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27; Hi! Yes, it's us again! And thank you Princess Angela and Drax for reviewing! I love you guys! *glomps them both*

Marvin; Err, could you stop acting a little crazy here?

Sonic; He's gotta be crazy if he's imagining you.

Marvin; Who... me?

Knux; I'm seeing stars! *toddles along with stars twirling round his head*

27; Awww, ain't he cute when he speaks gibberish!

Sonic; You're ALL crazy! I'm outta here!

Disclaimer; No, we do not own Sonic the hedgehog or ourselves *giggles*

He was slow waking up. It took many stages. But he felt warm and secure while he was on the verge of unconsciousness. No pain he felt and the headache he had been suffering had receded. Even his aggravating fever had gone. He did hear voices but this time they were gentle and quiet, soothing in their own manner. He wanted to know why he felt so much better. Waking however, did not come easy. Lifting his eyelids was arduous. He saw enough to guess that he was still in Sonic’s home and this time he was in a bedroom. He could hear a clock ticking, the birds outside, and the soft mellow of the voices. Alas he could not make out what was being said but it sounded like Amy, Sally and Sonic. If only he could reach them.
Coughing, he tried moving his arms. They felt like dead weights. And he just couldn’t keep his eyes open long enough. He was so tired. Seconds later and he could make out the voices.
“He’s waking.” It sounded like Sally.
“I’ve been so worried,” Amy said, “can he hear us?”
“Hey, Knux? Wake up. You’ve slept a very long time.” That was Sonic. Knuckles frowned. He wished he would stop calling him that.
He gasped when he was lifted from his very warm blankets. Then he relaxed when he felt someone’s arms around him; his body still wrapped in a thick blanket.

It was Sally who had lifted him and laid him in her supportive arms. They were worried. Knuckles was taking almost two hours to wake. After Rouge had left, Knuckles had collapsed. Sonic guessed from pain and exhaustion. Sally had injected the echidna’s system with strong medicine, not knowing whether he could be allergic to it or not. This time they were lucky. Knuckles was not allergic to the new and powerful substance. The medicine however, made the victim weak and dopey.
Knux at last opened his eyes though they were mere slits. “Guys?” He said faintly.
Sonic sat on the bed with Sally. He gripped his old friend’s hand. “Missed ya pal!” He said.
“Have I… have I slept in?” Knux shook in Sally’s arms, “why do I feel… so weak?”
“Sal gave you some medicine. It makes you sleepy.” Sonic answered him, “but it eases the pain and it cured you of your fever. But it could not help you from the poison.”
“I’ll be okay…” Knuckles said softly, “nothing has beaten me… y-yet!” He tried to smile. It hurt Sonic to see him like this.

For a few hours, Knux struggled to keep awake. He tried to eat the food they offered him, more out of politeness than hunger. More medicine was shoved down his throat before he slipped into a more natural slumber as night settled in.

Knuckles walked in an abyss he did not recognise. Everywhere was black, like he was wondering around in a dark room with endless space. Where the heck was he? Then he heard a voice.
“Ha! Thought you defeated me!” Roared a voice. It seemed to come from the darkness itself. Knuckles rose his fists, ready to defend himself. He knew the voice. It was Doctor Robotnik. “Well, I ended up defeating you!” The voice let out shrill, mocking laughing.
“I know who you are, Robotnik! Come out!” The echidna challenged him.
“Why should I? I am merely a memory, a spirit, witnessing my genius! For years I have waited for this day! The fall of the last echidna.”
“But I am not the last.” Knuckles said, his voice strong, “I met others like me, like Juile-su and I have a younger brother.”
“Ha! For how long? The same fate will come upon them as it did you! You were more easier to defeat than I comprehended!”
“But you’re dead, defeated! What point would it make? You would succeed in nothing by destroying me!” Still he could not locate the evil human.
“On the contrary! By defeating the last guardian, the floating island will be unprotected. Then my successors and my loyal minions will attack and take the chaos emeralds! Nobody will suspect a thing! And by doing that, I will still rule! And your homeland will perish!”
“Then I’ve got to tell them!”
“Dream on echidna! You are finished! Sonic will fall to his own demise, taking his puny friends with him! So in the end, I win!” The laughter got even louder. It filled the room with its dark malice and hate. Knuckles screamed.
“You haven’t won! I will still beat you using the might of my ancestors!”
The laughter just became louder, denying his brave words. “You dense echidna!” It bellowed, “flowers that killed you! It was so easy!”
“NEVER!” Knuckles sprang to the attack, trying to locate the exact location of the voice. With his futile attempts, the laughter distressed him more. He screamed, trying to drown out the noise with something of his own.

“KNUX! Wake up! Knux! You’re having a bad dream!”
The echidna had screamed in his sleep, summoning both Sonic and Sally to the scene. Knuckles was struggling against an invisible force under his blankets, sweating. Sonic grabbed his shoulders, sat him up and shook him gently. “Wake up, buddy! Please!”
The echidna’s body jolted. Then Knuckles slowly opened his eyes. “Sonic?”
“You got me worried there, pal!” Sonic patted him on the back; “you were having a bad dream!”
Knuckles shivered slightly as the memory of that dream came back to haunt him. He held his head. “What a horrible… dream…”
“Want me to make some cocoa? A hot chocolate drink?” Sally asked.
“I’ll pass thanks.”
“No, get him a warm drink,” Sonic told her, “and put some medicine in it.”
Sally trotted off into the kitchen.
“I don’t want no medicine…” Knuckles groaned, “I’m… f-fine…”
“No you’re not. Look at you. You’re shivering and gaining another temperature. We’re all very concerned about you.”
“Well, you shouldn’t be…b-but thanks for the help.”
Sonic nodded. “Wanna tell me about that dream you had?”
“I’ll give it a try.” The echidna tried to tell Sonic of the nightmare he had though he found it hard to explain. “It was Robotnik, talking to me…” Red exclaimed, “…he said he had defeated me.”
“In your dream?” Sonic was sceptical; “it doesn’t mean anything. I have a lot of goofy dreams myself!”
“But not like this one!” Knuckles shouted.
“Hey, take it easy! I believe you!”
“But… b-but the things… h-he said…”
“Look, you’re stressing yourself out way too much. Lay down.”
“No! Please… I must… the dream… have to warn you…” Knuckles resisted Sonic’s help. The hedgehog’s worry went up several notches.
“Shhh, lay down.” Sonic wrapped the blankets tightly around Knuckles, gently restricting the movements of his arms and body. At last, the echidna calmed down. He rested his head on the pillow, coughing and wheezing.
“I don’t want… to have it again…” He whispered, “it was like h-he was really… talking to me…”
“Shhh, I know.” Sonic sat by him for a few minutes as his friend relaxed. The shivers were eased away. “How about I get a doctor to take a look at you?” The hedgehog murmured squeezing Knuckles’ hand.
“No!”
Sonic lowered his gaze. “He will find a way to get you better! They do no harm!”
“I don’t know… what your culture does… but mine…” Knuckles coughed, “do horrible things. I’ll get b-better… without anybody’s h-help…”
“You know that isn’t true. Please Knuckles. You will co-operate. I want you to get better and you’re not going to improve all by yourself. Got that?”
Knuckles narrowed his eyes. Sally came in.
"We've ran out of milk. I'm gonna have to run to the store." She said.
“Sal, we need a doctor.” Sonic said, turning round to face her.
“What? You know everyone around this area is unskilled. I’m your best bet. I can help Knuckles.”
“I know but we need someone else’s opinion. And that someone may have enough skill to help him. We gotta try. Please!”
“I’m not sure.” Sally considered the circumstances. No doctor would be able to explain the poison, especially if it was new and unheard of but they may find ways of helping the guardian fight it. “All right.” She stated. “Tomorrow I will find someone who is able to help, promise.”
Sonic cheered.
“Oh great.” Knuckles moaned, unimpressed, “and what w-would they do… to me?”
“Nothing too distressing,” Sally said, “just be still when they come to examine you. And you’ll stay on this couch. I won’t let them move you anywhere else.”
Knuckles felt much better.

Sally and Sonic had a few more hours’ sleep then they normally did since the echidna’s accident. When the sun was full in the sky, Sally knocked from door to door in their neighbourhood for a suitable doctor. She could not find any. No one had the know-how, the skills. She contacted Tails and told him to search a list of names she had found in an old address book, containing a list of old surgeons. And to put the pressure on, they were now racing against time. Knuckles was rapidly losing his sight. The poison was damaging his nervous system, gave him terrible tremors and pain. He resisted anyone who touched him; eyes screwed shut, coughing deeply as he fidgeted on the sofa. Now going blind, the echidna became more frightened and distressed. It took lengthily minutes for Sally to calm him down after working himself up.
After a few days, the weather getting chilly, a doctor knocked on their door. Sonic greeted him. His name was Dr. Nettle. He used to work for the old Mobius hospitals until they got shut down and destroyed by Doctor Robotnik. He took several years in-training before joining organisations in huts that were now clinics. Hospitals were starting to be built again now that the dark ruler had gone. Only yesterday had he heard of Sonic’s plea for a doctor. News had got around that a friend of the freedom fighter had been seriously hurt. He was eager to help.
The hedgehog welcomed Dr. Nettle inside. The doctor explained how he had heard about his request for a skilled doctor and how he had got here. Sally joined them and discussed it over the kitchen table.
“We were starting to lose hope.” Sally sighed, looking into her mug of hot chocolate; “Robotnik had made sure he destroyed all those qualified to help others.”
“Yes, but some hid and others learned about first aid and health after Robotnik’s defeat.” The doctor explained, happy to share time with the heroes of Mobius. “I learned when it was finally safe. Now I have years of experience.”
“But this is different.” Sonic’s voice was harsh. “My friend, Knuckles has had an accident. A few weeks ago we went to destroy the last factory of Doctor Robotnik. But there were these flowers… and they shot out these needles. Knuckles got one in the side and it injected some kind of poison into him. Me and Sal have been trying to work out what the poison is and how it works. We’re not sure if there is a cure or not.”
“Hmm.” Dr. Nettle scratched at his moustache.
“Please, help him.” Said Sally, “he’s so sick. Every few minutes he has these strong seizures and we don’t know why.”
“I’ll see what I can do but I can make no promises. Show me to him.”
Sonic got up and led the doctor into the lounge, Sally close behind them. Knuckles was curled up on the sofa, blankets tightly wrapped round his scarlet body. He was coughing, tremors running up and down his spine. When he heard Sonic come in, he opened his eyes and looked up though he could barely see.
“Sonic?” He croaked, “are you with somebody else?”
“Hey, Knux!” Sonic bent down to his level, “the doctor’s here. Wanna help him find out what’s wrong with you and get you better?”
“I said I didn’t w-want any doctors!” Knuckles coughed, “I can handle this… please tell him to leave…”
“I can’t do that, buddy. Trust him.” Sonic then turned to the waiting doctor. “This is Knuckles, as you may have guessed. I think he’s losing his sight. He’s always had eyes sensitive to the light but he can still see in the dark. And I think he can’t use his legs.”
“Right. Step out of the way, Sonic. I will examine him and let you know what I have come up with after. Later I will ask a few questions.”
“Of course.” Nodded the hedgehog.
“Be gentle,” Sally advised him, “Knuckles has a wound in the side.”
Dr. Nettle opened up his black bag while Sally and Sonic held hands, worried and deeply frustrated about not being able to help their friend themselves.
Dr. Nettle did some very straightforward things first. Even so, Knuckles detested it. The echidna was patient as the stranger peeled back his blankets, exposing his thin body. The doctor got out a thermometer and poked it in the guardian’s mouth. Knuckles growled, vastly upset.
While taking his temperature, the doctor felt the poorly echidna for broken bones. Finding no abnormalities he took the thermometer out from his mouth and read the results. Knuckles had a slightly higher temperature than normal but he had no fever.
“I feel so stupid.” Knuckles muttered aloud.
“It’ll be all over soon.” Sally reassured him. She came over and sat Knuckles up using the support of cushions.
Dr. Nettle got out a long tube with a cold, metal device at the end. And at other end of the tube, two ends divided to become listening devices. The doctor plugged these into his ears, then set the cold round metal on Knux’s small chest, on his white crescent.
“What in my mother’s name is he doing?” He snarled.
Sally held him before he could do anything to retaliate. “It’s okay, he does this as standard. He’s listening to your lungs and heart.”
“If you have any.” Sonic remarked jokingly.
Sally gave him a mean glare.
“My organs have nothing to do with this! That bas-” Knuckles roared.
Sally covered his mouth.
The doctor pulled away and put the tube back in his bag. Sonic watched his face carefully to see if he could be hiding anything or whether the news of Red’s condition would be good or bad. However the doctor hid his emotions very well. He carried each task out blandly as if he were examining a piece of rock.
Then he took a blood sample, something which Sonic knew, Red would never forget. Knuckles had howled from pain and anger as Nettle took a sample of his rare blood from an artery in his wrist. Before it could cause a mess when the needle was drawn out, Nettle bandaged up the wound with tight dressing.
“I’ll take this to my lab back at home.” He said.
Sally was not going to rely on that. She had already tested Knux’s blood herself and even the blood was poisoned but revealed nothing else, like how to cure it.
Dr. Nettle then examined Knux’s back, gently feeling his spine but finding nothing physically wrong with it. Then he felt his legs.
“I can’t feel a thing.” Red commented, “can’t feel my feet, nothing.”
“You could have paralysis to your legs from your shivering which damages the spine’s nervous structure.” He said, “you might be able to reverse it if it’s not too lake, otherwise you’ll be stuck to a wheelchair for the rest of your life.”
“Well, how do we reverse it?” Sally crossed her arms.
“It would be best if you massage his back a few times a day and stop his shivering the moment it begins. His tremors start if he starts to feel cold or frightened. He will tense up and thus the shivering will begin and it will gradually worsens matters. You would immediately need to warm him up again so that he would stop tensing and relax to the warmth.”
The doctor took out a miniature torch from his suitcase and shown it directly into Knux’s left eye. The echidna gave a shrill, distressed cry before recoiling away from the offensive light and he screwed his eyes shut.
“What’s wrong?” Dr. Nettle inquired, confused.
“Knuckles positively hates bright lights.” Sonic explained to him, “ever since he was young he detested anything bright. He’s always had dim eyesight during the day, but at night he has the best vision around. Lately however he has been losing his sight rapidly. I guess it’s because of the poison.”
“It would seem so.” The doctor scratched his head. “I’m sorry but I must do this. I need to check to see the state of health his eyes are in.”
“We know.” Sally regretfully sat Knuckles back up. “Knux, you have to go through with this,” she said, “he needs to have a look inside your eye.”
“Never.” Knuckles crossed his arms, eyes still shut.
“He’s trying to help you, Red!” Sonic reminded him, now standing by his side, “he needs to find out what’s wrong, that’s all. Then you won’t have to go through with it again. Promise.”
“Humph!” Knuckles tried to turn away from the doctor; “I’ll be okay. Tell him to leave.”
“Knux, this is for your own good.” With the help of Sonic, Sally held him tight and forced his left eye open. As if on que, the doctor shone the light straight in his pupil.
“STOP! STOP IT!” Sonic felt bad for doing this to the echidna as he heard his tormented wails, but this was to help him. And despite his sick and tired body, Red’s strength was second to none. He tried to wrestle Sally and Sonic off him. He never succeeded.
This battle of wills continued until Dr. Nettle had examined both eyes. Then, Sally and Sonic released the struggling echidna. They didn’t want to make him anymore stressed than he already was.
Nettle pulled away, thinking. Then with an effort, he said, “his eyesight will improve if you give him a daily intake of noxious syrah. (A type of plant that can be lethal when consumed raw). He is not going blind but his sight is worsening from the poison. I also suggest that he stays away from bright lights. Give him massages to his spine as often as you can and if his condition worsens I’m afraid we won’t be able to do much.”
“Eggman must have made sure we couldn’t help him,” said Sonic, “he had set us up.”
The doctor nodded. “I’ll give you a breathing apparatus for him. Use it when you feel you need to. Now, I must be on my way.” He closed his bag. Knuckles relaxed back into his pillows on the sofa, glad that the cause of his anger and distress was leaving.


27; edited and rewritten and there are still errors! I can't live like this i tell you!

Sonic; calm down dear, it's just a story!

Knux; who's got some jellybeans

Sonic; Red, old buddy, i got something to confess...

Knux; What?

Sonic; I love you!

27; Until next time! Watch this space!