Then... 10 Months after The Union.

The sky was overcast and gloomy, the foul wind was blowing strongly, while throughout the valley the echo of the battle in the courtyard could be heard, each blow delivered with forcefulness and without restraint. All around the courtyard were scattered impact holes, as if created by miniature meteors, though the flower garden remained untouched, as both combatants had agreed in a silent pact.

The pink hedgehog and the red echidna fought as if their lives depended on it, as if with each blow they were looking to knock out their opponent for good, as Knuckles had demanded that the fights should be like that. Over time the fights became not only more aggressive, but also more technical. Punches were not thrown in the hope that "something" would happen, they were punches with a purpose. A left blow to reduce the defense, a right one to the head to disorient, a kick to the knees to unbalance, a final punch to the nose to conclude. It would have been an effective attack on Amy's part had it not been for the extraordinary resistance of the echidna, who remained unmoved.

"Excellent," Knuckles exclaimed behind his guard. "But not perfect."

Amy gritted her teeth and proceeded to repeat the last blow a couple more times with greater force each, but the echidna was only getting firmer.

"Nah, you already blew it," said the Knuckles before deflecting Amy's last punch and counterattacking with a left blow to the ribs that resonated in a terrifying way.

The pink hedgehog twisted and recoiled, standing still for a moment, still affected by the blow. Knuckles frowned and advanced to conclude with a direct attack to the face. To his surprise, the blow was swiftly dodged by the hedgehog, who caught the equine's arm and, using leverage, lifted it into the air to smash it against the ground. The impact sent the surrounding dirt flying. Amy placed a knee on the echidna's chest and held her right fist ready to continue attacking. But her whole body relaxed when she heard Knuckles' laughter.

"Ha! Ok ok, I wasn't expecting that one. Very good, very good," said the echidna with a chuckle.

"Did you think I wasn't going to be able to lift you?" the hedgehog also replied with a smile.

"Yeah, for a moment there I forgot you're used to carry a stupidly big hammer. You know what? I want a rematch, this one doesn't count."

"No way! We agreed that if I beat you, we'd be done for the day. We've been fighting for 4 hours already, I need to take a bath!", claimed the hedgehog while getting up from knuckles.

"Alright alright, what a crybaby you are," replied the echidna as he rejoined. "Go, but tomorrow will be at least 8 hours."

"What a pain in the ass you are," Amy shook the dirt off her as she headed for the house. "You should also take a bath, You stink like a loser!" she said before sticking her tongue out at the echidna.

"Do you even have enough water?" replied Knux as he lay down under the orange tree. "Or did you spend it all on your flowers?".

"Don't you dare talk bad about my flowers!", Amy replied from inside the house.

Knuckles took a look at the flower garden. It was quite varied for its modest size, ranging from roses, gardenias, chrysanthemums and daffodils, to flowers that could only be found on Angel Island that Knuckles himself remembered giving to the hedgehog as a last minute gift when he forgot her birthday. Knuckles would never admit it, but the sight of those flowers was both comforting and heartbreaking. In his heart he could still remember the feeling he had when he rested in the shade of the trees of that island among the clouds, the way he could hear the singing of the flickies and the Chao when they played, the way the cool morning breeze caressed his quills, the calmness that overwhelmed him. The memory of his lost home still hurt, but it was more of a nostalgic pain than a living one, a pain that reminded him that there were good times, and that modest garden kept that memory present.

Many of the flowers Amy had were not at their best, especially the more delicate ones, but for how hostile the world had become, it was a miracle that they still survived. The green blanket of the mountain range beyond the house had disappeared, leaving the mountain like a gray, barren rock. Even with the cloudy sky, the atmosphere was still arid, the air was sometimes painful to breathe because of how parched it was. Even Knuckles himself, accustomed to environments like Sandopolis or Lava Reef on Angel Island, admitted that in the afternoon, when the sun was even more inclement, it was impossible to train, so he allowed Amy to take care of the flowers so that they would not faint.

Amy's dedication to flower care bordered on obsessive in the echidna's eyes. Beyond the absurd waste of water, the strangest thing Knuckles had seen the hedgehog do were those little rituals: talking to the plants while she pruned and watered them or the mourning she adopted when a flower lost the battle. The strangest of those rituals, however, was the one she reserved for that curious Indigo Orchid that stood in the very center of the garden. After Amy finished tending to the other flowers, and after giving the orchid a delicate bath, the hedgehog would place her hands on either side of the flower and then do the worst possible imitation of Silver, concentrating with all her might as if she wanted to lift the flower with her mind, telepathically transmit something to it, or summon something around it. She would not stop doing this until she was mentally exhausted, and always returned to the house with a look of defeat, apparently she was making a futile effort.

That flower was totally unknown to Knuckles, and Amy never told him where she had gotten it from, but surely, the echidna deduced, it came from someone very special to her. From Sonic, perhaps? It was not customary for the speeding hedgehog to make such details, but it was not unreasonable. Besides, there was no other alternative, Amy took care of that flower with devotion, which was the reason why it was the best looking flower in the whole garden. While the other flowers received one watering a day at most, Amy had an alarm that sounded three times a day to tell her to water the orchid.

And that was the problem. As much as Knuckles loved the sight of flowers, these were not times to be gardening, but survival. The beauty of the flowers did not compensate for the loss of precious water.

"You yourself say that we are not here to spend anything, and I have already told you to stop making such elaborate food and not to use so much water for the flowers, that you end up wasting a lot of resources," exclaimed the Echidna as he rested with his eyes closed.

"Cooking and gardening are the only things that keep me sane, Knux. And I do with them what I...".

The hedgehog suddenly fell silent. After a few seconds passed in silence, the echidna began to worry.

"Did something happen...?" asked Knuckles as he prepared to get up.

Suddenly Amy ran out of the house with only a towel covering her body and a worried expression on her face.

"Wow wow wow wow!" the echidna was doing his best to look away in embarrassment. "What the heck are you-!"

"There's no water...," replied the Hedgehog as she moved to one of the sides of the house.

The news caught the equine's attention, who immediately took on a more serious expression and followed the hedgehog.

They both went to the small shed on the right side of the house, where Amy usually kept gardening tools and other things. Amy went to the back of the shed and knelt down near a small metal grate. She struggled a little to open the grate and reveal the beginning of her house's complex whitewater mechanism. She asked Knuckles to hand her a flashlight they had nearby and with it she illuminated the water meter, which was red.

"Impossible," Amy mused, "My water tank is filled by a nearby spring. It can't be that the spring has dried up."

"The way things are going, it's not that impossible," Knuckles replied.

"By Gaia...," Amy ran her hands through the quills in her hair, nervously. "What are we going to do? already even the sea dried up!".

"Hey, calm down," the echidna wanted to reassure her. "There must be more springs nearby to draw water from. I can go check and-"

The sound of the watering alarm interrupted the echidna, immediately Amy got up and ran out of the shed. Knuckles followed until he found her standing in the middle of the yard, biting her nails as she turned her eyes between the house and her garden again and again, until she immediately went inside the house to come back out carrying one of the water jugs were used to drink. The pink hedgehog went next to the garden and knelt down in front of the Indigo Orchid and then poured almost the entire contents of the jug over the flower.

"Amy! What the hell are you doing!?" claimed the echidna behind her.

"I-I just... it needed water-", stammered the Hedgehog.

"So are we! We run out of water and the first thing you do is waste what little we have left on a simple flower?"

"It's not a waste and it's not a simple flower!" the hedgehog shouted back.

The echidna remained silent as Amy stirred the soil around the orchid nervously but always treating the flower gently. It was not unusual for knuckles to see the hedgehog doing this kind of "romantic" crazy things, but by law these were mostly directed at Sonic. What he was witnessing was more... unsettling. He didn't know if he should intervene or if it was just his lack of context that was leading him to assume the worst. The echidna merely let out a sigh of irritation.

"Yeah, whatever. Let's go out and see if we can find some more water. And for heaven's sake, go get dressed at once!".

Amy turned to look at the echidna in confusion, then looked down at herself, noticing that she was only wearing a towel, which made her blush with embarrassment and run back into the house. Knuckles stood by the garden, staring at the Indigo Orchid which was firm and radiant, as if the evils of the world had no effect on it at all.

Now...

The bartender had a very strict routine. Since there were no customers because at that time of day the desert heat was too hot for anyone to be outside, he would count the bottles of water and memorize their exact position on the shelf behind the bar. He then proceeded to clean the bottles, which he did often because the desert dust used to seep into the building. The cleaning was exhaustive, making sure that not even the smallest dust particle touched the nozzles of the bottles. The water of the customers was a precious good, almost sacred for the coyote, so much so that even after all his cleaning work, when he was tired and thirsty, he did not even pretend to look at the bottles for longer than necessary, all his thirst was quenched by drinking from a sad little plastic bottle that he did not even keep in the small refrigerator where the best water for the customers was kept, perhaps taking care not to confuse it and drink the forbidden water by mistake.

As twilight approached and the sun began to dim, customers, mostly residents of the same small town, would arrive at the bar. They were not many, but the coyote served them as if they were royalty and did everything in his power to convince them to buy as much water as they could. Of course, the coyote was selective, his main target were those who seemed to be carrying jewelry or precious metals. Those who carried money from pre-Union times, bills and the like, he would immediately turn them away. Knuckles was not surprised by this, there was no bank that gave value to such things anyway, only fools clung to such insignificant paper in this day and age. But that was not the most interesting thing, since apparently the Coyote did not seem to act out of personal interest, he never saw the jewels or metals with greed, it was always with a certain apathy and uneasiness.

On one occasion a mare and her two foals had arrived, they were visibly tired and thirsty, probably coming from outside the town and from far away. The coyote did not look at them with interest, since it was clear that they were carrying nothing of value, but the lady was desperate for water for her little ones, which is why she proposed to exchange the water for a bag full of apples that she had brought with her. She didn't care about the equity of value, she was willing to give up the whole bag for just a drink. When the lady revealed the apples it was the first time Knuckles saw the coyote look at something with desire. It was no wonder either, the poor coyote had only eaten a couple of crackers all day, maybe that was all he could afford to buy, since evidently the bar's profits were not for him. Even so, Coyote reluctantly refused the exchange, it was strictly forbidden for him to exchange the sacred water for anything other than jewels, gold or silver, no matter how much it weighed on his soul.

In the middle of the whole event, Sticks gave a quick glance at Knuckles. Her intention was obvious, she couldn't just stand by and watch all that. Knuckles looked back at her, without changing his expression. For a few seconds he wanted to play it cool, they couldn't afford to waste the few riches they had accumulated in their travels, as these could be useful to trade for other goods or information. But his honor won out over his reason (or pride) and, after giving a snort of exasperation, he passed Sticks under the table the bag in which they kept the small treasures they brought. Sticks winked at him before getting up and approaching the bar. In an effusive and friendly manner she intruded into the conversation and proposed to pay for the water for the mare and her children. The coyote was puzzled and very nervous, to which Sticks also winked at him to go along with the plan. The coyote let out a sigh and accepted the deal, serving the little family the best water he had. When Sticks finished paying and was about to leave, the mare held her back asking how she could repay her for such an act of mercy. Sticks gave a half smile and said that half the apples in the bag would suffice, to which the mare cheerfully agreed.

When Sticks sat back down at the table, with the bag of treasures a little smaller and carrying another bag with the apples she had been handed, Knuckles voiced:

"Last time".

"Yeah Yeah Yeah," Sticks replied making light of the echidna's threat.

Knuckles then stared at the little family enjoying the water as they ate some of the apples they had left, which softened his perpetually angry expression a bit. He then gave a glance at the hungry Coyote, crestfallen trying not to look at the family eating.

"Anyway," the echidna was saying as he grabbed one of the apples from the bag. "In this day and age, food is more important than treasure," he concluded as he tossed an apple to the other end of the bar to be caught by the Bartender.

The young coyote was at first puzzled, but when the echidna nodded in his direction, he knew he could eat of the fruit, which he did with the utmost satisfaction.

"Softie," the Badger whispered to the echidna.

"Shut up."

When night fell and the sky was adorned with stars, the young coyote began his closing routine, putting away the water bottles, wiping the dust again, among other things, always keeping an eye on the clock that hung on the highest part behind the bar. When he had everything ready, he nervously approached the table where Knuckles and Sticks were.

"I-it's almost time," he told them, dodging their gaze.

Both visitors did nothing more than get up and follow Coyote into the kitchen, where they were instructed to sit on the floor while he brought a rope to tie them up so it would appear that they had indeed been captured.

"Do you think that's a good idea?" the badger questioned the Echidna. "Isn't it better to knock the guys out when they arrive?".

"We have no idea where they are taking shelter, which is our real objective. Besides, no rope can stop me".

While they waited, Sticks checked his camera and Knuckles rested with his eyes closed. For a brief moment that the echidna opened his eyes, he could notice at the other end of the kitchen a reddish flower inside a pot. Its appearance was familiar to him, he remembered that Amy had once told him about it: "Desert Rose", quite resilient to extreme heat, but still not exempt from care. It had been several years since Knuckles had seen a flower, in all the places they had visited the vegetation had completely withered, neither forests nor gardens, an eternal desert wherever they went. That flower, however, remained imperturbable, as if the evils of the world did not affect it at all.

When the coyote entered the kitchen again, he was carrying the rope in one hand and the water bottle in the other. The coyote licked his lips as those who crave water with all their might do. One bottle for a whole day was not ideal, even in the hottest moments of the afternoon, the coyote tried not to take more than a couple of gulps so as not to run out of the precious liquid. However, when he passed in front of the flower he stopped, for a second he looked doubtful, but immediately he poured all that was left in the water bottle delicately over the flower, taking care that it was well watered. Only a couple of drops remained in the bottle, which were the ones that Coyote drank.

The impression knuckles had made his whole body tense up, a melancholy air settled over his gaze.

"Is something wrong?" asked Sticks as she caught the change in Echidna's attitude, but Knuckles did not respond.

The Coyote proceeded to tie Knuckles and Sticks as best he could. At first he planned to tie a knot that would be easy to break, but Knuckles insisted that he tie real knots to make it more convincing, also proposing that he place duffel bags over their heads, overruling Sticks' protests. When all was ready, the echidna, unable to see anything but luminous dots from between the fibers of the duffel bag, could only rely on his highly trained hearing, and by the sound of footsteps and the door closing he knew that Coyote had already left.

"This is the best idea you've had in years, Knux," Sticks exclaimed without hiding the sarcasm in her words.

"Shut your mouth and act like you're asleep, I hear something coming..."

A murmur, a faint rumbling that could be heard in the distance and that grew louder as the seconds passed, to the point of becoming a furious and continuous roar. It was a machine, Knuckles knew when it got close enough, it sounded just like the machines Eggman used to disturb the peace of Angle Island several years ago. When the metal beast stopped sounding, the Echidna could hear footsteps in the sand, some were fast, light and irregular, others were heavy and slow, it was definitely them.

After the sound of the bar door swinging open, someone could be heard shouting:

"Very Good Evening, my little desert doggie! How's the business doing? Do you have a fortune for us? A pirate treasure? The deeds to a piece of land that a recent widow gave you in exchange for a glass of water?," a shrill voice exclaimed with incomprehensible energy.

Bean..., Knuckles deduced to himself.

"I-I'm a Coyote, not a d-dog," the bartender replied nervously.

"Na-ah, you're a Canis Latrans, from the Canidae family, you're practically the cousin of the brother of the brother-in-law of the friend of another of our pardners, who is a dog, so you're definitely a doggie. Fun fact! Did you know that all Canidae are digitigrade? That is, they walk on the tips of their-"

The other visitor let out a long snort.

Bark, the echidna deduced again.

"Yeah, that's right, back to business. Let's see, pardner, where is the sweet sweet shiny shiny?".

What was heard next was the clinking of the coins and jewelry the Coyote had accumulated over a week, all stored in duffel bags inside the vault at the back of the kitchen. At least two bags of considerable size, was what Knuckles deduced from the sound of them. The jingling went on as the visitors traced and checked the bags. When they finished Bean could be heard clicking his tongue with a tone of disappointment.

"It's less than we expected, little doggie. Ten percent less."

"N-no way! I know not that many people came this week BUT-!"

Bark interrupted with an imposing snort.

"My colleague is right, we don't give a half-eaten pickle jar whether more or less people came. You and the whole little town have quotas to meet."

"But I met my quota!"

"You met your quota from last week. There was an increase. The economy, you know how it is."

"How was I supposed to know I had to gather more!?"

"Don't you understand how capitalism works? Infinite growth, infinite profits, infinite debts! To the Moon! Law of nature, doggy."

Bark gave a short snort, as if to get his colleague's attention.

"Look at what we have here...", They could be heard scouring inside the garbage. "An apple? At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the country, localized entirely within your garbage?".

"...Yes?" the coyote replied doubtfully.

"... Can I have one?"

Bark let out another snort to get his partner's attention on track.

"True true true, we have plenty of food at the shelter (no apples though). Okey, do your thing, big guy."

Suddenly a loud crash echoed throughout the room, wood breaking, glass falling to the floor and shattering, liquid being poured, and amidst all the commotion was the Coyote's pleading whimper.

"Please, please, please don't kill me!" struggled the coyote, who sounded like he was being crushed.

"Relax, it'll just be a very small punishment so you don't misbehave next time. I'm sure you can still work with a broken arm, don't you think, Bark?".

"No! please! I didn't do anything wrong! I met the quota! I met the quota!".

"Didn't you pay attention to me, dog? You have 10% less than you should! And we saw where you spent it, didn't we? Buying little apples".

Knuckles was trembling with anger. He was about to break the ropes and make a mess, until he felt Sticks push him to get his attention.

"Patience, don't blow it," she whisper.

"Please! I didn't do anything wrong! I've spent nothing!" pleaded the Coyote. "The apple is...! The Echidna! I got it! I got the Red Echidna you're looking for! I got the Red Beast! I captured him for you!".

"Oh now you're taking us for fools? Make it an arm and a leg, Bark."

"I swear! I capture i!, it's...!", in the middle of his sentence, the Coyote burst into tears, but still with a broken voice, he continued: "It's in the kitchen... please... it's in the kitchen".

There was a dense silence that lingered for several seconds. Next, Bean's erratic footsteps were heard approaching the kitchen. After the door was heard opening and a brief silence, Bean was heard shouting:

"Holy flying echidnas, Bark! It was true! And two for one! Good job, doggie! Who's a good boy, who's a good doggie?".

Bark let out another snort, as if in doubt.

"I see them pretty dead. Hey doggy are they dead?".

"...no," replied the coyote almost in a whisper. "Sedated... they are asleep...".

"Oh, very clever! I like it when people use their heads for more than just hammering nails into the wall."

Bark responded with a reproachful snort.

"Ah, I'm the only one doing it? Strange, being something so useful... Anyway! you got yourself out of a big one, eh, doggie? With this the boss is sure to be quite happy and next week he'll charge you double this week's fee instead of triple it! Well, big guy, load our partner's gifts on the truck while I collected the fee from our other partners."

Bark's footsteps came closer and closer to Knuckles until he could feel himself being carried on one shoulder. As the big polar bear walked out of the kitchen, Knuckles felt his foot hit something, the next thing he heard was the sound of a pot breaking and dirt scattering on the floor. Then, as he walked through the bar to the exit, the last thing he heard before he was locked in the back of the truck was the silent cry of the coyote.

After Thoughts:

I hope you are enjoying the reading so far, the story is taking shape and tremendous things are coming. However, I would like to take some time (No more than a month, I promise) to mature the ideas a bit more, reread the Archie Comics, IDW comics and other things for inspiration. I swear I'll be back very soon! (This is more something I tell myself XD).