To all readers (however few they may be): I am going to be going out of country for a year, and I badly want to finish this story before I go. Fortunately, it is already written, so I'm going to bombard you with a flurry of updates (I apologize in advance, I know this is bad writing). Here are the next five chapters. I'll post the lastone and the epilogue tomorrow, just to leave you in a little suspense.

They went down the hallway the lizard had indicated. No other guards were in the corridor. It led to a room with large doors. Sonic crept cautiously to the doors, opened them a crack, and looked in. There was no one there, only a large, empty room with cold grey stone floor tiles.

"You may come in now," said a voice. Sonic jumped in surprise and looked around.

"Don't bother," said the voice. "Just come in."

Sonic and the others filed hesitantly into the room. Once they were all in, the doors slammed shut behind them, and a hedgehog landed in front of them from nowhere.
It was black, and its spines were long, streaked with purple and coming down to its knees.

"What? Surprised to see me?" it asked, and its voice revealed it to be a girl. "That doesn't matter. In any case, you're not going any further!"

She snapped her fingers, and a group of lions came out from behind some curtains. The party was surrounded.

The party looked around warily at the lions, who were all holding spears in there paws, pointed at them. They were evenly matched in numbers, but the lions had the weapons, although the hedgehog was unarmed. Sonic made a snap decision.

"Break out of here!" he yelled. Knuckles dove of the nearest lion, knocked his spear out, and began to fight. The others followed suit. Sonic and the other hedgehog circled each other warily.

"You think you can beat me, Sonic?" she asked, sneering.

"You have me at a disadvantage," admitted Sonic.

"I certainly do," she replied haughtily.

"I mean, you know my name and I don't know yours," he said. "Care to fix that?"

"You don't need to know," she said. "But you can call me... Starlight." With that she lunged at him. Sonic had seen her muscles tense and was prepared. He dodged easily and kicked her hard as she went by.

"Oof," she wheezed as she went sprawling. But she rolled, came to her feet, and tripped Sonic. Then she punched him viciously. Sonic could not avoid her, and being on the floor definitely wasn't a good place to defend from. She was all over him, pummeling him, all the while with a sneering smile on her face. Sonic curled up and tried desperately to get away. It wasn't working.

Alene was stirring up an ointment of dried herbs that she kept in a bag with her. She spat into the paste to moisten it and finished. She smeared it over Harry's back. He was conscious now, and embarrassed that he had passed out.

"I'll be okay... I don't mean to slow you down..." he said awkwardly.

"We aren't slowed down. Sonic and the others went ahead." Alene finished the ointment and wiped her hands on the carpet. Harry showed visible improvement.

An hour later, they heard sounds outside the door. Harry and Alene froze.

In marched a gray dog, followed by six black hedgehogs. All looked ready for battle. The dog carried a short sword, and looked deadly with it.

"You are to surrender. No one will be hurt if you do," declared the dog. "I am Ewnon, and you are intruders. We will take you before the High Lord to be judged."

"Really?" said Alene. From her waist she drew a long dagger. Harry crouched on the floor next to her.

One of the black hedgehogs grabbed Alene roughly. That was a huge mistake.
Harry exploded into action. His foot came up into the hedgehog's jaw, and he was knocked senseless. Harry pivoted on one foot and belted another hedgehog in the gut. He went down as well. He turned to face two and was jabbing and kicking at them. One came up behind him, fist raised.

"Harry, look out!" cried Alene from where she was fighting another hedgehog. Harry dispatched the two he was facing, ducked under the surprised hedgehog's punch, and turned around and kicked him hard in a sensitive place. The assailant dropped like a stone. Then he knocked the other hedgehog Alene was facing across the room.

Now there was only Ewnon left. He held up his sword in an attack position. "I see you are well trained," he said to Harry as he lunged. "But that will not save you!"

Meanwhile, Sonic and the rest weren't having such an easy time fighting off their assailants. Two of the lions were down, but the rest were still attacking furiously, and Tails was having trouble fending them off. Fighting hand-to-hand, or hand-to-spear, was not his style of fighting. Knuckles, Rouge, Saermore, and Retio were doing okay. All were trained fighters. But Sonic was having no better luck. He had managed to get away from Starlight, but she was still coming at him. Right now it was all he could do to fend her off.

As he was fighting, he noticed that the fallen lions had dropped their spears. Taking advantage of that, he rolled and grabbed a spear. It was heavy, obviously meant for stronger people. And Sonic had no clue as to how to use a spear. But at least it was a weapon. He turned to face Starlight. She sneered and laughed.

"You're holding it wrong!" With that she grabbed his spear and forced him backwards, painfully. Sonic kicked her. She staggered back - and Sonic, for no reason whatsoever, looked up.

Starlight was standing under a grand chandelier. And Sonic was holding a thick, heavy spear.

Sonic took aim and hurled the spear with all his strength. It sailed up, up into the air until it connected solidly with the chandelier.

Starlight failed to notice the chandelier and thought he had aimed at her. She laughed.
"A little too high, I think," she taunted him. "Come on; see if you can fight better than you aim."

Sonic stood back. The chandelier has broken its chain and fell. Starlight looked up.

"AHHH!" she screamed and leaped away - mostly. The chandelier came crashing down on her right leg.

The lions, Sonic, and the rest were thrown away by the shattering of glass and wood. Most received minor cuts from the glass splinters.

Knuckles took advantage of the lions' stunned state and bashed the nearest two on the head. Retio, Rouge, and Saermore did the same, and very soon all the lions were out cold. Starlight was trapped under the chandelier, not dead, but stuck and unable to move.
Sonic went to the others to see that they were okay, and then went to Starlight.

She glared up at him and said nothing, holding her head as high as she could, proudly, despite the fact that she was stuck under a fallen chandelier.

Sonic studied her. She was very arrogant, obviously, but she had a good fighting spirit.
Sonic and the others very carefully pulled the chandelier off Starlight. Her leg was broken so she could do nothing. Retio tied her arms with strips of curtain. Knuckles made sure the lions were bound as well.

"Tell me, where is Kerrigan?" Saermore was getting tired of asking this question.

"You think I would know?" spat Starlight. "He keeps to himself in his little tower, along with his favored metiya."

"Who is it?" asked Sonic, coming closer to her. She said nothing. Saermore nudged her broken leg.

"Ahhhh!" she cried, but stayed silent. Saermore nudged it again.

"Just... some... black... hedgehog..." said Starlight through gritted teeth. "Why would you want to know?"

"Because we're going to rescue him," declared Tails.

Starlight didn't move, but something in her manner changed. The sneer slowly dropped from her face, and she sighed.

"You're going to be the heroes, aren't you?" she asked quietly. "You're going to rescue him and leave me here to die, because I'm a villain. I picked the wrong side. And while you return as heroes, I watch as my world crashes and burns around me because that's what happens to villains at the end..."

Her words touched Sonic, and for a moment he found himself feeling sorry for her.

"I knew he was wrong, but it was an easy job," she continued. "I had food and shelter, which is more than I ever had back down there. You guys looked so easy to beat... but I was wrong." Starlight stopped and looked sadly at the floor.

Retio didn't know whether she was telling the truth or just trying to make them feel sorry for her so she could escape. The rest didn't know what to think.

Sonic slowly stood up. He untied Starlight's arms, and then turned to the others. His gaze said, let's go. Silently, he led them out of the room and into the courtyard beyond.