Icy Knuckles is back with his third story. This is just a small one-shot that I threw together. I personally think that SEGA messed up the scene with Knuckles and Rouge on Space Colony ARK so I'm going to fix it. Remember: Knux/Rouge 4 lyfe.

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Knuckles exited the spaceship and immediately took off in search of the Master Emerald. He just had to find the rest of the Master Emerald. If it weren't for that stupid Sonic and Tails, he would have most of the pieces of the Master Emerald. They just had to open the hatch door. He would deal with them later. Now, he had to find the missing pieces of the Master Emerald.

Knuckles flew around the area designated as Meteor Herd. Slowly, but surely, he gathered most of the pieces of the Master Emerald. Something was funny, though. He now had fewer pieces than he had when he came up here. Knuckles suddenly saw a familiar white bat fly up to the structure that contained the lava pit. There was some recognizable energy coming from her body. He knew that she had some pieces of the Master Emerald on her. He ran over to the structure and then used his knuckles to climb up to where the bat girl had landed. He finally reached the place where she had landed. It was between the top and the bottom.

"Hey!" yelled Knuckles.

The white bat turned around. She was surprised to see her newly acquired hunting rival standing right behind her.

"Long time no see, treasure hunter. Did you find MY emeralds?" asked the bat.

"That's a good one. YOUR emeralds. Talking to you is a waste of time," said Knuckles.

Rouge was partly surprised by his direct approach. Did these pieces mean that much to him? It didn't matter. She wanted them, so she will have them.

Rouge flew down to the ground. Knuckles followed.

"Very well. If that's how you want to play, I will take them from you," said Rouge.

"Hand over those Master Emeralds. Give them to me," demanded Knuckles.

"Try and take them."

Rouge darted at Knuckles. She kicked at Knuckles with her iron boots. Knuckles was able to subdue her attack and landed a small punch that barely scraped her wings. Rouge then grabbed Knuckles' hand and delivered a kick to his stomach. Those iron boots really hurt. Knuckles went back a few feet from the impact of the kick. It appeared that she was more than she seemed. Despite her obsession with jewelry, she was quite skilled at fighting. Knuckles was definitely impressed, but he couldn't get sidetracked. He had to get back the rest of his emerald. Knuckles threw three punches at Rouge. She dodged by flying into the air. She came down hard for a kick, but Knuckles put up his arm and blocked the blow. Then, something went wrong. The ground started to shake. After that, the ground started to open, revealing a lava pit below. Rouge and Knuckles quickly took to two pillars and climbed back up to where they were standing before their battle. They were breathing hard. They weren't beaten, just out of breath. They were quite evenly matched.

"Stop fooling around and give me back MY emeralds," said Knuckles and Rouge simultaneously.

"What are you babbling about? You call yourself a hunter, attacking a lady? Shame on you," said Rouge.

"What kind of lady goes around stealing gems anyway?" asked Knuckles.

"Those belong to me." Rouge said, taking a step forward. That was a mistake because her foot slipped off the ledge. She began to fall face-up into the lava pit. Because she was face-up, she could not fly up. She just knew that this was the end of Rouge the Bat. She closed her eyes and waited patiently for the end. Suddenly, she stopped falling. She thought that she was dead. After a moment, she noticed that she didn't feel dead. In fact, she was feeling something tightly gripping her wrist. She opened her eyes to see that Knuckles had one hand on the ledge and the other one on her. She was shocked and glad at the same time. She was glad that she was alive, but also shocked that this echidna saved her even after she stole pieces of his jewel. He pulled her up to the ledge. She found herself staring into his purple pupils. What happened next surprised her even more.

"Are you okay?" asked Knuckles.

Why didn't he just take his emerald shards and run? Was he more concerned with her safety than his precious emerald? More importantly, why can't she stop staring into his eyes?

"Yes, I am. Thank you," said Rouge in a soft voice.

Knuckles rose to his feet and then helped her up as well. "Can I have my emerald now?" he asked.

Rouge knew it. He didn't save her for her. He saved her for this rock.

"Why is this piece of stone so important to you? This is the hardest hunt I ever had."

Knuckles sighed. "If you must know, the Master Emerald is a symbol of my heritage. It is my only connection with my past and the past of my people."

Rouge felt like a heel. She was going to take away his only tie to his past out of greed. The truth for the matter was that Rouge completely understood Knuckles. Like her, he has always been a loner. She just couldn't take away his heritage. Heck, she owed him anyway for saving her life.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know. Had I known, I never would have taken it. I may be a jewel thief, but I do have a heart," said Rouge. She placed all her collected shards on the ground in front of him.

Knuckles quickly gathered the pieces. Within seconds, the emerald was reformed. "Finally!"

He looked over at Rouge. Rouge looked back. There was an awkward silence between them. Knuckles finally broke the silence.

"I guess I better go find my friends now. Maybe our paths will cross again one day," he said before turning around and taking off.

"That's a promise," said Rouge under he breath. She looked up at the sky. "We should get going." She turned around to leave. Before she left, she gave one final glance back at Knuckles and smiled. Then she left and they went their separate ways.

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Short and Sweet. This is what would've happened if they weren't both so stubborn. Anyways, I'll soon be starting my next fanfic shortly. But for now, R & R this one. I love reviews(and Knux/Rouge).