A/N: Well guys here's another chapter. Looks like the end is approaching. It won't be long now. Oh and by the way don't be surprised if I change the title, I was never quite set on the current one, but I need to call it something so I could post the story lol.

Chapter 20

Knuckles flew as hard as he could. He looked over his shoulder seeing the building covered in black and clear ooze. He didn't know what it was or what was happening, but he knew it wasn't good. He looked forward through the rain and suddenly he realized that Rouge was not too far ahead of him. He pushed himself even harder. "Rouge!"

Rouge looked over her shoulder and slowed as she recognized the red echidna. "Knuckles!"

"What's happening?" knuckles yelled through the rain.

"I don't know." Rouge looked from him back toward the middle of the city where lightning was striking down to the Earth.

"I'm scared." Lilly hugged Rouge's neck.

A sudden burst of wind hit Rouge and they did several summersaults downward. Knuckles dove down under Rouge and held her up briefly until she got her bearings. "Rouge are you alright?"

She nodded as she followed his lead and the three of them lighted down on top of the edge of a building. She looked at Lilly who was unconscious in her arms. They were on the very outer edge of the city. Rouge stood there holding Lilly and looking back to the center of the city.

A large scream went up over the entire city and the black ooze shot up like a fountain on top of the center building. Daniels body was no longer there it was swallowed up by the giant mass of muck. It all began to come together in some kind of huge figure. Within the next moment the muck took the form of a huge monster. It stood on two long legs and it loomed over the city with its arms so long that they reached the city streets. It's four dark midnight eyes were glowing brightly on his ugly flattened head and it roared loudly as another clap of thunder sounded.

"Rouge, we've got to get out of here!" Knuckles took her arm.

Rouge had been standing motionless watching the creature, but finally was brought back by Knuckles hand. She looked at Lilly in her arms and then at Knuckles frantic expression. "Knuckles..."

"Rouge, come on we have go." He said a little more calmly, but plenty of hast could still be heard in his voice.

"No." She said quietly as she closed her eyes.

"What?" Knuckles put his hand on her shoulder. "Rouge we-"

"Knuckles," She turned fully to him with her eyes now open. "Take Lilly." She gently placed the little panther in his arms.

"Where do you think you're going?" He asked looking up at her with a serious expression.

"Knuckles this is my fault." She looked back at the monster. "I have to go."

"Rouge what do you mean your fault? You don't have to go Rouge! Stay! Stay with me." he said moving so he was face to face with her.

Rouge leaned in suddenly and kissed him. Knuckles blushed as she kissed him more deeply and more lovingly than she ever had before. She parted slightly allowing her forehead to rest against his and she looked into those violet eyes as if it were the first time. "I love you Knuckles." He blushed deeply as she rested her cheek against his. Then she turned and began to walk toward the edge of the roof ready to leave.

"Rouge!" He took her wrist with his one free hand. She looked back at him. "I love you too." He said before gently releasing her hand.

She smiled at him. "You two have to get out of here. I don't know what will happen. Just keep her safe Knuckles." She flapped her wings and dove off the building.

Knuckles ran to the edge, "and you better come back, you hear me!"

Rouge flew straight toward the center of the city where the monster had began its rampage, as she flew she heard Nova's voice in her head once more. "Rouge! What are you doing!"

"I'm going to stop this thing." She said with an unchanged expression of determination.

"It's too late for that! You'll be killed!" Nova argued.

"Then so be it. I can't live knowing that I created this thing and did nothing to stop it." She flew straight on never slowing.

"Rouge you can't do this!"

Rouge's expression turned to anger. "I can do this Nova!" She yelled as she approached the monster. "If ever you had any faith in me, now is the time to show it!" She turn to the side and flew around the great mass of ooze as if sizing up an enemy.

"Where is it?" Rouge's eyes darted from place to place on the giant creature. She pulled off her gloves and dropped them without care. She looked at the markings on her arm. "Come on, show me where it is." She said as she dashed around the monster. She circled up the creature as it swung its long arms about trying to knock her away. "Come on , come on!" Finally she noticed the markings on her arm were growing slightly brighter. She drove upward moving as fast as she could. "It must be up there." She looked at the monster's head. She circled his head trying to concentrate on finding the stone, while at the same time trying to avoid being smacked out of the air by the monsters swinging arms. She dashed around the head again. "I don't see it." She said in a panic. Then she realized that perhaps she couldn't see it because the stone was not on the surface, but inside the beast. "Oh no..." She took in a deep breath. In the next second she was doing a screw kick right into the back of the monster's head. She thought at first she was going straight through it, but suddenly she realized she was slowing down, "No, no!" She squirmed as the thick ooze began to enclose around her and the hole she had made began to disappear.

"Rouge!" A voice sounded from outside. "Rouge!" She realized at once that it was Knuckles. "Let her go you giant tub of lard!" Knuckles swung his barbed fist right into the creatures gut.

"No, Knuckles!" Rouge yelled. "Get out of here!" She yelled, but to no avail. Her voice didn't travel far through the muck.

Knuckles was continuing to punch at the creature when suddenly the monster swiped its giant fist right into Knuckles knocking him straight into a building and causing it to crumble. It let out a squalling sound as if in triumph, but it was short lived as Knuckles jumped out of the rubble and began another attack.

"No Knuckles get away!" Rouge cried as she heard him attack again and again and every time it was the same result. The only damage being caused was to Knuckles and every building his body knocked down.

Knuckles stumbled out of yet another pile of rubble. "Giant blob, I won't give up that easy." Knuckles wouldn't admit it, but he could barely move. The creature didn't wait for more; it held up its arm and prepared to strike Knuckles yet again.

"Stop it!" Another voice sounded in Rouge's ears and this one scared her more than the first. "You leave my daddy alone!"

"No! Lilly! Get out of here!" Rouge yelled harder.

Knuckles held his left arm tightly. "Lilly no, get out of here!" He said with his teeth gritted in pain.

"No." Lilly stood in front of the monster. "Not until he gives me back my mommy!" She growled.

Rouge shook her head. "No, please! Lilly run away!" She cried out, but Lilly couldn't hear her.

"Lilly!" Knuckles called out, but he was to injured to move as quickly as he need too.

The monster didn't hesitate as it swatted its hand into Lilly and sent her grinding down the street like a pebble.

"No! Lilly!" Knuckles yelled.

Rouge didn't need to see to know what had happened. She gritted her teeth. "No...NO!" She screamed and this time it was so loud that Knuckles heard her. When she opened her eyes they were glowing and her expression was that of rage. She held her hands up.

Outside the monster a lighting storm was brewing strongly. Knuckles was on his knees as he looked up at the sky and then suddenly a bolt of lightning hit the monster and it exploded. Knuckles shielded himself from the shower of disgusting ooze. When he looked up again he saw Rouge in the air. He realized she was floating, because she wasn't flapping her wings and she was staying in one place. She was covered in a blue aurora that matched her glowing eyes. She held up a single clenched fist and opened it slowly. Laying there in her palm was the Tokda stone, for a few moments it was the ugly dirty color it had been when in the hands of Daniels, but then suddenly it began to shake viciously. The unceasing ooze that had been coming out of the stone at last had stopped and the stone's horrible shade began to change and finally it was reverted back to the calm cool blue it had once been.

The black ooze that had been cast away from the stone lay all around the city, but as the light of the newly purified stone grew brighter the black ooze began to shake more and more violently against the ground. In the next few moments the muck began to move it was all running across the ground. Knuckles gritted his teeth as he watched it all run across the streets and through the rubble. It was all moving to the same spot. It was lumping back together to form into a large mass. Knuckles realized what was happening as more and more of the ooze ran together. The monster was beginning to reshape.

Rouge looked down at the monster as it stood before her while it's arms continued to reform. Rouge looked the thing in the eye. She clutched the stone in her fist once more, and in the next moment another bolt of lightning hit Rouge and the stone. Knuckles had to shield his eyes from the brightness. "Rouge!"

When he looked up again his eyes widened. Rouge was still floating there, only now her clothes had been ripped up badly and her whole body was covered in the same glowing markings that had once only been found on her forearm. Her glowing stare rested on the monster. She spoke at last and her voice seemed to be more than one. It was as if someone else was talking with her. "And now you will die."