Coming Home

Welcome to the Part 2 Cascade. Enjoy.

Knuckles goes into the heart of darkness

CW: Genocide…again

A Long Time Ago

The wooden sarcophagus was simply adorned. Knuckles’ father was not skilled with the chisel, so the box carrying Knuckles’ mother’s earthly remains into the next world looked amateurish. Knuckles had tried to add some adornments himself, scratching poor depictions of his mother’s favorite flowers in a boarder along the lid. It had been hard to work with his vision clouded with tears, but the future Guardian was persistent and stubborn.

What wasn’t simple was the mountain of flowers piled atop the coffin of the last Echidnan woman. Knuckles had picked multiple fields bare, climbed to remote ledges high in the mountains, and rowed a raft through the deepest bogs in search of every color and variety he could get his mitts on. His mother loved flowers and the ever-fertile fields of Angel Island. Now, those same flowers would bear witness to her joining them in the earth.

The barrows carved into the passages leading to the ancient city were long full. Together, father and son dug and hauled earth up the slope. Under a blanket of flowers, the moon and stars twinkling above, his mother would rest beside his siblings and grandparents, another earthen mound among many.

Little Miracle, she called him, giving him a name all for himself. His proper name was the clan’s. Born after when both his mother and father’s fur was graying, when conception was thought impossible. Welcomed into the dwindling village with a bittersweet love. His only sister had died in childbirth not long before. Later, when she didn’t think Knuckles could hear, his mother expressed happiness that he’d been male. A daughter would have only prolonged the inevitable.

Locke was nearly completely white now, all the rusty red coloration faded away. The color returned, however, when the Guardian trained his youngest in ancient traditions of handling the gift of the great god Chaos. The gods knew no age, his father explained, and the brilliance of chaos energy revealed to mortals how they appeared to divine eyes.

The moonless night marched on. Knuckles and his father sat in vigil, waiting for his mother’s color to join the tapestry of their ancestors. To pass the time and, perhaps, to ward off the grief, Locke recounted the stories of their people. Millenia of brave warriors and wise sages, of protecting the heart of the world, the Master Emerald, against the evils of the surface dwellers.

Knuckles knew each by heart but listened attentively anyway. When his father passed, it would be up to Knuckles to remember, to carry the memory of the great Echidnan race as far into the future as he could, his mind the final living vessel. Even his name was a time capsule. Knuckles of the Knuckles clan. The last born and most likely to reach the furthest of any Echidna into the future.

Knuckles knew it was foolish, but he shuffled closer to his father. The old echidna noticed and sighed. “No.” Locke’s gruff voice halted the encroachment. Nothing further needed to be said, and Knuckles reproached himself. Touch was addicting. Nothing now prepared him for nothing forever.

Until his dying day, his duty as the last Guardian was to protect the Island and the Master Emerald from all interlopers, especially the wretched humans. The Echidna had been tricked in the past and it had led to their ruin. His father bore witness firsthand when he was a child.

The humans had come with their promises and gifts. Cultural exchange, technological gifts, and dependable trade with the surface. The chief in that time had been swayed with their honeyed words and allowed the humans into the deepest recesses of the Island. The hairless apes claimed to only want to learn about Echidnan history.

The betrayal occurred quickly. The humans stole a Chaos Emerald and would have taken the Master Emerald if not for the swift response of the Guardian of that time. The humans were pressed to the edge of the Island and expelled. But their taint remained.

Like the humans, the creeping sickness they left was devious. Transmission began far ahead of visible symptoms. Entire villages were infected before the telltale signs of weeping pustules became apparent. A red rash was found to be an even earlier indicator, but it was hard to spot amongst the natural rusty red color of the Echidna pelt.

Natural remedies had little effect, and the few practitioners of chaos energy were overwhelmed with patients. Waves of infection ricocheted across the population despite quarantine efforts. In a few years, the dead outnumbered the living. Twenty years after the humans came to Angel Island, the writing was on the wall for the Echidna.

One lapse had been enough to doom them all. The surface and all its inhabitants were faithless thieves, Locke ingrained into his son. Nothing good came from the surface. Only death and corruption.

“There she goes.” Locke sighed. Knuckles looked up. Dawn was crawling across the sky and a sheen of dew carpeted the slopes beyond the burial ground. “Close your eyes.” Knuckles obeyed his father. “Concentrate. Feel the chaos around you.”

As the youngest child, Knuckles innate chaos affinity had been paltry. He was never meant to be the next Guardian and his father had treated him as such. He was not trained; his abilities were not fostered. His brothers were stronger. More robust and naturally talented. Knuckles remained in his mother’s arms long past his siblings. Locke chided her for her indulgence, but she held firm. Let her have Knuckles, if nothing else.

Until he was the last child left. Then there was no choice left to be made.

“Everyone holds a little chaos energy in their souls. It’s what connects us to the earth and to life around us.” Locke explained for the countless time. “When we die, our chaos returns to the earth, but takes with it our unique color. The imprint of our life’s experience. A gift to Lord Chaos to thank the god for our time on this earth.” Weakly, Knuckles sensed the ocean of chaos encompassing them. He trained every day to connect himself further and further with the ambient chaos and with the Master Emerald.

“We join the great tapestry of life, adding further depth to a work of such staggering beauty the gods weep.” Locke wiped at his face. Perhaps some dew had gathered there during the long night. “In this way, death isn’t an end, but an awakening. As we close our eyes here, they open in the hall of the divine and tell our story forever more to the universe.”

To his slowly attuning senses, a fiery red was bleeding from the coffin. His mother’s color. The color of warmth and comfort…seeping from this world into the next. Knuckles grit his teeth. He was a warrior. Warriors did not weep.

o.O.o

The wooden sarcophagus was simply adorned. Knuckles was not skilled with the chisel, so the box that carried Knuckles’ father’s earthly remains into the next world looked amateurish. Piled atop it were all the treasures to denote a great warrior. A strong, stalwart soul that carried the weight of an entire civilization on his shoulders. Knuckles’ selfishness and ego shamed him, but he decorated his father’s casket as he would like his own to be. There would be no one to bury Knuckles, so this was his funeral as much as his father’s. He hoped his old man didn’t mind sharing.

As Locke’s color bled from the coffin to join the rich tones of every Echidna that came before, the Last Guardian did not weep because death isn’t an end.

It’s an Awakening.

---

The Present

The Eggman airship was cold and uncomfortable, but Knuckles paid it no mind. Yes, he was very suspicious of Sage’s offer of a lift. Yes, he was concerned about how she seemed to have a very good idea of Rouge’s last known location. None of that mattered. He was throwing caution to the wind and willing to take every offered aid. Hell or highwater, he was going to find Rouge.

Her black and red form materialized before him as he sat cross legged, preparing himself for whatever may come. “You will be arriving soon.” She said. “I cannot deliver you closer nor provide a higher resolution location due to the hostility of the ambient chaos energy.”

Knuckles raised a brow. “Hostility?” That didn’t sound good.

Sage waved a hand and holographic topography map appeared along with several overlays and graphs that Knuckles ignored. “I am still analyzing the full effect, but the ambient chaos energy in this location disables or destroys electrical circuitry and overloads chaos drives.”

Knuckles frowned. Occasionally a point in space could have its chaos energy become so extremely dense it overcharged, but that rarely happened away from the Master Emerald or Sonic in his super form. “Rouge was looking into you kidnapping people. How’d she end up somewhere you can’t even go?”

“I directed her there.” Sage stated plainly.

Knuckles blinked. “What?” Of course! Of fucking course! Sage had her little fingers in everything, so why not this too?

“I directed her there.” The computer repeated, louder, as if Knuckles was just hard of hearing.

Knuckles growled. “Why would Rouge be doing anything for you?” He tried to remember Tails’ advice about talking to Sage. Be careful how you ask questions. Never assume anything. She doesn’t lie, but she doesn’t offer up context either. And most of all, never mistake her passivity for inaction. Sage was acting at the speed of light all over the world simultaneously.

“I made a reasonable request of her.” Sage explained.

Knuckles closed his eyes, willing himself calm. He thought back on the timeline of events. It was unlikely that Rouge had contact with Sage after the armistice was established, so much of Rouge’s radio silence was likely Sage’s fault. Which most likely meant-

Knuckles glared up at the girl, “Rouge didn’t call for help.” He stated. “You did for her.”

Sage placed her little hand over her chest. “You are correct.”

“Amy was right.” Knuckles grumbled. His throat tightened but forced the next question out anyway. “Is Rouge alive?”

“I do not know.” The AI’s words were simple, but the admission sent a shiver down Knuckles’ spine. He grit his teeth. Rouge might not even be alive anymore. No. He refused to entertain the thought,

“Do you think she is alive?” He tried again.

Sage’s appearance flickered, little specks of blue flashing by so quickly Knuckles wasn’t sure he’d seen them. She cocked her head to the side and placed a forefinger on her chin. “Given Rouge’s abilities and the area of investigation, I have calculated that she is likely alive but has been captured.”

Tension rushed out of Knuckles. Okay. He could work with that. “Captured by who, exactly?”

Sage blinked and reappeared, head and hand returned to their original positions. Her face was a pale porcelain mask of indifference. “Exact descriptions are unavailable.”

“Chaos damn you, you’re annoying to talk to!” Sage did not respond to his outburst. Knuckles huffed. It was probably good Sage didn’t rise to meet his aggression. “Who has captured Rouge? Your best guess at least?” He asked, his tone more level.

“The Black Arms.”

Knuckles blinked. Oh, Chaos. “You sent Rouge to investigate the Black Arms for you?” Why would Rouge…why would she do that? Why hadn’t Rouge sent a message back to them? She of all people knew well how fucking dangerous those aliens were.

“Incorrect.” Sage shook her head slightly.

Knuckles grit his teeth against the rising anger in his chest. “Then why did you…” He thought for a moment. Talking to Sage was like a Chaos damned puzzle. It made his head hurt. “You know what?”

“No, I do not know what.” The computer answered.

“Shut the fuck up! It’s just a turn of phrase or something. It’s- gah!” Knuckles moaned in frustration. “I don’t care what Rouge was doing. I don’t care who has her. I only care about bringing her home in one piece. One alive piece!” He clarified in case the insane computer failed to understand the goal here.

Sage placed her hand over her fake heart once more. “Our goals are in alignment.”

The back of the transport began to open. Sage waved her hand and the holographic map narrowed its scope. “I have calculated to center of the chaos energy infection to be here.” She indicated to a spot of wilderness. “Your communications devices will not work past this radius from the center. Once you retrieve Agent Rouge, leave the chaos energy field by fastest means possible. A mean of aerial evacuation will be made available to you quickly.”

Get in. Get Rouge. Run. Weaving through the Black Arms hadn’t that difficult with GUN supplying ample diversion during the invasion, but now he was alone and not really the stealthy type. “How many are there?”

“Unknown. The infestation began with a single member of the Black Arms race.” A new window appeared showing a red and black mass emerging from a crater. “However, this Black Arms was unlike any encountered during the previous invasion. Their goals appear similar to previous examples of their species. First achieve domination of the planet and then conduct a harvest of the planet’s organics. The means with which they mean to succeed are different however.”

Knuckles could handle one Black Arms no problem. Okay, maybe not Black Doom himself, but any other Black Arms. But…“There was one and now there are more? It’s multiplying?”

“Yes, with an approximate ninety-nine point ninety-three percent certainty.” Sage brought up yet another screen, this one covered in numbers and symbols. Knuckles ignored that one too.

“Fucking hell.” He shook his head. It was probably a good thing that Shadow declined to come. Sage’s description of the ‘infected’ chaos energy reminded Knuckles of that black corruption that Shadow had coughed up on Angel Island. The stuff that the Master Emerald hated. Probably meant that whatever the fuck was going on here had been messing with Shadow as well. Fucking great.

“You will be needing respiratory protection.” Sage motioned and a robotic arm offered him a high-tech looking face mask. Didn’t have to tell him twice, though he didn’t care for the Eggman color scheme. He took the mask and fitted it over his muzzle. Knuckles was surprised at how well it fit him and how easily he could breathe through it. The robotic arm returned with a second, slightly smaller mask and Knuckles took it too.

“I have developed filters especially designed to counteract Black Arms airborne neurotoxins.” Sage explained. “I have used data collected at the recent impact crater, so there is a high likelihood of full resistance.” Knuckles nodded solemnly.

He approached the open back of the transport. They were high enough that he’d be able to glide for a ways, making better time than struggling through all the fridged brush on foot.

“If you do not emerge in the next twenty-four hours, I will be transforming this area into molten slag with the Eclipse Cannon.” Sage placed her hand over her heart. “Godspeed, Hero.”

He snorted. Victory or death. Simple enough. Knuckles leapt into the open air and spread his arms into a glide. The threat of the cannon did not even fully register with him. He and Sage were of one mind about this point. If Knuckles couldn’t rescue Rouge, being atomized with the Black Arms was a fine way to go.

The ground was heavily forested, and the sky was grey with impending snowfall. Knuckles had spent his entire life navigating difficult terrain. The cold and dark did not faze him, but facing the hulking brutes that were the Black Arms shock troops…He’d fought them with Shadow in the Glyphic Canyon all those years ago, but the hybrid, seemingly powered mostly by arrogant spite then, hadn’t recognized Knuckles and the echidna warrior had had an especially low opinion of the dark hedgehog at the time.

His glide finally brought him to the canopy. Knuckles caught the top branch of a tree and swung around it. He descended quickly, keeping close to the trunk and leaping from branch to branch. He met the ground and surveyed his surroundings.

The ambient chaos harbored a thick, black miasma. He’d started to sense it as he’d glided, but close to the ground it was stifling. Knuckles grimaced as he felt it try to leech into him. He was certain now. This was exactly the same Chaos damned shit Shadow had been fucked up with.

Knuckles flared his internal chaos and burned away what had gotten into him. He’d need to maintain a low burn to stay pure. Not difficult, but it meant his reserves were continuously being tapped and he did not feel comfortable trying to pull the ambient in to stabilize his usage. There was no telling what the black crap would do to him and he sure as hell didn’t want to find out. What he had was what he had.

He actively refused to imagine what prolonged exposure to the dark energy was doing to Rouge.

Knuckles headed in the direction that Sage had indicated, though it turned out he didn’t need her help. He followed the thickening of black-colored chaos energy. The corruption didn’t burn inside or feel uncomfortable at all really. Quite the opposite in fact. The nasty little black filaments had a mild soothing effect. A warm blanket almost, but more than that…a familiarity? Knuckles wrinkled his snout.

The deeper he went, the stronger the effect became. His chest ached, not from strain of the black shit directly, but from the feeling of its efforts to push into him. He couldn’t place it, but it filled him with a sadness he’d long thought put to rest. It felt like nostalgia or something similar.

Well, wasn’t that the most nefarious fucking shit…

Knuckles hated it.

He had plenty of good memories, memories he cherished, but the oldest ones lay buried deep in a thick slurry of despair, like warm campfire lights swamped by the cold night. That the black chaos was pulling at those feelings…meant that it was stupid. He did not miss the years under his father’s tutelage, nor the years of solitude that followed. The dissonance of the artificial feeling being forced upon him was telling.

The chaos grew so thick that it manifested visually as a dark fog. Below the cover of the trees and paired with the setting sun, Knuckles’ progress was slowed by the near complete darkness. However, and this was extremely eerie, mind you, the more of the corruption he allowed to infect his chaos, the brighter his environs grew to his eyes. Pretty clever, to be honest. Only those deeply infected could navigate the area.

Mulling over the dilemma for too long would leave him exposed to attack. Knuckles was forced to allow some of the taint to remain or continue entirely blind. He grit his teeth. He would have to resist the cozy nostalgic feeling on its own terms.

Knuckles wasn’t going to let the compromise go to waste though. The longer he allowed the corruption to sit inside him, the more he could examine it. Of everyone living, Knuckles was perhaps the best choice for analyzing new, weird, and fucked up chaos energy. His years of training and focus were being put to good use once again.

Because the black shit wasn’t chaos energy. Whatever it was seemed to infiltrate the chaos energy, darkening the natural color, but not lowering the potency. The darkness dwelt in harmony with the chaos, fitting to it like a glove, seeping between the cracks, taking up no more space than what was already left vacant.

In stark contrast to ruby energy, which violently reacted with chaos energy, destroying both, this creeping energy coexisted with chaos energy. A parasitic relationship. Sneaky and treacherous, Knuckles could count on a single hand how many people would be able to protect themselves against it. If it spread further, there was no knowing what terrible shit would occur.

The world covered in choking darkness…the thought resonated with familiarity, but he couldn’t place why. Knuckles swallowed and pressed forward. His will was being pulled taunt as a bowstring between the need for caution and the growing concern for Rouge.

The air seemed to pulse as Knuckles proceeded. He became aware of a faint tugging sensation, drawing him deeper into the silent autumnal forest. He could feel it clearer the further he let the shit infect him. The forest was alight now in a shimmering kaleidoscopic of colors, like the aurora borealis running through the trees. That Knuckles’ heart was beating in time with the pulse was a concern.

He held the core of his chaos energy tightly bound as a dense little bundle deep inside him. The black energy was seeping further and further into him but as long as Knuckles kept his solid core clean, he was sure he could expel the corruption from his body with a sharp, sudden push of energy.

He looked at his arms. His fur was glowing with rainbow iridescence, his red almost completely overridden by the scintillation. Huh, kinda looked like Sonic in Hyper form when the colors of the Emeralds overlapped in a blinding cacophony of color in his fur.

The corruption was black as sin until you let it far enough inside you. There was some poignant metaphor there that he didn’t have the time or inclination to think of. This shit could fuck all the way off. If Rouge had been exposed to this for Chaos knows how long…He refused to pursue that line of thought. Knuckles would find her and decide what to do then.

The pull led him to a cave entrance. Without the hauntingly beautiful light, he would never have noticed the cleave. A sharp split in the earth cut into the side of an incline and grown over with underbrush. Nearly invisible if not approached from the correct angle.

The dank, cramped cave felt like home and Knuckles fucking hated everything about that. With a grunt, he flared his chaos energy, expelling the taint from his body. He was plunged into pitched darkness and the nostalgic, comforting feeling disappeared. Knuckles was left with silence and a staggeringly large sense of foreboding.

These were not the Black Arms of the invasion, that was for damn sure. This was something completely different. Knuckles was extremely happy that Shadow decided to sit this one out. This was a very favorable environment for the Murder Mollusk (which squids are by the way! He had looked it up. Next time he saw Omega, Knuckles was gonna ‘uh, actually’ the bot until his circuits fried).

The black quickly began to seep in, but Knuckles kept it at a patina. He could see, but only enough to slowly push forward. The cave was tight and rough, formed by tectonic movement rather than lava flow. Jagged shards formed the walls and the way was littered with thick stalagmites.

If he’d been just a bit larger, Knuckles would not have been able to fit through the crevices needed to progress, but eventually he entered a much larger chamber. The pulsing was overbearing and oppressive now. The black pushed against his defenses harder, demanding entry into his body and soul.

The chamber contained several extremely distressing things. The first were several green pools of liquid that glowed even in the darkness shrouded by the tainted energy. Knuckles glared into one and saw schools of tiny black shapes wiggling around in the depths. He’d seen similar pools in the Black Comet before they all were almost eaten by little crawling horrors. Spawning pools. Well fuck.

Along the walls were large fleshy sacks, bulging and veiny. The skin of the sacks were translucent enough that Knuckles could see large dark shapes inside. He drew closer and found that each sack contained a Mobian curled up in the fetal position. Their coloration was distorted by the fluid, but they all looked be going black around the extremities. Double fuck.

The situation pressed against him, an ever-growing weight of fear that he was too late. Knuckles focused on slow breaths. He progressed along the line of sacks slowly, every step a feat of strength and control. The moment he lost his focus, the taint would consume him. He could not be lost to fear or uncertainty. He was the Last Guardian and if he failed here, no one would have a chance to succeed in his stead.

Towards the back, his breath caught, as Knuckles found what he’d been terrified of. Inside one of the sacks, wings curled gently around herself and face relaxed as if caught in a peaceful dream, was Rouge.

Rouge! No no no! Panic attempted to overwhelm him. He laid his shaking hands on the pod and tried to assess how strong it was. What was it doing to her? Would he hurt her by breaking it? Knuckles had to take the chance. No matter the consequences, he knew Rouge would rather be out of this thing than in.

Knuckles punched a hole in the sack, and a rush of fluid poured out. He stepped out of the way of most of it, but he couldn’t fully avoid a few drops falling on him. The shit stung like a motherfucker, eating into his fur and flesh and smelling god awful. How could Rouge be submerged in it?

The sack now ruptured, Rouge slumped forward, and Knuckles caught her. A sinuous growth attached to her mouth and chest, and he ripped them free and then extracted the agent fully. Her fur was matted and damp from residual goo, but what concerned Knuckles most were the dark veins that ran all along her skin. Her extremities were stained nearly black with the very tips a bloody red color. Triple fuck.

“Rouge!” He shook her. When she gave no response, he fumbled with the second face mask and tried to get as tightly over her mouth and nose as he could. “Rouge, please open your eyes!” She was going to answer. She had to answer.

The gods were listening because his prayer was answered. Rouge’s eyes snapped open and she gasped. “Rouge!” Knuckles cried in elation. Her dull teal eyes focused on him and he realized her pupils were a bit sharper than they should be. Quadruple fuck!

She hissed, her tiny razor-sharp fangs bared, and slammed a fist into his muzzle, and Knuckles released her. Surprised and a little in shock, he didn’t get his guard up in time to avoid her kick, sending him into one of the green pools. Whatever the hell the shit was, it burned like a mother. His hand pressed the bottom of the pool and he pushed himself up, his head breaking the surface just in time to be slammed back down by a drill kick squarely between his shoulder blades.

Knuckles rolled before the next strike could land. He erupted from the acidic pool and parried another kick. Poor choice of location for one of Rouge’s skillset. The ceiling was low and covered in hard stalactites. Her drill kicks could crack a badnik or bank vault with ease, but that required a direct hit, which Knuckles would not be providing. But, then, what was he going to do? Knock her out?

Rouge hissed like a wild cat at him, her sclera growing dark around the edges, and lunged at him. He dodged and attempted to give her a gentle punch to the face. She flowed around his fist like a whiff of smoke and slashed his cheek with very sharp claws sticking through the fabric of her stained gloves. “Damn it, woman!” He shoved her back and she took to the air.

Knuckles’ breath was starting to become labored as his concentration was divided between fending off Rouge’s feral attacks and maintaining an endurable amount of the dark energy in his system so he could see. He was not going to be able to keep this up for much longer. Time to do something Sonic-level stupid.

Rouge swiped at him, but this time Knuckles didn’t dodge. Her claws raked across his chest, slashing deep furrows that spritzed hot blood across what remained of her white fur. Knuckles took the opportunity to wrap his arms around her, pinning her to his chest. Her wings beat furiously, threatening to unbalance him.

“I know this isn’t- agh, the best time-“ Rouge flung her head forward and Knuckles lifted his chin in time to avoid the worst of the skull bash. Rouge, however, was momentarily stunned. Knuckles knew an opportunity when he saw one. “-But I love you, Rouge!” He declared.

Knuckles kissed Rouge, pressing his lips into hers, urgent and desperate. She snarled and went to bite him, but in that instant, he flooded her with his chaos energy. Please make her better, he prayed. Knuckles did not meter himself. Absolutely everything he had he gave to Rouge. Please.

The cloying dark energy was banished like shadows before the rising sun. Knuckles’ blazing red coloration brightened the murky space. When finally he pulled back, Rouge was sheathed in an intense red aura, but her fur was snowy white again and she blinked, her sclera and irises back to their normal, gorgeous shape and color.

“Knuckles.” She breathed, squinting at his face. “You stupid fool. What are you doing here?” She grimaced and felt at her face. Touching the mask, she smiled.

He huffed and smiled, pure joy at her insult flooding him. “What does it look like? Saving your sorry ass.” Knuckles answered without venom.

Instead of a pithy retort, Rouge gave an exhausted chuckle. “I don’t say this often but, thank you.” She pushed away from his arms and touched her temple. “I couldn’t stop myself.”

Knuckles panted as the adrenaline in his veins began to settle. “You…you remember?”

Rouge hugged herself and shivered. The cave was cold and she was very damp. “All of it. But it was like I was watching someone play me in a movie.” Knuckles wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her back, right below the junction of her wings. Rouge pressed her forehead into the white crescent on his chest. “I-I couldn’t look away and…my emotions were all wrong. Like I couldn’t feel anything even when I was trying to rip your eyes out.”

Knuckles’ throat constricted. This was all too similar to Shadow’s episode of sudden onset homicidal ideation. “Well, it certainly wasn’t the real you, because I know you can hit a hell of a lot harder than that.” He grinned, trying to make light. “Now, let’s get the fu-“

The reunion was interrupted by the sound of a slow clap. Knuckles’ head snapped around so fast he wrenched his neck. Emerging from the shadows was a strange, hairless black and red creature. Slitted glowing yellow iris glared at them with disdain from jet black sclera. Now this motherfucker looked like a Black Arms.

Rouge pushed away from Knuckles and they both took a fighting stance. “I was wondering when he was going to show up.” She growled.

“Such a shame.” The creature ran one of its three fingers along one of the fleshy sacks. “That bat was going to make such a lovely ‘welcome home’ gift.”

“Who the fuck are you?” Knuckles snarled. The room was rapidly brightening around him. Shit, his chaos reserves were tapped. They needed to get out now.

“I will not dishonor my name by speaking it in your vapid joke of a language.” It (he?) crossed its(his? let’s go with his) arms. “Besides,” The thing grinned, revealing yellow fangs, “you’ll know soon enough. You’ve used up all your light, and nothing absorbs unity like an empty vessel.“

Knuckles grimaced. “What’s he talking about?” Rouge asked, uncertainty underpinning her words.

“I-I gave you all my chaos energy to get that black shit out of you.” Knuckles swallow as the feeling of nostalgia returned stronger than ever. Rouge still had a red tinted glow to her. Hopefully that was protecting her from the black energy. “So, I don’t have anything in the tank to keep it out of myself.”

“Shit,” Rouge hissed, “Hang back and be ready to bolt.”

“What?” Knuckles’ brow sinched.

“This creep still needs to validate my parking.” Rouge launched herself at the creature and he cackled and surged forward to meet her.

“What?” Knuckles asked, flummoxed. Whatever she meant, he was not going to hang back. Rouge and the Black Arms danced around each other, she lithe and airborne and him flexible to an uncanny degree. Knuckles flew in with a punch that shattered the ground when the creature dodged, spraying them with sharp stony chips.

“Brainless brute!” The creature shrieked, streaks of dark green fluid leaking from lacerations on his skin.

“Watch his tail!” Rouge shouted and Knuckles dodged the lashing appendage. “The barb is full of neurotoxin.” Good to know.

The Black Arms wasn’t very strong. The claws on his three fingered hands dug furrows in Knuckles’ flesh, but the tracks were shallow. His kicks weren’t much worse. Nothing compared to even the normal sized aliens during the invasion and not even in the same galaxy of how hard Shadow could hit.

What was the alien’s endgame, then? Fast as he was, one solid smack from Knuckles would likely lay him out.

Rouge rose into the air and revved up for another drill kick, but she smacked her head against a stalactite during a pirouette. “Fuck!” She spat.

Knuckles grimaced at her pain. “How did you not see that?”

“Shut up! I’m having to use my echolocation in all this darkness.” Darkness? Oh, fuck, right.

“It’s not darkness, you wretched cretin,” The Black Arms hissed, “It’s glorious light your inferior eyes are simply too primitive to see.”

Knuckles could see the cavern with vivid clarity. Beneath the adrenaline was a growing sense of serenity. Like this whole fight was for fun. A harmless spar that they’d laugh about shortly. “We need to get out of here!” He called to Rouge. Their opponent wasn’t trying to defeat them. He was trying to run out the clock on Knuckles’ resistance.

“Not yet!” Rouge reached into her utility pouch and produced a comically large syringe. She ripped the cap off the needle with her teeth. “Come here, you little shit!” She dove and her playmate dodged. They were playing tag. the bat was ‘it’. no reason to hit like he meant, Knuckles realized.

The Echidna warrior shook his head. These…weird thoughts. They felt like his thoughts, sounded like his internal monologue, but…Knuckles swallowed, suddenly understanding Shadow’s little rambling confession by the Master Emerald a lot better.

Knuckles didn’t want to play. then he should lie down and rest. Naw, he wanted to hug! The black and red friend dodged Rouge skillfully and Knuckles dove after him, wrapping his large, chromatic arms around the fleshy body, giving his friend the biggest, tightest hug the skinny alien had ever experienced. The creature struggled and hissed, demanding to be released.

A sickening thud pushed Knuckles back a step as Rouge slammed the syringe into their friend’s back. Well, that wasn’t very nice. She ripped back the plunger, filling the chamber with dark green liquid as his good friend screamed. With a twist, she wrenched the chamber free, leaving the needle still deeply embedded.

“Disgusting, unevolved trash!” The Black Arms screamed. He seemed upset, so Knuckles released him. They were only playing. friends didn’t need to call names like that. It was hurtful.

“I’ve got it! Let’s go!” Rouge yelled, rushing up to Knuckles, brandishing the liquid filled chamber.

Knuckles wasn’t entirely sure what Rouge was talking about. He was feeling awfully tired. Traveling though the cold forest, tussling with Rouge, then this strangely violent game of tag. he’d rather have a nap if it was all the same to the bat.

Rouge slapped him. “Snap out of it! Time to go! We gotta-!” Rouge gasped.

Every exit from the chamber was crammed with family friends, eager to take their turn playing with them. crawling friends, and slithering friends, and bipedal furred friends. it would be rude to leave now, wouldn’t it? he had just gotten-

Knuckles shook his head violently trying to toss out the thoughts that were not his own. He needed chaos energy desperately. The cavern was fully illuminated now and Rouge looked strangely dim and muted in the growing intensity. Her shadow also seemed to be going the wrong way, towards her rather than away. Her fur was tinted a burnt red, the last of his chaos energy burning off into…the environment.

There was chaos energy all around them. The air was stifling with it in here, but it was all heavily, heavily tainted by the black energy. Unity, the little gremlin called it, right? Knuckles had never heard of unity energy, but the name could serve as good as any. Well, to get the amount of chaos energy Knuckles needed to get them the fuck out of here he’d have to also draw in a lot of unity energy.

Fuck it.

The echidna drew in chaos energy like he’d been holding his breath for ages. His emptiness paired well with the oversaturation of the cavern. His reserves fill quickly. The cave became a carnival of colors. His fur was alight with it, it was on him and in him and all around, connecting Knuckles to…to…to-

home. he was home. it had been a long time and the journey had made him very tired. he was exhausted and needed to rest. his family would take care of the bat. It was clawing his arm, the bat. Yelling in that inferior communication method. he would push her off and lay down- fuck you, Eclipse! You are not my family!

yet

Knuckles ripped his consciousness out of the comfortable swamp he’d been sinking into. It surged up to claim him once more, but he grabbed Rouge’s arm and looked deeply into her eyes. If this was his last independent moment, he wanted to spend it memorizing every crest and valley in her lovely teal eyes.

Chaos Control!

Emotional Devastation is back on the menu boys! How about that Echidna lore, huh? Remember when this was a funny fic about Sonic’s terrible communication skills? I sure don’t!

There is only 1 more major character to introduce in this fic. I bet you can guess who it is.