Honesty is the Best Policy {Comic Edition}

Chapter 72: Moebius Castle Good Future

When the light around the button turned blue again, Scourge motioned for Dina to go inside the locker. "It'll be faster for us to go together," he explained. Dina nodded and stepped back to allow him some room. Once the door was closed behind them and the sliding lock on the inside slid over so that no one could open the locker from the outside while they were gone, Scourge pushed the button and they were transported between zones in a flash of light.

Mephiles had been standing beside the transporter on the other side, patiently awaiting their arrival. "This is the castle?" Dina asked, stepping off the platform and looking around at the stone brick walls. She turned to Scourge. "When Honest went here with you last with Shadow and Akane, she wouldn't let me go. She told me that I needed to stay behind and distract Sonic from asking questions about where they had gone." She turned excitedly to Mephiles. "Is this your first time here, too?"

"No," he answered. "I had a good look around last time while I hid with Rosy until the Zone police left." He looked at Dina and Scourge both as if he expected them to add something. Dina just blinked and looked to Scourge for help.

"What is he talking about?" the pink and white hedgehog asked.

"Uh, during our journey to Moebius to stop Fiona, Mephiles tagged along and, well, what he's talking about is-"

"As usual, Scourge forgot he wasn't the only person that mattered and thoughtlessly left me and Rosy behind to fend for ourselves. Meanwhile, he went to No Zone with the others to brag about his victory over Fiona," Mephiles claimed, rotating silently in the air and moving towards the door.

"What? It- It wasn't like that at all. I went back for Rosy the very next day," Scourge said, quickly trying to set the story right. To his surprise, Dina just laughed and walked past him.

"I think I know you enough to know that's not true," she said, sounding amused. "Mephiles really is just full of hot air, isn't he?"

Scourge sighed hopelessly. "Yeah, if only Silver knew that in '06."

The green king led his guests to the room near the entrance, expecting to see Honest reclining in one of the chairs in front of the fireplace. Instead, all he found was her boots, placed together beside the chair on the right, the one she had been sitting in earlier.

"Has she been vaporized?" Mephiles asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Surely not," Scourge answered. He immediately ducked back out of the room. "Honest!" he shouted. No response. She must be very far away, perhaps on one of the upper floors.

Dina ran up beside him. "She's probably made herself comfortable while you were gone and went to sleep somewhere."

"'Sleep'?" Scourge echoed, eyeing her incredulously. "How do you know?"

Dina shrugged and clasped her hands behind her back. "She is a cat, you know."

"Fine," Scourge said, rolling his eyes and making his way towards the stairs. "Let's go check the bedrooms."

Mephiles stayed downstairs while Scourge and Dina checked all the rooms one by one. First were the rooms the Suppression Squad had used as bedrooms. They were all empty with still-made beds like how he had left them. No Ultimate Mercenary-murdering cats there. Next, Scourge ventured that she might be in the master bedroom and pushed open the door gingerly. Nope, nothing.

"Not in there either?" Dina asked when he pulled the door closed behind him.

"Nope." Scourge looked down the hallway. "I guess we can check Infinite's old room."

"Infinite lived here?" Dina asked curiously.

"He stayed here," Scourge corrected her as they walked down the hallway towards the room. "Fiona and I let him stay here with us since he didn't have a ho- well, Fiona let him stay here so she could steal the Phantom Ruby, I guess. It wasn't my plan; I really did just want to help him out."