking particularly thankful.

"We're all going to have a wonderful future together!" Amy said. Knuckles tried not to cry.

"Actually, you'll… Wait, nevermind. Spoilers," Silver said vaguely. "Can we get back on track, please?"

Tikal nodded. "Certainly. So, as I said, the Master Emerald was protected by the Brotherhood, a group of immortal echidnas of the same bloodline."

"If they were all immortal, why weren't there more of them in the group?" Espio asked.

Tikal shrugged. "Some got tired of doing the same job for centuries on end and retired. Others died."

"How could they die if they were immortal?" Cream asked.

"Living forever does not always mean you can't be killed," Blaze said wisely.

Tikal nodded. "Indeed. As advanced and powerful as they were, they were not infallible, and had many enemies, even within their own ranks. As I'm sure you've gathered by now, they weren't exactly popular in the rest of the world."

"But still, so many of them… My father, and his father, and many other fathers before him… Tell me, what were they like?" Knuckles asked.

Tikal thought for a moment. "For the most part, they were kind of jerks, really. ESPECIALLY your dad."

Knuckles' shoulders sagged. "Of COURSE he was."

"Athair was a pretty decent guy, compared to the others," Tikal continued. "Kind of insane, but in a good way."

"There's a good kind of insanity?" Amy asked.

"Sort of. There's the kind of insanity where you're loopy and humorous and say wacky things that everyone either finds endearing or annoying or both, and then there's the kind of insanity where you want to murder people and rip out their spines and strangle them with them or something like that," Tails clarified.

"Ah," Amy said. "Yeah, that makes sense."

"In fact, your father, Locke, was so much of a jerk that your mother eventually divorced him right after she laid your egg and married an aristocrat named Wynmacher, who was also relatively decent as echidnas go. Certainly MUCH more bearable than your father," Tikal said.

"Ah, so I'm the product of a broken home as well! Wonderful!" Knuckles said bitterly. "What's next, did my dad beat my mom? Am I the product of rape? Is he even my biological father at all, or did my mom cheat on him with someone else?!"

"None of those, thankfully," Tikal assured Knuckles. "However, your father DID love your mother, or believed he did anyway, and her leaving him broke something inside of him. Something that led, ultimately, to the downfall of the echidna race."

Knuckles threw his hands up into the air. "And my dad's the guy who doomed our species! Of course he is! I'm not even surprised at this point!"

"WHAT-DID-HE-DO?" Omega asked eagerly.

"Attempted to use the Master Emerald for something it should never have been used for…" Tikal said darkly.

"What?" Sonic asked.

"Ascension."

…

Locke, a red echidna with white bushy eyebrows and goatee, white gloves, a tribal outfit, and brown boots, laughed insanely as his assistants scurried about the laboratory, the flashing green light from the Master Emerald, hooked up to a dizzying array of incredibly advanced machinery the likes of which even the greatest of scientific geniuses would have trouble fathoming the purpose of—as well as one stuffed alligator hanging from the ceiling-shining over his face and making him look like a madman. "Yes… YES! Soon my master plan will bear fruit, and I shall have my revenge! Muhahahahaha!"

…

"Okay, he's a supervillain now? Don't you think you're exaggerating a bit?" Vector asked skeptically.

"Not really, no," Tikal said.

…

The doors to the lab burst open, and a group of echidnas stormed in. "Locke, you fool, what do you think you're doing?!" Demanded Thunderhawk, an elderly purple echidna with a blue vest, Brown boots, and a belt. "You can't just take the Master Emerald like that, and do… Whatever it is you're doing to it!"

"No, YOU are the fool, great-great-grandfather! You and the rest, who could have done what I'm about to do centuries ago, if only you had the VISION, and the RESOLVE!" Locke declared, pointing a finger at his ancestor dramatically.

"Wow, he sounds like you, Dimitri," Sojourner, a red echidna with green vest, boots, and gloves commented.

"So I can see. Did I REALLY sound like that?" Asked a cyborg echidna head inside a glass sphere, his very long partially-robotic dreadlocks sticking out through holes in the sphere like tentacles to provide him with support and locomotion.

"Pretty much, yeah," said Spectre, a black echidna wearing a cloak and helmet.

…

"Wait, wait, who's the head in a jar?" asked a confused Charmy.

"Oh, that's Knuckles' great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-uncle Dimitri, brother of Edmund," Tikal explained. "Thousands of years ago he and his brother had a falling-out when Edmund was chosen to guard the Master Emerald instead of him, so he formed a new society in the city of Necropolis called the Dark Legion, which focused more on technological advancement and science than the more theocratically-inclined Echidnaopolis, intending to claim the Emerald for themselves, return the Island to Earth, and conquer the world. After centuries of warfare, the Guardians defeated him, destroyed the Legion, and imprisoned his head in that sphere because they figured his incredible intellect and scientific prowess could be an asset to them."

"Oh," Charmy said.

"Well, there you go. Even MORE proof that all echidnas are inclined towards evil," Shadow commented. "Even the 'good guys' do something nasty to their enemies…granted, the bad ones can't be much better, if he actually thought calling his group the DARK LEGION based out of a placed called NECROPOLIS was a good idea. It's hard to get more blatantly evil than that. What, did he think he was a comic book or cartoon character or something?"

"Yeah, and 'Spectre' doesn't exactly sound like the name of a good guy, either," Rouge agreed.

"Neither does Shadow," Cream pointed out.

"Yes, but I'm not a hero, I'm an ANTI-hero," Shadow explained.

"Oh, right," the rabbit said.

"Your great-something uncle is an evil head in a jar? Wow, probably a good thing your family's not around anymore, Knux, reunions would probably be super-awkward," Sonic commented.

"That's kind of tactless, Sonic," Mighty said.

"But true," Sonic pointed out.

"Yeah, it is…this is so messed up," Knuckles groaned.

"For some reason, I'm reminded of Ix and the Nocturnus," Tails said. "Evil echidnas, obsessed with technology, looking and naming themselves in such a way to make it clear they're obviously bad guys…"

"Dimitri was inspired by them, and thought Ix and the Nocturnus might have been onto something," Tikal said. She frowned. "Or…was it the other way around?"

"The other way around? But the Nocturnus came first, didn't they?" Amy asked.

Tikal shrugged. "Well, yes, from YOUR perspective, but time doesn't flow as straight as it seems from your limited three-dimensional perspective…anyway…"

…

Sabre, a brown echidna with a blue tunic and a monocle, groaned. "Son, are you listening to yourself? I did NOT raise you to become a supervillain! I thought you were smarter than this!"

"I AM smarter than this! Smarter than all of you fools!" Locke boasted, laughing malevolently. "For if you were truly smart as I, you would have realized the benefits of what I'm doing long ago!"

"And what, precisely, ARE you doing, Locke?" Spectre asked patiently.

"Have you finally discovered a diet pill that actually works?! Grandson, if you've done that, you'll be the greatest genius of all time, and I'll kiss you on the lips!" proclaimed Athair, a wily-looking red-brown echidna wearing a tattered tribal outfit, beads in his dreadlocks, sandals, and a walking stick.

Locke blinked. "Ah, no, I'm afraid I haven't figured that out, sadly, but if I did I'd rather you didn't do that, Grandfather."

"Not even my genius could crack that code…oh well, at least I've lost a lot of weight now that I'm just a head in a jar," Dimitri said optimistically.

"No, I'm working on something far grander!" Locke declared. "Tell me, my brethren, for how many centuries have we floated across this filthy world, forced to look down on the inferior vermin infesting its surface?"

"Far too long, in my opinion," Thunderhawk grumbled.

"Well, we wouldn't have to look down on them so much if we weren't flying!" Athair pointed out cheerfully.

"That's what I said! But when I said it, everyone said I was crazy and shunned me so I went off to form my own society, and now I'm stuck in a jar," Dimitri grumbled.

"What would you say if I told you I'd found a way that we would never have to look at or share the same world as those low-born ground pounders again?" Locke asked dramatically.

Sojourner sighed. "Locke, I despise those inferior groundlings just as much the next echidna, but we all know that genocide is not the answer."

"Didn't stop you from wiping out the dingoes," Dimitri pointed out.

"Those ugly mutts had it coming," Spectre said bluntly.

"I don't mind the surface-worlders so much, really," Athair commented. "I think they're actually quite interesting." Everyone ignored him.

"I'm not talking about wiping them all out," Locke insisted. "I'm talking about a way to leave them behind forever! According to legend, long ago Aurora-la and Enerjak ascended to godhood and became one with the Chaos Force… I believe that, through the use of the Master Emerald, I can replicate that same Ascension, and grant it to our entire species! We shall transcend physical existence, becoming immortal godlike beings! All the knowledge and power of the cosmos will be at our fingertips, or whatever the analog of fingertips for beings that have shed any need for physical bodies are, anyway! Nothing will be forbidden from us! And best of all, we won't have to breathe the same air as those filthy savages on the world below any longer!"

"What?! That's insane, son! You're insane!" Sabre cried in disbelief.

"Yeah, not even Dimitri ever tried anything this crazy!" Thunderhawk agreed.

"Yeah, that there's some real crazy talk," Dimitri agreed.

"Even I think that's crazy talk, and this morning I decided to eat toasted underwear for no reason whatsoever!" Athair added.

"How did it taste?" Sojourner asked.

"Surprisingly crunchy," Athair mused.

"It can work! I've done the math, and triple checked it!" Locke insisted. He gestured at a nearby computer. "You can look for yourself, and see that I know what I'm doing!"

"All right, I think we will," Spectre said, nodding to the others.

The echidnas (and one head in a jar) headed over to the computer and quickly started reviewing the data on it, murmuring to themselves as they pored over the complex formulas, equations, and circuit patterns meticulously detailed in their youngest member's notes. While they were doing so, Locke surreptitiously nodded at his assistants, who resumed working on the project, the Master Emerald's glow getting steadily brighter as the various machines it was hooked up to powered up and moved him ever closer to achieving his goal.

After several minutes, Sojourner took a step back, shaking his head in amazement. "I don't believe it… The numbers check out, he's accounted for everything… This could actually work!"

"Even so, there's no way we can let him go through with this!" Sabre protested.

"Why not?" Thunderhawk asked. "It's not like he's only going to ascend only himself or a select number of people, and the process doesn't look like it'll hurt anyone at all, even the groundlings! Our entire species, elevated to godhood… Is there really a good reason for us not to allow him to go through with this? As the echidnas responsible for guiding the development and future of our race, would we not be remiss in our duties if we stood in the way of this, the next step in our evolution as a people!"

"You're only saying that because you want to be a god!" Sabre snapped.

Thunderhawk shrugged. "Well, yeah, who wouldn't want to be one?"

"I don't want to be a God," Athair protested. "I quite like being a run of the mill quasi-immortal echidna. I might not be able to do some of my favorite activities if I were a God! And I have a loooot of favorite activities…" The others cringed in disgust.

"Athair, if you were a God, I'm pretty sure you could do just about anything you wanted," Sojourner said.

"How do you know that? Have YOU been a God? Do you know anyone else who's been one who can tell us what it's like? Did you get a hotline to Aurora when I wasn't looking?" Athair argued. "Plus, it sounds like we'll have to give up our bodies if we do this, and I LIKE our bodies! I enjoy having a physical existence! I take pleasure in eating, and exercise, and even having sex! Are you certain we can do all that if we ascend to the Chaos Force?"

…

"Just to be clear, while Athair's concerns were reasonable, he was completely wrong," Tikal added. "I've ascended and given up physical existence, and that certainly hasn't stopped me from doing all the things I used to love back when I was mortal. If anything, it's enhanced the experience."

"So, is this something we should look into, then?" asked an intrigued Tails.

"Could be fun, experiencing a whole new state of being…" Sonic mused. "I'll bet there's all sorts of awesome adventures we could have on the astral plane!"

"Yeah, it's pretty awesome up there…" Tikal agreed. "Still, if you must pursue it, I would not recommend taking the same path Locke did. It… Didn't end well…"

…

"He actually has a good point," Thunderhawk conceded reluctantly. "I wouldn't mind being a God, but not if it means giving up sex!" The other Guardians murmured, and nodded in agreement.

"Oh yes, because not being able to have sex is SO terrible, why, it's not like you know someone who already doesn't have a body and so can't have any sort of real intercourse, and yet seems to have found other ways to occupy himself without getting bogged down by carnal desires," Dimitri grumbled.

"That's a good point, actually," Sojourner said. "Dimitri can't do any of that stuff anymore, but he seems to be all right for the most part, albeit a little bitter, but then again, who wouldn't be if they were just a head stuck in a jar? Maybe this wouldn't be so bad…"

"I can't believe we're actually debating this!" Cried the incredulous Sabre. "We can't let him go through with this! It… It goes against everything we stand for! Our traditions, our culture!"

"Traditions and culture have to change sooner or later, or else become obsolete," Spectre pointed out.

"And who cares about any of that stuff if it means we get immortality and absolute power and knowledge? Seems like a fair trade to me!" Thunderhawk agreed.

"Our civilization has existed and advanced for thousands of years… Perhaps we have finally reached the Singularity, and are ready to move on to the next stage," Sojourner said optimistically. "Every civilization that lasts this long reaches this point sooner or later, and they can choose to either evolve to the next level or else be destroyed. And I for one don't want to wind up like the LAST two great echidna civilizations!" The others nodded in agreement.

"I don't believe this…" Said the horrified Sabre. "You're ALL just saying that because you want to be gods!"

"Well, duh," Thunderhawk said. "I thought that was obvious."

"It's all right, Dad, just go with the flow," Locke said, patting his father on the back. "It'll all be worth it in the end, you'll see!"

"Hold on… Wait, wait just a second… Something doesn't seem right here…" Dimitri murmured, narrowing his eyes. His dreadlock tendrils shot forward and started rapidly typing on a keyboard, and reams of data started streaming by on the monitor, moving faster than most eyes could see, but Dimitri was a cyborg, and so able to process information at speeds far beyond those of his more flesh and blood kindred. "Locke, if I'm reading this right, your plan is basically to lock onto the DNA of every echidna on the island, using the blood samples on file on the central hospital computers, and then using the Master Emerald to mass teleport them to a higher plane of existence using a modified form of Chaos Control?"

"That's right!" Locke said, swelling with pride. "Brilliant, isn't it?"

"Well, yes, except for one thing…" Dimitri said with a frown. "It seems a bit too complicated the way you've done it. If it were me, I would've simply programmed the machines to just target everyone with a trace of echidna DNA in them, or set some kind of all-inclusive radius for the Chaos Control encircling the entire island. Instead, you have a massive list of echidnas to be targeted. One too massive for me to assume you're just picking and choosing who will be teleported via some specific criteria, but even so, not only does that seem rather inefficient, there's always a chance you might miss someone. Let me check it against the main hospital records, just to be safe."

Locke suddenly looked a little nervous. "I assure you, I didn't miss anyone, I made absolutely sure to use the DNA from every living echidna on record, there's no need for you to go to the effort-"

"Too late, just finished," Dimitri said smugly. "There are advantages to having most of your brain replaced by a computer… Aha! Just as I thought DID! You did miss someone… A certain aristocrat by the name of Wynmacher!" He paused. "Wait, Wynmacher…isn't that…"

"The current husband of Locke's ex-wife Lara-Le?" Sojourner said as he and the rest of the Brotherhood slowly turned to glare at their youngest member. "Yes, I do believe he is."

Locke laughed nervously. "I assure you, it's not what you think."

"Oh good, so you didn't set in motion this scheme to transcend the entire echidna race to godhood EXCEPT for Wynmacher just so you could get Lara-Le to yourself? Phew, that's a relief," Athair said.

Locke swallowed. "In that case, yes, it's exactly what you think."

"Of all the stupid, selfish, petty, pigheaded things!" Thunderhawk snapped. "And I should know, because I've done a lot of those! Really, Locke? Really?!"

"Locke, I know you took the divorce badly, but isn't this a bit excessive?!" Sojourner demanded. "She's just one mortal woman! You can easily find others, they're a dime a dozen!"

"Sometimes literally, depending on the brothel," Thunderhawk added.

"Those poor girls," Athair said sympathetically. "They're worth far more than that."

"Yes, a more reasonable way of dealing with something like this would be just killing Wynmacher, framing someone else, and exploiting Lara-Le's grief to win her heart back! This is just ridiculous!" Spectre agreed.

Athair blinked. "That's reasonable?"

"Compared to this it is!" Spectre snapped.

"Fair enough," Athair conceded.

"Do you speak from experience, or…" Sojourner started.

The eldest Guardian coughed. "That's, ah, nothing you really need to know about."

"I never had to bother with anything like this back when I had a body. When I was in charge of the Dark Legion, I had a massive harem of gorgeous females willing to do my every bidding, and I dearly loved every single one of them," Dimitri said fondly. He sighed. "Those were the days…"

"None of you fools understand!" Locke yelled. "None of you possibly could, too absorbed in your duty and private pastimes to understand the depths of how I felt for Lara! That bastard Wynmacher took her from me, and my unborn son, and now I will do whatever it takes to make her mine again, even if it means removing our entire species from this world and leaving that unworthy wretch the last echidna on Earth! Lara and I will be together again, and that thief will die alone, the last of his kind! Wahahahahaha!"

"Locke, this is madness! Even Dimitri never went that far!" Sojourner protested.

"That's right, I didn't," Dimitri said. "I did a lot of bad things, but nothing nearly as petty as this… Especially because it could mean the destruction of our entire civilization if we allow Locke to go through with it!"

"What? But we did the math! I thought we agreed that if we let him do this, it would most likely work!" Said the startled Thunderhawk.

"Yes, if he were to do it to our ENTIRE species! But he intends to do it to our entire species MINUS one person, which throws all the previous calculations off! I've re-crunched the numbers to account for this new variable. If he were to attempt to ascend our entire species, there's a 95% chance of success… But if he tries to ascend everyone EXCEPT for Wynmacher, there is only a 5% chance of success, and a 95% chance of CATASTROPHIC FAILURE!" Dimitri announced.

"What?! How could the addition or removal of a single person possibly make that big a difference?!" Asked the startled Sabre.

"Well, it is said that one person in the right place can make all the difference in the world," Sojourner said.

"The math involved is extremely complicated. Only a genius like me or an utter madman could possibly understand all the intricacies and variables involved," Dimitri said.

"He's right," Athair said after a moment's thought. "It won't work, not like this!"

"Well, that's good enough for me. Locke, either shut this thing down or add Wynmacher's DNA to your list this instant, I won't ask you again!" Spectre said.

"No," Locke said.

Spectre was utterly dumbfounded. "Did… Did you just say 'no?!'" He asked in disbelief.

"That's right," Locke said.

Spectre glared balefully. "I am the oldest echidna alive-"

"Ahem," Dimitri coughed.

Spectre amended his statement. "The oldest full echidna alive, leader of the Brotherhood of Guardians, and most importantly, your great-great-great-grandfather! You don't say 'no' to me!" The elder echidna said indignantly.

"Well, I just did! I won't stop, no matter what any of you say! Even if Aurora or the Ancient Walkers were to appear right before me at this very instant, and tell me to stop, I wouldn't!" Locke declared.

…

"And let me tell you, there wasn't a time I wished I had pretended to be Aurora all those centuries ago, or still had the ability to project myself, more than I did at that very moment," Tikal said morosely to her shocked audience.

…

"But, son, you heard Dimitri! There's only a 5% chance of success!" Sabre protested.

"A 5% chance is better than none," Locke said resolutely. "I have faith that the power of love shall triumph over something as pointless or capricious as mere probability!"

"Wow, I'm crazy, but this is a whole new level of madness," Athair said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"But you'll destroy us all!" Sojourner cried.

"That's a risk I'm willing to take!" Locke said, a determined––and crazed-look on his face.

…

"Okay, I'm a firm believer in the power of love, but even I think this is ridiculous," Amy said.

"Really? Because this actually sounds a lot like something you would do," Shadow said.

"What, possibly wipe out an entire species just because there's a slim chance it would win me Sonic's heart?!" Amy asked incredulously. "Do you REALLY think that sounds like me?!"

"Yes," everyone said bluntly.

Amy spluttered. "That's… I…" Her shoulders slumped. "Okay, yeah, that DOES sound kind of like something I would do…is there something wrong with me?"

"Yes," everyone said bluntly again. She glared at them.

Vector whistled. "Man, I've run into guys who've been through a bad breakup before and were driven to do something absolutely insane because of it––they're often involved in cases we take––but this guy really takes the cake!"

"When Mother and Father divorced, Father didn't take it too well, but he certainly didn't try to do anything like this!" Cream agreed. She hesitated. "Well, not at FIRST…"

"Your father being that human you mentioned before, right?" Blaze asked.

Cream nodded. "Uh-huh. He's-"

"That can wait until your turn, Cream, we're learning about Knuckles now," Silver reminded the rabbit. She nodded apologetically and remained quiet.

"Knux, your dad was INSANE," said the incredulous Sonic.

"Of course he was," Knuckles said angrily. "Not like there could be anything nice or pleasant or NORMAL in my family, given that I'm an echidna, apparently the evilest and/or dickish species in existence!"

"What about Athair? He didn't seem that bad," Rouge asked.

"No, but he's insane," Knuckles pointed out.

"There are worse things a member of your family could be, but I concede the point," the bat said reluctantly.

"Still, the science involved sounds fascinating… A part of me wouldn't mind getting a chance to study it, no matter how dangerous it might be…" Tails said thoughtfully.

"None of it is still around. It's for the best," Tikal said.

"So I'm guessing Locke's insane plan backfired and wiped out his entire species?" Mighty guessed.

"You're getting ahead of me. What happened was this…" Tikal continued.

…

"Locke, we aren't going to let you get away with this!" Dimitri declared. He blinked. "Huh, so that's what it's like to be on the other side of that."

Thunderhawk grinned and stepped forward, cracking his knuckles. "If you won't shut it down willingly, then we'll just have to MAKE you shut it down!"

Locke burst into laughter. "You fools really don't get it, do you? Do you REALLY think I'd have let you in here and allowed you to look at my work if I thought there was ANY chance whatsoever I believed you could stop it? I set the final steps in motion 15 minutes ago! Even if I WANTED to stop it, at this point, I couldn't! There's no stopping it now! One way or another, whatever's going to happen is going to happen! Bwahahahaha!"

The echidnas gasped. "No!" Sojourner cried.

"Son, how could you?!" Sabre demanded. "Do you realize what you've done?!"

"Raised our species to our rightful place in the heavens and ensured that Lara will be mine forever!" Locke declared.

"Or killed us all, you mad fool!" Dimitri shouted.

"Or that," Locke admitted.

"Hey, where did Athair go?" Thunderhawk wondered, suddenly noticing the most…eccentric of their order had vanished.

"There's no time for that now, we have to do something!" Specter said. "Maybe if we smashed the Emerald-"

"We can't smash the Master Emerald! We are its Guardians, it's our sacred duty to protect it! To harm our charge would be absolutely unthinkable!" Sabre protested.

…

Everyone looked at Knuckles. He flushed. "Yeah, yeah…" He grumbled.

…

"We can't, it's surrounded by a force field so strong, and the systems controlling it protected by firewalls so complex, by the time I would be able to crack them, it would be too late to do anything," Dimitri said.

"Not to mention that, in its current state, if we broke the Emerald, the amount of energy released could destroy the entire island, if not the world!" Sojourner agreed.

"Which, last time I checked, is exactly what we DON'T want to happen," Spectre said. "Dimitri, what if we got Wynmacher's DNA onto the list? Will that fix things? It might not stop the ascension process, but it should also keep everyone from being annihilated, right?"

"It's too late. The system is locked. It would take far too long for me to hack it, and make any changes, and that's time we simply don't have," Dimitri said remorsefully.

"But… But we can't do NOTHING! We're the Brotherhood of Guardians! It's our job to stop stuff like this!" Thunderhawk protested.

"Well, this time, doing nothing is exactly what you HAVE to do!" Locke said with an evil gloat. "You are too late! Behold, it begins!"

The Master Emerald's glow, which had steadily been increasing all this time, was now so brilliant that everything in the room seem to be dyed in a green hue. The giant jewel began to pulse, its light flickering faster and faster, as the room began to tremble. Arcs of green electricity started crackling all over the place and causing everyone's fur to stand on end. Locke laughed maniacally. "Yes…yes! It's happening! It's really happening! Soon, Lara and I shall be reunited forever in another world! Gyahahahahahaha!"

"Yeah, in the AFTERLIFE!" Thunderhawk snapped. "Come on guys, we've got to do something! If we can't stop this, maybe we could get out into the city, start an evacuation-"

"No," Dimitri said solemnly. "We are too late. I don't think we'll even be able to get far from this room before whatever happens happens." He sighed. "For all the evil things I've done over the years, I've always had our species' best interests at heart. I wanted us to take our rightful place as rulers of the world. This… This is far worse than anything I could ever have dreamed of, even in my worst moments." He laughed bitterly. "To think that in the end, the end of our civilization would not be caused by me, or any of my followers, but one of you lot, who opposed me so many times and swore to defend our kind at all costs. Isn't the irony delicious?"

Spectre shook his head sadly. "The members of our family have watched over the Master Emerald, and the people of Echidnaopolis for thousands of years… And now, it seems that we have failed them in their hour of greatest need. We are undone by the hands of one of our own… You're right, Dimitri. It'd be hilarious if it weren't so tragic."

"Well," Sojourner said with a faint smile. "If we're going to die, at least we'll die together, as a family." He frowned. "Except for Athair. Wonder where he went off to…"

"Probably to do something stupid. Anyway, if we're going to die, I'm going to make damn well sure that bastard goes first!" Thunderhawk snarled, clenching his fists. "I don't care if he's family, he's going down!"

"Oh, son…" Saber said sadly. "What have you done?"

"LARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Locke screamed, spreading his arms wide as if to embrace the light of the Master Emerald, unaware that Thunderhawk's hands were reaching out to grab his neck.

Outside, the people of Echidnaopolis looked around in alarm as the entire island started to shake. There was a blinding flash of green light, and then…

And then…

…

The floating land mass that was Angel Island drifted blissfully through the heavens, continuing to throw up a giant middle finger to the laws of physics and that bitch gravity as it had for the last several thousand years. On a high hill at the center of the island rested an ancient shrine, seven columns in varying states of disrepair surrounding a central dais, the stone weathered by countless years of exposure to the elements. A gigantic green brilliant cut gemstone slowly hovered on its tip in the center of this dais, utterly pristine and without flaw, despite also being exposed to the elements for ages beyond remembering, a faint, warm glow emanating from its center.

Nestled near the base of the gemstone was a small white egg. The egg shook slightly. A crack formed in its surface, followed by another, and another…

…

"And you know the rest," Tikal concluded.

"Whoa. Full circle," Vector said.

"That's it? But that can't be it!" Knuckles protested. "What happened to everyone?"

"Were they transported to a higher plane of existence?" Cream asked.

"Yes, if by 'transported to a higher plane of existence,' you mean died. Because that's what they did. Died. Pretty much all of them," Tikal said bluntly.

"They died?!" Amy cried.

"Well, yes, what did you expect? Dimitri said there'd be a 95% chance of catastrophic failure, and that's exactly what happened," Tikal said.

"Well, yeah, but whenever there's like a million to one odds against something happening, that thing is almost guaranteed to happen!" Sonic protested.

"Which isn't how probability should work, actually," Tails commented.

"I'm fairly certain that only applies for heroes, beloved," Blaze said. "And Locke was CERTAINLY not one of those."

"Jeez…" Sonic whispered, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Millions of people wiped out due to a selfish act of love…is…is that going to be me one day?" a troubled Amy worried.

"Probably," Charmy said.

"Charmy!" Espio hissed.

"What? It probably is!" Charmy said.

"Well, yes, but you didn't need to say it like that," the chameleon grumbled. Amy gulped nervously.

"I'm sorry, Knuckles. I know you wanted to know about your past, but never dreamed it could possibly be this bad. I can't even imagine what you must be going through right now," Rouge said sympathetically, putting a hand on his shoulder. "There have been a few somewhat nasty people in my own family's history, but nothing this bad."

"What about-" Shadow started.

"We don't talk about her," Rouge said coldly. Shadow nodded in understanding.

"My father… All those people… Just because my mother left him?!" Knuckles cried in horror.

"I'm afraid so," Tikal said sadly.

"Dammit, Dad…how could you?" Knuckles started to cry. "All my life I wanted to know more about my past, my people, where I came from… Now I know, and I wish I'd never wondered to begin with!"

"Knux…" Sonic said sadly, looking at the echidna with pity and empathy, like the rest…

Everyone except Shadow, that is. The black hedgehog snorted. "I thought you were stronger than that, echidna. You disappoint me."

"Shads, that's not-" Sonic started, shocked, but the black hedgehog shushed him.

"Quiet, blue hedgehog. This is something he has to hear," Shadow said sternly.

Knuckles blinked. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"So what if you're a member of a species which has, throughout history, been almost predominantly evil or at the very least colossal jerks? So what if your father was a madman who wiped out his entire species in a fit of pique? Have you forgotten that I, too, have such a heritage?" Shadow said, pointing to himself. "Half of my genetic material comes from the evil overlord of an alien race, which destroyed entire planets to sustain themselves. My other creator went insane and tried to destroy the world, using ME as a weapon to do so! My only other living relative is the greatest madman and terrorist in recent memory! But have I left that define me? No! I chose to forge my own path, and define my identity with my own two hands! I am Shadow the Hedgehog, because that is who I CHOOSE to be, not because others tell me to be!" He pointed at Knuckles. "Now tell me, echidna… Who are you? A member of a wicked race? The son of a genocidal maniac? The Guardian of the Master Emerald? A hero? A friend? A lover? An ally? Choose! WHO ARE YOU?"

Knuckles looked at the black hedgehog in surprise, and then frowned, his brow furrowing in deep thought. "I… I am Knuckles the Echidna. I am the last of the echidnas… The Guardian of the Master Emerald… Boyfriend of Rouge, friend of Sonic and Tails, and many others… I… I am a hero. This… This is who I am, who I choose to be!"

Shadow shook the echidna's hand as the others applauded. "A pleasure to meet you Knuckles. I think we're going to be, if not exactly friends, at the very least close allies."

"Thanks, Shadow. I needed that," Knuckles said gratefully.

"Yes, I imagine you did," Shadow said smugly.

"That was beautiful!" Cream sniffed as Rouge hugged Knuckles and gave him a big kiss, and Sonic patted him proudly on the back.

"Yeah, it was!" Amy agreed.

"As sweet as all that was, though, there's still something I don't quite understand…if the echidnas had such a massive civilization, which was wiped out so suddenly, then how come there isn't more of a trace of its eradication?" Tails asked. "I mean, we've BEEN to Angel Island. There are some ruins, yeah, but nothing like a giant abandoned city.… Or a big crater or anything else like that! You'd expect that sort of thing, wouldn't you?"

Mighty nodded in agreement. "And how did the Master Emerald get from some laboratory to that old altar? And how the heck did Knuckles survive, anyway?"

"Hey yeah, why wasn't he killed like the others?" Vector wondered.

"I'm getting to that," Tikal said. "As for why there's no sign that Echidnaopolis ever existed… The blast of corrupted Chaos Control that resulted from Locke's deranged scheme destroyed the city and its people so thoroughly that they were removed from existence itself, as if they had never even come into being in the first place. That is why there are no ruins of a great echidna metropolis… Because, from your more limited, linear perspective, it was never constructed to begin with. Which is why the Emerald was returned to its altar, thanks to the shift in reality, it never actually left."

"…Whoa," Sonic said.

"The Master Emerald can do that?!" Charmy cried.

"Well, given that it's a singular artifact that simultaneously exists throughout all of time and space, I suppose it does have the power to do something like that… Still, the very thought of it being able to DO something like that is rather terrifying," Tails commented. He frowned. "But wait, then why weren't the dingoes, or any of the other races the echidnas wiped out, restored if the people who made them extinct never existed?"

"Timey-wimey ball," Tikal said.

"Oh, okay then," the fox said.

"I had no idea Chaos Control was CAPABLE of such a power…" Shadow murmured. "Though I suppose it would explain why there's so little historical record of the echidnas after the Chaos or Argus Incidents, or why there isn't more mention of a civilization flying around on a floating island and wiping out entire species outside of stories…could be some sort of subconscious, racial memory? Some kind of psycho-temporal echo? Intriguing…"

"SUDDENLY, I-AM-CONFLICTED," Omega said. "WHILE-THE-POWER-OF-ABSOLUTE-DESTRUCTION-ON-SUCH-A-LEVEL-IS-VERY-APPEALING…IF-YOU-DESTROY-SOMETHING-SO-THOROUGHLY-THAT-IT-IS-AS-IF-IT-NEVER-EXISTED, WHAT-PROOF-DO-YOU-HAVE-THAT-YOU-EVER-DESTROYED-ANYTHING-AT-ALL?"

"Knuckles, I think you might want to try and keep a closer eye on that big gemstone of yours from now on," Rouge said nervously. "And for that matter… I don't think I'm ever going to try and steal it again. I mean, it's PROBABLY never going to do anything like that again, but…"

Knuckles nodded in understanding. "Yes, better safe than sorry. After all, there's nothing to say that Eggman or any other villain might not try to do something like my father did, and possibly erase the entire planet from existence or destroy the universe!" He shook his head sorrowfully. "All this time, I thought I was placed on this world to protect the Master Emerald from those who would misuse its power for evil… Now I see it's the other way around. I have to protect the WORLD from the Emerald's power… To think, all those years sitting on that island, guarding that jewel, and I never knew that it was responsible for the extinction of my entire species… I don't think I'll ever be able to look at it the same way again…"

"Knux, I know in the past you've refused our offers to help you better protect the Emerald, but now… Now that you know the truth…" Sonic said.

"Now that I know just what it's really capable of? Yes, I think it's time I finally swallowed my stubborn pride and asked for your help. Any assistance you can lend me to make sure that rock of death is never stolen or broken again will be more than welcome," Knuckles said gratefully.

"I'm glad to hear you finally say that, Knuckles!" Tikal said approvingly. "But remember, ultimately, the Emerald is not to blame. It is, ultimately, just a tool that can be used for good or for evil, and your father, unfortunately, did not use its power the way he should have. You may make sure it is never used again, or you can try to find a way to safely harness its power for the good of all. The choice, in the end, is yours to make as the last Guardian."

"Wonder if they'll ever finish that game…" Vector muttered.

"I heard it's supposed to be coming out in a year or so," Espio said.

"Yeah, they've been saying stuff like that for years! I'm not gonna get my hopes up just yet," the crocodile said cynically. "And after all, just because something's been in development for ages doesn't necessarily mean it'll be GOOD when it's actually released."

"The Duke will never recover," Charmy said solemnly.

"Thank you, Tikal. Even so, I'm not sure the world will ever be ready for that much power…" Knuckles said.

"It will be, actually," Silver said. "In the FYOO-CHURR, we…ah, but you don't need to hear that right now. Tikal, thank you for coming in explaining all this, but there is one question left to answer: why was Knuckles spared, while the rest of his species was destroyed?"

"A very good question," Tikal said. "You will recall that in Echidnaopolis's last moments, Athair was mysteriously absent from among his fellow Guardians?"

"Yeah, what's with that?" Sonic wondered.

"Probably ran away, like a coward," Espio said dismissively.

"No, the Guardians were many things, but they weren't cowards," Tikal said. She paused. "Well, Athair wasn't, anyway. When he realized that there was no way to stop Locke's experiment, he ran off to try and evacuate as many citizens as he could, including Lara, Wynmacher, and Knuckles' egg. Unfortunately, despite his best efforts, they were unable to evade the corrupted Chaos Control. After all, it was specifically targeted for their DNA, along with the DNA of everyone else in the city, and due to how badly Locke had screwed things up, not even Wynmacher would be wholly spared. Fortunately, at the last minute, they were spared by literal divine intervention."

"A deus ex machina? Really?" Tails asked skeptically.

"Well, why not? Those happen to us often enough," Sonic said reasonably. Tails grunted, but reluctantly conceded.

"Seeing that the last vestige of her species was about to be erased from the world forever, the goddess Aurora beseeched the Ancient Walkers to do something," Tikal explained.

"You mentioned those guys before… Who are they?" Mighty asked.

"Probably a group of incredibly powerful, incredibly ancient beings predating recorded history that even the gods must bow to," Blaze theorized.

"What makes you say that?" Cream asked.

Blaze shrugged. "I've run into that sort of thing before."

"Blaze is correct," Tikal said. "Long before Aurora ascended, long before others like her or I transcended physicality and became one with the Chaos Force, the Ancient Walkers were already there. Nobody knows just where they came from or how long they have existed. They were there before even the eldest of those like me were born on this world, long before any known civilization came into being. They may be older than all life on this world, older than the planet itself, if not the universe! They have watched nations rise and fall, species come into being and go extinct. They have absolute mastery of the Chaos Force, and some wonder if perhaps they are the first to be able to use the Force, if not the Force itself personified somehow. All we know is that they are ancient, mighty, and wise beyond all understanding, their minds and motives so unfathomable and inscrutable and beyond comprehension that even the eldest and most learned of those who dwell in the planes above cannot understand them."

"Spooky," Charmy said.

"The Professor found a few references to entities like that a few times in the writings of several ancient cultures…" Shadow recalled. "Nothing very specific or definite, and no actual depiction of such creatures, as if whatever they were was so powerful and beyond mortal understanding that nobody dared to try and describe them for fear of drawing their tension. The closest he ever found were some masks and cave paintings dating back millions of years to before anyone should have been around to make them."

"Well, that's creepy," Amy said with a shiver.

Blaze nodded. "Yes, that about fits what I'd expected."

"And what did these paintings look like?" Rouge asked.

"Dinosaurs wearing masks," Shadow said.

"…Huh. I was expecting more eyes. And tentacles," the bat said, somewhat disappointed.

"Why do so many eldritch beings have those, anyway?" Vector complained.

"Maybe because we instinctively find those things creepy, so they take that form intentionally to cause us as much discomfort as possible?" Tails suggested.

"…Huh. That could do it," the crocodile admitted.

"And why do they do that, anyway? Why are so many interdimensional cosmic beings such assholes?" Espio wondered.

"Because the nice ones don't want to bother us since they know we can't really gaze upon them without going mad?" Cream suggested.

"…That is also plausible," the chameleon admitted.

"And are THESE guys something we should be worried about?" Asked the concerned Sonic.

"No, they rarely if ever feel the need to intervene in the affairs of the lower planes… Or any planes at all, for that matter," Tikal admitted. "For the most part, they seem content to just watch events unfold and do…whatever it is that they do. However, know this: if, for whatever reason, they WERE to feel you warranted some kind of intervention on their part… Well, let's just say you'd better hope their interest in you is benign, because if it isn't…"

"I've handled almighty cosmic beings before," Sonic said, unconcerned.

"Even the eldest and most powerful entity you've vanquished is but a babe compared to the Walkers," Tikal said seriously. "They are not to be trifled with. Ever. For I doubt even the fastest thing alive can find any shelter in any world that would protect him from their wrath."

"…Duly noted," Sonic said after a moment.

"If you were to anger them, you could seek shelter in my world, beloved," Blaze said, her eyes narrowing. "If they want you, they would have to go through me first."

"They wouldn't have to. You wouldn't even be a speedbump to them," Tikal said.

The royal feline grunted. "Perhaps…perhaps not…my beloved is not the only one who's battled horrors beyond time…"

"Incidentally, exactly what WOULD warrant such attention from them?" Tails asked.

"I don't actually know myself," Tikal admitted. "While Aurora WAS able to convince them to do something, even she has no idea what it is she said that made them decide to help out. It is possible that they'd already decided to do something anyway, and nothing she said had any bearing on the matter whatsoever. As I said before… They are inscrutable, unknowable, and utterly ineffable."

"So they DID do something? What?" Knuckles asked.

"Aurora, much like myself and many of the other beings who dwell in the higher realms, had pretty much given up on the echidna race as a species after their centuries of atrocities, misuse of power, and utter decadence. However, when Aurora saw Athair selflessly risking his life to save as many people as he could, she realized that maybe there was hope yet for our cursed race. Unable to do anything herself, she asked the Ancient Walkers to intervene, to use their mastery of the Chaos Force to mitigate Locke's grave error, to save as many of her former species as they could," Tikal said.

"And did they?" Cream asked.

"…Yes and no," Tikal said. "While certainly it would've been within their power to take control of the failed Chaos Control and use it to transport the entire echidna race anywhere in the multiverse ––even to the planes we resided in, if they so chose––for whatever reason, they chose to save a fraction of the population and let the rest be destroyed. I do not understand why they did this, or the criteria they used to choose who would live and who would die, for while they spared many virtuous souls, they also chose to save many who were corrupt and wicked. Some of them were transported to other dimensions, while others came to the higher planes, and found themselves in the service of the Walkers. I do not know whether to envy or pity them, for those whom the Walkers selected to be their messengers are perhaps the only beings save the Walkers themselves who can possibly understand how those ancient beings minds work… but I'm not certain if that knowledge is something any lesser mind, even one whose consciousness has been opened to the vast wonders of infinity, can truly bear without breaking." She shrugged. "On the other hand, Athair seemed okay the last time I talked to him, but that might just be because he's already insane so it didn't bother him so much."

"My great-grandfather still lives?" Knuckles asked excitedly.

"Well… That depends on your definition of 'lives,' but yes, he's still out there, doing the will of the Walkers, whatever that may be," Tikal said. "He stops by to chat now and then and ask how you're doing. He's funny."

"He asks about me? What… What does he think of me?" Knuckles asked.

"That you're a big goofball, but he loves you anyway," Tikal said.

"Awww, that's sweet!… I think," Amy said.

Heartened by this, Knuckles asked, "And what of my mother? What… What happened to her?"

Tikal smiled. "She still lives as well. The Walkers transported her to another dimension, where she's settled down with Wynmacher. They have a child named Knecapeon. They're quite happy, and before you ask, no, I can't take you there or tell you how to get there. Dimensionally speaking, it's very, very far away."

"That's all right," Knuckles said, smiling in relief. "Just knowing that she's still alive and happy is enough for me… And a son… That means… I have a little brother! Did you hear that, guys?! I have a brother!"

"That's wonderful, Mr. Knuckles!" Cream said.

"Yeah, that's… Wait…Knecapeon? That sounds like…" Abruptly, Sonic burst into laughter. "Knuckles, your little brother is named KNEECAPS! Hahahahaha!"

"Wh-what?! No he isn't, he's named Knecapeon, a proud and…noble…oh, who am I kidding? His name is Kneecaps. What was my mother thinking?!" Knuckles groaned as the others started laughing as well.

"Considering that she named you Knuckles, apparently she has a thing for body parts," Espio commented.

"We don't know that, she might've named him something else, and he named himself Knuckles," Tails said.

"No, actually, she did name him Knuckles," Tikal spoke up.

"Ah. I stand corrected," Tails said.

"As hilarious as that is, that still leaves us with one question… Why is KNUCKLES still here?" Mighty asked. "Why isn't he in another dimension, or serving these spooky dinosaur mask guys?"

"First of all, don't call them spooky dinosaur mask guys. They might not like it," Tikal warned the armadillo. "I'm not even sure those are masks, they might be their faces…"

"Oh, like in the Masque of Red Death or King in Yellow?" Tails asked.

Tikal nodded. "Yes, like that. Second of all… I don't actually know why Knuckles was left behind."

"Huh? You don't?" Knuckles asked in surprise.

Tikal shook her head. "For whatever reason, the Ancient Walkers decided to leave you on Angel Island. I do not know why, and I do not believe I will ever know. Remember, their reasons for doing anything are almost impossible for lesser beings to fathom. All I know is that, shortly after everything was over, Athair came to me, told me that you still remained on this world, and asked me to do my best to make sure you grew up to be a good man and protector of the Master Emerald. He didn't say why, only that it was very important that I do so. And… I did my best to follow his wishes. I'm aware that I was not perhaps the best parental figure I could've been, but I tried, and I believe that you have indeed become a good person, your gullibility, short temper, and myriad other flaws aside. Even if you aren't quite as good at protecting the Emerald, you are CERTAINLY a better man than your father was, or many of the other Guardians, and for that, I'm very proud of you, just as your great grandfather is, and your mother certainly would be."

" Well… Thank you, that's good to know, but…" Knuckles said uncertainly.

"It is not the answer you were hoping for," Tikal concluded.

"Yeah," the echidna said apologetically.

"It IS a little lacking," Shadow agreed.

"There isn't anything you can tell us, Tikal? Any hint, any clue, anything at all?" Sonic asked.

"I cannot give you those because I do not have any," Tikal said apologetically. "All I have are conjectures, and guesswork, and I cannot honestly say how accurate any of those are."

"Tell us anyway, it's better than nothing," Vector said.

Tikal sighed. "Very well. There are several possibilities I can think of. One is that the Walkers felt that the Master Emerald still needed a living Guardian, and chose Knuckles, since his bloodline is strongly connected to the Emerald's power, and perhaps they felt that not only would it give a sense of continuity, but since he would be starting fresh, with no preconceptions or biases shaped by his society, he might turn out better than his father did. Or they might have left him behind out of spite, to bear the sins of his father for so flagrantly violating his duty and abusing the power of Chaos. Or it might even be some kind of test, to see if it is possible for a lone echidna to reject his species' inherent vices and prove that his kind has a future, and possibly determine if the other echidnas can one day return to Earth or not." She shrugged. "It could be all of these. It could be none. As I've said, I really don't know."

"I see," Knuckles said, trying to hide his disappointment.

"But Tikal, didn't you say you saw time differently than we do?" Sonic asked. "So couldn't you, you know, just look into the future or something…?"

Amy gasped. "Oh! Oh! And tell me when I'm going to marry Sonic, too!"

"I'm afraid it's not as simple as all that," Tikal said apologetically. "I can see many, many possible futures, and at this moment there is no telling which one is the one that will actually happen. I see futures where Knuckles is reunited with the rest of his species, and futures where he is not. I see futures where he starts a family and sires a new breed of echidnas, and others where he dies alone, his race going extinct with him. The future is, as ever, constantly in flux." Silver opened his mouth to correct her, and she sharply said, "Whatever you're about to say, it's wrong. You may be a time traveler, but you still live INSIDE of time. The illusion of linearity and causality that grants you is one that I, as a transcendent entity, do not have the luxury of humoring for myself. And besides, if the future WASN'T constantly in flux, then there would be no reason for you to constantly be coming back here, now would there?"

"…Fair point," the psychic said reluctantly.

"That's a pretty diverse range of possibility futures," Espio commented.

Tikal shrugged. "In an infinite multiverse, all things are possible."

"Even Amy marrying Sonic, apparently," Mighty joked.

"Hey!" the pink hedgehog snapped as Sonic laughed and high-fived his old friend.

"Still, if there is even a possibility that I might one day be reunited with my mother and the rest of my kind… A possibility that I can create a new future for my species, one free of the countless sins of our past… then that is something for me to strive for, to hope for," Knuckles said. "No matter how slim such a future might be of ever happening, I have to believe that it's something I can accomplish. If not, what else is there for me to hope for?"

"Well said!" Shadow said approvingly.

"Don't worry, Knux, we'll find a way to do whatever we need to do to bring the rest of your kind back," Sonic promised.

"Well, so long as they don't turn out to be intent on conquering the world or anything," Tails added.

"Well, yeah, that goes without saying," Sonic agreed.

"Then why did he say it?" Cream said innocently.

Sonic looked flustered. "It's… You know, that's actually a good question…"

"And if all else fails, well… I suppose I wouldn't mind helping to sire a whole new species…" Rouge said with a lascivious grin, leaning awfully close to Knuckles and sensually tracing the crescent on his chest with her finger. The echidna gulped. Shadow scowled and clenched his fists.

"It looks as if you've made up your mind as to what to do next," Tikal said approvingly. "Very good. This is why I took so long before telling you, Knuckles… Because I knew that when it was time for you to learn the truth, you would do better with friends by your side."

"And you were right to," Knuckles admitted. "Thank you, Tikal."

"Is there anything more you can tell us? Anything at all?" Silver asked.

Tikal shook her head. "I'm afraid not. Which means, I believe, it's time for me to take my leave."

"Aw, don't go! You just got here!" Sonic protested.

"Yeah, and we'd love to catch up with you!" Amy agreed.

"Sorry, I'd love to stay, but I have to get chili dogs I promised back to Chaos," Tikal said apologetically. "If you think he was angry when he wiped out the echidnas, or destroyed Station Square, trust me, you've never seen him when he's hungry."

"As transcendental cosmic beings, I would've thought you wouldn't even feel hunger," Tails said.

Tikal rolled her eyes. "That's what I keep telling HIM, but does he listen? Nooooo." She waved her hand, and several chili dogs levitated off the table nearby, sparkling with pink light. "It was lovely seeing all of you again, as well as meeting many of you for––what I suppose seems like to you to be––the first time. Farewell, all. I look forward to seeing you all again soon."

"Goodbye, Ms. Tikal!" Cream said with a wave.

"Awww, oh well. We'll see you again soon!" Amy said optimistically.

"It was a pleasure meeting you. You are far more amiable than many beings like you I have encountered," Blaze said.

"Yeah, great meeting you…but when you say 'soon,' do you mean soon for us or soon for you, since you said you don't perceive time the same way as the rest of us?" Rouge asked.

"And will it be a casual affair, or a matter of global importance?" Shadow asked.

Tikal smiled cryptically. "That's for you to find out for yourselves. Oh, and before I forget… Omega, if I were you, I would move 5 feet to your left. Just a thought."

"WHY-SHOULD-i? YOU-AREN'T-THE-BOSS-OF-ME," Omega said petulantly.

"Omega, she's an ancient nigh-omniscient mystical being that's seen and done things beyond our comprehension. Just humor her," Shadow said. Omega grumbled but reluctantly conceded.

"Thank you. You'll thank me for this later," Tikal said. She began to rise into the air. "Goodbye, everyone! Until next time!" As everyone shouted their farewells, she transformed into a small ball of pink light and flew off into the blue sky, the effect somewhat lessened by the numerous chili dogs floating after her.

"Well, it was nice seeing her again," Amy spoke up.

"It's been too long," Sonic agreed.

"Yeah, she was really pretty," Charmy agreed.

"Certainly better than most echidnas," Espio agreed.

"I'd say that was racist if it weren't quite possibly true," Rouge admitted.

"And for better or worse, I finally know my history," Knuckles said.

"As do the rest of us, by proxy," Tails said.

"I bet the Professor would have loved to know that history or interview someone who was really around for all that…ah well," Shadow said with a shrug.

"So, who's next?" Cream asked cheerfully.

"Well, I think we should start with-" Silver began.

"WARNING!" Omega interrupted. "I-AM-PICKING-UP-A-DIMENSIONAL-FLUX-RIGHT-WHERE-I-WAS-STANDING-A-MINUTE-AGO!"

"Huh. Guess it was a good thing you listened to Tikal's warning after all," Rouge said.

"Get ready, everyone, there's no telling what's about to show up!" Shadow said, everyone tensing as the air 5 feet to Omega's right started crackling, sparking…

And in a flash of light, something materialized, scorching the ground around it. Steam rising from its form due to the sudden entry into their reality, the new arrival rose from its crouch, revealing itself to be wearing a form-fitting, all-body grey and black combat uniform with additional armor plating on the upper chest and back, a pair of black and light-grey armored boots with an iridescent pink strip running down the thigh and toe, a black and white armor-plated helmet covering with two branching, backwards and down curling "horns", a luminous pink sigil on the forehead, and purple-white eye visors adorned with outward-sweeping pieces of light-grey material and a pair of pink circles on the muzzle area. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Shadow, Omega, Amy, Cream all gasped in surprised recognition.

The others, not so much. "ALIEN INVADER! KILL IT!" Charmy shrieked.

"With pleasure!" Blaze said, readying a fireball.

"No, wait! She's not…well, okay, yeah, technically she is, but…not anymore…" Sonic trailed off vaguely.

Tails nodded in agreement. "Yes, that's not an enemy, that's-"

"Shade!" Amy cried.

Espio blinked. "Shade?"

"Shade!" Knuckles echoed.

"Shade?" asked a perplexed Silver.

"Shade!" Cream squealed in delight.

"Shade!" Vector yelled, not wanting to be left out.

"Shade?" said the confused Charmy.

"SHADE," Omega intoned.

Big continued to fish, oblivious to everything around him.

"Why are we all yelling 'Shade?'" asked a confused Mighty.

"Because that's her name," Rouge said.

"Oh," Mighty said. He blinked. "Wait, that's a girl?!"

"I thought it was obvious," Blaze said. The armadillo flushed in embarrassment.

The entity's helmet retracted to reveal the face of a lovely female echidna with orange fur, seven dreadlocks shorter than Knuckles', and a black headband bearing the same sigil as her helmet. Eyes watering in tears of joy—as well as the glare from the sun, which she did not seem used to-she looked up into the bright blue sky. "I made it…" she whispered. "At last, I'm finally back…"

…

Bet you didn't expect this surprise guest, now did you? That's right, next chapter is featuring Shade of the Nocturnus! And it'll definitely be much shorter!...I think.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Now, pick who you want to go after Shade! Rouge, Cream, Big, the Babylon Rogues, Blaze, or Sticks? Also, would anyone be interested in an origin for Fang the Sniper or Eggman?

And as always, if you have ideas for other characters' origins, please let me know.