Chapter 3

Knuckles and Tails jumped up from where they sat as they heard Sonic approach.

"What the hell, Sonic?" Knuckles huffed as Sonic came to a stop, "Where have you been? I almost sent the kid after you."

"I know, I know - but you won't be so mad when you see this." Sonic beamed at Knuckles, tossing him the invitation. Knuckles rolled his eyes as he fumbled to catch it with his large, spiked mitts. Sonic turned to start the trek back to camp, motioning for the other two men to follow him.

"A royal engagement event?" Knuckles grumbled as he read. Sonic glanced behind him and saw Tails wrestling to snatch it from Knuckles' hands, looking over it quickly before handing it back to Sonic.

"This means…" Tails began, eyes wide.

"The biggest night of the year," Sonic nodded, pulling branches and foliage out of his path as he walked, "There won't be a rich person alive who won't show! Think of it: carriages outside unattended, drunk people stumbling home dressed in their nicest clothes - every kingdom is going to send their best suitor - this is their last chance to get in on some sweet, sweet Princess action after all." He was talking fast, excited by the prospect of coming back to the camp heroes. This news would surely pay off their debt for the week - maybe even the next two - then Sonic could relax a little without Scourge breathing down his neck.

"Not bad," Knuckles grunted, "But what were you doing the whole time?"

"Uh, just chatting - but hey! That's not all -" Sonic quickly moved on, "There's something even better!"

Knuckles gave Sonic a light - by Knuckles' standard - shove from behind, propelling him forward. "C'mon Sonic, 'fess up. What's got you acting all cryptic?"

Sonic turned, stopping right in front of the entrance to the camp, throwing a toothy smile at his friends.

"A girl." He drawled simply. And before the two other boys could jump on him with more questions, Sonic pushed through the thick wall of brush and entered the thieves' encampment.

The camp rested in a large clearing, occupied by around 50 boys of all species and ages. There were patchy tents pitched around the area, and a bonfire blazing in the middle of the clearing. Boys and men sat eating on the ground, counting gold pieces, sleeping around the fire, training with bows and arrows or swords and knives, they stood chatting or sulking around in small groups like cliques. There was a sense of camaraderie, even enthusiasm in the atmosphere of the camp, but Sonic knew these men were all thieves fighting for survival. They would do what they must, and they betrayed their truth natures when some men would shiftily look at each other, spy, or slip food from the plates of younger recruits. It was a thief-eat-thief world in the camp, and Scourge loved it that way.

Sonic made his way through the camp stopping only a few times to ruffle the fur of some of the younger boys who greeted him cheerfully. Sonic prided himself on being well-liked and generally respected; lots of the younger kids looked up to him, and he made sure that they were all trained well enough to keep each other safe. Scourge may be in charge here, but Sonic was the thief who was actually involved - who knew the other men's names and took the time to talk to the younger kids. Scourge would never bother to pretend like he cared about the residents of the camp - Scourge thought that closeness would undermine his power. Sonic, however, knew that wasn't true, but it didn't mean he was going to try being friends with the merciless boss of the camp. He knew better than that.

Sonic finally made his way to the mess hall - or it would be, if there was any sort of enclosure to separate it from the other areas in the camp - and sat down at a rotting wood table near other circles of men eating around Vector's large cooking pot.

"You're back already? Whatever you get on this run gonna help you make quota this week?" The large crocodile asked gruffly, but good-naturedly, as he noticed Sonic. Vector was the camp cook and one of the oldest men in the guild. He had been a thief when he was younger, before Scourge seized control of the whole operation, and was permitted to stay on the condition that he deal with the logistical hurdle that was feeding the many thieves. Vector was busily preparing the next day's rations - each thief was permitted only so much food to make sure that everyone was able to eat something. Some days, when the week's pickings were good, they got fresh stuff from town. Other days they hardly got a stale slice of bread to tide them over while they worked the roads. Such was the inconsistent life of a thief.

Sonic nodded as he sat, pulling a small brown drawstring pouch from his belt. "Yeah we will… this week at least…"

Knuckles and Tails soon joined Sonic, having arrived and collected the few valuables that they had snagged during the week from their tent. They placed their collective treasures in the pouch, which Sonic knew wasn't quite full enough. He sighed and got up at the nodding encouragement of his two companions. Time for his meeting with Scourge.

The moon shone brightly overhead as Sonic tossed the brown pouch between his hands with satisfaction, enjoying the jangle of gold bangles and coins as he walked through the camp alone. He arrived at Scourge's tent, noticeably larger and tear-free than others in the camp, at the back of the plot of land. Sonic paused quickly to take a calming breath and headed in, ready to face Scourge looking as cool-headed as he could.

Sonic cleared his throat upon entrance, letting the canvas flap fall shut behind him, cutting the tent off from the bright, safe light of the moon. Now, it was much darker and quieter. Scourge could get away with a lot while the tent flap was closed, and Sonic did his best not to think about it too much.

"Heeey there Boss!" Sonic said, with a calm smile and his usual easy charm. He wasn't afraid of Scourge, but he knew what the man was capable of. Sonic was brave, not stupid.

A green hedgehog man looked up from a spread of papers on a desk in the back of the tent, and smiled at him.

"Ah, Sonic!" Scourge stood, approaching him, hands outstretched, his smile showing on his pointy teeth. Scourge made a striking silhouette, one much like Sonic's. In the dark, outlined by the lamplight, the two hedgehog men looked the same, but as Scourge approached, the menace in his smile became more and more unmistakable.

"Scourge." Sonic nodded. The silence between them was strained. Sonic hated to be the one to break eye contact, but he hated Scourge's stiff smile even more, and wanted to get this meeting over with. Sonic placed the knapsack in Scourge's outstretched palm, and Scourge quickly and violently dumped the contents unceremoniously on his desk. Jewelry and gold baubles spilled everywhere, bouncing off the desktop and skidding onto the floor like they were pebbles and not hard-earned pieces of treasure.

Scourge, without looking up from the gleaming pile, said matter-of-factly, "You didn't make it."

"I know," Sonic replied, eyes on the pile. Scourge looked up at him frowning, anger flicking like a warning sign in the man's blue eyes. Scourge bare his teeth subtly - he was a chilling presence to behold.

"Sonic, we don't steal for fun, we steal to survive." The man growled, leaning back on the desk, holding onto his leather doublet by the lapels.

"I know -"

"Then how do you expect us to keep the camp going if some of us can't pull our own weight?" Scourge rasped, jabbing his finger into the desk.

"I have -"

"I made this place so that we could all get what we deserve. I rebirthed this operation, single-handedly, so I could weed out slackers like you, who think they can get by on their own. Without me." Scourge pushed himself up from the desk and got in Sonic's face. Sonic didn't blink as the man tried to get a rise out of him. Nothing Scourge said could rile him up, it was one of his strengths, and it drove Scourge crazy. Sonic let the man rant - he knew he would have the last laugh.

"You wouldn't last a day out there without us! You owe this camp your life, and you owe me your earnings!" Scourge was growling his usual lecture out ferociously, on the cusp of a bout of shouting. Scourge was always one bad look away from losing his cool. "When I took you in, I let you stay on one condition, the condition that everyone here has no trouble abiding by - what was it again?"

Sonic stifled a sigh and an eye roll, opting to stare straight into Scourge's icy blue eyes.

"Honor among thieves."

"Honor!" Scourge hissed, "And I see, once again, you have none, Sonic. Out of my sight!" Scourge turned on his heel, the tail of his green quills slapping Sonic's cheek lightly. "If you come in empty-handed next week, you will have transgressed beyond reprimand, and will be punished." Scourge glowered at him from across the tent, and then smiled, as if to extend an apology for his yelling. It was how Scourge inspired shame among the thieves, making it seem like he was always being driven to these insane overreactions by other people's disappointment to him, and had no choice but to be harsh.

Sonic's brow twitched as he concealed a look of scorn. He could see Scourge was relishing in being able to hold something against him. Sonic's failure gave Scourge something to control. Leverage. But Sonic had an ace up his sleeve.

"I have information," he smirked, despite the tension, "Unless, you don't want to know?"

Scourge straightened, looking at him with a challenge.

"It better be worth what you owe me, or you're finished." Scourge growled softly and slowly.

"It is. I met a messenger… boy on the path to town. He told me that the Rose Kingdom was throwing a party for the Princess in two months' time." Sonic folded his arms, quirking his eyebrows as if daring Scourge to challenge the value of this news. "And not just any ole' party - it's a worldwide search for the next King."

"You know what that means," Sonic added when Scourge said nothing, "a night when the roads'll be full - more than full, even."

Scourge looked at him thoughtfully, walking around to sit slowly behind his desk again. He kept his hands pressed together. Sonic could see the muscles in Scourge's arms, working as if he was trying to crush something between his palms.

"A final attempt by a desperate King to get that brat to choose a husband… and we have an invitation…" Scourge mused. His blue eyes were filled with manic intensity.

Sonic took a subtle step back, hoping Scourge would get the message. The man seemed lost in thought, and Sonic didn't want to know what was going on in Scourge's mind.

"Get out." Scourge ordered after a beat. "There's no extra for you this week, and I'm expecting you to make up some slack next week." Scourge looked up one last time and flashed Sonic a wide smile full of sharp teeth.

Sonic turned to go, when he was stopped by the sharp rasp from Scourge.

"Sonic."

"Yes?" He replied without turning around, one hand already pulling back the flap of the tent.

Sonic could feel Scourge's beady blue eyes staring at his back, as if they saw straight through his shirt and knew he was sweating.

"If you're right, this is gonna be huge for the camp. You better not be lying to me… You know I hate liars."

Sonic cast a glance over his shoulder and resisted a shudder.

"'Course not," Sonic said casually, "I could never lie to that face!" Then he scurried out of the tent before Scourge could snap at him.

Sonic took a deep breath as he emerged from the tent. He needed to find his friends and fast. Scourge and he were on good terms… sort of… but Sonic hated following his orders. He didn't trust the guy, there was something else at play behind those bright blue eyes. By all accounts, he and Scourge should get along - they were, after all, very similar - but the way the man could just fly off the handle at any moment put Sonic off. Scourge was bad, and Sonic was simply doing his best to put out Scourge's fires.

Sonic jogged over to join his gang by the fire. Tails and Knuckles were bickering on a fallen log, and looked up as he approached, their faces illuminated in the night by the fire's warm glow.

"We don't owe him anything more, but we don't have any extra spending, and he wants more next week," Sonic reported dutifully.

"'Course he does…" Knuckles grumbled, crossing his arms across his broad chest.

"But," Sonic promised, "I have a solution." Sonic lowered his voice and gestured his friends back to their shared tent.

The night was getting long as the three men stepped into their tent and began to bed down. They were all exhausted in different ways. Sonic was wrestling with more than he usually did - this woman from the grove threw a wrench into the systems of his life, and he was crunching through it in odd and uncomfortable ways as he considered how much to tell his friends, who she really was, and how she might be useful to him in potentially limitless ways.

"Alright, spill it before I force it out of you," Knuckles said as they entered the privacy of their tent. He began to strip down to his shorts for the night, throwing his shirt into a corner haphazardly, but placing his belt and knife carefully by his thin pillow.

It wasn't that Sonic didn't trust his friends, on the contrary - they were the only people he did trust. Some boys were completely loyal to Scourge, and had been employed by him to keep campers who were feeling curious or rebellious in line. If someone besides the three of them found out what Sonic was suspecting, they would tell Scourge immediately, and Sonic couldn't risk his secret getting out for many, many reasons. It was his job to keep her a secret, at least until the timing was right.

"That pageboy we saw? Not a boy. A girl. Well, a woman." The men looked at Sonic silently, waiting for more of the story. Tails was already tucked under his ratty blanket, knife by his pillow.

"I followed her to that clearing by the cliff of Mount Safety, the one we usually train at, and - get this - she pulled a hammer on me!"

"Like… a little tool?" Tails asked, dubious.

Sonic held his hands wide to show the size of the instrument he had faced down earlier that night. "And she could make it appear out of thin air," Sonic explained. Tails' eyes went wide.

"Did she beat you with it? Is that why you got nothing?" Knuckles smirked.

"No." Sonic snapped, pulling his shirt off over his quills. "She didn't have to - you know that's not how we operate. The reason I got nothin' is because she didn't have anything, well, except for apples for her horse and that invite." It was true. She didn't have the accoutrement of a noble when he met her. Not even a single piece of jewelry, and nothing else of interest in her bag.

"The point is," Sonic said sharply, rubbing his scrunched nose, "that this girl was definitely not a messenger. Or a servant, or anything like that."

"How could you tell?" Knuckles asked incredulously.

"For one, she was riding a palace horse while not on duty. She said she was just on a break, but they wouldn't let her take it from the castle to just go on a joy ride! And she didn't know things. She didn't know that village girls weren't trained in combat, she hesitated when telling me her name, and she knew all about the party the Rose Kingdom is having…" Sonic turned away from his friends as he stripped his boots and pants, hoping to conceal the guilty look on his face. Now was when he had to decide just how much he wanted to tell them about how involved he wanted to be with her, at least for the next two weeks.

"Guys, I'm thinking she must be some kind of lady in waiting, or duchess… or something. And if that's true, then..."

There was a pause as Tails and Knuckles blinked, realizing what this might mean for them and their thieving days. Perhaps if they got close enough, they could pull off a job that would set them up for life.

"This could be something…" Knuckles mused, stretching his arms behind his head as he laid down "a palace connection - and if she's cute, maybe I could get myself a title." Knuckles waggled his brow at Sonic and Tails. Tails snickered from his mat on the ground and Sonic tried to keep himself from showing the surprise he felt at his discomfort on his face.

"Well, hang on -" Sonic turned to protest, but stopped himself as his friends looked at him expectantly.

"Because… I was actually thinking that we could use her help to bust Silver out, first." He recovered.

Knuckles, who had been drifting off to dream about noblewomen and a lifetime supply of easy gold, suddenly opened his eyes and pushed himself up onto his elbows. He looked pointedly at Sonic who was now sitting in a triangle with them.

"You know Scourge said to let that go. That when one of us gets captured he's as good as gone." Knuckles said pointedly, glowering.

"That's shit and you know it," Sonic spat back at him. Tails withered between the two men as they got heated.

"You want to be the one to risk your neck? Be my guest." Knuckles pushed back. "Palace lady or not, you're practically walking into a cell in the dungeon and shouting 'look, here I am! Fresh criminal, lock me up!' if you go anywhere near the castle. It's not worth risking your own neck. Face it Sonic - he's gone."

"But he's not! Just because you're afraid doesn't change the fact that Silver is one of us," Sonic said with conviction, "I would do the same for you, for Tails. And deep down, I know you would do what you could for me, too. C'mon Knucks, with this palace connection it would be easy! And we could come up with some story no problem. She'll do all the work, we'll just be there to see Silver safely back here."

"Just when I think you've made a good move, you go proving you're still an idiot, and always will be," Knuckles snapped. "You're taking a good thing too far - it was hanging around the palace that got Silver nabbed in the first place, remember"

"I'm going to see her tomorrow and we're making a plan-" Sonic said quickly, accidentally letting his plan slip as he got heated.

"What?! You're seeing her again?" Knuckles' violet eyes flared.

"It's just… training. I told her about Silver and she promised she'd help if I trained her in combat."

"Combat, yeah, right." Knuckles scoffed, rolling his eyes. The large echidna man shook his head. "We can't risk ourselves for someone who's already a goner - end of story."

"She's going to help me get him out, she promised." Sonic sighed, running a hand through his quills, the cold beginning to seep into the tent and up from the ground. "You can't give up on someone early Knuckles, you're not giving Silver, or us, a fair chance!"

Knuckles grumbled and laid on his back, avoiding eye contact with Sonic to try and shut him down.

"Listen," Sonic said, leaning back on an elbow, "You can either help me or not, but I know that the chances are better with you, Knuckles."

"… I'll help you, Sonic." Came Tails' voice, and the rustling of blankets as the young man settled into his blanket, hoping to avoid further conflict. Sonic smile - he could always count on Tails.

"Oh come on!" Knuckles huffed angrily, turning away from them. "Ganging up on me like that… I'm the one being sensible here!…" he fell into silence, and Sonic smirked.

"Just give me a week, Knuckles. I promise - we'll come up with a plan that's absolutely foolproof."


A/N: Next update coming a bit sooner, and we'll be back to flirting, promise!