Author's Note: This story follows on from my earlier fic Caves of the Ancients. If you haven't read that, then some things here might not make complete sense (and I'm too lazy to summarise so you'll just have to go read Caves and possibly its prequel Secrets of the Emeralds if you want to understand everything ;) Go on...please:P)

"Kill them." The speaker – a jackal – leaned forward in his chair, eyes glittering. The other two in the room remained silent, and the jackal spoke again.

"Kill them," he repeated, a note in his voice that wavered somewhere between pleading and desire.

There was a long silence.

"No." This person was female, but it was hard to tell any more than that in the darkness. "We may need them."

The jackal sneered at her. "Are you sure you're not just saying that for old times' sake?" He got to his feet and hobbled around the table to stand just behind the speaker; he'd suffered a severe hip injury which hadn't yet been seen to. "I have to say, Daimeri, you seem to have slipped a little. Are you sure you still have the stomach for this?"

There was a flash of metal and the jackal yelped, swearing viciously as the one called Daimeri pocketed the small knife again, smirking.

"My stomach isn't your concern, little cub, and may I remind you that you came to us with an offer."

"You want Sonic, don't you?"

"Robotnik wants Sonic." Daimeri gestured towards the third person, who had remained silent for the whole conversation. "What's he ever done to you?"

"Let's just say it's a family matter, shall we? Sonic has something of mine. He poisoned my own brother, turned him against me. I want to, shall we say, show him the error of his ways? I'll help you find and catch Sonic and then let you keep him while I take care of my brother."

"Interesting." Daimeri pulled out another knife and toyed with it idly, tilting it so the blade caught what little light there was in the room. "So tell me...Raker, wasn't it? Yes. Tell me, Raker, what makes you think that you can succeed where Robotnik failed?"

"He didn't fail last time," Raker retorted. Interest flared in Daimeri's eyes.

"No, he didn't. But how did you find that out?"

Raker shrugged. "I make it my business to find these things out. The point is, you succeeded once, which proves that Sonic's not invulnerable."

"Yes." Robotnik spoke up for the first time. "Unfortunately, I rather doubt that we can count on the same break again, unless the spiny little rodent is stupid enough to try firing himself out of a giant cannon three miles above ground level a second time."

"People have done stupider things."

"Not without some form of illegal substance."

Raker shook his head. "Look. I have a plan."

"Oh, he has a plan," Daimeri said derisively. "Well, now I'm convinced."

The jackal ignored her, not least because he knew she could take out both his eyes and laugh while she did it.

"Well, I don't see either of you coming up with any bright ideas. Sonic doesn't see me as a serious threat and he claims to hate hurting innocent bystanders. If I send two of my people in, they grab him, you swing by and pick him up and I take my little brother home with me. I've missed him, you know."

"Then you should learn to hit straighter," Daimeri quipped, not missing a beat.

"There'll be time enough for all that when I get him back," Raker said grimly. "I help you get Sonic, you let me keep the brat who's with him. What could either of you want with a ten year old jackal, anyway? You'll have to do something about his friends though," Raker added. "If word gets out to that damn echidna...he doesn't like my brother, which proves he's not as dumb as he looks, but he'll help Sonic."

"Leave him to me," Robotnik said pleasantly. "Daimeri here has a fleet of robots she's been just dying to try out. We'll see how well he can hide when his precious island's been blown to ashes."

An ugly gleam appeared in Raker's eyes. "Sounds good. Any idea when you're planning to do it? I'd like to watch."

"That, my new friend, is our own business," Robotnik answered. Something about Raker put even him on edge; the jackal had wiped out the Oil Ocean Zone entirely – apparently the explosions and flames had been seen as far away as Casino Night Zone – and probably wouldn't balk at doing it again if he got what he wanted at the end of it. "But yes. Alright. I'll have Daimeri here give you a radio transmitter. When you've captured the hedgehog, call me."

A broad smile appeared on Raker's face. "A pleasure. But the bait's mine."

"Of course. Like you said, what possible use could I have for a brat like that? I'm not even sure what you want him for."

"A number of things." The smile didn't leave Raker's face, but it did harden until it was as cold and glittering as diamond. "Kid's deeply disturbed, been hanging around with Sonic so long he's forgotten what being part of a family means. I want to, ah, refresh his memory."

"If you're like this around your brother, I don't blame him for taking off," Daimeri said bluntly. Raker whirled.

"If I wanted to hear some form of antiquated morality, I'd ask Sonic! The hedgehog for my kid brother. Do we have a deal or not?"

Inwardly he wasn't sure which answer he wanted to hear. Finding Robotnik hadn't been easy – and getting an audience with him that didn't involve being blown to pieces or roboticised first had been even harder – and Raker had been questioning the wisdom of his actions ever since that damn robot had ushered him in here!

But damn it all to hell, nobody made a fool of him like Sonic and that little turd Bait had done and got away with it!

Raker hadn't banked on Robotnik having Daimeri there though, hadn't even seen or heard of her before now. In fact he still hadn't really seen her; the ovoid room was kept in quasi-darkness and Daimeri was taking care to keep well out of sight. Even when Raker had been directly behind her, it had been too dark to see much. As a jackal, his night vision was pretty good, but this was nothing like ordinary night. What the hell was Robotnik playing at, having her? This was supposed to be a secret meeting! This wasn't anti-feminist thinking – for all his faults, Raker wasn't sexist – but he was paranoid enough not to trust anyone unless he literally had a knife at their throat (and even then, only maybe). And all that aside, he'd never met anybody who made his skin crawl like this female.

"Well, I don't know." Somehow Raker knew, just knew from the tone of her voice that Daimeri was smirking. Probably she was well aware of what was going through his mind as well. "Why'd you come to us, anyway?"

Sensing that he'd almost won, Raker smirked back. "Well...my mother told me to always go to the best."

"Really." Daimeri was playing with two knives now, juggling them one-handed. "Was that before or after she drowned herself?"

The smirk abruptly dropped off Raker's face. He'd temporarily forgotten just how much these people knew.

"Before, of course." His smirk reappeared as he added, "She wasn't a great talker after it happened. Can't think why."

"Your doing?"

"Mine?" Raker feigned shock. "No! How can you even suggest such a thing?" The smirk broadened. "I did, ah, vary my reading of her note to the bait though."

"But you didn't kill her? Or your father?"

"Are you kidding? I was getting meals cooked for me, no bills and my sheets washed on a regular basis. Why the hell should I want to put a stop to that?" Raker's eyes glittered. "Well, on a semi-regular basis at least; our father spent most of his time in Casino Night Zone and mother wasn't a big one for playing happy families."

"Also a drug addict, I think," Robotnik remarked, apparently to the ceiling. Raker raised his eyebrows.

"I'm impressed. Yeah." He snickered. "No wonder Bait turned out like he did. I did my best to give him some sense of pride, of family loyalty, but he walked out on me in favour of Sonic."

There was a long pause, then Daimeri suddenly reached over and lifted her glass of water, raising it in a toast.

"To new acquaintances. And old enemies," she added.

The other two clinked glasses with hers, although only Raker echoed the toast. Robotnik was silent, mind already ticking over trying to work out a contingency plan for capturing Sonic in case Raker failed, and, to his own private astonishment, feeling very, very glad that he wasn't Raker's brother.

So there ya go...short but sweet, like all beginning chapters (at least for me ;)) I was gonna add the next chapter but got too tired...in a couple days though :P I know there's not much here but still, if you read, please review :D