Guardian

So this was Green Hill.

Knuckles had been to Green Hill a few times. Bar the time he and his friends had used karts on its race-track, all of those incidents had involved stopping Eggman, or Robotnik as he'd liked to be called then. Well, that, or the Marauders. But always stopping something. Always moving quickly. He'd been there to do a job (or a kart race, because heck, why not?), and headed back to Angel Island as soon as possible afterwards. But now, watching over the Green Hills of South Island, with no island of his own to go back to, all he could do was watch. And wait. And listen to the sounds of silence.

There's no birds.

There wasn't much of anything in Green Hill nowadays, but that was what hit Knuckles the hardest – the lack of any bird songs. Even Angel Island had birds. When he'd been forced to flee the march of Eggman's forces, he could still hear and see birds. Those that had survived the firestorm Eggman unleashed on Angel Island all those years ago (a firestorm that the doctor had shifted blame to Sonic for, before his true deception was revealed), now forced to watch as their guardian was forced to flee. To join the Resistance on the Earth's surface. In the old days, Eggman had relied on guile to achieve victory. Now, he was getting victory through pure brute force.

Maybe he was always fated to win, the echidna reflected. His bots have got more powerful over time, maybe winning was an inevitability.

He couldn't afford to think like that. He as the leader of the Resistance on the last bastion of freedom on this planet. If he couldn't promise the people under his protection that the Resistance could protect them, what business did he have even leading the group? He shook his head – Sonic had been the leader. An impetuous, arrogant, over-confident leader, but a leader all the same. Looking out over Green Hill, Knuckles reflected that if this was the place where Sonic had spent most of his time back in the day, it would explain a lot. Green Hill was…strange, and by the Master Emerald, he'd been to some strange places over the years. Spinning flowers, 360 loops, hovering blocks that went up and down…Green Hill was insane, but open, with wide open spaces. The perfect place for Sonic to indulge in both his speed and insanity. Insanity that Knuckles desperately needed right now.

"Knuckles."

He didn't look at Amy as she joined him at the perimeter. Behind them was Park Avenue. Beyond them was Green Hill.

"Knuckles?"

Amy wasn't insane he reflected. Oh sure, she had a crush on Sonic for some unfathomable reason, and she could swing her hammer around like a maniac, but insane? No.

"Knuckles!"

He looked at her. She looked at him, hands on her hips, her moth in a frown. Amy wasn't insane, and could take out dozens of Eggman's robots, but it still wouldn't be enough.

"What?" he asked her.

She sighed. "Stop the tall dark and brooding thing. You're not Shadow."

"I know. I'm Sonic's first rival, not some faker."

It was a joke, but seeing the look on Amy's face, Knuckles saw that it had landed badly. Again, Amy wasn't insane, but infatuated. But if infatuation was insanity, then she was the least sane person on this island.

"Right," she said eventually. "Anyway, I just got word from Espio. Eggman's bringing in the big gear for an assault – sentinels, most likely."

Least sane person on this island he wondered? Well, not quite. Soon as Eggman stepped on South Island's ever-spreading sands, he'd win the insanity prize.

"So," Amy said slowly. "We got a plan?"

"Smash 'em to pieces?"

"That's not a plan!"

"Yeah, well, it's what I do." Knuckles kicked a pebble off the hill they were standing on. It tumbled down the grass onto the sand below. Eggman hadn't stepped foot on South Island personally yet, but his influence was plain to see, ranging from the giant pyramid-shaped base on the other side of the island, to the desert sands that spread out from it. Green Hill was looking less green by the day. So was all of Earth, in fact. Knuckles was no stranger to sand, having explored the tombs of Sandopolis for days on end, but this wasn't Sandopolis. This was an ecological nightmare.

"Well, anyway," Amy said. "We should get back to base."

"Why?"

"To form an actual plan that goes beyond smashing robots."

"Good luck with that."

"Knuckles!"

The guardian sighed and met Amy's gaze. He'd had enough of this. He'd guarded the Master Emerald all his life, and failed. He was the last member of a functionally extinct race, especially since Shade was…no longer with them. He'd let Eggman fool him more times than he could count, and even after those days had passed, he'd still been forced to flee his island. And now, for reasons he couldn't fathom, the last free people of the world had made him the leader of the Resistance.

"Why me?" he asked her simply.

She shrugged. "You're a guardian."

"What?"

"You guarded an island and a Master Emerald? You've stopped Eggman more times than anyone could count?"

"Never alone though."

"You've destroyed more robots than all of us put together."

"But we need plans now though."

"And like it or not, you're all we've got. So snap out of it."

I was wrong, Knuckles reflected as he looked at the hedgehog before him. She is insane.

And why not Amy, he wondered? She'd led Team Rose. Led them in a global goose chase after her crush, sure, but led them all the same. And people liked Amy. He wasn't sure about himself. Sonic was gone. Tails wasn't doing much nowadays. The Chaotix were…okay, be supposed, but Carnival Island was long ago, and he'd barely worked with them since. Sure, they'd faced Metal Sonic again when he did the whole metal madness/evil overlord thing, but-

The heck?

A robot had appeared before them. An E-2000. It charged up its beam cannon, pointing it at Amy, and-

Not this time.

Knuckles glided towards it with a speed that rivalled Espio. He smashed into it with such force that it was smashed into pieces. It still fired, but the beam shot up into the sky as the robot collapsed under the force of his blow. The echidna landed gracefully on the ground, surrounded by scraps of metal.

"You okay?" He held out a hand to Amy, who was sitting there on the ground, shaken. Gingerly, she took it.

"Must have been a scout," Knuckles said. He picked up the machine's head. "Huh. Omega would have loved this." He tossed it down into the sand and looked at Amy, who was looking at him in a…different, way.

"What?" he asked.

"Like I said, you're a guardian."

"I…" Knuckles trailed off. He'd seen a robot that was about to hurt his…alright, friend, and destroyed it before that could happen. His thought process hadn't gone beyond that. He shrugged. "Just what I do."

"My point exactly."

"Yeah, well, no squees, alright? Seriously, I hate that."

"You know I won't."

Knuckles did. Amy was insane/infatuated. But she at least had the decency to direct that to only one individual on this planet.

"Come on, let's go," Knuckles said. "We've got plans to make."

"Lead on."

He did so. Slowly, at first, but then picking up the pace. Gliding off the hill towards Park Avenue. Smiling to himself.

Maybe he couldn't lead the Resistance to victory.

But he'd guard them until the end.

A/N

So it turns out that Knuckles is the leader of the Resistance in Sonic Forces. If it wasn't for the whole bunch of speculation as to Amy being the leader prior to the reveal, I might not have bothered writing this. Still, while I'm on the subject, I'd actually argue that Amy would be a better choice, narratively-speaking. She's at least been the leader of Team Rose, and in recent times, has been a bit less two-dimensional (you can thank Boom for that). Still, Knuckles is apparently the leader, so drabbled this up.

Update (07/10/18): The story's now got an audio reading on YouTube by Goomba Guy Videos. Type in "Sonic the hedgehog guardian reading" and you should be able to find it.