The jackal pushed open one of the large wooden doors and was met with a pretty mundane sight, the sight of Scourge the Hedgehog sitting in a rather cushion-y looking chair before a roaring fireplace.
"Hello, friend! Come on in and have a seat."
Two rings from a generous student at the school gave the Ruby on Infinite's chest just enough juice to get him to the front doors of Scourge's castle in Moebius. It wasn't teleportation but rather the creation of a small portal that achieved this cross-dimensional travel, the creation of a portal small enough that it was easy to keep open so that he could return in the morning and to keep hidden so that no one could accidentally follow him through. Scourge's castle wasn't too well-guarded at the moment, so allowing that was probably not a good idea.
Infinite went and sat in the chair next to him, grabbing the still-steaming kettle from off the stone table between them and the fire and pouring himself a cup of tea.
"Thank you for coming. I do enjoy having you around, even if it is just for the night," the king told him. Infinite took a moment to drink his tea and stare into the fire as if it were telling him an interesting tale about who knows what. "I will have you for the night, won't I?"
"Just for tonight. I would hate to be a burden and overstay my welcome. I just don't have anywhere else to go right now."
"Don't worry about that," Scourge said, relaxing a bit in his chair. "You can stay as long as you need to."
Suddenly Infinite heard a loud crack sound and saw a big flame burst up from the fire. He jumped and began to shake while staring intently at the flames, not saying anything.
The king went on, "I thought it would be nice to boil some water and make tea. Plus, it fends off the chill in the air. I wonder if the ghosts like it."
"Ghosts?" Infinite laughed, though it was entirely fake. "Ghosts aren't real." Except I saw what looked like a ghost just last night.
"Of course not, but I still see them. Every time I look down one of the corridors, I see shadows of people."
"Who do you think it is?" Infinite asked.
Scourge shrugged in a rather exaggerated manner. "I don't know, but they don't ever come to my chambers. They must be scared of me."
Infinite laughed nervously and asked, "Are you sure it's not a family member or something?"
"I have no idea. They have a familiar look about them, though. Anyway, it's not all too much of a bother. I actually kind of enjoy having them around. It's nice to have company when I'm cleaning," Scourge replied, venturing into his tea cup once more and slurping quietly. Infinite began to wonder if his friend was entirely sane. After all, he was talking about something so supernatural in such a casual way. He decided to change the topic.
"So, where is the queen right now?"
"At our house in the Prime-verse," the king replied.
"Is she well?" Infinite asked.
"She is, at least as far as I can tell. She worries about you, you know. She hoped that you wouldn't come to any harm when you were displaced after Forces," Scourge told him. Infinite seriously doubted that. The queen probably didn't even know he existed. Other than at the student council meetings, he rarely ever saw her.
"Are you going to bed soon?" the green pineapple asked him. Infinite was about to answer yes, but then he stopped himself.
"No, I would like to have a look around the castle first." Infinite stood up. "Would you mind giving me a tour?" He hadn't gotten a good look at the place on his first visit due to how late he had gotten there.
"Of course, this way," the kingly hedgehog told him. He stood up. Infinite stood up as well and followed him as they left the front room.
Infinite took a look around the place they were in. Hallways branched off in four directions. Infinite looked down one of them and saw a table against one wall. The table had a jug of what he guessed was water, what looked like a half-eaten loaf of bread, a wedge of cheese on a plate, and some sort of meat.
"Is that the remainder of your supper?" Infinite asked.
"Oh, actually I hadn't yet begun to eat. I forgot all about that. Would you like some?" the king asked him.
"No thanks. I raided the cafeteria at the school before I came here," Infinite explained.
They walked down the west hallway, marked with worn golden letters on a plaque, and came across the library where Infinite had his encounter the previous night. The door was open and beside it was another table, this one thinner and empty except for a small bowl and a book. It looked artfully made, leather bound.
"Is that a book?" Infinite asked as if he had never seen a book before.
"Yes."
"It looks neat," the masked mongrel noted, then, in a curious tone, said, "You didn't steal it, did you?"
"Of course not! I borrowed it from the school library. My only crime is reading too many books." Scourge laughed.
"Could we have a look inside the library?"
"Certainly," the king replied. Infinite followed him into the library. Inside, he saw five rows of talls shelves reaching almost to the ceiling and holding probably a thousand volumes. Scourge took the book off of the table outside and began flipping through it absentmindedly. Infinite began inspecting the many rows of books. Suddenly, a book fell off the top of a shelf and hit him in the head.
"Owww…" he moaned.
"Are you all right?" Scourge asked.
"Yeah, sure," Infinite answered, rubbing his head.
"Oh."
"'Oh' what?"
"'Oh' that you're alright. Nothing," the green hedgy answered. Infinite picked up the book and it fell open to a random page. There were words written in elegant handwriting. They read, "Give the boy my message."

Infinite looked over at Scourge. He was observing the cover of the book in his hands with a pleasant expression.
"Wow, that is a very old tale. There's nothing to it, however," he remarked. Infinite looked over Scourge's shoulder at the windows behind him, staring out into the dark void that surrounded the building. Infinite stood up and straightened his mask.
"Actually, I think there's something you should know. I talked with the ghost of your father last night."
"My father? Are you sure?" Scourge asked, still keeping his amused expression. Infinite was beginning to suspect it might be fake. "You spoke to my father?" he asked in a somewhat bewildered tone.
"Yes," Infinite replied.
"He was a ghost. He told me to tell you that your days as king are numbered."
"My days are numbered? What does that mean?" the king asked. "How so?" Infinite shrugged. He still had no idea as to why the ghost of Scourge's dad decided to tell him that.
"Well it's obvious, isn't it? Tragedy will occur. There will be violence and your kingdom will be destroyed."
"But how can this be? The only ones who know of this place are the queen and I. And you of course," Scourge told him. "Are you sure it was my father?" he asked in a rather worried manner.
"Quite sure," Infinite replied. He peered curiously at the book he was holding and found that the words had vanished. "Actually what he said was 'Although Scourge may have found temporary sanctuary for now, he can never escape the winds of fate.'"
"I can think about this more in the morning. For now, we'd better get to bed." Scourge walked out of the library. "Perhaps you'll join me in the morning in the entranceway?" the king asked as he left.
"That's a good idea," Infinite answered, continuing to stand in the middle of the library.
"He's blocked me out." That's what the ghost, er, echo, told Infinite the previous night. Why does Scourge ignore something which seems exceedingly important? Isn't he worried at all?
Infinite sighed and set off in the direction of his room.
-

Honest squinted her eyes in response to the painfully bright light hanging above her as she waited rather patiently for her invited guests to take their places around the table. The three of them had their eyes focused on Honest and didn't seem to acknowledge each other's presence at all. Honest noted how Mephiles's cloud of darkness was currently nonexistent around his company. How polite of him. If only he would have refrained from doing that during Honest's and his meeting earlier. Strangely enough, trying to avoid choking on pure darkness fumes makes it hard to focus on what you were saying. Suddenly, a vision of Dark Sonic in Sonic X came to Honest. The dark-colored aura around Sonic… was that pure darkness? Was that… Mephiles?

While Honest silently sorted through her combined knowledge of everything Sonic, Scourge finally noticed the mysterious third guest across from him. "Sh-Sh-Sh-Shadow?!"
"What?" Shadow asked, narrowing his eyes at the green pineapple and tilting his head.
"Oh, I just- What are you doing here?" Scourge asked, sweating.
"I've come to discuss something of the utmost importance with Honest here," the shadowy being explained, gesturing to said feline.
"I've gathered you all here today to help me get Mephiles up to speed on everything going on in this story right now. However, if you have a topic to discuss, Shadow, then maybe we can start with that," Honest said, peering curiously at her black-and-red compadre.
The Ultimate Lifeform appeared quite angry as he narrowed his eyes and glared at Honest as he spoke. "Don't pretend like you don't already know what I'm about to bring up," he told the author, resting an elbow on the table and pointing rather harshly at her. "Frank. Who is he and why is he here?"
Question marks flew out of both Scourge and Mephiles's heads. Honest giggled, finding the whole situation pretty funny. "Didn't you know? He's your brother." She tapped a gloved finger on her chin in thought. "Your dad was nice enough to give me some of his DNA and everything."
"So he wasn't lying," Shadow breathed, leaning back in his chair. Suddenly, a thought hit Scourge.
"OH, that was that white Shadow I saw earlier with Amy!" he exclaimed, gripping the edge of the table with his fingers.
Honest sighed pleasantly and rested the side of her head in her palm. However, she forgot to take her eyes off of Scourge when she did this, and he noticed, his curious blue eyes widening. Other than that, he didn't say anything. Honest decided just to laugh it off, which was her go-to method of dispelling any sort of uncertain or low atmosphere.
Mephiles, who had been listening quietly this whole time, made a little noise and appeared to palen. He was looking over Honest's head. Scourge looked there as well and immediately tried to get smaller, sinking in his seat as if he were trying to hide from whoever was approaching. Shadow's eyes narrowed, resembling the grumpy-looking cat you could sometimes find images of online. Honest finally turned around just as the approaching person began to speak.
"Oh, Honest and Shadow! Would you mind introducing me to these two?" Speak of the devil. None other than Frank the Hedgehog walked up to the table and jumped in the empty seat between Mephiles and Scourge. He looked excited. "I'm new here. I'm Shadow's brother, Frank."
"Which of you is the oldest?" Mephiles asked, getting straight to it.
"I was born just the other day," Frank boasted as if that were something to be proud about. "But my creator, Honest here, deliberately made me two years older than Shadow biologically, so 17." Scourge suddenly appeared as if he were sick.

Mephiles glanced nervously over at said green pineapple. However, now he looked more like a watermelon since a deep blush was beginning to spread across his green face. "Are you alright, your Highness?"
Honest closed her eyes and said matter-of-factly, "I believe Scourge may have a thing for recolors." Frank looked confused as to how Honest had come to that conclusion, so she explained. "You and Scourge are both canonically seventeen."
"No, I most certainly do not. I already have a boyfriend, and he's not a recolor," the kingly hedgehog argued.
"You can be attracted to someone aesthetically without being in a romantic relationship with them," Honest argued in response.
"I'm very flattered," Frank told him, looking down at the deflated moss-colored hedgehog as he laid his head down on the table and covered his face. His red sunglasses fell off his head and hit the table with an inaudible click.
"Actually, it's hard for me to tell the difference between attraction and intimidation when it comes to Scourge," Honest added. "Anyways, Shadow? What do you think about having a brother?"
That sounded like the sort of question someone would ask a small child who was getting a new sibling, not a fifteen going on seventy year-old hedgehog.
"Uh, I don't know. I'm still trying to get my mind wrapped around the idea that it's even possible. So, how exactly did you, you know… do it?"
"You mean how did I create him?" Honest asked him, clarifying. Once Shadow nodded, she thought a bit before continuing. "Well, Scourge got the project rolling when he stole some documents on how you were made from the GUN archives."
Shadow stood up and stuck his palms flat on the surface of the table. "Are you meaning to say that you stole from GUN?!"
Scourge beamed proudly. "Yeah, they store all of their records online, a huge oversight on their part, so getting those was, surprisingly, relatively painless."
"So you knew about this?" Shadow asked him.
"I had no idea what Honest was going to do with them. I steal things for her all the time," Scourge told him, throwing up his hands.
Shadow then turned his attention back to Honest. "So then what did you do with them? I know you have no idea how to follow those instructions. I had a good look at them back in the day, and they are frock with scientific jargon."
"That was easy," Honest answered. "I brought them to Dr. Eggman. He set me up with all the machines and everything I would need, and we went through the steps together. When it came to making Frank his own character, I used whatever I could think of. To make his fur white, Eggman and I found a way to separate what made your fur black and substitute it out for what makes my fur white." Honest grabbed her ears for emphasis. "Like my ears. We progressed his body age-wise a couple of years by tweaking the variables. As for his voice…" Honest smiled a mischievous cat smile and rested an elbow on the table in front of her. "I imagine it's what Shadow's incredibly talented VA sounded like thirty to forty years ago. I thought it would be funny for the little brother to sound waaay older than the big brother." Honest raised her hand into the air to show just how older. Shadow deflated at that somewhat embarrassing and offensive explanation. "Anyways, are we all on the same page now?"
"Yes, I believe we are," Mephiles answered in an ominous sort of way.
"Hey, what gives you permission to speak for all of us?" Shadow asked angrily.
"Not 'what', Shadow. 'Who'." Mephiles motioned towards Honest. She immediately puffed out a cheek in annoyance and corrected him. "I don't give you permission to do anything but sit there, Mephiles."
"I think I understand, now," Scourge said, lifting his head from the table.
"Same," said Frank. Scourge immediately put his head back down with a thump. Honest giggled.
"Okay, then! I have a test to make up for Doctor Eggman, so if you'll excuse me, I'll be heading there now," Honest told the group, standing up and then taking off towards the glass doors at the front of the library. Shadow left next and Frank insisted he come with him. This left Mephiles and Scourge, so Scourge asked if he needed any help in the office.