GrapeStripes requested for her character to make an appearance in this story, so here she is! :) I hope you like this part, GS!


"I DO NOT!" Shadow yelled at Sonic, but I saw his muzzle flush red at the thought of liking my friend.

"Ooh, denial!"

"It is NOT denial! It is the truth!"

"Y'know, just the fact that you're denying the fact that you're denying-"

"Am I going to have to STRANGLE you so that you'll stop talking?"

Sonic went pale and shut up after that. Aidan gave him a grateful smile for changing the subject, which he returned sweetly. God, he is such a nice guy.

I was concentrating on a little piece of dust sitting on the floor at my feet when I heard a knocking noise that nearly made me jump out of my skin. Mason walked into the room again, carrying a small white piece of paper. "Letter for you," he said.

I took the paper from the albatross and he left the room again. It was a small envelope the size of my hand, and it had intricate gold vine designs along the edge of it. It was heavy, like the paper a birthday card is made from, and I tore it open gently.

I read it aloud as my friends all came closer so they could hear me.

""Dear Renata, I am seeking your help... the help of you and your friends. You have to trust me, as I can be of great assistance to you. I am a trained warrior, and have gone into combat many times. I am aware that your little group of friends has many talents, but you don't have anyone like me. I can take a knife through a man as easily as take a knife through butter. When I am in battle, I show no mercy for the enemy.""

I cleared my throat nervously and continued. ""This is why you must join my team. My sister and I are the only ones in it right now, and I consider everyone who is not on my team an enemy, which means you too. I don't want to have to hurt you, but if you do not join, then I just might have to kill one of your members, and it will bring cataclysmic results to your plans.""

Shadow gasped. "Does that mean me?"

"I think so," Aidan said, her voice thick with fear and her eyes widening.

"Cata-whatwhat?"

"Cataclysmic. It means disastrous," Silver told Cream. "We better do what this chick says. Aidan's vision will come true if we don't."

"Hell yeah we should," I murmured, then continued. ""I promise you that this is not a trap. I may sound shady when I say this, but you have to put your trust in me. Please join my team... Team Pureblood. With utmost respect for now, C.""

"C?" Sonic looked confused.

"It just says C," I said. "Maybe she'll tell us her full name if - I mean, when we meet her." I waved at Mason, who hobbled forward immediately. "Is the sender of the message still around?"

He nodded. "She out in hallway. Do you wish to see her?" When I nodded, he ran off.

"Man, that guy is seriously FAT," Rouge said after he was out of earshot.

Cream glared at her. "Be nice. He's FLUFFY, not fat."

Sonic snorted.

Mason came back a minute or so later, leading a small girl behind him. She had a gray long sleeved coat on with a hood that obscured her face in darkness. I couldn't even see her eyes. I saw a short, but sharp sword on her hip and shivered as I remembered Aidan's vision of her stabbing the blade into Shadow's heart. I waved him out, then looked at "C".

She was, now that I could get a good look at her, a bit shorter than Aidan, with a paper-thin figure like Aidan said. She didn't seem to have hit that age where she could get curves (like Rouge), but I didn't notice that at first. I stepped up to her and gently took the hood off of her head.

At first, C seemed pretty normal. Her hair was a soft, shimmering amethyst-lavender that hung to a bit below her shoulders, and her muzzle was a light gray. A tuft of purple fur on her forehead extended like bangs over her face. The small smile curving at her mouth gave her a child-like appearance, but I knew she was no child.

The sight of her eyes made me give a slight shudder of horror. Her eyes, where they were supposed to be a pure white, were instead an intense, onyx black; her irises were a dark red with no pupils. They were dull as stone, and little light seemed to flicker off of them. They were cold, soulless, as if her sense of living had been sucked from her and all that remained was an empty shell of what she had been. I couldn't tell how old she was with those eyes.

"Don't pretend to not be afraid," she said. Her voice was adult, tinged with insanity. "I know that I scare you. I can tell."

"Who are you, exactly?" Aidan asked her. "I mean, we know you're 'C', but what does that symbolize or whatever?"

"It is the first letter of my name, of course," the strange girl said. "It's short for Caroline. I'm Caroline the Fox-Cat." She did a funny little curtsy, grinning.

"Gotcha," Shadow said. "Y'know, in my friend's vision, I was the one you would be killing right now if we didn't join your Pureblood Team."

"Is that so?" Caroline sneered. "You better join then, 'cause you look like a pretty important character, not to mention a sexy one."

Shadow said nothing about her flirtatious comment. "You better back off my man unless you want my boot up your ass," Rouge growled. Caroline ignored her.

"You don't have to worry about us not wanting to be in your group," I said, ignoring Rouge too. "Count me in."

"I'll join," Aidan said, standing up. We met our gazes and grinned.

Caroline smiled. "Anyone else? You don't all have to join," she added, seeing a few of the others' unsureness.

Sonic and Amy looked at each other. "Then we're not going to join," she murmured after a moment.

Caroline just nodded. "Understood. I will treat you like allies, though I will never have full trust in you."

"I'll join," Silver smiled, putting an arm around Blaze. "And my girl is coming with me."

"I'm definitely joining," Shadow grinned. "I love the name Pureblood. Plus I don't exactly want to die quite yet."

"I'm with Shadow." At the sound of Rouge's voice, the ebony groaned and said something under his breath that sounded vaguely like, "Clingy bitch just can't get off of me."

I suppressed a giggle. I looked down at the note, which I had been clinging in my fist, and reread it.

I saw something I must have missed before. "It says that so far it's only you and your sister on the team. Where is your sister?"

A flicker of agony shot across Caroline's face, but was soon replaced by a cool mask. "Home, healing. She was horribly wounded in battle." Her words were clipped, and I could tell that she didn't like having her sister apart from her.

"Well she has my best wishes of good health," I said formally, putting my hand over my heart.

Caroline smiled and mimicked the motion.

"Is there anything we can do to help her heal?" Shadow asked.

Caroline thought for a moment, rubbing her muzzle. "If we had some real Chaos power she would heal at four times the speed."

Sonic and Shadow looked at each other, then Shadow looked at Caroline. "I have Chaos power infused into my blood. If I had an Emerald I'd be able to heal her."

Caroline's face brightened, and her voice lowered. "I have the blue Emerald. If we could get you out of here, or my sister to you, we would be great, and you could heal her."

"If she's really wounded that badly then I'm gonna have to get out of here to save her the trouble of coming here." Shadow's voice rippled through us, giving us hope.

"Of course," Caroline said. She mused happily over the idea, then grinned ever wider. "Do you think it would be possible to send... waves of health to her mentally, over a long distance?"

Shadow thought. "It could be possible, but I've never heard of such a thing. We could try, though," he added.

Without another word, Caroline looked around her for guards. When she saw we were safely alone, she reached deep into her coat and pulled out a shimmering sapphire Chaos Emerald, radiating power. She handed it through the bars of the window to Shadow, who took it with both hands and closed his eyes. His eyebrows furrowed and his lips curved down into a deep frown as he concentrated on whatever he was doing.

A minute passed.

Then another.

A third minute went by.

Then Shadow grinned, showing straight white teeth. "I can feel her body strengthening. She's healing!"

Caroline clapped, laughing with delight. "Thank you so much, Shadow." She took the Emerald back from him. "I'll keep that."

Shadow nodded his head, then stepped away from her.

Caroline grinned. "Just curious... do any of you wanna get out of here?"

"Do you have to ask?" Sonic said.

Caroline shrugged. "The thing is that I think I can get you out."


*gasp* R&R! OMFG!

Sadly I don't have any more chapters completed right now, so it might be a while before I update again. But chapter 10 is a W.I.P., so it might be up soon :D

So, bye for now!

~ GABL