Awdures' mandatory 'version of reality blurb': Set during Sonic X season 3. Key essentials if you're reading it without having seen that: Evil robots stealing 'planet eggs' without which planets can't support life, chaos emeralds scattered all over the place again, Master Emerald commandeered by Sonic and company to power a spaceship Tails built to go collect them... I think that's about it...

Everyone slumped instantly in their seats in relief once Sonic was back on board. The adrenaline of battle died slowly away. Another planet, another World Egg, another Meterex, another fight.

A just one. One they couldn't fairly walk away from. But even so it was almost starting to seem normal, like an aim in itself, as if their actual reason for going after the Chaos Emeralds and any plan to get home had somehow got lost. Knuckles leaned against the wall below them, his eyes shut, wondering if he was the only one who remembered the reason they were out here in the first place. Their own world.

It seemed unlikely but then it had also seemed unlikely to him how easily everyone else had settled down in Chris's world, hardly seeming to miss their own. It seemed unlikely how little it seemed to bother anyone else living in this metal box in the middle of literally nothing, only ever seeing real daylight, or solid ground when they were in the middle of frantic searches or outright battle.

"Great job, guys!"

Knuckles opened his eyes. Sonic had charged in and was enthusing wildly while at the same time trying to extract himself from the grip Amy had around his neck having hurtled down to the airlock to meet him.

Sonic made a choking noise and held her off with one hand as he carried on speaking. "But we lost a lot of time, we really need to shift now!" He turned away from her. "Knuckles..."

Knuckles pushed himself upright from his slouch and finished the rest of the sentence. "I know, I know. You need the Master Emerald for extra speed. I'm going."

He turned his back on Sonic without waiting to see if he'd noticed his irritation and broke into a weary jog down the corridors to the engine room. Resting, even on his feet, while they got Sonic back from his latest cannon launch had been a mistake - every strained muscle and bump and bruise from the fight had stiffened up and protested as he ran. He should have kept moving.

He bypassed the control room, going straight to the rig which held the Master Emerald linked into the ship. Tails and Chris preferred him to be up at the console where he could monitor the readings but he disliked the distance, the separation of glass and height and his concentration wasn't up to it today. He scrambled up instead to the platform at the base of the Master Emerald, and shouted to be heard on the open intercom

"Now, Tails?"

"Soon as you're ready," came the cheerful voice.

Knuckles raised his hands to the green light, mouthed the words of the litany. It came slowly today. He was tired and restless, but he managed it, the light and power intensified, sweeping him along with it. He went willingly, drifting in the familiar light and there was something like understanding there too, for without his willing it, it soothed him, eased away the aches and pains and then faded dropping him softly back into his own awareness.

He stepped back to the intercom switch, eyes still on the Master Emerald. "Enough, Tails?"

"And then some!"

Knuckles didn't answer. He felt calmer, less sore, but he was incredibly sleepy. He though about heading to his cabin but before he'd realised it he was sitting, then lying down where he was, curled beneath the Emerald. If he shut his eyes he wouldn't see the cold metal or the machinery, would only see the green glow filtering through his eyelids and could believe, in the moments before sleep that the warmth on the side of his face was sunlight not hot engines, the smooth, hard surface beneath him stone not steel, that he was home.

On the bridge, the excited chatter and verbal replays of the action, or as Sonic put it, "awesome hedgehog skillz" - with a drawl on the 'Z' - had lasted over an hour before Tails said, "Uh oh."

"Uh oh?" Sonic broke off mid-flow to repeat it. "We don't want any Uh Ohs, buddy."

"I know. But I think we're being followed."

Everyone returned their attention to their consoles.

"Tails is right," confirmed both Chris and Amy almost simultaneously. "There's something back there."

"From the planet or a hitch-hiker we picked up on the way?" asked Sonic.

"I don't know." Tails frowned. "But it's gaining on us. Fast."

"There's an energy surge," Chris added.

"Weapons?" Amy bent lower over her screens.

"Maybe," Chris sounded uncertain.

Tails reached for the intercom. "We may need more power, Knuckles, you ready? What's the status down there?"

There was no answer.

"Knuckles?" Tails called again then frowned. "Is something up with the intercom?"

"It was fine earlier," Sonic shrugged.

"Could be some sort of interference," Chris suggested. "It's a big energy surge!"

Sonic jumped to his feet. "I'll tell him." He ran for the door. As he ran the corridors he could hear Tails continuing to call to Knuckles, warning him and the others that they were going to get hit, that they needed to move, or fight back, that they needed more power.

"Incoming!"

And then there was light and noise and Sonic lost track momentarily of which way was up and he was tumbled, legs still moving but no longer making contact with anything but air and this could absolutely not end well. Instinctively he curled into a ball, spun up, ricocheting instead of running down the corridor now.

"Knuckles!" He could hear Tails shouting over the din. "We need the Master Emerald now!"

"Now, Knuckles! Now!"

Knuckles fought to clear his head, to separate out the shouting from the other noise and make sense of it. He was groggy - either from being quite literally thrown awake or from the fact that he'd been chucked clear off the platform and, limp with shock, had smacked bodily into an assortment of control machinery before he'd had time to react. Everything ached all over again and when he tried to stand, to make his way back to the Master Emerald, since that was clearly what all the shouting was about, the world spun over and over.

No, he realised slowly, it was him spinning. Not just dizziness. Whatever had hit them had broken whatever it was that let them walk not float around the ship. The rotation was not improving his concentration and he grabbed out for anything to steady himself

Hand over hand he hauled himself back to the platform, fighting giddiness. Halfway up the gravity returned as suddenly as it had gone and he fell, ramming his claws into the metal and slamming against it as he caught himself. He made it to the top on his knees and all but fell against the Master Emerald. He clung to it, still on his knees, as another blast rocked the ship. He didn't even understand how they'd come to be under attack but Tails was still yelling for his help, and his panic was catching.

No litany, no focus, nothing but raw need drove him and the light was dazzling as the Master Emerald answered. He felt the acceleration, hung on tightly to stop himself slipping back off the platform, and then, slowly, when it was clear the danger had passed, let go and lay gasping, flat on his back.

"Lying down on the job, Knuckles?"

Sonic! That was all he needed. Knuckles turned his head without getting up. It was some consolation to see that the hedgehog looked almost as battered as he felt. Dishelleved, with several quills pointing totally the wrong way and so grubby that he must have skidded along more than one floor on the way down here.

"Go away, Sonic. I've got enough of a headache."

Predictably, Sonic ignored this. "So what happened?"

Knuckles sat up reluctantly and stared at the hedgehog, puzzled by the question. It couldn't be his bumps and bruises Sonic was concerned about but Knuckles couldn't work out another reason for the question.

"I fell," he said uncertainly. "Off the platform. When the ship was hit."

Sonic rolled his eyes. Clearly Knuckles' first guess had been right and he was asking about something else.

"And whose fault is that, knucklehead - didn't you hear Tails calling? He told you we needed the power to get away!"

Knuckles caught himself staring at the intercom speaker as though the answer would be found there. He replayed the last few minutes in his mind. He'd woken at the impact or the noise, he wasn't sure which but either way he was already tumbling through the air, the disorientation total.

"What were you doing? Napping?" Sonic demanded.

Knuckles' train of thought abruptly caught up with the present. Yes he'd been napping. And Sonic thought that meant this attack was his fault, that he'd been in some way slacking off. Anger replaced confusion.

He swung himself round, dangling his legs over the side of the platform.

"Yes, Sonic." he snapped. "I was napping." He leapt down to the deck, staggering wildly as one foot sent pain shooting clear to his knee. He must had banged that in the tumble as well.

"I didn't realise that I had to ask permission!" He stalked past Sonic towards the door, ignoring the injury.

"Hey," the hedgehog called, sounding affronted. "Where are you going?"

"For a nap!"

Sonic grabbed his arm as he passed and Knuckles whirled, shrugging him off. "Don't pull at me, Sonic! Don't tell me what to do!"

His grip on his temper, never very secure at the best of times, slipped completely and the next thing he knew he was shouting.

"I've had it with you telling me what to do! You treat me like a piece of equipment on this ship! You jump in that cannon or Tails throws a lever for more power to the engines and you expect it to just happen, like I'm just a -" he waved a hand, his technical vocabulary coming up short. "A switch. A wire. A cog. Like it makes no difference whether I was sleeping or fighting two minutes earlier, or for how long, or how often."

Sonic was shaking his head, already preparing to ignore him, too used to seeing him angry and Knuckles leapt at him determined to shake him into listening.

"I'm not a damned machine, Sonic! And I know you know the difference because no one bothers to shout at a machine when it goes wrong!"

Even as he tried to pull away from Knuckles' furious grip, Sonic's face fell into humour for a moment. "Actually I kinda do..."

Knuckles gave an infuriated snarl and flung him away, sending him skidding the length of the deck to fetch up against the wall where he sprang back to his feet and held up his hands.

"All right! Okay. I get it. You're tired. I'm sorry. But in case you haven't noticed this isn't exactly a pleasure cruise. What d'you want to do? You want to just stop off for some R&R while the planet might be falling apart back home?"

"The part of that planet that I'm responsible for started falling the moment you stole the Master Emerald, there's no 'might' about it!"

Sonic pushed off from the wall and squared back up.

"Oh again with that! See the bigger picture for once will you! The whole planet was in danger not just your precious little island. And I didn't see you coming up with any better ideas to save it!"

"You didn't give me a chance to try!"

Sonic hesitated. "Huh?"

Knuckles could feel the weakness in his knees, the shooting pain from his foot, he was running on nothing but anger now, when it ran out he was going to fall over.

"The Master Emerald, has been keeping the Floating Island safe in the sky for over a thousand years," he snarled, hanging onto the anger. "Keeping the atmosphere and temperature stable, keeping the seasons turning, the trees and plants growing, no matter where it drifts, no matter the altitude, no matter the conditions on the surface below. Don't you think there's just the slightest outside chance that it - that I - might have been able to do something to hold off what the Meterex had done if you hadn't press-ganged me onto this ship by stealing it?"

Sonic's face cycled through expressions almost comically fast.

After a moment he protested, "But we still would have needed to get the Chaos Emeralds back. We'd still have needed power for the Blue Typhoon..."

"Tails would have thought of something. But I was the easier option wasn't I? You knew if you took the Master Emerald I wouldn't have any choice but to come with you. You knew you could take it, you knew I wouldn't be looking for an attack from your direction. You knew if you put Cream and Amy between it and me that I couldn't attack them. And now I'm stuck on this ship and if we get shot down, I go down too so I don't have any choice but to keep using it when I'm told to - do I?"

The lights flickered, his foot no longer bore his weight and Knuckles sank to his knees, looking up at the Master Emerald poised in the claw-like grip of the machinery.

"Power intensified by the heart," he murmured. "Can't even let off steam without messing up Tails' handiwork can I?" He looked up at Sonic who'd crossed the chamber and stood warily beside him looking down. "You know... You guys - you laugh at me when Eggman fools me into helping him, but you - you don't even bother to lie to me. It's straight to force and blackmail to make me help. And then you laugh at me again when I get angry about it."

The lights dimmed again and Knuckles' eyes sagged shut along with them. He couldn't be sure if the deck was tilting again or if it was just him but dimly he was aware of Sonic propping him up, then picking him up and there was a sense of movement, of being carried and he wanted to argue because if he needed to be anywhere to recover it was here, with the Master Emerald, but he couldn't form the words and then darkness came down completely.

Sonic had run into Chris in the corridor - he'd come looking after failing to find them in the Emerald control chamber, and together they got Knuckles down to the well-equipped medical area and onto an examination bed.

"What happened? Chris asked. "Did he hit his head.?"

"No." Sonic frowned. "I mean... maybe. I don't know. Not while I was there." He frowned harder trying to remember. Had Knuckles been conscious when he'd walked in? He'd answered quickly enough, he must have been.

"He told me he fell off the platform. Probably the same time I went pin-balling down the corridor half the way there."

Chris made a confused noise, staring at equipment readouts which meant nothing to Sonic. He kept having to remind himself how much older Chris was than he looked now. Who knew what else he'd learned since?

"Well he's got a broken foot so that's probably true," he told Sonic, "But he's not unconscious, it's more like he's... sleeping."

Through this whole conversation? In the bright artificial light? All the way down the corridor? Sonic made a face.

"Guess he really did want a nap."

"What?"

Sonic shook his head. "I made a joke about him napping on the job. He lost it with me." He froze, mentally backtracking. "Wait. What? His foot's broken? It can't be."

"It is. Two metatarsals." Chris twisted the screen to point. "Through those clodhoppers he wears as well, it must have been quite an impact."

"But he was walking around," Sonic said. "Belted me the length of the place."

Chris shrugged. "Adrenaline? Shock? The Master Emerald?"

As if the mention of it was the trigger, Knuckles stirred and opened his eyes, blinking against the light directly above. He swung himself to a sitting position and round sideways to dangle his legs off the side of the bed in one quick movement before Sonic put out a hand to stop him jumping down.

"Stay there," he said.

Knuckles scowled at him. "I told you not to tell me what to do Sonic."

Chris glanced back from the screen. "Please, Knuckles. Do just lay back a minute. I was just telling Sonic - you've got a broken foot."

Knuckles looked down at it. "I can't have."

Patiently, Chris turned the screen again. "You do. Look."

"How?"

"I don't know. You told Sonic you fell?"

Knuckles dismissed this impatiently. "I've fallen further than that without injury."

Chris shrugged again. "Well however it happened, it'll need a cast and some time to heal."

"Looks like you'll get that R&R after all," Sonic said, he grinned, carefully hiding the niggling worry that had started to grow in him, certain that his sympathy was the last thing Knuckles would want.

And sure enough he got only another glare in response.

"Fine," Knuckles grunted. "Get on with it."

Chris turned away long enough to assemble supplies, leaving Sonic to wonder again at what he'd been learning in the muddle of years since that had passed for him, and returned with supplies. He filled a syringe.

"What's that" Knuckles asked sharply.

"It's for the pain," Chris said. "Getting your boot off isn't going to be a whole lot of fun, and it's important the bones get lined up properly to heal right - they're not at the moment."

Knuckles shook his head suspiciously.

Sonic stepped forward. "Don't be more of an idiot than you already are, Knuckles. Take the damn painkiller. Make it easy for everyone. No one wants to watch you squirm however tough you think you're being."

Knuckles looked perfectly ready to argue further but then sagged.

"Fine." He sounded tired again and laid back, crossing his arms across his chest in a gesture that would have looked sullen standing up but only a bit ridiculous lying down.

Chris gave Sonic an anxious look but went ahead and got started.

Sonic's pace back up to the bridge was more sedate, frowning in thought. He'd be furious with himself if he'd missed that any of the others were injured, or worn out, how had he missed that Knuckles was?

"Everything alright?" asked Tails, looking up as as he entered.

"Mostly. Sort of." Sonic jumped up to where Tails was sitting and perched on the edge of the console. "Chris is seeing to Knuckles. He's got a broken foot."

Everyone looked round and Tails frowned. "Knuckles does? How?"

"I don't know. I think he was asleep. He fell when we were hit or when you called, or something."

Tails sounded baffled. "He broke his foot falling out of bed?"

Sonic shook his head. "In the engine room. Looked like he was kipping down under the Emerald. Don't ask why because I have no idea. Who knows why Knuckles does anything. He wasn't exactly in the mood to ask, either."

Tails looked solemnly at Sonic. "Were you crabby with him, Sonic?"

"He was crabby with me!" Sonic protested defensively. "And I tell you another thing, I'm not looking forward to having him grouching his way round the ship while he's laid up."

"Hmm, everyone's a bit grouchy actually. We've been on the hop a lot longer than normal, people are tired."

Sonic waved a hand. "I'm not. And we've been running round fighting Eggman for years, how's this different?"

"It wasn't day after day like this. A big fight yeah, but then he'd skulk off somewhere for weeks or months. We could relax a while."

Sonic thought about it. It was what Knuckles had said too, that he was tired, and for Knuckles to admitit put it beyond doubt.

The others were watching him now too. Had he missed it?

"We don't actually know where the next Chaos Emerald is," pointed out Amy. "It doesn't matter which way we go. We could go somewhere..." She trailed off slightly. "Nice?"

Sonic looked round. All right then. So he'd missed it. He shrugged.

"Okay. Can you find us somewhere, Tails? Nice relaxing planet that hasn't been," He started counting off on his fingers, "Destroyed, robbed, pillaged, invaded, infiltrated, abandoned, looted or otherwise made unsafe and likely to lead to us having to break up the holiday for world saving heroics."

Tails pulled data from his screen.

"You would think so," he murmured. "Let's see."

In the end the place he found turned out to be famed for its resorts for space-farers. They landed near the main city, a sprawling former market town in the foothills of a mountain range framing a near symmetrical peak which was topped with snow even now in midsummer. The hills climbed away to the north of the town, covered in increasingly thick woodland on one side and thick snow and ski runs on the other.

To the south a clear blue lake spilled over into a waterfall at one end to run further down the valley.

Their alien appearance drew no comment here and after a quick recce of the city centre marketplace as a gaggle and to negotiate trades for local currency, the group split up to pursue their own amusements. Sonic, with Tails in trail, took off at speed for the snow, intending to hire a board, after commenting that maybe they had been cooped up too long after all.

The others wandered down to the lake while deciding what how to spend their time and Knuckles headed for the relative quiet of the wood.

He'd rather have left the paths which were obviously well trodden by visitors but away from them the forest was a tangle of fallen logs, splintered stumps, clusters of saplings and waist high ferns.

The cast on his foot made such terrain too difficult. Still, with the Blue Typhoon on the ground and mostly shut down there was no other draw on the Master Emerald's energy and it would work quickly on it. It tingled already, a stinging, warming sensation.

He walked until it became uncomfortable then sat, legs stretched out before him and back against a broad-trunked tree. The air was cool here in the foothills but the sunlight spilling through the leaves was nice and there was no wind. He leaned his head back against the trunk, gazing up into the branches overhead.

It should have been peaceful, but there were enough differences that it was hard to relax completely. He didn't recognise any of the trees. The texture of the bark, the shape of the branches and leaves, were all unfamiliar. There was something in the colour of the light that told him the sky peeking through the canopy was not the one he belonged under.

The ground lacked the constant connection with the chaos energy that the Island had, making him constantly feel for the Master Emerald in his mind, like a nervous twitch. It didn't ease the tension which had plagued him since it was taken on board Tails' ship.

He closed his eyes. At least it was quiet here. None of the constant, humming, buzzing, beeping, clattering noises which there was no escaping from on the Typhoon.

He kept his eyes shut, breathed slowly, seeking the calm that the Master Emerald required of its guardian, that he so frequently failed to achieve. It was there. It was safe. Displaced and far from home, as he was, but safe.

He touched the connection again and didn't let go. Drifted along it, letting it be the forefront of his awareness instead of a nagging worry at the back. Felt his own concern mirrored back but there was no harm, it had suffered no injury by its diverting of power to the ship. It was tranquil, quiet, and he rested in that bluegreen calm, feeling his breath slow further, his body relax.

At the edge of awareness he heard his name being called. He sank away from it, deeper in the light, not ready to open his eyes. But it was persistent and increasingly loud and he didn't want to bring his irritation with it here.

He let go reluctantly and opened his eyes.

Cosmo was crouched an arm's length away staring at him in alarm.

"Are you all right?" she asked at once. "I thought you were sleeping but you were hardly breathing and it's cold out here to lay down!"

It was colder, Knuckles realised. The sun had moved in the sky and the forest floor was shadier. Clearly hours had gone by but he remembered only minutes, while at the same time feeling as foggy but thoroughly rested as if he'd slept for a week. His foot itched.

He blinked at Cosmo, trying to bring his head back to the here and now.

"I thought the point of coming here was to rest?"

She giggled and he blinked at her again, puzzled.

"Well, yes," she said. "I suppose so."

She crouched down, brushing the leaf litter with her fingers. "It's nice here. Peaceful."

"Yes," Knuckles allowed. If it had been Sonic interrupting he'd have snapped back that the peace had just been ruined but either the fact it was Cosmo, not Sonic saying it, or the fact he still felt a lazy, lingering tranquilly, he said nothing.

"Are the forests on your Island like this?" she asked after a moment.

"No," Knuckles answered at once. It sounded sharp even even his own ears and he frowned. "A bit."

Cosmo nodded. "Yes. They're only a bit like the ones back home..." she hesitated, "...were..." She looked around. "The air feels different. And the light."

"It's the wrong colour," Knuckles finished. Again the the words had come almost as reflex and he frowned.

"Yes. Only a bit, but.." She shrugged and Knuckles found himself staring.

The thought was slowly coming to him that Cosmo was probably the only person on board who recognised that feeling of utter displacement.

There was a word for that displacement in the ancient language of the Floating Island. Sonic had called it "homesickness" when Knuckles had once tried to explain it but it wasn't that. Not in casual the way most of them used it.

Taken literally perhaps. Sick with wanting. With the need to be home. Weakened and distracted and hurt by its absence.

"You miss home." He stated the obvious.

"Yes." She smiled, sadly. "It's silly isn't it? I miss it almost as much as I miss them."

"That's not silly," Knuckles said. He wanted to say more, tell her she'd - what? Get over it? Get used to it? But he'd didn't know that, did he? Not really. He'd never known or didn't remember his own people, how could he know if he'd have adapted as readily to his solitary life if he had?

Instead he could only offer the same faint chance he sometimes let himself wonder about.

"There might still be some of them out there..."

She tipped her head on one side. "Do you really think so?"

Some days he did, some days he didn't but it was Cosmo's people the question had been asked about and he shrugged.

"It's possible, isn't it? You are, and if they are then some of them might be wondering the same thing about you."

"I guess so."

They sat in silence for a few minutes

It was broken by a distant, grinding rumble. A few leaves fluttered down on them. Cosmo looked up into the branches, but Knuckles looked uphill, along the slope. The sound came again, this time along with a shuddering of the ground beneath them.

"What was that?" Cosmo asked in alarm. "Not another attack? Not here?"

"I think it was an earthquake," Knuckles said. "We should get out from under the trees, in case there's a bigger one."

They got back to their feet and headed down the path towards the city. As they walked, Knuckles looked in at the fallen trees, the splintered stumps, the new growth where trees had been knocked down or uprooted. He had not lived all his life in the shadow of a volcano for nothing and with hindsight the landscape should have warned him. Not just in the woods but the distinctive shape of the mountain peak, the patterns in the snowfields visible even from the city - avalanche paths. Perhaps these woods were even cultivated for the purpose of breaking up the snow before it reached the city below.

He stopped abruptly.

"Sonic and Tails went snowboarding."

"Yes," Cosmo said. "I wonder if they felt the earthquake up there too."

The fact they'd had no second quake had clearly reassured her but Knuckles knew better.

"Go back to the city," he ordered. "Find the others, tell them I've gone to find Sonic and Tails."

"But, your foot?" Cosmo was puzzled but had picked up on his anxiety. "You think they're in trouble?"

"The quake may have set off an avalanche."

Cosmo's face filled with fear.

"I'll find them," Knuckles said. "Go back to the others."

Cosmos hesitated then ran. Knuckles considered his options. The cast was a problem. He needed to move more quickly and easily than it allowed. His foot had been healing well while he'd rested, drifting in the link with the Master Emerald. Healing well and fast with no other draw on the Emerald's energies from the ship.

The Typhoon with the Emerald aboard was less than five minutes away. It was worth the detour.

He reached and entered the empty ship and headed directly for it. Standing close, he closed his eyes, let the litany trip light and easy from his tongue, called up the power not for steel and speed and weapons, but for himself.

He slashed away the cast, stretched his toes, and tested his weight on the foot. He smiled.

Cabin.

Boots.

Out.