A/N: Sorry for the late update. Writer's block…

The Bet

Chapter 17

1:05 a.m.

The Nightmare

"So…we're supposed to give this to him?" Sonic asked.

"That's what he ordered me to do. But if he finds no use for it, we'll just use it as blackmail." Scourge replied. He adjusted the sunglasses on his head. A waitress came over with the drinks they had ordered, but Scourge's had a little piece of paper on it. Her number. Sonic thought disgusted. He winked at the girl as she left, making her giggle.

"But, why?"

"If I were the boss, I'd tell ya. I'm not, so shut up already. All you are is my lackey. Supposedly… you're not that obedient…" the green hedgehog mocked.

"I was never nor will I be your lackey. I was tricked into this, but I don't understand is why it had to me specifically when he's after Shadow." Sonic exclaimed. It frustrated him, sure Shadow was mean to him at times, but he wouldn't wish this kind of luck onto him. But, he was there recording it. It sickened him…

"Technically," he stopped to stare lustfully at the waitress, who waved; eyelashes batting, "He's never said who he was after. I think he just has it in for Stripes. I mean, the guy killed years ago, didn't care who it was. If you lose someone you, I dunno, love or some shit, you'd want revenge on the maniac who killed them. Right or wrong?"

"Right, but-"

"Exactly. Point proven." This marked the end for any conversation afterwards. Sonic sighed, looking around the grotesque club. What had he gotten himself into, he wasn't sure…but it wasn't good either. What Shadow said earlier, he was supposed to be the hero stopping crime, not encouraging it. Yet, he sat here with a dimensional outlaw praising some guy who has it out for his team. He had to make this right on his own. And he'll start by getting away…but the question was, how and when?

"Scourge?"

"What?"

"Has there ever been anybody who wanted out?" the green hedgehog's cold eyes shifted towards him.

"What do you mean by that…?" his tone was cautious. He was smarter than Sonic thought.

"I mean, has anybody tried to get out the group?"

"Sure, but it depend on who you're talking about; male or female," Sonic shrugged, so he continued, "Mostly females. Guys who try see the boss and are never heard from again, girls just get to leave." Scourge explained calmly. Sonic thought about what he'd do now. He didn't to get killed viciously, but he knew he wouldn't escape unscathed. This just got a whole lot harder…

XxXxXxXxXxX

Shadow shifted slightly feeling movement. Slowly cracking open an eye, he saw Amy sitting up rubbing her eyes, yawning quietly. A small smile played at his lips just from the sight of her, it wasn't because the sheets covering her upper half was slipping from her grasp, but because he liked the sight of waking up next to her. Something he could use to. The sun that tried to pry its way through the blinds left lines on the wall next to them, showing that it was now morning.

"Stop…" Amy said lazily. She didn't even look back at him. This caused the ebony hedgehog to roll his eyes at her, before sitting up himself.

"What did I do now?" he asked.

"You're staring…" she answered. She stretched and yawned again, lying against the bed, arching her back and arms and legs flared out in many different directions that it seemed almost inhumane. A strange way to stretch you'd call it…

"I don't know what to say about you sometimes, Rose." Shadow shot back truthfully. Amy came to a rest and stared up at him slowly reaching her pointed finger up. He stared back, returning the same gesture. Soon enough, their finger rested on the other's nose, a hard squint to see you'd move away first. Then Amy sneezed, backing away.

"I don't like you…" she said, turning onto her side. Shadow wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him. He heard her blow out an exaggerated breath; they were both still bare. "Leave me alone." Amy whined.

"I don't see why I should. You don't like me, maybe I should agitate you…" he said, nose buried in the side of her neck. The pink female stifled an oncoming moan at his actions, pushing him away.

"Go away!" she laughed. He couldn't help but laugh himself. What a cliché way to start off the day… Then, Amy's phone made a sound and she reached over and grabbed it.

"Oh! They're releasing Blaze today! Can we go, please?" she begged. Shadow shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant way. Amy gave a cheer and got ready. The ebony hedgehog shook his head at her. Just like that, she went from her age to a six-year-old child…one of the many things about her that amazes him.

"Blaze, why aren't you excited?! They're letting you go home!" Silver exclaimed happily. The feline shrugged with the good shoulder, her other in a sling to help it heal.

"Well, I figured more people would show up…" she admitted. It was just her, Silver and Amy, with the exception of Shadow who remained in the waiting room. A doctor was in the room, checking everything one final time, while a nurse gathered the paperwork for the discharge. No one else came.

"Oh, come on, Blaze. That's not something to be sad about. After what happened yesterday, I'm pretty sure Tails and Knuckles are nursing bruises." Amy joked. This caused her to smile a little bit, remembering the look Cream gave the fox before they left. Not forgetting the way she dragged him out with his ear in hand. No doubt about it that they went to Vanilla for counseling…

"Okay, Miss Blaze. Everything is in order, all we need now is a signature from someone who will be your caregiver and you're free to go." the doctor said, holding out a clipboard. Blaze was looking at Amy, but Silver went ahead and grabbed the pen.

"Silver, what are you doing?" Blaze asked, confused.

"I'm signing the papers. Duh…" he replied. The pen unsteadily flew across the sheet and when he was done, the doctor gave a nod of farewell, and left. The nurse stayed behind and helped her into a wheelchair.

"Silver…you do know what you just did, right?" Amy asked.

"Of course I do! I'm taking care of Blaze. No big deal." Silver shot back smugly. Amy and Blaze exchanged glances.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

"You did WHAT?!" Tails shouted. Silver cowered back against the wall of the little workshop.

"All I did was sign the paper…" he answered shyly.

"No, you signed it saying that's who Blaze will be with until she's healed! Why didn't you let Amy sign it?!" the fox raged on. The girls all had their ears folded, hoping to block out his shrill cries. Cream just tied hers around her head. "This changes everything!" he went on.

"How? I don't understand…"

"Rouge talked to the girls and they agreed to stay here; a sleepover. If you're in charge of taking care of Blaze, it means you have to stay to watch over her." Knuckles explained.

"No it doesn't. They'll be here to watch after her. I mean, it's just a little sling. She can handle herself!" Silver exclaimed. Tails rolled his eyes and stormed off.

"Silver, that's a document that is being copied and stored for later usage. If anything happens to her, you're responsible. It's your name on this sheet," Shadow said. Silver took the copy of the discharge forms and saw his horrible cursive, "No matter how horribly written it is, everyone who has access to this form knows you're her caregiver from now until she's healed."

"That doesn't make any sense! They won't know." Silver shrugged.

"No, they won't, but if something does happen to her, you-" Silver cut Tails off rudely.

"Are responsible! Yeah, I got that part." he mocked.

Later that evening, the guys made an adjusted plan for the intrusion. Tails decided that Silver should come anyway, but made sure he had the littlest part to play when things came down to it. The girls were going to stay at Rouge's house while also helping Blaze with anything she needed. An innocent sleepover…at least that's what Rouge promised.

"Okay, we're going to leave around eleven. That's give them plenty of time to be with the girls before we leave. When it's time to go, don't delay. We leave on time, and we may make it back by morning. Understood?" Tails explained. They all nodded, and Silver grumbled something under his breath. The fox gave him a nasty look before leaving them to themselves.

"I didn't do anything…" he whined.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

"We are going to have a blast! Isn't that right girls?" Rouge exclaimed happily. They gave her a questioning brow at her use of a corny line, but said nothing. Everyone had on pajamas, excluding the guys, dressed in cliché military combat clothes being dark green in camouflage colors.

"You better not do anything stupid, batgirl." Knuckles warned. She shot him a look at the use of the nickname.

"I thought we dropped the name-calling, dear." Rouge said, too sweetly. He returned a false smile and slightly hid behind Shadow, who rolled his eyes.

"So, what do you have planned?" Cream asked. It was a known fact that when Rouge planned any kind of party, there would always be some kind of twist to it. Last time, she had them play hide-and-seek blindly and all guys who opposed- Shadow being the only one- had to dress as a girl to be apart of their team. It was both funny and chaotic, because Silver went home with four bruises from bumping into stuff.

"Not much really. First, we could make pizzas for dinner. Then, maybe watch a movie or two. Afterwards, play some games; Just Dance 4, Mario Kart, Mario Party…just to name a few." Rouge explained, counting of her fingers.

"So when's the game where you ridiculously alter the rules to your liking?" Amy asked, the question everyone wanted to know the answer to.

"Oh, that's after the guys leave…" she replied mischievously. They became scared at that point…

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Amy sat on the stairwell and watched Rouge and Cream play Mario Kart Wii, engaged into a heated match that even Knuckles and Silver were playing against them. They called each other names and tried to mess the other up, but the girls always came in first and second place. After the pizzas were made, everyone kind of went their separate ways. Shadow went outside for air, Tails was at the dinning room table looking over the plans…again, and Blaze was…somewhere in the house; probably exploring. Why she sat on the stairs? She didn't know, but it was away from the 'party' and she had peace and quiet to think. So, she thought!

Her main thought was: If Shadow didn't return… Not only would that mean she'd lost someone she loved, but that mean she would never again experience what she had with him. (Though she was really worried about his chest fur, for an odd reason…) And the fact that eleven was almost upon them, worried her even more. They would be out the door, where she had no control over what could and would happen. It frightened her…just the slightest bit, but he'd be fine…right?

~.~

Shadow came back from outside, and the first thing he noticed was the absence of a certain pink hedgehog. Then spotted her looking at Rouge jump up and down because she won and threw the Wii remote at Knuckles. This meant something was wrong. He knew this, but he wasn't sure if he needed to know what… He decided to let her keep her privacy; if it were something important, she'd tell him. But then again…No, she needs her privacy. So, he approached a one-person couch and sat down and watched the remainder of the game.

"Ha! In your face!" Rouge whooped. Knuckles grumbled something and threw the remote on the floor, and Silver did the same with his. And just then, Blaze came back from wherever she went.

"Did I miss something?" she asked.

"Only the most humiliating kart races in history!" Silver whined. Cream sat quietly next to Tails, tongue out in concentration, as she focused on finishing the race. Silver gave up just because he knew he wouldn't pass her.

"You'll get over it." the feline said, and sat next to him on the three-person couch.

"Yeah! That's right! Who's the best? Rouge's the best! Who's the best? Rouge's the best!" the ivory bat even did a little dance, which angered Knuckles more. It wasn't long before the echidna snapped.

"Alright, we get it. Calm down will ya?" Cream said. Rouge flashed her a toothy grin and set up the next match. That's when she realized someone was missing.

"Amy? Where is she?"

"Over there…" Tails pointed out. The pink female was picking at her toes that had been painted a little while ago. She was too far to hear them.

"Amy! Come on, we're starting the next game. We need a fourth player. 'Cause some people are sore loser!" Knuckles gave her a nasty look for that comment and stormed out the room. Amy shuffled her way in there and grabbed his discarded remote.

"Are you okay?" Tails asked. She nodded and sat on the floor next to Rouge.

"Silver, you in?" The silver hedgehog huffed and stuck his nose in the air with his arms crossed. "How 'bout you, Tails? Wanna play?" Shrugging, he took Silver's and they started the game.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

The clock struck eleven and expressed it with eleven chimes that rang throughout the house. Silver raised a questioning eyebrow as to why the ivory 'used-to-be' jewel thief even had such an antique as a grandfather clock.

"It was on sale…" he rolled his eyes and went to stand by the door. Tails put his remote down and joined him, Knuckles coming from the kitchen with the remainder of Rouge's pizza. "Hey!"

"That's what you get for gloating." he said, finshing it in one bite. When Shadow stood, he found that Amy had attached herself to his leg and held onto it like a child.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Making it difficult for you to walk." she answered and held on tight. Cream and Rouge 'awed', while Amy rolled her eyes. He tried to shake her loose and pry her off, but she wouldn't budge, so he had no choice.

"You know this is not necessary, right?"

"Of course. I was going to do this anyway." His glanced at her with a scowl, hoping he wouldn't lose his balance. And only when he stopped in front of the door, did she let go. "That was fun! Do it again!" she clapped and giggled.

"Next time, I'll sit there until you let go." Shadow said.

"Uh, honey, since when have you known me to have something better to do? Try it if you want to…" Amy sassed. He glared at her and she returned it with a smile. With Knuckles, Silver, and Tails out the door, he had something up his sleeve. When she turned to walk back, he smacked her rear end and ran out the door. Amy glared holes through it, hoping it would reach the ebony hedgehog. Rouge saw the whole thing and went to say something, but Amy cut her off.

"Don't even ask."

Finally got this finished! I had MAJOR writer's block for this, I've rewritten it six times! But, now I can move on, 'cause guess what? You finally get to see some action! I thinking the next chapter and another after that before an epilogue…then that'll be it. So, three chapters at the least…or four because I think a cliffhanger is overdue. So, stick with me until the end! Comments and thoughts, please! Until then… -D.A.K.