It was late afternoon, and Knuckles had spent much of that afternoon practicing in the backyard before retreating to the attic to finish off his book in a well-earned break.
Maddie had come back from work and collected Obsidian, letting him know that she was going to pick up Sonic and Tails from school and then all four of them were going to make a grocery store run, leaving the echidna as the only person home- aside from Ozzie, of course.

Now that he wasn't in pain and misery, the idea of having the house completely to himself was quite pleasant to Knuckles; no Sonic and Tails yelling over video games, no worrying about Obsidian waking up from his nap and crying for someone's attention.

As he finished up the book, it seemed as though the protagonist of the book was also finally getting some peace and quiet, settling back into his hole in the ground after chasing out his meddlesome relatives who were trying to pilfer his belongings in his absence.
If Knuckles had come home to find such things happening to his belongings, he would have been far more aggressive in his removal of said relatives.

He heard the door open downstairs, and then Ozzie barking before a voice hushed him. His mother must be home. He folded the book shut and then took the time to remake his bed briefly before heading downstairs.

Knuckles came around the corner, his book in one hand. "Mother, I have successfully finished the tome of The Hobbit. You said there was more to this series?"

He paused as he found not his mom in the kitchen, but a teenage girl in the middle of climbing off the kitchen counter. She paused mid-step, looking over at the echidna with wide eyes.

Knuckles returned her gaze, not sure how best to handle the situation. On one hand, this strange girl was in their kitchen, with no sign that she hadn't just barged in uninvited, but on the other, she may have been welcomed in and the parent responsible had just left the room.

Both of them stared at each other for several tense seconds, and then she looked away with a whine, putting both feet back on the floor and squinting her eyes shut tightly. "Oh no..."

Knuckles was quiet for a moment and then spoke up. "...Hello-"

"Nope." She kept her eyes shut, holding her hand out towards him in a stopping motion. "Nope. Don't."

Knuckles hauled himself up onto the stool across from her, watching as she opened her eyes again and then grabbed a banana from the basket and peeled it, but refused to look back at him. It was like she was trying to pretend he wasn't there. Was this the same girl Tails and Sonic had seen in the ice cream shop? Had she simply pretended not to see them too?

He looked over as he heard a door open, and then Tom came around the corner and into the kitchen. "Ah, sorry about that, Kaia. He doesn't usually bark at people..."
He looked back and forth between Knuckles and the girl, "Ah, great. You two have met."

"No, we have not." Knuckles responded, "I believe she is trying to convince herself that I am not here."

Tom smiled and then placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, "I know, it takes some getting used to, and it's a very long story-"

The girl shook her head, "Nah... He's not, don't try to convince me otherwise, okay?"

There was a moment of silence, and Knuckles gave the man a shrug. "...Okay, Kaia. He's not real." Tom lied.

"Thank you."

"But I am here." Knuckles responded in confusion, "I have not left the room."

"I know, Knuckles. Don't worry about it."
Kaia then tossed the empty banana peel in the trash can under the island, "Do you feel any better after eating something and having clean clothes?"

"I guess..." She tugged on the oversized sleeve of the sweatshirt she wore, her old, muddy shoes squeaking on the floor as she looked out the window for a moment. "...Do you know where the nearest graves are?"

"Graves? Like a cemetery?"

She nodded slowly, "...I need to dig myself a hole."

Tom sighed and shook his head, "You teenagers and your dramatics..." He mumbled with a light smile, "I just got you some fresh clothes and you want to get them dirty already?"

She looked across the island back at Knuckles again and then shook her head. "I just can't keep doing this...!"

Tom came over and put his hands on her shoulders, "Hey... That offer to help you still stands... You don't have to hold onto it all by yourself."

"I wish you could help me... But it's a lost cause. I just have to face it, I just need to stop and-" She looked back at Knuckles and frowned, "Stop looking at me like that!"

"Like what?"

"Like you... Dah, just forget it." She rubbed her temples, "You're having an argument with a ghost, for crying out loud...! Get it together...!"

Tom's brows furrowed, "...You really do think he's a hallucination, then."

"They're all dead, aren't they?" She closed her eyes as she continued to rub her temples, "The whole tribe wiped themselves out... If one did make it here, what would they be doing here in the middle of nowhere?"

Knuckles leaned closer to her, "I came to this planet in search of the Master Emerald-"

Her eyes opened, wide as saucers. The quill in her hair ignited with electricity as her gaze shifted from the island counter to the echidna again, her irises brightening green to an unnatural color for humans.
"Search...!?" she hissed, and Knuckles watched the bluish tint in her hair suddenly fade out to gray. "You lost it...!? You mean... To tell me you..."

"Kaia!" Tom caught the girl as her eyes then rolled back and she collapsed, but then watched as her skin turned not only gray like her hair but partially translucent, like she was turning into a solid form of gel. "Oh my god-"

And that was what the others found when they walked in the front door.
_________________________________________________________________________________________

When Maddie pushed open the door to the house and then turned towards the kitchen to put groceries away, the last thing she had expected was to find her husband lying over an unconscious girl on the floor who was becoming less opaque by the moment. "What the hell!?"

"I-I don't know!" Tom worried, shaking the girl gently in an effort to try to wake her. "Come on, Kaia...! Come on, wake up...!"

"What's happening to her!?"

"I don't know! We were just talking, and then the next second-"

"That's the girl that Sonic and I saw at the shop the other day!" Tails exclaimed. "I'm sure of it!"

Sonic looked over the girl, and then he saw one of his quills was in her hair, and pulsing with energy. Every time it sparked, he saw the lightest hint of color return to her, and he got an idea.
"Everyone back up!" He announced and then got down on the floor and his quills sparked. He rubbed his hands together, sparks forming between them, and then he shoved his hands down onto her chest, and the electricity pulsed through the girl's form, but she didn't respond. "Come on, come on!" He tried again, pulling up a bigger jolt, and then putting his hands on her chest again.

The girl's eyes shot open this time as she gasped, sitting up as she turned back to normal... Mostly. Her eyes had changed to being entirely bright green, aside from her pupils, which were a glowing white. She held a hand to her chest as she panted, staring blankly for a moment before looking around. "W-What...What happened...?"

"You collapsed and started turning into water or somethin'!" Sonic exclaimed, "Are you okay?"

She stared some more, but then she looked at her trembling hands, and her lip started to quiver before she covered her face with her hands and began to sob.

"Hey..."
Maddie bent down and pulled her into her arms, and the girl grabbed tightly to her jacket as she shook and gasped between sobs. "Shh... It's gonna be okay...!"

"They lost it! It's gone!" she sobbed, "No no no no... It's gone! No...!"

"What's gone?" Tails asked.

Knuckles' brows furrowed, "...The Master Emerald. She was trying to convince herself that I was not present, but when I told her what I was doing here on Earth, she got upset and then collapsed."

"It's going to be okay, Kaia..." Tom reassured, "...You're safe here, okay?"
There was a loud clang and the man turned to see the kitchen faucet had burst, spraying water everywhere. "What the-"

Kaia gasped as she saw the water, looking at her hands in horror. Had she caused that? "I-I'm sorry! C-Come on! S-Stop! I-!"

"Easy, easy...!" Maddie held her tighter, "Just breathe, okay? Breathe..."

Nobody was quite sure what was going on, but Maddie held the girl tightly, letting her cry and cry until finally, she started to calm down a bit. Tom went about stopping the water supply, and Tails helped him clean up the mess by grabbing towels from the bathroom.
Maddie ran her fingers through the girl's hair, which was staying the bleak, lifeless gray.

"All this time...!" She whispered, "...I thought... If I could just... Just... Just find them-"

"Shh..."

"Find what...?" Tails asked as he came up closer.

"...My emeralds...! It's all my fault...!"

"Your emeralds...?" Sonic asked.

Kaia nodded, "I-If I hadn't... then they wouldn't have...they wouldn't...!" she slipped into more soft sobs, and Maddie kept her grip on her.

"It's okay... You don't have to tell us everything right now..." she whispered.

"I-I'm sorry...!"

"No...Don't be sorry, you're not doing anything wrong."

"I'm sure you didn't mean to," Tom assured, though not sure exactly what she was blaming herself for.

"I was supposed to keep them safe! I didn't know, I didn't know!"

"Breathe... Deep breaths in... And out, okay?" Maddie mimicked the action, encouraging the girl to do the same. Her breaths were shaky at first, but slowly, they were easing and becoming longer and easier. "That's it... It's going to be okay..."

Kaia pulled out the quill from her hair, overlooking it as it still crackled with energy. It didn't bother her, in fact, she seemed to be absorbing the energy into herself. "I didn't know making those emeralds would be such a mistake..."

"You... Made the Chaos Emeralds..." Knuckles murmured.

Kaia's hands plopped down into her lap, trying not to fall into a weeping mess again. "...I had too much power... I needed to put some away, just for a bit...!"

Knuckles seemed in shock, "...You are the mighty beast my ancestors spoke of?"

"What are you talking about?" Maddie asked.

Knuckles looked incredibly horrified at this news, and he didn't speak any further.

Maddie loosened her grip on the girl, "Hey..." she whispered, "...Why don't we move to somewhere more comfortable? Would that be okay...?"

Kaia nodded and then allowed Maddie to help her up onto her feet and move into the living room, where they settled on the couch.

Maddie recognized her behavior well, now that she saw her; this girl was extremely depressed, and she had a feeling it had to do with these emeralds going missing. "How long have you been looking for them, Kaia...?" She whispered.

"...I don't know..." she looked at her hands, "...But I haven't... I haven't been myself in a long time..."
She looked to Knuckles, who'd seemed to shrink in size on the floor where he sat. "It all makes sense now, but I'm still furious, and I... I don't know how to cope with it... I'm so tired...!"

"Then why don't you rest, and we'll leave you alone, hmm?" Tom suggested.

Kaia was still for a moment and then nodded. "...Okay..."

Maddie helped Kaia up to her feet and guided her up the stairs. "That's it... You just rest in here for a little bit, okay? I'll bet you haven't slept in a real bed in a while."

Maddie helped her into the bed on Maddie's side, and she found herself stroking the girl's hair out of her face. Kaia almost became invisible as she settled and went back to almost transparency, but she managed a little bit of a smile at the woman. "Thank you..."

Maddie nodded, but after closing the door to the bedroom, she heard a thump and shouts from downstairs. She hurried down the stairs and found Sonic on the floor, his arms and legs tightly wrapped around Knuckles who was struggling and both of them were flickering with blue and red sparks. "What is going-"

"Knuckles tried to bolt," Tom informed firmly.

"Unhand me, Hedgehog!" Knuckles shouted, "Or I will-"

"Not until you calm down." Sonic informed, "I know what she said upset you, and I won't let you run off like this!"

Maddie came over to her two eldest, but bent down and took Knuckles' chin in her hand. "Sweetheart... What's the matter...?"

Knuckles looked down, his teeth clenched. "My tribe carried the tale of how they came to possess the Chaos Emeralds, and forged them into the Master Emerald... It was said they faced down a great beast that guarded them, and they defeated it and left with the emeralds...! A great battle, a noble cause...!"
The echidna shut his eyes tightly, "I-I never questioned my tribe's integrity, but now-"

"Hey... I'm sure Kaia doesn't blame you for it."

"Yeah, if she did, she would have attacked you." Tails reassured, "You heard her, too. She blames herself, not you."

"It still does not excuse me-"

"Yes, it does!"
Sonic released the echidna, but only so he could turn him around and grab his arms tightly. "You didn't attack me and Longclaw that night, you didn't take the Chaos Emeralds from Kaia, you didn't do any of that, so don't blame yourself for what your ancestors and other echidnas did! Mom and Dad don't blame themselves for what Robotnik did just because they're the same species, right?"

"Right."
Maddie grabbed both of her oldest sons and held them tightly. "You may have attacked Sonic a few months ago, but that was because you had limited information. You didn't get the whole story, and because of that, what happened with Kaia isn't your fault."

Knuckles' eyes were wet, but he quickly wiped them with a glove. "F-Forgive me...!"

Maddie moved on to just holding the echidna, "Already have, Sweetie... Even if you feel guilty, I want you to keep telling yourself that it's not your fault, okay?"

"But I remind her of her traumatic experience."

"Same here sometimes," Sonic admitted, "But I still like you, and I don't want you running away to be all brooding and angry in the woods. Hiding never helped anybody, trust me."

"Powerbump!" Tails stepped up with his fist out, "We all made a vow to protect the universe, and we're not going back on it!"

The hedgehog and echidna grinned and pressed their fists together. "Powerbump..." Knuckles hummed.