“This feels strange,” Eggman muttered to himself as he helped Tails shift the Master Emerald back into place on its altar, its brilliant glow gleaming from underneath the ash dusted across its surface. It tempted him, like it always did, its siren song like the world’s most precious treasure. The glow glinted against his specs before Tails nudged him, the young fox giving him a pointed look.
“Unless you want that again, I don’t think you should think about it,” the kit warned, his nose wrinkling from the stench of sulphur still lingering in the air. The lava had slowed its run, now having cooled and formed hard rock around the surrounding surface area, blocked from advancing further across the island by the trench Sonic and Super Amy had formed around the emerald shrine.
Super Amy. Still weird to think she could turn Super.
Eggman snorted, adjusting his specs with a finger or two. “I wouldn’t dream of it, fox. Though I would be interested to run some tests on the guardian…” Tails rolled his eyes and shifted away from the scientist, swatting him with his tails as he did so and earning a “out of curiosity!” as he started down the stairs of the shrine. Taking one last, longing look at the Master Emerald, Eggman sighed and turned to leave as well, though in a different direction. He wasn’t interested in sticking around for the heroic aftermath, the thought making him want to retch.
Amy had since powered down, the golden glow leaving her quills and fur slightly frazzled and a tingle in her veins. Knuckles’ head rested in her lap, her fingers gently tracing his dreadlocks as he fought some terrible dream, face twitching. Lingering rage? She couldn’t tell while in this depowered form, looking up as she heard Sonic whistle lowly.
“Who knew Knux had it in him?” The blue hedgehog was bent over, picking up some stray rock and if Amy looked closely, she could see it had formerly been lava. He turned it over in his paw, a thoughtful look on his face, and lifted his head to meet her gaze. Sonic of all people remembered Perfect Chaos, how the watery creature had slammed him into buildings and tossed him around like salad. He also remembered the hurt and fear and anger in his head, the flashes of how Chaos had been hurt in the first place, so long ago. “He’s never talked about anything like that.”
“When have you ever known Knuckles to talk about something?” Amy raised an eyebrow, her fingers curling back and brushing his forehead with the back of her hand. “Or asked?”
“True.” Sonic rolled the lava rock in his paw before dropping it, watching it clatter to the ground and splinter. “I’ve never seen him like that.”
“The chaos energy readings were off the charts.” Tails landed between them, shaking his head to brush some stray ash out of his fur. “How he achieved such a perfect form without the use of the Chaos Emeralds I don’t know, though he’s always had a special connection with the Master Emerald as long as we’ve known him.”
“Maybe…” Amy glanced away slightly, chewing her bottom lip. “I could sense something guiding him, connected to his heart like it supported his…lifespan.” Both boys looked at her, clearly wanting to know more but also incredulous. “He felt…I don’t know…older than he should have.”
“Well, we don’t know much about him,” Tails said, crossing his arms over his chest as though to mimic Sonic’s very pose at that moment, though more thoughtful. “Knuckles doesn’t…divulge much about his past.” That troubled him. Tails flicked his eyes over to his friend, still shifting restlessly in Amy’s lap. “If this has happened before he hasn’t mentioned it but…I noticed on the few times we’ve been here that the land around the shrine seems to be old lava, and the tunnels in Lava Reef are massive…”
“So Knux can turn into a giant lava kaiju, big deal.” Sonic shrugged. “He’s still our friend.” There were murmurs of agreement and his ear twitched, turning his attention to the echidna. “Hey, I think he’s waking up.”
Amy stilled her caresses, placing her hand on the ground next to her as she watched Knuckles open his eyes. He blinked back the sun’s glare, raising a paw (his mitts had been singed off by his transformation, long discarded), before he lowered it, looking up at her in awe. “A goddess…?” he murmured, causing her to giggle.
“No, silly, it’s just me, Amy.”
He blinked up at her and Amy felt her stomach drop and blood turn cold.
There was no recognition in his eyes.
