Ancient Secret, Inner Emerald

Welcome Back! Please Help.

"I don't get it." Knuckles said, looking back at the floating Mobian that had taken up residence at his side.

The echidna was surprisingly dressed up compared to his normal look. He had his quills up and a patterned scarf around his neck.

"I mean, he doesn't listen normally, but it's not like he doesn't understand basic questions. And how come he looks like Hyper?"

"Knuckles," Amy started. "He's been completely unresponsive. Sonic got hit by a blast that turned him into an emerald, that emerald turned into this," she gestured to the hedgehog, receiving a head tilt in response.

"And he's been attacking us nonstop on orders from Eggman for the past-" she glanced from the sky to Tails.

"What time is it exactly?" She asked and received a shrug in response.

"Well either way, he was only listening to Eggman no matter how hard we tried to get through and you just-" she waved her hands frustratedly at the other.

Knuckles hummed in thought. "I felt something weird going on with chaos energy, I didn't think it was this." He glanced at the figure beside him.

"So he literally turned into an emerald?" He asked.

Tails nodded. "Possibly an imitation of one but he had all the same signature and energy readings as a real chaos emerald."

"Hm." The echidna circled around the other. "Strange."

He tilted his head and the other mirrored the action.

"Is there anyway for you to go back to being an emerald?" He asked.

Without so much as an answer the hedgehog's form popped out of existence and flittered back into the emerald and dropped. Knuckles dove forward to catch it and stood back up, brushing the dirt off his stomach.

He inspected the crystal and the other two watched him in fascination.

"I mean, it definitely looks and feels like an emerald." He spoke, "but that shouldn't be possible. You can tell when an emerald is fake but-"

"It feels identical." Tails finished for him. "That's what I thought too, it's strange."

"For sure." The other nodded. He handed the emerald to Tails who fumbled with it nervously.

"So this little thing is Sonic huh?" Amy said looking at the emerald. "Gonna be honest, I thought it'd be blue."

"I was thinking red." Tails said rolling it over in his hands.

"Really? I totally would've thought green or yellow or something." Knuckles stated, adjusting his scarf around his body into a sash.

He held a hand out to Tails who hesitated before handing the gem to the echidna. He deposited it into the cloth and tightened it there.

He stopped and looked at Tails who glanced at him nervously. "So... Do you think you'd be able to change him back?"

Knuckles shook his head. "No, I can't, honestly I'm not even sure if this is something I can fix."

The fox's ears folded back and Amy placed a hand on his shoulder.

"But," he smiled and looked down at Tails "I think I know who might."

"Ugh! There you rodents are!" The gravelly voice of Eggman broke through the clearing as he appeared on his craft.

"Y'know it's kinda rude to just scamper off in the middle of the fight like that. What if something happened to you? I would've missed it!" He cried.