Chapter Five

Once they got back to the Mansion. They had Chris's grandfather attempt at removing the ring.But he couldnt get it off. The technolgy and enginering was really hard. Not to mention there was a password that this time wasnt Ma-ri-a, They had learned from that. Knuckles stood in the back of everyone gatherd around Rouge. He had let his guard down for a second and she has that damned ring stuck on her finger.How could he make it, so if the ring didnt ever come off, Rouge wouldnt be Eggman's? It struck him hard in the heart to think of Rouge to be Eggman's fiance. No one but sonic and tails noticed how depressed Knuckles was. Rouge did too, but everyone was still crowded around her. Everyone stood crowed around Rouge for a while. But when they were gone, Rouge walked upto Knuckles, whom was still there. She gazed down at the mechanical ring. Knuckles could see tears in her eyes. He quickly wiped them away. He gave her a tight hug.

"Dont cry Rouge.." Knuckles told her softly. Their grip on eachother tightend. Her beautiful face enchanted Knuckles. Her beautiful eyes and her glamerous body. Her daring attitude, all of it just made him in love with her even more. Rouge, she loved just everything he had to offer.Loving embraces, sweet words. Stubborn attitude. All of his qualitys she loved so much.But neither of them were proud enough to admit to thier love. They wanted to so badly, but both were afraid of rejection.Which is Ironic because both are in love with eachother. So basicly they would have no rejection. But they didnt know that they shared the same feelings. As obvious as it is. Knuckles looked at that damned ring. He took ahold of it, and pulled it off. Keeping it in his palm so it couldnt reattach itself to her finger. He laughed trumphantly."I can't believe no one has ever thought of t-" but before he could finish, the ring let off 10,000 volts. When it stopped shocking him was when Rouge forced his knuckle open and the ring attached itself again to her finger. Knuckles had smoke coming up from the burns that she shocks had left. They really hurt to.

"Knuckles you big dummy! Why did you do that! When it shocked you I thought you would let go of it!" Rouge scolded him. She didnt want to see him hurt like that. A bonk on the head was diffrent than a 10,000 volt shock. She gently fingerd the burns. He winced a few times. Now she couldnt hug him..pluse, having this ring on her finger means she would have to marry Egg-man. Not a real pleasant thought. Rouge began to cry again.

"Rouge...Like I said, dont cry.Everything will be alright. I promise." Knuckles assured her. He saw settled tears in her eyes. Which had not yet fallen. Without another moment's delay, Rouge tackled Knuckles to the floor, holding onto him tight. She rememberd how the two used to fight constantly, she was only covering up her insacurity around him. Truly, when she was around knuckles. Everything was static. She couldnt see clearly and just had to scream. Thats why she would yell at Knuckles. Because he made the world around her a blurr. She felt safe with him, she could be herself, and it was okay with him. But she didnt know he liked her like she liked him.

Knuckles had supported himself along with Rouge. He hated the fact that he couldnt do anything about Rouge's ring problem. He wanted to get that ring off. For Rouge and for himself. He didnt want her to have to marry Egg-man. That would be sick. He loved Rouge. He would be the one to marry her. Damn strait he will.He took the ring again off her finger and held it in his palm. Which it again, let off 10,000 volts. But this time, he wouldnt let Rouge have it back. As painful as it was, it hurt him much much more to let Rouge have it back and marry Eggman.Eventually, he passed out, of course his palm opend and the ring went back to Rouge. Rouge knelt beside Knuckles in tears. Smoke rising from his body. Tears fell from her eyes onto his cheek. Rouge decided that she shouldnt need saving anymore, With that thought inmind, she left the mansion after sneaking Knuckles a kiss on his mouth. Just to say, before she left, that she loved him. With that, she was gone.

She had taken Topaz's helocopter again, having Topaz drive it ofcourse. She had taken Rouge to where Shadow and Eggman were last seen. Rouge took a deep breath. She could either get killed or kissed down there. Either one was unpleasant. Before she left, she saw that there was one more Emerald that they didnt have. The pink one. Rouge staired at it. Should she go down there and risk her life or well being? Or should she turn back? She took a deep breath and when they were above where Eggman and Shadow were, Rougesome how got out of the helecopter and onto the ground safly. Before she could even attempt at grabbing the other emeralds, she was grabbed by Eggman.

"Welcome back." Eggman greeted. Evily. "Ready to get married?" Rouge was silent.

"You may own my body. But damn it Eggman. Knuckles owns my heart!" She yelled, kicking him in the gut with her iron boots. Had she really admitted that Knuckles had her heart? Apparently yes. Because thats what she felt about Knuckles. She loved him. She dodged all of Eggman's robots and made a dive for the Chaos Emeralds that they had. She grabbed as many as she could carry, as she left, she was cut off by a shadow standing infrount of the door. Im not saying it WAS SHADOW it was A shadow.

"Rouge! What the hell are you doing here?" It asked. It was definitly Knuckles.

"I got the emeralds!" She cheered. Knuckles ran to her and helped her grab the rest. Now they had none. Luckly they got out of the area before Shadow was able to notice that the emeralds were gone, They got into Topaz's helocopter. Knuckles just had to grab onto Rouge and hold on tight.

"Dont do that again! I was scared when I woke up." He told her, holding onto her.

"Sorry. But I had to get the emeralds. Having them in the hands of the bad guys isnt great. Remember my policy!" She said grinning. Knuckles smiled and hugged her tight.

"I dont like thinking that I've lost you Rouge.." He told her, Rouge blushed. She was happy he would have been sad if he had lost her.

"Knuckles...-" But before she could even think about what else she was going to say, Knuckles kissed her.

"Dont scare me like that.." He said after the kiss. This time, both were awake and both knew what they had done. Now Rouge saw how seriously hurt he would have been. Good thing she loved him.

"Knuckles...it is weird. I feel like...I felt you kiss me before..." She told him. The memory of the love bomb was actually coming back to her. Knuckles didnt know what else to really say. He felt the same thing. Rouge just shook the thought away. "Im probably wrong though." Knuckles had to do it. He had to kiss her again. So he did so. This time, Rouge returned it. She loved having Knuckles kiss her. It felt good. Once they got back to the mansion. Knuckles and Rouge saw that Chris's grandpa had built a box out of rubber and on the outside, steel. He told them that the rubber would obsorb the volts while the steel kept the ring from ever going back to her. Knuckles smiled. He took the ring off of his beloved Rouge's finger and put it in the box. Chris's grandpa shut the small thing that allowed the ring to go in. That ring was never seen again.

Later that night, Rouge was up late stairing at her reflection in the pool. She saw Knuckles approch her.

"Hi Rouge." He greeted sitting beside her. Roug leaned her right side of her body against his.He plaved his arm over her shoulder with love.

"Hey Knuckles." She greeted right back. Thats how they spent most of the night. Untill one moment when Knuckles whisperd into her ear.

"I love you Rouge." With that, Rouge kissed him and told him that she loved him too.

FIN!

AN: This was actually shorter than I had in mind. But I lost most of my better ideas so I just ended it here. Oh but such a sweet ending!