Autophobia

Fear of Abandonment (one shot)

It's been weeks since the battle to save the world occurred. Weeks since a certain echidna was able to redeem himself and become friends of his presumed enemies. Weeks since the day he got tricked by the man who wanted to use the power of something he searched to protect for himself.
For the newly made guardian Knuckles it felt like years since those incidents occurred. Like a double tailed fox and a blue hedgehog he was believed to be his enemies were long forgotten, but he knew that the weight of guilt for being so stupid to believe a complete stranger would keep building. Because the madman who went by the name Robotnik reminded him of something he wanted to forget. He wanted to forget that feeling so badly, to the point of getting nightmares of that fateful day as a constant reminder of that feeling in his chest that he struggled to remove it again.

Every now and then, he'd look on the Wachowski residence in the rain and see his friends either having dinner, doing something called "chores", playing games or watching a movie with their family. Sometimes he couldn't help but see what they're watching, and quickly got an interest to a man that was apparently named "The Rock" and a hero named Aquaman, like Sonic who had a passion with "Keanu Reeves" and Tails who loved the actor "Tom Holland", while the group would be sitting on a "couch" and watching a movie on a magic box that was called "TV" like a family.

Family. Something the young echidna never had. As he longingly watched at the small friends turned family happily watching the movie in the warm light, that feeling in his chest came to him once again, and he lowered his head in sadness, as the cold surroundings began to get the best of him.

Maddie heard him sneeze and thought it was Sonic.
"Oh! Bless you."
"That wasn't me!"
Tails went to check outside the window, but he didn't see anything, but a hole he doesn't remember seeing. For insurance that he wasn't making it up, he scanned the hole with his miles electric and sat back down with the others.

Meanwhile on Labyrinth Temple on Angel Island, Knuckles finished igniting the last incense burner on a small pillage next to the master emerald, preparing to do a prayer for his guardian ancestors.
It was something he found peace and solitude whenever he felt uneasy or feel unable to do something, in fact, when he was a puggle, that was exactly how he was able to seal that agonizing feeling so long ago. So if he was able to do that once, he could do it again. Soon enough, once he placed three small statues, one of a golden echidna with ruby eyes, a silver owl with emerald eyes and a bronze lizard with aquamarine eyes, he began the ritual to the prayer.

In old times, the guardians would paint their hands and faces in crescent and sun ray forms, representing the guardian's swore protection to the magical gem, while also wearing gold and jade and feather accessories to show the formality of a guardian, and Knuckles was old school, so he did just that. He wanted to honor his people in any way he can. Once he finished with his paint job, he went in front of the Master Emerald, kneeled and cupped his painted and gloveless hands together, and began praying.