The sound of pots banging together awoke Shadow, making him quickly stand up straight, in a soldier's salute. In front of him was Sonic, who stopped banging pots together. Tails was lazily rubbing his eyes beside him. Shadow felt his cheeks heat up a bit, knowing that he accidentally slipped into his old ways.

"You okay there, Shads?" Sonic asked.

Shadow lowered his hand and looked away. "Yeah... I'm fine... Wait... Shads?"

"Uh, yeah. I thought I could give you a nickname... Since we're friends and all..."

Shadow held back a flinch at the word friend before awkwardly replying, "Uh, yeah... That's fine I guess..."

Tails looked back and forth between the two awkward hedgehogs before asking, "Hey, Sonic? What do you have planned for today?"

Sonic smiled to his friend. "Well, we are going to explore the one part of the forest that we've never been to."

Tails's eyes lit up at the idea of exploring a new area of the island. Shadow looked at him questionably.

"There's a part of this island you haven't explored?"

"Yeah, we never got around to it. But now it's the perfect time." Sonic smiled before packing up their stuff and walking north, Shadow and Tails following him.

They followed him to the edge of a clearing. Sonic smiled like a fangirl at hot topic before running in, the two others following, Shadow much faster than Tails.

Shadow glanced around, the canopy covering most of the area in shade. The further they went, the more piles of burnt stone they came across. Shadow wondered if these use to be the homes of people who lived before the villagers now.

Finally, they stopped at a large temple, all in ruins. It still seemed very much in tact though, the old stone covered in moss.

"What is this place?" Tails looked amazed at the sight, eyes filling with interest.

"It seems like some sort of old temple..." Shadow said as he walked towards it. "This must've been here for hundreds of years..."

Ignoring anything else they had to say, Sonic made his way up the large, unnecessary amount of stairs. Shadow and Tails looked at each other before following him up. At the top was a large clearing with something in the center that seems to be able to hold something.

"Wow!" Tails looked in amazement at the area. The two hedgehogs beside him looked equally interested. "Who could've built these? They aren't in the history books of the island...."

"So they must've been built before the island was founded." Sonic nodded. "But that would mean that there was some kind of ancient civilization beforehand."

Shadow walked around the small temple, finding a chest. "What's this...?"

The other two looked at him as he opened the chest, dust flying everywhere. After he finished coughing, he looked at the few things in there. The first was a scroll that had strange writing that he couldn't make out. Which was strange because he was programmed to know every existing language in the world.

"Maybe I could take it back to my workshop and analyze it." Tails suggested as the scroll was handed to him.

The second object in the chest was a small, green emerald. It glowed brighter when Shadow held it, and he felt a rush of energy and power go through his body. "What the...?"

The three stared in shock at the glowing bright emerald. Shadow set it back down; it still glowed, but nowhere near as bright. Shadow's gaze lingered on the emerald, but Sonic impatiently urged him on. "Is there anything else in there?"

Shadow looked back at the chest, picking up a dirty picture that he couldn't make out. "This is the last thing...."

"We should take this back to the shack." Tails said and the others nodded.

Because of this, they decided to end their camping trip early and make their way back. It wasn't a long journey, all of them being determined to find out what all of this stuff means. When they made it to the shack, they saw Amy, Sticks, and Knuckles just chilling in beach chairs. Knuckles was the first to notice them.

"Hey, you're back!" He seemed happy as he ran up to the three. "Man, did the weekend pass already?"

"No, we came back early." Shadow stated. "Are you better?"

Knuckles smiled and nodded, picking up Shadow in a hug. "It went away this morning."

Shadow felt himself freeze up, his legs dangling in the air. He didn't let his mind wonder off too much though, hugging Knuckles back and secretly enjoying the strange sense of security he felt in the echidna's arms. "That's good."

"Alright, hug time's over; we have something to investigate." Sonic said, though he seemed a bit less annoyed than usual.

Shadow felt his face heat up as Knuckles set him down. "Right."

"Investigate? What happened during the camping trip?" Amy tilted her head as she got up.

"We found this ancient temple with this chest of weird stuff." Tails said, pulling out two of the three things they found. "We're trying to find out what civilization this was from."

Shadow pulled out the emerald, it shining bright again. "I've been thinking on our way back about what this is, and I've came inconclusive, but I think I know what it contains."

"Woah! That's one shiny rock!" Knuckles smiled in his usual Knuckles way as Tails looked at the hedgehog with interest.

"What do you mean?"

Shadow looked down to the gem in his hand before explaining. "It contains the energy of Chaos. That's why I feel so powerful holding it; I was created with this same energy. That's why it's reacting to me."

"Wait, you were created with this stuff?" Sonic glanced at the emerald before looking back at the hedgehog.

Shadow froze, realizing what he said. Sighing, he looked away, eyes downcast. "Yes. I was made to be a powerful weapon to the military; chaos is the strongest energy in life."

The team looked at the black and red hedgehog with some concern and much confusion. Knuckles seemed the most, though, laying a gentle hand on Shadow's shoulder. Shadow looked up to him, recovering from the moment. "I wonder why the emerald was there, though. Could the ancient civilization had studied Chaos?"

Tails quickly jumped at the opportunity, unrolling the ancient scroll. "I think it will all be revealed with this writing."

Knuckles tilted his head as he looked at the writing. "For as long as any of our tribe can remember, we have guarded the master emerald of Chaos...." He looked to the others. "It seems pretty straightforward to me."

"You can read this!?" Sonic, Tails, Shadow, and Amy looked at Knuckles with shock.

Seeing the confused looks on their faces, Knuckles smiled proudly. "Yes, yes I can."

Everyone knew that Knuckles couldn't read normally, so of course this was quite a surprise. Tails looked at the writing again. "How though? This language must've been dead for thousands of years!"

"Of course he knows the language." Sticks said, crossing her arms. Everybody looked at her, expecting something crazy, but she simply said, "Go on, Knuckles."

Knuckles looked confused before nodding and  looking back to the paper. "We stay in hiding on Angel Island, our tribe of echidnas being unknown to the humans who would use the power we guard for evil. I feel that it will stay that way forever." He paused, looking wide eyed at the paper. "That's where I'm from!"

The group looked to Sticks again, much confusion filling their eyes. Sticks kept her arms crossed. "I never wanted to tell you this Knuckles, but I guess I have no choice now...."

"What do you mean?" Knuckles felt anticipation build up within him.

Sticks looked away, not wanting to look at Knuckles. Nobody has ever seen her this sane. "Long ago, this island floated high above the ground because of an emerald just like what Shadow is holding, but bigger. The island was called Angel Island, and it was just inhabited by an old echidnain tribe and me. The echidnas were nice and gentle people who never meant any harm to anyone. Heck, I was invited to large feasts all of the time!"

"I have a hard time believing that an island floated." Tails said.

Shadow looked down to the emerald in his hand. "With the power of Chaos, anything could happen."

"Exactly!" Sticks nodded before continuing. "Anyways, a ceremony was about to start one day. They were holding it because a young echidna was about to become the new guardian. It was an exciting moment for everyone on the island, and I could tell that everybody was having fun. I was so stupid back then.... If I had known that something was going to happen, then I could've stopped those aliens...."

"What do you mean, Sticks?" Knuckles was wide eyed, wanting to take in every detail of the story. "What happened?"

"They showed up and... and killed the entire tribe...." Sticks sighed. "I couldn't do anything to stop them. The Master Emerald shattered, and the island came falling down, landing in the ocean. When I came to, everyone was gone. The entire island was deserted, except... the little echidna that was suppose to be guardian.... That little echidna was you, Knuckles. I tried to raise you the best I could. You didn't seem to remember anything of the attack, or the life you had before."

"So Bygone Island is actually Angel Island?" Tails looked down to the dirty picture he had in his hand.

"Does that explain why Knuckles is the only echidna that I've ever seen anywhere?" Sonic wondered.

"And that's why Knuckles can read the ancient text!" Amy concluded.

Knuckles was silent, mind stirring more than it has in years. He had a life before Sticks raised him? His family was all killed, and he didn't even remember any of it? Why wouldn't he remember it?

Shadow looked at Knuckles, not wanting to say anything. He knew that look on Knuckles's face well. It was the look of many thought swarming inside, too complicated to sort out. He looked back down, the look making him feel weird. He felt like he wanted to comfort the echidna, but that was bad, right? He wasn't suppose to actually feel anything about Knuckles, but he was always so nice and caring towards the hedgehog. These feelings aren't right; this mission won't work with these feelings getting in the way. He's suppose to kill this team, and that includes the echidna.

He felt a sharp pain in his heart after thinking that, further proving that he needed to get over these things. He can't love the one he has to defeat. Maybe he should distance himself more to avoid falling for him. Would that work?

No. 'I can't deny this, but....' Shadow glanced back to Knuckles. 'I was told to eliminate him. I can't act upon these feelings; I should just shut them out until the deal is done.'

Shadow sighed, planning on leaving, but when he turned to Knuckles to say goodbye, an overwhelming guilt for what he was doing took over him. Knuckles looked at him, amethyst eyes filled with thoughts, and Shadow didn't feel as if he should leave him in this state.

So, instead of saying a brief goodbye, he hugged him tightly, not planning on letting go.