A/N:Heey we passed eighty reviews :)! Big news! Thanks a bagazagillion, everyone. I only have two reviews when I'm writing this… which is about 24/h after I uploaded the last chapter. What the heck, guys D:! Ah well. No problem, no problem. I'm easy. Grr… I always think of so many interesting things to mention in my author's notes when I'm no where near a computer -,-! But now that I'm sitting here writing this, nothing wants to come to mind! This one took a bit to start… I've been up to my eyebrows with homework. You try making a reciprocating piston engine with two syringes in one week! Ahh well. I'll thank yeh to review after you read ;).

--LA

I gave up on my 100 word thing for today. Too lazy. It's 200 today! You know, in a real novel thing, the author doesn't have to put a disclaimer at the beginning of every chapter D:! But then again, they don't get to write huge author's notes at the beginning and end either. And I do enjoy writing my A/N's :P Blehg! ANYWAYS, I don't own anyone except forrr… Hina, Gabby, Grace, Felix & miss Leah.

Vanilla's eyes fluttered open. She sighed and sat up, her mind still feeling uneasy. Over the last few weeks, she had been acting extremely unlike her usual self. Though she was as quiet as always, she had been much more jumpy, and was in a state of constant nervousness. She frowned, getting to her feet, and listened passively to Cream humming to herself from her bedroom for a few moments.

She thought about the gold framed ruby, which had been said to bring good luck, hurled at her by young Malam at her departure that fateful morning. She hated how faintly she could remember the morning. It was only a series of fuzzy, colourless, images long etched into the back of her mind, however much she had hoped to get away from them.

She wondered what had happened to them, him and tiny Pella. Had they simply faded away along with the numerous others she had seen pass away in their squalor? Had the little community been discovered? If so, what had happened to the ceiling's inhabitants? Were they killed, or, perhaps, accepted into the culture of the society below? She also wondered what had happened to the lucky ruby. It was such a pretty thing, and so sacred to the stowaways, that she couldn't bring herself to believe that Malam had simply left it in that empty hallway.

But his face had been contorted with a sort of livid sadness. The cat had, she could recall, never had strong power over the expression of his emotions. Perhaps the stone had been left in that strange hall, tainted to him. If that was, in fact, the case, then there was no doubt that the rightful inhabitants of the station would have found it, and likely kept it.

But she hadn't stayed to find out. No, the idea of leaving the cramped air pocket for free space was too tempting to pass on. She did feel strong contrition. How had the other two young ones managed without their mentor, their stand-in mother?

She sighed, and jumped at a knock on the door.

"Come in," she answered weakly, brushing a few wrinkles out of her dress. Cream poked her head in through the door, looking concerned.

"Good morning, mother." She said softly, flouncing down on the bed beside Vanilla. "Did you have a nice sleep?"

"Yes," Vanilla lied with a smile, "thank you."

"Mother," Cream asked with gentle curiosity, "Do you remember what Cosmo was like?"

Vanilla gave her a mildly curious glance.

"I was just curious." The little bunny said innocently, "Since you only met her the one time..." She trailed off.

"Well," Vanilla said slowly, "I think I can remember her…" She paused. In truth, she could only vaguely recall their unexpected guest. "She had those big, blue eyes… And that pretty red stone broach on her-"

The older rabbit's voice escaped her and she fell into a sort of pensive trance. That gorgeous, gold-framed ruby was oddly… familiar.

Knuckles trudged through sparse forest, letting the crisp spring air clear his head. He glanced up at the glaring sun. It served as a sort of condolence to think that, somewhere Rouge was under the same sun.

He wondered how much longer she was going to be gone. Would it be a matter of days? Weeks? Even months? He sighed and took a seat beneath a shady maple tree. He saw an airplane soar past above his head, and idly watched it glide by, listening to the faint groaning sound which it made.

It ascended into the distance, and he laid back, resting his head on a root.

He let out a tiny yelp as he felt several pricks of pain shoot through him from his backside. Planted under his caboose, there was a very active ant hill. He hopped back to his feet, shaking the painful pests from his legs and torso.

Irritated, he marched back toward Tails' house. Perhaps some interesting events had grown from the pink squirrel's visit, and however uncomfortable she made him feel, he was curious about the reason for her sudden friendliness towards their group.

He hiked back, trying to imagine how Rouge would react when they were together again. Knuckles was quite confident that she would be happy, but he had learned that there were several degrees of happy for women. There was the uncomfortable, teary happy where her eyes sparkled and she took quaky, sob-like breaths. This one, he was happy to say, was very uncommon to see in Rouge. In fact, he had only witnessed it recently on Amy's face. And then there was the breathless, awestruck face that a female plastered on her face, usually upon receiving a gift. This one had been his planned reaction when he had purchased the flowers (which were still planted in a vase on her coffee table).

"What!?" came was a high pitched whine which the echidna could hear from the doorway. He raised an eyebrow, and decided against knocking. It sounded like Tails already had his hands full with his guests. In stead, Knuckles opened the door as quietly as he could, and slunk into the living room, where he saw one of the squirrel's children slamming his tiny fists onto the floor and wailing.

"Felix, Felix…" Gabrielle was saying soothingly, kneeling beside him on the carpet. Tails was seated on the couch, looking shocked and confused. He noticed Knuckles, and gave a queasy smile.

"I WANT A NEW LUCY!" the young boy cried. Knuckles, and apparently Tails as well based on the expression on his face, had no idea who this Lucy was.

"We cannot get a new Lucy." Gabrielle told him sympathetically, looking as if she would have wanted to stroke his head. Unfortunately, flailing arms and legs were making that action impossible. She turned to look at Tails.

"I am sorry." She shouted over her son's cries. "Could we step into another room and talk?"

"Good idea." agreed Tails, gesturing for Knuckles to follow them into the kitchen. Gabrielle, he noticed with small relief, had not yet noticed his re-arrival. Unfortunately, his content was rather early. The moment the squirrel took her seat, she saw him, and shot him a massively charming smile.

"Hello, Knuckles." She said pleasantly. Apparently, she had shed the anxious air from earlier, and was acting just as… glamorous as always.

"Hey." He replied unenthusiastically, taking a seat beside Tails.

"Where did you go after you ran off?" The fox asked with a smile.

"A walk." Knuckles answered, not in the mood to talk about such things.

Tails looked as if he was about to question the echidna further, but evidently sensed his discomfort. "Right." He said, turning to Gabrielle, "So, what was that about."

The squirrel's face tinged pink. "I am sorry about him. He has…" she hesitated, "Well, he has always got what he wanted. I must admit that I have spoiled him slightly. And since his pet got stuck in the fire, he wants a new one. In any other situation he would have his new already, but all of our possessions went along with her. All of our money."

She sighed. "So, you can see our problem."

Knuckles sighed, feeling sympathetic in spite of himself.

"I am sorry that we had to bother you, but the children were so tired… Leah is still asleep in the car."

"It's no problem." Tails assured her, "We're happy to help. Hina's going to be so excited to see Leah and Felix… she's out with her friend Cream right now."

"Thank you so much." She said, putting a hand on his arm.

"Gabrielle?" sounded a timid voice from the doorway. All three people at the table turned towards the tiny panda who had appeared in the room.

"Hello, Leah!" The squirrel said with a smile, "Did you have a nice nap?"

"Uhun." The panda answered, stepping over to the table. Tails noticed that she was behaving much calmer than what he had observed at the park. "Where are we?"

"We are at Hina's house!" Gabrielle answered, "Isn't it exciting?"

Leah smiled shallowly. "Yes."

"Is Felix still upset?" the mother-figure asked, lifting little Leah up onto her lap.

"Yes." She repeated sheepishly, "He was scary."

"Don't worry." Gabrielle told her gently, "He's just having a hard time."

"Yes." She said a third time, tears flooding her dark, chocolate eyes once again, "Me too."

Rouge blinked a highly-pressurized tear from her throbbing, puffy eye. The aching pain between her eyes, stemming from her sinuses was relentless. Her eyes were watering and the planes humming intoxicated her muffled ears. She had never found flying to be so painful, and she had never heard of the pressure affecting the eyes. She had experienced the pains of aircraft flight; throbbing ears and the like, but the overpowering pain between her eyes was new, and far surpassed the stuffy ears.

"This is your captain speaking," came a scratchy voice over the intercom systems, "we'll be arriving at our destination in a little under twenty minutes."

Slowly, as they descended, the pressure's hold on Rouge's senses gradually relented. As they bumped back to the ground with a lurch, there was no more pain. Though her ears were still partly muted, her eyes were clear and the pain had been relieved. She almost fainted with delight upon seeing a familiar biome. No longer were there bizarre palms and amazingly emerald grasses. No more muggy, stifling heat. And perhaps best of all, no more Grace.

She was home.

A/N:What… the… heck -.-! I should be like… put down or something T.T! Would somebody PLEASE put me out of my misery?! I mean like… WHAT THE HELL?! It's yecky. Just yecky. And did anyone… ANYONE… get my plot yet? Like come onnn guys... What special (coughTREE"WORSHIPPING"cough)… space-station living society do we know of…?

Use those thinking caps, people! And use 'em to write a sexy reviewww too… I only got three last time :(! Let's bring it up to par ;). I sort of neglected writing this one... so it took a bit. Sorry... and thanks for clicking the SUBMIT REVIEW button... hint-hint... :D!

--LA