The Best Treasure

by gerbil96

Everyone knows Knuckles and Rouge are rivals. But when Station Square sets up a newspaper contest requesting a juicy story, will it force Knuckles and Rouge together for good? Will the guardian and the thief ever set aside their differences and find love?

The Best Treasure

"This is it,"

The silvery-white bat said ambitiously as she stood before the huge cave in front of her. Rouge had been trekking down canyons all morning to get to this cave. Recently, there had been a Station Square ad in the newspaper that wanted a juicy story reported to the paper. Whoever got in the best, most exciting story won a chaos emerald. Rouge was determined to win the prize. She couldn't remember where, but she had heard from someone that incredible riches were hidden in this particular cave. It was such a long journey to get to this place. It was the very heart of Hawaii, and it was rumored to be haunted. Rouge didn't become bothered by that. She wanted to get to the treasure. Since she was on a mission, Rouge would have been wearing her stealth outfit, (the black bodysuit with cloth covering her ears and face) but in Hawaii, it was much too hot for that. So the snow-colored bat wore a purple tank top with cargo shorts. She had on black fingerless gloves and hiking boots. She wore a small black backpack on her back which contained a canteen, a camera, a machine gun and other necessities. Around her neck was a metallic black necklace with a green triangular piece on the end, which was Rouge's new and improved treasure scope. The bat's shiny ivory color was now a shade darker and dirt was smeared on her face since she had been hiking down the dust-covered canyons. Now that Rouge had finally reached the cave, she was ready to go in and find the treasure. Rouge slipped inside the dark cave and immediately pulled a glow stick from her backpack and snapped it on. The light was dim, but her hearing could guide her by itself. Rouge could see blood splattered all over the cave walls, and places where you could tell someone had been thrown against. Rouge gasped in excitement as she went further into the cave. "Wow," She whispered, taking in all the exciting danger. Rouge began to look around. Huge stalagmites hung from the cave ceiling, dripping with water. It had been almost an hour exploring through the cave, and no sign of any treasure. Rouge was beginning to get exhausted. The air inside the cave was thick and muggy, and it was hard for the bat to breathe when she was so deep into it. Finally, Rouge came to a stop. The cave had come to a dead end.

"Shoot," She whispered, feeling the dead end wall.

As her bare fingers softly touched the wall, tiny puffs of dust clouded around her hand. Rouge smiled.

"It's certainly charming in here," She mused to herself, "I wouldn't mind coming in here for a rest sometime."

Rouge stepped back, took a deep breath and kicked the big wall in. The weak rocks tumbled to the ground, causing a huge wisp of dirt to rise slowly from below. Rouge jumped over the pile of rocks and continued to go through the cave.

"I wonder where that treasure is," She asked herself.

Finally her boot had touched something. Startled, Rouge pulled her foot back and moved her glow stick near where her foot touched. Red eyes glowed, and as the glowing green light stick got nearer, it revealed gray fur, snarling teeth, short stubby whiskers and blunt claws. It was a wolf. Rouge stepped back immediately.

"Crap," She whispered, "I knew I would run into something like you."

The canine growled threateningly, inching forward. Rouge stepped back a little and threw the glow stick at the growling wolf. It hit him in the back and he whimpered in pain. Right after, he got right back up and started barking at her again. Finally, the wolf lunged at Rouge and his jaws snapped on her upper arm, towards her shoulder. Rouge shrieked in pain and tried to kick at him, but he was gripping tight. Rouge groaned and tried to get it off her arm. She yanked her arm a bit, causing the wolf's teeth to scrape her skin. Blood streaked her whole arm. Rouge screamed in excruciating pain. She flapped her wings, and her left wing smacked the wolf in the face without warning. He fell over on his side. The injured wolf struggled to get up, but Rouge kicked it and with a sickening gurgling growl, it fell dead. By now, Rouge was panting like crazy and her arm was gushing out blood. Luckily, she had prepared for something like this. She thrust her backpack off her back and dug urgently into it with both hands. Rouge yanked out a roll of bandages. She ripped a long bandage off the roll and hurriedly wrapped it around her bleeding arm. Rouge shoved the roll back into her backpack and continued on. She was a little worried she would have to face something a lot more dangerous than a wolf. She didn't care. She had to win that chaos emerald. Rouge could feel the seeping of the blood through her bandage and she hated the feeling. Suddenly, a green glare glowed in Rouge's eyes. She squinted and looked. It was her treasure scope necklace. Rouge intently grabbed it and watched. The treasure scope vibrated and flashed green, which meant treasure was somewhere nearby.

Rouge gasped with anticipation. "Yes!" She squealed, running forward.

As she ventured further into the ominous cave, Rouge noticed something: the stalagmites had gotten much larger and had grew in their amount, too. There were stalagmites everywhere! At last it became harder and harder to walk through them. Now her treasure scope was going nuts. She held it up to her keen aqua eye and looked everywhere around for some kind of glowing object. She found nothing in the stalagmites. Soon, Rouge was getting tired. She drank some water from her canteen and hurriedly put it away. The deadline for the most thrilling story ever was two days away. Rouge had a lot of work to do and she couldn't waste time. So without stopping for a while, she kept on going. Soon, she came to a very strange part of the cave. It was almost like someone had carved something behind the dirt walls. Rouge became very interested. With her fingers she swept away the dirt to reveal readable words on the wall. GO BACCK, it read. Rouge gasped, putting a hand to her mouth. She could detect more words under the dusty walls. She took her hands and brushed away the dirt. LAST CHANS was written in crude handwriting. COM NO FURTHR was carved on another side.

"Wow, whoever it was that carved this really can't spell," Rouge chuckled.

Suddenly in a blink of an eye she was falling. The dirt beneath her must have gotten weaker because it crumbled, failing to hold her weight. Rouge had no idea what had just happened, but she couldn't flap her wings at all because of the incredible velocity of her fall. Her useless wings just fluttered in the air like limp pieces of paper. Rouge screamed, but it was like her voice was blocked. The deeper she fell, the littler her voice could be heard. Finally her body hit dirt. Rouge realized the dirt here was more like sand now. It was loose and dusty. Rouge got up off the ground, wobbling heavily from the intensity of her frightening fall. Rouge rubbed her head as her eyes were seeing double. Quickly, she wobbled hard and collapsed to her knees, falling over. She remained motionless for quite a while. Rouge appeared to be dead, but she had just severely fainted. She needed attention immediately, and luckily someone was there to help her. That someone was Knuckles the Echidna. He picked the unconscious bat up out of the dust and tried to wake her up. He was surprised to find her here.

"Rouge?" He asked. "Are you alright? Rouge!"

Finally, the bat's eyelids fluttered open to reveal a dark pair of exhausted eyes.

"Kn…Knuckles?" She asked, her voice dry and quiet. "What are you…doing here?" She asked, coughing.

"Rouge, no, what are you doing here?" He asked, repeating Rouge.

Rouge finally came to and got to her feet.

"I'm here because I'm getting the prize,"She said snootily."The Station Square newspaper is holding a contest to whoever can report the most exciting story to the paper, and whoever wins gets a chaos emerald. And it's gonna be me." Rouge stated, putting her dirty hands on her hips.

Knuckles scratched the back of his head.

"Is that supposed to explain why you're going down a cave in Hawaii?" He asked.

Rouge huffed. "There's treasure down here," She demanded angrily, "And I'm going to find it and report it to the newspaper, and win the emerald."

Knuckles chuckled. "Batgirl, you'll get yourself killed down here, you know that, right?"

Rouge made an angry face. "Well, why are you here?" She asked.

"Back home, the Master Emerald was giving me weird vibes. It sent me here, actually. Something told me I should come here to check things out. I was on my way down and I found you all beat up lying on the floor. You okay?"

Rouge crossed her arms. "Don't think you can just waltz in here and try to track down that treasure," She reminded, ignoring his question.

Knuckles raised his eyebrows. "What?" He asked, waving his fists in front of him.

Rouge got all up in Knuckles' face, with her hands sitting on her hips. Rouge was beginning to walk towards Knuckles daringly, causing him to back up against the wall of the cave.

"Oh please," She demanded, "Don't play dumb, echidna! I know what you're planning. You're trying to make it look like you came here by accident when you really just want to find the treasure yourself and win that chaos emerald! Well why would you need another emerald? You already have that huge one on your own island, the Master Emerald! So just BACK OFF!"

When Rouge said "back off" she lunged at him while yelling. Knuckles was stunned. Then HE was the one who was stepping towards Rouge, causing HER to back up.

"Well you're real thankful, Rouge! I come here and save your life and you don't even thank me! Well YOU'RE WELCOME!" He shouted.

Suddenly ever the smallest sound was heard. Rouge and Knuckles both looked at eachother.

"Excuse me, REAL treasure hunter coming through," Rouge said, shoving Knuckles out of the way and walking toward the sound.

The place was suspiciously dark. Rouge reached down toward the ground.

"Rouge, wait!" Knuckels shouted!

Suddenly a huge wormlike monster came thrashing out of the ground. It was huge and red, covered with green eyes. It's mouth had billions of teeth in it, and the monster roared loudly, wiggling from inside the ground. Rouge leaped back, inching behind Knuckles' back. Knuckles raised up his fists in front of the monster.

"What is that thing?" Rouge screamed.

Knuckles stepped toward it.

"It's a ground worm!" Knuckles yelled over the monster's horrific roaring, "We get them in Angel Island all the time. Now be quiet and let me kill this thing!"

Rouge gave Knuckles a dumb look. "I don't think that looks like your average, run-of-the-mill everyday ground worm, Knuckie."

The huge worm summoned power from underground and blew winds coming from its body. Soon, the whole cave felt like the inside of a tornado. Rouge's ears wiggled in the dusty wind.

"Are you crazy?" She screamed over the wind. "You can't kill that monster! Just run for it!"

Knuckles ignored the frightened bat and charged for the ground worm. He leaped up and clung to the monster's wide neck, punching it as he struggled to hang onto its thrashing body. The gigantic worm was so strong, it's body from the underground was causing the ground to shake and crack right beneath Rouge's feet. She flinched and glanced at Knuckles.

"Are you finished yet?" She screamed.

"How about you get off your butt and help me?" Knuckles returned.

So Rouge put her treasure scope up to her eye. She aimed it at the monster, but nothing suspicious was shown inside its body. So Rouge leapt up and pulled out her gun. Rouge was scared to death. With trembling hands, she struggled to grip the gun. Tears sprang from her eyes making her vision blurry. She did her best keeping steady as she took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. Rouge squinted her eyes shut and heard a horrible cry of pain. She forced her eyes open to find a struggling red echidna clutching his arm which was bleeding. Rouge couldn't believe it. She had shot Knuckles! The pain was too much to bear to think she had killed him.

"Kn-Knuckles!" She cried, tears shooting from her eyes.

Rouge ran to him and tried to help him up. Quickly, Knuckles shot up from the ground and yanked his hand away from Rouge's.

"Knuckles are you okay?" Rouge shouted, frightened.

Knuckles' cold indigo eyes looked murderous.

"FORGET IT!" He screamed, shoving her away and ignoring the blood pouring from his arm to go fight the underground beast.

Within a matter of minutes, it was finally dead. The worm's lifeless carcass sucked back into the ground like it was never there. When Knuckles had killed the worm, he glanced at Rouge. Rouge was sitting on the ground, crying.

"Knuckles, I'm so sorry," She sobbed, looking up at him. "I didn't mean to shoot you. I was trying to shoot the worm."

Knuckles looked furious. He didn't say anything.

"Let me help you," Rouge said in a scared voice.

"No," Knuckles returned harshly. "Just forget it. And don't expect me to help you anymore. I don't need whatever treasure is down here anyway. I'm leaving."

Rouge watched as the angry echidna walked up some path that had to lead out of the cave. Rouge just sat there, watching him until he disappeared.

"What have I done," She whispered to herself, "What have I done?"

Rouge couldn't take it anymore. She raced up the path that Knuckles had taken.

"Knuckles, come back!" She shouted into the cave walls, her voice echoing. She finally found him standing in a dead end, rubbing his bleeding arm.

"Listen," Rouge said, "Do not be all mad at me for that. You KNOW I was trying to shoot that thing. Why would I shoot you?"

Knuckles was silent for a moment.

"Because you thought I was going to steal the treasure." He finally replied.

Rouge shook her head. "I want treasure, so I shoot you? That makes no sense. I'm sorry."

Knuckles just stood there with hate in his mind.

"I rescue you from dying and I attack the worm that was about to kill you, and you shoot me." He said.

Rouge started bawling. "No," She cried, "It was an accident! I swear, Knuckles! It was completely an accident. I would never do anything to hurt you! I know we fight all the time but I would never shoot you! That's ridiculous!"

Knuckles never turned around. Rouge had stopped crying.

"So what?" She asked, "Are you just going to stand there and hate me because of some stupid accident? Do you think I wanted this to happen? I didn't. I didn't know I would fall into some weird abyss like this place. I didn't know I would accidently shoot you, Knuckles. I didn't want to, it was completely accidental."

With no reply being said, Rouge pulled out the bandages from her bag. She ripped off a long piece and walked up to the echidna. She gently wrapped the bandage around his arm.

"This will feel better," She said tenderly, "I promise."

Knuckles turned to her. "Don't just leave, please? I'm sorry I was such a jerk. Don't just leave me here, Knuckles."

Knuckles smirked. "I thought you were working alone, Rouge." He joked.

Rouge suddenly tensed up. "Well…" She stammered, thinking of what to say, "I mean, uh…I didn't really…I mean…whatever." She said.

Knuckles smiled.

"Look, I'm sorry for getting all up in your face," Rouge admitted.

Knuckles nodded. "It's okay," He replied, "I'm sorry for acting out. Listen, I have to go back to guarding the Emerald. But…if you still need me, I can stay."

Rouge was very surprised. Knuckles never turned down his duty for her. She was a bit too nervous.

"I think I can take it from here," She said, wiping her tears away. "Is your arm okay?"

Knuckles nodded. Suddenly they both pulled toward eachother and kissed. Completely out of nowhere. Once they stopped, they both just looked at eachother like they had no clue what just happened.

"You should go," Rouge said quietly.

The bat was so nervous. She had no idea why she just did that.

"Yeah," Knuckles agreed, starting off.

His exit was going to be very awkward.

"See you around, Batgirl," He said, waving.

Rouge closed her eyes and nodded, turning away. What had just happened? She didn't know. But Rouge did know she couldn't waste any more time. She did have a mission. But still, Rouge couldn't find any trace of treasure. Suddenly, the cave became shallow. Soon, Rouge was lead up to a whole new world that was different from the one where she went into the cave. This place was fresh and new and teeming with life. It was late afternoon and the sky was robin's egg blue. Small creatures leaped about the grass and plants and flowers everywhere. Rouge flopped down on the soft green grass. It had been a long journey. But…to what? Was this the treasure? This new place? Rouge couldn't tell. Maybe.

"Cheap," The bat scoffed, "I expected some priceless diamonds. And all I get is some grass and flowers?"

The curious bat decided to explore this strange new place. She got to her feet and looked around. There were trees everywhere, and huge vibrant flowers bulged up from the ground as far as the eye could see. Millions of colorful butterflies bounced and fluttered up from them all. "Wow," Rouge gasped.

Her sharp eyesight spotted a particularly beautiful flower, one that was a deep magenta, just like the color of a sparkling jewel. Rouge stepped toward it and touched the light petals. The petals were cool and soft. Rouge looked around suspiciously. Was this secret land even…discovered by anyone? The bat wondered. She walked through lush forests in search of the treasure. Her scope hadn't vibrated in a while at all. Rouge was confused. It had been going a long time ago and suddenly stopped. That weird little thing, she thought. Rouge sat down on a rock. There was a flash, and something happened. Within about 4 hours, Rouge suddenly woke and it was night. When she woke up, she didn't really remember where she was and what happened. Rouge woke up finding herself looking up into the clear night sky dotted with billions of stars. She got up and rubbed the sides of her head. Her shorts were muddy and ripped. Part of her glove was missing. What happened? Was she beaten unconscious? Rouge became worried quickly. She had no memory of what happened. She knew she had made the journey because of the newspaper contest, and the only thing she could remember was saying goodbye to Knuckles. That was it. She didn't remember coming into this new place. As the confused bat got up and looked around some, things became a little more familiar. Rouge reached for her treasure scope, peculiarly feeling nothing but chain. What? Rouge looked and found the triangular scope piece was missing on her necklace! Rouge gasped.

"Oh no," She said horrified, "Who would steal my scope? And…what would they want with it?"

Finally it dawned on Rouge that whoever it was that stole her treasure scope obviously was out searching for the treasure, just like she was. That cheater! Whoever this mysterious thief was, it was definitely good at keeping himself hidden. Rouge looked around for any evidence of another treasure hunter.

"Whoever that cheating little sneak is, I'm sure going to put the hurt on him once I find him! Stealing my treasure scope and ruining my good shorts! Some manners this person has! I'll bet he thinks he's in the clear now that he slowed me down. But that little scumbag has another thing coming!"

Rouge said, very determined. It had been made clear to Rouge that there had to be some rotten treasure hunter that was on the same mission she was. This made her furious. No one was getting in the way of Rouge the bat! She realized she couldn't really get anywhere without her treasure scope. The only thing was, she didn't know where to look. Rouge had no memory of what took place while she was out. She didn't know what this thief looked like, what kind of power it had, or what reason it was after this treasure, or how far it was now. But luckily, the swift thief had left tracks. Rouge could see footprints in the mud. She followed them and followed them and found something glistening in the mud. Rouge bent down and picked the item up out of the sticky brown goop. It was a jewel! A small, scarlet jewel left in the mud. Rouge smiled as she held it her grip. Her first clue of the crook had been exposed. Or, so she thought. As she held the jewel, fire arrows were shot in her direction. Two landed just left of her foot. Another one landed behind her. Rouge looked around, alarmed, but not enough to drop the glimmering jewel. Up in a tall tree above her, she saw someone. Her body was slender and curvy, and she was dressed entirely in black. By the broadness of her chest and the shape of her body, Rouge could tell this was a female. Cloth covered her face. Rouge couldn't see big ears, so she didn't think it was a bat. Maybe a hedgehog…she couldn't make out the mysterious bandit's fur color either. She could see a dash of pink behind black, but she couldn't be sure.

"You sure have a lousy aim," Rouge said to the bandit, putting a hand on her hip.

The bandit's sea-green eyes narrowed, and she shot another arrow. Rouge flipped up and dodged every one, still gripping her prize.

"Bring it, sister, I know what you're after!" She taunted to the stranger, tightening her hold on the gem.

The ninja seemed to disappear into the treetops. Rouge squinted her eyes, trying to spot the thief. She couldn't seem to find her.

"Show yourself!" She yelled into the trees, and out of nowhere, the stranger came straight at Rouge, kicking her right in the face.

Rouge let out a squeal of pain and alarm and fell back on the ground. She forced herself up to get a good look at her opponent. All she could see was a hot pink tail that was short and just like Rouge's own tail. The stranger didn't appear to have ears. It hit Rouge, this thief had to be an echidna. A pink echidna, she suspected. The echidna swiped Rouge's jewel right from her hand.

"Hey! Give it back!" Rouge screamed, leaping up and kicking her challenger right across the face.

The bandit had slammed up against a tree hard, making the cloth on her face fall off. Rouge's eyes widened. The crook was a hot pink echidna with light pink eye shadow and long eyelashes, just like Rouge. But something about this echidna looked familiar.

"Who are you?" Rouge asked, narrowing her eyes.

"I am Flash," The echidna replied, standing up, revealing herself.

Flash had a black bodysuit on covering her arms, legs and torso, silver boots and pure white fists with two spikes, regular echidna hands. A hot pink kiss mark was placed on Flash's bodysuit near her shin, her signature mark, Rouge suggested.

"So tell me, Flash, what is it you're after exactly?"

Flash narrowed her eyes and placed her hands on her hips.

"Don't play stupid, you know what I'm after," She barked.

Rouge raised her eyebrows, as if she misheard the echidna.

"Excuse me?" Rouge asked.

Flash glared at Rouge fiercely.

"…I SAID, you know what I'm after," She whispered quietly, with her teeth clamped together.

"Yeah, okay. Well if you think you can stop me from getting the treasure, you have another thing coming, Flash. Now move along before you make me hurt you."

Flash laughed. "You don't scare me, whoever you are," She said.

"For your information, the name's Rouge," Rouge said.

"Nice name," Flash said, "Are you looking for this?"

The pink echidna held up Rouge's triangular treasure scope piece.

"You!" Rouge hissed, "YOU'RE the one that stole it!"

"Duh," Flash said, tucking it into her bodysuit.

"Nice piece of equipment. It's been real useful if you know what I mean." The smug echidna said, tossing the scope up and down.

"That's mine!" Rouge yelled, baring her fangs. Flash eyed the bat.

"You think I care? It's mine now. And with it, I'll find that treasure before you ever get the slightest hint. I've been watching you, you know. In fact, I've pretty much been controlling you this whole time. You couldn't get a signal from this fine scope, could you?"

Rouge gasped. "How did you know that?" She asked, surprised.

"I have my ways," Flash continued, holding out her hand. A huge pink blob of electricity blurred out from it. "You see Rouge, I kind of have a little…THING with magnets. I can sense magnetic energy and pick up some pretty insane vibes. I'm like a satellite. And so I picked up those magnetic vibrations of this treasure scope and blocked out the signal so you had no idea where to go."

Rouge scowled at Flash. She was pretty clever.

"Look, why exactly do you want it anyway?" Rouge asked, one hand on her hip.

"Um, THAT'S not any of your business, now, is it, Miss Rouge? So I'd move along if I were you. Give me that jewel and you can have your little...trinket back."

Flash said, pulling Rouge's treasure scope from her bodysuit and tossing it up and down.

"No," Rouge shouted, "I'm not giving you this prize for my scope! Besides, it's not like I could even use that thing with you around here."

Flash shrugged. "Fine." She said, and threw the scope up in the air. Then with a movement of her hand, pink fire shot out from her palm, and Rouge's treasure scope was gone. Rouge gasped and lowered her ears down, accepting the fact that she was no match for this girl. Flash stepped toward her menacingly.

"Now listen," The pink echidna said quietly, "I'm after the treasure. And I'm not letting anyone as petty as YOU get in my way. Is that clear?"

Rouge lowered her ears even more and growled at Flash. In a flash, she tore into her. Rouge lunged out and charged at her opponent. She went all claws and teeth on her, biting and kicking and clawing. Flash yelped in surprise and suddenly disappeared. Nowhere. Rouge looked around. Suddenly, she was kicked in the back. She turned and Flash was standing behind her.

"You teleported!" Rouge exclaimed, getting off the ground and backing up slowly.

Flash slowly walked up to Rouge and held up her hand, aiming it directly at Rouge. Rouge's whole life flashed before her eyes. She knew it would be the end. With one movement of Flash's hand, Rouge would be history, just like her treasure scope. Rouge had a final idea...maybe if she flew up and dodged all of Flash's aims, she might be able to get away. But then Rouge questioned how to slow the quick echidna down somehow. Then she denied it. For now, all that mattered was escaping with her life. So Rouge rose into the air and flew around, trying to make it hard for Flash to target her. It succeeded. Until the moment Flash was completely still. She lifted her fingers to her temples and concentrated hard. Suddenly, out of NOWHERE a huge crack of pink thunder shocked Rouge right in her two wings. With a scream, the white bat fell to the hard ground. For a minute, she laid there. Flash was totally all powerful. She could do ANYTHING, and Rouge knew she was no match. All she could do was lay there, battered and broken, looking up at the pink echidna walking toward her. In her blue green eyes, Rouge begged for mercy. She couldn't fly. She could barely use her legs. She could just lay there and hope for the best. Flash curled her fingers and lifted them to the sky, summoning power, Rouge suggested. Rouge scrunched her eyes shut. Suddenly, right as Flash was about to take it all out on her, a red blur zoomed by and kicked Flash in the face. Rouge looked alert, wondering what happened. The blur was knuckles. Rouge tried to get up but she couldn't. So she kind of sat up using her arms. Flash got up quickly.

"Knuckles!" Rouge yelled from the grass.

The red echidna turned to Rouge. "Are you alright?"

He ran to try and help her up. Flash stood there.

"Who are you?" She demanded. Knuckles turned around.

"It doesn't matter," He growled, "Who are you and what were you doing to her?"

He pointed at an injured Rouge on the ground.

"That's none of your business, Red Mutt. Now get out of here before I make you worse than that bat."

Knuckles growled and scowled at the stranger. He helped Rouge to her feet, but she couldn't stand. He just tried to hold her up.

"Knuckles," Rouge said desperatley, "We have to get out of here. She can really fight."

Knuckles shook his head. "She's no match for me," He said, turning to face Flash.

"No," Rouge called out, lifting her hand. "Knuckles, you don't understand! She can control energy in magnets. She's like electric. Don't fight her!"

Flash smiled. "You're weak little friend is right," The pink echidna said to Knuckles.

"Don't try to fight me if you want to live."

Flash looked like she was extremely happy and proud that she was the most dangerous being here, and she loved it. She summoned all the power she could and shot pinkness from her hands, electric shocks shooting everywhere. Knuckles gaped. He couldn't believe it. He picked Rouge up off her feet as quick as lightning and ran. Electric shocks blew up at Knuckles' feet, burning his heels through his shoes. Rouge gasped and held his chest. Her legs didn't work. She couldn't really move them. Rouge ducked her head and lowered her ears. Finally, the two lost Flash through the woods. Once they were safe, Knuckles carefully put her on the ground.

"Can you stand?"

He asked gently. Rouge's knees collapsed and she fell.

"No," She said weakly. Knuckles picked her back up.

"You shouldn't try. What did that girl do to you?"

Rouge said, "Her name is Flash. She kept electrocuting me. Wouldn't stop."

Knuckles gasped. He felt her knees and shoulders.

"Rouge, she might have paralyzed you."

Rouge gasped and then tears came. "No,"

She whimpered sadly, "Knuckles, that's not fair. She's after the treasure just like me. And now she'll get it!"

Knuckles sighed. "I'll kill her," He promised.

Rouge gazed up at him through tear-filled eyes.

"Why did you come back for me?" She asked quietly. Knuckles shook his head.

"I don't know," he admitted, "The Master Emerald gave me weird vibrations again. It's like...it's like it's leading me to you or something...I don't know."

Rouge felt like she should say something snide to Knuckles, but after he saved her life, she couldn't do it. So, simply, Rouge just kept her mouth shut.

"Maybe I should take you back to Angel Island," Knuckles said.

"I could heal you there. Some fruits numb nerve endings and might make you better."

Rouge turned her head. "Their already numb," She said dryly.

"And plus I don't need your help from now on. I have work to do here."

Knuckles almost chuckled. "Well you can't do much work when your legs can't move."

He teased. Rouge sighed. "What's your problem?" She said irritably.

"Nothing!"

Rouge sighed.

"Gosh, Knuckles. You save my life and now you're being make me have the sudden urge to punch you."

Knuckles smiled. "Yeah, okay. And maybe shoot me like you did in the cave too?"

Rouge frowned, remembering how awful she felt after she accidentally shot him. Why was Knuckles taking this as such a joke? Rouge looked at him angrily in his arms.

"Oh, I'd do more than that if I could work my own legs." Rouge shot back.

Carrying the injured bat through the woods, the two continued to argue. Half of it was teasing, and half was real.

"Look, where are you taking me anyway?" Rouge asked.

"I don't know. Where do you want to go? Angel Island, maybe?"

"Why do you keep mentioning Angel Island? You want me to be there? Creep!"

"No, I need to get home, and I can cure you there! Wouldn't you WANT to work your legs again?"

"Well listen up, buddy, I've got treasure to find. And I can't work my legs."

Knuckles sighed.

"I'm sorry. I didn't want this to happen to you either. Must be tough when you wanna kick me so bad."

With that, Knuckles had a warm smile and a laugh. Rouge laughed with him. This was good, She thought. Rouge was in a pretty bad situation but Knuckles and her were making the best out of it. Then she got serious.

"Knuckles, why would you be so nice to me? You saved me from that ground worm, you forgave me when I accidentally shot you. You saved my life from Flash and are carrying me through these woods. And you...you kissed me too."

Knuckles stopped in his tracks when she said that part. He had totally forgotten about that kiss. A red blush crossed his face. Rouge looked up at him, smiling.

"I don't know..." Knuckles mumbled, "I...I kinda...well...sort of like you...Rouge." He mumbled nervously.

Rouge blushed. "Really?" She asked, surprised.

"Yeah."

Suddenly, Rouge had an idea. "Hey Knuckles...you like me, right? Well...if you like me, then you'd actually WANT me at Angel Island, right?"

Knuckles looked puzzled. "Yeah," He said slowly.

"Well, what about a little deal?" Rouge asked. "Listen. If you help me find the treasure, I'll come back to Angel island and stay with you for a little while. Whaddya think?"

Knuckles curved his eyebrows. "Um...are you sure?" He asked.

Rouge nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure. After all, I can't be THAT difficult to live with...right?"

A smile tugged on Rouge's lower lip. Knuckles returned the grin. He thought about Flash.

"Rouge, you said you're looking for treasure. Did you find a clue to where it is yet?"

Rouge held out her hand, displaying the tiny scarlet gem.

"This is all I found. I followed her footprints and found this in the tracks."

"She probably left it to confuse you," Knuckles suggested.

Rouge twitched her left ear. "Yeah, maybe. But still, I haven't found this treasure yet. It's been forever since I got here! It's been 2 days...the due date is coming and if I don't get the story in, I'll never win that emerald..."

Knuckles softly nudged Rouge. "It's okay," He reassured, "We'll make it. Flash won't get it, wherever it is."

Rouge nodded. Knuckles was going west. Soon, the two came to a clearing.

"What's this place," Rouge asked tiredly. "I don't know. I'm trying to find a diamond mine around here."

Knuckles replied.

"Ugh. Diamonds? Who cares about dumb old diamonds? Diamonds are so last year. I want a huge discovery. And whatever it is, it'd better be shiny."

Knuckles laughed. He looked around the clearing with her. The clearing led to rocks. The rocks led to a huge waterfall below. Knuckles was carrying Rouge, and they both gasped at the sight of the big fall.

"Wow," Rouge said. "It's so beautiful."

Knuckles had pink cheeks. He was blushing for some reason. He didn't know how the both of them could get down there to the pool of the waterfall.

"Rouge, how can we get down?"

Rouge eyed the fall. It was high, and the sound of rushing water almost made it hard to hear Knuckles. Simply, she shrugged. Knuckles set her down on the rocks before the fall. He climbed down slowly. He wasn't so far away, and he offered his hand to Rouge.

"Take my hand," He said.

Rouge rolled her eyes.

"I can't walk, stupid." She said, irritated. Rouge was in a bad mood. All day she'd been fighting for this stupid treasure and now she couldn't even find it. And meanwhile, some cocky pink echidna was on the move for it too.

"I know, I'm gonna see if you can climb down. You don't HAVE to use your legs really. I mean, mostly just your arms. You can do that, right?"

Rouge sighed with tired eyes. "Fine," She said finally, gripping Knuckles' hand.

Rouge paused for a second. "You won't let go of me, will you?"

She asked Knuckles. He shook his head.

"No way."

Rouge nodded, and slowly started to climb. She used her hands and her butt to make it down. They climbed down that waterfall hand in hand all the way. Rouge found out when she reached the bottom, her legs were a bit sore.

"Ow," She said. "My legs hurt. They didn't hurt before." She complained.

Knuckles nodded. "Yeah, because you actually used them. Or moved them at least."

Rouge huffed. "Are you calling me lazy?"

"Nope...just saying," Knuckles replied. "The more you work your legs, it'll make them sore. Which means you'll be able to move them sooner."

When Knuckles and Rouge were at the pool area where the water fall fell, they dipped their feet in the water.

"I could use a soak," Rouge said, pointing to her ripped shorts and muddy tank top.

Knuckles nodded. "Me too."

He walked towards her and helped her off the ground. He stood her up.

"What are you doing?"

"Try to stand, Rouge."

So the bat tried. She could stand for about three seconds, and her legs buckled.

"Try again," Knuckles kept saying, and finally, Rouge was able to stand through the pain of her legs.

"Awesome," Rouge said, "I can stand!"

"Good," Knuckles said, "Now you'll be able to walk. And then we'll go faster." Rouge gave Knuckles a dirty look.

"Oh, so you think I'm fat?"

Knuckles sighed irritated. "No. Now just...get your...soak or whatever. I'm going over here."

Rouge eyed him suspiciously. She walked behind the waterfall. The water was pretty warm.

"I'm gonna take a shower. Don't you DARE look, Knuckle head!"

Knuckles chuckled.

"I won't."

"I mean it!"

"I won't, I swear!
"...Good."

Rouge took off her clothes, tossing them to the rocks. She took everything off and laid down in the water, scrubbing herself with the pure H2o.

"You done yet?" Knuckles asked.

"Almost," Rouge replied from behind the fall. She rested herself on a rock where the water hit her just right. She sighed in peace.

"This is so nice."

"Yeah yeah. Done?" Knuckles yelled from the shallow end.

"Would you relax, Knuckles! I'm almost done. Hold your horses."

Rouge decided to take her clothes and wash them off. She took her muddy shorts and tank top from the rocks and rinsed them clean under the water. Knuckles got tired of waiting. He looked and saw her clothes were gone from the rocks, so she must have had them on. He slowly walked to the water fall and went behind it. What followed was a shrill scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAgh!"

It was Rouge. She was still naked! Knuckles had seen her in her birthday suit. He turned bright red, Rouge turned bright red, and Rouge screamed:

"GO AWAY YOU CREEP!"

Knuckles turned his head away and ran. Rouge ran after him, grabbing big green leaves and covering herself with them. She grabbed a big leaf and wrapped it around herself, making it like a mini dress. She caught up to knuckles.

"You freak! Why would you look at me? I'm NAKED! Sicko!"

Knuckels was babbling from what he had seen. Finally, he could say some words. "I'm SORRY! I wasn't looking, I-I-I-I thought you got d-dressed, Rouge!"

Rouge growled, fuming. "NO! I WAS WASHING OFF MY CLOTHES, NOT GETTING IN THEM! Ugh!"

Knuckles didn't look at Rouge for a minute. He couldn't. He saw everything. Rouge was still panting.

"You idiot! That's sick!"

"I told you, I didn't look! I...I didn't see anything."

Rouge looked at him with suspicion in her eyes. "You didn't?"

Knuckles shook his head, lying. Rouge was extremely embarrassed.

Suddenly, she realized something. The enraged look had vanished from Rouge's face.

"What is it?" Knuckles asked.

Rouge pointed at her legs.

"I just ran..." She said, "I just RAN! Knuckles, I'm not hurt anymore! I can use my legs again!"

Knuckles smiled. He hoped Rouge would forget everything that happened at the waterfall. He was so embarrassed.

"This is so awesome, Knuckles! I'm not paralyzed!"

Suddenly, out of NOWHERE, Rouge wrapped Knuckles in a big hug. Her leaf was still on, though. Then she reeled back, uncomfortably. The memory of Knuckles walking in on her flashed into their minds. Knuckles picked up a leaf and ripped at it with fidgety, nervous tension.

"Well, if it isn't Adam and Eve!" a haughty voice said.

Knuckles and Rouge looked through the trees. Sure enough, their worst dreads were met—Flash had found them. She had called them Adam and Eve from Rouge's leaf dress and Knuckles' leaf in hand.

"Love your look, you guys. Surprised there isn't any evil snake around here."

Flash said cockily.

"And Rougey, please stop trying. This is pitiful."

Rouge made mad eyes.

"You know what? If you were actually a GOOD treasure hunter, you'd quit bugging us and mind your own business! Seriously. What do you need us for?"

Flash grinned.

"Well, for one thing it would be just very convienient if you two were out of the picture. Besides, I've already got you wiped out. Can't even walk."

Flash pointed at Rouge. She smirked. "Yeah?" The bat replied, jumping into the air after making sure her leaf was secure.

She spread her wings and kicked the pink echidna with all she had. The kick made Flash fall onto the rocks. Blood dripped from the edge of her eye.

"You think you can win," She growled deeply, standing up, "Now you're really going to get it."

Rouge backed up. She glanced at Knuckles. He looked at her.

"Go put your clothes back on," He said. "I'll hold her."

Rouge ran, excited she could now use her legs and put her clothes back on from the rocks. She set them out on the rocks so they could dry and now they were done. She zipped her shorts, and ran up to back up Knuckles. He was beating Flash, hard. Kicking her while she spewed out tiny sparks of pink electricity, trying to somehow shock him despite the pain in her body. Rouge leaped up and clocked Flash right in her face. Dazed, she fell backwards onto the plants.

"Sweet dreams," Rouge said.

Remembering, the bat rushed back to the waterfall and picked up that scarlet gem, putting it in her pocket.

"Alright, let's get out of here," Rouge said to Knuckles.

He nodded, and started to pick Rouge up, but they both remembered she could use her legs now. They laughed at Knuckles' little mistake. An idea popped into Rouge's head.

"Knuckles, maybe if we fly up and look at this jungle from an ariel view, we'll find out what we'll come to next."

Knuckles nodded. "That's a good idea. Let's go." He said.

They flew up and looked at it from way high up in the sky. All they could see was tree tops. Well, moving tree tops because it was getting windy, and the skies were gray, even though it was only about 3:00 PM. Knuckles squinted.

"Look, I can see an ocean!" Rouge gasped.

"An ocean? Good. That means this treasure may lie underwater."

Finally, Knuckles and Rouge arrived at the beach. It was unusually deserted.

"Where are all the humans? Shouldn't there be people on a beach?" Rouge asked.

"Huh. I don't know," Knuckles replied. "I guess it's deserted or something. Let's keep looking for this treasure."

Rouge and Knuckles kept looking for jewels, but all they could find was a bunch of dull-looking shells on the shore. Rouge began to wander farther towards the ocean.

"What are you doing?" Knuckles called from the sand.
"I'm going in the water. There's bound to be something interesting underwater."

Knuckles walked over after hearing Rouge squeal in a really high pitch.

"What's wrong?" He asked. Rouge had a foot hovering above the water.

"It's...really...cold." She said, her teeth chattering. Chilly Rouge backed up from the water. She rubbed her arms. It was now much colder outside than it was a few minutes ago. Big strong winds were blowing this way and that. Knuckles chuckled.

"It can't be that cold. Come on," He said, and he got behind her, and pushed Rouge into the cold ocean water.

She squealed when she knew she was going to get pushed in, and then SPLASH! A few seconds later, Rouge's soggy head popped out of the water.

"Hey!" She said, spitting out water.

Knuckles started laughing and ran away from the water. Rouge smiled and splashed out of it, chasing after the playful echidna. They chased each other through the sand, and for a moment, they felt like nothing even mattered. Not that Knuckles was guardian of Angel Island, or that Rouge had 3 days till the deadline. They just forgot about everything, and started having fun. Then they fell on the soft sand, and laid on their backs, resting.

"Knuckles..." Rouge said, after both of them had stopped laughing.

"Yeah?" The echidna asked.

"Thanks." Knuckles curved his eyebrows. "For what?"

"You know, for everything. Helping me get my legs back, and helping me through all this stuff. I really owe you, okay?"

Knuckles smiled. "No problem."

The gray clouds were now blue sky, and they subsided for a few minutes, at least. The sunlight came out and made Rouge's eyes glitter. She turned to Knuckles, her eyes dreamy. They didn't say another word to each other, and then suddenly, they pulled in and kissed each other laying down. Rouge's eyes fell closed and surrendered to his kiss. It lasted about seven seconds, and slowly, they pulled away.

"Knuckles," Rouge said slowly after they kissed.

"Yeah?"

"What just happened?"

Both of them got up off the sand and brushed it off their clothes.

"Let's keep going, okay?" Rouge said, awkwardly. She didn't know what to talk about after such an awkward moment between them. Knuckles felt the same way.

"Alright, let's uh...let's get in the water and see if there's anything in there."

Rouge nodded, tiptoeing into the ocean. It was cold, but she got used to it pretty quick. She leaned back and wet her ears. Rouge had packed for this, so before she actually got into the water, she changed into a pink skin-tight watersuit and goggles. Rouge splashed into the water, swimming below the surface. With her goggles, she couldn't see anything, really. Just lots of fish. But then she went down deeper and saw a huge pirate ship at the very bottom of the ocean. Her sea-green eyes lit up with joy as she swam closer. As she did, her oxygen was running out, but Rouge didn't care. She kept on toward it. Finally, she reached the broken ship and looked inside. She could see right through it just from looking at it from the outside; the whole wall of the ship was broken, but the base was still in one piece. Rouge's eyes seeked an ancient treasure chest. She was hoping for some kind of buried treasure or something that pirates stole could be found in this ship. Rouge had to go back up for air, so she splashed out of the water on the surface. But something was wrong. Rouge must have swam really far in the water, because when she popped up, she was in the middle of the water, far from the shore. She was treading water, hovering just above the surface.

"Knuckles," She called, hoping for it to be loud enough for him to hear, considering how far out she was.

No answer. Rouge got panicked. She kept calling his name, but wouldn't get a reply. She swam back to the shore, but the faster Rouge swam, she still couldn't see a shore. It was weird. It was like she was propelled to the very center of the whole ocean. Rouge didn't know what she could do. Her wings weren't able to fly. When bat wings got wet, they had to be shaken out and dried before they could be flied with. So basically, Rouge was stuck out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, she couldn't fly, and she couldn't see the shore. And now, she was getting moved by the strong, strong winds. What was going on around here anyway? The weather was constantly changing. Rouge didn't have an explanation for this, but she did know she couldn't stop it. Now, the water was bobbing her up and down like a buoy, because of the wind. Rouge looked around helplessly, and then stopped, her eyes growing wide. Before Rouge was a huge wave, at least over 40 feet tall, of pure water. Rouge was frozen with shock. She turned around and paddled for her life, but right away she knew she didn't have a chance against this monster wave. Finally, it happened. The wave slowly swept over Rouge like she was merely a speck of dust, washing over her like she wasn't even there. Rouge's body plunged down deep into the dark depths of the ocean, her eyes closed. All the water was so heavy on her. Rouge must have plunged deeper than 30 feet underwater. And she wouldn't come back up.

Meanwhile, Knuckles was trying to find Rouge. She had disappeared, and he needed to find her and make sure she was safe. Knuckles knew something bad must have happened, and he was looking everywhere for Rouge, but he just couldn't see her. "Rouge!" He kept calling. Nothing. Knuckles began to think about Flash. Where was she? Was she the one who had Rouge? Had she ambushed them underwater? He didn't know. But he did know he had to save her. Knuckles plunged down into the water and swam around, looking hard. He kept shouting her name, but she just wouldn't answer. He was gettitng panicked. Where on earth was Rouge? In the midst of Knuckles' search, something hard hit the back of his head. The startled echidna shot up out of the water and looked behind him. Something was floating in the water. Knuckles picked it out of the water, and was shocked at what it was. It was Rouge's pink goggles. They must have flown off her head, wherever she was. Knuckles held onto the goggles, and kept looking. Meanwhile, Rouge was underwater, and couldn't get back up because of the force of the water. The waves kept tossing her up and down in the huge ocean, pushing her down and keeping her down. Rouge flailed her arms, struggling to get her head above water, but there was no way against the storm. Finally, Rouge shot up out of the water but not getting to safety. She was barely able to breath, and once she came up she noticed rain pounding hard on her head, and winds that were so fast and hard, Rouge was sure her wings would rip out because of them. The helpless bat was being tossed and flipped against the furious ocean. Rouge couldn't see. Water had engulfed her eyes, and so she thought she should at least put her goggles on. She reached up for them, but they weren't there. Rouge got up above water long enough for her to call out for Knuckles.

"KNUCKLES!" She cried, but then was pulled back down under by the hurricane.

Knuckles heard his name. Frantically, he looked all around.

"Rouge, can you hear me?" He yelled.

Nothing. He went further and saw a tiny glimpse of a black wing coming up out of a wave. Gasping, Knuckles darted toward what he saw. It took some time, but finally, Knuckles managed to pull Rouge out of the fierce waves. He grabbed the bat and ran her out of the water, up a cliff and put her down in the grass. Rouge looked unconchis.

"Rouge, come on, wake up." Knuckles said, shaking her shoulders.

Slowly, Rouge's eyelids began to flutter open. She tried to stand.

"Are you okay?" Knuckles asked urgently.

Rouge stumbled down to the grass, on her knees. She was coughing violently. Finally, her coughing subsided and she took a deep breath.

"That was close," She muttered. "Thanks, Knuckles."

He didn't say a word.

"Did you find anything down there?" He asked.

Rouge snapped her fingers. "Yeah, I did!" She said with excitement. "I found a sunken pirate ship down there!"

Knuckles looked at the bat with disbelief.

"What? That's crazy..." Knuckles said.

"No, I'm serious!" Rouge said, standing up.

Then she sighed. "But...to tell you the truth I didn't see anything inside of it...but I swear, it was down there!"

Knuckles sighed. "Well, we can't just wait until the storm stops. You almost got killed down there!"

Rouge sighed. "Fine, we'll keep looking. But don't come crying to me when we don't find anything."

Rouge said, crossing her arms. Knuckles laughed.

"You're the one who wants the treasure." He reminded with a smirk.

Rouge pouted, realizing his point. She stayed quiet after he said that. They kept going north.

Somewhere, deep in the jungle, a pink predator wandered. Her razor sharp eyes shifted, wondering where her prey had gone. The sly theif leaped back and forth, side to side, searching for them. She wouldn't give up this time. The bandit could sense her prey nearing. She could feel it in her fists. And closer, she wandered.

"So," Rouge said after neither of them had talked for a while.

"Where do you think Flash is?"

Knuckles only replied by shrugging.

"I'm sure she's following us somehow," Rouge continued. "I mean, even though I decked her in the face, she can't still be unconscious. It's been too many hours, right?"

Knuckles turned to look at Rouge. "I know she's not unconchis anymore," He said carelessly, "Probably looking for us now. But we can't waste time watching out for her. We need to find this treasure. What exactly are we looking for anyway?"

"How should I know," Rouge replied, giving a twist to her shoulders, "All I know is, everyone's been talking about it. 'Some kind of treasure lies in the heart of Hawaii.' Nobody knows what it is. But we'll find it. I know we will."

Knuckles smiled.

"Yeah. What do you think it is?"

Rouge smiled, her eyes dreamy from her own fantasy.

"I'm hoping it's a huge diamond mine or something. Something I can have too, once I find it."

Knuckles chuckled. "Yeah, what if it's something else?" He asked, not looking at her.

"Oh please," Rouge scoffed, "What else would it be?"

Knuckles gulped. "I don't know, like...just something other than gems."

Rouge shrugged again. The two didn't talk much after that. They just kept walking.

"I wish I had my darn treasure scope," Rouge said, frowning.

"I'd be to the treasure by now if that stupid rat hadn't snatched it off me."

Knuckles nodded. Suddenly, as if on cue, the 'stupid rat' made her grand entrance. Fire arrows. They zoomed past Knuckles and Rouge, just barely missing them. Rouge knew Flash was here, now. A terrible scowl crossed the bat's face as she turned around. But then something tackled her. It was Knuckles. The echidna put his arms over Rouge and tackled her, both of them sliding into the dirt.

"Get down!" Knuckles shouted, protecting her from the arrows.

Only about five arrows had reached the ground. The rest were misfires. Knuckles got up when they stopped flying at them.

"Flash!" He shouted. "Get out here, I'll kill you!"

Rouge got up off the ground too. She pushed Knuckles back.

"No, I'm doing the talking now, mister." She said as she brushed past Knuckles, facing Flash, who was perched in a tree.

"Listen, rat," Rouge shouted to Flash, "Get up here. I'll teach you to keep bothering us! Now get down here, coward!"

Flash just sat up in her tree with a grin on her face.

"Better yet, if you're so tough, why don't you come up here?" Flash asked to Rouge.

The bat sighed.

"FINE," She said feircly, starting to fly up to the tree.

Knuckles reached out his arm. "Rouge, no!" He yelled.

But it was too late. Flash had shocked Rouge while she was in the air, getting her right in the wings.

"Hah," Flash muttered, "You think you can take me on. It's funny, Rouge," Then Flash leapt down from her tree perch and got down, pinning injured Rouge against the dirt. "Sweetie, what you don't realize is, you're worthless. Think you can get the treasure before me, don't you? Go ahead and try. You're no match for me. I mean, look at yourself. You're pitiful. Seriously, just give up. You think you got what it takes now that you've got a big, strong man with you by your side? It's still nothing, Rouge. You're still not gonna win. I'm always going to get the prize. You are pathetic for even trying to fight me."

Flash said, keeping Rouge down. The bat was trying to fight her way up and get Flash off of her, but Flash was strong. She held Rouge's wrists and kept her down. Knuckles came up.

"Let her go, now!" He yelled.

Flash laughed and got up, but she was gripping Rouge's one wrist extremely hard.

"Excuse me, but she's my business now. Look at her. I might as well put her out of her misery, right?"

Knuckles gritted his teeth.

"I'm...giving you...one chance." He said slowly, with his teeth bared. "Let her go, and I won't kill you. If you don't...you won't live."

Flash smiled, and looked at Knuckles, almost nicely. She was still holding Rouge's hand, but she lifted her own and placed it on Knuckles' chest. Knuckles looked confused, but Rouge knew what was going on. She tried to fight off of Flashe's grip.

"No! Get away from him! No!" Rouge screamed, fighting so hard to get free from Flashe's other hand.

She kicked at Flash and bumped her, but nothing worked, and suddenly, Rouge's worst nightmares were realized: Flash had electrocuted Knuckles; straight through the heart. His eyes scrunched shut from the unbearable pain, and finally, all nerves went dead. Knuckles fell to his knees and then collapsed on the ground. Rouge was speechless. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think; she could only stand there and stare at Knuckles' body, his lifeless body lying there on the ground. She couldn't believe it. She was in shock. Rouge stared at him with her mouth open, in complete shock.

"No," She finally whispered, with no expression on her face.

"NO!" Rouge screamed, yanking her arm off of Flash's grip, and kneeling next to Knuckles.

"No!" Rouge screamed over and over, "No! Knuckles, no! KNUCKLES!" Rouge screamed. She was now sobbing. Tears shot out of her eyes, and she was sweating. Her heart beat a million times a minute. Rouge couldn't bear to think Knuckles had died. Rouge wailed, bawling like a baby. She kept saying his name. Flash just stood there above her, as if she was waiting for Rouge to stop her mourning. Rouge looked up at Flash with hatred and abuse in her aqua eyes.

"How could you," Rouge whispered feircely, tears welling up in her eyes and spilling out.

Flash had no expression. For once, she didn't have a smirk hovering somewhere on her face. Nothing.

"There's a sample." Flash replied, "Go home if you know what's good for you. I killed him so don't try to wake him up. Just go home. I'm going to kill you if I ever see you on this island again, so I'm giving you a chance to leave now. ...You're welcome."

Rouge raised her eyebrows, like she didn't hear Flash.

"YOUR WELCOME?" Rouge shouted, getting off the ground from Knuckles' side. "You took everything from me! And you expect me to THANK you?"

Flash sighed. "Look, do you want me to fight you? Seriously, you should thank me. I'm letting you leave. Do you want me to kill you now? Because I always CAN."

Rouge didn't know what came over her. She was overwhelmed by the rage. It filled up her body. Pure anger and revenge. She had absolutely no control over herself now, it was all a rush. Rouge immediatley got up and forced herself onto Flash, with literally all she had. Rouge screamed, coming at Flash. She clawed and bit and scratched and pulled and pushed and punched and kicked, never letting up...never. Flash expected this, but not Rouge to be as strong as she was. Rouge couldn't fly now, because Flash had shocked her wings, but everything else was okay. Flash tried to ltree. Lifted her hands to the sky, summoning all the power she could. Rouge was still sobbing because of the death of Knuckles, and wasn't concentrating on Flash's actions. She didn't know that at that very moment, Flash was summoning power to kill her. Rouge hoisted Knuckles' lifeless body up on her shoulders and ran. Rouge just ran, through the forest, not caring where she ended up. She wanted to get away from Flash, try to revive Knuckles. That was all that mattered to Rouge. She had come this far, and she wasn't losing Knuckles. Not now. Rouge laid Knuckles on some grass and turned to try to find Flash. Rouge knew she had to get rid of her as quickly as possible. She tried to find a nice good boulder to throw at Flash, but wasn't quick enough. The electric demon had gotten right up behind her and tried to pin her down again, but this time Rouge was on her feet. Even though she was crying, even though she was overcome with several emotions, Rouge pushed her away. Finally, it hit her: Flash couldn't fly. Sure, she could glide, like Knuckles, but she didn't have wings. Rouge smiled, an idea coming over her. The bat stepped up to Flash, ragged and battered, standing there. Finally, Rouge tried to think. She had to plan it out quick.

"Come and get me, you rat," Rouge teased, running.

She ran only a few feet, but had the pink echidna follow her every step.

"What are you trying to do, you rat with wings?" Flash shouted.

Rouge ignored Flash's words. She looked behind her.

"Flash, come here and get me," Rouge teased again, spanking her backside.

Sure enough, Flash lunged forward. At that moment, Rouge grabbed her waist, and took hold of Flash. She carried the screaming and kicking echidna over to the side of the cliff they were on, and leaned back, aiming to throw her off. It was hard, Flash was heavy. But Rouge did it. She had thrown Flash off the cliff. From up above, Rouge watched as the helpless Flash tumbled down the sharp rocks, flailing her arms, watching blood get all over the rocks. Rouge slowly stepped down the rocks and peered down, trying to see where Flash ended up. The pink echidna was lying face down in a pool of redness, rocks all over her body. Rouge thought Flash was dead, and if not it was going to take a while before she could ever walk again. Rouge didn't care if Flash was dead or not; she just needed her stalled for a while. She needed to get Knuckles. Running, and weeping at the same time, Rouge found where she left Knuckles' body. She pushed on his heart.

"Knuckles, wake up! I killed her, Knuckles! I killed Flash, she hurt you, you have to wake up! Wake up! Come on, Knuckles, I know you're still there, wake up!"

Rouge knelt down and kept pushing on Knuckles' chest, but it didn't seem to work. Finally Rouge met his lips and attached hers to his, blowing, trying to get oxygen into his lungs somehow. She blew with all her might, tears slipping off her eyelids. She reared back and observed him, seeing if that did anything at all. She did it again. She kept doing mouth to mouth resessitation to him, and finally, she was starting to get a reaction. Knuckles' heart began to move beneath her fingers. Rouge could feel a heartbeat on his chest, and when she did, she squealed with joy.

"Yes, come on," Rouge shouted, and kept giving him air.

At last, at long last, Knuckles' eyelids started to flutter open.

"KNUCKLES!" Rouge screamed, sweeping him up in a huge hug.

"Knuckles, oh, Knuckles, I thought I lost you," Rouge moaned, not letting him go.
Tears were pouring out of her eyes. Knuckles was beginning to regain consciousness, and he eventually hugged her back, but he pushed her away at first.

"Rouge, what happened?" He asked quietly.

Rouge was panting. She'd been so scared, and now all the leftover emotions were taking over. She tried to keep her cool as best as she could, but it was really difficult.

"Knuckles, listen to me," Rouge said, her voice shaking really bad. "Do you remember Flash?" Knuckles nodded.

"She shocked you. She shocked you through your chest," Rouge went on, "And I just got you up. I gave you air, mouth to mouth. You woke up, Knuckles, are you alright? Do you feel okay?"

Knuckles sighed. "Am I...am I alright?" He asked, shaking.

"Calm down, I don't know how you got back to life, but you did! Knuckles, you're okay."

Knuckles listened to Rouge, and then hugged her back, finally.

"Oh Rouge," He said, and Rouge in return clutched him back.

She was still bawling. "Oh, Knuckles, don't you ever do that to me again, I thought I lost you forever!"

She kept crying on his fur. He held her in his arms.

"It's okay," He kept saying. "I'm here, it's okay."

Finally, Rouge had calmed down. She felt a little embarassed for acting out like that, but truthfully, it did scare her, alot.

"Where is Flash now?" Knuckles asked.

"I killed her," Rouge replied, "I pushed her off that cliff. I don't think she lived, but I'm pretty sure I killed her."

Knuckles nodded.

"Okay. We have to get moving."

Rouge was confused. "What are you talking about?"

She asked. Knuckles stared at her.

"The treasure, remember?"

"Oh. Yeah."

Rouge had totally forgotten all about the treasure. But she knew it.

"Knuckles, listen, okay? We've got to get this treasure and get out of here. This place is a death trap. We almost got killed, and we need to leave soon before anything else happens."

Knuckles nodded.

"I know, but we're getting the treasure, no matter what."

Rouge looked at Knuckles.

"Are you crazy?"

She asked,

"You still actually want the treasure? You almost got KILLED."

Knuckles nodded. "I know I did. But you saved me. And I saved you when you almost got killed. But we're getting the treasure. I know it means a lot to you, Rouge."

Rouge sighed. To her, treasure was the last thing on her mind right now, actually. But he was right, it meant alot to her still. And to Rouge, his dedication meant as much as hers.

"Rouge, thanks so much for saving me, I..."

Knuckles was stammering. Rouge smiled at him.

"Yeah, yeah. We'll save that for Angel Island. Right now, we've got treasure to find, haven't we?"

Knuckles nodded, determined.

"Let's go."

They explored the whole island, and now it was getting dark.

"Knuckles, we haven't found a thing." Rouge said. "Should we stop to make camp?"

Knuckles sighed. "That would take longer. I wanted to cover more ground than this before we stop."

Rouge sighed. "Knuckles, come on. It's getting dark. And I'm exhausted."

Knuckles was still walking. "Well so am I, but we gotta find this. Don't you still want it?"

Rouge looked at Knuckles dumbly. "Of course I still want it, but all I'm saying is I'm tired, and I think we should stop."

Knuckles shrugged. "Well, I don't."

Rouge stopped in her tracks, crossing her arms. "Well then what are we gonna do?" She asked, leaning.

Knuckles turned around. He sighed. "Look, I'm as tired as you are. It's just, I really want to find this treasure, and I don't want to stop just yet. Okay?"

Rouge raised her eyebrows. "I'm not going to keep going. I'm stopping for the night. I'm setting up camp here." Rouge said, taking a small stick and sticking it into the mud, marking it. Then she sat on a nearby rock, crossing her legs.

"Fine." Knuckles said, as he kept walking. "I'll come back when I find something."

Rouge got annoyed by his reply. "Knuckles, come on, just stop for the night, will you? It's dark. What do you think you're gonna find? You probably won't be able to see much."

Knuckles shook his head.

"Echidnas have good eyesight." He muttered, and kept going.

Rouge huffed. She wasn't being succesful with her hints. Bottom line was, Rouge wanted Knuckles to stop searching for tonight, but he wouldn't. She had to face the fact it did bug her that he wouldn't stop.

"Yeah, well, you can't keep going," She called to him, now that he was further. "What if you get hurt or something? I'm not going to come hunt you down if you don't come back, you know."

However Rouge wasn't meaning half the things she was saying. She knew in her heart she'd rush to his need if he was in trouble and she knew about it. But why did Knuckles need to know that now?

"Well, I guess I'll just have to be careful and not get hurt." Knuckles replied.

"But what if I get hurt?" Rouge asked.

"Then you'll have to be careful too, Rouge." The bat sighed.

"Knuckles, come on. Really, don't go out there. It's dark, and we've searched enough. We'll get up early tomorrow and start looking again. But not now. Please? I just don't want to be alone out here."

Knuckles never thought Rouge would say something like that.

"Fine," He said, but he kept walking. "That's your own decision, Rouge. You're the one who wants the treasure, not me. I'm helping you, and I'm going to find it. You can do whatever you want."

Rouge walked up to him.

"Fine, I'll come with you." She said. And just like that, they were walking again.

Somewhere in the night, they were still searching. But now, Knuckles was carrying Rouge. Yes, it was hard to believe, but the red echidna was carrying the tired bat. "Knuckles, my feet hurt." Was all it took to get Knuckles to carry Rouge, and she took that advantage. Since Rouge still couldn't use her wings, she couldn't fly, and her feet were killing her. So she asked Knuckles to carry her, and he did. Now, Rouge was falling asleep in his arms. She was extremely tired. But to Knuckles, the treasure was important. He really liked Rouge, and he wanted her to stay on Angel Island with him for a while. But for her to do that, he needed to find her treasure first. And he was sure determined. After a few hours, Knuckles put Rouge down. This woke her up. She fluttered her ears and got up and stretched, cracking her knuckles.

"What are you doing?" She asked with a yawn.

"Let's stop to make camp now." Knuckles said. Rouge rolled her eyes.

"Oh, so NOW you want to stop! You never even found anything, did you?"

Knuckles shook his head. "It's fine though. At least we got farther. We'll get up and look in the morning."

Rouge yawned again.

"Man, we'd better find something tomorrow. That's the last day to look. Because the day after tomorrow is the deadline for the newspaper."

Knuckles threw his hands up in the air. "Great. We'll never find it now! We need more time." The frustrated echidna exclaimed.

Rouge sighed. "I know. Now I'll never get my emerald."

The two frustrated explorers set up their beds for the night. Knuckles gathered some big leaves and made them into a pile.

"Are you sleeping there?" Rouge asked, pointing to the leaf pile.

Knuckles nodded. "Yeah, where are you sleeping?"

Rouge looked at the ground with disgust. "Ew..." She said. "I guess I'll get leaves too."

Knuckles laughed. He stretched and curled up on his leaf bed, yawning. A few minutes later, he saw Rouge return to their little tent with huge leaves bundled up in her hands. She dropped them all onto the dirt and sort of got them into a pile, just like Knuckles. She stretched out on her bed.

"This is so gross," She said, sticking out her tongue.

"Goodnight," Knuckles muttered, turning over on his side. Rouge eyed him in suspicion.

"Night." She said, turning over on her side. Knuckles was beginning to get into a deep sleep, but something rudely woke him. He heard a shrill, loud scream. Instantly, he shot up and looked around. But Rouge was right there behind him.

"Why did you scream?" Knuckles asked tiredly. Rouge shook her head.

"There was a snake on me! You should have seen how big it was!" Rouge immediatley stood up and shook herself. "I can't sleep down here. I'm going to find a tree."

Knuckles stood up. "Wait, why don't you just sleep on the ground? Snakes live in the trees. The one on you is probably the only one down here. Where did it go, anyway?"

Rouge shrugged. "I don't know, I was screaming so loud I couldn't even see it slither away!"

Rouge shrieked, climbing up a tree. Her wings were still a little bit sore, so she couldn't really use them. Knuckles watched her climb.

"You sleeping up there?" Rouge nodded, hugging the tree trunk, sitting up on a branch.

"Won't it be a little less than comfortable?" Knuckles asked.

Rouge squinted her eyes. "I don't care, I'm not sleeping down there with all the snakes. It's gross down there anyways. Good night."

Knuckles shrugged and went back to bed. Rouge slept in the tree, and Knuckles slept down on leaves. But somewhere in the night, they made their way to each other. Rouge had come down out of the tree and slept on the ground, right next to Knuckles. In the morning, they woke up all snuggled up next to each other. Rouge scooted away from him and went back to bed. Knuckles did too. The sun was now high in the sky, and Knuckles woke up before Rouge did. He was making breakfast. Rouge woke up about 20 minutes after Knuckles did. She sat up and stretched.

"Rise and shine," Knuckles said, handing Rouge half of a coconut.

"Eat up. I made breakfast."

Rouge took the coconut and observed what was inside. It was a bunch of berries all mixed up.

"What is this?" She asked.

"Berries," Knuckles replied. "I eat it on Angel Island all the time. Eat up. We have to get moving soon."

Rouge yawned and ate the berries. When she was done, she tossed the empty coconut half on the ground and stood up, stretching her legs.

"Well, let's get going." Knuckles nodded. Rouge examined her clothes. She was wearing the same exact thing she wore when she had arrived first thing in the cave.

"Ugh, look at me. I think it's time for me to change." Rouge said, taking her black backpack and walking behind a huge tree.

"This time," She said, throwing her bag on the ground, "Don't you DARE look, Knuckle-head. And I MEAN it."

Knuckles nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I'm not looking. Just hurry up." Knuckles said, placing a hand over his eyes.

After a few minutes, Rouge was finished. She walked out from behind the tree wearing camoflauge capris and a white tank top.

"I'm done," She said to the echidna, who was still covering his eyes. He stood up.

"Good. Now let's go. Oh, by the way, Rouge...where exactly did you throw Flash?"

Rouge pointed to the cliff they were on.

"Down there. That rat tumbled down those cliffs faster than Sonic can run! I'm sure she's killed now."

Knuckles wandered over to the edge of the cliff they were on, and peered down. He couldn't see a body anywhere, but he did see bloodstains all over the rocks, so he believed Rouge. Soon, Knuckles and Rouge were hiking down the big steep hill. They were careful not to fall, because if they did they would end up like Flash, dead on the rocks. When Knuckles and Rouge were about halfway down the rocks, Rouge got an idea.

"Hey Knuckles, what if I just fly down?" She asked, twitching her wings.

"But Rouge, didn't Flash electrocute them? Can you even use your wings?"

The bat shrugged. "Worth a try," She said, and jumped up into the air.

She flexed her wings. They still didn't work, and Rouge fell back down to the ground.

"Ugh," She growled furiously, "I hate this! First it was my legs, and now it's my wings. Thank God I killed that annoying Flash. She'd better be dead, at least."

Knuckles kept walking down the big cliff.

"How much longer until the cliff ends and we're on flat land again?" Rouge asked tiredly.

"I don't know," Knuckles replied. "Just keep quiet until we get there."

Rouge rolled her eyes. Finally, at last, the cliff wasn't as steep, and it ended.

"Yes!" Rouge exclaimed, running on the flat grass. "We made it to flat land. Now what?" Knuckles got down to the flat land with Rouge.

"We'll just have to keep going now. As far as we've come, the treasure has to be getting closer."

"Knuckles..." Rouge said dryly, tapping his arm.

"I mean, if we don't find the treasure today, then there's just no treasure around here." He continued.

"Knuckles," Rouge said again, staring forward.

"And if there's no treasure, that means whoever told you there was is a big fat liar,"

"KNUCKLES!" Rouge yelled in Knuckles' ears.

"Look!" Rouge said, pointing straight ahead. The echidna piped down and looked. Just ahead of them was another big cliff. But this one went up, which meant they had to climb it. And the worst part was, Rouge had no wings. So she couldn't just fly up it.

"Damn it!" Rouge shouted, stomping her foot on the ground. "I'm about to just say screw it to this stupid treasure hunt! We've practically been through ALL of Hawaii and we haven't found A THING! I'm sick of this!"

Knuckles raised his eyebrows. He was surprised Rouge would get so fired up by this.

"Calm down," He said. Rouge turned around to face him.

"I don't WANNA calm down! I'm not doing this anymore! I'm sick of trekking down STUPID canyons all for nothing! Knuckles, why don't you just FACE IT, already! There's NO treasure here no matter what I was told!"

Rouge closed her eyes and sat down on the grass on her knees. "There's no treasure, and I'm not getting my chaos emerald."

Knuckles sighed. He didn't want Rouge to give up. He wanted to help her find this treasure already so Rouge could come and stay with him on Angel Island. It was all that mattered to him. He walked over to Rouge and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on, Rouge. Don't give up. We're so close!"

Rouge stood up. Her ears drooped. "Yeah, right," She said hopelessly, "We're not close. Wake up and smell the coffee. There's nothing here. I came all the way down here for NOTHING!"

Rouge said that last part while stomping her foot once more. When she stomped, it broke the ground beneath her, and she fell right into the ground, shrieking. It was like she stomped over a hole covered with grass. Rouge screamed as she fell down through the hole.

"Rouge?" Knuckles said with disbelief. He got down and looked through the hole Rouge had fallen in.

"Rouge!" He shouted down to her. The bat was about 10 feet down in the ground. She was standing. Rouge looked up at Knuckles.

"Where am I?" She yelled up to him.

He shrugged. "Is there anything down there?" The echidna asked. Rouge looked around.

"Um...there's a tunnel," Rouge replied. The next thing she knew, a medium-sized red echidna had fallen down the hole, and she herself broke his fall. Rouge immediatley got out from under Knuckles and stood up angry.

"Get off me!" She yelled in his face. Knuckles chuckled.

"Relax," He said.

He got off the ground and looked around. Rouge was right, there was a tunnel.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go." Knuckles said, starting for the tunnel.

Rouge leaned her head back, sighing with exhaustion. She sulked forward. Knuckles laughed at Rouge being tired.

"It's only morning. You just got up, and now you're wanting to go home?" Knuckles chuckled.

Rouge put her hands on her hips. "Excuse me, but I've been shot in the wings, mister! I don't use my legs this often."

Knuckles laughed. "Yeah, and you complained when you got shot in the legs, too. Man, I sure feel sorry for whoever's going to marry you."

This set Rouge off her hook. She chased that echidna through those tunnels with him laughing, and her growling, trying to catch up with him.

"YOU GET BACK HERE, KNUCKLE-HEAD! When I get my hands on you, I'll—

Rouge's sentence was interrupted with Knuckles tripping on something, and falling on his face. When Rouge caught up with him, she kicked him.

"That's what you get for saying that to me, Knuckle-head!" She yelled.

Knuckles got up and shook himself.

"What did I just trip on?" He asked, and looked on the ground.

A tiny little piece of something shiny was sitting right by his shoes. Knuckles bent over and picked it up. It looked like a little piece of a diamond. Rouge swiped it from Knuckles' hand.

"Gimmie that!" She said. Intently, Rouge examined the stone. It was shiny, like a diamond.

"Could this be the treasure?" She asked.

Knuckles stared forward, lifting his palm.

"Rouge...l-l-l-look..." He stammered.

Rouge took her focus off the tiny little diamond, and looked ahead. Just ahead of Knuckles and Rouge were diamonds...huge diamonds. Diamonds a million times bigger than the little piece of stone Rouge was holding. And surrounding the big, gigantic diamonds were all the small little pieces. It looked like someone had tried to break the diamonds.

"Wow," Rouge said in awe.

"Knuckles...this is it! This is the treasure! It has to be!" Rouge said, racing towards it.

Knuckles lifted his hand. "Wait a minute," He said, walking toward it. "It could be a trap."

"Trap schmap," Rouge scoffed, "This is it. I know it is."

Knuckles finally stopped being so cautious and looked at all the diamonds. He picked up the smaller pieces.

"How could these have gotten here?" He asked.

Rouge started laughing.

"I don't know, but baby, I don't care! They're all mine now! We need to get them out of here, though."

"Oh, do you now?" A haughty voice behind them said.

Rouge's eyes flashed open. Her ears lowered in anger. She gritted her teeth.

"Don't tell me..." She said quietly. And then Rouge turned around. She saw exactly who she didn't want to see: Flash the echidna. But she looked a little different. Blood covered Flash's face. Cuts, scrapes and bruises covered her too.

"Flash!" Rouge yelled. "What are you doing here? I thought I killed you!" Rouge yelled, turning to face her opponent.

"You almost did. And for that, I give you some points." Flash said, menacingly stepping towards them.

When she did, Knuckles and Rouge saw she was limping.

"But you didn't kill me. I'm not dead." Flash said. The way Flash talked kind of scared Rouge. She talked really slow and quiet, and it reminded her of zombies.

"My entire life I've worked for what's down here. And you WON'T...take it away from me."

Knuckles stepped up to the echidna. Flash slowly turned to Knuckles with a puzzled expression on her face.

"I thought I killed you..." She said with a tone of anger in her voice.

"You almost did," Knuckles replied, mimicking Flash. "But you didn't. I'm not dead."

Rouge sighed. "If you think you're getting these diamonds, you're wrong." She said to Flash.

The pink echidna shook her head. "I told you to go home. To get out of this place. And you didn't listen to me. I told you the next time we meet I'll kill you. And now I will."

"No you won't!" Knuckles yelled, running to Flash and punching her right in her face, out of nowhere. Rouge stayed back by the diamonds and watched. Flash fell back and closed her eyes. To Knuckles it looked like she was dead. So he walked towards Rouge.

"Come on, help me get these things out of here, okay?" Rouge asked, picking up some of the bigger pieces that were about the size of her head.

Knuckles nodded and bent down to get one. But out of the corner of her eye, Rouge saw Flash getting up and walking slowly to Knuckles, who wasn't looking. Rouge gasped and aimed, throwing the piece of diamond she was holding at Flash's head. It knocked Flash senseless, and it made her scream. Rouge walked over to Flash. This time, the pink foe opened her eyes quickly.

"Stop it," She said quickly, "Just let me have the treasure. I promise, I'll take care of it. Just let me have it and get out of here."

Rouge shook her head. "Who are you working for?"

Flash got up off the ground. "None of your business," She replied, wiping the blood from the side of her head.

Knuckles ran over and pinned Flash down on the ground. "Who are you working for? Now! And you'd better tell the truth."

Flash started to pant. "Okay, okay! I'll tell you..." Flash said, and her hands worked their way to Knuckles' wrists.

Flash grabbed his wrists and shot electricity through her hands to his, shocking them. Knuckles screamed in pain and reeled back. Rouge rushed over to help him.

"What happened?" She asked.

"She shocked me!" Knuckles growled with closed teeth. He looked at Flash with cold, unforgiving, murderous eyes.

"You are so dead." He said quietly.

Rouge shook her head and stepped in front of Knuckles.

"No," She said, "Knuckles, you're too weak. You can't use your wrists. Just let me take her down."

With that, Rouge lunged forward, and kicked Flash upside the head. The pink echidna stumbled down, shrieking. But she got back up, and grabbed hold of Rouge's wrists, which scared Rouge alot. She shrieked and tried to break free of her grip. But Flash wasn't electrocuting Rouge. She just pushed her back, causing the bat to smack against the wall, hard. Rouge fell down onto her face. Knuckles came over. It hurt his wrists, but he tried to help her up.

"Come on, Rouge, get up," Knuckles said, standing her up. Knuckles and Rouge were holding each other.

Flash ran towards the two, making a huge bolt of pink electricity seperate Knuckels and Rouge. They both screamed at such pain, and then fell back, stunned.

Flash stood above them. She swiped her hand, and made huge electric bolts shoot out at Rouge. The helpless bat screamed, trying to move, but the bolts stiffened her body and made it hard. Once Flash was done, Rouge just lay there defenselessly, trying to make the pain go away. But it was too hard.

"You might have slowed me down, but I'm still unbeatable." The pink echidna said.

Rouge's eyes were closed, and she was breathing really heavy. Slowly, she turned towards Knuckles, who was laying right next to her.

"Knuckles..." Rouge said breathlessly, "She...she's going to kill us."

Knuckles was equally breathless. Both of them were now extremely weak, but Rouge was weaker than Knuckles since she got shocked more times.

"No she's not," The echidna said to Rouge with determination, "We'll be okay, Rouge. I promise you...we'll be..."

Rouge and Knuckles were both breathing heavily, because they were both really weak, and they knew they just couldn't make it much longer. Their realization of this only made Flash happier. She walked up to them.

"I told you I would win," She said, grinning sinisterly.

Rouge began to cry. She had come so far, and had to drag Knuckles into it, too...all for nothing. She didn't have any faith of going on. Her eyes dropped closed. When Knuckles saw Rouge close her eyes, he leapt up and picked Rouge up.

"Rouge, don't go!" He shouted, "Come on, you'll be okay! I won't let you die in here!" Rouge slowly opened her tired eyes. "But Knuckles, I can't make it. I'm too weak."

"No you're not! You're not too weak. You're strong! And so am I. She won't beat us, Rouge. I promise you, we'll make it." Knuckles put Rouge down in the corner and turned around, to see Flash throwing ropes around the diamonds. Knuckles turned to face her. Flash looked at Knuckles out of the corner of her eye. "What do you want, you red mutt?" She asked. Knuckles grinded his teeth. He was so mad.

"You hurt her," He said menacingly, cracking his knuckles. Flash laughed.

"Yeah, so? What are you going to do about it? You can't save her or anything. Look at her. She's so weak she can't even stand up. You might has well get out of here, red mutt. I mean, who would want to see their girlfriend die?"

This made Knuckles snap. He lunged at Flash with all his might. He was unleashed. Knuckles kept punching and kicking and biting and scratching Flash with everything he had. He was just so angry at what Flash had done to Rouge, and he had to kill her now. Knuckles reeled back and clutched Flash's neck with his two fists. Knuckles didn't let go. He squeezed and kept holding, despite Flash's flailing and kicking. Finally, she stopped moving. Flash's eyes closed shut. Her head leaned back. Knuckles took his hands from her throat. Flash fell and at that moment, Knuckles knew she was dead. He had strangled her to her death. Knuckles was breathing heavy from all the action. He'd been caught up in the moment. And now it was over. It was done. Flash was dead, and everything was finished. Slowly, Knuckles picked up Rouge.

"Rouge," He said softly, but then his voice got louder. "Rouge, come on. Wake up!"

Knuckles nudged the bat.

"Come on, Rouge. You have to get up."

Rouge's eyelids fluttered. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes.

"Knuckles?" Her voice was a squeak.

The red echidna gasped in joy.

"Rouge!" He exclaimed, bringing her into a hug. Rouge opened her eyes fully and returned Knuckles' hug, grasping him.

"Knuckles? Are you alright?" Rouge asked. Knuckles nodded.

"Yeah, Rouge. I'm fine, are you okay? Flash shocked you. You must be really weak."

Rouge nodded, and placed a hand on her head. She got up, and wobbled a little. "Where is she now?" Rouge asked. Knuckles pointed to dead Flash's body. Rouge looked at it.

"You killed her?" she asked. Knuckles nodded.

"She's never gonna hurt you again. I promise you."

Rouge knelt down and felt Flash's chest. She wanted to see if she was really dead. Luckily, Rouge couldn't feel Flash's heart beating. So she really WAS dead. Rouge chuckled. "Hey Knuckles, this is exactly what happened with me remember? She shocked you, and I stopped her and brought you back to life. And now it's like Deja Vu." Knuckles chuckled back. Rouge gasped in pure joy. She ran to Knuckles and hugged him, never letting go.

"Thank you so much," Rouge sobbed, tears escaping her eyes. Knuckles pulled Rouge back and looked into her eyes.

"Rouge...why are you crying?" He asked. Rouge sniffed.

"Because, Knuckles..." She said, her voice sore from crying. Rouge closed her eyes, and then gazed into Knuckles' warm deep eyes.

"...I love you." She said, and then brought Knuckles into another hug. The echidna was a little shocked to hear what Rouge said, but he returned her hug. They hugged for a long time. Rouge kept crying tears, but it was because she was so happy. Flash was defeated. Rouge pulled back, and she was done crying.

"Okay," She said. "Knuckles, let's get these diamonds to station square and win the contest. After that, we'll go to Angel Island."

Knuckles nodded. Rouge opened her backpack and got out a bunch of giant ropes. She threw them over the diamonds and wrapped them around the big pile several times. Once Rouge made sure the ropes were secure, she tied up the ends and dragged her sack of goodies out from the tunnel underground. When Rouge got out from the underground tunnel, what she saw amazed her. It was a million shining stars, and a beautiful full moon. She must have forgot about how much time had past when they were down there fighting Flash. But now it was night, and the next day was the deadline. Knuckles and Rouge stared in amazement at all the stars.

"Wow," Rouge said. "It's such a beautiful night."

Knuckles nodded. All they had to do now was wait until morning and fly to Station Square to win the contest. Rouge walked to the edge of the cliff they were on and sat on the edge, overlooking the silver, sparkling moon. Knuckles came and sat by her.

"Isn't this a nice night?" Rouge said softly, staring out at the moon.

"Yeah..." Knuckles said quietly.

"Look how much trouble that treasure got us into," Rouge said. Then she closed her eyes. "Sometimes I wonder if it's even...worth it."

Knuckles turned to her. "What do you mean?" He asked.

Rouge blinked. "You know. Hunting for treasure all the time. Sometimes I just feel like it's a bother. Treasure hunting can really wear you out, and...well, sometimes it seems like it's not even worth it. Running around messing with stupid jewels. Sometimes I just wish I could relax once in a while." Knuckles nodded. "Yeah, you're right," He said.

"This is nice. I've never actually like sat and...talked to you before. I've always been busy either finding jewels, or fighting with you." Knuckles chuckled.

"Yeah...this is nice." The two hunters sat on the mountain, staring out at the moon, sitting right beside each other, basking in the moonlight.

"I can't believe we came all this way." Knuckles said. "We went through a cave with a huge monster in it, a hurricane, a stupid pink echidna who thought she was all that...we trekked down mountains and wandered through the forests and caves..."

Rouge placed a hand on Knuckles' fist. "And we did it all together."

Knuckles nodded, and held Rouge's hand. Rouge shook her head. "After the way I treated you, I can't believe you did all that for me."

Knuckles turned to the bat. "Did all what?" He asked.

Rouge turned to him. "Killed a ground worm, saving me from Flash...like four times...carrying me through the woods when my legs didn't work, saving me from drowning, encouraging me and helping me when I felt like giving up, making me breakfast...everything, Knuckles. Why? Why would you do that for me?"

Knuckles closed his eyes and sighed. "Because," He said, "...Because I love you, Rouge."

Rouge smiled, and her cheeks turned bright red. She turned to the echidna.

"Oh, Knuckles," She said. "Isn't it crazy that we spent all this time fighting with each other for chaos emeralds...when really, we just liked each other all along, and we didn't want to realize it?"

Knuckles smiled.

"Yeah, Rouge. It IS crazy." The red echidna's warm indigo eyes glimmered in the moonlight.

"You have really pretty eyes," Rouge said, blushing even more.

That little comment made Knuckles smile. "You have prettier eyes than I do." He insisted. Rouge leaned forward and kissed Knuckles right on his blushing cheek. After her kiss, Knuckles' whole face was red. He gulped. The whole night, the two were at peace. They fell asleep on that cliff, overlooking the moon. In the morning, the sun greeted Knuckles and Rouge in the soft morning wind. This time, they both woke up at the same time.

"Good morning," Rouge yawned.

But then she got up quickly and raced to her diamonds. They were sitting just where she left them, right above the hole with the tunnel. Rouge took her camera out from her backpack and snapped some pictures of the giant diamonds. She put her camera back, packed everything up and made sure the ropes were tight on the diamonds. The bat turned to Knuckles.

"You ready to go?"

Knuckles nodded. "Yep. Let's blow this pop stand."

Rouge nodded, flexed her wings, and leapt up into the air. Flapping her wings, she found they actually worked now! Her wings had healed, and Rouge could fly. Knuckles glided, keeping up with Rouge. As for the diamonds, Rouge just held them by their ropes. And they flew all the way to Station Square. Once there, Rouge went to the writer of the newspaper.

"Excuse me," She said, "My name is Rouge the bat, and this is my friend Knuckles. We both found a huge heap of diamonds and would like to enter this in for the newspaper contest. I can give you all the information if you'd just enter me in."

The writer woman nodded, and took Rouge and Knuckles into her office. There, Knuckles and Rouge explained everything, from the ground worm to the hurricane. After they were done, the writer entered that offer into the contest. And at the end of the day, when they counted up all the stories that were entered in, they decided to give the grand prize to Rouge. The ceremony was held at City Hall, and the mayor gave the red chaos emerald prize to Rouge. Knuckles was there, and the paparazzi took pictures of Rouge and Knuckels shaking the mayor's hand, and accepting the prize. Everything was put into the paper. After the big ceremony, Sonic came up to the two heroes.

"Hey guys," He said, "How did you get all those diamonds anyways?"

Rouge shoved a copy of the newspaper to Sonic.

"Read the paper," She said smugly, "It's all in there. And believe me, it was quite an adventure."

Knuckles nodded. "Yeah," He said. "It was nice seeing you, Sonic, but I've got to take a certain bat to Angel Island." Knuckles said, winking at Rouge. The bat giggled, and holding hands, the two flew off to Angel Island in the sunset.

The End

Title Ideas:

You're my emerald

My Gem

With you