Special Four: Dark Truths/The Guardian and the Soldier

**Dark Truths** and **The Guardian and the Soldier** is the fourth two part special of Sonic X: Heroes Forever.

## Dark Truths characters

* Sonia the Hedgehog
* Mighty the Armadillo
* Knuckles the Echidna
* Julie-Su
* Lien-Da (First appearance, flashback)
* Edmund the Echidna (First mention, flashback)
* Dimitri the Echidna (First mention, flashback)
* Mechanauts (First appearance, flashback)

## Plot of Dark Truths

Part one of the special starts with Knuckles and Julie-Su on a walk when they come across Sonia and Mighty. Sonia is curious to know how Knuckles and Julie-Su met each other and the echidnas motion for the hedgehog and armadillo to sit down to listen. Knuckles says it started in China, but, he pronounced it wrong before Sonia corrects him.

Flashing back to two days prior to meeting the rest of the Chaotix in China, a sixteen year old Knuckles finds Julie-Su frozen in stasis with a defiant expression and about to draw a weapon. Worried, Knuckles releases Julie-Su from the capsule and the pink echidna looks around, most confused before realizing her enemies moved her while in stasis. Knuckles tries to make small talk, but, Julie-Su tries to fire at him with her weapon before realizing he wasn’t the enemy and Julie-Su realizes he’s a Guardian by the crest on his chest. The two introduce themselves as “Sir Knuckles of the House of Edmund” and “Julie-Su of the House of Dimitri” respectively. Julie-Su also reveals she came from the Twilight Zone and Knuckles explains where the two of them are right now. Suddenly, Julie-Su feels she needs to use the restroom and Knuckles quickly gets her to one.

Skipping ahead, Julie-Su realizes she’s hungry after being frozen in stasis and Knuckles tries to ask her why she was frozen like that. Julie-Su, being stubborn, refuses to tell Knuckles any groundwork and focuses on food for her stomach. Knuckles apologizes and the two stroll off to get some food. Another echidna watches the duo with interest and tries to “nip their relationship in the bud”.

Meanwhile, the two teenage echidnas are eating lunch together, with Julie-Su scoffing things down as if she’s never eaten before. Knuckles tries to tell her to be careful, when the other echidna shows up out of nowhere. Knuckles is very surprised and Julie-Su identifies the other echidna as “Kommissar”. The other echidna taunts Julie-Su, referring to herself as the pink echidna’s half-sister and her name is Lien-Da. Lien-Da commands Knuckles to stay out of their sibling fight (and Julie-Su also recommends for Knuckles to stand back) and for the Mechanauts to attack. Julie-Su manages to shoot down many of the Mechanauts and she’s glad she hasn’t lost her touch, only for her to get a stomach cramp from eating too much. Lien-Da takes advantage of the situation and uses her whip to knock Julie-Su to the ground. Lien-Da then taunts Julie-Su on turning on them before she could get internal implants to help with digestion (she doesn’t need to eat much or use the bathroom). When Julie-Su tries to patronize Lien-Da and she tries to retort, Knuckles punches Lien-Da in the stomach, hard. Julie-Su thanks Knuckles for his help and she warps away via Warp Ring. Knuckles asks Julie-Su if she’s okay and she responds she will be as part 1 of the special ends.

## The Guardian and the Soldier characters

* Sonia the Hedgehog
* Mighty the Armadillo
* Knuckles the Echidna
* Julie-Su
* Vector the Crocodile (Flashback)
* Espio the Chameleon (Flashback)
* Charmy Bee (Flashback)
* Saffron Bee (Flashback)
* Ray the Flying Squirrel (Flashback, does not speak)
* Lien-Da (Flashback)
* Archimedes the Fire Ant (Flashback)
* Edmund the Echidna (Mentioned, Flashback)
* Dimitri the Echidna (Mentioned, Flashback)
* Dark Legion Troops (Flashback)
* Enerjak (First mention)
* Chaos (Mentioned)
* E-02 Heavy the Robot (Flashback, does not speak)
* E-03 Bomb (Flashback, does not speak)
* Mechanauts (Flashback)

## Plot of The Guardian and the Soldier

Part two of the special starts with Sonia being surprised about the story that was just told and Julie-Su admits Lien-Da hadn’t recovered the next time they met. Mighty asks what happened, much to Julie-Su’s confusion as he was there (as it took place after they got back from China), but, Mighty explains he was asking on Sonia’s behalf.

At the baggage drop in a Maryland airport, Knuckles and Julie-Su meet up with the Chaotix, with Charmy explaining they are going to register as citizens of the country. Saffron asks Knuckles who his new friend was and Charmy quickly explains Saffron lost some of her memory due to banging her head. After Julie-Su explains who she is, Saffron recalls she helped them get the Chaos Emerald back. Espio suggests the group register themselves and he disappears in a puff of smoke, leaving Julie-Su to agree that was a good idea as she didn’t want to get in trouble just by idly standing around.

The Chaotix and Julie-Su all register as full citizens with Lien-Da crossly watching them while eating chili fries. She reveals her stomach implants were damaged when Knuckles punched her and she has to eat her bodyweight in junk food to be battle ready, though she is enjoying it in spite of herself. Julie-Su spots her half-sister and Lien-Da captures her with her whip, much to Vector’s shock and confusion as to who “this broad” is. Knuckles quickly explains who Lien-Da is and how he saw her for the first time, as well as defend Julie-Su from Lien-Da’s insults. Lien-Da doesn’t notice a Mobian fire ant jump on her shoulder and warp her away, this of course being Archimedes. He then went onto explain that Julie-Su was rebelling against the Dark Legion and she appreciates the support, though, Knuckles is knocked out of the loop. Archimedes explains Knuckles isn’t the last echidna as he was lead to believe (which he found out that much five days prior thanks to finding Julie-Su in the first place) and is part of the Brotherhood of the Guardians, while the other two clans are the Nocturnus and Dark Legion, the last one being where Julie-Su and Lien-Da are from. Julie-Su, however, decided not to follow them and admits their goal is to conquer Mobius with their technology and will hurt anyone they can along the way. While Lien-Da has internal implants, Julie-Su only has external ones with her arm and dreadlock. Knuckles says he trusts Julie-Su’s word despite only knowing her for five days and Julie-Su fears Lien-Da will come back for her as she hasn’t told anyone directly she defected from the Legion. Knuckles says the Chaotix will show Lien-Da what the Chaotix can do and won’t sit idly by when the “newest Chaotix” needs help. An amazed Julie-Su realizes she’s been inducted into the Chaotix for her bravery and selflessness and the group all leap into battle.

Lien-Da has rallied up some Dark Legion Troops and Mechaunts as the Chaotix show up, boasting she has an army ready to go. Charmy retorts they have a Vector and he blows bubblegum bubbles, which are full of his rancid breath. Lien-Da tries to pop one, but, the odor stings her eyes and Heavy and Bomb handle the Mechaunts while Mighty and Ray use a tether ring and the former’s Mighty Smash to take out the Dark Legion Troopers.

Knuckles and Julie-Su confront Lien-Da head on, facing off two against one. Lien-Da uses her whip to try and attack the two teenagers while they dodge and Knuckles quickly gets an idea. He gets his Shovel Claws and digs into the ground, much to the girls’ confusion (and Lien-Da also mistakes Julie-Su and Knuckles for a couple). This was enough distraction for Knuckles to uppercut Lien-Da and force her to the ground. Knuckles claims Lien-Da lost the battle and Julie-Su says she’s a Chaotix member now, destroying her tracking chip in the process so Lien-Da will never find her again. The rest of the Chaotix try to rush up to attack Lien-Da, only for her to make a retreat via Warp Ring. Espio, on the Chaotix behalf, claims they will never let Lien-Da hurt Julie-Su again.

In the present, Sonia asks how Knuckles and Julie-Su ended up together, to which Knuckles explains is an easy question to answer, taking place four months before Chaos’ release.

On Angel Island, Julie-Su is checking up on Knuckles guarding the Master Emerald as usual and when he says that you never know when something will take it, Julie-Su recounts she looked at a book called the Shining and a quote from the movie of it was “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” She elaborated it’s best case scenario for him to become dull and worst case will make Knuckles insane. Realizing this, Knuckles and Julie-Su take a break and the latter suggests they walk around Angel Island’s zones. Knuckles agrees, as long as they don’t spend too much time in Broken Dream Zone.

At Azure Lake Zone, Knuckles comments on the fact they make a good team. Julie-Su just thinks she made a good fit for the Chaotix and while Knuckles admits that’s true, he was really talking about him and her. The two echidnas blushed and took each other’s hands, admiring the lake in a peaceful silence. Unfortunately, this is promptly interrupted by Archimedes, much to Knuckles’ dismay, and he gives the echidnas a genealogy lesson about how they are distantly related by Edmund and Dimitri being brothers. He admits everyone is related super distantly enough and it won’t be weird if they were to end up together. The fire ant disappears in a cloud of smoke and Julie-Su asks if Knuckles were to eat Archimedes. He said he tried, most likely after irritating him one day, but, he burnt his mouth. He says he won’t do it again.

In the present, Knuckles admits one thing led to another and they woke up in each other’s arms. Sonia believes this to be adorable, much to Knuckles’ surprise as she’s taking it well. Sonia explains that she had some time to think in the other dimension: as good as it was to be with Knuckles, she figures that even if she convinced him to take time off, they won’t see each other often. Knuckles admits he was thinking along the same lines and Sonia thanks Knuckles for telling her the stories as part 2 of the special ends.

## Trivia

* Vector and Knuckles both reference Sonic Heroes: Vector with the “who’s this broad” line, and Knuckles with mentioning the Chaotix will “show Lien-Da what they’re made of.”
* The "We have a Vector" line is a reference to The Avengers movie.
* There’s also a more indirect reference with Knuckles releasing Julie-Su from stasis, much like Rouge did for Shadow in the actual game. The only differences are that Julie-Su was just confused while Shadow had amnesia and while Julie-Su almost attacked Knuckles by accident, Shadow didn’t attack Rouge, but, rather *saved* her from Omega’s attack.
	+ That being said, Saffron had amnesia when she had her head bumped all the way back to Maryland in the cargo hold, but, unlike Shadow who took until his self titled game to get his memories back, Saffron managed to remember Julie-Su within seconds.
* Julie-Su and Knuckles’ conversation is based off a conversation with Kion and Rani from The Lion Guard’s episode Journey to the Pridelands. This was suggested by Tobyandmavisforever2.
	+ Coincidentally, Archimedes ruining the moment is a nod to Bunga ruining Rani’s proposal to Kion to be her king.
* This is the first special devoid of Overlanders or humans of any degree.
* This special also reveals that the guardians of the Master Emerald receive a knighthood of sorts, as Knuckles introduced himself to Julie-Su as "Sir Knuckles of the House of Edmund".
* Tobyandmavisforever2 suggested the ideas of the special in general: how Julie-Su and Knuckles met, how Julie-Su joined the Chaotix, and how Knuckles and Julie-Su got together.
* This is the first special to primarily be in flashback. By coincidence, the previous one-shot was the first one completely lacking a flashback.
* This was also the first story to flashback to an earlier point in the series itself rather than to prior to the series starting.