CHAPTER 12

BLACK AND WHITE

The next day at the Chaotix, Vector placed the three emeralds in a small vault. Afterwards he turned to Espio. "Good job, Es. You did great."

"Thank you, sir."

"You must have been through a lot yesterday to get that emerald."

He sighed, "Tell me about it. I'm just glad I made it back in one piece. Well, anyway I'll be reporting back to my regular duties now."

Vector nodded, "Okay."

Espio left his sight and walked over to Tonya's desk looking at her type on her computer. "Hey, Ton."

She looked away from her computer screen and looked over to Espio. "Hey, Espio. What's wrong? You look down."

He sighed, "Well, it's about Shadow."

"What about Shadow?"

"Remember what I told you about what happened yesterday?"

She nodded.

"Shadow, was sure upset about letting Darkness get to him like that and I don't know what to do to make him feel better."

"Then why don't you visit him and talk to him about what's on his mind. I'm sure he'll open up to you."

"You think he'll do that?"

She nodded, "Sure. Just talk to him in a calm manner and help him through this. Besides, I bet he's thinking a lot about Kayla."

"Yeah, I think so too. I'll talk to him tomorrow and see what's going down. Thanks for your help, Ton." He smirked, "But, I guess the only way to thank you is to take you out to dinner some time."

She frowned at his comment, "Two words. Never ever."

Espio sighed with stress, "Aw come on, Tonya."

"I said no damn it!" She shouted.

Charmy then flew over to them with a worried look on his face. "Hey guys, have you seen Rouge anywhere? I looked and looked but I couldn't find her anywhere. I mean she was here this morning."

"Oh, she said she had some business to take care of", Tonya answered.

"What business? Chaos Emerald business?" Charmy asked.

"Probably Shadow busyness", Espio said with a chuckle.

Tonya glared at Espio and then looked back at Charmy, "She never said what kind of business just business. Now if I were you guys I would stay out of it and quit being nosy."

"Come on Ton, you have to be curious about this too right?" Espio asked.

"Well...I am, but I'm staying out of it. Rouge can tell us if she wants to, but it's still none of our business." She took her eyes away from them and continued typing on her keyboard.

Later on a building rooftop, Rouge stood across from Nails and eyed a pink emerald in her hand. "Give it up, witch and hand that emerald over to me before you do something stupid with it."

Nails smirked, "Heh, yeah right. Like I'd ever give the emerald over to you." She looked at the pink emerald in her hand. "Just look at it Rouge, it's full of power. It's like fuel for demons."

Rouge placed her hands on her hips, "So you're going to give that to Kayla huh?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Witch, you knew that would happen to her! You're trying to kill that poor girl!"

She shrugged, "Why not? She was meant to be dead anyway. I just brought her back from the dead so I could have some fun."

Rouge clenched her fists, ran up to her, and tried to punch her.

Nails smirked as she ran towards her, 'Pathetic.' She held her hand up at her with a black aura of energy surrounding it. Then black energy had struck at Rouge making her fall to the ground. Then Nails' yellow staff had transformed into a sword. She ran up to her and tried to stab Rouge with the point of the sword while she was on the ground, but Rouge had moved just in time.

Rouge took her foot and kicked the sword out of Nails' hands.

The sword had fell off the roof, leaving Nails weaponless.

Nails watched as her sword fell towards the ground. She looked up at Rouge with anger.

Rouge made a small smile, "What's wrong, Nails? Dropped your sword? Now you don't want to fight me?"

Nails gritted her teeth, "Yeah, like I'd ever give up that easily, little sister!" She took her fist and tried to punch Rouge, but Rouge had kneeled down to the ground, making her miss.

Rouge quickly took her fist and punched Nails in the bottom of her chin, making her lean back a bit. She then took her foot and kicked Nails in her stomach, knocking her completely down on the ground.

As Nails's back hit the ground, she had dropped the Chaos Emerald.

Rouge saw the Chaos Emerald fall from her grip, but she didn't worry about it right away. She walked over to Nails and started to kick her in her sides with anger. "This is for all the wasted years by being by your side always looking after you and taking care of you! I always knew you were nothing to me and you never were. You're nothing but an evil slutty witch!" Soon Rouge became exhausted and had stopped kicking her sister. She panted heavily while releasing the rest of her rage. She then looked over to the pink Chaos Emerald on the ground. She walked over to it and picked it up. While she was staring at the emerald in her hand, she had heard Nails groaning in pain. She looked back over to her and saw the black bat lifting her body from the ground.

The bat looked over to Rouge, "Is it true?" She asked. "Is that really how you feel about me?"

Rouge made a cold nod.

Nails looked away from her while making a small smile, "If you feel that way then maybe we aren't so different after all."

"You're wrong."

She looked back over to her.

"We're very different from each other. I am nothing like you, so keep that in mind. You maybe my sister, but when it comes to comparisons there is nothing to compare to."

Her smile got wider, "Perhaps you're right." She slowly got off the ground. She looked at Rouge one last time, "Catch yea later, sis. I'm out of here." She then turned her back and disappeared from a black aura that had appeared around her.

When Nails had left, Rouge had left as well.