He ran for the hills and reached the snow sports centre to find it in a state of organised uproar. Clearly they had a plan for avalanche incidents which they were working to and Knuckles thought it best not to disrupt it. Sonic and Tails were nowhere in sight, either among those being assessed and warmed up or among the helpers.

Knuckles hurried over to speak to one of the dazed looking skiers who were sitting at a table wrapped in emergency blankets but who seemed otherwise unharmed.

"I'm looking for some people," he said.

She looked up at him. "You and everyone else. They're got everyone who was signed out on Green and Yellow runs and some from Red and Orange so far."

Knuckles nodded. "They're not there. Did you see them on the runs? One's blue about my height." He waved a hand vaguely indicated spines. "Spiky. The other's a fox. Can't miss him. Two tails."

The skier's face fell. "I did see them," she sad. "They went off cross country though. They weren't on the runs. I'm sorry."

Knuckles nodded. He should have guessed as much. He thanked the girl and headed out.

He looked across the landscape. Where would Sonic have gone? Higher surely. Less crowded, somewhere he could go stupidly fast without having to dodge the traffic of slower skiers and snowboarders.

He headed uphill, letting guesses and what he knew of Sonic and what he knew of mountains guide him. He was certain if he got close enough by guesswork he'd be able to find him. Sonic was disruptive. There was something of chaos energy about him. He was a walking disturbance to the way the energy flowed in the world. It was just one of many reasons he got so thoroughly on Knuckles' nerves.

Time was starting to run on. How long had it been since the quake? Did Sonic and Tails even know what to do in case of avalanche? If they were buried, did they have air, and was it - had it been - enough? They'd been on snowboards and were both agile, and experienced riders, and Sonic had his speed, and Tails his flight. Surely they were okay? Somewhere?

Except that that same speed and flight meant that if they were really okay they'd have been back already. Probably would have been helping pull others out or looking for the rest of the crew to check on them.

That they weren't, meant...

Knuckles cut off the train of thought. It meant he didn't know what had happened yet. That was all.

He ran on, moving lightly over the snow, avoiding the softer patches by something more than gut feeling but less than thought - habit learned almost to instinct.

Thinking, not about his footing, but about the search, seeking that irritant flicker of chaos that was the hedgehog's presence. Like everything else it was harder here, away from familiar ground. He could miss it if he were thinking of other things. Thinking of ifs and maybes.

When he came to a sudden halt, he wasn't sure for a moment if it was that sense which had stopped him or the fact the snow ahead was clearly of a different type.

"Sonic?" he called experimentally.

Nothing.

He dug for a few seconds, almost at random, hit rock only a few feet down.

But the snow ahead was not packed hard over rock, it was tumbled, drifted, loose but refreezing in big rucked up mounds. This was where the avalanche had finished up. The snow here was deep - there'd been a drop here before. Maybe a deep one.

"Sonic!" Knuckles bellowed as loud as he could this time. "Tails!"

He moved forward cautiously, warily. The snow crunched underfoot and he sank to his ankles but it held.

"Sonic!"

"Knuckles!"

His head snapped round. It was Tails' voice, not Sonic's, a shrill mixture of panic and relief but it was close.

"Tails?" Knuckles shouted back. "Keep calling. I can't see you."

"Here! Knuckles! Here!"

Knuckles followed the sound, rounding a tump of snow to find him buried to the neck in the drift, one arm and his head the only bits visible.

"Tails!" Knuckles set to digging at once. "Hold still. I'll get you out. You got any idea where Sonic is?"

"We were together." Tails sniffed, swallowed hard. "Sonic told me to take off when we realised what was happening. He was trying to ditch his board, to outrun it, but it was happening right there from underneath us, it wasn't coming down the mountain at us, y'know, it was our bit of the mountain going..."

Knuckles had uncovered enough the the little fox to haul him free. Tail stood shakily, leaning against him, still talking fast, through tears and chattering teeth.

"He was keeping on top of it though, just, and I was trying to grab him but it was hard, everything was moving in every direction and every time he tried to reach up to grab me he sank back in the snow. Then I saw the ravine and I did go in to grab him anyway but we went over before I could properly pull us out."

Tails looked about wildly. "We should dig! He can't be far, he was right there. I had him..."

Knuckles disentangled himself from Tails' grip and moved over the snow, concentrating, eyes half shut. Tails was right, Sonic wasn't far.

"Sonic!" he yelled again, Tails joining in. After a moment when they both stood, motionless not even shifting their weight on the crunchy snow to avoid any sound there was perhaps the faintest hint of a muffled reply.

"Here," Knuckles decided and started digging at once. Tails attempted to join in but weak and stiff and slow with cold it was more of a token effort whereas Knuckles burrowed as fast as he ever had.

He realised a moment too late the possible problem with that, when the last of the snow between him gave way and he fell several times his own length onto packed snow. Tails shrieked from above him and he called back in reassurance.

It was only when his shout was accompanied by a second yell of the fox's name, that he looked round. Sonic was reeling unsteadily towards him, teeth chattering as hard as Tails' and looking completely stunned.

"How..." the hedgehog asked before repeating himself and going on, "How on the face on whatever planet this actually is, did you find us out here? I mean don't get me wrong it's not that I object but how is that even possible?"

"Not now, Sonic." Knuckles was looking around the space he'd fallen into. It was a largish space, sides of packed snow, should be solid enough to climb.

Sonic saw him looking.

"They say you should make a space to breathe in if you get snowed in don't they? Before it freezes solid... You can make a really quite big space before then if you're fast. No avalanche survival kit is complete without a super-fast hedgehog!"

Even shivering he looked almost pleased with himself. Knuckles rolled his eyes. "You look like a super-frozen hedgehog to me. Are you hurt? Can you hold on if I climb us out? I think Tails is about done in."

"I'm fine, had my own little igloo haven't I?" Sonic assured him. "My head hurts."

Knuckles blinked. That had come out of nowhere in direct contradiction of the previous statement. He looked Sonic up and down. There was nothing to show he'd hit his head, but he did look dizzy, sounded confused and his breathing was almost a pant.

Maybe he'd hit his head after all but more the likely culprit was the lack of air, in spite of his hollowed out space.

"Okay," Knuckles said. "We'll see to it back on the ship. "Come on." He beckoned Sonic over, made sure he had a good grip and started to climb.

He was only half sure Sonic would be able to hang on in his current state, but he did and they reached the top without a problem - Tails reaching over to pull Sonic the last few feet and fling his arms around him. He tried and failed to pull Knuckles into the hug as well.

"Come on," Knuckles repeated. "We need to get back."

Sonic's breathing was still too fast, but really they'd been lucky - they were both almost entirely unhurt and they made good time back to the snow sports centre where the practised operation had found eveyone, although many were worse injured.

They found Cream and Cosmo waiting there - Chris had gone back to the ship to try and work out another way of looking for them and Amy was helping organise the injured to be taken down the hill, though she came racing over when she saw them.

"We had no idea where to even start looking!" she said, apparently feeling her helping at the centre required explanation. "I couldn't stand sitting around."

Sonic, for once allowed her clinging without protest but didn't have to put up with it it long before she turned on Knuckles, catching him entirely by surprise without another of her startlingly strong hugs.

"You found them!"

Knuckles grunted a 'yes' while trying to get free himself without actually pushing hard enough to hurt her.

"How did you find them? How did you even get up the hill? Your foot was still..."

She let go to stare.

"I asked him that," Sonic put in. He aimed a poke in the ribs at Knuckles who moved away. "So spill."

"No," Knuckles said automatically.

Sonic looked genuinely taken aback. "Oh..." But then, to Knuckles' surprise he shrugged instead of pressing the issue.

"Well, I'm sorry you didn't exactly get your R&R anyway."

"Rest and relaxation?" Knuckles sighed. "It's all right. I'm not very good at them anyway."

They trailed back to the ship where Knuckles made himself scare, looking for the peace and quiet he'd so briefly managed on the ground.

They'd been in flight two days when he answered a tapping at his cabin door to find Sonic standing there.

"Uh. Hi." the hedgehog said.

"What do you want, Sonic?"

"In theory, to tell you that Tails thinks he's detected another Chaos Emerald and we're changing course to go after it." Sonic hesitated. "In practise..." He stopped again, shuffling and flicking his tail. Knuckles stared, confused.

"Uh, can I come in a sec?"

Knuckles considered saying no. But he wasn't at all sure that would actually make Sonic go away.

"Fine." He stepped away from the door and returned to where he'd been sitting.

Sonic frowned after him. "You do know you're missing a shoe, right?"

Knuckles rested his ankle on his opposite knee and resumed rubbing at the arch of his foot.

"It's not missing. What do you want, Sonic?"

"I thought that foot was better? You didn't come running up over the snow with it still broken! We all thought the Master Emerald had..." he waved a hand. "Done a thing."

"It's not broken any more." Knuckles sighed, irritated with explanations. "It's just... I don't know. Cramp. Something. It happens sometimes. The Master Emerald is not a magic wishing bauble! You heal something instantly instead of letting nature take its course you get side effects. That's all. It'll be fine. What do you actually want?"

Sonic went from staring at his foot, to his face, to dropping his gaze altogether.

"Er, I came to say thanks, actually. I sort of suddenly realised I was a bit out of it up on the mountain and I didn't, did I?"

Whatever Knuckles might have been expecting it wasn't that. Perhaps Sonic took his stunned silence for lack of understanding because he went on explaining.

"Thanks for coming and finding me and Tails, I mean." He looked up again. "I mean, yeah I'm sure you said everything on the way about reckless hedgehogs and stupid ideas, but, y'know, you came. So thanks."

Knuckles managed a grunt of acknowledgement before dragging from his memory the accepted form of words.

"You're welcome."

There was an awkward silence. Looking for something to fill it, Knuckles said, "So where does Tails think this Chaos Emerald is?"

Sonic shrugged, "He's not sure. Ahead. A few days." A thought seemed to strike him and he looked awkward again.

"Knuckles," he said hesitantly. "You do know we can't let the World Eggs go on being stolen don't you? Even if we find our own and all the Emeralds first."

Knuckles stared at him. If Sonic's hesitation was worry about his reaction then he was right to worry. How could he ask that?

"Of course I know that, Sonic." He was barely keeping hold of the sudden, instant frustration. Managed to carry on talking, though it was almost a snarl. "Do you seriously think I don't know what losing them means? What it does... To have the centre and soul of your world, the living energy at the heart of your home, ripped away? Taken. Stolen. You think that I don't know what that-"

He cut himself off, furiously, started again. "You can't possibly think I would let that happen to anybody..." His voice trailed into a sigh and finished, "...else."

Sonic's expression of horrified shock couldn't have been any more complete if Knuckles had sucker-punched him.

"I'm sorry," he said and this time there was no awkwardness, no hesitation, he was clearly too startled for it not be heartfelt.

"Knuckles, listen," he said. "I don't want you to think... to feel like..." He stopped. Knuckles waited.

"Look, I didn't take the Master Emerald because I thought I needed to force you to help. I thought you would help. Eventually. It just seemed like it would be quicker and easier to have that argument after we left instead of before."

"Save time?" Knuckles yelled, snapping back to furious. "And you think that's better? You weren't stealing from me to blackmail me you were stealing from me to save yourself time? You think that's better?"

"Yeah. I mean, no. I mean - listen! It never occurred to me that you wouldn't help. I knew you would. I-"

"Why?" Knuckles cut him off. "You've got no right to assume that! Why would you assume that?"

"Because," Sonic shuffled his feet. "Because... well... you... You're really going to make me say it aren't you? You always do, you knucklehead! You can't not know you do! I mean you literally just did it again two days ago! Knuckles, no one except you thinks you're here because you were forced to be here, everyone thinks you're here because when it's really been on the line you always have been there when we've needed you."

Sonic drew breath while, insulted and complimented in the same handful of seconds, Knuckles gaped at him.

"We argue and we fight and when it's done I know you've still got my back."

"Yeah, well, you're lucky I stick around to save your butt. I don't even know why I bother!"

Sonic stared at him, dismayed, and Knuckles hesitated. The knockback had been every bit as automatic a reflex as the one which had sent him looking for the hedgehog when he'd realised he was probably in trouble, and in any case Sonic never normally so much as blinked at angry words.

Presumably because, arguments or not, it was true, as Sonic had pointed out, that he'd done that - gone after him on the mountain.

But it was also true that he really didn't know why, or when it had become important to him that nothing happened to Sonic, or Tails, or the others.

The fact that they'd do the same for him, without a second thought, didn't count, that was just a circular reason which explained nothing. Piling in when Eggman, or more recently, the Meterex temporarily got the upper hand didn't count either - they were a danger to everyone equally.

He frowned at the temporarily silent hedgehog trying to work it out. Remembering how thinking, even for a moment, that he might have been dead under the snow had felt like losing something. Had felt almost like the displacement of the Master Emerald, like homesickness.

Abruptly Sonic shook himself and perked up.

"Naaa, don't gimme that." He smirked. "You'd miss me! C'mon, buddy... Give..."

"Give?" Knuckles echoed, thoroughly thrown off by this change in mood.

"Admit it!" Sonic translated.

"No."

Automatic. Reflex. But Knuckles was unable to stop a tiny smile sliding onto his own face because he'd just worked it out.

Sonic knew him. Even laughed about how predictable he was, and it was the same thing that drove him mad at times that he would miss. Sonic knew every screw-up and none of them seemed bother him, no fight or loss of temper stopped him coming right back, stopped him calling calling him, "buddy" or treating him like one.

Of course it was that same knowledge which had allowed Sonic to so easily remove the Master Emerald from the Island to the ship, to be so secure in leaving Cream and Amy to stand between him and it, to be so certain wouldn't hurt them for its sake.

Which took them right back to where this particular argument had started.

Was Sonic right? Would he have agreed if Sonic had asked for, instead of taken the Master Emerald?

No, he decided. He'd have argued, fought, not listened. The ship had escaped by only seconds as it was. Maybe there had been another way but had there been time?

"Sonic," he said, slowly.

"Yeah?" The hedgehog's ears pricked forward and he rocked up on his toes, all hopeful interest.

"Let's go and see if I can use the Master Emerald to get a closer fix for Tails."

"Oh!" Sonic looked startled, and Knuckles did smirk a bit this time, it was rare fun to catch the hedgehog off guard.

"Yeah," Sonic caught himself. "Yeah, okay, let's do that!"

He shot Knuckles sideways glances as they loped through the ship, which Knuckles ignored.

The Master Emerald was already bright when they entered and Knuckles smiled into the warmth of the light.

"The seven chaos emeralds are the servers." But not all seven were here and he felt for the question. Searching the light for the others. One was near, Tails was right.

"You do realise that thing's shinier when you're in a decent mood?" Sonic interrupted suddenly, eyeing it.

Knuckles broke off with a disparaging snort.

"And what would you know about it, hedgehog?"

But it was true of course - power enriched by the heart - and he returned his concentration to it, slipping almost without thinking, into one of the variants of the litany.

"Our hearts intensify its power."

The plural.

Our.

Together.

And then he had a distance and a direction and he let go.

"Got it?" Sonic asked.

"Yes."

So, uh," Sonic kicked his heels on the deck. "You gonna come with and go find it?"

Knuckles watched him. Sonic met his eyes, cautious but challenging. Confident

Knuckles half turned, started out of the chamber, making the hedgehog break into a jog to keep up.

"I'll think about it."

But he couldn't quite keep a small smile from his face.

Sonic knew he would.

-END-