When Shadow awoke, he found himself locked in his room with a plate of food and a note from Mephiles. He picked up the note and read it, confused.

Shadow, you are going to be in here until these 'feelings' are gone. -Mephiles

Shadow groaned, falling back on his bed. Knuckles was going to be worried....

'That's the kind of thinking that got you stuck in the room to begin with.' he thought with a huff.

He had to stop thinking about Knuckles. He had to stop blushing every time his name came up in his mind. He had to stop thinking about how nice and considerate he is, and how those wonderful amethyst eyes sparkled when he was happy-

'Stop!' He shouted in his mind, covering his ears as if that would rid of his thoughts. 'These feelings are wrong, even Mephiles says so! He's the enemy, he's the enemy....'

For some reason, he couldn't actually bring himself to think that. It was too hard of a task.

'Great, so I'm gonna be stuck here forever.'

_______________________________________

"Knuckles."

"H-Huh?" a young echidna looked up to the other.

"You have to stay focused so the Master Emerald doesn't get stolen."

"I-I'm sorry.... The butterfly was just so pretty."

The other echidna giggled softly before picking up the young one. "Are you excited for today?"

"Yes!" The puggle smiled excitedly as he was led to a giant temple with a glowing green light shining at the top. Other echidnas greeted him, congratulating him on what he was about to become.

The guardian of the emerald.

It was a special task for only the best. He worked hard to earn that spot, even if he could be distracted a bit easily. That was the day that he would become the guardian.

If only he knew that an air fleet full of humans and one mouthless hedgehog was heading straight for his floating island.

The echidna looked at his tribe, them all cheering for him. He felt flustered from the attention as he looked around, spotting the friendly badger lady in the back cheering happily. His cheeks flushed as he waved to them all, gripping slightly onto the dress of his mentor.

He turned to face the large emerald, his smile wide.

That's when they dropped down.

"Hand over the emerald." The one hedgehog growled out, his reptilian eyes fixated on the echidna's mentor.

"Never." She crossed her arms, standing tall. The echidna watched as the tribe stood tall also, and he quickly did the same, his small form not making much of a difference. The echidna's terrified eyes locked with the demanding other's. Instantly, he vanished and the echidna felt a hard kick connect with his back, causing him to tumble down the stairs.

"Knuckles!" He heard his mentor shout in fear as he coughed up some blood, eyes widening.

The breath was taken out of him as a gloved hand wrapped around his throat. The hedgehog only looked at his mentor. "Give me the emerald or I take his life."

His shaky purple eyes met with the crystal blue one's of his mentor. She stared at him, fear evident in all of her features. Finally, she let out a shaky breath. "Alright. Just please put him down."

Instead of just simply putting the poor echidna down, the mysterious hedgehog threw him against a tree. He whimpered as his body collided with the rough bark and watched, with blurry vision, the hedgehog make his way up the stairs. Then, his mentor did something unmentionable.

She broke the emerald.

That's when the fight started, the echidnas making sure to spread out the shattered pieces, even going so far as to throw them off the side of the island.

He watched as his mentor was shot in the head before he blacked out.

______________________________________

His breathing was quick and shaky as his eyes flew open.

What was that...?

Knuckles wasn't for sure, but he was terrified.

It felt almost uncomfortable, seeing all of those other echidnas on the island. It felt even more uncomfortable to see Sticks so relaxed. But the thing that really got him was the hedgehog....

It was that Mephiles guy that Shadow was with.

And that made him suddenly worried for his boyfriend. If that dream was real....

He couldn't let anything happen to Shadow.

He needed to know if that dream really happened and if Shadow was in danger. At first, he didn't know how to get his proof, but then he realized that there was a witness to that day.

And she was currently making pancakes.

______________________________

"Sticks, I have to know something."

"Really? You?" Sticks shook her head for a second. "I mean, what do you have to know?"

"What exactly happened on the day my kind was... killed off...?"

Sticks was quiet for a second as she stared at her freshly made pancakes, topped with jungle berries that she knew Knuckles loved. The others called them grapes, but she liked jungle berries better. "I told ya, the aliens came and-"

"Sticks.... I want specifics.... Why did the aliens attack? Who was their leader?"

Sticks went silent before replying. "I don't know why they attacked, but I think it was because of the emerald. I was once told that it held so much power, it could destroy the world if used by the wrong person. That's why they protected it. My only guess was that they wanted power."

"And their leader?"

"They must've tried to clone him or something because he looked like a hedgehog. He looked kind of like Shadow, actually.... Except he had no mouth."

Knuckles froze, his heart stopping. So his dream was right? Then that Mephiles dude was bad news and Shadow could be in danger.

He had to find Shadow.

______________________________

He tried to stay calm throughout the day, but he just couldn't. He tried to look for Shadow, but he didn't show up anywhere. Finally, he made his way to Sonic's shack, sighing.

"Hey, Knux." Sonic said as he finished his chili dog. "What's up?"

"I can't find Shadow anywhere...." Knuckles sighed tiredly.

"Maybe he's busy. That Mephiles guy seemed in a rush yesterday." Sonic shrugged.

"Do you think he's okay?"

"Yeah, I mean he knows how to take care of himself."

"Mephiles doesn't seem like someone we should just trust with Shadow's life." Knuckles said.

"Shadow seems to trust him."

"He seems more scared of him than anything...."

"What is this about?" Sonic sat up from his beach chair, tilting his head slightly in interest.

Knuckles looked away before mumbling. "He killed my kind...."

"Wait, what!?" Sonic's eyes widened.

Knuckles went silent, wondering if he should've kept quiet about that. He sighed, deciding what was done was done. "That Mephiles dude led the people that killed off my kind."

"How do you know?"

"I saw it in a dream...."

"You can't always trust dreams, ya know?"

"But Sticks clarified it for me! He is the one that that led the aliens and killed off my kind!"

"I'm pretty sure we clarified that they were humans, Knux...." Sonic sighed. "But if you are really sure about this, then I'll help."

"I'm really sure, Sonic." Knuckles nodded. "I just want Shadow to be safe."

Sonic simply nodded before standing up, stretching tiredly. "I know where Shadow lives, so we can just go there."

"How do you know where he lives, but I don't?" Knuckles pouted a bit.

"I accidentally found it while running." Sonic simply shrugged before running along the beach, Knuckles close behind, though he couldn't keep up with the hedgehog that well.

When they made it to the other side of the beach, Knuckles saw a medium sized shack, with an actual door mind you. Sonic stopped right in front of it and tapped his foot impatiently while Knuckles caught up. When he did, he stared at the door in wonder, scared that he was to late.

He knocked.

No answer.

A second time.

Still none.

Third times the charm.

But still not even a sound from the other side.

"Why isn't he answering?"

"What are you doing here, echidna." spat a dark voice. Knuckles and Sonic turned around to see none other than Mephiles, glaring daggers into the poor echidna.

"I just wanted to see my boyfriend." Knuckles huffed, crossing his arms, but still looking a bit scared of the other's presence.

"Well go away." he growled.

"Calm down, dude. He has a right to see his boyfriend." Sonic said, crossing his arms boredly. He was still on edge, though. Just in case the other tried something.

Mephiles only glared at the other hedgehog. "This is my property. Anyways, Shadow doesn't wish to see that red idiot any time soon."

"Hey!" Knuckles yelled, slightly offended, even though people already call him that a lot.

Mephiles simply pushed them out of the way and opened the door to his house. "Consider you and Shadow as broken up now. He does not wish to be around you."

Knuckles gawked at the sentence, not believing what he was hearing. "Wh-What?"

The question was answered with Mephiles promptly slamming the door in his face.

"That can't be right." Sonic said, quills bristling in anger. "Shadow's not that much of a coward to send someone else like that. He has to be lying."

But Knuckles wasn't hearing any of Sonic's rant.

He was just staring at the door with tears in his eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Lava]

Oh boy, so much happening! I love it!

Not too long before this story ends, by the way!

There's maybe 6 or 7 more chapters to go, depending on how I write them and what I feel like adding into my plans.

Either way, I hope you all enjoy this chapter!