Speedy's note: Does anyone even still expect reasonably frequent updates from me? Sorry, guys, really. I'm trying.

Also, there was something odd going on with my PMs. Apparently several of them got lost somewhere in the internet wilderness in those past weeks. If one of you is still waiting for a reply to a review or PM, please tell me and I'll get to it again.


Voices in the Mist

A cold wind was brushing through his fur, turning the dampness that remained after his involuntary swim into liquid ice pouring down his body from head to toes.

When he'd gotten out of Hydrocity, Knuckles had hurried to his home to get out of his soaked clothing and try to dry up. Now he was wearing fresh and most importantly dry gloves, socks and shoes, but he didn't manage to completely dry his fur and he still felt cold. As if that wasn't enough, he was feeling lightheaded and the shock of having apparently zoned out and walked himself into a waterfall without a memory of doing it had not yet settled.

Right now the echidna was climbing up the slope towards the crater of the island's center volcano and had long cleared the last forests that would offer protection. Up here in the alpine rockiness around the highest summits, only small plants grew between the rocks and every now and then a stubborn small patch of snow had survived even the summer. The actual glaciers shone bright white in the distance, telling that in spite of its tropically warm summers, there was a different face of Angel Island's climate. The summer was over, the colorful forests below spoke of it clearly, and the way the wind was cold and the beams of the sun were bright but devoid of actual warmth told Knuckles in less than two months winter would cover Angel Island under its freezing white blankets and not release it from its icy grasp before a few months later.

Knuckles wrapped the towel he'd brought along around his shoulders. He'd not meant to get it wet just yet, but he was shivering and he didn't want to snatch a cold. Or maybe he already had. The guardian faltered at the idea. Maybe that was what was wrong with him. He didn't sleep well, he felt fatigued… Perhaps he was ill? After all, he'd had to swim the last bit of the way to the Mystic Ruins the other day after his glide dropped him into the sea and the water had not been exactly warm.

Then again, there was the vision or such that had led to his latest soaking in cold water, and he could not blame this one on a light sickness. He was actually rather sure it had something to do with the Emerald. There was something he wasn't able to put a finger on, something that wasn't like it was supposed to be.

But he couldn't concentrate like this. First, he needed to relax and rest up a bit so he could think properly again.

That was why he was climbing up to the edge of Lava Reef, specifically to a place that had hot springs. He came there often; especially in winter when anywhere else the water was too cold to bathe in. Sometimes he jokingly referred to the hot water pool up there as his bathtubs. Surely he'd be able to properly warm himself up there.

Knuckles reached his destination about ten minutes later. Surrounded by high, jagged black rocks and shielded from the winds by the crater's rim, several small pools snuggled into the slope. Clear, hot water bled out of the mountain near the top, poured down in a narrow creek before it gathered in a first pond, from there flowed into a second, passed through it and cascaded into several more. Some were only a meter wide, the largest had a diameter of about three and a depth of roughly a meter in the middle of it. From the last pool, the creek resurfaced to snake down the black rock of the crater towards its center that held the boiling heat of Lava Reef's volcano. The water never reached the red-hot liquid stone, though, it evaporated about three meters before it got there, leaving nothing but a thin mist behind that floated upwards until the winds caught hold of it and tore it asunder.

Knuckles placed his towel on a rock not far from the steaming pools, the pulled off his shoes, socks and gloves and put them down next to it. The rough, warm ground prickled under his bare feet as he walked up to the second largest pool.

He slipped into the water slowly. At first, it felt so hot he thought he'd burn his feet off, but the sensation passed quickly and the echidna lowered himself into the pool. It wasn't deep, where he had entered it he could sit upright in it and it reached to just his chest.

Knuckles reclined against the rock wall of the pond, letting his head fall backwards until it rested against the rock as well. The warm water felt wonderful, melting the cold out of his body and relaxing cramps he didn't know had been in his muscles. Knuckles sighed, letting his arms float weightlessly in the water, and closed his eyes. With the physical discomfort also his worries about the Master Emerald and the general stress of the past days faded into a distant memory. Maybe it was just the warmth making him drowsy, but for the moment Knuckles didn't care.

Listening to the gentle gurgling the hot creek caused flowing from pool to pool, the echidna gladly allowed his mind to drift into a daze. But even half asleep, something was pulling at him, a whisper too quiet to focus on brushing past his ears, and he couldn't place it. And his head still hurt.


Thoughtfully Tails chewed on a cookie, watching Sonic at the other side of the hangar. Currently the hedgehog seemed intent on holding a staring contest with the floaty ball. His interest in the thing was beginning to feel weird to Tails. Sure, he'd liked the things a lot of first sight even, but… it was the way he was interested in it. It just wasn't… like him.

Sonic's normal interest in something was basically based on if you could do something fun with it (which usually involved something related to speed, running around, jumping, flying or some crazy stunt), or if it was beautiful to look at. The ball sure did have something beautiful about it, something fascinating to look at, but… Sonic had not chased it down like in the base once. Not at all.

Instead, he was really interested in Tails' research on it. Heck, he was practically following his every move and word. As if he needed to memorize all of it, and while Tails had really enjoyed the attention he was getting at first, as the day went and it didn't change it was beginning to appear odd to him. Sonic had never before, even if Tails could tell he tried on various occasions and he appreciated that, Sonic had never before been able to keep his attention on one thing, a scientific thing no less. Normally the blue hedgehog's attention span managed to watch and help Tails work on something for an hour, two if he really meant to show him how much he liked him, but that was it. Tails didn't blame him. Science was his game, not Sonic's, and that was okay.

But today… Today Sonic was more interested than Tails himself sometimes. And he'd used words and formulations the fox would have never imagined the hedgehog even knew, let alone considered using.

Tails frowned, watching his friend still studying the floaty ball, when he noticed yet another weird thing. It was almost evening by now and Sonic had not eaten a thing. Okay, he'd said he'd had breakfast, but that was hours ago. Even Tails was hungry now, and with Sonic it happened less often that he wasn't hungry than the other way around. Sonic was always hungry. Always.

Knuckles often made comments on it, but Tails understood perfectly why it was like that. Sonic's metabolism worked a lot faster than that of most other people. Sonic as a whole worked faster than anyone else, spare Shadow maybe, but he was an artificially created life form and in many aspects not like a normal Mobian. Tails thought it made sense that due to the way his body burned energy so quickly, and considering how much calories just a few minutes of super sonic running had to use up, the hedgehog could put away more than three other people together. Feeding Sonic was always like feeding a famine victim…

And that was partly why Tails was worried. Sonic didn't look hungry. It was another thing that was totally unlike his friend.

Now that he thought about it, there were a lot of things about Sonic that were odd. Little things. The weird words he used. That he didn't hop around. That he hadn't been out for a run the whole day. That he didn't constantly have a snack in reach. That he hadn't hugged him or patted his head or something like that the whole day. He had not even called him his little bro. Not once.

Tails gulped down what remained of the cookie. Not once. Sonic just wasn't acting like Sonic. At all. A cold shudder ran down his back, making his fur prickle. There had been this person looking like Sonic. GUN's cameras had recorded him, and Knuckles had seen him. He'd stolen the Master Emerald, so most likely they had been in his base the other day. What if… He shuddered. What if they'd taken the wrong Sonic back home? What if the real Sonic was still in this underwater base? What if he'd gotten lost, or scared of all the water, or if he was hurt?

Chewing his lip, Tails looked over to the blue hedgehog again. He had to find out if he had the real Sonic with him… and if he did, what had happened to him to act so weird.

Slowly he stood from the sofa he sat on and got upstairs, trying to look unsuspicious. Thankfully Sonic didn't seem to care he went to the flat, maybe he thought he was just going to the bathroom.

But Tails was headed for Sonic's room. He stopped in front of it, listening if Sonic was still downstairs, then he silently opened the door and slipped inside.

The first thing he noticed was the mess in the room. He grinned, almost thankful to find something normal. It'd be shocking if Sonic tidied up his room…

Cautiously Tails navigated through the chaos of dirty clothing, jewel cases and other random items on the floor until he stood in the middle of it. He turned around slowly. On first sight, he could find nothing proving his bad feelings. Then he beheld the cupboard and let out a gasp.

On one of the photos Sonic had taped to the doors, the middle that should show the blue hedgehog's happy grin in between Knuckles and Tails was nothing but a pitch black burn.


Back at the top of the Emerald altar the cool autumn winds were almost as cold as up in the mountains. Knuckles brushed a dreadlocked spine out of his face, violet eyes warily fixed on the Master Emerald. Two days had passed since he'd restored it to here by now. Two days of peace for the powerful gem, and from all Knuckles knew two days should be enough for the energy to settle.

It had not, and it worried Knuckles. He didn't really understand. The Emerald had not been broken. Its energy had been used, for something. For a something that had never happened before in all the years Knuckles was its guardian. Something had been done to the jewel and the aftereffects were still fathomable in the mighty chaos field surrounding it. Whatever had happened went deeper than most abuses the Master had suffered before, and Knuckles' knowledge about it ended at 'something'. How was he to fix it if he knew so little about it?

The guardian sighed, reaching out a hand to touch the glazing surface of the green gemstone. Even through the fabric of his glove, he could feel the energy. Being near the Master always made him feel it strongly, but touching it… It was like fire. When you came near to it, you could feel the heat. And when you touched it…

Knuckles rarely ever felt like the Emerald's glow was burning him. No, it was much gentler. It did not aim to hurt him. He knew it could. The power it held within would be easily enough to vaporize him. But it never did. Unlike some people he knew, Knuckles had never been scared of the Emeralds, Chaos and Master alike. No, scared wasn't the word, but he met them with due respect.

He slowly traced his thumb over the polished crystal, his palm not moving from where it rested flat against the Emerald's surface. Since he'd brought it back to the temple… He'd never been so close to burn himself on it. Knuckles looked at his hand. It didn't, in the most obvious sense, hurt him. It wasn't pain. It was like just the level of heat when you moved your hand close to a flame and held it right at the spot before you reached the level where it would begin to burn you. And Knuckles stood, feeling the Master's glow just not burn his hand, a pricking, almost painful sting. Something was so very off, but he couldn't place it.

The echidna's gaze bore into the Emerald's shine, straining to look past the glazing facets. Straining to look into it. Sometimes you could. Sometimes it would show something. If it wanted to, maybe. If it could, or both, or neither of them. The Emerald's moods were complex. Knuckles stared into the light, unblinking. Talk to me. Please. A silent prayer.

But all he saw was light. Green and bright and pulsing in an almost unnoticeable frequency that was just a bit too much off from what was usual. But that was all he saw in it.

Knuckles let out a breath he didn't know he'd held and withdrew his hand, turning around and taking a step away.

It was then that he heard it, a whisper floating with the autumn breeze.

Guardian

Knuckles' head whirled around, but the Emerald stood as before, slowly, magically turning on its pedestal, and no other creature but him was around.

Guardian, the whisper came again, soft and its direction unfathomable.

Deciding his eyes were useless at the moment, Knuckles closed them, focusing on his hearing. Near the Master Emerald, the task was harder than it should be, the hum of the gem's energy field almost deafening, echoing in his skull.

Guardian…

Finally tracking the whisper again, he started walking towards it without much of thought about it.

He could feel a presence, something or someone that wasn't supposed to be… here. And then, another presence, far away, but the short moment of thought spent on it was enough to tell Knuckles it meant harm to the Master. Had already done harm to it?

The echidna took another step, trying to get closer and get a grip on whatever it was he was shown here, but when he was to set his foot down again, there ground was gone and he almost fell. Wildly rowing his arms, Knuckles fell backwards and dropped hard onto his tail. He stared wide-eyed at what was before him. Or maybe rather at what was not.

The temple was gone. He sat right at the island's edge, just where his feet still were the ground ended in a sharp cliff. Behind it came nothing but a very long drop. The white cotton of clouds flowed a hundred meters below, the wispy sea Angel Island was floating in.

Knuckles turned his head. Behind him, there was no Master Emerald. Just a deep green meadow, the long grass blades brushing along his legs in the wind, and a couple hundred meters inland the first treeline of a forest shone in the colorful dress of autumn. Still gasping, the echidna just sat and stared at his surroundings. He was a good twenty minutes walk from the temple at minimum.

It happened again, he thought worriedly. I have to stop zoning out like that if I don't want to kill myself…

He didn't quite feel like standing up right now, unsure if his legs would carry him, and for another few minutes just sat and blankly stared at the sea of clouds below the edge, at the twirls and vortexes and fluffed-out hills.

Slowly he lifted his hand and looked at his palm. It still tingled with the Emerald's burn.


It came without warning. One second Sonic was walking through the same, dark tunnel, eyes fixed on the barely visible outline the wall to his left made against the floor, the next this wall didn't exist anymore. The blue hedgehog felt something cold and damp against his skin.

"What's that?", he wondered and his words sounded even louder than before now. He squinted up, but the light was gone, and with the tiny optical reference he'd had before taken away, it felt as if the entire world had suddenly vanished. Now even the world is lost!

Sonic shook himself and slammed on all mental brakes. The world couldn't just get lost. No, it couldn't. I'm not falling, I'm still standing on something, so the floor's still there, he reasoned with himself. I just don't see it anymore.

Why don't I see it anymore?

The hedgehog took a slow, deep breath to calm himself and be able to think clearly again. He tensed, held his breath for a few moments. There was something… He exhaled again, then took another breath, slowly, trying to really consciously feel for it and make out what was bothering him. The air was cold, a lot colder than it had been before, and it felt heavy and wet when he breathed it. It was weird and unexpected, but somehow he knew the feeling.

Sonic forced himself to keep breathing slowly and suddenly he had it. That's… fog? He felt for his fur. It was cool to the touch and seemed damp as his hand brushed over it and smoothed it down against his body.

Fog. I'm in a strange, dark, foggy labyrinth…

He shook his head. "Okay," he said aloud, just to hear a voice. The fog seemed to amplify the word tenfold, so loud did it sound to his ears and the two triangles flattened against his scalp. Sonic shivered a little, unsure if it was the cold seeping into his body or if the general uneasiness he felt caused the soft tremble.
"Okay," he said again. "Then now there's fog, too, and I can't see a thing anymore. But I'm still here, and the floor's still here, and probably the walls are still here, too. So, everything's just like it was, huh?"

Was it? Even more carefully now, Sonic inched to the left, one arm held out before him. After a few steps his fingers met the smooth surface of the wall next to him and for a couple of seconds the hedgehog gave in to the impulse of leaning against it. Something about the cool, hard feeling it gave was ridiculously reassuring.

Sonic took his time to get his bearings and slowly he got used to the total blackness around. Maybe the fog was temporary and would lift after a while. Or it was only here and if he went on he'd get out of it. The idea seemed more promising than waiting things out. After all, did it matter so much he couldn't see anything anymore? He'd not really seen a lot before, either. He'd been here for what were probably hours and he'd not encountered anything dangerous. Maybe this place was harmless. Yeah, just a weird, dark, harmless labyrinth. He'd probably find it funny in an amusement park.

The hedgehog smiled a little at the thought. It wasn't really different from an amusement park ride, was it? He just had to go on along the wall like before and he'd be out of here. "Yeah, it's easy." He nodded to himself, laying his left palm onto the wall and starting to walk alongside it.

At first, he tested the ground before him with his foot carefully before he stepped onto it. He also considered holding a hand out before him in case a wall came up in his way, but after a while of walking like that his shoulder began to cramp and his dropped his arm to his side. He wasn't actually fast enough to hurt himself when he ran into something, right?

Another few minutes later he stopped testing the floor in front of him. He'd never been in a totally dark, silent place like this before and it was starting to really take effect on his mind, knocking him into a strange, trance-like state.

Time didn't exist anymore and space was on a good way to follow it into oblivion. The only things that kept Sonic somewhat rooted were the touch of the wall on his left hand and the ground he walked on. But he couldn't see it, and he couldn't hear anything but the sounds he made himself. At some point, he didn't hear his breathing anymore and had forgotten that it was even there.

His mind was getting starved for impressions to process and his imagination was starting to go wild. He suddenly saw things again. The wall next to him, the occasional ancient hieroglyphics on it, like the stuff he'd seen on Knuckles' island or other ancient buildings he'd been in. Then he imagined he was in one of Eggman's bases, walking through an endless stretch of bizarre machinery for even more bizarre purposes. Every now and then he snapped himself out of it, reminding himself there was nothing there to see.

But his brain wanted to see, and so Sonic started imagining nicer things. He tried to think of what the dark place he was walking through would look like if he could see it. He imagined large stalactite caves, jungles with a lots of colorful plants and little animals. He could picture the butterflies fluttering gently in the sunlight before him so vividly for a second he was sure he could really feel the warmth of sun if he stretched out a hand for it. Then he realized what he was doing and shook his head.

When a sound came out of the darkness behind him Sonic immediately froze in shock. It was so long since he'd heard anything at all… His ears turned around, perked in listening, but the noise didn't come again and the hedgehog told himself he'd been hearing things.

He returned to walking again, but he'd taken just a few steps when the sound came again, louder this time, closer. A high-pitched, whining howl that crept up through the black fog towards him. Like a jet engine on overspin. Or some sort of tortured, otherworldly animal.

Sonic shuddered, turning his head towards the sound no matter there was nothing to see at all. "Is someone there?"

No answer came. Instead, for a long-drawn moment silence lingered on around him, then the howl came again and it sounded like it came right from next to him.

Sonic gasped. He didn't want to, it felt stupid and it gave away his position easily to whoever was there, but he couldn't help himself. The dampness of the fog around seemed to have gotten even colder and something leashed onto his ankles. Something cold.

Had the cold, silent darkness seemed alive to him before, now he was sure it was. It was very alive and it had grabbed him.

Common sense and reason got lost to Sonic. All of a sudden he was running full tilt ahead. The danger of running into the darkness ahead of him had become unreal to him. The danger that lurked in the darkness behind him was much more fearsome.

He could hear the howl and sometimes something like footsteps behind him as he dashed into the unknown, blind and deaf and helpless. Running was a natural resort and came on instinct. He didn't think of the walls anymore, or the labyrinth, or his strategy to get out of it. The subtle fear of the unknown in the darkness that had been present for the past hours already had needed just an instant to become the fear of whatever might be hiding in the blackness around.

Sonic no longer cared about what 'out of here' might look like. He wanted away, just away, out of this dark, cold place and the spooky noises. He had to

smack!

The hedgehog groaned when he collided with the cool, flat surface of a wall, but the pain became a distant impression within mere seconds. As he scrambled to his feet on the floor it was already forgotten and nothing kept him from running on.

It wasn't the last wall he hit. A few he grazed just by with an arm, a shoulder, a quill. Others he crashed into head-first, but he didn't think of stopping. Panic had gotten its icy claws on him and it was holding on tight.

Eventually even Sonic couldn't even run anymore and just collapsed on the floor, soaked through with fog and sweat and feeling utterly exhausted. He was starting to be aware of the pain again. It felt like he was hurt all over. Maybe he'd broken something. He couldn't even tell if he was bleeding. Too exhausted to move, he just lay and panted, and when his breathing finally calmed and his heart stopped trying to jump around in his ribcage, he just lay in silent darkness. He listened for any suspicious sounds, but everything was quiet and he couldn't see anything. Whatever had been there was gone now.

With a groan the hedgehog rolled to his side and balled up. For a while there was just the sound of his quills rattling against one another as he shivered, then sleep embraced him with merciful oblivion.


Speedy's note: I would not really call it an attempt at horror. But it was definitely something new to write with its mood and all...