Disclaimer: Blah blah blah, I don't own Sonic or anything related to Sonic except my own characters, not making money on this, no sue I, etc. etc. etc. You get the drift. You want to use some of my characters? Ask me and give credit where credit is due. Simple enough? Good!
Author's Note: u.u; Yes, I know, chapter 4 has taken me an ungodly long time. There are several reasons for that- 1) college, 2) time-consuming classes, 3) a drag show I was involved in as Captain Hook (of Peter Pan fame, not that you care), and 4) no internet at home. All of that adds up to I simply didn't have that much time to spend getting this chapter up to my specifications (until recently anyway). But now I have, it's done, and I hope you enjoy the results. At least this is a comparatively early update (instead of having to wait for about sixteen more days). Many thanks for all of your patience (you can put those pitchforks and torches away now), and hopefully I'll be able to get up the next chapter far more quickly. Read, enjoy, review and all that other fun BS! n.n Or I'll have Robotnik in a pink frilly tutu stalk your nightmares.
Espio watched in silence as Manic put himself through his paces with his daggers. The hedgehog was quick and highly skilled, which did little to ease the chameleon's paranoia. Still, he didn't bother thinking it over. If there was one thing he had learned in Mercia, where empaths were concerned having a blank mind was just as good a camouflage as his own natural capabilities- especially if said empath was as intensely focused as the thief-prince. He could worry about what he learned from his spying at a later point. So he watched as Manic effortlessly whipped through a series of movements that were as graceful as a dance, but highly lethal. Why would the thief need to know how to kill? Furthermore, there was a nagging familiarity to some of those movements…
Brushing aside those thoughts, Espio gave vent to a scowl. He could not afford to broadcast his presence just yet, not when he was so close to figuring out why Manic set off loud warning bells in his mind (aside from the obvious). Carefully shifting his position in the tree branches to be more comfortable, Espio continued watching, trusting that the winds whipping by would hide both his scent and the muted sound of his movements.
Slowly Manic's rapid-fire movements wound down to a slower, and far more natural, pace. As he finally came to a stop and sheathed his daggers, Manic muttered something in Mercian, causing Espio to give an irrepressible twitch of distaste. Old habits died hard. "Life for its own worth…" Espio knew the rest of the phrase, the ritualistic tones implied, but he had heard that same phrase twisted to suit monstrous means far too many times to feel the calm it was supposed to bring.
'Think of nothing. Feel nothing. There is air, space, and calm and no need to let him know I'm here.' Somehow his own meditative mantra seemed to be a bit less helpful than it had been before Manic spoke.
Dropping to sit on the hill he stood on, Manic gave a stretch. It had been a while since he'd gone through some decent blade-practice, and it was a welcome relief from the tension he'd been hiding from everyone. Tension, of course, brought restlessness; and that, combined with peace and quiet, had never sat well with him. The exertion of blade-practice made the silence easier. 'Speaking of restlessness…' Espio's attitude about him hadn't improved much to his knowledge, but the chameleon was considerably less hostile toward him. He didn't know what had caused it, and he didn't particularly feel like poking around in the chameleon's head uninvited in order to find out. Whatever it was, for the most part things had been quiet for the past week where Espio was concerned. Manic tried not to let it bother him; regardless of how much his instincts tried to tell him that it was the calm before a storm. Trying to ignore the emotional complications that were flying around on the island was another pain in the ass to deal with. All of the plotting involved… Trying to set Sonia up with Knux… Knowing that Mighty had an infatuation with Espio… Manic shook his head as his own past leapt into his thoughts.
He hadn't told either Sonic or Sonia, but he'd been in a relationship before; one that ended disastrously. Just thinking about it made him wince. 'Tahl was right. It worked out about as well as a rocket flying into a cliff.' A slightly sad smile tugged at his lips. There were a lot of things Tahl had been right about. Tahl had been right about his relationship, she had been right about the fact that his empathy would get him in no end of trouble, and she had been right when she said that he couldn't escape life with his hands completely blood-less. She might not have been precognitive, but she had certainly been observant enough to be so. "Hm… I wonder if she ever would have foreseen this?"
Espio frowned, uncertain if he'd heard Manic correctly, when suddenly he heard a familiar buzzing…
"Hiiii Manic!" Charmy greeted cheerfully as he rocketed toward the hedgehog's face. Manic just barely managed to bring his arms up fast enough to prevent the torpedo-bee from smashing into him.
"Hi Charmy," Manic replied as he shook his head in amusement. In the brief time since Charmy decided that the thief was his new best friend he'd been doing almost everything he could to try and sneak up on him- as of yet, unsuccessfully.
"What'cha doin'?"
Manic slowly raised an eyebrow. "Thinking."
"'Bout what?"
"…Has Sonic woken up yet?"
"Oh yeah! Bye now! I gotta wake him up," Charmy squealed and rocketed off on his devious mission of hedgehog torture.
The thief-prince was silent for a few moments, and then started laughing. "Oh man… Sonic ever finds out I keep on setting him up like that and he's going to kill me…"
Deciding that now was as good a time as any, Espio dropped from the tree and phased into visibility. "So you make it a habit to torment your siblings?" he asked, clearly startling the hedgehog with his unexpected presence. 'Good. He didn't notice how long I've been here.' That at least was some level of comfort, making his time in Mercia not completely worthless.
Yellow eyes darted to the chameleon and rapidly shifted into an unenthused look. Manic's hands had been reaching for his daggers on reflex until he registered who it was. Without even bothering to use his false accent, he grumbled out, "Only when they annoy me. You can't honestly tell me that you don't get revenge on any of your 'brothers' if they set you off."
A derisive snort. "Why do you hide behind an accent?"
"…Blunt and to the point, aren't you?"
"Where my home is concerned, yes."
Manic gave an aggravated sigh, "I'm not going to steal anything. I'm not going to try to kill your home. You are a paranoid pain-in-the-neck, and you're really getting on my nerves with your stalking me. You want to know about me? Fine. I'm a thief, an empath, a prince, my full name and titles are apparently Crown Prince Manic Sarashi Devonian Jules of the Royal House of Hedgehog, I was born on the 23rd of June, I'm a Cancer, and I have the ability to annoy the hell out of my sibs. Anything else you want to know, oh-paranoid-one?"
Espio arched an eyeridge and regarded the thief-prince silently for a moment. "Clever way to dodge my question."
"I thought so," Manic grinned back.
"I hope you realize how thoroughly unsettling you are," Espio stated tersely, unwilling to completely let his guard down. This was the test; prodding at the thief's boundaries in the hopes that he could gain some kind of clarification as to why Knuckles trusted him so much. In Espio's experience both thieves and empaths were nothing but trouble. A person who was both… It was something he would have never even wanted to think about if he had been given a choice.
Manic was silent for a few moments as a swift breeze whipped past him, lacing through his fur in the process. When he deigned to reply, his answer was quiet, calm, and held a slight trace of old pain. "Espio, in case you hadn't noticed- I unsettle a lot of people. Sometimes I even unsettle myself." Before the chameleon could even think of a response to that, the green hedgehog stood and began walking off. "I'm going to explore a bit. I need some air. Oh yeah, and if an earthquake hits- it wasn't me," he called back over his shoulder.
Espio scowled, but stayed where he was as Manic retreated into one of the Island's forests. Manic's answer hadn't been anything like what he'd assumed, but it was enough to hint at the reason for the Guardian's trust in him. He was a puzzle, but now he was a puzzle that made some form of sense. Knuckles said that Manic was a soul-reaver; the thief-prince's words had finally confirmed that Espio's adoptive brother wasn't mistaken.
Almost all soul-reavers had the tendency to be unsettling, threatening, and yet completely trustworthy. Mighty was the perfect example… and so was Espio. Perhaps the thing that troubled the chameleon the most was that all three of them had one rather large thing in common... He didn't need Manic or Knuckles to say that the thief-prince had blood on his hands. It was as obvious to Espio as the scars he kept hidden under his spiked wristbands. A flash of blood-soaked shackles around his wrists and the sound of a sickeningly wet crack as he used the chains to break a person's neck ripped through his mind involuntarily. "'Blood knows blood as suffering knows pain'," he muttered to himself, the Mercian proverb leaping to his lips unbidden. 'Let's hope you never learned that lesson the way I did, Manic.'
Unknown to him Manic felt his swirl of emotions, and couldn't help but wince. 'It seems like we've both gone through hell… I hope yours was easier, Espio,' the thief thought to himself privately. For just a brief moment the two of them had connected in an odd familiarity. Perhaps that was enough to make things a bit less hostile between them.
Very few things ever made Marietta Tia'ras angry. The bat that had hunted her out was one of them. Her brown eyes glared at Rouge with untold fury; somehow making her violently intimidating despite the long-skirted black-and-white dress that was her maid uniform. "I'm not interested," she growled, her Mercian accent creeping through due to her temper. "I'm retired. Retired. If I wished to be called upon to fight and kill again, then I would have stayed in Mercia, Bat." The last word she very nearly spat like it was an invective.
Rouge arched a brow as she nonchalantly leaned against the sill of the window through which she'd entered the Condammer mansion. "You gave up your title and renown to be a maid? Here? You'll excuse me Rose, but it seems a pity for a warrior of your caliber to lower yourself so much as to become someone's servant."
Before she could stop herself Marietta snapped out a vicious order in Mercian. "Ve na shka, bito!" Rouge didn't need to understand all of what had been said; the last word was more than enough to express the mixed-breed's feelings.
However much it irked her internally, Rouge waved the insult aside. "Now, now; no need to call names. It's just an honest inquiry. Robotnik wants you to help in his search, that's all."
"Tá! A person does not hunt down a mercenary just to 'help in a search'. Regardless, I will not accept. I have a life here; that I enjoy. I will not cater to the whims of a fool or a bito by uprooting and destroying what I have. You will have to get someone else to 'help'. I will not do it."
Rouge let her aquamarine eyes scan the Rose's room. True, it had been difficult finding the Mercian Rose, going to Mercia and back again with only whispered rumors to lead her; but after having searched for close to three weeks Rouge was by no means willing to give up so easily. The Mercian Rose had not been known for her femininity, but here on the Condammer estate her room was as classically frilly and girlish as any Mercian grand-dame's. 'Well fitting for the maid of one of the prestigious Condammers.' Taking her attention from inspecting the cat-fox's room, Rouge continued to pry at her resolve. "At least hear me out."
"You have nothing I wish to hear," Marietta snarled, this time not bothering to conceal her fangs.
"Really?" Rouge grinned almost tauntingly. "What if I told you the one Robotnik wishes you to hunt was none other than Kleptomaniac- the very same monstrosity that threatened the life of the man you work for?"
The insults and protests died in Marietta's throat, her vulpine tail losing some of its enraged vigor. Rouge had hit close to home, and they both knew it. Clearly the bat had spied on her for a while and was aware of her feelings for Lord Bartleby Montclair Condammer. That she hadn't been aware of Rouge's presence gave Marietta mixed feelings. 'I've gotten rusty.' The part of her that had once thrilled in fighting and drawing blood, taken pride in her fighting skill, gave an internal wail of horror. The part that was thoroughly smitten with Bartleby gave something akin to a sigh of contentment.
Trying not to grind her teeth together at her conflicting thoughts, Marietta weighed the possibilities. Destroying Kleptomaniac would mean protecting Bartleby- a thought that made her blood surge in a mix of love and glee. Fixing Rouge with firm brown eyes she growled, "How much is Robotnik willing to pay?" Rouge couldn't keep the victorious grin from her face.
Qetzenthala was bored. There was no other word for it. True, there were others present that were part of his and Manic's 'family'; but none seemed particularly interested in helping the bird cure his boredom. Arajia sat near the fireplace of their pieced-together home, making some meal over the fire that really smelled far too delicious to ignore… But the old rat had chased him away from the hearth not even a moment after he'd poked his beak in over the pot; various invectives born of frustration assailing the pea-hawk in time with the ladle colliding with his feathered head. The blows hadn't been hard since Arajia would never hurt one of 'his' kids, but Qet knew well enough that the old man could knock someone senseless if he had a mind to.
Giving a sigh, his silvery gaze swept over the others present. Sabbat was thoroughly engrossed in reading a book that was half his size. For one so young his attitude was remarkably no-nonsense when it came to his reading. Then again, Sabbat's mental health had improved by leaps and bounds since he had first joined their odd 'family'. It helped that about three months of not seeing Manic consistently hadn't stopped Sabbat from communicating with the hedgehog. In some respects Sabbat's telepathy was a much more helpful gift than Manic's empathy (especially since he knew who he could trust and who was a threat). Still… in some ways Sabbat was far too serious and responsible for someone who was only twelve years old.
"I have better things to do," Sabbat stated aloud, not even bothering to look up at his 'older brother'.
Arajia gave a snort from near the fire. "What have we told you about poking around in others' heads Sabbat?" the old rat admonished.
A smirk tugged at those feline lips. "Don't get caught."
"Aside from that," Arajia snapped; his disapproving but not unkind gaze now locked on Sabbat.
"'Don't do it without permission'. I know, I know; but he was broadcasting again."
"…Was not," Qet protested without much force behind it.
On a pillowed bench not too far from Qet, yet positioned between the couch the bird was on and the hearth, sprawled the most peculiar one in their family. Tryst was clearly a mixed breed, but not one that made sense like Qet. Tryst was half fox and half bat, the fox blood clearly dominating his appearance. Black wings stretched straight upward, the firelight revealing the bone structures in the limbs. "Don't whine so much Qet. Makes ya sound as if ye've a couple bolts loose in your head."
Ignoring the joking insult, Qet replied as Tryst's wings re-folded on his back. "I'm bored."
"Find something to entertain yourself with," one of the others stated bluntly.
"But I'm bored."
"And I'm not your entertainment," Tryst snorted, his large black ears swiveling against the red fur of his head to catch any abnormal sound out of long-formed habit.
"Ah, don't bother Tryst," the dog snorted. "Qet's just a whiney bird. Always has been, always will be."
"…Nice way to destroy my ego Ka'eh. Real nice," Qet snapped at the 'mutt' dog.
She grinned, displaying the only clear indication of her partial wolf heritage. "Someone's gotta do it. You'll get too full of yourself otherwise."
"Agreed," chorused Tryst and Sabbat.
The crest of feathers on Qet's head shot up in indignation. "Hey! That's not fair! I can't believe you're all-"
"Well it's true!" Tryst interrupted. Before the situation could escalate much further Arajia intervened.
"Children," he growled warningly.
The only raccoon in the room protested vehemently. "I didn't do anything!"
Pinching the bridge of his nose Arajia internally wished that Farrel were still around to help him sort out all of these damned kids. 'Goddess above, I never thought I'd miss the old bastard so much.' Giving vent to some of his thoughts he grumbled, "For the love of- Baenya, I didn't mean you. Tryst, Qet, Ka'eh- shut up. And Sabbat; don't start anything. PLEASE. Everybody: stop ganging up on Qet. Qet: stop provoking them."
"But I didn't-," Qet began.
"I don't care. If you're bored, go find something to do. Hell, all of you could go find something to do. I'm sure there are various things in need of patching or replenishing."
"Do we have to?" Ka'eh chanced, her floppy ears perking up as her full attention turned to the old rat.
Arajia gave just the slightest twitch before taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out. "You'd all best be glad we're no longer living in a sewer, or so help me I'd drown at least half of you. So yes, you have to unless you can all spontaneously learn how not to pick fights and set me off even more than I already am!"
Ka'eh gave a sigh. "The circus isn't even in town. If they were, we could've given them Qet."
"Ka'eh!" Arajia snapped; his patent 'loving-father-that-completely-disapproves-and-is-thoroughly-disappointed' glare in place. Understandably, she flinched away. No one could endure that look for more than three seconds without cracking and confessing to things that even they had forgotten having ever done.
Getting to her feet, she began slinking toward the door. "I'll be going now…"
"Qet, Sabbat, Tryst, Baenya; go with Ka'eh and keep her out of trouble," the old rat ordered in a tone that left no room for argument.
"I'm not going to do anything like Klepto or Tahl, Arajia!" Ka'eh protested only to wither under another one of Arajia's glares.
"You're forgetting that you have a talent for picking fights," he growled in response. "The others are going to make sure you stay out of them." Grudgingly the others pulled themselves to their feet and headed for the door.
Baenya turned mournful brown eyes on the tea in jhur hands. Those same pleading brown eyes slid up to lock on Arajia with a puppy-dog look that Manic would have envied back when they were little. "Can I finish my tea?"
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Arajia silently prayed that whatever deities were listening would give him patience with these kids. "Finish your tea and then go."
"Does that mean I can finish my book?" Sabbat asked in a tone far too innocent to be even remotely considered believable.
"…You're not even close to finishing the damned book you're reading."
"It's good for my education."
"…As intelligent an argument as that is; no. You're still going out with everyone else. You need to get fresh air; especially since you haven't stepped outside in over a week." The feline pouted for a moment, but quickly gave in to the rat that had so far been the best father he'd ever had in his entire life. Soon they all filed out amidst a cloud of grumbling complaints, and then the air was blessedly silent as they got out of his hearing range.
Arajia sighed and stirred the contents of the stew pot again. All of them were dear to him; but Goddess-above knew that they knew exactly how to push his buttons and give him a screaming headache. 'And it's largely Farrel's fault. Damn it all… I miss those old days. Hell, I miss him.' Farrel had not only been Arajia's best friend and damn near his brother, he'd been one of the most deviously cunning thieves in the world. No one else that Arajia had known before meeting Farrel had been able to get out of so many scrapes without getting hurt. He could talk himself out of just about anything, and had, until the day he got roboticized.
The old rat's hand tightened on the ladle as a scowl flickered across his face. That day was still a bitter memory that filled him with rage. On that day he had lost his brother, and soon after he lost the only kid that had just as much promise and luck as Farrel did: Manic. True, Manic wasn't truly gone since he had just reunited with his siblings, but Arajia knew he wasn't the only one to think it was a crying shame that the boy was royalty. Knowing that Manic would have to take the throne promised good things for the world; but it meant that the poor boy would become a soul-reaver for the sake of his people. That was where the shame of it was: Manic was a good boy, if vicious during the right situations so far as Arajia was concerned- He didn't deserve being trapped in a role he probably wouldn't be comfortable with. Manic deserved to be free from pain, and free to run with a smile on his face and a song in his heart. The world had never been so kind.
Giving another sigh, Arajia shook his head. He'd known enough soul-reavers in his life and had more than had his fill. Farrel had been one when they'd met, Tahl had been one, Manic was steadily becoming one, and Sabbat looked like he might become one. "Yiffing hell," the old rat snarled privately. He wasn't known for being emotional, but as he wiped away the tears that welled up at the corners of his eyes he cursed everything that had gone wrong in the world- starting with Robotnik taking control and putting his adoptive family at risk, and ending with the fact that monsters like the ones that killed Tahl and had abused Sabbat had caused Manic to take a soul-reaver's path. "To think that I yiffing left Mercia to get away from this crap… Goddess damn it." Had Farrel still been around, he would have been the only one to notice that the stew was a bit saltier than usual when dinner rolled around.
"I don't want them here," Locke snapped at his son. "And that's final."
"Dad!" Knuckles protested, ignoring the other Guardians that lounged or stood in the main room of the Guardians' Lair. "They're not doing anything! They're just guests! They won't do anything to put the Island at risk." The disagreement had been an on-going point of contention among the Guardians ever since the triplets had first arrived. Every visit to the Guardians' Lair, almost a daily event, saw the argument renewed and rehashed for the umpteenth time. Being the current Guardian, Knuckles ultimately got most of the final say, but that meant little if his ancestors united against him. If they all agreed that the triplets needed to leave, Knuckles would have little choice in the matter. Frankly the thought of the three hedgehogs being thrown off the island, Sonia especially, panged at him ever-so-slightly. 'Unacceptable. I can't let them get kicked off for no reason!' That his own father was his worst enemy on the situation made things infinitely worse.
"That was what was said about the Hedgehog and look what happened! He tried to forcefully remove the emeralds! Do you dare even think for a second that if those three learned the Island's secrets that they wouldn't try to do something similar?" Locke roared at his willful son.
"Goddess damn it all Father, I'm not sending those three away! They stand the best chance of taking down Robotnik! If I send them away they won't have even a second to rest. Warriors can't keep-"
"You invited a thief Knuckles! I will not accept this! The other two are just as bad if not worse! They are his-"
"Locke, enough," Thunderhawk, ever the voice of reason, intervened. "The Emeralds have their own will; you know this. If they choose to get involved, we have no claim over who they choose." This was another point most of the Guardians didn't want to consider: the possibility that the emeralds would take an interest in outsiders- especially the particular outsiders that were the topic of discussion.
Blue eyes scowled at the violet-furred elder. "We did when it came to him."
"And as I've said to everyone here before, I didn't approve of our actions then and I don't approve of them now. Spirit still has not forgiven what the majority chose to do in regards to the Hedgehog." Before any of the other scowling Guardians could even begin shouting over him, Thunderhawk plowed on. "You protested Espio, Mighty, and all the others that have become Knuckles's demsönlia- and yet now you happily welcome them. Give them a chance. Besides…" a smile tugged at Thunderhawk's lips, "There is a prophecy about those three, or have you forgotten?" Knuckles gave Thunderhawk a grateful look. At least someone there wasn't demanding the hedgehogs' immediate expulsion from the Island aside from himself.
Janelle-Li frowned, her brown eyes expressing a million thoughts and emotions in one minute. Brushing her sunset-orange bangs out of her face, she spoke. "As Guardians it is our duty to watch after the Emeralds, whether alive or dead; yet is it not also our duty to abide by whatever prophecies of a good future come along?" Silence rang throughout the room after she spoke. "Do we ignore a prophecy to again cause something terrible, or do we accept it?" she asked challengingly. They all knew what she spoke of, and they didn't like it. Janelle-Li was not known for being the most aggressive of the Guardians, but she hadn't been one in life for nothing. She too was a fighter in her own right; as was quite clearly obvious by the fact that her patron emerald had been Fire… and they all knew how aggressive Fire was.
Locke and several others however, were quite furious and had no desire to hear such a reasonable argument. "So you suggest that we should leave the Emeralds unprotected? That was what led to Tikal's downfall and the creation of the Dark Legion! You would have us repeat that same mistake?"
"Locke is right, we can take no chances. Remove them from the Island at once!" Spectre snapped out. Thunderhawk merely arched an eyebrow at his father, and then gave a nod to his granddaughter. With any luck the two of them might together right this situation for Knuckles.
"Locke Te-thraesh Echidna… Great-Grandfather… Shut up and listen to me," she growled, "Before you go jumping to conclusions, both of those situations happened because our family line would not go along with prophecies that would come out well. The split between Dmitri and Edmund is regrettable, yes, but it would not have happened the way it did if both Edmund and Dmitri had taken steps to ensure that things went correctly instead of fighting it. What happened to Tikal would not have happened if her father had gotten off his self-entitled throne and listened to her. I'm quite certain that Edmund and Tikal would agree with me if you took the time to ask them. If we do to those triplets what many of you old fools happily did to the Hedgehog, then you will make this world worse. This world is already worse for your stubborn refusal to accept the prophecy about him."
Before the bickering could go full-swing again, one of the eldest in their family gave an aggravated sigh and spoke. "Janelle-Li is right. If we are not careful about this thing, we may very well cause the Island to crash. The emeralds can do nothing to save us from such a fate if they are taken from us- but neither will they do anything for us if they do not agree with us." None dared snap at Steppenwolf in response. The long-dead guardian ran a hand through his banded dreds, a nervous tic that showed his irritation clearly, "My father and his brother were both stubborn idiots. Had they actually listened to each other and cooperated with the prophecy in the first place, we would not be dealing with the Dark Legion now.
"So let's face facts: our family is notorious for being so idiotically stubborn that we, at times, work against what will ultimately be in the best interest of not only ourselves, but the emeralds as well. We need only look back to Tikal for proof of that, as Janelle-Li has stated. Like the rest of you, I do not like that we may have to entrust the emeralds to those outside of our family. I do not like that the prophecy concerning the hedgehog told us bluntly what we now know. We should have given the emeralds over into his care so that he could stop Robotnik before any of this lunacy started; but we didn't. We let our dislike, distrust, and dare I say it- racism, get in the way of what we knew we should have done. I do not like that the prophecies were telling us to trust an outsider like that reckless fool; so I agreed that sealing him away was the best thing. We have paid the price.
"Now we are given the chance at deliverance by these triplets, and some of you wish to banish them or do to them what we did to our last savior-to-be? You'll excuse me if I find the idea ludicrous, if not downright stupid. If we are to put this thing to a vote, as it should be, then my vote is to leave them be and trust them. I trust in the Guardian's judgment." Steppenwolf directed a nod at Knuckles; his final words and all the formality implied making it clear that he considered the matter closed.
The others were silent for a moment as they considered what Steppenwolf had said. Slowly going in a circle, starting from his left, the Guardians voted. Of the seventeen of them present, twelve decided in favor of the triplets, and five against. The matter was closed and the triplets were to be trusted. That fact left Knuckles with an overwhelming sense of relief, but he knew his father would be unlikely to forgive him for the breach in tradition for a long time afterward. At least whatever disagreement they had wouldn't be nearly so bad as the last 'family argument'. Hurrying away from the Guardians' Lair to put some distance between himself and his father, Knuckles couldn't help but reflect on the last such fight that had rocked his family's foundations. That fight alone had resulted in the Dark Legion; there would not be a repeat.
"You want someone to hunt those three royals?" The dragon grinned, her pointed teeth shining in the light cast by the torches along the cave walls. "And what makes you think that my family might care to be involved at all?"
"Decent payment," Rouge replied bluntly. It hadn't been hard to find where the Dragon Demons roosted, but it most certainly had been a pain getting there. Then again, Mercia was somewhat known for its near-insurmountable mountain ranges. She had Shadow and his capabilities to thank for making it to the Dragons' home.
The large dragon gave a chuckle, accompanied by the slightest puff of smoke. "Just a 'decent' payment? Robotnik is going to have to do a lot more than that to convince my kin that this hunt of his is worth our while. As entertaining as the thought of chasing royals is; it's not enough to get my entire family up in arms… well, you know what I mean," waving off her last comment with a talon-bearing hand the size of Rouge, the black dragon continued. "Surely there may be an interesting twist in this yet? Otherwise, I think we'll have to say 'Sorry, but no'."
Rouge tried not to twitch. Dragons made her nervous, especially when they happened to be the size of a bus or bigger. Shadow's nonchalant attitude as he leaned against a wall nearby didn't help any either- he could get the hell out of there in the blink of an eye if he so wished. She couldn't. "…Robotnik said Kleptomaniac might be involved; which is why I'm taking the spying route. Whether he actually is or not, I'm not sure."
An unusual look of familiarity slid onto the dragon's reptilian face, her luminous green eyes flashing in interest. "Manyi? Of what interest would Manyi have in royalty?"
The jewel thief stared at the dragon in front of her in shock, jolted by the thought that Liidara could possibly know the particular thorn in her side. "You know him?"
Liidara gave a snort, sending more smoke rolling across the cavern's ceiling. "My connection was with his elder sister, Tahl. I forget none connected with my girl- NONE."
"Rouge wouldn't know why he'd be interested in royalty. She doesn't like talking about him either," Shadow supplied, drawing an irate glare from Rouge.
Liidara's expression became somewhat sympathetic, "You had a falling out with Manyi of some sort? My apologies." She stretched her wings, scraping them against the ceiling in the process, giving herself a moment to think. "For the fact that Manyi is involved will I do this thing. I must find out what happened to Tahl- and that requires no full-out hunt. I will accept what payment Robotnik gives me, but the goals I have for this job are mine alone. If he does not like it, he does not get my services. My family will not be involved in anything that may cause us to be at odds with the family of our adopted one- even should that adopted one be dead. Do you agree to this?"
Rouge nodded, knowing that she wouldn't be able to get a better deal from any of the Dragons. Even getting Liidara's acknowledgement had been a chore; trying to get the other Dragon Demons to be involved would have been suicide.
Standing up, Liidara gazed at her temporary allies. "Shall we go then? The sooner we leave, the sooner we may collect the others you have spoken of, and the sooner the job is done."
"Your family doesn't need to be consulted?" Rouge asked warily; Shadow raising an eyebrow at her quizzically in the background.
Liidara grinned again as her tail whipped out behind her in pride. "They know already, and they care little for Robotnik's business. Let us be on our way." As Rouge and Shadow followed the black dragon back out into the sunlight, the bat couldn't help noting that for someone who was a quadruped most of the time, Liidara was one of the more intimidating people she had ever met.
Review please! The button is right there! You know you want to! Reeeeviiiieeeeewwww- and the plot will get further. Small spoiler: Shadow badass-ness coming up in the next chapter. You want to see it? Then you know what to do! n_n