With no windows, and barely ten paces from one end to the other, this dimly lit room that Shadow found himself trapped in was the very definition of a jail cell. The only furniture was a stack of bunk beds, a single shelf lined the wall, empty save for dust, and in the corner sat a dirty toilet, offering about as much privacy as one could expect.

With a quiet pfft, the door released, and immediately Shadow was backed against the far wall by a gun toting Egg-Robo, a semi-intelligent badnik designed to look vaguely like Shadow's human captor. It was followed by a smaller, red echidna, a creature Shadow immediately recognised. Said echidna was also being held by gunpoint, and forced against the back wall. The pair relented, and as the door slid shut, they relaxed and finally acknowledged each other.

"Knuckles," Shadow said quietly, nodding his head as he did.

"Shadow," the echidna returned the comment.

An awkward silence filled the room. In situations like this, what could anyone possibly say, they both found themselves thinking. Both of them were acutely aware that they were in the uncomfortable position of being helpless, a position neither of them had much, if any experience in.

Knuckles broke the silence, "So how long have you been in here?"

"About two hours," Shadow said, not really sure how to follow such a riveting question. He leant back against the wall, and tilted his head down. Shadow had decided not to exert too much energy in this situation. When opportunity finally struck, he would need to be ready for it, and hence his desire to remain relatively focused.

Knuckles looked around the room, hoping to find something useful. He gave up quickly, having observed the room's entire contents in less than a minute. He sighed to himself.

"You say something?" Shadow asked, his inquisitive gaze meeting his cellmates.

"No, sorry, just sighing." Knuckles replied, almost as monotone as Shadow had been, "I was just thinking about how to get out of here."

"I already checked. The concrete's solid, and I'd guess very thick," the black hedgehog replied, understanding the echidna's way of thinking. He had gone through the same motions himself, first looking for a possible escape route, then feeling disappointed and dejected to have to wait. "We're going to have to wait for rescue."

Another air of silence fell. This one went on for much longer than the first. Knuckles had lain on the top bunk; silently reasoning that not only was he more used to sleeping up high, but also that Shadow wouldn't care. True to form, the ultimate life form had barely even acknowledged his cell mates movement.

"I'll bet its Sonic that saves us." Knuckles said as he got himself comfy on the bed.

Shadow looked to Knuckles, "What makes you so sure?"

"It's always Sonic who saves the day. Even I'll admit that, and I think the guys an arrogant fool who doesn't think."

"I'd agree there."

"What? That he'll save the day?"

"No," Shadow said, finally sitting on the floor, his legs now stretched out in front of him, "that he's 'an arrogant fool who doesn't think'. Did you hear what happened after our adventure in the Twilight Cage?"

"After Eggman had taken over the world?"

"Yeah," Shadow replied, "that damn hedgehog just asked one person what happened; then ran off with the emeralds after Robotnik. Didn't even think about it. No wonder he fell for the trap."

"Heh, you should've seen when I first met the blue idiot." The Echidna replied, "He just comes gliding in, on to my island, carrying all the Chaos Emeralds. No idea what the place is, or what business it is for him to even go there. No wonder I was able to knock the emeralds out of him so easily."

"Nice," Shadow said, smirking, "He probably had it coming to him."

"Yeah," the Echidna nodded as he sat upright, grinning back at Shadow.

"Still not as bad as when he got repeatedly sent to the future."

"When was this?" Knuckles asked.

"Couple of years back," Shadow answered, remembering the story fondly, "We were both going after a device before Eggman could get to it. Difference was, I had the GUN intelligence, and knew what the thing was and what it did. Sonic didn't know, naturally, and so he gets the device from this temple just as myself and Rouge are outside discussing how to grab it without setting it off. Next thing we see is him grab it and disappear. For the next three weeks he's turning up for just thirty seconds of every hour in the same spot of this museum, until his mutant fox friend finally gets him out."

"Oh really?"

"You haven't heard the best part. The device was actually written, in English, with an obvious off button on it. The hedgehog spent three weeks unable to see the word "Off" on a device he's holding for all this time."

"You're kidding?"

"Nope."

"Oh man, that's almost as daft as the time he got stuck in a tree." Knuckles said chuckling to himself.

"He managed to get stuck atop a tree?" Shadow asked in disbelief.

"Not on a tree. In a tree," the Echidna laughed, "Sonic was trying to prove how amazing he was."

"As always."

"So he says 'I'm gonna spin up this tree here and jump off it to get to the top of this building' and starts revving up. Naturally he hasn't actually looked at, or even checked this tree, so he starts revving up on the spot, aims vaguely in the direction of this tree, and flings himself forwards. He gets about ten foot up when his head meets where the tree branches start to split up and he realises his head has got wedged."

Shadow snorted in derision. Inside he wished he'd seen this first hand.

"He's stuck in this tree, hanging there, his neck wedged in the branches, and he just starts tugging and tugging, his feet firmly planted in this tree, and he can't move."

The black hedgehog rolled his eyes and smiled, "So how did he get out?"

"Had to snap the branch off. Of course being such a friend I had to make sure I had the strength to, so I went back to my home, an hour's trek away, to get some stronger gripped gloves."

"So you just left him there for two hours?"

"Two and a half, they took a while to put on" the echidna smirked.

"Nice," Shadow grinned. He was enjoying this. As far as he was concerned, there were worse people he could've been trapped with.

"Oh man, that's not even the best story."

"It isn't?"

"Not by a long shot." The Echidna beamed, happily lapping up his newfound role as storyteller, "For instance, did you know Sonic's afraid of water?"

"He is?" Shadow asked, curious to learn something useful about his rival.

"Yep!" Knuckles exclaimed, "Or so he says. He'll still jump into rivers, lakes, reservoirs, even flooded ruins without even considering it. Can't swim mind you, he just jumps right in, sinks, then tries to run along the bottom."

Shadow looked at Knuckles in disbelief, "Now you're making that up."

"It's true. I've seen it myself. The idiot has no idea how to tread water, just treats it like any other sort of running surface, and darts between air pockets. It's a miracle he hasn't drowned."

"And this is the guy we're expecting to save us?" Shadow said rhetorically.

"He's doing a better job than the ultimate life form."

Shadow didn't let Knuckles' jibe faze him, "Can't be worse than that master emerald is doing without its last guardian."

With that, Knuckles lost his temper. Jumping off the bed he threw himself full force into the hedgehog. Shadow realised too late what was going on, and felt the sharp blow of Knuckles' namesakes across his face. Two strikes hit the hedgehog before he managed to kick the echidna away. Without hesitation, Shadow curled up as he leapt and hit Knuckles square on the back of his head, knocking the red echidna to the floor.

The pair stopped fighting, Shadow making his point clear that this would do them no good while they were locked up.

"So what should we do then?" Knuckles asked in frustration.

"We just have to wait," Shadow replied, "So calm down."

"I am calm," Knuckles seethed, "I'm just annoyed because some punk hedgehog just whacked me on the head!"

Shadow refused to take blame, but also refused to argue about it either. The black hedgehog had no desire to waste his energy quarrelling, and was willing to wait out the echidna's anger.

It took nearly an hour. Twenty minutes of Knuckles being first aggressive, then passive aggressive, followed by forty minutes of silence. Eventually the silence had gone on for long enough by Shadow's judgement.

"What's it like, having a life defined by your purpose?"

"What?" Knuckles asked confused.

"Your life?" Shadow said, "You're the guardian of the master emerald, that's your life's purpose. But don't you ever wish you had something else?"

Knuckles looked at the floor and thought about the question, the silly mood from an hour ago now replaced by a much more serious and altogether more personal mood. He looked back to Shadow, "I guess," he said, "but at the same time I have a personal duty, one I was chosen for from birth, one I cannot skip."

"And that doesn't bother you?" Shadow asked, remembering the things he had been told by the professor on board the ark.

"Not really. I guess it helps that I like that life. I mean sure, I do sometimes end up on adventures with stupid the hedgehog and pals because of it," Knuckles replied, making Shadow smirk slightly, "but at the same time the life of a guardian is about knowing that what you do really matters, even if you don't get rewarded in this life for it."

"That sounds a lot like my creation," Shadow replied, "I was created to help mankind, irrespective of what happens to me. Only now..." the hedgehog trailed off.

"What?"

"I don't know," the ultimate life form answered, "I've lost my purpose. What does someone such as ourselves do when our purpose is complete."

"It's never complete."

"Hmm?"

"Our purpose," Knuckles said, "It never ends, not for guys like us. Your purpose is to help mankind right? Doesn't look like they're done needing help to me."

The hedgehog nodded, realising the echidna was right, and though he didn't admit it, Shadow was actually glad he'd ended up stuck with Knuckles, and for once he was eager to stay confined, if only to further pick the brain of the Echidna. Shadow made a mental note; he needed to visit Angel Island in the future