Neutral Charges {Sequel/ Sonourge}

SIXTEEN

__Scourge was panting as Caliburn shook in both his hands. Despite it being a nice cool day, he was burning hot. He dug Caliburn into the dirt and quickly removed his jacket. He then placed the jacket on one of the boulders Caliburn had cut in half. The whole area around had broken bits of wood and stones. Scourge had been training with Caliburn nearly the entire day. He was able to use basic techniques now, and his arms were sore.
__It was almost sunset, so Scourge wanted to call it a day. "Damn!" He rasped. He looked down at Caliburn, who was still stuck in the ground. "You're a lot heavier than a katana. I'll give you that."
__"I do not know what a katana is, and I'm only heavy to you now because you're tired," Caliburn replied.
__"I ain't tired," Scourge remarked. "I can handle anything. And you're not really heavy. I'm just saying you weigh more than a katana."
__"Whatever you say, Knave."
__"Stop calling me Knave!" Scourge retorted. "I called myself Scourge for a reason."
__The sword giggled and rolled his eyes. "You are just like Sonic," He then grinned when Scourge started growling.
__"I am not like Sonic! Just because I am a Sonic doesn't mean we're the same!"
__Caliburn then narrowed one eye. "You're a Sonic? What do you mean by that?"
__Scourge flattened his ears as he groaned. "I'm from...like...another zone, or dimension if you will. I'm a Sonic counterpart, formally called Evil Sonic."
__Caliburn's eyes grew wide. "Evil Sonic?"
__"Relax, I put that behind me after Fiona died last year," Scourge assured.
__"Fiona? Was she your past lover?"
__Scourge sighed and looked away. "Yes," He muttered. "But never mind that. She's gone. It's Sonic I need to care about now. If that cyborg does manage to kill me somehow, it'll be Sonic next, and he'd probably lose his will."
__Caliburn sighed and looked at the ground. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.
__Scourge heard his phone go off and reached for it in his jacket. He saw that Rouge was calling him and answered it. "Hey, girl! Whatcha doin'?"
__"Nothing much," Rouge replied from the phone. "Look, I wanted to come over in a minute."
__"Come over? Why?"
__"I want to discuss in person about what we talked about yesterday."
__"Oh..." Scourge looked worriedly at his surroundings. "Can't it wait 'til morning?"
__"I'm leaving on a mission in the morning," Rouge informed. "I want to get this over with before I go because I'll be gone for a few days."
__"Sounds like you should focus on preparing for that mission, miss agent," Scourge pointed out.
__"I'll be fine," Rouge ressured. "I'm coming over in a few minutes, okay? I'm almost there anyway."
__"What!? Aw shit!"
__"What's wrong?"
__"Nothing! I just need to clean up! See ya!" Scourge hung up the phone and used his super-speed as he cleared the rocks and sticks. He made sure to hide them in the woods before he pulled Caliburn out of the ground.
__"What is going on!?" Caliburn exclaimed.
__"My best friend is coming over and she doesn't need to see what we've been doing," Scourge answered as he walked into the house.
__"Why doesn't she need to know what we're doing?"
__"No one needs to know, not even Sonic."
__"Why not?"
__"Because it's none of their business!" Scourge sneered as he was about to walk upstairs.
__"I don't want to go back in that closet," Caliburn said promptly. "I've been in there long enough."
__"Are you kidding me right now!?" Scourge growled and looked at the basket in the corner of the living room with two umbrellas in it. He went over to it and set Caliburn carefully behind the two umbrellas. He adjusted the umbrellas to make sure they stayed in front of the sword when knocking sounded from the front door. "Just make sure you stay quiet!" He hissed.
__"I know that!" Caliburn retorted. "This isn't my first time dealing with this."
__More knocking started and Buck had ran down the stairs. He began barking and tried climbing on the door.
__Scourge stifled a laugh as he pulled Buck away from the door. "Get down, ya little shit!" He then opened the door and smiled when he saw Rouge standing there. "Hey!"
__"Hi!" Rouge said brightly. She walked into the house and smiled when she saw Buck. "Why, hello there!" She leaned forward and started rubbing Buck's neck. "Aw! Who's a cute little baby?"
__Buck barked happily and started licking Rouge's face while wagging his tail fiercely.
__Rouge giggled and pushed Buck back a bit. "All right, easy there!" She then leaned back and looked at Scourge with one eye narrowed. "Where's your jacket?"
__Scourge used his super-speed to run out the house and came back with his jacket in his arms. "Right here. Whachu talking 'bout?" He then smirked.
__Rouge laughed as she shook his head. "You have Sonic's charms as well."
__"People need to stop comparing the two of us!" Scourge lightly sneered. "I love him and all, but we're different people."
__Rouge grinned and nodded. "Just teasing you." She then say on and couch and motioned Scourge to sit next to her. She waited until he did so before she spoke. "So, about your dilemma..."
__Scourge groaned heavily. He set his elbows on his knees and put his chin in his hands. "What's there to talk about?"
__"Scourge, I'm worried about you," Rouge began. "Even more now with Sonic on tour. This needs needs to be resolved."
__"And it will over time," Scourge muttered. "There's no need to rush it."
__"This has been going on for months," Rouge pointed out. "You need the help now."
__Scourge sighed and looked away. "Okay, fine."
__"You're afraid of your past, Scourge. You need to let it all go. Other people will start to accept you for who you're trying to be if they see you don't care about it."
__"But I do care about it," Scourge retorted. "It's all anyone ever cares about!"
__"But it's not like all that stuff in the past is going to come back."
__Scourge narrowed his eyes and flattened his ears. You don't even know what's going on.
__"You need to be focusing on your future. That way you can move on easily."
__"Kinda hard when the past is what's haunting me," Scourge sneered.
__"What about your past is haunting you?"
__"Never mind that. Just keep going on with stupid lecture already."
__Rouge then narrowed her eyes. "Come on, Scourge. You need to be talking with someone about these issues your having. I'm willing to help you through them. What's scaring you?"
__"Drop it, Rouge," Scourge warned.
__But Rouge started to pesture Scourge about it. She was not letting it go and it was starting to making Scourge mad. This was the last he wanted to talk about. He didn't even want to talk about this in general.
__"Please!" She pleaded. "I'm just trying to help you!"
__"Did I even ask!? I don't remember asking!"
__"You just did!"
__"Argh!" Scourge started pulling on his ears out of frustration. "This is not the help I need right now!"
__Rouge's eyes softened as she put a hand on Scourge's shoulder. "Sonic told me not to tell you anything, but I'll tell you this much: Sonic is thinking about his future with you. That's what's keeping him going. It's time you did, too."
__But Scourge's anger only grew. He glared at Rouge as he set his jacket aside on the couch. "How many times do I have to say I'm not Sonic!? I am the exact opposite of who Sonic is! If he's thinking about the future, I'm thinking of the past! When he wants the rational solution, I take the irrational one and make things worse! He's the good guy while I'll always be the bad guy, even when I'm not trying to be!"
__"You're not the bad guy!" Rouge broke in. "You just think you are because of the past. There's clearly something that has traumatized you. If you would just tell me, then we can figure out how you can work past this."
__Scourge couldn't take this any longer. He stood up and glared down at Rouge. He snapped. "You wanna know so badly!? Fine!" He began to shout. "I killed my own father! There! I said it!"
__Silence had taken over the situation. Buck had flattened his ears from the tension and kept his head down as he ran to the bathroom. Rouge's eyes were wide and her ears were flattened. There was fear and guilt in her expression. Scourge was still glaring down at her. He was trembling from the excitement.
__Rouge had stood up and looked into Scourge's eyes. "You killed your own father?" She asked in disbelief. "Why did you do that?"
__Scourge felt some of his anger leave him as he responded. "He didn't care about me. He never did. The only time he would even say he cared about me was if he brought me with him to his meetings just to impress some important business people."
__"You killed him just because you thought he didn't care?"
__"He cared more about The Great Peace than he ever did his own son," Scourge growled. "I despised The Great Peace, and I wasn't the only one. I only gained the trust of the Supression Squad because I killed him and ended The Great Peace. None of them were my friends. Alicia didn't even care when we started dating." Scourge then flattened his ears as he looked away.
__"Does...does Sonic know?" Rouge asked carefully.
__"No. The only Prime Zoner I ever told was his own dad unintentionally. I never planned on telling Sonic. Even he would resent me." Scourge sat back down and hid his face in his hands.
__Rouge reluctantly sat back down next to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "I'm sure he wouldn't. He loves you so very much. He probably already knew you had to have killed someone back in the day, but it wouldn't matter to him now. He doesn't care about who you used to be. He cares about the you you're trying to be. Every single one of us do. The only person who doesn't is you."
__Scourge forced himself to giggle as he looked at Rouge. "There's someone called Zouge in Zone Jail at No Zone, and she's a therapist."
__Rouge giggled as well. "Now that we both know what you're going through, I can help you fight your past so that you can start looking forward to the future."
__Scourge smiled and shook his head. "I wanna fight this by myself. I...already have a start to that."
__"Are you sure?"
__Scourge nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure. Sorry for screaming at you like that."
__"Im sorry for pushing. It's hard living with the Ultimate Lifeform sometimes."
__"I bet."
__"Well, if you have everything under control, then I'll leave you to it." Rouge stood up and headed for the front door. She placed her hand on the doorknob and looked at Scourge. "You can still call me during my mission if you need me." She then opened the door and left.
__Scourge sighed and stood up from the couch. I'm such an asshole. He then walked over into the bathroom and found Buck shaking in the bathtub. Scourge grinned as he kneeled down by the tub and started rubbing Buck's head. "Sorry about that, boy. It's okay now."
__Buck quickly hopped out of the bathtub and started rubbing his face on Scourge's chest.
__Scourge stood up and walked back to the living room with Buck following after him. He looked at his jacket and picked it up. He stared at the blue stitching once again and rubbed his fingers over it. "I'll tell him everything when he gets back," He whispered to himself.
__"Hello? She's gone now!" Caliburn called from behind the umbrellas.
__Scourge put his jacket on and went to grab Caliburn out of the basket. "I'm guessing you heard everything?"
__"Indeed," Caliburn replied softly. "I can't help but feel sympathy for you, Knave. You have not had it easy. But Lady Rouge is right. You need to let go of the past and look forward to the future."
__"Yeah, I got that, sherlock," Scourge muttered in annoyance. "And tomorrow, I'm taking care of that damn cyborg."
__"But you're not ready, Knave!" Caliburn retorted. "You only know basic techniques. That won't help you if your opponent is a strong as you say he is."
__"Ill be fine," Scourge said. "I'm Scourge the Hedgehog. I took over an entire planet on my own. Nothing can stop me!"