- Chapter 30 -

Confrontation

Marble Garden

Relic and Fixit were still looking around the ruins, taking down notes and jotting down various theories and inquiries. The two were so caught up in their work that they were taken off guard by a shadow passing overhead. They looked up, surprised to see Knuckles gliding in.

"Knuckles!" Relic greeted as the Echidna slid to a stop in front of the pair. "What a surprise! I'm not trespassing on some sanctuary, am I? You only forbade the shrine, so-"

"Have you seen a human girl?" Knuckles cut in.

Relic blinked, tilting her head in confusion. Fixit tilted his entire body to simulate the action. Knuckles held his hand a bit above his head, trying to remain calm as he described Kat to the best of his ability.

"This tall, red hair, grey jumpsuit, bandaged arm."

Relic shook her head.

"Can't say I've seen anyone like you've described. To be honest, I didn't know there were any humans on this island. Maybe she's an escapee from the Death Egg…"

That name set off some red flags in Knuckles' head.

"That's what Robotnik calls his space station?"

"He didn't tell you that?" Relic adjusted her glasses. "Makes sense. Poor girl must be scared out of her wits." She clapped her hands, changing the subject. "But enough about that, let me show you something I found!"

Before he could protest, Relic grabbed him by his arm, dragging him over to some of the ruins. They descended into the Grand Conservatory, where he took in the sights of all the technology and weapons. Old memories began to surface as he looked around.

"I remember this place…" he said softly. "My dad brought me here before he vanished. He said this technology stood as an example of the follies of past Echidnas. It was why we chose a simpler life."

Relic nodded, making sure to write that down before continuing towards her goal.

"I found these." Relic led him to a stack of intact, and thankfully inactive, nuclear warheads. "From what I can gather from the notes here, some enemy the Echidnas fought in the past stole nuclear weapons from this place with the intent to use them against your people."

"The Dingo Regime…" Knuckles realized. "We were at war with them around that time."

"The Dingoes, of course!" Relic snapped her fingers. "It seems the war was escalating far beyond what the island could take. Fallout from the nukes had contaminated Angel Island, so it seems the Echidnas fled into some other dimension until it could be decontaminated."

"They… fled?" Knuckles was visibly shaken by that reveal as he fell onto a small stool. "They abandoned me?"

"It might not be that," Relic pointed out, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Perhaps they simply couldn't get to you in time, or simply didn't realize you weren't among them. I'm almost positive that if they knew you were here, they would have tried to save you. I fear my research may not be able to solve that particular mystery, but I highly doubt that the Echidnas left you alone on purpose. The fact remains that your people are still alive, and they may very well return some day."

"I'm not the last…" Knuckles managed a smile. "I'm not alone…"

His mind snapped back to his missing companion, the word resonating with the various conversations he'd had with her.

"Alone… Kat." He jumped back up, heading for the door. "I have to find her."

"This Kat sounds very important to you," Relic remarked, tilting her head curiously. "Who is she?"

Knuckles paused, then turned back to her.

"A friend," Knuckles said simply.

Relic nodded, smiling slightly.

"Then I'll keep an eye out for her."

"Thank you, Relic, for everything" Knuckles said gratefully. "I finally have the answers I've been looking for."

With that, he took off, leaving Relic to her work.

Mushroom Hill

Around that time, Sonic and Tails touched down in Mushroom Hill. They landed on one of the massive fungi, rolling across the top before landing on the soft, somewhat muddy ground of the hill. They both got up, dusting themselves off as they looked around.

"Now, where'd we end up this time?" Tails pondered.

"From the looks of it, a valley full of giant mushrooms." Sonic cringed, sticking out his tongue in disgust. "Gross, smelly mushrooms."

"Sonic, come on," Tails told him. "You're being dramatic."

"What?" Sonic defended. "I hate mushrooms. Everyone does."

"Well, I like them."

"You're weird."

Tails rolled his eyes, then the two began walking through the mushroom field. Unbeknownst to them, two sets of eyes watched them from the shadows, both sets glaring at them with cold hatred. After the pair had been walking for a bit, a low, visceral growl began emanating from the shadows of the mushroom grove. Both of them froze, their instincts screaming at them to not move.

"You hear that?" Sonic asked quietly.

"Yeah…" Tails nodded, his voice a higher pitch from fear.

Suddenly, the mushrooms behind them began to part ways. The two turned slowly, watching in mounting shock and horror as Chomps came roaring up to them. He stopped right in front of them, baring his teeth and chomping them menacingly at the pair.

"A dinosaur?!" Tails exclaimed, Chomps snarling viciously as the fox began shaking his hands frantically. "Oh, you don't wanna eat us, Mr. Raptor!"

"Yeah," Sonic tacked on, scanning the valley for an easy escape for the pair. "Hedgehogs don't make good snacks. I'll give you bad diarrhea."

Chomps just growled again as a figure revealed themselves on his back. This figure revealed herself to be Kat, who locked eyes on Sonic. Her gaze was so full of malice and hatred that he would have been reduced to ash if she had the power.

"Don't think you can fast talk your way out of this, Sonic," she snarled.

Sonic perked, looking the girl over. When he saw the jumpsuit and the Robotnik symbols it bore, everything clicked

"Wait…" he began. "You're Kat, right?"

"Ha!" Kat scoffed. "You know who I am. That's rich. You didn't seem to even care back on the Death Egg."

Sonic winced as she slid off Chomps, the dinosaur remaining right where he was, drool dripping from his teeth.

"I'm sorry about that," he tried. "If I had known-"

"Save it," Kat spat. "I don't care about what-ifs. All I care about is this!"

She punched Sonic across the face as hard as she could. The hedgehog stumbled backward a good two steps as Tails went wide-eyed in shock.

"Sonic!"

He tried to move to help his friend, but a snarl from Chomps stopped him in his tracks. Sonic put a hand to his nose, his glove coming away red due to his now bleeding nose. Wiping the blood away, he faced Kat again. She continued to advance on him as he lifted his hands in a gesture of submission.

"Kat, I came here to find you and the other survivors. Please... I didn't know. I swear I didn't know!"

"Of course you didn't know," Kat growled. "You didn't even bother to look!"

She kicked him hard in the chest, sending him falling to the ground. He coughed, struggling to breathe as she closed in on him. He looked up at her as she towered over him.

"We were being worked to the bone in that hellhole for months. Months! The only thing that kept us going were stories about you! About everything you were doing to stop Robotnik! We counted on you!"

She kicked him again, connecting right with his gut. He curled in on himself, a small bit of blood coming out when he did.

"We needed you!"

She kicked him once again. This time, there was a cracking sound, followed by a pained cry from Sonic. Tails was visibly shaking, his hands covering his mouth as he could do nothing but watch.

"And you just left us to DIE!"

She grabbed Sonic by the shirt, throwing him into one of the mushrooms. He hit it hard, then crumbled to the ground. He coughed again, more blood slowly dribbling down his chin. Slowly, Sonic gripped onto the mushroom, leaning hard against it as he struggled to stand, clutching his stomach and meeting her eye once again.

"Kat, please," Sonic pleaded weakly. "I-"

"I saw you..."

Sonic stopped, these words having a more profound impact than any of the blows he'd taken. He looked at her in shock, tears were running down Kat's face by this point.

"I saw you running from the Death Egg… I called out to you. I reached for you." She clutched her bandaged arm, still feeling the heat from the explosion. "We were right there… Did you even look back?"

"No…" Sonic admitted. "And I can't begin to tell you how sorry I am."

"I don't want your apologies!" Kat shouted, tears of rage continuing to fall as she stood there, shaking from the torrent of emotions boiling inside her. "We were dying, and you did nothing! You left us to BURN!"

The two of them just looked at each other, Sonic's expression showing nothing but guilt and shame. He adjusted himself, putting his full weight against the mushroom and dropping his arm, leaving himself vulnerable.

"You want payback, don't you?" He said softly, his tone resigned and calm. "You want me to suffer like you did. Well... go ahead…"

Kat blinked in surprise, caught off guard by this declaration. Tails was as well, quickly voicing his horror.

"Sonic, what are you doing?!"

"Go on," Sonic urged, ignoring Tails and keeping his focus on Kat. "If this is the only way to get you to move on, to find some closure, then go ahead. Hit me as hard as you can. You won't get a better shot than this."

Kat looked at him, her breathing becoming somewhat labored. Then she screamed and grabbed him by the throat. He choked as he was lifted bodily off the ground, instinctively grabbing onto her wrist as he was pinned hard against the mushroom. She then began whaling on him, striking him over and over again. She rained down blow after blow, Tails only watching in horror. Even Chomps looked worried, dropping his fierce persona as he watched his friend.

Sonic grunted with every strike, his legs kicking occasionally as he still held onto her wrist, instinctively trying to alleviate pressure on his throat. Then, after about a minute, the blows begin to fall less frequently. Her grip began to loosen, allowing him to breathe a little easier as he slid down the mushroom, his feet finally back on the ground. He watched as she fell to her knees, her bloodied fists shaking before they just fell.

She released Sonic altogether, grabbing at the grass and sobbing violently. Tails went over to check on Sonic, who was in horrible shape. One eye was completely swollen shut while the other was badly bruised. His nose was bleeding and he had several cuts from some of the rocks on the ground. He was clutching his stomach, suggesting the blows had hit something pretty hard, and all in all, he looked like hell. As Tails helped him to stand up, Sonic glanced over Kat through his half-lidded black eye before wincing in pain.

"Oh, yeah…" he rasped. "That's gonna be sore in the morning."

"Are you alright?" Tails asked.

"No." Sonic looked over the broken Kat, the sight of her hurting more than his injuries. "I failed her."

Kat was just holding herself, crying hard. She then began clawing at her jumpsuit, trying to rip off the Robotnik symbols in some sort of grief crazed frenzy. She seemed completely and utterly lost. Chomps went over to her, barely sparing Sonic and Tails a glance as he flopped down next to her, whining worriedly. Sonic slowly faced her, feeling nothing but sympathy for her.

"I'm sorry all this happened to you, Kat. But I promise you that Robotnik will answer for what he did to you, and everyone else that was on that ship."

Tails looked at her before taking off her aviator jacket, draping it over her to cover the symbols. She stopped clawing at her clothes, looking up at him. The rage was gone, leaving only a soul crushing sadness.

"Sonic's not your enemy here," Tails said. "He hates himself for leaving you behind. We came here to try and save all of you."

Having finally broken through the haze of grief and anger, Tails' words were able to reach Kat at last.

"Then…" she realized. "You came back… You didn't forget. You… you did care..."

-X-

Knuckles had heard Chomps' roar not long after the fight started. Knowing he'd sent the dinosaur after Kat, he immediately turned towards the sound, racing as fast as he could. When he arrived, he saw Sonic and Tails looking down at Kat, the girl sobbing on her knees. Fearing the worst, the echidna let out an enraged scream, running at full tilt toward them. When Sonic saw him approaching, he just sighed in resignation.

"Not again…"

He braced himself for the inevitable attack, but Kat quickly stepped in the way.

"Don't hurt him," she told him.

Knuckles' fist stopped mid swing, mere inches from Kat's chest. He looked at her in confusion, not moving from his stance.

"What?! Kat, what are you-?!"

"Just don't…" Kat pleaded, stepping to the side to reveal the hedgehog. "He's been through enough."

Knuckles took in Sonic's battered condition and slowly lowered his fists. Tails carefully moved to help Sonic, pulling his arm over his shoulder and supporting his friend.

"Come on," Tails insisted. "We need to get out of here and get you patched up."

"Yeah…" Sonic grunted, "might not be a bad idea."

Just as they prepared to retreat, Kat reached out, catching Tails' sleeve.

"Wait…" she managed.

Sonic turned to her, just as she held out the Chaos Emerald she had found earlier. He looked at it in disbelief, recognizing it immediately. Tails and Knuckles looked equally shocked.

"A Chaos Emerald..." Tails let out. "Where did you-?"

"I found it," Kat told him, continuing to hold it out. "You'll... probably need it more than me..."

Sonic nodded and took the Emerald. It reacted to Sonic's touch, healing his wounds slowly. It was a slow process, but his face began to clear and something in his chest snapped, allowing Sonic to stand up straight again. He let out a sigh of relief, feeling his pain slowly ebb away. At that moment, the group heard a low whirring sound up above them. The four of them all looked up to see the Flying Battery overhead.

"It's Eggman's bomb blimp!" Tails exclaimed. "We need to take it out!"

"Sorry, gotta run!" Sonic declared.

Tails started spinning his tails, carrying himself and Sonic after the blimp while leaving Kat and Knuckles behind. She watched them go, then tightened her grip on Tails' jacket, putting it on properly.

"We need to get out of here," she told Knuckles.

She prepared to move, heading back over to Chomps. Knuckles followed her, clearly confused and worried.

"Kat, what-?"

"Not now," she cut him off, getting onto Chomps' back. "Just-... Not now."

At her tone, Knuckles nodded and led her and the dinosaur back to the shrine. Though he had plenty of questions, all he could do right now was wait until she was ready.

Author's Note:

Well, that's that. Kat's seen the light, and Knuckles is beginning to himself.

Next chapter, Sonic and Tails work to take down the Flying Battery once and for all.

Please R&R. Until next time!