Scourge just stared as Infinite spoke.
"You told me it was safe to go charge the Ruby at the Master Emerald," the masked mongrel explained. He clenched his hands into fists at his sides. "When I showed up, the island was overrun with Zone cops!"
Scourge still regarded him plainly and seriously. "You think I had anything to do with that?" he asked. "I'm sorry that happened to you, but it was Fiona's fault, not mine." He turned around and gestured to everything around him with a distressed expression. "This is all Fiona's fault. She took it too far; she always does." Scourge walked to the bars and gripped them as he spoke to Infinite on the other side. "Fiona gave the Zone cops the anonymous tip that led to them capturing you. I'm sorry that I couldn't stop her."
Honest's ears were twitching bigtime and Shadow noticed, turning to watch them jerk this way and that while listening to the two's conversation. Why the heck were they doing that? Was she, like... bothered by something Scourge was saying? Her ears resembled satellite discs honing in on some distant signal.
Infinite seemed to be processing the information as he was just standing there silently in his cell. It was hard to tell due to the mask, but Shadow guessed he probably looked very confused right now.
He turned to Honest with sweat flying out from beneath his mask, a sign he was worried. "You're... going to get me out of here, too, right?"
"Let's see," she said, tapping her cheek with her index finger. "Without that red gem, you're pretty harmless. We could ask that you be released, but-" Honest smiled and shrugged. "I dunno, I rather like the sight of you behind bars. Maybe some other time." She then turned to Scourge. "Hey, Scourge? We need to go ask Zonic for the key to get to the teleporters," Honest told him, tapping on the green hedgy's shoulder.
"There he is," Shadow said, tapping on Honest's shoulder and pointing behind them. He was getting into the elevator. It was kind of a miracle that he didn't notice them letting Scourge out of his cell.
Honest glanced one last time at the key she had set on the stool in Scourge's cell, and the three dashed over and ran inside the elevator, confusing Zonic who thought he was surely going to be trampled and Infinite who sort of wished they'd return to get him set free. Honest punched in the code which she had memorized from earlier, ecco92, and the doors closed, trapping the four of them inside.
"Uh, how is Scourge out?" Zonic demanded.
"Warden Zobotnik let him go and gave us the key to his cell," Honest explained.
"I see... Why did-? Uh, nevermind. It's his prison. We can't be worrying about one prisoner anyway while hundreds have escaped to who knows where," Zonic said, sounding tired. What time was it, anyway? The sun had been setting on their way back from their meeting with the Warden, but that had been a while ago now.
The elevator dinged and they all four stepped out. Honest immediately spun around and blocked Zonic's path. "Warden Zobotnik gave us permission to teleport to Moebius. We just need you to unlock the door."
"Pff, fine." The Sonic lookalike crossed the room and fished a key out of his spines. After he unlocked the door, Honest, then Shadow, then Scourge entered the room. As Scourge went in, he heard Zonic say, "You should've been taken care of long before you started causing trouble."
Scourge stopped in the doorway and regarded the Zone cop with an uninterested stare. "I thought it was just in my nature to be a burden," he said in a sarcastic tone. He fought down the internal rage he felt inside and followed Honest and Shadow into the teleporter room.
Inside, the room was a mess of open, swirling gateways into other dimensions. There were worlds more (haha, get it) zones out there than just these, though. Perhaps those couldn't be visited the same way Moebius and the Prime-verse could. Eh, who could know. A metal plate on the floor marked the teleporter to Moebius. After pressing a silver button beside the doorway leading to nothing, a burst of sparks in the center produced a portal.
Honest bit her lip in trepidation as she peered inside. Unlike the portal Eggman had opened in his base, (in Scrambled over on XxRosy_the_RascalxX on Wattpad) these teleporters displayed nothing but a swirling, green cloud. It was an emerald green with lighter, almost white, green streaks towards the middle of the vortex. It looked fluffy like a delicious cream filling. Mmm...
"I guess this is it, then," Shadow said, taking a step towards the swirling vortex. He looked over his shoulder at Scourge. "Are you sure you can return to fight Fiona? How did you get here, anyway?"
The grassy green hedgy was standing behind Honest with his hands in his pockets. "She threw me out on the Cosmic Interstate. I was found and captured almost immediately." He looked over the Ultimate Lifeform at the portal. "Quit making such a big deal out of it. Let's just head inside and stop her. I think this thing has a time limit after you hit the button."
Like it was gonna be that easy. Still, Honest walked through first. Shadow's eyes widened in surprise. "We should hurry," he said. He was probably worried for Honest since she was now alone on the other side. Who could know what was waiting for them on the other side? He dashed inside and Scourge followed after.
Honest didn't know what she was expecting.
You know that feeling you get when you've been working on one thing for months, but you know that there are an indefinite amount of other parts to it, and it's up to you whether you're ready to move on to the next thing or not? And then you do it? You move on to that next thing and you know there's a huge task ahead of you, to learn the ins and outs of this new thing, but you know it's possible because you've done it once before on the first part? No? You don't understand a word I'm saying? Okay, let me try this again...
Imagine you're coloring in a circle. The circle is red and you're coloring it in blue. You spend a month coloring in that circle and when you're done, there's another red circle for you to start on next to it. You have a faint memory of what it was like to start the first circle, and you remember how much of a struggle it was to do it, how much time you had to dedicate to it. You know exactly what you have to look forward to with this new circle. That's the sort of feeling Honest was getting as she stepped through the portal and appeared in the middle of nowhere in a new dimension completely foreign to both her own and No Zone.
It was the dead of night here, but there weren't any crickets or frogs or anything. It was eerie.
"Honest?" Shadow called, stumbling through the portal. Scourge was pushing him.
"I can already feel the portal closing behind us. Get out of the way so I don't get cut in half!" Shadow stepped out of the way and the green hedgehog fell to the sandy ground beside him. The portal shut behind him a second later.
"Oh, you were right."
Meanwhile, Honest was already a good distance away and ascending a random set of wooden steps.
Shadow's face filled with alarm. "H-Honest! What are you doing?"
"Look!" Honest exclaimed, pointing up at a window on the second floor of the large building in front of them. "Someone's in here!"
Sure enough, one of the windows above the porch was illuminated by a flickering yellow light, as if someone had lit a candle.
They all three ascended the stairs now and stood before the dark brown door. Honest knocked rapidly, but there was no answer. She turned to Shadow and Scourge and shrugged.
"Let me try," Shadow said, pushing past Honest to stand in front of the door. "HEY! WE KNOW SOMEONE'S IN THERE! LET US IN!" Honest and Scourge both snickered and Shadow spun around. "What's so funny?"
"It's funny to hear you yell," Scourge fought out before he erupted into full-blown laughter. Honest was shaking she was laughing so hard. Or, perhaps that was due to how chilly it felt in this dimension.
Shadow sighed and walked away from the door. He sat on the top step and stared out into the distance.
Besides this building, there was absolutely nothing here. There were fragments of asphalt here and there where the road was peaking out of the sand. There was some sort of vehicle a good distance away that was almost entirely buried in the sand, just the back third sticking out into the air.
After a while of knocking with no response, Shadow stood up and walked back to the front of the building. "Okay, I guess we're gonna have to spend the night outside," he said, putting his back to the siding and sinking to the floor.
Honest's eyes flitted around the porch. There was nothing even somewhat comfortable here- no benches, no cushions, no anything. Definitely no handy hammock hanging around.
Honest grasped her upper arms and shivered. Honest had always thought of designing herself a cold weather outfit, but she just never got around to it. Designing clothing is hard.
"Can either of you sleep sitting up?" Honest asked hopefully. However, Scourge and Shadow both just shrugged. Oh, boy.
Huddling in one corner of the small, covered porch, the two hedgehogs and the cat closed their eyes and prayed for sleep. Scourge took off his jacket and used it as a blanket. It was better than nothing. He was lying down on his back and squeezing his eyes shut, hoping that was enough to help him fall asleep. However, something interrupted him, causing his eyes to fly back open.
"Why did you lie?"
Honest had crawled over to him on her hands and knees and was now looking down at him curiously.
Scourge jumped, caught off guard. "L-Lie? What do you mean?"
Honest just narrowed her eyes like she was disappointed in him. "To Infinite. Why did you lie to him? I thought you were friends. True friends, even."
"Uh... because I thought it was important to hide that I betrayed him."
"I guess that makes sense, but why did you betray him?"
Scourge scrambled into a sitting position, his jacket falling to his feet. "Wait, you somehow knew that I was lying about Fiona being the one to make a phone call, but you somehow don't know why I betrayed Infinite and stole the Phantom Ruby from him?"
"Wait, so this is all your fault?" Shadow asked, seemingly feeling betrayed himself.
Scourge huffed, crossing his arms. "I've already told you that," he said. "It's all my fault." Honest sighed, too. "Why are you sighing?"
"Because," Honest told him. "I can tell you feel guilty, and I don't want you to."
Scourge looked disturbed by what she had just said. "It's normal for someone to feel guilty when they've done something horrible. Why don't you think I should?"
"Guilt is bad," Honest stressed. "Don't regret what you've done, no matter how bad the present looks once you've done it, if it wasn't fatal, if you survived it, it's okay."
"Honest, that's messed up," Shadow told her.
Scourge looked at Honest as if she were doing something that should be impossible like turning her head three hundred and sixty degrees. "If I don't regret my actions, then I'm truly evil."
"Oh." Honest blinked, seeming to finally understand. "But-"
"Oh, no," Shadow said, his expression shifting from anger to disappointment.
"Guilt hurts." Honest said, clutching her fist to her heart and falling backwards into a sitting position.
"That's the point," Scourge told her. "You're supposed to feel bad when you do bad things. That's sort of like your punishment, you know?"
"But if I have the power to avoid punishment indefinitely, why shouldn't I use it?" Honest asked.
"Do you really have that power, Honest? Or do you just have the power to ignore it?" Shadow asked.
Honest scrunched up her face as she thought, seeming particularly stressed. "Okay, then all I have to do is not consider anything bad. Then, I won't ever need to feel guilty."
"'All you have to do'?" Scourge asked. "I thought we were talking about me feeling guilty about letting Fiona get her hands on the Phantom Ruby. What do you have to be guilty about?"
Shadow was suddenly very interested as he thought he knew what it was. Was Mephiles about to be proven right?
"Nothing," Honest said confidently, putting her fists to her sides to communicate just how confident she was in her answer. Shadow sighed in disappointment. It didn't seem like he would get that out of her anytime soon.
"Great," Scourge said sarcastically, grabbing his jacket up off his feet and lying back down again. Honest snatched it away from him. "Hey, what gives?!"
Honest climbed on top of him and put his jacket over the both of them. "We can lay together and stay warmer this way," Honest said cheerily. She nuzzled into his chest and tucked her tail neatly beside them. Shadow stayed where he was, curled up in the corner.
"I didn't consent to this," Scourge reminded her, but Honest was already sleeping peacefully. With the super strength he had acquired from the Master Emerald so many years ago, it hardly felt like anything was lying there, though, so really it was okay. Except for, well, the obvious reasons, but Shadow didn't seem bothered, so Scourge felt that it must be fine. Not that it should really be Shadow's business, but, well, perhaps that was a topic for another night.
Eventually, though it was hard to keep track of time without a moon overhead, around ten thirty, they had all managed to fall asleep.
Fun fact: it was ten thirty when I finished typing this chapter and went to bed myself. :D That was pretty magical. It was like I was saying goodnight to Shadow and Scourge seconds before I fell asleep myself. I would say I recommend that, but it's kind of hard to plan, you know. I've been working on this chapter for over a week, so it was gonna end whenever it wanted to end.
