Back on Angel Island, Sonic finally reached the Red Mountain, with Tails in hot pursuit. During all of his visits to this place, he'd figured out that there was a shortcut to the Master Emerald shrine here...
But nobody knew this island better than Knuckles, who had managed to get ahead of Sonic and activate a trap.
"This will stop you from desecrating the land of my ancestors, hedgehog!"
The floor beneath Sonic gave way, sending him hurtling down to the bottom of the mountain!
"SONIC!" Tails cried out. The fox was fast in flight. but even HE couldn't reach Sonic in time. In a last-ditch effort, Sonic rolled himself into a spindash, spinning faster and faster until he just barely got enough grip on the side of the nearby rocks to launch himself upward and straight into Knuckles' face, forming a large crack in the mask. but not freeing the echidna from its control.
Sonic blew a raspberry as he and Tails proceeded toward the Master Emerald shrine.
Some minutes later, Knuckles finally caught up to the two at the shrine, a look of shock on his face. "What? Why is the Master Emerald not in the Hidden Palace? That's where we agreed to keep it for the time being!"
"Yeah, you moved this thing a while ago." Sonic said, casually leaning on the emerald. "Now, what do you remember about it?"
"I...I don't know. I've been guarding it for as long as I can remember...But I'm not sure why." Knuckles stammered out, a look of uneasiness coming across his face.
"Maybe these words will jog your memory." Tails piped up, bringing out his tablet to read. "The servers are the 7 Chaos. Chaos is power. Power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos..."
"I...I know those words! Somehow..." Knuckles exclaimed, shocked.
"That's because you're Knuckles, last of the echidnas, guardian of the Master Emerald...And our friend!" Sonic said, pointing to the echidna. "And you're STRONGER than whatever that mask is doing to you! Snap out of it, bud!"
Knuckles groaned, holding his head. "I...I can't!" He tried pulling off the mask, to no avail. "It won't come off!"
"Then let us help you!" Sonic shouted, as he and Tails grabbed the other ends of the mask and pulled. Gradually, with the support of his two friends, it finally came off, bringing Knuckles back to his senses. "WHOA! Guys! That was intense!"
"Do you remember what happened?" Tails asked.
"It's coming back to me...And it's one heck of a story!"