Through the Looking Glass: Chapter 6-B
Sixth Dream
Much to Banjo's surprise, he found himself in a large room with a bunch of cages instead of the metal room he had become so accustomed to expecting. Rouge was outside one of the cages, and the instant the bear saw her he ran over to her and tackled her to the ground. The bat was caught off guard, but when she felt the strength of the honey bear's embrace she didn't fight back.
"Oh, Rouge, it happened!" he said. "She's back!"
The bat's eyes went wide with this. "Uh, Banjo?" asked Rouge as she attempted to sit back up.
"What is it?" asked the bear.
It was then that he noticed the fear in her topaz eyes. He let her go instantly, knowing that whatever came next had to be bad.
"It's Eggman," she said almost desperately. "We... Our exchange of Tooty caused a Chaos energy spike. Eggman saw this, and now... well... these cages speak for themselves."
The bear looked to the cages, and then he shivered in fright as he saw them. However, he was still confused, so he turned back to his companion with a strange kind of confusion alight in his sapphire eyes.
"What else does it mean?" asked Banjo.
Rouge gripped the heart-shape on her chest before speaking. "There's a really long explanation," she said. "But what it whittles down to is, Eggman knows where you are. And he's not gonna stop until he has your emeralds."
Banjo's eyes went wide with shock as he thought of the implications of this statement that really weren't implied. "Oh, no..."
The bat nodded to confirm her ursine companion's fears. "I managed to change the coordinates for the attack he was planning," she said. "With any luck, they won't find out until it's too late. That should be enough time for you to leave. Banjo, you've gotta get yourself, Tooty, and Kazooie out of there before his robots find you!"
Banjo only looked at Rouge with more concern on his face. "Wait," he said. "Where did you change them to?"
"They're heading east of you now," replied the bat. "They'll be there in the morning, too!"
"Wait, east..." said Banjo, looking up with a frown on his face. When something suddenly dawned on him, he looked down, gripping Rouge's arms with the fear eminent in his eyes. "Oh, no! That's where Showdown Town is!"
Rouge was confused by this sudden exclamation. "Showdown Town?" she asked. "What's that?"
"Oh, no..." he said, rubbing his head as he stood up and started pacing from where Rouge stood to one of the cages in the room. "It's where most of my friends are! I've gotta help them!"
The bat was alarmed by this sudden proclamation. She stood up and ran to the bear. "Are you crazy?" she asked. "You'll just get yourself in trouble!"
"I don't care!" replied Banjo as he turned to the bat. "If I can save my friends there, then I'll be fine!"
"Banjo, don't be so quick to act!" replied Rouge, concern laced all over her voice. "This guy has an entire army of robots on his side! You can't stand up to him with the current number of--"
"I don't care how many robots are there, or whether Eggman is with them or not, but I am not going to sit here letting my friends get hurt by this crazy doctor!" Rouge was startled by what the bear had half-shouted, but the bear barely noticed this as he continued. "If I can help my friends, then I'm going to do that, whether you want me to or not! I'm not gonna sit here trying to escape while they're in danger! I mean, they're my friends!"
Rouge was still shocked, more by the fact that the bear was more adamant than she was usually accustomed to with their conversations. Indeed, as Banjo looked at her wildly, the bat was bewildered by how upset he seemed to be. However, when she nodded and wrapped her arms around her ursine friend, the bear found it hard to stay upset, and instead blushed.
"Then I'll support your decision," she said. "Just don't get caught, okay?"
"I'll try not to," replied the bear as Rouge let him go. "What else do you know?"
Rouge smiled. "Well, I also know that the Master Emerald is somewhere close to where you are."
The bear looked to his friend, surprise registering on his face. "Really?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said. "Listen, when you get to, uh, wherever you escape to, head for the highest point you can think of and look for a floating island."
Banjo nodded, keeping in mind that the first thing to do after he and his friends had escaped was that they had to run to Cloud Cuckooland as quickly as they could. "I've got a friend who has some airships, so I could probably use that," he said. "And what's there?"
"Once you get to this floating island, look for a shrine," she said. "It shouldn't be hard to miss; it's the only building on the whole island. Once you're there, you'll find two people guarding the Master Emerald. Talk to them, and tell them that they need to move the island, or else Eggman's troops will come and take everything away."
"Okay," said the bear. "Are they Knuckles and Shade?"
Rouge nodded at this, figuring he had gotten his information from the omnipotent friend he supposedly had. "Yeah," she said. "Whatever you do, don't mention my name to Knuckles. If you do, you'll get your ass handed to you, I'm sure."
"Why?" asked the bear. "I thought you were friends?"
"Well, even with this, Knuckles still didn't like me all that much," replied Rouge with a shrug. "Guess it's because I kept on trying to steal the Master Emerald. And if you say my name to him now... well... I'm sure he'll be pretty pissed."
Banjo nodded, holding his hand to his head. "I can't believe this all happened because we got Tooty over to my end of the world... I... Did you know this would happen? And did you know he'd find out?"
Rouge shook her head, grabbing Banjo's hands. She then looked straight into his eyes, the bear noticing the light dancing around her eyes with a sincere lustre. She looked down at the ground for a second trying to find the best way to word her next few sentences. When she found a way, the bat looked back into Banjo's blue eyes.
"That doesn't matter," she replied. "Eggman is Eggman, and he's still ruthless and he still would've found me out. Even if I had known... Even if I had the opportunity to go back in time to change things knowing that this would happen... Even with all that..." She paused, swallowing before continuing. "I... I would've done it all again."
The ursine's eyes seemed to glint in a faint hint of surprise as the bat continued. "It's not fair, what you had to go through... It's not fair at all... You didn't deserve to have your sister taken away from you for such a long time... Banjo... You're probably the kindest and friendliest person I've ever met in my life. I... Your smile is so... It's the kind of thing you want to see all the time. And even with all of this knowledge of what would have happened, I would've done everything like this, if only to see that smile on your face..."
Here, she abruptly turned away, taking her hands off of the bear's as she walked slowly away. "I don't deserve your friendship..." she said, sniffling slightly as tears threatened to billow out of her eyes. "I've been a traitor and a bitch to my friends. I always have. Ever since you came along, I've been better to them, but still... I'm a bad person, Banjo. You're too good to hang around me..."
There was a brief silence where Banjo considered what the bat had told him. The bat bit back tears as she waited for the bear's reply. When some thoughts had spiraled around his head for a long time, he made a strange realization. With this in mind, he walked over to Rouge and surprised her greatly with the most tender hug he could manage. This shocked her out of her state of distraction, but when she noticed the bear's smile out of the corner of her eyes she seemed to be put at some ease.
"Don't talk like that," he began, voice seeping in tenderness as he looked down at his companion. "You may have been bad to your friends, but... What you did for me wasn't what any bad person would do. You brought my sister back, you told me about Eggman's plans to come straight for me... And the fact that you would've done the same thing even if you knew this was going to happen... You're not a bad person, Rouge. You're not a bad person, even if you've been bad to your friends. I couldn't think of anybody who deserves to be my friend more if I took Kazooie off of that list. Rouge... Don't think like that. Please."
Rouge was genuinely touched by what the bear had told her. Smiling, she turned around in his light embrace, and when Banjo felt her own arms wrapping around the bear's body, he found a small blush creeping onto his cheeks. However, when he looked down at Rouge he saw a similar shade of red showing through her own white fur.
"Banjo..." she said softly.
Both bear and bat blushed just a little harder when they realized just how close they were to each other. However, this time neither one of them was truly willing to let go of the other.
It was so that they both leaned in, closing the remaining distance. Their hearts were beating at a speed most marathon runners would be jealous of as they leaned in close, the two of them closing their eyes.
Finally, their lips connected softly and tenderly, and Banjo and Rouge both shared their first kiss.
Their lips were joined for only around a half a minute, but to both of them it felt like they had kissed for an eternity. When the pair had finally parted, they looked at each other wth want in their eyes. However, Rouge simply hugged herself tighter to the honey bear, her head resting on his chest as one of her ears tickled his chin slightly.
"Oh, Banjo..." she said softly. "I..."
The bear simply held the bat close to him, closing his eyes and sighing contentedly.
"Rouge..." he said, unable to say much else.
And they just held each other, letting the silence that pervaded the room say what neither of them could adequately put words to.
Rouge woke up with a dreamy smile on her face. Even behind closed eyelids, she felt rather happy that she had gotten to talk to Banjo.
But it was the kiss that had gotten her heart aflutter. She shifted slightly as her smile only intensified at the thought. She was definitely not expecting that things would get to that point, but when they did, it was entirely welcome for her. Maybe she had finally found somebody to love...
"So you're finally up."
The bat's eyes shot open at hearing Shadow's voice. She then sat up from where she had curled up the night before to sleep, and saw that the black hedgehog was up. Cream, Sonic, and Amy looked at him with concerned expressions on their faces as the black hedgehog looked at Rouge.
"I... I guess I owe you an explanation, don't I?" she asked.
"Well, since Sonic accidentally burned up that note you had when he tried to get it to me, yes," replied Shadow.
The bat nodded, glancing at the microphones as she did. "I... I guess I can talk about it in greater detail now..."
And then she started relating the story of what had happened when she met the easy-going honey bear from Spiral Mountain.