Speedy's note: This little thing takes place almost immediately after the ending of Sonic Forces, so obviously, spoilers. Run while you can.

Also, it plays on a lot of headcanon ideas regarding how the Resistance stayed safe and alive for this half a year, so not really everything in here is canon.

Mild warnings for sorta slightly implied PTSD and the accompanying emotional fallout of the six months the game itself just glossed over.

Guardians

True to character, Sonic was gone and away almost as soon as the battle was over with.

But equally true to character, he didn't stay away. By evening he had returned back to their still hidden, underground HQ, in the usual whirlwind of speed and noise and life, and for a few hours he'd pulled everyone into it.

Which was good for him, Knuckles mused, because if he'd just ran off without saying goodbye or telling anyone where he went, in particular without telling Tails where he went, he and Knuckles would have needed to have words.

But instead, Sonic had been just in time for the party. The Resistance members, well, mostly those who were staying here for now, had carried chairs and tables and such outside, and they'd toasted their freedom under the starry sky.

Sonic had caroled them all with a wild tale of his escape from the Death Egg, parts of which Knuckles assumed were freely made up, others were probably leaving out important bits, and the rest seemed exaggerated. The latter at least was typical of when Sonic told a story of his adventures, and Knuckles had to give the hedgehog some credit for being entertaining throughout the spontaneous, celebratory dinner and quite a while into the long evening of victory party that followed.

Knuckles allowed himself to bask in the relief, had a good, filling amount of food, and he managed to stay around for long enough to see most people retire for the night. By then, it was closer to the new dawn than the last evening, and Knuckles was tired of company more than tired due to the late hour. But he'd been their commander, he couldn't run off on the victory party because parties were not actually his thing.

Now that it was over, he found himself falling back into the old pattern of taking a walk around the base. He didn't really think he needed to look for threats right now, but it was something he'd done already before the Resistance, back at home on his island, and the habit was soothing.

It also granted him half an hour of sweet solitude, and he felt more relaxed by the time he made his way back inside.

He was heading for the power room, where his Master Emerald was powering the Resistance's important tech and security measures, but stopped to check out the open door of a room that should be empty by now.

It was Amy who he found there. She was putting things into boxes from all it looked like.

"It's a little late for house keeping, don't you think?"

She jumped at his teasing words and whirled on him with a glare. "It's also late for you to be sneaking around! We're totally putting a bell on you one of these days. You gonna scare me to death."

Knuckles grinned. "You didn't even pull your hammer on me; you're obviously exaggerating."

Amy glared at him for a second, but then it was wiped off by a smile of her own. She looked back around the room. "We have quite some space now," she noticed, waving around before slyly looking up at Knuckles. "Are you going to grace us with your presence tonight? It's your last chance to prove to some of them you actually sleep."

Knuckles snorted out a laugh. "Don't be silly."

Amy shrugged. "I know you sleep, but there are people here who've been with us for months who still think you run on whatever." She grinned. "Or do you have to keep your mysterious aura?"

"You know it's not that." Knuckles smiled. He'd grown much more comfortable around Amy than he'd imagined he could in the last few months. She was also one of the few who were privy to Knuckles' habit to kip down in what he thought of as this place's Emerald chamber and what everyone else considered the power room.

It had been Tails' work, before he'd run off on them, the power supply as well as the computer system. Bringing the Master Emerald had been Knuckles' work, obviously, as had been drawing an ancient protective shield around their base. Once he'd figured out how to do it. It had been centuries since anyone had tried to invoke it, and it taken some time to work it out.

"You gonna stay? For a while?" Amy's words pulled Knuckles back to the present.

He nodded. "Yeah. Long as I'm needed. You?"

She nodded back. "Sure, but I'm hoping to get the chance to slip in a trip to the countryside, to see Cream and Vanilla."

The rabbit family had gone with the refugees who'd hidden in the hills and forests, where it was harder for Eggman's troops to search, and less interesting for Eggman to send forces.

"I'm sure we can survive without you for a few days now."

In fact, a lot of people had already left. Rookie was gone, presumably looking for family or friends now that it was closer to safe in the city. Many others had already left to do the same.

Secretly Knuckles longed to go home, too. Missed his home as much as any of them, missed it so much it hurt, a permanent ache that wasn't going to let off. He longed to take the Emerald back to the island, to have his home back in the skies, to smell the clean, high air, to look across Ice Cap from the top of the volcano, to sit at the edge and watch the sun set behind the clouds far below.

But he wasn't the only one far from home among them, some didn't have any homes to return to, and he couldn't run off now on a feeling that he'd successfully lived with for months to come.

"Where are the others?" Amy's question forced him away from the thought.

"Who?"

"You were a million miles away again." She smiled. "Sonic and Tails."

"Tails left with the Chaotix." Vector had volunteered to take the tired fox along when they retired for the night. The crocodile was good with kids, and compared to Charmy Tails was downright angelic. "Sonic's still outside, I think."

Amy's eyes swept around the empty room instead of looking at Knuckles. "He's not sleeping."

"Who, Tails?"

Amy shook her head. "Sonic."

"I've seen him sleep, the first night after he came here." It hadn't been long, more of a nap than anything, but Sonic was all about naps, and Knuckles had thought nothing of it.

"That was two days ago."

"Have you been spying on him?" It was very well possible Sonic would have caught some shut-eye while Amy wasn't watching.

"Old habits." She grinned, but sobered quickly. "I just thought someone else should have an eye on him. For a moment, at least."

Knuckles nodded. Most of them here had at least the occasional trouble sleeping, and nobody knew any details on what exactly had happened to Sonic on the Death Egg. They had to look out for each other. "I'll keep it in mind."

Amy nodded back. "Thanks." But then she yawned and pointed out of the room. "I think I'll be trying for some z's myself."

Knuckles wished her good night, and then decided to try find his other hedgehog friend.

If you knew Sonic, it wasn't so hard to track him down. Knuckles located him quickly, sitting on a boulder and watching the moonlit zone below.

He looked up at Knuckles' approach and smiled. "Hey, Knux! Here to enjoy the view?"

Knuckles took a brief chance to study his friend in the rather bright moonlight. Amy had a point, he spotted dark tired circles under the eyes. "Actually, I'm here to tell you to come inside and get some sleep like everyone else."

"I see. You got used to commander people around here." Sonic grinned.

"The verb's 'command', Sonic."

The hedgehog's eyebrows rose up in mock surprise. "Oh, and aren't you smart now, too!"

Knuckles folded his arms. "I speak three languages, hedgehog."

"Two of those are technically extinct."

Knuckles was already halfway through formulating a retort when he realised what pattern he, they, were falling into here, and it was so familiar and strange and relieving all at once that he blurted out the sentiment before he could think better of it. "Chaos, I missed you."

Sonic grinned, broad and genuine, the grin Knuckles had been so accustomed to seeing. "Does that mean I win this round?"

Knuckles figured he could still punch him.

It was more a friendly jab than anything else, but Sonic rubbed his arm in faked anguish. "So this is how you rule here, with an iron fist!"

The echidna grinned back at him. "Exactly. Now come inside."

Sonic raised both hands. "Fine, fine, I surrender."

"Smart."

The blue hedgehog laughed. "Shut up."

Knuckles pushed him towards the door. "You know, I'd like to. I've done quite enough talking for a day." For weeks, probably. Months.

Sonic threw him a suddenly thoughtful glace. "I can see that. Good speeches, anyway."

It seemed a genuine compliment, and Knuckles nodded a thanks. "I had some practice."

The teasing grin made a sudden reappearance. "You mean you learned from the best."

It was clear who he considered the best, of course.

Knuckles hid his own grin by punching him again.

They had barely entered the corridor inside when the relaxed banter was shattered under the piercing scream of a child.

"That was Tails!" Knuckles realised only that he was speaking to empty air when he'd already said it. Sonic had been gone even before Knuckles had opened his mouth, the sharp gust of his departure tugging almost painfully on the echidna's quills. Distantly Knuckles registered the confusing sense of familar and unfamiliar all at once that feeling the hedgehog's speed so directly stirred up, but he filed it away to contemplate later in favour of hurrying after Sonic.

His ears guided him to one of the two still occupied sleeping rooms. He nearly ran into Vector in the doorway, who took one look at Knuckles and stepped out of his way.

He stayed at his shoulder, though, and spoke up when Knuckles stopped just inside the room. "He had that dream," the crocodile said, apologetically as if it was somehow his fault. "The one where Sonic-"

Knuckles cut him off with a nod, gaze sweeping around the room. Someone had switched on the lights on a dim setting. Who had been already asleep was obviously awake now. Nobody looked at Knuckles, though; all eyes were on the corner where the Chaotix had set up their sleeping bags.

Sonic was crouched on the floor, all but curled around Tails, who was still huddled half into his sleeping back, and clinging to the hedgehog for dear life.

Knuckles wasn't yet through with weighing his options, nobody had been all that successful at calming Tails down before when that happened, and clearly Sonic was best suited for the task, but he also didn't want to just watch, he'd felt enough as if he'd abandoned Tails as it was...

Across the room, Sonic looked up and caught Knuckles' gaze, and it was a "get your arse over here" without words if ever there was one.

Knuckles stepped through rows of people, taking a second to turn back towards the room before he reached his friends. "Okay, show's over, people. Go back to sleep; it's late."

He didn't take the time to look if anyone followed his words, he would trust that to them, or to Amy who'd turned up in the doorway. He shot her a look of "we've got this" and stepped past Espio, standing a short distance from Sonic and Tails, like a silent sentinel. The chameleon nodded at Knuckles, and shot a quick look at Charmy, sitting on the top of his sleeping bag and looking like he didn't know what to do.

Knuckles left that to Vector to deal with, who'd trailed him across the room, and instead knelt next to Sonic.

The hedgehog had pulled Tails' face firmly into his shoulder, fingers curling into the fur behind Tails' ears and the other arm wrapped around his back. He looked over at Knuckles when he approached, and there was nothing of the casualness and fun of just a minute ago left. He didn't stop to soothingly rock the crying fox, but there was a sharp fire in his eyes. "Eggman's gonna be sorry," he growled. Knuckles could count the times he'd heard the hedgehog growl on one hand.

He nodded back through a snarl of his own. "I hope you share."

Sonic's gaze flicked down to Tails. "I might not." Tails hiccuped in between sobs, and suddenly the steel in Sonic's voice was gone. "Shh, I'm here. I'm okay."

"Can't loose you again," Tails mumbled thickly into Sonic's shoulder.

"You won't," Sonic said, with an amount of gravity that seemed normally reserved for speeches delivered in the face of certain doom.

Hesitantly Knuckles reached out to rest his own hand next to Sonic's on Tails' back. "If you want me to, I'm going to lock him away somewhere. Safely under an Emerald shield?"

Tails almost laughed between his sniffles, but he didn't stop crying, and he didn't let go of Sonic one bit.

Sonic just went back to rocking and stroking his back and whispering quiet reassurances into his ears.

Knuckles felt useless. Sonic seemed to want him here, but he didn't feel like he was doing anything helpful, and just from watching it was obvious Sonic knew exactly what to do, and Knuckles utterly didn't. But he stayed. It wasn't that he was needed elsewhere.

"I'm sorry," he found himself saying suddenly.

Sonic's head snapped up in confusion, and one of Tails' ears swiveled around towards him.

Knuckles swallowed, but he had to say it, for their all sake. "I'm sorry," he repeated, forcing himself to go on. "I'm sorry I didn't keep searching for you, Sonic. I'm sorry I just believed you'd be dead. I shouldn't have, when half of what we saw in this war was illusions magicked into our heads by that Ruby. I'm sorry I never questioned it, and that we didn't come for you sooner."

Sonic looked ready to burst with wanting to say something, but Knuckles firmly shook his head at him and patted Tails' still faintly shaking back.

"And I'm sorry I wasn't there for you as much as I should have been, Tails. There was so much to do, with organising the Resistance and all, but that's no excuse that I wasn't around enough to take better care of you, and that I didn't come after you when you left. I'm sorry if I was a better commander than friend." He bit his lip, unsure if he'd made his point, if he could still make it now, after all this time, if more words would do any good.

Sonic was watching him over Tails' head, but not with the anger Knuckles would have expected, just musing, thoughtful.

It Tails who said something, though, turning around in Sonic's hold on him enough to look at Knuckles through still teary eyes. "I'm not mad. I know you guys tried. I'm sorry I just... ran off on you. I couldn't deal, with -" A new bout of sniffles caught him off and he clutched tighter at Sonic again.

Knuckles shook his head. "You got nothing to be sorry for."

"It's Eggman who's gotta be sorry," Sonic said, and a trace of that edge was back in his tone.

"It's Eggman who's gonna be sorry, you mean." Knuckles met Sonic's gaze with some fire of his own.

He was rewarded with a grin, however fierce.

Tails craned his neck to look at them both, haphazardly wiping at his eyes with the one hand he'd apparently persuaded to let go of Sonic again. "We already defeated him."

Knuckles didn't think that would be enough right now, and if the deadly spark in Sonic's eyes was any indication, he wasn't the only one with that opinion right now.

It was the little fox who distracted them. He'd calmed down enough to actually look around. "I'm making a scene," he sniffled, self-conscious even in Sonic's embrace.

To be fair, there wasn't much left of a scene. Most people had actually heeded Knuckles' words, even Amy was gone again, and who was still looking on seemed sympathetic rather than annoyed at the nightly disturbance.

The hedgehog was still rubbing soothing circles on Tails' back. "Nah, you're not. Nobody's gonna mention it in the morning." As soft and light as his voice was, the Look he sent into the room at those who were watching was a sharp promise they'd better really not mention it, or they'd be sorry.

Sonic leaned back down to Tails. "We can go outside if you want for a moment."

Tails nodded against Sonic's shoulder, and Knuckles watched the hedgehog pull his little brother to his feet, looping an arm firmly around him. "Lead the way," Sonic said, addressing Knuckles instead of Tails. "I still get lost in this maze."

It was a ridiculous statement. Anyone who knew Sonic knew his near perfect sense of orientation, but Knuckles just nodded and set off in front of his friends. He mouthed a "thank you" at the ever faithful Chaotix crew on behalf of Sonic, who only had eyes for his charge, and Tails, who was still busy wiping at his eyes. Vector smiled at them, Charmy, always a bundle of good spirits, waved after them, and Espio nodded a "you're welcome".

As by Sonic's words, he made way back outside. By now, the moon had set and the first faint light of a dawn still hours away painted the sky a soft dark blue towards the Eastern horizon.

Knuckles returned them to the spot he'd retrieved Sonic from earlier, and sat back on one of the boulders.

Sonic plucked Tails in between Knuckles and himself, close enough that they were touching shoulders. He looked up at the stars, brighter now with the moon gone. "You know, it's good to see a sky again," he said.

It was spoken lightly, as if there was nothing much about it, but Knuckles knew why Sonic hadn't seen a sky in six months. It were all the things Sonic didn't say that scared Knuckles.

"A sky without a Death Egg, too," he said, trying to match the light tone, and failing.

But Sonic smiled, pulling Tails against his side. "And wasn't that a nice explosion. Can't wait to blow up more of his stuff."

"Oh, there's plenty of things left," Knuckles noticed, thinking of the robots and drones that couldn't have been destroyed all at once and that were probably still straying everywhere, without plan and initiative, but nevertheless dangerous.

"It's always good to have options," Sonic quipped. "That means we can pick the most fun ones and leave the boring bots to someone else."

Knuckles just nodded absently. They would have probably needed this insane perspective months ago.

They stayed outside watching the stars for a good half an hour until Tails seemed to have calmed down enough and Knuckles managed to convince his friends to try and catch at least a little sleep tonight. Their following him inside came with a promise to find a more secluded spot, but given everything, that was something he could offer.

It was Tails who figured out where Knuckles was leading them. "It's awesome it's still all working," he said, looking around the power room.

Knuckles smiled, as always feeling so much more at ease in the warm Emerald light. "It was built by our best."

That brought a tentative smile to the fox's face, and the echidna broadened his own. It came easier now, here.

Sonic had obviously discovered the pallet Knuckles had used as his makeshift bed before. He gathered up a blanket and grinned. "Hey, this looks comfy! Look, Tails, it has Master Emerald view! One of a kind location, this!" He winked at Knuckles.

The guardian debated whether or not to stick out his tongue at the hedgehog.

But Sonic had already flopped down on the pallet in an exaggerated manner. "Yes, comfy," he repeated, scooting to the side on it. "Here, it's big enough for two. I'll share!"

Tails obviously wasn't in a position yet where he'd refuse his brother's open arms.

One arm around Tails, Sonic launched into steady, inane chatter about foods he hadn't eaten in a while and that they obviously all needed to go get a hold of as soon as possible.

Bemused, Knuckles dropped to sit on a crate in a corner, leaned back against another of the staple behind it, and watched.

Strange as it was, the hedgehog seemed to know exactly what he was doing. It took less than ten minutes until his strategy proved a success.

Sonic looked up from where Tails was finally still and asleep, snuggled firmly into the hedgehog's side. For a moment the green eyes studied Knuckles on his improvised seat. "You're not going to sleep?"

Knuckles shook his head. "I think I'm gonna be doing my job."

Sonic smiled lightly. "Not much to commander around right now."

The red echidna grinned, allowing the still fresh and somewhat unbelievable relief at the notion to show through, and letting Sonic's purposeful misuse of grammar slip. "I meant my original job."

Sonic's eyes flicked over to where the giant Emerald was sending its soft green glow through the room. "You think it needs guarding right now? Now, of all times?"

Knuckles leaned back against the crate, watching Tails' hands where they still clung to Sonic's fur, watching the hedgehog's hand unconsciously draw meaningless patterns on the blanket across Tails' back. "Some things always need guarding," he said.

Sonic's gaze snapped back to him, one of the triangular ears tipped to the side, and for the moment the gaze held, Knuckles was sure Sonic knew he'd not been talking about the Emerald. Not exclusively at least. Not primarily right now.

Then a small smile ghosted over Sonic's face, and the sudden lack of tension revealed the dark circles under his eyes all the more prominently. He looked back down on Tails. "Yeah."

Knuckles watched his friend for another moment. "You know I'm capable of doing my job, aren't you hedgehog?" He tried to sound irritated about it, but from his expression when he looked back to him across the room Sonic wasn't buying any of it.

But then the blue hedgehog sighed. "You know, maybe I'll take you up on that."

Knuckles tried his lousy acting skills with another mostly fake grin. "Does that mean I can finally hope for some peace and quiet around here?"

The effort was worth it because Sonic grinned back, at least for the moment until a yawn cut it off. "Consider this your lucky day."

"It might not be a bad description." This time the guardian's smile was real, too.

Sonic grinned again, and finally settled down more properly, pulling the blanket firmly around Tails and himself.

Knuckles just silently sat and waited. It didn't take long for Sonic's breath to even out as well, as obviously tired as he'd been.

For his part, Knuckles was content to keep a vigil over his sleeping friends, to know they were safe and well, to watch Tails' double tails protectively wrap around the two of them, to listen to Sonic's breath. It seemed strange and he wouldn't tell anyone, but it were things he'd not dared hope he'd see or hear again.

After a while the echidna quietly stood from his perch to settle down under the Master Emerald, soaking up the warm glow of the familiar energy where it washed down his back.

And if he had to sit there through the short night and calmingly wave at one or the other of his friends whenever they woke from a nightmare... Well, that was another thing nobody would mention come morning.

Speedy's note #2: I was meaning to elaborate properly on what is up with the never mentioned Master Emerald, but Awdures beat me to it by writing it much quicker, and much better than I would have done. If you're interested in cool theories on what's up with the Emerald(s), check out her "One of Three Things is True". This fic here decided to run off in another direction anyway.

With regard to Knuckles' comment he speaks three languages, two are actually canon (if you count the Riders universe as canon, which I do). He speaks the language of everyone else, and Ancient Babylonian. The third is my personal headcanon again; I always assume the echidna tribe he's from would have spoken a unique language (they seem to write in hieroglyphics, after all).