Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story nor am I in affiliation with Sega or Sonic Team or Archie.

What Would Have Been

I didn't feel good and, judging by the condition of my battered limbs, I didn't look good either. Glancing around, I tried to gain my bearings through the surroundings, but instead, I was met with unfamiliar territory. No homes. No landmarks. No trees. Not even grass or bushes. Just dry, peach sand stretching out as far as the eye could see. Confused, disoriented, and slightly unnerved, I could see I was in trouble; serious trouble. I was lost. No clue where to run or where to head for. I turned my head around in several directions only to be faced with the same scene on all sides; a blank, barren horizon with coarse trails of overexposed ground quickly being drawn up and away by the dry winds. I gazed heavenward to see the noonday sun high in the sky, giving me no instruction as to which way was east or west. Yup . . . lost.

"Ah, ouch," I cried in pain as my left hand quickly went to my wounded right arm. This was worse yet. Not only had he dumped me in a desert wasteland, but that stupid robot Eggman also sent after us injured my arm; pretty badly. I tried to lift it, my dominant arm, only to have to stifle a scream of agony and blink the tears out of my eyes. It had to be broken. But wait, us? Where's Tails? Why . . . ? Wait! What was that? My eyes quickly ran back to the spot where I saw motion only a moment ago. To my surprise and remorse, it was Tails. He was buried under the sand, which blended well with his pale orange fur, and wildly struggling to lift his head up. He looked dazed and flustered as he panicked.

"I can't move," he shouted, genuinely frightened by the situation. I quickly made my way over to him and gently lowered to my knees beside the fox.

"Calm down, Tails, it's all right," I assured him with false confidence as I knew we were in a challenging situation at best. He calmed down considerably under the sound of my voice and looked up at me with wondering eyes. Poor little guy. I shouldn't have taken him with me on this one. How could I be so dumb, no reckless? Trying to ignore the guilty lecture to myself, I dug around him with my good arm, dismissing the dull throb of my right.

"Sonic?" he asked timidly as he too began helping himself out of the sand trap. I looked down at him and noted the questioning stare he gave my limp arm.

"Don't worry about it," I smiled.

"Where are we?" he asked. I frowned a bit, not having the foggiest as to our locale. I just shrugged my shoulder and shook my head. Once Tails was out of the pit, he immediately went to work. I could tell by the look in his blue eyes he was analyzing, calculating our situation, and that it wouldn't be long before he graced me with an answer or opinion. Good old Tails. But during his process of thinking, I looked him over, making sure there weren't any serious wounds or marks on him. He seemed fine, except for a few bruises scattered about his body. Nevertheless, he seemed weary which I guess is understandable. The last couple of days had been nothing but a dangerous, battle fraught ordeal with none other than Dr. Eggman behind it all. Our current situation was just the icing on the grueling cake, so to speak. Tails let out a sigh as it appeared he gave up in whatever venture he was taking and squinted at me in the bright sun.

"How are we going to get back?" he asked me matter of factually. He had so much faith in me. I mean this looked impossible but he still thought I had a way out. Well, though I had no idea where we were or even if there was a way out, there was no way I was going to let my little bro down. I had to keep his spirits up and the best way to do that was to strive for something.

"I don't know, but I know how to find out. Come on," I said as I stood back up and began walking. I could hear Tails quickly do the same as he came alongside me. After a few minutes of silent trekking, he spoke up.

"What do you think he'll do with the emerald?"

"I'm not sure, but knowing Eggman it isn't good, and it won't be easy to stop him . . ." I paused solemnly. Tails looked up at me in mild shock. Ha, got him.

"Just kidding," I grinned, "This'll be a piece of cake."

Tails smiled as well.

"Yeah. We'll stop him!" he exclaimed happily as he struck a confident fist in the air. I loved to see my friends full of confidence. Whether in dire straights or the best of moods, nothing soared my spirits higher than when others had freedom and confidence in themselves and others. Kind of corny, but it suits me fine. We traveled a little way, which to my dismay was causing extreme pain to rack my arm.

"Sonic? It's broken, isn't it?" Tails asked, after a few moments. He was now looking at the swollen ligament I was now squeezing rather tightly, unconsciously trying to strangle the pain away. I smiled weakly not trying to alarm him but I allowed the agony of my injury to show through my clenched teeth; shoot. Tails frowned and stopped walking.

"We have to do something about that or it'll get worse," he stated as I stopped a few feet ahead of him. I rolled my eyes. It wasn't that I didn't know it was serious; I just didn't want him to worry about it. Besides . . .

"Look, Tails, there's nothing we can do about it way out here in the middle of nowhere," I replied turning my head to face him. For whatever reason, he wasn't satisfied.

"Well, maybe we could splint it or put it in a sling," he reasoned.

"Will you look around," I exasperated illustrating my point by waving my good hand before me, "There is nothing to splint or sling this with. We just have to keep going. There has to be an end to this soon, trust me."

He seemed slightly defeated, not by my words I could tell, but by the circumstances. He glanced down at his feet but nodded in agreement. I nodded in acceptance and started walking on . . .

"I don't trust you."

Both me and Tails turned to our left and were shocked to see Knuckles standing there in his typical stance of arms crossed and a scowl on his mug . . . Why was he here? . . . How was he here?

"You don't even know where you are let alone where you're going," the echidna taunted. Arrrg, I can't stand that, always the party crasher.

"Well, I know if I keep going in one direction I'll end up somewhere," I retaliated as I walked on forward. I could hear him scoff.

"Knuckles, do you know where we are?" Tails asked, honestly wanting to know if said echidna had an answer. This ought to be good.

"Well, no. But it would be my guess that we're in one of the three largest deserts on the planet."

"Gee, thanks, knucklehead. That was awfully helpful," I mumbled as I turned back to face them. He glared at me before moving his hands down to his sides and continuing.

"Look, I think we should head east. That's our best chance, seeing as one of the deserts, if I remember correctly, leads to the sea if you go west."

Well, that's dandy. It was my turn to ask a question.

"How did you get out here?"

He smiled slyly before responding.

"You didn't think I'd let you have all the fun. I'm after the emerald, just like you," he said, his voice growing more serious towards the end. Mmm, that made sense, but it still didn't explain how he was here, in the desert, with us. Knuckles seemed to foresee my confusion and glanced upwards while speaking.

"I came down with you two when Eggman dropped you out. I figured you would need some extra help and I was right," he stated, looking back at me. Ha, good old Knucklehead. I had to admit, even though he had a way of coming across as a hard, strict, sometimes harsh, egoist at best, he was still a trustworthy friend and a good-natured rival. Though he does have the tendency of being a tad bit naive which turns him against you in a second, but hey, who's perfect. All the same, Tails and I really are in a tight spot here, so, I guess he's got me there. Man, I hate it when he's right, especially about the needing help part. Oh, well. I nodded.

"Good."

"So, Knuckles, which way is east," Tails asked. This time, the red echidna just stood there, dumbfounded, as if the kid had asked him to explain the inner workings of a rocket booster. Even an idiot could tell by his long pause and 'where the heck am I' look in his eyes that he no more knew where east was than a broken compass.

"You don't know, do you?" I asked with mock innocence. He began mumbling to himself as he turned away from me and Tails and began, what I assume, surveying his surroundings.

"No problem, you did see which direction Eggman's ship went, right?" Tails questioned, hoping to gain some ground here I imagine. Ah great, he's cursing the day he was born . . . geez, that means NO! Okay, okay. What am I freakin' out about? I'm Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm cool, I'm fast, no problem.

"Don't worry guys, we'll just . . ."

Before I could voice some encouragement, Tails swooned heavily and then . . . I saw his eyes roll back. My mind and body reacted quickly to this sign. As he passed out, I caught him. Unfortunately, his body weight slammed into my arm and I let out an uncontrollable howl of pain. Knuckles turned instantly, concern in his features as he rapidly came to my aid. He lifted the fallen fox from me as I gritted my teeth against the fire that was surging through my arm. He looked down at Tails before glancing at me and my injury. I could tell in his eyes he was taking the situation a little more seriously now. He began checking over Tails, making sure he was still breathing and stuff. I watched, feeling helpless. I hated not being able to help my little bro and, worst of all, I hated the fact I let him get mixed up into this.

"We need to get him someplace cool and we need to do something about that arm," Knuckles advised, leaving no room for argument. I knew enough not to disagree with the seasoned guardian for even if he is pretty dumb in most areas, medical advice, amazingly, wasn't one of them. He was now holding Tails in a customary cradle fashion as he looked down at me. I guess he wants me to lead. But I don't know where I'm going. He doesn't give me a choice, however, and I decide to go the way I had previously been trekking. I can't help but think about Tails though. Is he okay? Did he hit his head in battle and now have a concussion? Is it the heat? Is he going to be alright?

"What's wrong with him?" I asked quietly as we moved through the sand. I can hear Knuckles sigh in contemplation from behind me and knew he didn't have the complete answer to that question.

"I don't know, but he's warm and sweating, a lot. That's not good. I think it might be heat exhaustion, but speaking of not good, what about that arm?"

"We'll worry about it later. Right now we need to find a place for Tails," I said, honestly concerned more about my friend's past out state than this stupid arm.

"It's broken, isn't it? Has to be or else you wouldn't let it flop around like a limp noodle. Dang it, Sonic, hold it up, at least, or you'll make it even worse; possibly never use it again. In fact, stop, just stop."

I don't need him telling me what to do. I already gave my answer, thank you. So, I continued to walk on ignoring his loud voice.

"I said stop, Sonic," he said through clenched teeth of anger, I could tell. But I kept walking; hopefully, he'll just quit trying.

"Sonic!"

Oh, well. So much for hoping.

"Didn't you hear me!" he shouted. I could tell I was really aggravating him now; his short temper and all. But who cares, I don't, and unfortunately the only other person here who would was unconscious to what was going on . . . oh and Tails too. Okay, okay that was mean of me. He was, after all, trying to help, maybe I should stop.

"Fine," I hissed under my breath, trying to sound as if I was irritated beyond all reason as I stopped. However, quite unconsciously, I turned my bad arm away from the echidna. He came beside me with a look of finally etched on his face. Man, for whatever reason, I was angry and anxious. Well, I knew the reason why I was angry, I wanted to help Tails and I wanted to do it now and there was nothing we could do about my arm. But I didn't really know why I was anxious. At least, I didn't know until Knuckles tried to reach for it. He had placed Tails on his left shoulder and was now trying to nab my Broken Arm! I understandably jerked away. I didn't need him grabbing my injury; it hurt enough already.

"Quit being a baby and let me see it," he demanded again, stretching out a hand. I resisted the sudden urge to shout 'no' and instead tried to ward him off by explanation or, at least, excuses.

"It really isn't that bad. In fact, I'll do what you said I'll hold it up. Maybe that'll help," I said as smoothly as possible. Darn it, I was scared. I could feel it bubbling up from the pit of my stomach. I didn't want to be. It was just a common injury. However, the surge of fiery pain that pulsed from it told me otherwise. He seemed to calm down a bit, but he still had this serious face, almost parental in a way, which was strange for Knuckles.

"Look, Sonic," he began in an all too understanding voice. I didn't know how to react to it.

"I know you know it's broken and that if we don't set it correctly you're going to have serious problems with it later on. You're not going to blow this off, so, that means I'm going to help you, got it."

I closed my eyes, knowing it was stupid of me to be denying this problem and refusing his help, but . . . oh, how come I'm so hesitant. Because it's going to hurt, I know it is. Suck it up hedgehog, you have to do this. You've suffered worse and you still have a long way to go and acting like a bad patient isn't helping. I opened my eyes, turned to my friend, and nodded in trust to him. He seemed a little shocked as if he thought I was going to fight him some more but didn't, which made me smile a bit.

"Okay," he replied. However, almost immediately, I could tell he had no earthly idea what he was going to do. He looked at me with his violet eyes and simply said, "I don't know how I'm going to set your broken arm. There really isn't much out here, is there."

I stared at him, and in spite of the current situation, I laughed at the absurdity of it all. He seemed a bit irritated by the fact he had just appeared foolish or that I was right, I'm not sure, but then he smirked.

"Shut up. You're not off the hook yet, hedgehog."

My chuckles stopped. He reached out and took my arm before I could protest and I was shocked by how gentle he was with it.

"Now, this is going to hurt, but you're going to need to hold this up. Grit your teeth or something."

I could feel my pulse race, but I did as I was told and bit down as he . . . ARGGHH! Lord help me!

"There. Now, hold it up, and we can keep moving."

"My thoughts exactly," I grunted, miserably releasing my teeth and receiving an empathetic look in the process. I cradled my right arm into my left and we walked on with a bit less tension and more harmony in the atmosphere. But the sun was relentless in its efforts to make us into walking barbeque sandwiches and, to say the least, woeful was an understatement to the sun-soaked misery we were tramping through. True, I normally can handle these conditions, but with dehydration, hunger, injuries, and no relief in sight, it was becoming unbearable. This couldn't be good for Tails and, to be honest, I was a little worried about myself and Knuckles. It was hard enough with the heat and uneven sand to go through, but to have to carry, no offense little buddy, 44 pounds of dead weight certainly had to be taking a toll on the enduring echidna.

Again, I was reminded of how useless I was having only one good arm. I could be helping to carry Tails. In fact, how can I do that? Maybe putting the little guy on my shoulder as Knuckles had. Yes, that could work. I stopped and turned around to see that we were in deep trouble . . . Besides the fact Knuckles was sweating bullets, the scene behind him totally clashed with what was ahead of us. Clouds of darkness loomed on the horizon, starting from the ground and towering upwards of a 100 feet or more in high whirlwinds. It looked surreal but I had seen enough movies to recognize it immediately; sandstorm.