Chapter 10

Change of Plans

(Sonic's POV)

Okay, so I'd managed to be alone with Shift. There. The easy part was done, completed successfully. But now came the tricky part: keeping this Eggman/Shift/Quarry persona intact.

"You wished to speak with me?" Shift inquired. "Without your, ah, bodyguard?"

I smirked. "Some things are best dealt with privately, Your Majesty."

"I see." He linked his fingers atop his desk and leaned forward, curiosity and interest passing over his features. "So, Sonic, just who are you interested in?"

"Princess Amelia." Geez, it was weird saying that out loud...

"Ah, of course. My sources have told me she would often track you down, begging you to marry her."

"Yes... Silly girl believed my media image." I smiled lightly. "And at that time, I thought of her as nothing more then a pest." Which was true, I gotta admit. "I have no interest in the weak, the foolish, or the powerless. For quite a time, I believed her to be all three. And while, in essence, she is, I have now discovered a use for Princess Amelia." Had I seriously just said that? Blech!

"Do you think so?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. Yes, indeed. And it would also help your own social standing," I decided on the spot. I had to appeal to this guy to have everything go my way, and the best way I saw was to start guaranteeing this guy some power.

Shift smirked. "I am the sole ruler of an entire planet, Sonic. My social standing can not rise much higher than that."

"Not if you think on a small scale, of course."

"How so?" he said after a moment.

I smiled. This guy thought he was so clever, letting me do all the talking. Heh. We'd see how long that lasted. "I would think a man such as yourself would already have the answer to that, Your Majesty." He looked very interested in what I was saying which was good and bad. Good 'cause it meant this might actually work. Bad 'cause I was starting to get a headache. I never got headaches.

"Tow planets?" he murmured. When I nodded, his eyes lit with greed. Oh, yeah, I had him hooked. "But the people of your planet believe you are fighting to preserve their freedom. Would they truly allow you to rule them?"

"Not if they don't have a full understanding of what's happening. Already, I control over two-thirds of Mobian government and trade." That was a total lie, but who cares? "If this little side-trip hadn't seemed to be such a good investment, I wouldn't be here right now."

"Two-thirds, however impressive, is still not the whole."

Oh crap...Umm...Think, Sonic! Think! "Perhaps I should've mentioned that the only remaining countries are small, third-world ones? In perhaps a single month, Mobius will be mine. As I said, had this trip not been deemed necessary, I wouldn't be here."

"Necessary and an investment? Please, explain why you've chosen those particular words."

I thought for a moment how to phrase this. It was going to be tricky to convince him to make things go my way. "I think on a large scale, Your Majesty. By becoming the visible ruler of one planet, those on another are much less likely to object when they are taken over."

My head was now aching to the point of distraction. I wanted out of there! "Your reign here on Freesia will continue once I return to Mobius, but you'll be more of an...advisor, rather than king."

"In short, you wish to marry Amelia in the stead of Quarry."

Now the pounding in my heart echoed the throb in my head. We were finally down to it. "Yes, exactly. And because no one knows who the current groom is, the switch will be an insignificant detail."

"What if I prefer leaving Quarry as the groom?"

My laugh was quiet and deadly – the production of the evil sound caused an extra stab of pain to explode in my head. "Quite simple, Quarry will suffer a rather...unfortunate accident."

Shift leaned back in his chair, studying me carefully. I wondered, over the pounding in my head, if he'd fallen for this annoying act of mine. "He shan't take this news well," he finally said.

"His feelings on the matter are none of my concern. My interests lay in the future, Your Majesty, of this planet as well as mine. Quarry is a fool who will drive this planet to ruin." That whole thing, at least, was the truth.

"And you won't?" Yeah, I probably would. I couldn't rule a planet, geez...

"I am not a fool," I informed him. And I sure as heck wasn't! I was going to hand the crown over to Alley as soon as it was possible to do so.

"Then we have an agreement, Sonic the Hedgehog." He rose and I did the same. "In three weeks' time, you shall marry Amelia and a week later the crown will be passed to you."

He held out a hand and even though I recoiled internally, I grasped it with mine firmly so we could shake on it.

"Please inform Quarry of this change of plans, will you? Tell him I will speak with him on this matter on the 'morrow."

"Of course, Your Majesty." I bowed as Shadow had done earlier. "It's been a...pleasure," I lied, and walked out.

(Tails's POV)

My entire body felt numb with shock. "He's going to marry Amy..." I couldn't believe it. Sonic the Hedgehog was going to marry Amy Rose, aka Princess Amelia de la Rosa of the noble planet Freesia. It was...amazing!

Cream grabbed my hands, excitement emanating from her in waves. "We can go straight home!" she squealed.

Rouge smirked, leaning against the wall by the door. "I never knew the Blue Blur could act so well."

"I'll say," Knuckles muttered. "It was weird."

I couldn't stop the grin. "Yeah, but it was great!"

"However much of a fool he is, Sonic never ceases to amaze," Shadow admitted, shaking his head. "I was certain he was going to bungle this."

The door opened and closed with Sonic leaning against it, eyes closed. "Man, that was tough."

I'll bet it was, too. For someone as decent as Sonic, pretending to be the three most evil men we'd ever come across had to be a major mental strain.

Abruptly, Alley threw her arms around Sonic. "That was utterly magnificent of you! I would just love to see the look on Quarry's face once you tell him!"

His usual grin broke through. "Yeah, should be interesting."

No, it wasn't quite his usual grin...Something was wrong with it. I leaned back in my chair, studying Sonic carefully. Something behind his eyes caught my attention, and my own widened. Did Sonic have a headache? No way! Sonic didn't get headaches! Only people with brain tumors or elevated stress levels got those!

"Alley, we should probably leave now," Shadow said. When I looked his way, his narrow-eyed focus was also on Sonic. I'm positive he saw the same thing I did.

Alley released Sonic and turned, smiling. "Yes, I suppose we should."

I faced my computer once again to ascertain the guard's locations. "Okay, it's clear," I said after a few seconds. Shadow scooped Alley up and I could swear I saw something almost like desire flickering in those red depths. But that was impossible, wasn't it? A moment later, he leapt out the window, and I quickly pixelled the two of them out of the security tapes.

While I did that, Rouge tossed Sonic a couple of aspirin. "You look like you could use these."

He dry-swallowed them with a sheepish smile. "Thanks, Rouge. I don't think talking to Quarry will be as bad though."

"Why's that?"

I spun in my chair at Knuckles questions, eager to see Sonic's reaction and hear his response to it. But I spun too fast and one of my tails tripped Cream up. To keep her from falling back, I grabbed her hand, but misjudged the force of my tug so that she toppled into my lap.

I could feel my blush just as easily as I could see Cream's. Sonic just laughed. "Smooth," he teased. "Hey, thanks for the pills, Rouge. See you guys later." He walked out just as something on my computer caught my eye. I helped Cream straighten before slapping on the headphones. "The king just sent someone to go and get Amy for him."


All right, I lied

lol

I'm in the mood to type, so I got this next chap up today

But the next one, I swear you'll have to wait for

X3

Please review!

Byez!

P.S.

The POVs in the next chapter are those of Amy, Sonic, and Alley