Seventh chapter! I happy as can be:Dances around happily: Ok. You know the drill, 5 reviews and you'll get the next chapter of the story! I don't own Sonic!
Chapter Seven: A Bath, A Plan and A Nightmare.
He led her over to the lake. Knuckles was still having issues with her outfit, he was mentally cussing her out for wearing such a thing. ' Why is she doing this to me!' his mind screamed at him. She held her clothes in front of her, following Knuckles. Soon they reached the lake.
It was pretty deep, it went to about their chest, and like Knuxs said, it wasn't really cold. The water felt really good to her skin. She was glad Knuxs had healed her, or she wouldn't be able to do this! Her body relaxed as the lay against a rock.
" Care to join me Knucklehead?"
He blushed but smiled, " Why not, I'm just as dirty as you are."
He walked in and floated on his back. Rouge smiled as she splashed him, the water hit him and he looked at her. He splashed her back, but a lot harder. They had a water fight, and splashed each other until they were too tired, then they started to laugh.
" I think we're both pretty clean now Rouge."
" Yeah, I guess. That was fun though, we should do it again sometime," Rouge said, trying to catch her breath.
Knuckles started walking back to solid land, Rouge followed him.
" There's a big rock to your left, you should get out of your wet clothes and into something dry," Knuckles said looking behind him.
When they finally reached land, Rouge grabbed her clothes and ran behind the rock.
She quickly changed and placed her bikini on top of the rock so the would dry. They walked back towards the Master Emerald. He wanted to move some of her stuff into the cave before nightfall.
Rouge smiled as she took to the air, " bet I can beat you there!"
Knuckles smiled as he jumped into the air and started to glide, " oh no you don't!"
Rouge flapped her wings as fast as she could, she wasn't going to let Knuckles beat her, she occasionally looked behind her to see if he was gaining, but he wasn't there.
" Must have lost him," she smiled.
The finish line was just up ahead! She flapped even harder; she could see the shrine! Wait, there was a red dot there too. 'Knuckles! How did he? I was so far ahead of him!'
He smiled as he saw how pissed she was, " took ya long enough, I was just about to come looking for you."
' Keep smiling, watch me slap it right off your face.'
" I was so far ahead of you, how'd you beat me?"
" I ran some of the way, all you said was race, didn't say in the air or not."
She smiled, " I won't let it happen again."
" I'll beat you any time, anywhere, at anything Bat Girl."
" Tomorrow, here, from the North side of the Island to the South!"
" Fine!"
They shook on it.
" Be prepared to lose Knuckles."
" Wouldn't count on it Rouge."
They were both smiling. They began to move stuff to the cave. It wasn't that hard, and they were finished before nightfall. One of Eggman's scouting robots flew by as they were walking around. Knuckles was showing her things she could eat on the Island. Places where she could drink the water. The images were sent directly to Eggman.
" Aha! I've found you Rouge! Now I will have that last Chaos Emerald and world domination!"
He studied the images closely, and then he noticed Knuckles.
" Drat, she's with that damn echidna. No matter, she will be mine soon enough! Computer, show me her coordinates!"
The computer bleeped and showed him Angel Island's coordinates.
" Perfect, I can kill two birds with one stone!" he laughed.
Eggman began to makes plans to kidnap Rouge and take care of Knuckles. Rouge and Knuckles were talking by the Master Emerald. Night had fallen, but they just continued to talk.
" You know, you be thanking Tikal, not me. I didn't know that the Master Emerald could do that."
" Who's Tikal?"
" I am," a light orange echidna appeared by her.
Rouge jumped at the sound of her voice, she hadn't expected there to be another person on the Island.
Tikal noticed Rouge jump, " I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."
" No, it's okay, I was just surprised to hear a third voice that's all. You told Knuckles that the Emerald could heal me?"
Tikal nodded, " yes, when I was still alive, I was able to heal with it."
" Thank you Tikal, for telling Knuckles, if it wasn't for you, I'd still be in those cast."
" The Master Emerald sensed the pain you were in, and wanted to help."
Rouge walked over to the Master Emerald and patted it lightly, " thank you, Master Emerald."
It gave a small glow, as if it were responding. She knew it was saying your welcome. It was strange, normally, Knuckles would NEVER let her get near the Master Emerald, hell, he never let Sonic get very close to it. Here Rouge was, a former thief, was patting in. The key word in that sentence was former. He smiled, and missed the girl's conversation.
" Well, thanks again Tikal."
" No problem Rouge," with that Tikal disappeared.
Rouge yawned and looked at her watch, " whoa, it's 10:00pm at night. I'd better get to bed. Night Knuckles."
Knuckles stood up, "I'll walk you there."
They walked to the cave in silence. It was a comfortable silence though. Soon they reached the cave and said their byes, and Rouge went to bed.
She was chained to the wall, unable to move.
" Someone help me!" she screamed.
It was just to dark, even though bats can normally see at night, she couldn't. She struggled against the chains, but did her no good.
" Knuckles!"
Her ears twitched laughter? ' Wait, I know that laugh.' Her blood ran cold as Eggman stepped out of the darkness towards her.
" Hello there, my dear Rouge. I've figured out the perfect way to torture you."
He picked up a bucket and walked over to her. 'Where did that come from?' She continued to struggle against her chains.
" There is no use struggling my dear, your mine, until you tell me where that last Chaos Emerald is."
He was getting closer to her.
" No! I'll never tell you! Never!"
He threw whatever was in the bucket at her. She closed her eyes as she felt something cover her fur.
When she opened them, all she saw was red, " what…what's this?"
She already knew what is was, what she really ment to ask, was who's. Her beautiful white fur was stained red with someone's blood. Eggman laughed as a light appeared over four bodies. Rouge wanted to throw up when she saw Amy, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles hanging on the wall, dead, their blood pouring into buckets. She didn't want to, but she looked at the buckets. ' Oh my god! I'm drenched in Amy's blood!' Eggman started to laugh again as he looked at her eyes.
" You realized your wearing you friends blood? Good, I'll continue to do this, until you tell me where the last Chaos Emerald is!"
Rouge was to terrified to speak, she watched as he walked over and picked up Sonic's blood and got ready to throw it at her.
"NO!" It was too late; he had thrown the bucket at her, when she had her mouth opened.
She could taste Sonic's blood. Immediately, she spit it out. Eggman just continued to laugh.
" Tell me where the Chaos Emerald is and I'll stop!"
This time, he picked up Tails's blood.
" I'll never tell, I'll take it to my grave!"
Eggman yelled in anger as he threw Tails's blood at her. The smell, the feeling, the taste of all that blood was making her sick to her stomach. She wanted to cry, but wouldn't give Eggman the satisfaction. Next and last, was Knuckles's blood.
" Last chance Rouge, tell me where is it, and I won't drench you in your love's blood," his voice was deadly low, if she had been a human she wouldn't have heard it.
" I wont! I promised Knuckles, I promised I wouldn't tell!"
" Fine have it your way!"
He threw Knux's blood at her. She felt it drench her body, despite her attempts some got into her mouth. Once again, she immediately spit it out. He was gone, but she could still hear his laughter. She started to cry; her tears mixed with her friend's blood as it rolled down her cheeks.
Her body fell to the floor. As hard as she tried, she couldn't shake the blood off. The smell and the sight of it made her cry harder. Eggman's laughter grew as her tears did.
" This is all your fault Rouge! If you had told me where they were, I wouldn't have had to drain them of their blood! It's all your fault!"
She stood up, " it's not my fault! NO NO NO NO! It's NOT my fault!"
He continues to laugh as she fell to her knees, " it's not, it's not."
She continued to sob. Knuckles was running through the forest. He had heard Rouge scream his name. Pure fear had hit him when he heard the fear in her voice. ' What if Eggman has found her? How could I be so stupid as to put her in a cave by herself!' The more fear he felt, the faster he ran.
He could see the cave entrance closing in. His laugh, that was all she could hear. It wouldn't stop, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't block it out.
" Stop it! It's not my fault!" she screamed out, trying to block him out.
Knuckles heard her scream as he ran into the cave. She was lying there, covered in sweat. Her eyes were tightly shut and she was thrashing around. There was a cut on her hand. It was bleeding and some of the blood had gotten on her face.
Also, she was crying in her sleep. He stopped in his tracks as he looked at her. ' Thank the Emerald she's safe.' He shook her gently. Rouge felt her body shake as she cried.
" It's not my fault," she whispered.
' She must be having a nightmare, a bad one at that.' Rouge's eyes shot open, she looked around and looked around. The first thing she saw was red, and began to cry even more.
" Rouge, it's ok. It was only a nightmare. You're safe with me," Knuckles whispered softly.
Rouge's ears twitched at the sound of his voice, then she noticed that Knuckles was holding her. She cried and hugged him. He was slightly shocked at her gesture, but hugged her back. Then he started to rub her back gently.
" It was only a nightmare Rouge. You're safe. I promise."
She cried into his chest, her whole body was shaking with fear.
" It was so horrible Knuckles, Eggman threw blood on me. He threw Amy's, Sonic's, Tails's and your blood on me…and he was laughing about it."
He continued to pat her back.
" It wasn't real, I'm going to keep you safe. I promise."
" It felt so real! I could smell your guys' blood!" Rouge was getting hysterical.
" Shhhh, it's okay. You cut your hand while you were asleep, that's why you smelt blood. You were thrashing around and cut your hand."
Rouge's crying softened as she looked at her hand. She was bleeding, that's why she could smell the blood, and she had bit her tongue, that's why she could taste it. He felt her relax in his arms, he rested his chin on her head lightly.
" C'mon, I'll take you to the Master Emerald and heal that cut, then you can lay by the Emerald and go to sleep."
She nodded as she felt his arms wrap around her. He carried her back to the shrine, making sure he walked slowly. She had her ear to his heart and was listening to it.
" I'm alive, don't worry."
A small smiled crossed her lips at his words. Soon they reached the shrine and he placed her by the Master Emerald.
" Please Master Emerald, heal her hand. She cut it while she was asleep with a nightmare. Please."
The Emerald glowed green as did her hand, and soon the cut was healed. Her tongue had stopped bleeding. She sighed in relief as she couldn't smell or taste the blood. Knuckles handed her the blanket she had been wrapped her up in.
" Here, you should get back to sleep. We have to race tomorrow right?"
She smiled, ' that's right, I've gotta beat you in that race we scheduled.' He sat down against a pillar and closed his eyes. Rouge walked over to him and placed her head on his chest.
" I don't want to have another nightmare, plus, you look cold."
He opened his eyes and placed the blanket around them both.
" Okay Rouge, just go to sleep."
She smiled as he wrapped his arms around her, then she did the same.
" Good night Rouge."
" Good night Knuckles."
