Chapter 6- The Star

It was a good hour later when Patches and I walked through the castle's front door. By then, it was very much dark out, as the moon was covered by cloud cover, and I was freezing. Why oh why did I only wear a tank top? How stupid could I possibly get?

I then took a good look at my surroundings and answered my own question easily.

"Maybe you should just go to bed, Patches." I said as the great door slammed shut behind us. The walls shook, and dust crumbled down on top of us.

"No, I am fine." He said as he finally stood up straight. He turned towards me and held out his hand expectantly. It took me a moment to realize that he was waiting for his sword. I promptly placed it into his hand and he sheathed it effortlessly. I, on the other hand, was still awkwardly carrying mine.

"Come, to zee lab." He said as he began to walk away. I followed him, my two steps counting for his one.

It still amazed me just how much larger in proportion these guys were compared to me. Back in the gym I was taller than the Doctor.

Wonder if I could get a growth-spurt now…

I then wondered what it would be like to be of equal height as Patches and Scourge… if anything, it would be easier for Scourge to 'kill' me again. My face then flushed in some form of realization. The warm of his breath that just yesterday seemed so frightening, now seemed quite intimate, and I could practically feel my face burning.

I shook my head and noticed that we were almost to our destination.

Let's find out what you're doing Doc. I thought as Patches opened the door to the lab. An eerie light seemed to make the entire doorway glow menacingly, and I walked into it without any sort of hesitation.

Inside was everyone I had met here. Fiona and Scourge both sitting on a bench, his arm wrapped around her shoulders. Boomer working on another sort of freaky 'nuts and bolts' machine. Miles standing next to the Doctor, his icy blue eyes looking right into mine. And the Doctor, who was leaning up against a table covered in papers .

The door closed behind me as Patches walked past me to Finitevus.

He nodded to him and then sat in a nearby chair. No doubt he was still fairly injured. I swallowed my saliva and gazed into the heated eyes of Finitevus, the mastermind behind my being here.

"What's going on?" I asked him, my hands clenched into fists at my sides.

Finitevus smiled. Yeah, it creeped me out.

"Well, Charolette, you are here to help science, of course. Come here." He said, motioning for me to move closer.

Against my better judgment I complied. My only reason being that I couldn't very well get home without their help, and they wouldn't give it unless I helped them.

I walked up to the table in between him and Miles. I saw papers. Diagrams. Letters. Ancient texts. You name it, and it was more than likely on that table.

"So? These are just a bunch of papers. What am I looking at?" I asked placing my hands on my hips.

He motioned for me to look.

Sighing, I picked up a personal letter. One from a 'Mammoth Mogul'. The paper was a dark, creamy gray, with the symbol of a great elephant with large tusks in the center of a circle with writing around it. The letter read:

"Dr.

I'm most interested to see how your plan will work out. I would be more than honored to fund your little project as long as I get to take part in the planning and get to see the results. You know the powers of the Chaos interest me more than anything.

Just don't forget that if you choose to give this information to any other party, the entire project goes up in smoke. Including the subject, who looks to be a good specimen from the research given by Scourge. I would hate to kill a young girl, and you know this. Though, I'm sure you also do not want this information given to the wrong hands.

Give my regards to your team, and the best of luck with the infusion. Let me know how it turns out.

-Mogul"

"What on Earth-," I asked myself, picking up another, similar piece of paper.

"Dr.

How is the girl's condition? You haven't told me since you initially brought her here. Part of our bargain was that I know every single detail of what transpires. You wouldn't want me to pull the plug would you? I can always get another mad scientist working on something like this. One who won't disobey me.

Also, if you plan on continuing, if I should pull away, I would like to know how you're going to retrieve a Chaos Emerald without grabbing the attention and fury of the Freedom Fighters. Especially if the girl doesn't make it.

-Mogul"

I finished the letter when I noticed one more letter which was still in a ripped open envelope lying on the table. I grabbed it up and looked at Finitevus.

"I just received this one today. I figure you might like to see what the 'good patron' says." Finitevus said with a slight grimace in his face.

Slowly, I opened the envelope and took out a letter with the heading similar to the ones I had just read.

"Dr.

I'm delighted to hear that the girl has survived the infusion. Of course the next trick will be to begin training her to be able to fight in battle. If we're to fully grasp the concept of this experiment then she needs to be able to utilize the power of the Chaos at any given time. And with the Freedom Fighters growing in numbers, we need to know now.

I want to meet her in one week's time. That should be ample enough of it to be able to get her used to her powers and to the world here. After that, she'll need to be put into battle where we can attempt to determine what needs to be done in order to transfer this type of power to one of our kind.

Enclosed are tickets to be able to get into my casino. Only four of you need to come, and if any more wish to join, then they will need to pay like the rest of my customers.

My regards to Miss Charolette.

-Mogul"

I stared at the letter in my hands with thousands upon thousands of question buzzing through my mind. However, only one coherent thought managed to get through the jumbled mess.

"Who's Mogul?" I asked, looking at Finitevus. He scowled at me, as though the very name itself brought bad experiences into his thoughts.

"Unfortunately, he is our patron," Finitevus started. "As you saw in the letters, we needed Chaos Emeralds. Not the Anarchy Beryl found her in Moebius which automatically produce a negative effect on any test subject we've tried. Mogul, unfortunately, was the only one we could think of who could access retrieving one of these without seeming too suspicious. At least, as least unsuspicious as one like himself could possibly get. Either way, we are now allied with him so we can continue our research."

"I'm just glad we don't need to ask Eggman for help." Said Boomer.

"Yeah, that would've been twice as annoying as Mogul. I mean, come on, who could possibly be THAT egotistical to name an entire army after himself?" Added Fiona.

"Egotistical as he is, at least he doesn't gnaw away at your ears every time he opens his jaw." Scourge said.

"Like you?" Fiona asked. Scourge smiled with his large, sharp teeth and bit Fiona's ear. She giggled.

I cringed at the sight of them, but then went right around blushing at the thought of his teeth grazing my own bare neck.

"Save your pleasantries for your own time." Finitevus said sharply. He then turned his gaze to me. "You must also be wondering about the Freedom Fighters?"

I nodded.

"They were mentioned once or twice in a threatening manner. I'm assuming that they're not friends of yours?"

"Correct. In essence, they are our… doubles. For lack of a better term. You see, they have this annoying little habit of sticking their noses into other people's business if it has to do with their general well being."

"So do we." Miles said. "Which then creates the great question of who's right and wrong?" He folded his arms across his chest, which allowed me a glimpse of the muscles in his arms. As to WHY I was looking, I have no idea. Perhaps it was the feeling of general intense observation of the deathly obvious that seemed to be protruding into the mindset of every living being in the room. Or, perhaps it was simply my curiosity as a female. A question I don't think I'd ever be able to answer.

"So, you are the 'bad guys' to them?" I asked skeptically, leaning up against the table alongside Miles.

"We are the 'bad guys', as you coin the term, to us as well." Finitevus said. "We don't have too much say in the matter, seeing that we're the exact opposites of the doubles that live in Mobius. That's the 'good' version of the world we're presently residing in."

"That's were you come in Charolette."

I turned my head to see Scourge walking in my direction. His sunglasses were down, which I assumed was for effect only since the room was so dark to begin with. Fiona was sitting on the chair alone. I smiled.

"You see, my double, Sonic, recently booted me offa my throne and I wanna get him back. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to beat him with the Anarchy Beryl found in this world, so we figured 'Why not a Chaos Emerald?" He came right in front of my face and placed his hands on the table behind me, around my waist.

"And since Chaos Emeralds are much more powerful than the Anarchy Beryl we needed to find a way to convert the energy to one of us. Though, everytime we tried, it didn't end too well…"

He growled the last sentence, his warm breath protruding into the personal bubble of my face.

"So, in order to continue with this, we needed to find a way to safely convert a Chaos Emerald's power into another being entirely. We had some bad tries until we finally decided to use a human." Miles interrupted sourly. I glance over at him to see that his tails were bristling to points. His icy blue eyes glaring directly at the side of Scourge's head.

"Exactly. So, I go to your world, bring you back here, and you know the rest." Scourge finished, slowly pulling off his sunglasses and placing them on his head. He pushed off the table and turned to face Miles.

"Now, all we have to do is see how you react to the Emerald, what you can do with the power, and then convert it to one of us to take care of the Freedom Fighters-,"

"-and take our rightful place as the soul occupants of our counterpart's lives."

"No more doubles."

"No more problems."

The two boys were now eye to eye. Neither of them blinking. Both of them were bristling.

I'm sure if I wanted to, I could've probably cut the tension that radiated from the both of them.

"So, I really am a fighting machine for you." I said, slowly realizing what Finitevus had said earlier.

"Wow, it took you this long to figure out?" Fiona asked from her perch on her wooden chair. I glared at her. She smirked. I stuck my tongue out. She made an obscene gesture.

"Why you-," I started as I began to walk over to her. Finitevus put his arm out, holding me back. I looked up at him, and he glanced down at me, raising his eyebrows in a 'What do you think you're doing?' type of look.

"The maturity level of all of you astounds me." He said in a droll, announcing his comment to the entirety of the room.

I looked sheepishly at the floor. I figured I was the only one who really took on the weight his comment intended to give. Fiona began to play with her hair, but then quickly stopped to wrap her arms around Scourge, who had gone back over to sit with her. Miles leaned back calmly against the table. Patches and Boomer went back to polish their saber and machines respectively.

I finally broke the awkward silence.

"So, I have a week to go show this Mogul guy what I can do?" I asked.

Finitevus nodded.

"At the rate you're going, however, you could probably be ready to see him tomorrow. The fact that you can use the Chaos powers effectively is more than what I had expected at this point in time."

"But remember zat we didn't know what to expect," Added Patches, who had been quiet the entire time.

"But, after what I saw tonight, I 'ave no doubt in my mind zat eet eez definitely more than what was expected." At this, Patches put his hand lightly to his head and looked down at the ground in silent fear of what he had experienced.

"Well, I suppose I'll just have to do as much as I can by next week then huh?" I asked everyone in general.

Scourge smiled.

"Got that right kid." He answered.

"So what exactly do I have to do?"

I looked expectantly at the Dr. He was staring down at the same tablet I saw when he 'initiated' me with the Chaos Emerald.

"Finitevus?" I asked him when he didn't answer. He looked up and then down at me.

"Hmm… I suppose at the very least you should try to sing considering it's something that you need to be able to do. Not to mention continue to train yourself for battle."

"Okay, I'm good with that, but please, please, please, PLEASE! Don't make me go back into the woods again!" I asked him, hugging him around his waist.

I could feel him go absolutely rigid under my touch, and I heard a gasp from somewhere behind me.

I then felt his hands grab me around my armpits and slowly pry me off him. Once he succeeded in doing that he extended his arms to maximum length and dropped me.

"Never touch me again if you wish to live. Understand?" He threatened, his eyes now gleaming like a demon's in the light of the lab as he seemed to loom miles above me.

I nodded my head vigorously in fear.

"Uh, I believe eet eez getting late for ze leetle girl. Why don't we pick up in the morning? Does zat sound good?" Patches asked, coming to my rescue.

Finitevus' eyes simmered down and he nodded in response to Patches.

"Fine. But just know, Charolette, that you will do whatever we tell you to do to complete your training." He said as he walked dramatically out of the lab, black cape cloaking his exit under its cover.

That's when Scourge burst out laughing. I looked right at him to see that he had pushed Fiona off him so he could laugh even harder. His eyes were stained with tears, and his teeth showed just how pointed they were. He started to pound his kneecap with his fist and he laughed even more.

"That face was priceless! Oh man, I would kill to see that face again!" He howled.

At that, I also began to chuckle. Simply because laughs were contagious like that. Pretty soon I was holding my stomach as well, which then got Boomer to also add some deep ones of his own.

"Excuse me, but I do believe Finitevus said she should get some sleep." Interrupted Miles as he crossed his arms. I slowly stopped laughing.

"Come off it Miles, we're just having a few laughs." Countered Fiona, as she too wiped some tears from her eyes.

"Well, it seems to me that you've had more than enough." He said turning towards me. "Would you like me to escort you back to your room?"

He held out his hand to me.

I looked at the hand for a moment and then put my own hand in it. He slowly gripped his large fingers around my own smaller ones. I heard Scourge grunt and saw him lean back in his chair as Miles walked me out of the lab.

"I expect to see you in zee main hallway before noon time tomorrow!" Called Patches.

"Got it!" I hollered back to him. That's when things got deathly quiet once more.

Miles guided me back to my room, slowly, never once letting go of my hand.

Once we were there he opened the door for me and guided me in.

"I hope that tonight's meeting didn't bother you too much, Charolette." He said, finally letting go of my hand. I walked over to my dresser and picked out some pajamas.

"It didn't… I guess I'm just glad that I know what's going on now. Ya know?" I replied, pulling out a pair of black leggings and a lime yellow T-shirt.

"Yes, I do…. You're definitely lucky, Charolette, no one else lived long enough to find out what they were supposed to do." I heard footsteps approach from behind me.

I turned to see him close to me. He then wrapped his arms around me and cradled my head in his hands.

I felt the warmth of his body and the intense beating of his heart

"Uh, Miles?" I asked softly.

"What is it?" He asked.

I stopped for a moment to think about the whole thing. This is what Scourge had been talking about. Miles having these feelings for me. At least, I was assuming that was how he would show them. Holding me and stuff. Against my better judgment I hugged him back, dropping my clothes to the floor.

This is really stupid… Especially if what Scourge said was true…

"Nothing." I answered.

He squeezed me tight and then released me. I looked up into his warm, ice blue eyes. He smiled down at me, his little canines showing.

"I'll wake you up tomorrow morning, how does that sound?" He asked. I nodded.

"That would be nice." I answered, and turned away towards the window. "Though, it already looks like it's the morning already.

Miles walked over to the window and looked out.

"Indeed it is…" He confirmed. He then turned towards me and I noticed how the buttons on his uniform gleamed. He then walked back over towards me, kneeled to the ground, and picked up my clothes from the ground.

"Thank you." I said, taking them from his hand. He smiled and stood up.

"I'll wake you later then. Goodnight." He said, walking out of the room and shutting the door.

I stood in disbelief of the events that just occurred.

"Did I just… flirt? With Miles?" I asked myself. I then nodded. More than likely that would've been considered flirting to some person somewhere in any of the different worlds that existed.

I sighed and changed into my pajamas. Man, were they comfy.

I then turned off the light, climbing into the large bed all by myself by the light of the moon that came in through my window. I was still fairly cold from the training I did earlier with Patches, so I quickly covered myself with the large comforters, feeling the warmth of my body immediately absorb into the materiel just to turn around and give warmth to me.

Needless to say, I slept quite soundly that night.

Hey all! Uh, I suppose since I have some readers now, I'll put some authors notes into this. So, I hope this chapter cleared up some 't'issues with the story line, at least a little bit. (Though I'm sure it probably doesn't…) If you feel anything does need to be cleared up please let me know and I will fix it promptly.

Also, if you don't mind going on a little quest for me, I'd appreciate it greatly if you would tell some people about this. And if you could also tell them to review and criticize. (destructive is welcomed.)

But yeah, thanks all.

-Dojang