Chapter 13: Jewels of Power

Rouge had done it. It took a while, but she collected all the chaos emeralds, all except the purple one. But she wasn't sure if she had the advantage. After all, Catnap had the Master of them all. She might not stand a chance.

"Rouge!" she jerked up at the sound of a familiar voice. She turned slowly and saw the young two-tailed fox behind her. "Why are you stealing all the emeralds? Can't you share with us?" The boy looked troubled. "I… I trusted you to watch the emerald… and… I…"

She shrugged nonchalantly, "I'm sorry, fox—"

"No. Stop acting."

"Huh?"

"This isn't greed. I can tell. If it had been greed, you would have hunted for the easier jewels first, not mine at my base."

"You're a clever one, aren't you, kid?" She lifted the yellow jewel. "Mind if I borrow this?"

"Borrow?"

"You obviously know about Catnap."

"Your cat burglar friend."

"She's no friend of mine! She's more of a rival. Nonetheless, she's never been big competition…" Rouge pulled out another emerald, the red one. "She got a hold of the purple emerald."

"Radiation."

"That's the one you found."

"Me?" Tails scratched his head, then perked up suddenly. "That was her hideout?"

"Unfortunately. So she got it back and eventually learned of their power."

"She wants the power…"

"She has the power. She tricked me into stealing the Master Emerald for her, but now she's intent on stealing the rock that is the world."

"You're trying to stop her… all by yourself?"

"I work alone, kid. Why should I need anyone else?"

"Because we're a team. We work together. We can't handle these things on our own, Rouge. That's why we have each other."

"Touching… really. But I'll pass."

"You don't have a choice, Rouge," Sonic had appeared. "We're with you all the way."

"Yeah, Ms. Rouge! Please let us help!" Cream landed eagerly by her side.

"Hmph, whatever you say."

"So where is this villain?" Amy held up her hammer.

Tails looked around. "…and where's Knuckles?"

"Where you will soon be!" Catnap had appeared again. "Thank you so much for going through the trouble of collecting the gems for me, Rouge. I'll take them now."

"No you won't!" Rouge shouted. "Chaos Emeralds! Show me your power!"

"Master Emerald! Command them!"

I'm no match for her… Rouge began to doubt. Not with the power of the Master in her hands! But the emerald did not shine. It did not glow or even flicker. It was lifeless.

"What?" the cat stared at it. "What's going on here?"

"That emerald won't listen to you!" Sonic shouted. "It'll only listen to its guardian!"

"That's not what happened before!" Catnap tried again, "Feel my power, oh Master of emeralds!"

"Greed may be powerful… but only against something weak!" Amy determined.

"What?"

"You used that power against Mr. Knuckles… didn't you?" Cream shivered. "He's…"

"The power of that Master Emerald is in him!" Rouge remembered. "He's the only one who can really control it."

"Then why was it so easily controlled by me?" Catnap screamed.

"It wasn't…" Rouge realized. "Knuckles… did that to himself… to fool you! If you thought you had control of the Master of the chaos emeralds, you wouldn't search for them!"

"What?"

Rouge raised a fist and spread her wings to fly. "He… He trusted me! He trusted me to restore it to him! …with the power of the chaos emeralds!"

Sonic cheered, "Alright, Knuckles! He's getting better at his whole trust problem."

"And he knew that you'd know what to do!" Tails added.

"Great minds think alike, I suppose," Rouge smirked. "Now let's finish this, Catnap!"

With the power of the elements, Rouge and her …teammates… used the chaos emeralds against Catnap's only power, the purple emerald. Catnap was no match. Because of the gathering of the emeralds, they were blown away, separated yet again.

Catnap squealed and tried to run away.

"Not so fast, kitty-cat!" Sonic stopped her. "Where are you going?"

"I won't steal the chaos emeralds, I swear!" the cat pleaded. "I'll stick with diamonds… and rubies… and sapphires… and maybe a pearl or two…" She began to whine, "But I'll never try to steal an emerald again!"

Rouge shrugged. "I think coal looks better on her anyway."

"I'm sure she won't bother us again, Mr. Sonic…" Cream spoke up.

"I swear I won't! I swear by my jewels and coal!" Catnap continued to plead.

"Good enough for me, then," Rouge nodded.

With that, Catnap sped off.

"Well, you guys. Thank you… for the support."

"I think you should really be thanking Knuckles for trusting you to carry out his plan," Sonic mentioned.

"Oh, no! Mr. Knuckles! Where is he?" Cream asked, panicked.

.

Knuckles was restored by the Master Emerald.

"You really had us tricked, knucklehead," Rouge frowned.

"I had to do something to make that cat give in. Obviously, she wasn't truly evil… but power does things to people… anyone, really…"

"Don't worry, I won't get any ideas," Rouge winked. "But thank you… for trusting me."

"Hmph. I didn't really have a choice."

"Don't lie, Knuckles," Sonic winked and nudged him. "You did have a choice."

Knuckles tried desperately to hide his blush. "Fine! But I figured… aw forget it…"

"I appreciate your trust… despite my tricks on you," Rouge held out a hand to him.

Knuckles smiled and took it. He gave it a powerful shake, but Rouge pulled him close and gave him a peck on the cheek, making it bright red.

"See you around, you guys! You all are alright." And with that, she flew off once again.

"You look like a tomato!" Amy teased.

"Shut up!" Knuckles growled, wiping off whatever remained from the kiss.

"I think you guys make a good couple!" Tails laughed.

"Shut it!"

Cream smiled, "Aw, Mr. Knuckles…"

"Don't say a word!"

Sonic just burst out laughing, as did everyone else. Everyone except Knuckles.

So that concludes Rouge's part of the story. I know, you miss Eggman, don't you? Well, he's coming up… he's just been working on a machine. He doesn't like to be rushed, you know. So Amy's story is right around the corner. Stay tuned! And REVIEW!