Rouge at Starbucks
It was a chilly evening. Rouge the bat was sitting outside a Starbucks in Station Square, sipping her mocha frappicino. The sky was a sunset color. It mainly was indigo, with pink and orange streaks that ran through it.
The sun was just starting to set as the evening air got chillier. Rouge was wearing her bodysuit with the heart piece and her boots and gloves like usual, but all the parts that were colored pink were colored blue instead. With that, Rouge had a matching blue scarf with blue eye shadow.
She didn't know why, but for some reason she wanted to sit outside for a while with her ice cold frappicino in hand.
She stared out absentmindedly into the beautiful majestic sky.
It wasn't too crowded right now; the only people Rouge saw were the occasional couples strolling by on the sidewalk, or sometimes a person just by his or herself. It was quiet. Rouge liked the quiet. She'd hate to be out at Starbucks in the middle of the day when everybody got off work and it was crowded, noisy, and hot. Rouge liked it better when it was cool outside, and few people were to be seen.
Something had been bothering her all day long, and she couldn't understand what it was.
Something had been bugging her mind. Rouge looked up into the sky and realized finally what it was.
When she saw the deep indigo sky dotted with new sparkling stars, she understood the sky was the exact color of Knuckles the echidna's eyes.
What am I thinking about him for,
she asked herself, chuckling.
Nothing even happened between us. I don't need that selfish echidna for anything.
Rouge couldn't think of any recent stuff that made her think about him. The only difference from the usual was that she hasn't visited Knuckles on Angel Island in about a month, when she usually visited him every two weeks.
It seemed so different without seeing him, so…eerie.
Like something wasn't right.
Suddenly flashbacks of Knuckles saving her on the Space Colony Ark flashed through her mind. She stared off into the sky again, now it was darker than before. She could see clouds rolling in from the distance.
She looked down, a single tear slipping from her eye. She didn't know it had even escaped her eye until she saw the wetness of it suddenly appear on her blue scarf.
"Pull yourself together, Rouge. What...thinking about Knuckles? Seriously? Please. You deserve someone much better than him."
Rouge kept telling herself she didn't need to see him, but thoughts kept creeping back into her mind, again and again.
Finally, she realized she couldn't fight it anymore; she missed Knuckles.
Rouge decided to start off to Angel Island before it stormed too badly. So she drank the rest of her frappicino and quickly flew off in the direction of Angel Island.
With her was a black backpack, with all her clothes in it so she could change there. She wasn't planning on coming back to Station Square for a few days or more. She figured she could manipulate the echidna with her charm and be able to stay there for as long as she needed to.
It was a long way, and while she was on her journey, she pondered on what she would explain to Knuckles when she got there.
What would she tell him? She had no interest in stealing the Master Emerald anymore…it was merely a giant jewel now, nothing of any interest to Rouge the Bat any longer.
She thought it must have really meant something, considering usually all she thought about was jewels, jewels, and more jewels.
But Rouge had retired as a treasure hunter; it was just too much work for too little to pay.
All she wanted to do was see him…to feel his breath on her ears when they slept on Angel Island together.
This was a while ago, once when she got in a fight with him on Angel Island over the Master Emerald and fell asleep there with him. She missed that time.
Now they hadn't seen eachother in almost a month, and even that made Rouge sad that Knuckles didn't even want to see her. He's probably thinking, 'good riddance' Rouge thought.
She told herself it was probably true. But she didn't want to turn around. She kept going and eventually could see the island in the distance.
Just the sight made her sigh in relief. "Finally," She said.
The flight from Station Square to here seemed much longer than usual.
Rouge was aiming to land on the clear part of Angel Island where the Master Emerald was, and not in the jungle, like she accidentally did the last time. Boy, how rough that was.
As she dropped on the island, she didn't see Knuckles right away.
She walked over to the other side of the master emerald. There he was, sitting up against the gigantic emerald with his hands behind his head and his eyes closed.
Rouge stepped on a twig, making a loud snapping noise, causing Knuckles to wake up and whirl around to face his opponent who he thought was here to steal the Master Emerald.
Rouge didn't mean to wake him.
"Rouge," Knuckles said, out of breath.
"What are you doing here?" He asked, like it was no big deal that she had showed up finally.
"Hey there Knuckles," She said, waving, with her charming smile.
"I'm just visiting." Rouge said, not even looking at him.
Knuckles eyed the bat suspiciously. "Visiting?" he asked.
Then he realized something.
"No way. This is all about the Master Emerald, isn't it?"
Rouge looked Knuckles square in the eye while both of her gloved hands sat on her hips.
"How do you know I'm not coming just to see you?"
She asked, and then retreated. She never meant for that much to come out.
"What do you mean?" Knuckles asked.
"I mean I'm just…visiting, that's all." Rouge explained. "Life in the city gets to be pretty boring, you know."
Knuckles seemed suspicious. Rouge didn't care, though. She walked over to a big leafy tree and pushed the branches out of the way to make a small opening for her, tossing her backpack on the ground.
"Get me a blanket," Rouge demanded, "I'm sleeping here."
Knuckles gasped and then stepped up to her angrily.
"Wait," He exclaimed, "You think you can just show up here and tell me what to do for you? You only got here not even a minute ago."
Rouge sighed.
"Look. Either let me stay on your island for a couple of days, or you can say goodbye to your precious Emerald. I could care less about it now, but if I felt it necessary, I could always take it back to Station Square and shatter it all into huge pieces, and then I'd shatter those pieces into smaller pieces and make jewelry out of them. So what'll it be?"
Knuckles remained silent. He had secretly missed Rouge but would never tell her that.
He knew she had a thing for him, but he didn't really care.
She was here already, so why bother arguing?
"Okay…fine," He said.
Rouge looked pleased with his answer.
"Good," She said, winking.
"So, what do you want to do now?"
Knuckles looked at Rouge strangely.
"It's like 11:00 already," He said. "Go to sleep. I'll get you a blanket."
Rouge patiently waited by the big leafy tree for Knuckles to get her a blanket.
Knuckles returned two minutes later with a big furry brown blanket in hand. Rouge took it.
"What's this thing made of?" She asked, feeling the fluffy fur.
"Rabbit hide," Knuckles replied. "I've had it a while. It'll keep you warm. Goodnight."
Rouge shrugged. It would have to do.
The bat disappeared behind the tall plants to change into her pajamas.
A few minutes later, she returned wearing a white tank top and a pair of light pink pajama pants that came down to her tan knees.
Rouge stuffed her other clothes in the backpack and positioned herself so that she was right under the leafy tree with the blanket.
She snuggled up with it, feeling Knuckles' presence all over her.
Knuckles returned up by the Master Emerald, and before closing his eyes, he shouted down to her,
"Oh, and you'd better not try anything funny with the Master Emerald, or else you'll be forced to leave my island."
Rouge giggled.
"If I were to do anything with the Master Emerald, I would already be gone from here Knuckles," She said, smiling.
Knuckles could see Rouge smiling up at him from the Master Emerald. All he did was close his eyes and fall off to sleep. A small smile crept across his face.
"Goodnight, bat girl." He said quietly.
Rouge looked up at him, knowing he was falling to sleep.
"Goodnight, Knucklehead," She said, giggling.
Rouge slept peacefully with Knuckles' blanket. She dreamed of living here on the island for the rest of her life with Knuckles.
But in the end of her dream, Knuckles had mysteriously vanished from the island forever. After that, Rouge dreamt of searching everywhere for him but not being able to find him anywhere.
Her white ears twitched, and her body jerked uncomfortably.
When morning came, Rouge felt something tickle the side of her face. She felt it was Knuckles' breath on her ears. He had to be sleeping beside her again. She grinned.
She woke up and playfully pushed him away from her but realized she was pushing the air.
It had been the branches and leaves that were tickling the side of her face. She was disappointed.
Rouge got up and looked up at the Master Emerald, where surely the echidna was resting up there.
She was still freaked out by her horrible nightmare. Rouge finally calmed down and knew he wasn't going anywhere. A pleasant feeling came over Rouge.
He would never leave me here alone, she giggled happily, I know that silly echidna loves me. He would never leave me here alone to fend all for myself. He loves me. I know he was glad I came. Come on, if he wasn't, he would have kicked me off his island. And…and I'm glad too.
Rouge sighed in peace as she looked upon the resting echidna. She flew up to his sleeping place and landed silently on the Master Emerald. Rouge layed down on her stomach on the Emerald, peeking over at her friend below her. She stayed in that position for a while.
"Oh, my sweet Knuckles," She whispered, smiling warmly.
Finally, Rouge flew off to her own sleeping place and dug inside her backpack. She decided to get up and explore the island a bit. Rouge stalked into the woods, changed into a pink T-shirt and a ruffled black skirt and walked into the big forests of Angel Island.
She was walking through the huge trees.
This is a charming little place, she thought, smiling. I certainly wouldn't mind living here. Rouge sighed in serenity as she came to a clearing in the forest.
There, there was a nice big pond with a waterfall in it.
Rouge's eyes lit up with wonder as she stepped toward it.
Everything was beautiful.
There were lovely plants and colorful flowers nestled beside the pond, and some plain green grass spreading out after it.
Rouge could see two ruby-throated hummingbirds hovering beside the waterfall.
Rouge dipped the toe of her heart tipped boot in the calm water.
The water was so clear that when she dipped her foot in, a single ripple spread out all over the pool.
It was so enchanting. Rouge loved the scenery.
This place seems even prettier than a chaos emerald, She thought, I can't believe it—it's so beautiful. I never thought Knuckles could live in such a place like this.
Bats didn't much take to water, so Rouge suggested a pretty tall rock sticking out of the pool of water to perch herself on.
She sat on the moss-covered rock, looking at all the scenery with amazement.
She sat there for a while, until she heard a familiar voice calling her name. At the sound, she flipped up and flew out of the pond and towards the voice.
"What is it?" She asked as Knuckles came running out from the forests to the pond.
As he came to meet Rouge, she noticed he was breathing really hard and had a worried expression on his face.
"Knuckles, what's wrong?" She asked. "You scared the crap out of me," Knuckles panted, "I didn't know where you were."
Rouge blushed to that. She smiled at the fact Knuckles had been so worried about her.
She shrugged. "I was just here," She said, "And it's beautiful. How come I've never seen this place before?"
Knuckles shrugged. "I don't know, you never asked to see it before. You usually just hang out by the Master Emerald shrine whenever you're here."
The more Rouge thought about it, Knuckles was right.
"Well…it's not like I would…WANT to go anywhere on your island anyway…it's just I needed to come here for...well...government reasons."
She said, totally lying.
"Government reasons, huh?" He asked, smirking.
A red blush slowly appeared on Rouge's tan cheeks.
"Well, yeah. The government gave me some time off, and well…I just…wanted to get away for a while. That's all."
Knuckles shrugged.
"Fair reason," He admitted.
Rouge decided to go back to the main part of Angel Island, so the two walked out of the forest back to the shrine.
"So Knuckles, you were worried about me, huh?" Rouge asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Yeah," Knuckles said, "I was afraid something got you."
Rouge chuckled. "Got me?" She asked.
"Yeah. You don't know Angel Island at night. It's totally crawling with predators."
Rouge only scoffed.
"You can laugh now," Knuckles told her, "But when you get dragged off by some monster then we'll talk."
Rouge only shrugged. She was prepared for anything.
"Oh Knuckles, I don't believe those monster stories," She said.
"Whatever." Knuckles replied.
He went back to the main part of the island and walked up the steps of the shrine, where he sat down right in front of the emerald, his usual position.
"You gonna sit up there all day?" Rouge asked curiously.
Knuckles closed his eyes. "It's my duty, batgirl."
Was all he said. Rouge rolled her eyes. The whole day, Rouge spent wandering around Angel Island, checking everything out and exploring.
It was amazing, but Rouge thought she would have liked it more if Knuckles was with her.
At 5:30 PM she came back to the shrine, craving attention.
"Knuckles," She said, blushing, "Um…I was wondering…do you want to go to that waterfall place with me?"
Knuckles glanced at her from his place at the shrine, like he didn't know where this was going.
"It's a beautiful evening," Rouge continued, drooping one ear.
"I mean…only if you WANT to…"
Rouge continued,
"It's just my back is killing me from all this walking around, and I just think a nice hot soak would be fabulous."
Knuckles glanced at the Master Emerald, its shining glow lighting up the evening air.
Then he looked at Rouge, who was patiently waiting for his answer. Knuckles nodded.
"Sure," He said.
Rouge smiled by his answer. She took off running towards the pond with the waterfall, Knuckles following.
"Hey, wait up!" The red echidna shouted behind her.
Once he finally reached the pond, he saw Rouge's head sticking up out of the water.
Then he looked and saw Rouge's clothes piled neatly on the grass beside the pool of water.
He eyed her, then her clothes, back and forth.
The sun was beginning to set, and the evening air was warm with soft breezes. The low sunlight made all the plants and flowers glow.
"It's warm," Rouge said. "The water, I mean."
Knuckles nodded, and then took off his shoes and socks.
He slowly slid into the water, sighing as he did.
Rouge was right, it was warm.
Rouge narrowed her eyelids as she leaned up against the edge of the pond.
"This is nice, isn't it?" She asked.
The flustered echidna nodded slowly.
Rouge inched toward him as the sun began to set, streaking the indigo sky with bright pink and orange layers.
Knuckles began to relax as he closed his eyes. Rouge, seeing Knuckles' eyes drop closed, she immediately swam close to his body.
Her left wing nudged against Knuckles' back, forcing his eyes open.
He saw Rouge so close to him and it made him want to move away, until her hand snaked across his shoulder.
Then Rouge rested her head on his shoulder.
Knuckles felt Rouge's leg brush up against his own.
The moment was so shocking to both of them that for a split second, they both couldn't breathe.
"What's wrong?" Rouge asked, moving closer.
Knuckles nervously backed up to the shallow end of the water, waving his hands in front of him.
"Nothing," He said nervously.
Now he was so close to the ground that his legs were the only things standing in the water.
Rouge quickly zoomed up next to him, (revealing her lacy pink bikini) and gently touched one of his spikes.
Ugh, I can't believe I'm about to do this... she thought, and then kissed him on the cheek, leaving a light smear of pink gloss on his skin.
Knuckles was frozen.
He was so shocked that he fell backwards into the water, making a huge splash.
Rouge frowned.
She was tired of playing games.
She reached out and helped Knuckles out of the water. He still seemed in shock, and then he pulled on his shoes and socks.
"I have to uh, go guard the Emerald," he stammered, scrambling to get away.
He got to his feet and finally high-tailed it out of the forest back to the shrine.
Rouge was just left there, sitting in the water, wondering what had just happened.
She…she kissed him. And he retreated.
It made the bat sad that Knuckles hadn't even given her a second look. It was like she committed a murder or something.
She only wanted to be seen as sweet to him. She wanted him to trust her and be able to talk with her. She wanted that all along. That was basically the entire reason she retired as a treasure hunter.
Rouge was behind all the stealing.
Of course, she could always go back to it if she got bored.
But her main priority was to get Knuckles to like her. And now Knuckles seemed afraid to look her way. She sighed. Was she really after the Emerald, or did she want to start something with Knuckles?
Rouge was so confused.
What did she really want after all? The bat girl didn't know.
She didn't want to go back to the shrine. A few minutes later, she snuck out and snatched her backpack from her sleeping place under the tree, and then disappeared back into the forest.
Rouge didn't even look at Knuckles. If he was going to neglect her, then she was going to neglect him.
Rouge changed into her second pair of pajamas, a light pink nightie.
She ran deeper and deeper into the jungle, not caring where she was going.
She just wanted to be alone and think.
Finally Rouge reached a spot in the jungle where no trees were.
The exhausted bat broke down to her knees, panting like crazy, and then fell into the grass, motionless.
There, Rouge fell straight into an uncertain, eerie sleep that night. She was confused, worried, and bewildered. She needed sleep.
The morning was a long way away. The night had taken over. The silver-white treasure hunter swooped down over the grass, the edges of her sharp wings murdering every blade of grass below. Her ears searched, and finally, Rouge the Bat had found him. The sleeping guardian echidna was asleep next to the beautiful green emerald. Rouge smiled at him one last time. She could not turn from her old ways. Rouge loved the jewels too much to stay away. Especially that big, beautiful, dazzling Master Emerald. Rouge could only imagine the power she could obtain with that in her posession. The night was slipping away. She had to do it quickly. Rouge gently touched Knuckles, and picked him up. She flew him over to the very edge of the island, where there was no more earth and just sky. Rouge peered down there, below herself. She peered straight through the high clouds. A fall from this high up would surely put someone to their death. Rouge smiled. She looked at the peaceful, innocent-looking echidna. She couldn't help but think how adorable he looked asleep. Rouge leaned forward and kissed Knuckles on the cheek in her arms. With no emotion in her voice, she said, "Love you." Her words were dark and eerie. And with that, Rouge loosened her grip on him, and dropped him down down down. Rouge watched him fall. Fall into the dark sky. She smiled with dark fangs and evil eyes. It was done now. All she could think about was possessing that pretty green emerald. It was all hers now. It belonged to the bat. The treasure huntress smiled, then leaned her head back with her fangs bared, uttering a sickly evil laugh.
"!"
Rouge gasped. She looked around. Where was she? What had just happened? Rouge finally realized.
It was all just a horrible dream.
A nightmare. Rouge woke up panting with fright.
It was pouring down rain. She wanted to go to the shrine right then and make sure he was okay.
Stop,
she told herself urgently.
You're not going back there. You can't. He doesn't love you. Heck, he probably doesn't even want to see you ever again. All because of a dumb little kiss. That stupid echidna hates you. Why would you ever want to waste your precious time on him anyway if he doesn't even love you the way you want him to? Don't do it. Tonight, you steal the Emerald. No mercy. You gave him a chance. You gave him a chance to love you, and he blew it. Now it's your turn.
She promised herself, no matter what it takes, she would finish this. She didn't care what she felt for Knuckles.
She didn't care if she loved him or not. Now, she would make herself hate him for all he made her feel. He made her feel unloved, forgotten and hated.
No one was getting away with that as long as Rouge was around. Now it was pouring down rain hard.
Rouge's shiny white fur was now wet and soggy. Rouge didn't want to go back to the shrine, so she changed her clothes in the jungle.
She changed her pink and black bodysuit into a fuchsia tank top with tan cargo shorts and black fingerless gloves. As for her shoes, she wore big black hiking boots. She was coming.
The furious red echidna threw a threatening punch at a nearby tree that made a toucan flutter out of the canopy.
The sticky bark of it stuck to Knuckles' fists like Velcro.
He scraped it off and screamed, breaking down to his knees and punching the grass.
"Why was I so stupid!" He yelled,
"Why! WHY DID I HAVE TO BE SUCH AN IDIOT AND RUN AWAY FROM HER! I got what I wanted! She kissed me! And I ran! WHY?"
Then tears sprang out of his eyes.
"I know she feels so horrible," He whispered, trying to fight back the tears.
"I let her go. I didn't even look back at her. Why? Why did this happen to me?"
He continued to punch the trees and grass with hate and fury.
The rain made it even worse.
"This stupid Emerald!" He shouted with spitting anger, "It made me turn back! It made me retreat!"
Then, summoning all the strength in his entire being, Knuckles aimed and punched the Master Emerald.
His punch was so strong and powerful that several tiny pieces flew off of the enormous jewel, leaving a huge gash in the Emerald itself, making it look like a giant had taken a bite out of it.
As the several pieces of the beautiful Emerald flew off the jewel and landed in the grass right in front of his feet, the angry hunter looked down at all the pieces. They were like mirrors, reflecting Knuckles' cold amethyst stare.
After his punch, Knuckles stopped.
His heart seemed to stop.
Everything stopped.
Knuckles eyes fell shut. He put his palms on the Emerald.
"I'm sorry," He said, a tear slipping from his eye.
Knuckles looked up at the sky.
"What am I doing?" He screamed.
He sighed and fell down.
"Why did I have to run? Why am I acting like this? Why can't I just forget about that stupid bat and move on?"
Knuckles finally realized that he liked her. It was as simple as that. He liked her. He missed her when she was gone. He missed her right now. He just enjoyed having her around.
And all this time, it seemed like they hated each other. But they didn't.
Knuckles realized…they liked each other but they were both making it too complicated by trying to make it look like they didn't. He finally faced it: Rouge was making him crazy.
"I shouldn't keep thinking about her. I have to keep my duty to the Master Emerald. No matter what it takes, I can't think about her. Never. She made me punch the Master!"
Knuckles sat down on the shrine steps and thrust his head into his fists.
"…No," He whispered.
"No. I can't…I can't. I…I love you, Rouge."
He sat there and bawled like a baby. He knew she wasn't coming back. He had missed his chance. He had missed…Rouge.
Rouge didn't want to leave Angel Island if she was going to steal the Master Emerald just later that night, so she decided to take a little walk through the jungles of Angel Island to clear her head, and even more importantly: to plot her revenge.
By the tone of the sky above her, Rouge could tell it was about 9:00 in the morning. She was not going back to the shrine.
Not until tonight, until she was sure Knuckles was asleep. Then she would get that beauty, the Master Emerald, and get the heck off that death trap island.
Still, she told herself, it IS beautiful here.
Rouge then shook her head.
Oh shut up, She told herself again,
I can't believe I even thought about living here. This place is cursed. That idiot Knuckles! I can't stand him! There's no reason to hang around here if he's just going to treat me like crap. I can't believe I was so stupid…I actually thought that stupid echidna LIKED me. I thought he would never leave me and he did. He doesn't care. Look at you right now, Rouge. You are a precious, innocent woman all alone out in some whacked-out jungle, fending for yourself when you innocently came onto this island to see what you thought was the love of your life! And now look-You're wandering through a crazy old jungle when you would be spending time with him if he cared about you. Well screw that! I can take care of myself now. I don't care about him, I don't need him!
Rouge felt pretty proud of herself then. She felt like she was the boss. As she was walking through the jungle, flashbacks of Knuckles saving her on the Ark, and Knuckles sleeping next to her were all running through her mind. Rouge was angry.
She gritted her fangs. Then a gentle breeze blew and made her ears wiggle ever so slightly.
That reminded her of the time Knuckles was breathing on her ears the last time she was there when they fell asleep next to each other.
Everything in her mind was Knuckles, Knuckles, Knuckles.
Then there was the memory of the time she had first met the echidna. This made
Rouge scream and fall down on the grass.
"AAAAAAH!" She screamed. She punched the ground.
"Why!" She yelled, "Stop thinking about that dumb echidna! Just stop! He DOESN'T love you. He never did! All those moments, they never meant anything! Nothing! I tried to give that imbecile a HINT! And all he did was act like a fool and run away from it. He doesn't care about me. So why should I go easy on him? No. I don't love him. I don't even like him."
No matter how much the poor bat tried to shake all the memories from her mind, nothing would work. The memories kept creeping back into her mind no matter what else she tried to think about.
She just couldn't stop thinking about him. It was so unreal. Rouge dug her fingers into the soft, wet dirt ground of the jungle as tears escaped from her purple-shadowed eyes. She couldn't fight it. She had to accept the fact that she missed him.
She had to go back somehow. But there was one problem:
she had no idea where she had run off to. Rouge didn't know where she was. She was in the middle of some crazy jungle on Angel Island.
She didn't want to go back to the main part of Angel Island. Rouge wanted to stay away from Knuckles as much as possible, but she just couldn't.
The powerful feeling of love overcame Rouge. She took deep breaths and just began to run again.
Once again, she had no idea where she was going. Tears shooting violently from her eyes, she ran harder and harder. She would have continued running nonstop if she hadn't heard ominous growls coming from all around her.
She halted sharply and looked all around herself.
The growls continued, this time louder, and sounding like something from a whole different planet.
She started panting and backing away, but she didn't even know where she could back up, because the growls were literally everywhere.
There was nowhere she could go. Suddenly, huge gray scaly monsters came jumping out of the bushes everywhere around her screeching so high-pitched that the sound was just too much for Rouge's super-sensitive ears.
She knelt down on her knees and lowered her ears, clutching them with incredible pain and scrunching her eyes shut.
The monsters looked like gigantic komodo dragons, but had a huge collar-like mane made of wet skin.
There were hundreds of them, all lunging toward the helpless bat.
She tried to fight them all off, kicking, biting and clawing but it was no use. There was just too many.
One of the monsters' raving sharp teeth got hold of Rouge's wing.
Rouge felt like the monster tore it straight out of her back! But it didn't. Another monster clamped its teeth on Rouge's left hand.
Rouge yanked it out of its mouth.
Her hand was covered in cherry-red blood.
She screamed at the sight of blood. It made her dizzy just looking at it. The pain was so horrible, Rouge screamed and moaned and wailed in pain as more teeth grabbed her body.
Rouge knew she was going to die right there. Everything was just happening so fast, her mind was going so rapidly, and at the same time raging monsters were biting her and making her lose blood fast. The excruchiating pain was just too much for her to bear.
Her eyelids fluttered up and down rapidly as her eyes began to roll into the back of her head.
Soon she was unconscience. Everything was a blur.
The red echidna raced up as fast as his feet could carry him and punched all the monsters away from the bat.
It wasn't easy. One of them snapped on Knuckles' wrist, and it wouldn't let go.
The monsters tried to rip Knuckles limb from limb for interfering with their new dead meal, Rouge, but he was strong.
Suddenly, one monster leapt up out of nowhere and tackled him onto the ground.
Knuckles was running out of gas. He forced himself up and punched it back, weakly.
He panted and soon fell onto his knees, growing weaker and tired by the minute.
Knuckles couldn't bear to think of it. He forced himself to fight them all off for her. And that's what he did.
He got a huge gash in his ankle, but that was pretty much it.
Once they all got scared off finally, Rouge was revealed. Blood was smeared all over her face. Cuts, scrapes and scratches covered her fingers and hands.
Her gloves had been torn. Her tank top and shorts had been all ripped up.
Her one wing was bleeding, and bruises spotted her legs. Rouge was covered in blood.
Knuckles stepped towards her carefully. He bent down and nudged Rouge's face with his palm.
No reaction.
So Knuckles very gently picked the injured bat up and carried her swiftly off to the shrine.
At the shrine, Knuckles had been making his breakfast earlier.
He crushed some berries and rubbed the glaze on Rouge's cuts. Then he got some huge tree leaves and fanned the wounds so they could air out.
Knuckles then washed all her cuts out with fresh water from the falls.
Then he glazed them again, and fanned them, and repeated the process about fifteen times.
Rouge's wounds were looking better with time, but she still hadn't woken up yet. Knuckles was very worried. He knew she must have been torn up limb from limb back there.
He blamed himself for not being there for her soon enough.
About twenty minutes after, Rouge's eyelids started to flutter open.
They finally opened ever so slightly. Knuckles rushed over to the bat.
"Rouge! Are you okay?" He asked urgently.
Rouge seemed confused by his question. She didn't know where she was.
She didn't know what happened.
"Where am I?" She moaned quietly.
"You're at the shrine," Knuckles replied quickly,
"You're okay. I healed your wounds with these berries and they look better already. Just rest for now."
Rouge had an uneasy expression on her face.
"Knuckles," She moaned,
"Come here." Knuckles raced over to Rouge who was lying on the ground.
"What is it?" He asked urgently.
Rouge took a deep breath and then finally summoned all the strength in her body to look him in the eyes.
"I…" She started, and then her head dropped on the ground softly, her eyes closed again.
Knuckles became totally frantic.
"No, Rouge, wake up!" He shouted.
Rouge looked agitated. She looked at him again.
"You…" She started again. "You saved my life," Rouge whispered.
Her voice was so dry and croaky that Knuckles could barely hear it at all.
"No, Rouge, it's okay," He said,
"I promise, it's fine. I'm happy to."
Rouge shook her head.
"I'm so sorry," Rouge whispered, even quieter than before.
Knuckles paused, listening to her. Rouge took one more deep breath and whispered softly to him,
"I'm…sorry." Then she dropped again.
Knuckles gasped. He put his fist around her head.
"Rouge, stop it," He said, "Please, stay up and talk to me. I want to hear your voice,"
Rouge gave him a weak smile.
"Don't you know how much pain I'm in?" She asked, her voice having more life in it.
"I'm so tired…weak. I know I'm not going to make it anyway, and…"
Knuckles shook his head and chuckled sweetly.
"No, Rouge. Silly girl, you WILL make it," He said, smiling gently.
Rouge closed her eyes as a smile was revealed on her face.
Knuckles knew she was going to be alright.
"Don't leave me," Rouge whispered, her weak, trembling cut hand reaching up to touch Knuckles' chest.
"…Don't leave me." Rouge dropped out again.
Knuckles picked her up in his arms and gently kissed her forehead.
"I won't leave you," He whispered back, "I won't leave you."
He carried her to the shrine of the Master Emerald and sat down on the steps with her in his arms.
Rouge leaned up against Knuckles' body and nuzzled his chest, lowering her ears.
A very light blush appeared on Knuckles' face.
"Knuckles…" Rouge said softly, touching his chest, "I…I love you."
Knuckles smiled and kissed Rouge's nose.
"I love you too, Rouge. I always have. And I'll never leave you. Don't worry. I'll always remain by your side, no matter what happens." Rouge's body stopped trembling all over.
She felt safe and home now, safe in Knuckles' strong arms. And Knuckles felt safe too, and at peace, now that he had the bat in his care. He was never going to let her go. Rouge softly fell asleep in his arms, snuggling up against him.
Knuckles fell asleep with the bat on the stone floor of the shrine, but he still had his arms around her. Rouge woke up during the night and kissed Knuckles on the lips.
"I love you," She said, her voice back to normal.
All her cuts were gone and healed. Knuckles woke up with a smile on his face.
"I love you more," He said, kissing her on the lips.
They continued to kiss until they fell asleep with each other, and they both were at peace.
"I'll never leave you,"
Knuckles said, "I'll NEVER leave you."
The End