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Knuckles is fifteen when his entire world is spun right upside down. Actually, no, it goes further than that. He’s fifteen when he reaches a catalyst. He’s twelve when his entire world is spun right upside down.
And the common factor in both cases is Sonic the Hedgehog.
Because Knuckles is twelve when he first meets Sonic, gilded and gliding through the air, glimmering and glamorous as he approaches Knuckles’s island for the first time, all those years ago. Tails was trailing behind him, flooring the Tornado to try to match Sonic’s supersonic speeds.
Knuckles had been speaking with Dr. Robotnik for roughly three days by then, and Robotnik had crafted a wonderful tale for the naive Echidna (in all fairness, it was his first interaction with anyone in practically a decade, and certainly the first time he interacted with someone who wasn’t an Echidna). Knuckles was just five when his parents disappeared off the face of the Island, and the entire earth, so he wasn’t exactly used to being lied to.
Robotnik had already convinced him that Sonic and Tails were his foes, not friends. Robotnik insisted that he could help keep Sonic and Tails away from his Master Emerald, if Knuckles would be so kind as to let him build all sorts of traps and badniks to keep them away. Knuckles, ignorant to the concepts of industrialization and pollution, allowed him to do just that.
Robotnik was quick on his word and immediately began to terraform. Knuckles wishes he could say that he had a bad feeling about all this, that he wasn’t completely trusting in Eggman, that he suspected him from the start, but he honestly didn’t. He was excited at the prospect of finally facing some sort of danger, to prove himself as a true guardian, to experience a change in his monotonous life. He was equally excited at the prospect of watching Eggman’s ingenuity.
He knew his people had been able to harness the Chaos energy for their own machines, eons and eons ago. There’s evidence of his advanced civilization, of transporters and high tech based off of Chaos energy, using the Master Emerald’s own energy to power them. He’s excited at the prospect of seeing a revitalization of his people’s technology.
Of course, nothing ever goes quite as planned.
Everyone knows this story. It’s been repeated, time and time again, on newscasts and from word of mouth and from Sonic wanting to poke fun of Knuckles from time to time. Everyone knows the story of Angel Island and how it came crashing back to the surface world after four thousand years of isolation.
All because of Knuckles.
Sonic and Tails are quick to remind him that it isn’t really his fault. He’d never met a person who lied to him before, and Sonic and Tails weren’t really interested in getting him to figure out the truth- they were more interested in stopping Dr. Robotnik than helping Knuckles, truth be told.
Still, that first meeting leaves a bitter taste in Knuckles’s mouth. He let himself get tricked, and he won’t let it happen again!
(Which... doesn’t really happen.)
Knuckles spends the entire time chasing after Sonic, who manages to collect the emeralds Knuckles had stolen from him. It was kind of infuriating, honestly, to see those emeralds in the hands of someone so unworthy. Knuckles’s job was to guard all of the emeralds, until another disaster struck and the emeralds went missing once again.
Knuckles tosses them back into their special zones, assuming that would deter Sonic and Tails from getting their paws on them.
But of course, that also doesn’t happen, because Knuckles just seems to have the most rotten luck.
Sonic and Tails not only get inside the special zones- they defeat all of the tricks and traps, and they acquire all seven emeralds like it's an absolute breeze. It infuriates Knuckles to no end at that moment, seeing an eleven year old and a four year old defeat the mechanisms of an ancient god, to see them succeed where countless of his ancestors have failed.
If Knuckles was honest, even if Sonic and Tails had taken the time to explain the situation to him, even if they were patient and insisted on helping him instead of trying to focus on Dr. Robotnik, Knuckles wouldn’t have listened to a single word they had to say. He was so angry at them, for faults that weren’t their own, for reasons that looking back, were sort of silly to begin with.
Knuckles just couldn’t understand what seemed to make them so special. People spent their entire lives searching for these special zones, but some preteen and a toddler managed to not only find them, but also defeat them? Knuckles can’t understand it, and it infuriates him.
He spends his entire time trying to antagonise them, trying to deter them from collecting all of the emeralds. It doesn’t work, of course, or else Eggman certainly would be the ruler of a new empire by now and Knuckles’s home would be drowning in the Pacific ocean. Sonic and Tails defeat him, each and every time Knuckles tries to challenge them, and Knuckles is so enraged he nearly blows a circuit the last time they fight.
It’s so awfully demeaning, to be bested by some toddler and a preteen. It’s so condescending! He’s the guardian of the Master Emerald, raised to defend his home and the last remains of his people. He was trained for this, and yet here he was, getting his ass kicked by two nobodies!
It was absolutely maddening.
Sonic and Tails weren’t unkind to him, however, and that made things even worse. They were enemies, but they didn’t treat him poorly, other than a few jabs sent his way, but nothing quite so rude. Sonic and Tails clearly had no interest in killing him, or else they would have multiple fights ago.
They were only focused on going after Dr. Robotnik, and that was honestly worse. Knuckles wasn’t even their main focus. Knuckles was at best a side character. Dr. Robotnik was the true antagonist in their eyes.
That just made Knuckles angrier.
He fights them, over and over and over, again and again. Finally, they reconvene in the hidden palace, where they have their last fight. Knuckles insists on Sonic letting Tails sit this one out, if only to prove to himself that it’s not the four year old that’s kicking his ass, but under the guise that Sonic was letting Tails do all the hard work.
So Sonic and Knuckles battle in the hidden palace, blow after blow, striking each other in what used to be a holy sanctuary. Knuckles is fairly certain his ancestors are rolling in their graves, watching him duke it out on holy ground, but Knuckles has more important things to worry about. He’s already dishonoured his people enough by letting Sonic and Tails onto his island, by letting them win so many gnarly fights, by letting them get their hands on so many emeralds.
Knuckles can not stand to lose this fight. He’s going to win this, he’s going to prove himself as the Master Emerald’s guardian, he’s going to restore his honor. He’s going to save his island from Sonic and Tails’s treachery, he’s going to protect his Master Emerald, and he’s going to take back those Chaos emeralds.
Except, he doesn’t.
Sonic deals the final blow, and Knuckles goes stumbling to the ground. He’s panting, heavily, and Knuckles knows that he’s lost, knows that Sonic has very clearly won. He can barely get himself off the floor, muscles sore from the fight, ribs bruised and lungs battered. A fight between them is always invigorating- Knuckles has never been challenged like this before. The flickies and rockies here never put up much of a challenge in his competitive spars. It sparks anguish within him, to be bested by some stranger, a foolish boy trespassing on sacred land Knuckles was sworn to protect.
Sonic leers over him, his breath a little uneven, but he’s clearly not as tired as Knuckles. Knuckles glares at him, ready to try to fight back should Sonic change his mind and deal a mercy kill. Knuckles isn’t afraid to fight dirty, and isn’t afraid to fight until the very bitter end.
But Sonic doesn’t. Instead, he offers Knuckles a hand.
Things line up perfectly at that moment. There’s a golden glow emanating from a crack in the roof that gives Sonic an ethereal glow to his quills. Knuckles’s eyes dart to the mural behind them. His eyes narrow at the reminder, and Knuckles takes his hand.
Sonic appears almost excited at that moment, but Knuckles quickly shatters any inkling of a truce. Knuckles spins him around and throws him towards the other side of the palace. Tails scolds him but Knuckles ignores him and goes running towards the Master Emerald. Earthquakes rumble, and Knuckles watches as Dr. Robotnik takes off with the Master Emerald.
Everything Knuckles has known begins to crack, and Knuckles shakes with rage, at Dr. Robotnik, at himself, at Sonic and Tails. Knuckles is just so angry, for being tricked, for Dr. Robotnik tricking him, for Sonic and Tails allowing him to be tricked. He is so, so angry, he almost picks another fight with Sonic right then and there, even though he knows it won't solve anything.
Sonic and Tails explain their story after Dr. Robotnik disappears, and Knuckles tries to cool down enough to listen to them. He just wants his emerald back, and Sonic promises him that they’ll deliver.
The rest is history, of course. Sonic and Tails get to the Death Egg, Sonic destroys the Death Egg and recovers the Master Emerald, Sonic and Tails give Knuckles his Master Emerald back, and then they leave to chase after Dr. Robotnik, and that should be that.
The Master Emerald is restored, Angel Island is floating once again, and there’s no more intruders on his island.
Knuckles should be happy.
But he isn’t.
He’s furious and confused and an overall maelstrom of emotions.
He’s furious that he couldn’t protect his emerald, he’s furious over the damage Robotnik caused to his island, his furious that he still doesn’t have the Chaos emeralds, he’s furious that Sonic and Tails had to come in and save everything, and he’s furious that he allowed himself to get tricked.
He’s confused, though.
Knuckles spent his life on this island, for the most part, alone. While his parents were still alive, they taught him a few crumbs over how to read the Echidna language, and a few folktale stories. Knuckles grew up in a world of ancient ruins, struggling to understand stories written lifetimes ago from people he’s never met.
He grew up, roaming the ancient Mystic Ruins, roaming the entire island, searching every carved surface for some sort of story. He spent his life here on this island, learning everything he could about his people, himself, and his role as a guardian.
Knuckles knows that Chaos energy is unstable and temperamental. It answers to no one, it doesn’t allow itself to be harnessed.
There’s only been one time in history where a being was able to harness pure, unadulterated Chaos energy.
And that was the god, Chaos. But Sonic...
Sonic, too, harnessed the power of the emeralds.
His glimmering, golden fur and sharp red eyes and spiky upturned quills and a radiating aura of power and Chaos was proof of Sonic successfully absorbing the power of those Chaos emeralds. This was a feat no living being had done in over four thousand years- and the last successful attempt was by the true god of Chaos.
The mural in the hidden palace depicts a hero destined to save the world from a great evil. Was that a super form? Was that-
Knuckles shakes his head.
It’s a fluke, it’s a one time thing. Maybe the emeralds were just so distraught that the Master Emerald was lost, they lent Sonic their powers, just to make sure it got rescued.
(But then why was Sonic in his super form when he first arrived, when Knuckles punched the Chaos emeralds out of him? And why would they answer to Sonic and not Knuckles? Why wouldn’t they let the guardian do their job?)
Whatever, none of it matters. Knuckles is never going to see these people again, anyway. It doesn’t matter.
-
Well, that was a lie.
Knuckles meets Dr. Robotnik, Sonic, and Tails, periodically over the next few months. It’s a pattern by now- Robotnik tricks him into picking a fight with Sonic or stealing his emerald, Sonic and Knuckles fight, Knuckles realises he’s been bamboozled, and Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails go after Eggman.
It’s honestly a little embarrassing at this point, but Sonic and Tails take it all in stride. They do tease him a bit over this, and they do chide him, but they don’t seem particularly bothered anytime Knuckles crashes through their house to pick a fight.
It was bloodcurdling in the beginning, to see that Sonic nor Tails could recognise Knuckles as a threat. They weren’t afraid of him in the slightest, and that was almost just as maddening as losing every single fight against them. Why would they be scared of him, when he keeps losing to them?
Eventually, very slowly, very carefully, Knuckles does begin to realise that maybe Sonic and Tails... aren’t really all that terrible.
Tails is exceptionally smart and understands machines. He offers to help fix up some of the damages Dr. Robotnik causes to his island, fixing and occasionally even improving some of the ancient technology lying around the island. Knuckles is wary of him at first, thinking he’s studying the ancient technology to steal, but Tails doesn’t. He just fixes some of the transporters and offers Knuckles a radio as a means of communication.
Sonic is much more complicated. He’s unabashedly rude, willing to jab at Knuckles’s gullible attitude, and press every button he can during and after fights. His inability to take anything seriously, his inability to feel fear, would drive Knuckles up the walls, interacting with someone so immature who did not find the danger of Robotnik’s schemes or Knuckles’s rivalry or the power of the chaos emeralds daunting. It was condescending and frankly embarrassing to go up against someone who never took you seriously, but it was equally infuriating to see that Sonic’s devil may care attitude applied to all walks of life even when they were inevitably teamed up against Robotnik
But Sonic is also... funny. He’ll tell awful jokes only Knuckles laughs at (since he’s never heard them before) and he constantly lightens any bad mood. His cool and uncaring demeanor was once an irritant but slowly became something Knuckles grudgingly admired. Sonic faced every threat with a smile, both because he was a thrill seeker, and because he didn’t believe in letting anything weigh him down. His confidence in himself bordered on arrogance, but it was true that Sonic could meet every threat head on.
The light hearted spirits Sonic carried clashed with Knuckles’s thoughts of duty and responsibility. But seeing someone so carefree, while irritating at first, in turn inspired him.
They... actually end up becoming pretty good friends, bizarrely enough. Knuckles doesn’t get tricked near as often as before, and Sonic and Tails take trips back to his island to keep him company. It’s actually kind of nice to have friends. He’s never had those before, and he’s determined to do his best to keep them. It makes guarding this island not so... lonely.
-
Knuckles and Sonic cross paths, again and again, and it sort of forces Knuckles to confront something he isn’t keen on thinking about.
Knuckles spent his life on Angel Island, shrouded in legends older than the island itself. He’s spent his life brushing up on ancient Echidna, memorizing the scriptures found on all over his island. He’s spent a lifetime trying to understand the puzzle pieces his civilization left behind in the wake of a great calamity.
There’s a lot of things Knuckles still doesn’t know, at this point. The mystery of Chaos and Tikal is a story he only has a vague understanding of. He hasn’t even heard of the concept of the Gizoid, the Nocturnus Clan is far, far, far into the future, and the concept of the Ancients are not yet revealed. Knuckles doesn’t have all the pieces laid out before him, but he has enough to suspect something is strange, here.
Specifically, Sonic is strange.
Knuckles knows that Chaos energy is unpredictable, that it only acts on its own whim. Sonic is kind of the same, in that- Sonic has no master other than the wind that blows free. Perhaps it only makes sense that the Chaos emeralds answer to his call, and his call alone- no, Knuckles has not met many people in his life away from the island, but he has met enough to understand that Sonic is the outlier, not the norm.
So perhaps Sonic is the only person chaotic enough to match the Chaos emeralds.
Knuckles isn’t sure, and it kind of upsets him. Sonic and Tails think he’s an expert over all things related to Chaos energy and the emeralds, but the truth is, Knuckles probably knows less than them. The Master Emerald often ignores his pleas and prayers, and he’s certainly never been able to become one with the Chaos, just as Sonic has.
Knuckles doesn’t really understand why Sonic seems different, why it’s only Sonic who’s able to harness the energy of the Chaos emeralds. Knuckles can’t do it, Tails can’t do it, Amy can’t do it, Ray nor Mighty can do it. Dr. Robotnik can’t do it either, not without machines, and even they can not harness the full might of the Chaos emeralds.
Knuckles doesn’t quite understand what makes Sonic so different. “I really don’t get it. What does the Chaos Force even see in him?”
The flicky tweets a response to him, and cocks its head to look behind him. Knuckles knows what the bird is looking at, and stops it right in its track. “Oh, come on. That’s not him. You really think this ancient prophecy is about some stupid kid like him? No way.”
Knuckles stands on top of the Master Emerald, pretending to brandish a spear like some of the Knuckles Clan warriors had. He makes a couple of cutting motions, pretending to be deep in battle. The group of flickies and rockies watch him curiously as he cuts the air. “No, that guy’s a well seasoned hero! He’s a warrior, sent to save the world! And free me from being a guardian! There’s no way that guy’s Sonic.”
Knuckles stops pretending to wield a spear. He stares at the mural, studying the mosaic tiles, the harsh lines and bright colours. He studies the man who reminds him of Eggman, the blue figure wrapped in gold, and shakes his head. “Nah, it can’t be him.”
-
Knuckles is fifteen when he nearly witnesses the end of the world.
It starts out innocuous, he thinks. A weird water beast shatters his Master Emerald (he later learns it was Eggman, freeing Chaos). Knuckles searches for the scattered pieces of the Master Emerald and tries to find the beast that caused this mess, and ends up meeting one of his ancestors, a princess named Tikal, who bears him a story of war.
Knuckles and Eggman cross paths occasionally, as do Sonic and Knuckles. Knuckles is tricked, the two fight, and then they resolve their problem once Knuckles realises he’s been tricked. Knuckles goes back to finding his emerald shards while Sonic goes after Eggman, and it goes pretty smoothly. He even beats Chaos, nabbing six of the Chaos emeralds back.
It’s peaceful, for a little while, until all hell breaks loose.
Turns out, Chaos wasn’t done yet.
Knuckles realises something fishy is going on and decides to take the Chaos emeralds to Sonic. He’s the one who comes in contact with them the most, after all, so maybe he knows something Knuckles doesn’t. Knuckles comes across Eggman in a haggard state, who tries to warn him that Chaos is on the loose.
Chaos finds the two of them, however, and snatches the emeralds from Knuckles and disappears. Knuckles recovers and tries to contact Sonic, warning him about Chaos and how he oughtn’t give up his last emerald.
Things don’t go as planned, of course, because Chaos does get his hands on that last emerald.
And Knuckles watches as Chaos transforms into Perfect Chaos.
It’s a super transformation, alright. Chaos transforms into a water-lizard beast, gigantic and enraged, and begins to happily demolish parts of Station Square as it psychs itself up into destroying the entire world. Thunder, rain, and lighting soon pervade the once clear blue skies, and Knuckles watches as the apocalypse begins, right before his very eyes.
This is what Tikal had been warning them about, this is the same event that wiped out his clan millennia and millennia ago. This is what decimated his people, this is what led to the staggering and eventual total decline of his population. Perfect Chaos decimated his people for their greed, for their desires to destroy.
Now, Chaos is going to punish the entire world. And there’s no way they can stop it.
Tails pulls Knuckles along, trying to go after the emeralds Perfect Chaos spits out. “There’s hope yet, Knuckles! I know Sonic can save the day!”
Knuckles wants to be mean with him, wants to be pessimistic, wants to crush Tails’s idealistic optimism. This is the same disaster that destroyed his people. Unless Tikal can manage to shove Chaos back into the Master Emerald, there's certainly no hope for them now. The world is completely doomed, thanks to Eggman’s lust for power. Now they’re all about to be punished for a crime they didn’t even commit, just as countless of his ancestors were punished for Pachacamac’s gluttony.
Still, Knuckles gathers the Chaos emeralds, because what else is there to do? The world is ending, and maybe Knuckles would like to go down fighting. It’s not in his nature to just wallow, after all, not when there’s still a fight to be won, even if there is no chance of actually winning that fight.
Sonic and Tikal are still talking when Knuckles and Tails arrive on the scene. “-His anger just won’t vanish! He’ll just be trapped forever!”
“What choice do we have?”
“Hey, Sonic!”
Turns out, everyone else had the same idea as Tails and Knuckles. After years of watching Sonic use the Chaos emeralds, Knuckles supposes everyone just assumes Sonic can use them to fix this situation, just like he’s done countless times in the past. Knuckles isn’t really sure that this will work- look, he’s got faith in Sonic, he’s seen him take on improbable odds before, but this is more than improbable.
This is impossible. Sonic fights machines made by a very mortal and human man. This is a straight up god he’s going to fight, this is a deity filled with divine energy, who has absorbed all of the energy of the Chaos emeralds. Sonic’s never fought a god before, and Sonic’s never fought someone just like him, a being able to unlock a super state so powerful it drained the Chaos emeralds.
Sonic turns to face Amy, who has come armed with a Chaos emerald just like Knuckles and Tails and Big. “Amy!”
“Take this!” She drops the emerald in his hand. Sonic stares at it, clearly confused. No one’s seen a drained Chaos emerald before.
Sonic notices Knuckles and Tails running up not long after. He sends them a strange look and a half smile, clearly confused. “Hey guys, what’s up?”
“Chaos only used the negative power of the Emeralds. Sonic, you should be able to harness their real power!”
Knuckles huffs. Does he actually think Tails is right? Well, in theory. But even if Sonic can use the emeralds, that doesn’t mean Sonic will be able to win. Still, he says, “As much as I hate to admit it, I think Tails is right about this!”
“Negative forces aren't the only way to empower the Chaos Emeralds. Our positive feelings toward each other can make them work. Our hearts together form awesome power.”
Sonic holds all of the Chaos emeralds now. He appears thoughtful of what they’re saying, before he gives them a small smile. Tails closes his eyes and looks like he’s almost praying, while Amy’s the first to begin to cheer on Sonic. No one’s really sure how to recharge the Chaos emeralds, but Knuckles muses some positive, verbal affirmation can’t hurt.
So Knuckles tries to channel all of his positive feelings towards Sonic and the Chaos emeralds. Everyone else is doing the same thing, which is kind of relieving, because Knuckles honestly feels pretty silly standing there, brows furrowed in concentration, trying to think happy thoughts. He’s not going to lie, it’s kind of hard- the world is ending, after all, and it seems Sonic’s the only hope for saving them.
On a small level, Knuckles thinks they should just seal Chaos back into the Master Emerald. No, it doesn’t really fix the problem, but this solution doesn’t seem viable, if he’s honest. From what he heard with Sonic and Tikal, Sonic isn’t just going to seal him, he’s going to soothe him.
Knuckles can’t really see that working, honestly. Sonic has to not only survive this confrontation with a god using the same Chaos emeralds he is, and he has to talk down the god from destroying the world? Yeah, right.
Still, Knuckles kind of wants to hope. He kind of wants to believe in this. So he channels that hope towards the emeralds as best he can, and waits.
The people of Station Square have noticed them by now, have noticed their favourite blue hero holding the Chaos emeralds. They’re cheering from their rooftops, eager to watch Sonic save the day once again. They don’t have much context for what’s happening, they don’t understand what or who Chaos is, they don’t understand much except that Sonic is around, and Sonic must be here to save them.
They’re not even cheering for Knuckles, but something in him does stir a bit at the sight of seeing thousands of people start to cheer for Sonic. They don’t even know about the drained Chaos emeralds- they’re simply cheering because it’s Sonic, because he’s here to save them. That complete confidence in a stranger makes Knuckles almost feel guilt for having doubt in his friend.
The emeralds begin to glow as more and more positive energy flows towards them. Sonic’s eyes slip close as the colours begin to bleed into the Chaos emeralds, and Knuckles watches with wide eyes as this plan actually works. They managed to recharge the Chaos emeralds!
A white light flashes over Station Square. If Knuckles can be quite honest, which he rarely is about things like this, to himself or to others, but the sight of Super Sonic always leaves him feeling awe.
There is something utterly awe inspiring, watching Sonic use the emeralds to essentially become someone else. Sonic’s quills turn a bright gold, his eyes a vibrant red, and there is an energy that surrounds him, something powerful, something mystic. Knuckles knows, at the end of the day, that it’s just Sonic, his same best friend who tells awful jokes and gives the worst nicknames, but there’s also something completely different about this sharp eyed, gold being who’s absorbed ancient energies to become something else.
Sonic is Sonic, as Super Sonic or as anything else. But there’s always something sharper to him, something more serious, more dangerous, almost, that often makes Knuckles wonder if the two are really the same person.
Sonic begins to float towards the sky, giving them a small smile before glancing at the people of Station Square. There’s countless people crowded on roof tops, waiting for a rescue team to be deployed, but more likely, waiting for Sonic to save the day.
“Don’t worry!” Sonic calls to the people on the rooftops. “I won’t let Chaos rain on your parade!”
Knuckles grimaces at the joke while the residents of Station Square cheer. Sonic bursts off after Chaos, looking like a bolt of lightning streaking across the thunderous sky. Tails and Knuckles share a look before Tails points towards one of the highways by the fight. “Hey, let’s go watch Sonic! Just in case he needs help.”
Sonic’s going to need a lot of help, Knuckles thinks to himself. Though Knuckles and Tails are certainly not the people to provide it. Still, Tails offers to pick up Knuckles and they go sailing through the air. The humidity’s increased so much Knuckles isn’t sure he’d be able to glide.
Amy stays by Big’s side, reassuring him. “Sonic’s on the case! He’ll save everyone!”
Knuckles and Tails situate themselves on Route 81, watching the fight. And Knuckles is... surprised, honestly, that Sonic is able to match Chaos, pitch for pitch, punch for punch. Sonic fights, not ruthlessly, not cunningly, not maliciously. Sonic fights, only dodging Chaos’s attacks, only sending back what was dished to him.
Knuckles can feel the soothing energy he’s radiating even from back here. He can feel the calmness washing over the entire city, can feel the gentle energy settle his own anxiety. It’s bizarre, and Knuckles wonders if it’s intentional, if Sonic is trying to ease the fears of everyone here, or if he really can’t control his power as well as he likes to let others believe.
It takes a bit, for Chaos to begin to settle down. It thrashes and screams and shrieks and lashes. It does not want to go down without a fight, it does not want to go down, period. It wants the people of this time to pay for the crimes Chaos has witnessed, to pay for its chao brethren, to pay for the greed of Pachacamac and his tribe.
Knuckles has to say Chaos was right to be angry. Pachacamac did only want to use those emeralds to conquer other places, to invade and slaughter and reap the rewards of his violence. He wasn’t interested in the peace of his foremothers, he wasn’t interested in protecting his people.
Knuckles can’t help but wonder how many times Chaos has lived through this same thing, over and over, watching as greed corrupts, as power leads to tyranny. How many times has Chaos been hurt? How many times has Chaos seen others hurt? All for the sake of misguided power.
Eventually, Chaos slowly stops thrashing and shrieking. Slowly, the rage begins to disintegrate, and slowly, Chaos loses its will to respawn in different parts of the city.
The floods begin to subside, the thunder loses its voice, the lightning loses its edge. Slowly, the city is no longer submerged under Chaos’s wrath. Slowly, peace settles over the city.
Chaos reforms for the last time not far away from where Knuckles and Tails were situated. Sonic appears close by, having released the Chaos emeralds, back to his normal, true blue self. They watch as chao flood the scene, cooing and reassuring Chaos, who watches over them almost fondly. Seeing the creatures it sought to protect safe and happy appears to mellow Chaos out even further, knowing that despite Pachacamac’s cruelty, its charges lived on and prospered.
Knuckles hums. “Chaos has changed again. This time for the better.”
Tails cheers. “Yeah! Super Sonic must have neutralized it, so it's nice again.”
Tikal appears, first as a small spirit, then as herself. She smiles at Chaos, soft and warm. “These are the chao you were protecting. They stayed alive for generations and now live peacefully with humans. The fighting's over. Harmony's restored, and life goes on.” She turns to face Knuckles, Sonic, and Tails, though her focus is mainly on Sonic. “Thank you so much!”
They don’t say a goodbye before Tikal seals herself and Chaos into the Master Emerald once again. The three of them watch in earnest as the two disappear before their eyes. The chao coo, clearly disappointed to see that Chaos had left, but they go back to playing amongst themselves quick enough.
Tails shrugs. “All's well that ends well, right? Sonic?”
Knuckles and Tails turn to face Sonic, but they find an empty space next to them. In the distance, Knuckles can see Sonic bouncing across Station Square, a blue blur chasing after what appears to be Eggman in his Eggmobile. Knuckles and Tails let out a quiet sigh.
“Guess we ought to start cleaning up this mess, huh?” Knuckles mutters, peering out at the city.
Tails stops him. “Let’s just enjoy this moment a little longer. Don’t tell me you don’t wanna go play with those Chao before we get back to work?”
Knuckles grins. “Might as well enjoy the spoils.”
-
Knuckles didn’t really think about many of the implications of Station Square that day, when he watched Sonic take down Perfect Chaos. He was so wrapped up in the mindset that Sonic would fail, and that they were honestly doomed, that he hadn’t considered much what it would mean if they succeed.
And Sonic did succeed.
Which means, of course, there’s much to ruminate about. Thankfully, Knuckles seems to have all the time in the world on his island to just think. Mainly, his thoughts are: how in the world did Sonic win?
Sonic shouldn’t have won. Knuckles’s ancestors were slaughtered by Chaos, the entire world went up in flames because of Chaos millennia ago. Chaos was only defeated because Tikal managed to seal it away, not because it was calm, not because Tikal managed to fight it and win.
But Sonic did fight it. Sonic not only fought it, but won. Sonic wore out a god of Chaos. Sonic fought a literal, actual god, and won.
Sonic fought the god that killed his people and won.
Knuckles can admit that statement leaves his head spinning. He’s not entirely sure how he feels about that sentiment. He’s thankful, of course, that Sonic did win, that Chaos was defeated, that the apocalypse was averted, that the world was saved, that nothing like this can ever happen again. He’s more than glad Sonic won- it’s not that he didn’t want Sonic to win, it’s more that Sonic shouldn’t have won.
And maybe, Knuckles can’t help but feel a little bitter about the fact that Sonic won. Why did Sonic win, when his ancestors couldn’t? Why was Sonic able to save everyone, but his people couldn’t stop Chaos the first time? What made Sonic so special, that he defeated a being a genius civilization couldn’t?
Knuckles doesn’t understand. Sonic succeeded where the Knuckles Clan failed, and he can’t help but wonder why. What makes Sonic so different from everyone else? Why is he so attuned to Chaos energy?
There’s so many questions Knuckles has now. He searches through his island, having long ago catalogued all of the ruins and statues and inscriptions, but desperate enough to see if maybe, just maybe, he over looked something. But there's no answers on this island over the mysteries of his friend. There’s no answers to his questions here, perhaps washed away millennia ago by a flood.
Sonic himself likely doesn’t know. Sonic’s never been shy about saying he doesn’t understand his own connection to the Chaos emeralds. Knuckles has tried, time and time again, to get him to spill his secrets, especially during the old days when they were more antagonistic rivals than friends, and Knuckles would shake him as hard as he could, demanding him to explain himself.
Maybe Sonic was lying. Maybe he does hold all the aces up his sleeve, maybe he’s just feigning being an idiot. It’s a tactic Knuckles took a while to notice, that Sonic has a tendency to get people to underestimate him. He is foolish and impulsive and reckless, but at the same time,
he’s observant and intelligent and often proves to be rather wise.
He’s not as black and white as Knuckles thought him to be, he’s not just some dumb daredevil kid who just wants to have fun. He is, of course, all of that, but he’s also so much more, and it confuses Knuckles, so he prefers to just look at him at face value and not think too hard about it.
Maybe Sonic knows everything. But Knuckles has a feeling Sonic really doesn’t. After all, Sonic still seemed surprised about recharging the emeralds. So maybe Sonic doesn’t quite understand himself, either.
Which means there’s no one to ask these questions to. Or at least, no one who can answer.
Knuckles stares at the statues in Hydrocity. They’re obviously hedgehogs, now that Knuckles has a frame of reference, and they very obviously look like Sonic. Why would his people make statues of another Mobian race? He’s seen echidna statues all over the place, which makes sense. But other than hedgehogs and echidnas, there’s no other recordings of Mobians, other than in simple passing in a handful of murals.
But there's nothing like the statues in Hydrocity.
Knuckles wonders, what Tikal could have told him. Would she have the answers to the questions he wants to ask? Something tells him she probably wouldn’t know, either.
Sonic’s situation bothers Knuckles, and bothers him quite a bit, but there’s other things Knuckles can’t help but ruminate on. If Chaos destroyed his people, roughly four thousand years ago, and if Tikal was one of the first to come across the Chaos emeralds, how did all of this advanced technology come about?
His people were dying, and had been nearly eradicated by the physical manifestation of Chaos. Did they not learn their lesson, watching their peers be slaughtered and drowned in a near apocalypse? How could they have created all of this technology so long ago, when their first contact with Chaos energy and emeralds lead to their people being almost entirely destroyed?
There’s so much about his own people he doesn’t understand. Knuckles can’t help but wonder, truly, about his clan. Did they go against a god in an act of hubris even greater than the greed that caused them to be nearly decimated? Or was it someone else who developed this technology?
Knuckles doesn’t know. There’s so many questions he has, and there isn’t anyone to ask.
-
Just when Knuckles thought things couldn’t get weirder, they do.
Shadow the Hedgehog arrives.
Knuckles learns to curse the entire Eggman lineage. Perhaps Gerald began as a great man with great intentions, but so many of their disasters are caused by him. Shadow is only one of them.
Eggman uncovers a weapon his grandfather had created fifty years ago, which starts a huge chain of events that leads to the realization Sonic isn’t the only one who can use the Chaos emeralds. Shadow, created by Gerald originally to cure a sickness his granddaughter was afflicted with, was also created to be a so-called ultimate lifeform and ultimate weapon.
He was created to be able to use the Chaos emeralds, and boy, does he.
Knuckles isn’t a huge part of this bizarre conspiracy. He’s got better things to do, like keep that jewel thief Rouge away from his Master Emerald. But everyone’s storylines seems to cross, as they usually do, and Knuckles learns more about what exactly is happening.
The Chaos emeralds are collected, Knuckles manages to restore the Master Emerald, and they stop Eggman from using the eclipse cannon. It all seems great, until Gerald Robotnik appears on screen, explains his life story, and proceeds to tell them that he’s going to destroy the world by launching the ARK into the earth.
Fantastic.
Chaos, Knuckles hates the Robotnik family tree.
Sonic and Knuckles try to slow the descent of the ARK with the Master Emerald, but it isn’t enough. Shadow defeats his prototype, some lizard looking thing that reminds Knuckles of the Perfect Chaos mural back on his island, but that also isn’t enough. The Biolizard uses Chaos control to merge with the ARK, and a course collision is set.
Sonic and Shadow use the Chaos emeralds to try to defeat the Biolizard and stop the ARK from destroying their entire planet.
There’s... Knuckles doesn’t even know where to start unpacking all of the insanity he’s seen on this adventure.
Knuckles is going to start with this: Gerald Robotnik has clearly been to Angel Island. He has a shrine that mimics the one above ground, not in the hidden palace. It has the pillars for all of the Chaos emeralds and a spot for the Master Emerald, and it mimics it perfectly, with the only exception that it doesn’t look quite so ancient. Most people don’t even know about the Master Emerald, since it’s been hidden away on Angel Island for so long- when they think of the miracle gems, they think only of the seven Chaos emeralds.
Gerald did his research, which means he might have even cracked the code for where Angel Island was. After all, Eggman was able to do the same thing, fifty years later.
Additionally, the Biolizard was even more damning evidence. A giant lizard-like monster with the ability to harness the Chaos emeralds? That sounded like a description for Perfect Chaos. And Gerald went from creating a gigantic lizard to creating a hedgehog for his ultimate lifeform project? Gerald must have seen the mural in hidden palace or the hedgehogs in hydrocity. He must have, because the only similarities between the two are the ability to use Chaos energy.
Was that Gerald’s only criteria for an ultimate lifeform? The ability to use Chaos energy? Why?
And these questions are just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a whole slew of mysteries surrounding Shadow, so Knuckles doesn’t even bother with him.
Because Sonic and Shadow manage to save the day, but the most absolutely insanity-inducing twist happens.
Shadow dies.
Shadow the Hedgehog, genetically engineered to be the ultimate lifeform, man made perfect being, with a built in connection to the Chaos Force, dies.
He dies.
Yes, yes, it’s all sad and stuff. Sure. Knuckles honestly wasn’t entirely convinced he was good guy when he died, so maybe Knuckles is being a bit of a jerk here. But there’s a bigger picture here that Knuckles would like to uncover.
Sonic survives impossible odds. Knuckles knows this. Sonic defeated a god. Sonic used a fake Chaos emerald which Shadow himself said would have been impossible to use, and Tails later confirms this. Sonic continues to pull off insane feats no one else can manage.
But Sonic is also just another person off the streets. He’s not so different from Knuckles, now, not in the grand scheme of things. He was born off some hick island that’s so unimportant it’s not on most maps. He wasn’t man made (so far as they know), he wasn’t anything special, really. He was just another normal Mobian who also somehow has a connection to a primordial energy that at best acknowledges Knuckles’s prayers.
And Sonic is the guy that lives.
Now, Knuckles is grateful. If it had to be Sonic or Shadow, Knuckles is thankful it was Shadow who died, because Sonic is his best friend, because Sonic is at his core a very good person, and Knuckles has no doubt that if he did have a choice, Sonic would have switched places with Shadow in a heartbeat, which is why Knuckles is glad Sonic lived. But Knuckles can not for the life of him understand how Sonic lived.
He’s just some guy! He’s not the ultimate life from, he wasn’t created to literally use the Chaos emeralds and turn super and save the world like Shadow the Hedgehog was. He’s just Sonic. Just a guy that loves adventure.
Even Shadow is confused by Sonic constantly being able to one up him, constantly able to do things he definitely, definitely shouldn’t be able to. Shadow, the one who was created to do all of those same things.
Knuckles isn’t super book smart. Maybe he could have been in another life, if he wasn’t the guardian of a powerful energy source, if he wasn’t the sole survivor of a near extinct race. But for crying out loud, he couldn’t possibly be the only person who finds this all suspect.
Shadow dies, Sonic lives. It should be relieving, and Knuckles is thankful, always, but it just does not make sense.
“Look,” Knuckles says, as Amy and Tails begin to shuffle towards an exit. Rouge has already disappeared, and Eggman as well. No one bothers chasing after Eggman this time, though. He seems rather... disheartened by his grandfather. Knuckles honestly wouldn’t know how to react to finding out one of his relatives tried to end the world he was still living on. Sonic is still in the other room, peering out at the stars. Shadow’s the first person he wasn’t able to save, at least, as far as Knuckles knows. They can give him space. But while he’s preoccupied... “Am I the only one here who thinks it’s weird Sonic lived but Shadow died?”
“What?” Amy snapped. “Are you saying you think Sonic should have died instead?”
“I mean, logically speaking...” Tails trails off, then sighs. “Sonic should have been the one to die.”
Amy’s brows furrow. “What, why would you say that?”
“Shadow was created to be able to use Chaos energy. His prototype was able to use Chaos control, so that must have been an important aspect to Gerald’s research. Theoretically, Shadow should have been able to survive that Chaos control. He was engineered to be the ultimate lifeform, after all.” Tails shakes his head. “And there’s no way Shadow did more work than Sonic or something. Sonic always pulls his weight.”
“I guess so. Maybe Shadow just doesn’t have enough experience with Chaos energy.” Amy sighs. “I don’t know. And I don’t think we’ll ever really know.”
“Yeah.” Tails remains quiet, staring at the room Sonic was still in. “I’m just glad Sonic’s alright.”
“I hope Shadow gets to be reunited with Maria.”
Knuckles, very wisely, bites his tongue on a remark that Shadow would most certainly not be in heaven, but probably somewhere closer to the planet’s core. “I guess he deserves some rest.”
-
And of course, because Knuckles’s life has gotten more absurd since Sonic stepped foot on his island, Shadow doesn’t even stay dead.
There’s a whole slew of events that Knuckles has to work very, very hard not to lose his mind over. Shadow comes back to life, after Eggman reveals to have saved him, but also there’s a whole bunch of Shadow clones and no one seems entirely sure if Shadow is the real one or if he’s also an android (Knuckles would love to add that this does not get settled. Everybody just goes along with the idea that that really is Shadow. Eggman also claims that that’s the real Shadow, but Eggman also lies all the time. Knuckles would know.)
So, sure, alright, Shadow comes back. Bizarre, kind of makes Knuckles consider giving up on ever understanding that guy, and then what happens not long after that? Boom, alien invasion.
From the aliens Shadow is apparently related to.
Knuckles just ends up hating Gerald more. Who in their right mind teams up with an alien race known to conquer planets and wipe out their populations? Who looks at those creatures and thinks that they are going to help create a cure? Who looks at that devilish hive mind leader and doesn’t think yeah, this will end terribly?
They learn aliens are real from this adventure. In fact, they’ll even encounter more in the future. Fine. Knuckles can handle this.
And then... there’s the Gizoid.
Knuckles absolutely loathes Gerald Robotnik by now.
It’s just... Knuckles can’t really imagine Gerald having such good intentions. He bases the ultimate life form off of the Chaos beast who destroyed his clan (and yes, Perfect Chaos ends up being a provoked god that otherwise had good intentions and desires, but Gerald certainly wouldn’t have known that). And Gerald uses the Gizoid in his studies to understand ultimate lifeforms, but the Gizoid was definitely created to win wars. And, to top it all off, he uses biodata from a population of aliens that want to eat all of the people on earth. There’s no way Gerald wasn’t intentionally creating a war machine.
In fact, while they aren’t aliens (oh, the irony of this sentiment, it they are still far out from visiting Starfall Islands) the chao have complex relations to Chaos energy and immortality. They’re simple and kind creatures with no ulterior motives to consume life on earth. Why would Gerald pick the Black Arms to make a deal with?
The gizoid, though, is what Knuckles really wants to talk about.
The gizoid looks strikingly similar to Perfect Chaos, if Knuckles thinks about it. Those big, green eyes, the ability to use Chaos energy, and the original creators desire to mimic another ultimate lifeform. Knuckles is pretty sure the Gizoid was based off of Perfect Chaos, just as Gerald had based the Biolizard off of it. There’s still plenty of questions, though Knuckles suspects his own people may have been involved in the Gizoids creation (which is another mark against Gerald. Isn’t there any other civilization he can pick and choose things from to blaspheme?).
The Gizoid was created to absorb data, to observe and learn from those around it. Importantly, it was made to become the ultimate lifeform, not unlike Shadow. It was made to be unstoppable- Eggman nor Gerald Robotnik could figure out its full function and potential. It was advanced and engineered to be literally unbeatable, it had collected all of Knuckles and his friends’ (and enemies) biodata.
(Knuckles refuses to consider how earlier, Metal Sonic had done the exact same thing, stealing their biodata and becoming Metal Madness. Is there a connection there, between Sonic, Metal Sonic, and the Gizoid? What are the true qualifications of being an ultimate lifeform? Chaos energy manipulation and extreme adaptability?)
And of course, Sonic the Hedgehog defeats it.
He’s glad Sonic keeps winning, or else they would be one hundred percent screwed. But to go against gods, to go against multiple ultimate lifeforms, and come out on top?
What exactly is that guy made of?
The Gizoid had all of their bio data, had absorbed copious amounts of Chaos energy, and Sonic still managed to defeat him. The Gizoid was a literal ultimate lifeform, better than Shadow, not unlike Perfect Chaos, a true weapon, and Sonic defeats him.
Sonic wins. Easy as that.
And then they go on with their lives.
Knuckles just... can’t wrap his head around everything they’ve learned.
“Okay,” he begins, as he hits his head against the Master Emerald, Flickies and pickies are gathered around, watching him curiously. “What is with everyone's obsession with an ultimate lifeform? It’s like everyone’s trying to recreate Perfect Chaos. But why? He nearly destroyed everything. And also, Perfect Chaos was literally just a mutated chao. Was Perfect Chaos even the original ultimate lifeform- no, scratch that, I don’t even want to open that can of worms.”
The flickies peer at the mural behind him while the rockies chatter. Knuckles eyes the mural. “What, are you saying the guy in the mural is the ultimate lifeform everyone wants?”
Knuckles hums, moving closer to the mural. The hedgehog thing was similar to Perfect Chaos, he supposed, especially if it had the same coloration as Sonic. Blue, with big green eyes, that could undergo a new transformation using the Chaos emeralds. Just like the Gizoid, too. Shadow nor the Biolizard didn’t really look like that, but maybe that’s because of the Black Arms DNA. And since Shadow was clearly more of a success, that means the hedgehog was probably more of an ultimate life form than Perfect Chaos...?
Knuckles slams his fist into the wall, missing the outer edge of the mural. The forest animals startle at his response, and they start chirping and squawking. “Nope. I’m not going to go down this rabbit hole.”
Knuckles takes a deep breath. There’s a startling amount of connections to be made between Perfect Chaos, Project Shadow, the Gizoids, and Sonic. Knuckles decides that he really, really shouldn’t go down this rabbit hole. There’s no one here to answer his questions.
-
An accident happens, and Knuckles is transported to Starfall Islands. Lucky for him, Sonic, Tails, and Amy also crash landed on the island while tracking the odd behaviors of the Chaos emeralds, and Sonic managed to escape the cyberspace prison the rest of them had been captured in. Another strange fact for Knuckles to file away, that Sonic managed to outrun the cyber prison, something Sonic offhandedly later mentions seemed to baffle the End as well.
Being incorporeal is a strange thing. Knuckles spends time with the Koco while Sonic is off collecting the emeralds, watching as they fight a war already lost. Sonic and Knuckles are transported a few times to the past to watch the Ancients try to stave off a failing war.
What captures Knuckles’s attention, other than the Koco themselves, and the fact that the Ancients look like Chaos in his base form, is also the fact that so many ruins on this island that reminds him of Angel Island and the wondrous technology that existed there. When they’re guiding the soldier Koco to the bunker, Knuckles can’t help but think of his home.
“Is this the place? Yo, Knux?”
Sonic is watching him curiously. Knuckles hesitates for a moment. Sonic is clearly a key compontnent to stopping whatever nonsense is going on on this island, considering he was the only person that could escape Cyberspace. He was also the only one of them that could so aptly harness the power of the Chaos emeralds, and repeatedly so.
It makes him think of Sonic, gold and glimmering, seen for the first time approaching his island, all those years ago. And again, then Sonic fought Eggman to retrieve his Master Emerald, and Knuckles saw the true glory of such a form. Sonic was entrenched in the legacy of his people, somehow, someway, and Knuckles wonders what he thinks.
“Sonic, this... this looks like ruins from back home. What if the people of these islands survived and resettled on Angel Island?”
The thought is driving Knuckles insane. The connection between the Ancients and his people were so obvious now. The strange technology on his island couldn’t have possibly come from the Knuckles clan, who had been scared off by Chaos’s wrath. Still, the ruins looked far newer than the ones on this island. What was the exact nature of this connection, Knuckles wasn’t sure. But the scope of his home and all the things that were on it had grown exponentially.
Sonic only appeared mildly contemplative. “That'd make this pretty important.”
Towers appear, and Sonic disappears. Knuckles settles himself to watch over the landscape. Wondering about all he’s seeing. The fate of the Ancients remind him much of himself, and the cyclical nature of so many ancient civilizations has Knuckles feeling melancholic. Knuckles doesn't know exactly what the Ancients were fighting, but it’s clear it was a losing battle.
The Knuckles clan had been wiped out trying to harness the powers of a god. Later, Knuckles would learn the Nocturnus would seemingly be punished for their Gizoid creations and never ending war. Gerald Robotnik, in his attempt to create an ultimate lifeform, very nearly doomed all of humanity. And Knuckles wonders if the Ancients have a similar fate because they have done similar sins. Were they interested in the ultimate lifeform? What purpose did they have in using the Chaos emeralds, beyond now attempting to contain the force that was after them?
Sonic sits next to Knuckles. Patiently, Sonic waits for Knuckles to speak. “Ages ago my people were wiped out by a cataclysm. I know the Koco faced something similar. It reminds me I'm the last Echidna. That I'm alone.”
Sonic reassures him that he isn’t, and Knuckles knows that to be true. Still, the melancholy doesn’t fully fade, seeing how many times a story like his repeats. Tails revealing that the Chao are descendants of the Ancients, and that Chaos was a mutated Chao, only cements Knuckles’s thoughts on th ecyclical nature of seeking the power of the Chaos emeralds. For a long time, Knuckles ahd quietly cursed the creature for killing so many of his people, but now, Knuckles feels an odd kinship with it.
Practically the last of its kind, mutated back into what the Ancients once were, charged with watching over the Chao, the last remnants of its people and heritage, and the Master Emerald and Chaos emeralds, the very things that may have doomed its own kind once upon a time. Knuckles, four thousand years later, taking up the same role- the last of his people, charged with protecting the remains of his heritage on Angel Island, and keeping the Master Emerald’s power safe to ward off a repeat of the past.
Talking to Sonic is interesting. While dashing around for the Chaos emeralds, Knuckles tries to prod him about his own thoughts. He wants to believe that history won’t always be cyclical, but it was becoming damn hard not to wonder. Sonic, however, had proven time and before his willingness and ability to correct the mistakes made from others before him, soothing Perfect Chaos, defeating Gerald’s manifestations of hatred, soon to be destroying the Titans (and the End).
Knuckles wonders what Sonic thinks as he travels through these islands, what he sees, what he believes. What connections does Sonic make, regarding this civilization and countless others. Does he see a grander picture, the way Knuckles does? Of hatred and doom linked to the emeralds he constantly finds and uses? What does it reflect of him, and his continuous usage of such harbingers of bad luck and destruction? Does he see a connection between so many ultimate lifeform attempts and all the struggles they’ve come across?
Sonic admits he sees a connection between the ruins on Angel Island and here. They aren’t exactly the same, but Sonic considers the idea, “... the Ancients and Echidnas weren't related. But one group must have inspired the other.”
Was the mural on Angel Island a remnant od his people or the Ancients? The style reminds him faintly of his people, but the statue in hydrocity doesn’t match the art style at all. It’s clear the Ancients are much older than the echidna… how much did their civilization bleed into the echidnas once they were banished on Angel Island?
The cumulation of this adventure leads to Sonic and Sage fighting against the embodiment of entropy. How exactly the Ancients came in contact with the End isn’t quite clear, but Knuckles finds it interesting that the entity only became involved once they began experimenting with the Chaos emeralds. Knuckles also finds it baffling that the Master Emerald was on earth and was the reason they crashed landed here. Why were they ever separated?
Knuckles thought that perhaps the Ancients were the progenitors of the Chaos emeralds. But if the Master Emerald was “from” earth, and not on their own planet, was it possible that there was a race of aliens before the Ancients, who created or found the Chaos emeralds? Did they end up following the same cyclical story of devastation when using the Chaos emeralds?
Amy mentions that Sage told her about the god of the Ancients. Of course, the nature of the deity is information hard pressed to come by considering how old these ruins are. Chaos was once worshipped as a god as well, despite being a mutated chao. Was the god the Ancients spoke of truly a god? How much of a hand did it have in everything that occurred? Or was it the last survivor of another race like Chaos was the echidnas, and mistaken for a powerful deity to mortals with no comprehension of the terror the Chaos emeralds produced?
What was the End, a being that spoke of itself as above even deities? Was it an actual deity? Or was it possible the Ancients created it? They were a hyper intelligent race of aliens, and what Knuckles has learned from the constant battles Sonic and him have fought is that intelligence seeks perfection, and perfection seeks an ultimate lifeform. The fourth great civilization sought the gizoids, Gerald sought Shadow. What Chaos a manifestation of this desires? Was the chao mutated by the Master Emerald on purpose, by the will of another or by the Master Emerald itself now that the Ancients had died off into the chao and could not protect it?
Was the End a possible ultimate lifeform attempt? By the Ancients, or perhaps by their own god? He doesn’t know for certain, and perhaps it’s impossible to know the truth.
But this adventure has certainly shifted Knuckles’s worldview. He investigates the mystic ruins and a few other places on the islands they frequent. There were many artifacts of the Ancients, now that he looked more closely, and the Echidna architecture was plain as well. There were something that matched either of them, and Knuckles would scratch his head over that for another few years until he meets the sister branch to the Knuckles clan.
For now, Knuckles is back on his island, left to wonder about all he had seen. The mural in the hidden palace has always made Knuckles wonder, but he was left with even more questions than before. The statues in hydrocity were a different art style than the mural. It seemed that his ancestors created the mural, and perhaps the ancients created the statues. Their influence bled into his people, but how could the Ancients have known what a hedgehog was?
Was the mural a depiction of something else the Echidnas had seen, swept away in the flood? Did the Ancients predict the fight between Sonic and Eggman on Angel Island, all those years ago? But why? What was so cosmically important about that fight? What was so cosmically important about Sonic the Hedgehog, depicted on multiple ruins on Angel Island, in multiple art styles, in possibly multiple cultures? What was so important about Sonic?
It was true Sonic had done feats no one else could. The manipulation of the Chaos emeralds was a rare ability indeed- Sage herself questions Sonic’s relationship, and later will cite that even Gerald, the originator of the Project Shadow ultimate lifeform search, declared that an organic creature interfacing with a Chaos emerald directly would be fearsome indeed. Sonic was different, that much was obvious. His connection to the emeralds was like no other- able to maintain it for long periods of time, like when he was on the moon for several days, and able to frequently repeat a transformation like Knuckles had just seen. Knuckles knows Sonic has even transformed purely for fun, back when he managed to punch the Chaos emeralds out of him.
Sonic had done the impossible multiple times. Sonic had used a fake Chaos emerald to warp time and space- his first successful use of Chaos Control, a feat even Shadow found staggering. He survived when Shadow fell.
Sonic fought Perfect Chaos- and during the events of the Time Eater at his birthday party, would fight and defeat him in his base form, without the need of the Chaos emeralds, something he offhandedly mentions like it isn’t even a big deal.
Sonic continues to fight against creatures that are supposed to be better than him and comes out on top. Sonic continues to surpass those were were inspirations for ultimate lifeforms, or were created and artificial lifeforms. Sonic has beaten both Gizoids, has beaten Shadow and often surpasses him, has fought against Perfect Chaos, has defeated the creations of the Ancients, and the End itself.
What is Sonic? Knuckles can’t help but wonder. Not even the Ancients seemed to have an answer for that.
-
Later, he meets the Nocturnus Clan. They don’t have all the answers for him- it’s been four thousand years for them as well. Knuckles is already placated with the idea of meeting other people like him, who can share parts of their culture as well.
Knuckles begins to establish a timeline between the two factions of the echidnas. The Knuckles Clan was a smaller faction of the Echidna, who formed after the split between two sisters or something. The Knuckles Clan was much smaller, and had adopted a more pacifistic lifestyle under their matriarch, until Pachacamac’s wife died mysteriously and he took over as leader, launching them into a campaign to conquer the world through brute force. Everyone knows how that went.
The Knuckles and Nocturnus Clan interacted infrequently with each other. The Nocturnus Clan had been developing the gizoids, and the Knuckles Clan was looking for a weapon to counteract them. That's when they come across the Chaos Emeralds on what would become Angel Island, and invoke the wrath of Perfect Chaos. Shade establishes that the demise of the Knuckles Clan occurs before the Nocturnus Clan is wiped from earth.
"What about the ancient technology on Angel Island?" Knuckles can't help but ask. He's seen a few records that indicated the technical prowess of the Nocturnus Clan, and now knows it to be true. The Ancients had clearly settled on Angel Island, so the technology was likely there’s. It was nice to finally confirm a couple of truths. "Was that yours?"
Shade tilts her head at the question. "I'm afraid not. We attempted to make contact with the Knuckles Clan a few times, bribing them with promises of fixing the technology on the island to interact with the Master Emerald, but we didn't build the technology. It was already there long before any Echidna stepped foot on the island."
So the technology truly belonged to the Ancients. The Nocturnus clan seemed to emulate the Ancient’s designs quite well, and Knuckles suspects they learned the craft through the ruins of Angel Island and similar islands with leftover tech from the Ancients.
"Is that how you were able to integrate Chaos energy with your machines? Through the Master Emerald?"
"No, we were able to collect the Chaos emeralds. After the Perfect Chaos incident, the emeralds were spread across the entire world. Now that the Knuckles Clan was no longer competition, we were able to conquer nearly an entire fourth of the world. They said the sun never set on the lands of the Nocturnus." It's not pride in Shade’s voice, but instead disdain. "We were able to find the emeralds in our crusades, and used them to forge even more devastating weapons. We gave life to the Gizoids. We caused untold ruin across all of Mobius. Perhaps that's why Argus took us away."
"The Argus Event..."
"Many of my people believe that our greed caused the Chaos Emeralds to turn against us. A blinding flash of light and the whisper of Argus was all the warning we had before we were whisked away to the Twilight Cage at the height of our empire."
Shade and Knuckles ruminate on the origins of Argus, and what it could have been. The best description she can give is a strange tentacle creature, and Knuckles's mind wanders to Chao in his perfect form. If this occurred after Chaos’s wrath, was it possible that another Chao was mutated? Or was it possible that the Ancients in Angel Island had died off, but others still lingered during the Nocturnus rule?
What Argus was could not be defined by those who experienced such an event. They ruled it off as a divine intervention by the emeralds. They say the Ancients had a god of their own. Could it have been that? Seeing the same mistake that the Ancients perhaps once committed? It depended on how related the god was to the Chaos emeralds.
Knuckles shakes his head. There’s a thousand more questions Knuckles has about Shade’s people, and his own. In time, he’ll unravel as much as he can about this conundrum. For now, he enjoys the stories Shade tells him.
-
Knuckles peeks an eye over at Sonic, who’s peering up at the mural.
He’s seventeen now, and Knuckles just turned eighteen. The Mauraders and the Twilight Cage was barely a month ago, and Eggman already tried to attack Angel Island. Turns out Sonic was right- Eggman really hadn’t died in that crash like they thought he did.
Knuckles should have known better. That man was worse than any cockroach.
Sonic offered to lend a hand and clean up the mess Eggman tried to make. “I brought them here, after all, and it’s been so long since I’ve been here!”
“You were here last week with Tails.”
“It’s been so long since I’ve been able to explore, how about that?”
Sonic used to zoom across the island when they were younger, exploring every nook and cranny he could find. It’s that adventurous spirit that draws him in, and Angel Island is filled with plenty of things to wonder at. Perhaps Sonic might find something new.
Shade and a few others had already started to reconstruct some of the things Eggman had wrecked. They were in the process of revitalizing Angel Island, since that was their new home, after escaping the Twilight Cage. Knuckles was enamored at watching them, as they created a whole new civilization from scratch.
“No offense,” Shade began, when she stepped foot on the island and Knuckles had given her and her people a tour. “But this place is awful. It really is the ruin of some disaster. Maybe that works for a dying people, but we are no longer a dying people.” She grins at him. “We’re going to thrive. But first, we’re going to have to do some reconstruction.”
Knuckles watches Sonic peer up at the mural. He’s tried to ask him about it before, when they were just kids, and even when they were teenagers. Sonic was always so flippant with him, though.
“Shade wanted to tear this place down,” Knuckles says, quietly. “Considering how much bad blood the Nocturnus has with their past, I don't think they’re fond of historical sites. I convinced them not to, though. Anything important to my own heritage, they promised to let be.”
Sonic glances away from the mural, watching Knuckles. “It’s gonna be kind of weird, seeing this place looking like a real city or something. What do you feel?”
“Excited, honestly. This is everything I’ve ever wanted.” Knuckles glances at the mural. “This whole single guardian thing isn’t... working out. Shade suggests that there be a group of guardians to look out for the emerald. I’ll still be the main one, of course, but... I get to go explore the world a lot more frequently than before. My people are here, and sure, I guess we saved them, but they’re doing a fantastic job, saving me right back.”
Sonic smiles. “That’s great! This means you can go on real treasure hunts, huh? I bet Rouge is excited...”
“Who cares.” Knuckles crosses his arms. Sonic and him both know he scheduled a treasure hunt trip with Rouge next week, but it’s the principle of the matter. “It’s just been nice, though, having people to teach me about my own culture. But there's still things I don’t really understand.”
“Like what?”
Knuckles nods at the mural. “Shade and her people developed a new language. It’s similar to mine, but different. I guess like the language in Spagonia versus the language in Apotos. Same common family, different language, though. We’re still trying to get a translate working on that.” He pauses, peering at the mural. Shade thinks it’s in the language of old Echidna, but even she isn’t sure if it’s an original story or a translation of something once heard from the Ancients. “Which means we still don’t know what any of this says.”
“You told me once it was the story of a hero.”
“Yeah, it is. But that’s only half the story.” Knuckles sighed. “I guess we won’t be able to tell for certain what the prophecy’s really supposed to be. Kinda funny, though, how that guy looks like you.”
“They got the nose wrong,” Sonic says, breezily. “And are you going to gloss over the Eggman on the other side?”
“They are uncanny.” Knuckles shrugs. “Maybe it’s a prophecy for something that already happened. Maybe it was to represent what happened when we were kids.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Hm?”
“I guess I don't like the idea of something I’ve done having been prophesied or something.” Sonic shrugs. “But eh, what’s the use in moping over this thing, anyway? We should probably help Shade with Mushroom Hill.”
Knuckles doesn’t move to follow after Sonic. “Hey Sonic, do you think...”
Sonic frowns, spinning on his heels. “Hm? Do I think what?”
Knuckles stares at the glaze ceramic tiles. There’s a history here, once Knuckles may never learn, questions that may never be answered. Shade’s people can only tell him so much, when four thousand years have passed, and they have begun to forget even their own past. The Ancients knew so much, but even they had fallen to the whims of entropy in the end, and what secrets they knew may have been lost with them. The truth of Angel Island and all its mysteries, and the truth of the ultimate lifeforms, were often long gone. The truth of what Sonic was, of his connection to all these strange events, was something Knuckles isn’t sure he’ll ever find a proper answer to.
Sonic wouldn’t know any better than him. Probably even less. “Never mind. I’ll race you there.”
Sonic laughs. “I’d like to see you try.”
In a flash, he’s gone, dancing with the wind. Knuckles knows he won’t win, so he lingers in the palace, staring at the work of long dead ancestors. He can’t help but wonder what they would tell him, if they could speak to him. Did they have the answers he wanted?
Could they tell him what this mural meant? Could they tell him more about Perfect Chaos and what its job was? Could they tell him how the Chaos emeralds came to be? Could they tell him more about this ultimate lifeform that seems to pop up through history, again and again and again?
Well, they’re not here. Knuckles will just have to answer these questions himself, or leave them unanswered.
Knuckles thinks back to Sonic, his unwavering strength, his pure luck, his Chaotic connections. Maybe the answers are easier to find than he thinks. Maybe all the puzzle pieces are laid out right in front of him. He just needs to put it together.
But does it matter?
The past is the past, Sonic’s prone to saying. All that matters is the present.
Knuckles chases after Sonic, knowing he’s long since lost the race, but eager to get to Shade and Sonic before Sonic tells her something embarrassing.