Just Beneath the Surface

Part VI

~AiC

A/N: I know, the last chapter kinda sucked.... sorry

~*~

I glared into my hot chocolate. It was speckled with white from the melted whipped cream and I sighed, my face resting in my hand. It was getting colder outside and it'd been about three weeks since I'd left Knothole. Sonic had been looking for me, but if I didn't want to be found... well, I wouldn't be.

"You okay, hun?" Kit slid into the booth across from me, her sky blue eyes looking at me through dark lashes.

I was at the small diner again and I'd come here every few days since I left. The squirrel always seemed to be my waitress, but I suppose I didn't mind too much. At least she was familiar face.

I nodded. She hadn't expected much from me, but she still wished I'd talk more, I could tell.

"That blue hedgehog was in here earlier, asking about you." She said. Her small, dainty paws traced patterns on the scarred tabletop.

I looked at her, my eyes glinting. She had my attention.

"I didn't tell him where you were. He did have something interesting to say, though."

I was listening. She did hope I'd say something, but I didn't. She continued anyway.

"Said something about a girl, Sally, and a little boy... Tails, was it?... Yes, that's it. Said he explained something to 'em. They missed you."

By her tone, I could tell she thought that there was some circle going on, that Sally was Tails' mother and that I was his father... or Sonic. I laughed inwardly. She couldn't be further from the truth. It wasn't the girl...

"Ya know, hun, if ya ever need someone to talk to... well, I'm here." She said, smiling cutely. I stood, setting down a few coins for the drink and tip. There was a bit extra for the latter, and she smiled, knowing she'd helped.

So, Sally and Tails had noted my absence. I wonder if Sonic had told them why I left... Knowing him, probably not.

"He say anything else?" I said.

This startled her, surprise lighting her features at the fact that I'd actually spoke. She said, "Well... He said something about checking back here later today. Maybe around noon."

It was ten or eleven right now. Time for me to leave. "Thanks." I said. She smiled and I turned to leave.

Twenty minutes later, resting in the arms of a tall birch, I sighed and closed my eyes. It was breezy, slightly cold outside with a chilly wind, but I wasn't cold. Come to think of it, I wasn't much of anything anymore. I drifted off to sleep, attempting to quell the thoughts rising in my mind. I'd been banishing them to the corners of my consciousness all day, but now they were free. I dreamed.

~d*r*e*a*m~

Sally was sitting down on the red-brown easy chair in her den, her legs crossed and tucked under her knees, Indian-style. She was looking hopelessly into the flames of the fireplace, her fingers framing her eyes as her face rested in her small palms.

"Sal," Sonic said, his dark emerald eyes trying to conceal the sadness within them, "I'll find him..."

She shook her head, sighing. Not only was Knuckles a good fighter, but he was a friend-though a distant one. The she-squirrel felt deeply for all of freedom fighters, and even if the echidna wasn't quite that... he stilled helped them tremendously. "I just don't understand, Sonic. Why did he just leave?"

Sonic had told her and edited version of events. "I don't know..."

"So... he suddenly punched you? And you hit him in the stomach... then you tackled him, he flipped you, and then... hit you? And left?" She couldn't understand why he'd leave. Sonic could almost picture her mind working through it.

Tails looked up at them from his place on the hearth. "Well, it isn't so bad..." he ventured. "He wasn't that cheery of a guy..."

"But he didn't have to be." Sally said, leaning back. She glanced forlornly at the hedgehog, who was glaring into the flames, one hand resting on the stone wall. He seemed angry, but she couldn't tell whom at.

"I'll find him..." He said. He started to walk away.

"I'll come with you," The small fox got to his feet, but skidded to a halt at Sonic's frosty gaze.

"No."

He left.

~****~

I awoke with a start, cursing as my head collided with a low hanging branch. I glared up at it, gripping the one I rested on so tightly that it cracked. Sighing, I moved to a different one before the other collapsed beneath me.

Letting out a breath, I shook my head, attempting to dispel the last traces of the dream which still shimmered in my mind.

They aren't that worried. They don't care. I thought. It was just a dream. It means nothing. Maybe it was just a call from my subconscious saying that I was alone too much, needed a family... no. No, acquaintances made you weak, especially if they knew too much about you.... especially if you started to care about them.

It was dark out now, the crescent moon just visible through the thick curtain of clouds. It would rain again. My whole problem was that I was started to care. And it centered around that damn hedgehog.

So, analytically speaking, the answer was to destroy the problem.

In other words, Sonic the Hedgehog.

I sighed shakily, shocked at this conjecture. How could I kill him? He was my...

No. All of this is his fault. I thought. Because of him, I'm losing my edge. It was settled, then. Studying my claws, I noted how cruelly they gleamed in the moonlight that pricked through a small gap in the clouds. I let myself smirk. After all, I was about to expel my only real problem. And everything would go back to normal. To the way it was before I had friends...

My insides froze and I stared at my hands. This is a lose-lose situation, I thought suddenly. I'm empty if I do this. And if I don't, I'm weak.

So the only real explanation would be to run. Which I'd already been doing... and that dropped me right where I started.

That idiot... it really was all his fault. He had to do that... It made me not regret slamming my fist into his face. Even as I'd turned away run, I caught the dark blue-black bruise already forming on his cheek.

Sliding down the tree, I steadied my breath, glancing around to get my bearings. Knothole was about three miles away. I could get there soon, on foot. I could get in, kill him, and get out. I started running, my adrenaline speeding my progress.

Strangely, it still didn't sit well with me. I'd kill him-I'd admitted that to myself-but what about after that? Surely the freedom fighters would want to exact their revenge... and I'd probably be responsible for all of their deaths. And the eventual recovery of Mobius to Dr. Robotnik.

After that, he'd come after my island, and I didn't want that. I didn't know what to do... only that I had to end this somehow...

I stopped suddenly, realizing that I was, once again, in Knothole. In fact, I just outside Sally's house. I glanced in the window, caught her sleeping. She was a great person to talk to. I'd seen her with anyone who had a problem, but... Could I really go so low as to ask help from someone else?

As I slipped through the window, pulled a chair silently up to her bedside, and shook her awake, it was pretty obvious that I would.

Her eyes went wide and she tried to say something, but I motioned for her to be silent. She moved into a sitting position and I sighed, my eyes studying the worn blue rug on the floor.

"I need to talk to someone," I whispered, my form huddled slightly, knees to my chest, heels resting on the edge of the seat.

She frowned slightly, concern and surprise etched into her eyes. She said, "You can tell me anything."

So, I told her. Everything. From the way I'd been feeling lately to my discomfort around my own thoughts. And around Sonic; I told her how it was his fault and how I needed to destroy the cause-which was him. I even told her the full version of what happened in the woods... I left nothing out. Not even the part where he leaned up and kissed me. This part made her wince unconsciously.

Needless to say, she was very pale-as pale as a squirrel can get-and her hand was shaking slightly as she ran it through her hair. I didn't really blame her; after all, she'd just been casually informed that, in order to repair my own uncaring soul, I needed to destroy his; the man she loved. And who she assumed I ...

No. I didn't feel anything towards that... that annoyance...

Sally sighed, composed herself. "Well, Knuckles... I don't quite know what to say..." She reached out a laid a hand on his giant fist. "But... you obviously care for him a great deal, and..."

I pulled back, stood and turned away from her, back towards the window.

"Wha... Where are you going?" She said frantically. As far as she knew, I was about to stomp off to his tent, slash out his throat, and leave.

Well, she wasn't wrong.

When I didn't answer, she stood and came over to me, a hand on my shoulder. "Please," She said. She knew she couldn't stop me if I really planned on doing this. She was strong, iron-willed, but that was nothing compared to me. I almost felt sorry for her when I shrugged her hand off and climbed out the window.

Almost. Because at that moment I was hit from behind and knocked flat on my face. I elbowed my attacker in the chest, flipped over, and stared straight up into the gleaming eyes of Sonic the Hedgehog.

And, from his expression, he'd heard the whole conversation.

I gripped my fists and did the only thing I could.

~*~

A/N: I'll try to finish this story next chapter... maybe the one after that, lol.