Sonic raced through the city, avoiding the the myriad of fires, broken walls, and fleeing groups of people. The creature that had been released was causing havoc, and it was up to Sonic and his friends to stop it. Black eyes darted briefly to the side as an explosion sounded. The Chemical Plant Zone was a raging inferno, a large plume of smoke and fireball indicating where the latest explosion had occurred. Sonic slowed to a halt, confusion etched over his face. Was the Chemical Plant Zone always so close to the Metropolis Zone?

"Sonic!" Sonic spun around, identifying his adopted brother on the floor. Furry cheeks coated with tears and blue eyes wide with panic. "Sonic, help him!"

The young fox pointed a hand in the direction past Sonic who turned, following the outstretched finger. Before him was a gelatinous creature that seemed to glow with power. It loomed over a grey furred rabbit knelt on the floor. His ears drooped and his eyes shone with abject fear. He quivered as he met Sonic's eyes, mouth trembling as he spoke.

"Save me, Sonic."

The words came out but a whisper and yet Sonic could hear it crystal clear. His eyes darted up to the creature that seemed to grin with distorted features. It raised its right arm across it's chest. Sonic's feet immediately set to work. The familiarly fast footfall buzzed through the air. And yet he wasn't making any ground. The rabbit and the creature came no closer. His feet moved faster and still they remained the same distance. The city around they seemed to dissipate into black. The rabbit and creature became the dominating feature in the hedgehog's vision. They were the only feature. His sole focus point. His feet moved faster yet. The creature's hand made its descent. Sonic breaths laboured, trying to force himself to reach the pair. He watched as the hand grew closer to the rabbit. The rabbit looked up at him dazed.

"Why me?"

The creature's hand connected. The rabbit seemed to explode outwards in a red mist. Sonic screamed. Or at least he tried. No voice sounded. Then the creature leapt forward, enveloping him within.

Sonic kicked out of the bedsheets. Chest heaving and green eyes flickering around the room searching for the creature that had attacked him. It took a moment for his mind to register that he wasn't in the heart of a city. There, instead of brick walls, were his magnolia walls filled with posters from whatever bands had caught his fancy at time. The floor wasn't asphalt but his dark grey carpet. And there wasn't any of the litter that usually cluttered the city streets… okay, that's a lie, there was plenty of litter, but it was all Sonic's own. Comic books lay haphazardly wherever the hedgehog had deigned to leave them when he tired of their contents. His game console peeked out from under some socks. Old soda bottles stood almost neatly arranged in a ten pin bowling set up. It was very much his room, in his home.

Sonic sucked in deep breaths trying to calm his erratically beating heart and regain control over his trembling limbs. Slowly he could feel the tremors dissipate. His heart resumed its normal pace but still seemed to be beating too hard. He could feel and hear the blood as it moved through his system. He brought his knees upwards and rested his forehead on them closing his eyes.

Today had sucked. Even though he had defeated Eggman, his little… episode had marred the rest of the day. When he had appeared in front of the group of fighters he had been presented with an exceptionally grumpy echidna. Knuckles had regained consciousness quickly and took no time in telling the blue hedgehog how much of an irresponsible jerk he was. Turns out that one of the arms that Sonic had detached in the latter stages of the battle had nearly fallen onto the echidna. When the rest of the machine had self-destructed, Knuckles was still trying to clamber over the top of the massive appendage and though he had been mostly shielded from the blast, the arm had moved over and rendered him unconscious. He had a huge gash across his head that had been bandaged and he held his arm close to his chest. But that didn't stop him from trying to rip the hedgehog's quills from his head. Rouge had held him back which showed how much he was actually hurting as in his top form, there wasn't a single soul that could hold the red menace. Possibly with the exception of Shadow.

Sonic had taken the verbal lashing from Knuckles outwardly almost lightheartedly, joking that if Knuckles had been lighter on his feet he would have dodged the arm easily (obviously causing the tirade from the echidna to raise another level, flailing hand trying to grab the speedster in vain). That had been a fairly normal interaction between them, though it belied the almost serious consequence of Sonic's actions. Sonic had felt horrified that he had been the direct cause for Knuckles's injuries but didn't want it to show. As Rouge, had managed to deflect the echidna's attention from the hedgehog, Sonic had felt his mask slip for just a moment. His internal troubles had laid themselves bare for not even half a second but as he glanced up and saw Tails and Amy looking at him with… pity… he knew they had both seen. Instantly, he had adopted a kilowatt smile and loudly proclaimed they had won the day and should be getting home. Tails had made to move towards him but he manoeuvred himself into the throng of Chaotix and remainder of Team Dark placing people between him and the kit. He had briefly told Rouge that Shadow had already left, receiving a shrug from the bat whose attention was fully on the echidna, before shouting to Tails that he would meet him at home and, once again, dashing off.

As he reached their home in Green Hill, he had immediately taken himself up to his room and thrown himself on the bed. It was barely an hour later that he had heard the engine of the Tornado as it came into land and his brother enter the home. He had pulled the cover over him and pretended that he didn't hear the soft knock against the door, nor the call of his name. His ears had flickered as he heard the retreating footsteps and Tails talking to someone, probably Amy. He hadn't caught their conversation but it was clear from the whispered tone it had been about him. Sonic had then forced himself to fall asleep, which had resulted in that nightmare.

Sonic sighed, rubbing his head with his hand as he lifted it from his knees. Yeah, today had sucked royally. Glancing towards his bedside table he tried to make out the time but the sweet wrapper strewn across it only revealed the minutes output. Huffing, he swept his hand over the sweet wrapper knocking it to the floor and making a mental note to pick it up later. 03:18. He groaned knowing that any chance he had of getting back to sleep were slim to none. He laid down, head barely making contact with the pillow before he sprang up again. He swung his legs off the bed and stood, making a brief bending motion to grab a, somewhat, clean pair of socks and his shoes. If he wasn't going to sleep he may as well run. He padded lightly to the door and opened it, wincing at the creak of the hinge. To the right, was Tails's room. He strained his ears, trying to make out any movement from within but he couldn't make out a sound. He tiptoed past and made his way to the kitchen. Lifting and placing a chair down so it wouldn't't scrape across the floor he sat and began pulling on his footwear.

He stretched upwards as he walked towards the outer door. Just as he placed his hand on the handle, he realised how dry his mouth was. Remembering that the last time he had had anything to drink was this morning, he swivelled back towards the sink. Tails had obviously tidied up as there weren't any of the glasses that Sonic had used earlier out so he pulled a fresh one from the shelf and ran some water into it. He downed the first glass, feeling the cool liquid ease its way down his throat. As he reached for the tap again, his hand froze as a soft voice sounded.

"Sonic?" Tails stood in the kitchen doorway blearily rubbing his eyes.

Sonic turned smiling softly. "Hey, lil bro. I'm sorry, did I wake you?"

Tails shook his head. "Not exactly." He raised his wrist to reveal a watch that seemed to be glowing red and vibrating lightly. "Intruder alarm picked up movement in here."

Sonic sighed internally. Of course. He had long since forgotten about the fox's installation. He'd done it after Eggman's bots had stolen some of his work a few months ago but both Sonic and he had agreed that making the alarm silent gave them more opportunities to catch the culprit in the act. And now it had seemingly caught Sonic.

"Sorry, bro. I completely forgot about it."

Tails shook his head. "S'okay. But why are you up?"

Blue shoulders shrugged. "Couldn't sleep so I was just going out for a run."

Tails tilted his head as he appraised his brother. Sonic knew that look. It was the same when the kid genius had found a machine he was trying to figure out. Subconsciously, Sonic adopted a defiant stance, chin tilted upward, legs apart in his known impatient pose. He became aware of this as the fox's eyes swept over him. He cursed inwardly.

"Sonic, about earlier…"

Sonic spun on his heel. "It's fine. Knucks gives me a tongue lashing all the time."

"I'm not talking about that. When you ran off…"

"I just needed a bit of space that's all. I'm fine."

"You haven't looked like that since Jo…"

"I SAID I'M FINE!"

The sudden outburst plunged the already quiet night into bleak silence. Tails's eyes had widened ever so slightly, gaze fixated on his long time hero and adopted brother. Sonic's spines had subtly raised as if expecting an attack…or about to. Tails knew that defence mechanism well. Hadn't he seen it whenever the blue hog went into battle. Is that how he felt now?

Tails dropped his head and spread his arms slightly. Using the animal kingdom's natural means of communication to take hold sending a submissive subliminal message. Not a threat. No harm meant.

It worked.

Sonic's mouth dropped slightly and he ran his hands through his quills trying to quell the instinct that caused them to raise. He took a deep breath and released it slowly. He walked across to the fox and placed both hands on his shoulders and gently pulled him into a small hug.

"I'm sorry. It's… been a long day." Tails nodded against his chest but didn't say anything. Sonic pulled away and knelt slightly to bring them eye to eye. "You get yourself back to bed. We'll talk in the morning."

Tails eyes flickered up to meet Sonic's. "Will we?"

Sonic could feel the weight behind that question. He knew Tails had every intention of 'talking' about things he would rather let lie. He might be able to delay for a while but Tails had picked up aspects of his own stubbornness. He closed his eyes long and slow patting the fox on the shoulder. "We'll see. Right now you need to sleep and I need to run, okay?"

Tails didn't get a chance to nod his affirmation before Sonic had turned his back on him taken the few steps to the kitchen door and then disappeared like a flash. Tails couldn't help but feel a chill in the now empty kitchen. He looked out into the night plaintively. It was obvious that Sonic was struggling with something, and Tails, who had been part of his closest friends for what seemed like forever, was pretty sure he knew what it was. And it was definitely something that even the fastest creature alive could never outrun.

xxxx

Knuckles hissed as he settled himself down on the stair. He laid his head back against the pillar, enjoying the cool feel against his spines looking up at the stars. Though several of his friends had wanted to take him to a hospital, he had a duty to do. He glanced over his shoulder at the Master Emerald, feeling its warm waves of energy. Over the last few days into the run up to Eggman's appearance, the Emerald's energy had become increasingly agitated. Knuckles had tried to communicate with the Spirit of the Emerald, that took the form of his ancestor, Tikal, but it hadn't responded to any of his attempts. He had finally descended from the Island to find out what was going on and a brief foray to Chaotix revealed that Eggman had been gathering the Chaos Emeralds and was on the move. Having suspected that the unsettled vibe the Master had given off was to do with this he had acted. And of course, gotten injured in the process. But at least the Master Emerald seemed to have settled again, now that its servants were safe and spread out. For the most part.

"Come out. I know you're there." He sighed into the darkness.

There was a moment of stillness before Rouge stepped out of the gloom. "How did you…?"

"If you want to sneak up on someone who can sense the flow of Chaos energy then you shouldn't bring a Chaos Emerald with you."

Rouge pouted pulling out her purple gemstone. "But I could hardly leave this where it could get stolen again. Besides, I had to bring something in trade for something much bigger." Rouge's eyes flickered towards the Master Emerald behind him. Knuckles shifted, growling lowly making Rouge hold up her empty hand in surrender. "I'm kidding. Jeez, you really do have a stiffy for that gem."

"Hardly a funny joke, bat. Why are you here?"

Rouge tucked her gem away. "I thought that would be obvious. I wanted to make sure you are okay."

Knuckles scoffed. "Sure. I'm just fine. Fully capable of defending my charge as you can see." He waved his hands over himself and hoped that she didn't notice the small grimace as he straightened his arm.

"Honestly, you're head is denser than that stupid thing. I just said I came here for you."

"Forgive me but when was the last time you came to this island without the intention of thievery?"

"When was the last time you almost died?!" The sharp retort caught Knuckles by surprise. Rouge had crossed her arms and blue eyes cast off to the side. The sassy, seductive creature that did whatever she needed to get exactly what she wanted somehow looked…vulnerable. This was a side to Rouge he had never seen before. " Look, I came to check you were okay and clearly you are so, I'll get lost."

Rouge turned on heel to take the path she arrived from.

"Wait…Ah!"Knuckles had stood sharply and felt pain radiate from what seemed like everywhere. He collapsed to one knee gasping. He dimly heard a flap of wings and felt a gloved hand settle on his back. Through the buzzing in his ears, he could make out Rouge's voice. It reminded him of earlier when he had been coming round to consciousness. Though he had heard many voices, hers had come across clearest and when he had opened his eyes she was the one leaning over him tending to his wounds. And now, here she was again. He felt her gently settle him back onto the step. He breathed in deeply. "Sorry. You're right I'm being stubborn."

"I said you were dense but that works too. Where do you hurt?"

"Everywhere."

"Don't think I brought enough bandages for a mummy gig."

Knuckles chuckled, immediately regretting it as his ribs shook. He gestured with his left hand across his ribs, head and right arm. "Here."

Rouge appraised him. "Omega said your ribs and arm weren't broken earlier. Can't do much for sore ribs but rest. I'll put your arm in a sling. I'll change your head bandage too." She worked quickly and efficiently in silence. Having placed his arm in the sling. She unwrapped his head, cleaning the gash he knew to be there, before tightly wrapping it again. His cheeks grew warm as he realised the proximity of her chest to his face while she worked. She finished kneeling back on her heels but not moving further. "Done. Anywhere else?"

"Not as bad. Thanks Rouge. You didn't have to come up here to do this."

"No. But I wanted to."

"Why?"

Blue and violet eyes met. Rouge's fur shone under the stars and the glow of the Master Emerald. She tucked a long bit of fur behind her ear before she leaned forward and pressed peach lips to a red cheek. "I have my reasons." She stood and strode away. "I'm going to camp near the big statue in the courtyard. That way you don't have to worry about my 'intentions of thievery'." She winked at him and disappeared into the broken bushes.

Knuckles felt his face burn. He touched his left hand to his cheek. "What the heck?"