Sandopolis

In an empty desert as the sun sets, Tikal is carrying Tails while Sonic and Amy walk, causing the trio to see the sky getting dark.

"There's a city nearby. The sooner we move, the sooner we rest." Said Tikal, leading Sonic and Amy towards the city nearby.

"Tikal, I want to know about Knuckles' parents. I know Knuckles' dad is a warrior, but who is his mom?" Sonic asked.

"Ah. His mother is a housewife. Just a normal everyday woman you see in your homes. I would've told you that your mother is good friends with his parents, I even made friends with this hedgehog." Tikal giggles.

"I didn't know his mom was friends with Knuckles' parents. Where are they?" Amy asked.

Tikal closes her eyes as she frowns, remembering that Knuckles never knew his parents and the remaining echidna tribe is his family until they disappear for 7 years.

"I have no clue. Not even the echidna tribe's whereabouts." Tikal admitted.

Sonic turns to his right after seeing an empty desert, seeing nothing but sand and Egyptian structures from afar.

Then, he sees a volcano, making him curious as he runs forward at mach speed.

"Sonic?" Amy is confused as she and Tikal are watching Sonic leaving them behind.

"Be right back!" Sonic waves while rushing towards the volcano, making Amy and Tikal worry that Sonic is being reckless.

Lava Reef

The cave is full of crystals, making Sonic feel a strong surge of chaos energy all over him, making him move forward as if he's seeing lava and brimstone.

"Nothing, huh? Boo."

"What do you mean Tania is on a hunt!?" A familiar voice has caught Sonic off guard, making him hide behind the stone wall.

"Basically, she doesn't believe what I said to her. It's almost as if she's against the two of us. It could be Sonic's manipulation!" Knuckles explains as Eggman growls.

"Tania…" Sonic grunts quietly after hearing his sister's name.

"Figured you say that. It looks like we're making more enemies than we're making friends." Said Eggman while thinking

"You're right. But let's not lose hope. I'll make sure this kid is disillusioned by Sonic's horrible lies." Knuckles' words had Sonic facepalming out of disappointment.

"Good. Once you come across Sonic, take the rest of the emeralds from him." Eggman requested as Knuckles nodded.

"Sure. This hedgehog is going to pay for lying to his family." Knuckles nod, only for him to glance at Sonic from behind, causing Sonic to hide as he grunts.

As Eggman leaves Lava Reef, Knuckles turns around and approaches the wall.

"I know you're here, Sonic. Show yourself." Knuckles called, making Sonic raise his arms while revealing himself in a boiling hot landscape.

"Okay, you got me. Although, I was expecting you to change, but nope. Eggman really had you tied up and you're still his dog. Not only Tikal couldn't reach you, but none of us can as well? Talk about ignorance." Sonic sighs while shaking his head and frowns by tapping his foot on a rocky ground.

"Enough of your sarcasm, hedgehog. Whatever you did to your sister, I'll never forgive you!" Knuckles snaps while raising his fists.

"See? There's a problem with your ignorance. You know nothing about our sibling relationship." Sonic snickers after finding out Knuckles' blind trust towards Eggman.

"Then speak."

"Tania is a hotheaded kid. She always protects me whenever I am bullied. She even admires Mighty for his strength and bravery, even when Mighty is one of my best friends. When we play games, we get competitive, especially when it's fighting games like Fighting Vipers and Virtua Fighter. She's just like mom and dad; cooler and braver than I ever was. But then that day changed when I saved my parents and almost saved Tania. I just wanted to see her again." Sonic explained his truth and his relationship with Tania as a sibling.

To Knuckles' shock it feels like honesty, making him think back after fighting Sonic and threaten Tania after their grudge against Eggman.

Lowering his head, Knuckles is seeing why Tania made friends with Mecha Sonic, leading to him looking at Sonic.

"I can see why you're like this, but I can tell it's all a lie."

"Excuse me?" Sonic halts with surprise.

"If you truly did care about your sister, then none of this would've happened. But in the end, this kid is as manipulative as you are."

What Knuckles said shocks Sonic to the point that swings his fist at Knuckles' face, causing him to land on the stone wall near a lava.

"Don't you dare talk about my sister like that… Looks like Eggman has won you over. Now about the chaos emeralds. I want them back." Sonic waves his hand, making Knuckles widen his grin.

"I'm afraid I cannot do that. Eggman has them and you will give the rest back to me." Knuckles concludes while readying to fight Sonic for real.

Finally, Knuckles slides through the walls as Sonic boosts onto Knuckles, releasing both clones by spin dashing towards Knuckles himself.

As Knuckles punches both Chaos Substitutes, Sonic dive kicks which had Knuckles immediately block and then uppercut Sonic, while Sonic himself drop kicks.

With the ground cracking, Sonic and Knuckles are now causing damage as Sonic bounces around different stones in the volcano, making Knuckles slam his fist down as it's the beginning of an earthquake.

With Lava Reef collapsing as the Lava rises with Sonic and Knuckles struggling to stand, making Sonic growl and charge his spin dash, making Knuckles prepare his hands to block.

As Knuckles finally catches Sonic, in a split second, Sonic kicks Knuckles' back and then spin dash on his back as Knuckles yells.

To Knuckles' surprise, Sonic is a lot different after their first encounter, until he notices Sonic's piercing glare as darkness is flowing inside of him.

Knuckles sees this as a warning sign to not hand the emeralds over to Sonic.

With the volcano bursting, the lava is creating waves, even a part of the lava is like a dolphin jumping out of the sea, making Sonic and Knuckles brace themselves.

"Give me the chaos emeralds!" Sonic yelled as he's not playing around.

"Alright! Why don't you come and ge- Gh!" Knuckles blocks a spin dash as he ends up with blue quills on his arms and then slams Sonic on the rock he's standing on. "Persistent little blue thing."

Falling to his knees, Knuckles is seeing why Sonic is able to beat his opponents for a while despite saying Tania and others are stronger than him.

What flashes back is a vision of Aleena and Locke's fight in a different area and it's just as ruthless as Sonic and Knuckles, making them grunt and then spin dash in front of each other.

As Sonic and Knuckles are buzzing on one another Sonic yells "Chaos Spear!" whereas Knuckles yells "Chaos Blast!" as a red aura is covering his body.

Before the spears hit, Knuckles yells as he causes the volcano to erupt with a massive red explosion of chaos energy

Outside, Amy and Tikal exclaim as they see an erupting volcano that is red, making Tikal gasp in horror, knowing what happened in Lava Reef.

As the duo entered, they saw the whole volcano in destruction, leading Amy to immediately rush and push different rubble until she sees Sonic bleeding out while he's knocked out cold.

"Sonic! Oh no… What's going on!?" Amy picks Sonic up while shaking him in order for Sonic to wake up.

"I think that's what's going on." Tikal points at Knuckles, pushing the rocks, revealing the remaining 5 chaos emeralds.

Knuckles is seeing huge potential behind Sonic, realising that he's never the false bearer all this time, making him shake his head.

"No. He's not ready." Knuckles grunts and then approaches Sonic.

"What do you mean he's not ready!? Knuckles, explain yourself!" Tikal snaps while blocking Sonic and Amy.

"Chaos Heal." Knuckles raises his hand, releasing an aqua blue chaos energy as it closes the wounds on Sonic, making him feel better from all the brawl he had with Knuckles himself.

"Knuckles…" Amy is speechless to see Knuckles saving the very thing he' tried to kill, making Knuckles guilty for attacking Sonic and his friends.

"Tikal. Take care of Sonic. We'll have our rematch someday." Knuckles jumps up and climbs, leading Tikal to yell his name.

"KNUCKLES!"

"He's gone. And so are the emeralds. Eggman has won." Amy embraces Sonic while soothing him from the pain of losing everything he has left.

Tikal lowers her head, realising that Eggman and his empire are the winners of this battle, making Angel Island the next victim of Eggman's reign of terror.

"Let's go to the city. We can rest for tomorrow." Said Tikal, picking up Tails while leaving a desolate Lava Reef to rot as Sonic failed to keep the emeralds secured.

Carnival Night

An empty city that is dusty, yet it's still active which means there's a hotel nearby, making Amy and Tikal walk straight towards the hotel building.

As they finally found a bedroom, Amy is seeing Sonic's sleeping body, making her frown as she sees the Nicky she lost snoozing as if Sonic has changed into a completely different person.

Amy has always seen Nicky as a boy who is honest and cool in his own right.

What changed Nicky changed him forever, causing Amy to weep while holding Sonic's hand as if she's afraid of losing Sonic forever to the chaos emeralds' negative energy.

Tikal is watching Amy's sadness, making her think about what Knuckles is doing to prevent Sonic from keeping the emeralds from him in order to give them to Eggman.

Is Knuckles finally realising he's in the wrong?

Mystic Ruins

Knuckles is walking as night is starting, looking at Tania sleeping in one of his clan's houses and Mecha Sonic is stroking her head like a big brother he replicates.

Before Knuckles leaves to his own resting place, Mecha Sonic stands up while approaching Knuckles himself.

"I know you're guilty of something. Tell me, Knuckles the Echidna, are the chaos emeralds truly necessary for you to hand over to master?" Mecha Sonic asks, making Knuckles grunt and then turn towards a robot hedgehog.

"It's a way to make him feel better. Mecha Sonic." Knuckles looks up straight towards Mecha Sonic.

"Speak."

"Is it really true that Sonic is not the bad guy?" Knuckles asks out of curiosity.

"Although my target is Sonic the Hedgehog, he's a good boy at heart. Watching his little sister made me feel something more than just kill. I feel warm inside." Mecha Sonic holds his chest, realising that his motivation isn't killing Sonic all this time.

"Gee, for a bucket of bolts, you sure do want a little sister that is all flesh and blood." Knuckles cringed at the fact that Mecha Sonic, a robot, is feeling more emotional as time goes on, thanks to Tania and the Master Emerald.

"You wanted a family too, don't you, Knuckles?" Mecha Sonic asks a question that had Knuckles thinking about his parents and his tribe that disappeared 7 years ago, making him shake his head.

"I already have a family. I'm just waiting for them to return, that's all." Knuckles said calmly while leaving Mecha Sonic alone with Tania.

As Knuckles is looking at Eggman snoozing in his sleeping bag, Knuckles sits on the stair of the altar, looking at the sky while thinking that today is crazier than before, making him think differently about Sonic.

"Sonic… Nothing." Knuckles close his eyes as a way for him to rest.

20XX August 10th

The morning sun shines as Knuckles stands up and approaches the same building, only for him to see Tania staring at a machine Mecha Sonic had built as well as adding an Eggman TV, making it a video game console.

"Woah…"

"Like it? It plays games like Virtua Fighter." Mecha Sonic sits down while taking his controller.

"Cool! I wanna play!" Tania immediately sits up with a blanket wrapped up like a robe as she takes the controller in order to start the game. "You're looking at the champion of Fighting Vipers! So this'll be a piece of cake!" Tania is now focused while she chose a character to play as.

Knuckles is speechless to see Tania playing with Mecha Sonic, as if their bond is similar to her and her brother's which made Knuckles think back about what Sonic said to him.

As Knuckles leaves the building, he hears a TV buzzing, making Tania hide as Mecha Sonic pulls the blanket down to cover her face.

Eggman is back as the TV shows his face.

[Mecha Sonic. We have secured the chaos emeralds. Now that Knuckles has succeeded in his role of taking them from Sonic, it is time for phase 2.] Eggman calls through the screen.

Knuckles and Mecha Sonic are silent as they're listening to Eggman.

[Hm? What's that next to you?] Eggman asked.

"That's my new pet dog. Say hello, Sparky." Mecha Sonic lies while patting a blanket.

"Uh… Woof! Bow wow!" Tania tried to hide while pretending to be a dog, making Eggman cringe.

[Right. Ahem! Anyway, when our operation is finished, the Master Emerald is free to be in our grasp! And no one, not even Sonic is standing in our way.] Eggman's grin is more devious than ever before, making him clench his fist with the perfect chance of victory.

"And what about Knuckles?" Mecha Sonic asked.

[Bring him to me. I got a special operation for him with the chaos emeralds. This'll be Sonic's downfall and nothing will stop us from getting what I wanted. And if Knuckles does fail, then it's your turn to kill Sonic and his friends.]

Knuckles then leaves as he runs towards the Hidden Palace, only for him to stop as he sees a strong wind above him.

A massive blimp airship that is piloted by a mole badnik called Madmole.

"DOCTOR! I'M UP HERE!" Yelling from above, Agent Stone is on the edge of a large airship.

Eggman appears, surprised that one of his minions has returned after his defeat at the Kingdom of Acorn.

"Stone… You finally returned."

To Tania's horror, Agent Stone is back after the things he's done to other people at Metropolis, especially towards Elias and Megan, causing her to shake in fear.

"It's okay, kid. I'll handle this. Wait here." Mecha Sonic stands up and pat Tania's head while looking behind himself.

"But, M.Sonic…"

"I know, kid. I know." Mecha Sonic finally leaves while approaching Eggman and Knuckles.

As Eggman, Knuckles and Mecha Sonic are waiting for the ship to land, Eggman can't help but laugh as his plans are not only coming to a success, but was able to surpass his own ideas as if he's now the one upping Sonic in his game.

"Knuckles, Mecha Sonic, meet my assistant, Agent Stone."