Chapter 2

Reserved to Act

"Well are you just going to stand there and gawk, or are you going to say hello?" Rouge got to her feet and stretched her arms while letting out an exaggerated yawn. That still didn't give Knuckles enough time to drop his guard. The Echidna stood rigid with his fists raised and his eyes glossed over. Rouge was torn between annoyance and the desire to laugh. "Well?" She said sweetly.

"What are you doing here?" Knuckles barked. He took a half step backward in order to shield Rouge away from the Master Emerald.

"You really are quite the charmer."

"Answer me!" Knuckles looked around as if expecting to be swarmed by a sudden assault.

Rouge sighed. "Can't a lady just swing by to say hello?"

"I'd believe that if you were a lady."

Rouge giggled. "You can drop the bravado I'm not here for your precious emerald."

It was Knuckles's turn to laugh. "As if. So does that mean you're here for me? Were you hoping to hold my hand again?"

"Don't flatter yourself!" Rouge snapped as a flush ran up her neck. "I wouldn't be here at all if it wasn't life or death. You ought to be more grateful."

"And why is that?"

"Put your hands down so we can talk. If you won't take my word that I'm not here to steal from you then I will just be on my way."

Knuckles hesitated. His green eyes lost their spark and he looked suddenly vulnerable. He thinks he hurt my feelings. That annoyed Rouge more than anything. At last, Knuckles dropped his fists and sighed. "Alright. Sorry if I seemed-"

"-As stubborn and idiotic as your reputation suggests?"

Knuckles frowned. "Say what you've come here to say bat girl, I don't want to spend my night trading insults."

Rouge leaned against one of the pillars of the shrine and folded her arms. "Listen, I know we have a…complicated history. But right now I need you to trust me. What I have to say won't be easy for you to hear. But know this, I am risking my life by coming to you."

As if by an instinctive response to danger, Knuckles placed one hand on top of the Master Emerald. "What do you mean?"

"I mean you, your emerald and this entire island are in grave danger." Rouge took a quick breath. "From G.U.N."

"G.U.N? Isn't that the human military?"

"Yes, and up until recently they were my main employer. When we first met I was working undercover for them, which is why I infiltrated Eggman's team."

Knuckles frowned. "Why would I be in danger from them? We have no reason for conflict."

"That's where you're wrong. A lot has changed on the surface. You may not notice from way up here but a storm gathers below." A gust of wind blew across the plain beneath the shrine. Rouge turned and gazed outward. The last rays of the failing sun illuminated Angel Island highlighting its beauty and preserved grandeur. Rouge had never been very captivated by nature. She had always preferred cities over forests and the glitter of jewels over the reflected light of the stars against a calm lake. Yet she could not deny that Angel Island was uniquely magnificent. Perhaps it was the magic of the Master Emerald but everything seemed timeless and guarded from the cycles of life and decay.

She turned back to Knuckles and sighed. "This is what we are up against." For the next several minutes she told Knuckles everything about G.U.N, the Eclipse Cannon, and the meeting she and Espio had overheard. Throughout her story, Knuckles remained rigid and unreadable. His jaw clenched tight but otherwise he showed no reaction.

"So that's where we stand. I believe that G.U.N is preparing to fire on this island, hoping to destroy you and the Master Emerald with one blast. With you dead, there won't be anyone left with enough power to stop them."

There was a long pause following her story. Knuckles continued to remain silent. His quiet brooding was starting to strain Rouge's nerves. "Well?" She demanded.

"I…" Knuckles seemed to be fishing for words. "Thank you for telling me this."

"Thank you?" Rouge sputtered. "Did you even listen to me? Knuckles, you have to leave. Take the Master Emerald and come with me. We don't know much time you'll have."

Knuckles's eyes narrowed. "I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I can't leave. Angel Island is under my protection, I can't leave it unguarded."

Rouge let out a snort of derisive laughter. "There won't be anything left to protect! The Eclipse Cannon will turn this place to dust!"

"If they fire it." Knuckles added. "Which they have no reason to do. I have no quarrel with them."

Rouge shook her head in exasperation. "That doesn't matter. G.U.N doesn't think like you do. Your power alone makes you a threat. Besides, even if you didn't use it, someone might try and use the Master Emerald against them. A military like G.U.N doesn't take chances. Knuckles…" Rouge could not keep the pleading tone out of her voice. "Please listen to me. I know it goes against everything you believe in but you must leave. Take the emerald and come with me."

Knuckles responded with an expression of stone defiance. "This is my home. I have a duty to protect it. If…if someone means to destroy Angel Island…then-"

"Then what? You have to die too?"

"Maybe!" Knuckles snapped. "What would you know about it? Words like honor and duty may mean nothing to you but they are everything to me. I can't just abandon my home. There must be something I can do, some way of shielding the island-"

Rouge stomped her feet with frustration. "No there isn't! Have you forgotten what the weapon did to the moon!" She pointed into the night sky where the scarred half of the moon shone bright above them. "How much easier would it be to destroy this little island?"

Knuckles bared his teeth in anger. "If it's so easy why haven't they done it already?"

Rouge swallowed her next retort. Her chest heaved with bottled up anger. "I…I don't know. But that doesn't mean that they won't. We have to take this chance and go."

"Then leave." Knuckles said flatly. "Do whatever you need to do in order to survive. My life is not worth more than my oath."

The absurdity of that statement made Rouge laugh. "Oath? What oath?" Rouge held out her arms and looked around the empty field. "Who's holding you here Knuckles? Who did you swear this oath to? Nobody made you guard this emerald. You're only doing it because it is all you've ever known."

Knuckles recoiled as if he had been hit. He clenched his fists and shook with anger. Rouge didn't care. She was over the stoic act and moronic self denial. "Stop making yourself out to be a martyr. If you want to die because of your own stupidity then don't let me stop you."

"ARGH!" His punch was faster than Rouge could see. The impact shattered the pillar behind her into a million pieces of dust. Rouge leapt away but Knuckles did not pursue. He remained frozen in place with his fist still extended. After a few seconds he dropped his arm and his head drooped. "I….I'm sorry…"

Adrenaline was still pumping through Rouge's body leaving her breathless. "Is..is that your answer then? You'll stay here and wait to die?"

Knuckles did not look at her. "If that is my fate."

An unbidden tear stream down Rouge's cheek. She had never felt such a potent mix of hatred and admiration. "Now that's the stupidest thing I think I've ever heard." She said, refusing to let her tears get the better of her.

Knuckles lifted his head, but was still unable to catch her eye. "I was never known for my smarts." He smiled but it did not reach his eyes. "You had better go. If Angel Island really is in danger, I don't want you getting caught up in it."

Rouge could think of no more arguments. Defeat expanded in her chest like a balloon. She felt exhausted all of a sudden. There was something honorable about Knuckles's reservation to his fate, but it seemed hollow and void of meaning. It was not the determined sacrifice of a captain going down with his ship, but that of a servant chained to the mast. Rouge said nothing as she walked down the shrine steps and only looked back as she was flying away. In the distance, she could see Knuckles sitting at the top step, as still and silent as a statue.

She was too tired to fly all the way down to the surface that night, or that is what she told herself at least. Instead, Rouge decided to make camp in a net of trees a few miles away from the shrine. She landed on one of the larger trees and braced her back up against the trunk. Rouge's stomach felt empty but not because she was hungry. So much had happened in such quick succession that she felt completely disoriented. She had lost her job, her homes and now all her former friends and colleagues were her enemies.

Her despair made her rage towards Knuckles rise exponentially. Yet he could serve as a scapegoat to her own feelings of powerlessness for only a short time. In the end, what Rouge loathed more was her own weakness. Rouge shivered in the wind and brought her knees close to her chest.

"Don't ever rely on others. You're only as strong as you are alone. You forget that, and you're dead."

The words drifted from the far corners of Rouge's memory. Revan had been the leader of a street gang of petty thieves that had taken Rouge in when her parents had abandoned her. He had taught her so much about subterfuge and avoiding detection. Yet his most important lessons had been about the true 'way of things'. You never believed in anybody but yourself, that's why you didn't complain when I returned all those years later to arrest you.

Rouge had not felt so alone in years. Not since those days she had wandered the streets of Westopolis. With no family, friends or skills, she had been completely dependent on the charity of others. It had been a loathful, hateful existence and Revan had rescued her from it. All these years later and what had changed? Rouge was again in need of other people, completely dependent on them for survival. But other people could never be truly relied upon. Shadow, Knuckles, everyone Rouge had ever known only helped when it served their interest and whenever their interests turned elsewhere they were gone in a blink of an eye.

That's it! Rouge jumped to her feet. She shed her insecurities in a moment as if it were an old jacket. Rouge the Bat doesn't ask and wait around, she makes it happen. Grinning ear to ear and impressed with her own mischievous brilliance, Rouge flew into the night sky.