Part 1

-

Sonic's body lay on a table in a cave with the only light coming from a section housing Knuckles, Tails, and Amy. Tails' artificial lights seemed to work pretty well, but Amy couldn't stand being outside the sunlight for so long. So, she kept on leaving the cave every so often for some sunshine and fresh air.

Tails looked over Sonic's checking for the start up code. There wasn't anything that seemed to fit. There were some codes that could start him up, but they often included scripts that would wipe Sonic's memory in a diagnostic and clean sweep. There were others that turned some parts of Sonic on, but only his eyes or his legs without starting up the main cord. Why there were such strange additions to his code was beyond Tails, they didn't seem necessary. He'd considered adjusting Sonic's code to make his operating systems more efficient, but he couldn't be certain that those wouldn't have unforeseen consequences. He didn't want to hurt Sonic in any way.

Knuckles lay on some old blankets watching Tails. He'd been trying to get rested since his injury, but the air in the cave kept giving his coughing fits and making it nearly impossible to sleep. Amy had taken him outside and watched over him a few times to see if that helped, but he seemed to be worse off in the sunlight. Eventually they'd agreed to leave him under the cave entrance to get some decent air, and good shade.

Tails scratched his head stepping back from a computer screen and pacing back and forth. "I don't get it Knuckles. For how efficient Sonic's systems are overall, his startup procedures seem way too unnecessarily complicated."

Knuckles shrugged. "I don't know a lick about machines, but I still say you should just open the hatch and take a look. Maybe there's an on switch or something."

Tails shook his head. "Even if it is that simple, I can't afford to open him up except as a last resort. There's no telling what would happen to him if any of his circuits were left open to the environment, much less his organic organs. He could short circuit and tear through his hardware, or worse get infected with gangrene or something."

Knuckles shrugged. " All right, but I'm pretty experienced with diseases and keeping someone safe from them. I can deal with anything like that, so if you're not doing that option, make sure it's because of his robot parts. I can handle the natural stuff."

Tails nodded. "Yeah." He turned back to Sonic. "How do I figure this out though?" He took another look at his computer screen. "I keep looking over the code, and I'm definitely getting closer." He looked at a few lines. "I've at least figured out a pattern for the way he was programmed, but I don't know if I'll be able to wake him up before I have to risk popping the lid off."

"Is there any way to open him up safely? Some environment that would be safe?" Knuckles asked.

Tails shook his head. "Not that we could get to. I'd need an airtight seal and a way to ground any excess charges. Not to mention how dry of an environment needed, and I don't exactly have access to a dehumidifier."

"Hmmm." Knuckles pulled out his chaos emerald looking at it. Under his breath he whispered. "Well...maybe I could...no, not yet, not unless I have to." He put the emerald away, then looked back at Tails. He hesitated for a few moments before talking. "I might know a place that would be safe to open him up in."

Tails eyes went wide. "Really!? Where!?" He came over to Knuckles.

"Hang on. Before I tell you. You have to swear never to tell anyone of this location. If anyone with evil intent found out where it is, the entire world would be in danger. And you have to keep a blind fold on while going there. You also have to make sure Sonic is blind until after we've gotten far away from that place."

Tails raised an eyebrow. "Whoa, that seems a little extreme. Though I suppose with those stakes I can see why. Should we even go to a place like?"

"I know you wouldn't abuse the power there, and as long as only I know the location, it shouldn't be a danger to anyone." Knuckles closed his eyes, leaning back. Then he looked back in Tails' eyes. "I just need your promise."

Tails nodded. "All right. I won't tell anyone. No matter what." Then he thought for a moment. "Wait, what about Amy?"

Knuckles laughed. He clutched his ribs as a sharp pain ran through them. "Aghh...please don't make me laugh." Tails backed up, a guilty look on his face. Knuckles tried to calm him down. "Hey, I'll be alright. Anyway, Amy already knows that place. Actually she's one of its 4 guardians, just like me. Who knows. In time, you might be the fifth.

-

Part 2

-

Amy sat on a natural rock bench, under the star light. Wind blew through the gray entrance of the cave. She shivered for a moment until the wind slowed down. Her breaths came out slowly as she tried counting the stars, but every time she tried she lost count by the time she managed to get more than a quarter through her viewing range. She'd always know that hallucinations were only as complex as a person's own knowledge, but this seemed beyond that. And a small spark of hope started forming in her, that maybe, just maybe, this wasn't a hallucination. Maybe it wasn't a dream, maybe she wasn't crazy, and maybe, just maybe, she was free.

She had her doubts. After all, why would Sonic rescue her? That made no sense at all. Not to mention Knuckles telling her not to kill people. Knuckles, the guy always going on about not valuing 1 life over hundreds, and claiming killing was sometimes necessary. He would never hesitate to kill someone if he had to, and it's not like he was a hypocrite who just told others not to kill. Yet he'd asked to avoid any deaths, and because Sonic had asked him to. If anything she'd Knuckles would do the opposite of what Sonic asked, just to spite him. Yet, now they were working together. That couldn't be real, could it? Then again, this was pretty stable for a dream, so maybe.

A sound pulled her from her thoughts. It sounded like a woosh of air, or tarps hitting against each other. Amy looked and listened around for the source of the sound, but it was already gone. A glint came from above and she dove out of the way as a knife stabbed the ground. She jumped back into the cave looking for whoever threw the knife. She slowly backed up, further and further into the cave. Dawn should be coming pretty soon, but the fight would be over by then. She needed to find another way to see. She knew the path back to Tails pretty well, but if this person could see in the dark they'd be led back to the others. Another glint caught her eye.

She weaved back and forth between knives and rocks. It wasn't hard to dodge, but she needed a way to fight back. That's when she noticed the sparks showing up when knives landed. As she kept dodging Amy grabbed a few knives and threw them back. A cry came from the cave and ran after it. She threw more knives whenever she could grab one and kept running, bobbing and weaving until she felt a wing tip brush against her.

She tackled whoever was attacking, taking hit after hit from the figure. The 2 fought blow for blow rolling on the ground.They wrestled and pulled in the darkness trying to get an upper hand. Amy felt pain growing all over her body as she felt her strength waning. She struggled, fighting to keep going and stay conscious.

Then, the blows stopped. The other figure stopped moving. Amy grabbed their neck and choked them out, making sure they stayed unconscious. Then, she let go. She leaned back trying to catch her breath. After a few minutes she was able to stand again. She found some cloth on the figure and tore off a bit, using it to tie the figure's hands and feet together. The wings didn't seem like they'd stay together. Then she started trudging back to Tails and the others, dragging the figure behind her.

-

Part 3

-

"Well. This complicates things." Knuckles glared at the white bat hanging from the ceiling of the cave. Her hands and feet were tied by ropes Knuckles had woven from Tails' tail hair. Tails wouldn't stop complaining about how long it would take to grow back, but understood that only his hair was long enough to work. And chaos creature hair was the only material strong enough to keep her from escaping.

"Do you think we can still go?" Tails looked at Knuckles with a worried expression.

Knuckles sighed. "We'll see. If worst comes to worst, we can probably just try making this place as clean as possible." He shrugged. "It is what it is. Not that we stand much chance against the rest of chaos containment. I'm actually surprised they haven't just sent GUN in to finish us off."

"Because we're not a big enough threat yet." Amy smirked. "As long as there's something worse out there to deal with, we're safe."

Tails raised an eyebrow. "You know something?" His bare tails swished back and forth at the thought.

Amy nodded. Her face grew grim, before a small smile formed. "Chaos escaped."

Knuckles looked at Amy, not seeming to register what she'd said for a few moments. "What?..." A cold sweat ran down his back, and the color in his face turned pale. "No…" He shook his head. "Amy are you sure about that?"

"Yeah. When I was in that cell, I heard a few of the scientists say something about it between their experiments on me." She shuddered as the memory of needles drawing out her blood to the point of lost consciousness, electricity running through her body to move her limbs in ways her captors wanted.

"Do you remember exactly what they said?" Knuckles asked.

"No...I remember something about Tikal, Silver, and Shadow." She thought for a moment. "I'm not sure they know just how dangerous Chaos is, but they definitely had an idea." A wild manic smile formed on her face, like a drunkard ready to start a fight. She started laughing.

Knuckles noticed, his face turning to concern. "Amy. How can you laugh about the end of the world?"

Amy calmed down to a bitter smile. "I know it's selfish, but I know this situation's too bad for it to be fake." A calm satisfaction ran through her. "I'm just glad to know this is real, that I really am out of that hell hole."

Knuckles felt the wind knocked out of him. "Amy…" A pained expression crossed his face.

She rolled her shoulders, trying to reduce the pain from her fight. "Thanks for getting me out of there."

"You shouldn't have gotten captured in the first place." He hung his head in shame. "I should've-"

"It was my decision." Amy gave him a solemn look, then smiled. "But I'm out of there now right?"

The way Amy said it, a question, unnerved Knuckles a little. Tails shifted on his feet uncomfortably, and Knuckles spoke. "Physically yes. Mentally, I'm not so sure yet."