Meanwhile, Robotnik, Knuckles, Y/N, who's all chained up, and some Badniks arrive at an island not too far from there via a Ring.

"The owls were fools to think they could hide this." Knuckles said, holding the golden compass.

"Hey! You don't get to insult the owls like that. For me, they did their best to prevent you from making the same mistake you're going to regret."

Knuckles scoffs, ignoring her. Using his control glove's scanner, Robotnik locates a pedestal in the sand.

"Huh." Knuckles hummed and placed the compass onto the pedestal.

Soon after, a mystical mechanism is activated as it shows the emerald green lines tracing on the ancient symbols of the owl, and the trail of green moves far ahead in the sea.

"What's happening?" Knuckles asked.

Robotnik holds up his finger.

"Wait for it."

Then the sea in front of them split apart to reveal an ancient temple in the middle of it.

"Oh!" Robotnik exclaimed in surprise.

"Whoa!" Y/N exclaimed, just as surprise as him.

Knuckles' eyes widened in shock. Robotnik laughed, looking excited like a child receives a birthday present.

"Yes! Eureka! I've found it!"

The sea spread apart to reveal stairs for them to enter. Y/N did not like where this is going.

"Come on."

Knuckles grabs her arm where there's no chains rather gently and guides her down the stairs.

"You know I can walk on my own. I'm not going anywhere."

He said nothing and just kept walking downstairs with Robotnik and Badniks following behind.

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

Back on Hawaii, after rescuing them, Maddie is tending to the unconscious Tails when she, Sonic, Tom and a bound and gagged Walters notice storm clouds and a green pillar of energy in the horizon.

"Sonic? What is that?" Tom asked worriedly.

Sonic recognizes it and looks worried.

"A big problem. The compass led Robotnik to the emerald."

"That's gotta be hundreds of miles away." Maddie guessed, seeing how far the temple is.

"Alright, huddle up. We figure out the plan. Together."

"There's no time for that. I'm the only one that can get there fast enough." Sonic shook his head.

"Sonic, this is way too big for you to do by yourself." Maddie said, disagreeing with him.

Sonic turns to them.

"You see that little fox over there? He came all the way across the universe to meet his hero, and what does hero do? I practically got him killed. Not only that, but I left my sister behind and now she's in the hands of Robotnik. You know what? You were right. My moment came and I blew it. I'm no hero."

"Wait..." Tom started.

"No, I'm not letting anyone else get hurt because of me. I'm gonna fix this while I still can. I'll get my sister back."

Sonic then runs off.

"Sonic!"

Tails wakes up immediately after.

"Sonic, wait!"

He tries to follow Sonic, using his twin-tails to fly but he's too weak and falls down. Tom and Maddie sees Tails and immediately comes to his aid.

"Oh! Hold on, hold on. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Don't move."

"Hey, hey. Take it easy, little guy. You're hurt."

"We have to help him. You don't know what he's up against."

Tom, Maddie, and Tails look back to where the temple is.

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

Sonic is at the coastline. He looks down at the ocean and frowns.

"Ugh! Water. Why did it have to be water?"

Sonic looks up ahead and knows he can't back down. He takes a deep breath, pulls himself together and charges up his energy, getting into his running position.

"Okay. You can do this. Gotta go fast."

He starts running at full speed across the sea towards the temple. However, the rough waves makes it hard for Sonic to navigate. He manages to run over the waves and jumps higher than ever as he goes past some waves before landing and kept on running. But more waves kept coming his way, and he eventually crashes into a wave, blacking out. Fortunately, he wakes up soon after on the island with the Master Emerald's temple in front of it.

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

Inside said temple, Robotnik, Knuckles, Y/N, and some Badniks are running or roller skating their way through a labyrinth of traps. Knuckles had to reluctantly get her out of those chains, seeing so many traps up ahead and wanting her to be safe. Arrows shoots out from the wall, which they barely were able to dodge them. Robotnik's accompanying Badniks gets destroyed by the long sharp points like teeth. They ran the other way and saw a flying giant spiked ball. Knuckles grabs Y/N's hand and moves her behind him as he and Robotnik moves out of the way, except the lasts of the few Badniks as they get destroyed.

Then they kept running or roller skating as Knuckles keeps holding her hand, much to her surprise. The same giant spiked ball comes down rolling towards them.

"I don't want to die like this! It's derivative!" Robotnik exclaimed.

The wall in front of them began to close in.

"Make room for daddy!"

Knuckles grabs Y/N and throws her over as she slides under. He came after and hold up the wall using his spikes on his gloves with as much strength as he could. Robotnik came last and slides underneath the wall before Knuckles let go and the wall behind them fully closes before it got crashed by the spiked ball. Knuckles and Robotnik are the ground with their feet up. Knuckles looks surprised, nearly getting himself killed while Y/N looks like she's going to pass out.

"Two, two. Great. We're still bipedals, more or less."

They get up and look around until Robotnik spotted something.

"Fire in the hole!"

The blazing fire bursts out from the owl eyes. The three ducked from that.

"I've solved it. There's a booby trap every seven secoo..."

Robotnik stops to see a swinging axe, which he barely was able to dodge nearly cutting off his mustache as they shake. Knuckles pushes Y/N back to protect her. The swinging axe stabbed against the wall.

"That was a little early."

Robotnik sighs in relief.

"So glad it didn't cut off my... mustache."

Knuckles and Y/N just look at him oddly before walking away. Robotnik though stopped them.

"Hey, little red wrecking ball. I know you're dying to get your emerald on, but can we be a little bit more mindful of our surroundings?"

Y/N sighs at this.

"For once, he's right. We don't know what kind of other more traps we're dealing with. And you're forgetting that I'm the key to unlocking and finding the Master Emerald."

She gestures to her emerald necklace and her eyes turns green. She looks up ahead and begins to walk, looking side to side until she stops and turns to them.

"Left. 30 feet up ahead."

Y/N proceeds to keep walking, ignoring the surprising Knuckles. Robotnik looks down at him.

"Work smarter, not harder." he advised before they follow after her.

Elsewhere, Sonic enters the labyrinth, screaming as he slides through water slide and lands roughly.

"Augh! My pelvis!"

He gets up and looks around.

"Okay, secret temple. Let's see what you got."

He then run through it at high speed in hopes of reaching the center, either moving too fast for the traps or barely dodging them along the way.

Meanwhile, Knuckles punches down a wall as he, Y/N, and Robotnik reach the center of the temple.

"Whelp. We're here." Y/N informed.

"Wow. That really opened up the space. I can't even picture it with an impenetrable wall now, and the rumble is always a nice touch."

Finally, they see the Master Emerald on the pedestal ahead of them. Y/N couldn't believe she's seeing it in person and was in awe. It was bigger than she imagined in her dreams she's seeing.

"There it is." she gasped.

Suddenly, her emerald necklace around her neck begins to float, glowing brighter than ever. It's asking her to go closer. Knuckles notices and looks back at the emerald.

"At last, the Master Emerald."

"Ultimate power." Robotnik awed.

"Soon, order will be restored all because of what we have done together."

"Such a lovely sentiment, Knuckles. I think I feel a single tear forming."

Robotnik wipes out a little tear from his eye. Y/N rolls her eyes at this. Knuckles places his gloved hand on her back.

"Keep going."

He lightly pushes her to walk toward the Master Emerald as she reluctantly did with him following her. What they didn't know Robotnik prepares to backstab Knuckles with his control glove's taser.

"Sadly, you're as useful to me now as a backstage pass to their biscuit."

Y/N turns and her eyes widens. Just as she goes to defend Knuckles, however, they hear Sonic speed and his screams through the labyrinth before coming crashing through the roof and landing in front of them.

"Nailed it!" Sonic coughed out.

Then the spiked ball landed behind him, nearly squishing him.

"Sonic!!" Y/N smiled in relief to see him.

"This guy is always trying to spoil a bad thing!"

Robotnik blows off the taser from his control glove.

"Oh! You guys are here too? Took the long way, huh? Hi, sis!" Sonic joked before waving at her.

Knuckles looks furious.

"Is everything a joke to you?! Why must you constantly interfere with my destiny?!"

Sonic stands up and glares at him.

"Because my destiny is to protect my friends and family, including my sister!"

"I think I just threw up in my mouth." Robotnik deadpanned.

"And if you want that emerald? You're gonna have to go through me!"

Sonic's body begins to spark as his eyes glowed bright blue. Robotnik gulps. Sonic then speeds for the Master Emerald, but Knuckles intercepts him in speed as well. Y/N follows after them.

"Whoa-ho!!" Robotnik exclaimed at how fast these creatures are.

Y/N zooms past the boys and makes it to the Master Emerald before turning to see those two engage in an intense fight. Sparked up Knuckles is on the rocky ceiling as he glare daggers at Sonic, who's also on the rocky ceiling before they jumped off. Sonic and Knuckles fly towards each other and collide their arm together in a big flash, glaring at each other. Then they throw punches and kicks at each other in the air. Sonic jumps up to the statue owl's nose before he jumps off and slams into Knuckles, bringing him down. Y/N winces at every hit they've brought.

As Sonic and Knuckles clash, the tide of battle constantly shifting, Robotnik takes that as a distraction and gets to the Master Emerald without Y/N knowing.

"The echidna's taking no prisoners today! Sonic has heart, but will he loose the quill to live?"

Sonic skids back after managing to hit Knuckles down to the ground.

"I don't want to fight you, but you're not giving me much choice!"

Knuckles raised both of his sparked fists and punched Sonic towards the waterfall before he could land a hit on him.

"Too easy! Let's do this!" he grunted.

He begins to walk up to the Master Emerald, which Y/N immediately stands in front of it.

"I can't let you do this, Knuckles."

"Move out of the way. This is my destiny."

"It doesn't have to be that way. You can make your own choice. Don't be like those kinds of yours. It will only lead to more pain than it already has happened."

Knuckles was about to retort when he stops midway up the steps to hear a flash. He turns, but was then knocked off by the speed of Sonic. Sonic runs up to the ceiling and comes down by spin dashing. He slams and slams at Knuckles with every single hit, burying him deep onto the ground. Sonic jumps off and lands.

Knuckles digs out of the stairs and starts to throw variety of punches at Sonic. He quickly dodges them thanks to his speed.

"Why don't you stand still and die with honor?!"

"Let me think about it! Okay, I thought about it, and I passed!"

In anger, Knuckles kept throwing more punches that are faster than ever, even Sonic couldn't see until he was punched far away, much to the echidna's satisfaction. Y/N was about to act when she sees Robotnik near the Master Emerald. She goes to stop him when he sees her and brings out his taser from his gloves and shocks her.

"Ahh!!!" she screamed in pain and collapsed.

Robotnik turns back to the Master Emerald, gazing upon it.

"Hi there, beautiful. You're the real deal, aren't you? Donde has estado toda mi vida? (Where have you been all my life?)"

Sonic sits up and gasps to see Knuckles carrying the giant boulder with his spikes.

"Say goodbye, hedgehog."

Sonic looks over and was horrified to see Robotnik and the hurt Y/N.

"Knuckles, stop. Robotnik's stealing the emerald!"

"What kind of fool do you take me for?"

"Just look! And Y/N is hurt!"

With those words, Knuckles looks back to see that Sonic is right. Robotnik steps closer to steal the Master Emerald.

"Mine."

"Wait! That wasn't the deal!"

Knuckles places the boulder down and faces the threat of Robotnik.

"Oh, you poor naive creature. It's not your fault. The more advanced data like would have seen this move coming a mile away or 1.6 kilometers."

"But I trusted you, you're my friend!"

Robotnik laughs loudly.

"I'm sorry, that just hit me funny. Let this be my final lesson to you, you dimwitted celestial skin tag. Friends are open, honest and vulnerable with each other. Which means x squared times the hypotenuse of y squared divided by the absolute value of friendship = DOOKIE!!"

Robotnik was about to get back to the Master Emerald when he stopped and looked back at Knuckles.

"And one more thing. Next time, listen to your little girlfriend of yours 'cause she's been right about me all along. You would've gotten a chance to stop me sooner than later."

"Oh no!" Sonic gasped.

Then he places his hands on the Master Emerald and waits for the power to flow into him. But then... nothing happened.

"What? Why isn't it working?"

This left Knuckles and Sonic both confused and relieved.

"Why is it not working?! You said it gives ultimate power! So why isn't it doing anything?"

Robotnik looks at Knuckles for explanation when his eyes landed on Y/N, who's getting up. Then he sees the emerald necklace around her neck. He slowly grins evilly. Sonic and Knuckles noticed it and were now worried. Robotnik approaches her and holds her up the neck. Y/N gasps and struggles to get out of his grip.

"Let her go!!" Knuckles demanded.

"Now I see why Knuckles wanted to protect you. You have the last piece of it."

He rips it off from her neck and lets the shard fly back into the now full power emerald.

"Thanks for your help."

Robotnik throws her over the stairs and she lands roughly on the floor. With the Master Emerald now on power, Robotnik grabs it and the speed of light flashes before them and the force sends Sonic, Knuckles, and Y/N flying. As an energy surge is unleashed, Robotnik absorbs the Master Emerald, lifting it up in the air.

"CHAOS... IS... POWERRRR!!!"

He then warps away in a flash. That causes the temple to crumple. Water begins flooding into the crumbling temple.

"Let's get out of here!"

Sonic starts to to flee. However, Y/N was about to follow when she notices the pillar was about to fall on Knuckles. She rushes over and pushes him out of the way. Knuckles gets up, stunned. He then begins to flee, but when he was up to the top he noticed only Sonic is there.

"Where is she?!" he demanded.

Sonic's eyes widens in realization.

"Oh no!!"

They turned to see Y/N has been pinned down by a pillar, unable to get free on her own as she tried to push it. The water begins to rise and she takes a deep breath before the water fully consumes her.

"Sis!!" Sonic screamed in worry.

Knuckles didn't hesitate to dive down. He swims down towards her and starts to push the pillar as hard as he can, using his strength. Y/N sees this and tries to help him, but it was no use and the slight move hits the pressure of her stomach that's causing her to lose her breath.

Y/N clap both hands over her mouth and nose, trying desperately to hold the air in, shuddering hard, almost like she was having some kind of seizure, but she couldn't hold it back. She tried to use her legs to at least move away or anything to get out of this pillar, but it was no use. Even with Knuckles' attempt to help push the pillar away, it was too heavy. She felt finished, not knowing how long she can hold her breath as her eyes begins to close, causing Knuckles to panic. He can't lose her. He can't. He already lost his people and his father, he's not losing her too. Suddenly he gets an idea and it's going to be embarrassing.

Just as Y/N was about to accept her fate, she felt Knuckles' boxing gloves suddenly plant themselves on either side of her cheeks.

Opening her mouth, the last bubbles of air escaping, Y/N was just about to suck in a lungful of water, when suddenly she felt something warm press itself firmly to her mouth, and instead of sucking in water, she was breathing in air. Warm air, but air nonetheless, and Y/N breathed in deeply. Opening her eyes slightly, Y/N was stunned to see purple eyes looking right back at her own (F/C) ones. The warmth on his lips, was Knuckles' own mouth. Y/N stared at the echidna, cheeks growing deeply red, feeling her heart beating fast, warm tingles sparking throughout her nerves, along with the relief of having air in her lungs again.

Meanwhile with Sonic, he's getting worried of what's taking them so long. He needs to act now or else he'll lose them.

"Water? Again? Come on!"

Hitching a ride on a falling boulder, Sonic gets down to Knuckles and Y/N and tries moving the pillar. He sees a big bubble and slurps it up to get more air for him to hold before moving the pillar. Knuckles and Y/N notices him and they begin work together to remove the pillar. Sonic immediately stops them to what they're doing as he shows them a countdown on a three. They nodded at him and once the countdown was down to a one, they all fully moved the pillar,
allowing Y/N to escape. Knuckles grabs her by wrapping his arm around her waist and begins to swim to the surface with her. Sonic, however, being unable to swim, he tries to swim up the surface with them.

Knuckles emerges above water, holding Y/N close. He swims toward shore of the island. He carries her onto dry land and gently places her down. Y/N coughs, looking up.

"Knuckles...?"

Only to see him diving back down into the water. She sits up, waiting while feeling worried at the same time for the two boys she cared for. Just then, Knuckles emerges with Sonic as he drags him onto the dry land. Sonic coughs out water.

"Sonic!"

Y/N runs over and hugs him. They turned to Knuckles as he silently sat down on the sand, brooding.

"You saved us." Sonic said.

"I didn't do it for you. I did it for her. Don't talk to me. I'm not in a mood."

A sandball was thrown at Knuckles. He turns and glares at Sonic, who did it.

"How dare you attack me in my hour of sorrow?!"

He gets hit by another sandball.

"Why did you save me if it's for her?"

Sonic was about to throw another sandball when a giant sandball was thrown back at him, burying him. Y/N manages to get out of the way, while shocked at how did Knuckles made such a big sandball.

"Because she saved me first, which clearly gave you a tactical advantage I do not understand."

Knuckles rolls up another sandball, ready to throw it at Sonic, who digs himself out of the sandball.

"It wasn't a tactic, Knuckles. I couldn't just let you get hurt and leave you there to die." Y/N said.

Knuckles stops, looking surprised as he drops the sandball.

"Why? I've been trying to destroy your brother since the moment we met. I didn't listen to you after you tried to warn me and I ignore you and nearly got you killed."

"Because being a hero isn't about taking care of yourself, it's about taking responsibility for other people." Sonic said, reciting Tom's advice.

Knuckles sits down next to them with a hum.

"Wise words. An ancient Earth proper?"

"No, sir, that's a Wachowski family special. We got it from a guy in a robo. Someone who means a lot to us."

"Plus... I couldn't stand to lose my childhood best friend. Not after we get to finally meet all these years. You're my very first friend I've ever made despite our differences. I know why you did it. You just wanted to restore what was lost and you... have a pure heart. And... I couldn't forget you." Y/N added.

She shows him her friendship bracelet around her wrist. Knuckles was surprised and pulled it out from inside of his glove to show her the exact same bracelet as hers but in a different color.

"...I'm sorry about everything." he said.

"It's alright. I honestly don't blame you, except the part about beating up my brother."

This made him smile a little.

"Can we... start over? See where this relationship leads us?" he asked.

"Yes, we can." she smiled.

Y/N and Knuckles then hug each other. The sunlight shines over the two and it flashes to reveal a young version of themselves as kids just like this one when they hugged for the last time before they were separated. Sonic watches with a smile. His ear twitches at the noise.

"Wait a second. What's that sound?"

Knuckles and Y/N pull away and look up to see Tails arrive at the island in the Tornado.

"Only Sonic and Y/N the Hedgehog needs rescuing this much!"

"Tails!" Y/N smiled to see him okay.

"Haha! That sly little fox!" Sonic cheered.

They turned to see Knuckles brooding still.

"Come on, Knucklehead. We're not beat yet." Sonic said.

"On the mountain you told me you lost everything the way I did, but you two seem so hopeful and free. How did you move forward despite failing again? And again, and again, and again, and..."

Sonic looks annoyed a little while Y/N smiles amusingly.

"I didn't fail that much." Sonic cut him off in defense.

"Yeah, let's not get too critical here." she added.

"But we didn't do this all alone."

"We found a new family, new friends, and you can too."

Sonic holds out a hand for Knuckles.

"You don't have to be alone anymore."

Knuckles stares the two for a moment. Then he and Sonic seal their newfound friendship with a handshake, which crushes Sonic's hand.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow! Are you kidding me with that handshake?!"