Author's forward:

I felt that the old chapter 1 of this story didn't show the quality of writing I'm capable of and didn't represent this story well, thus very few people read the other chapters where I feel the best parts are.

Chapter 1:

Tails sat on the bed in his room in the Blue Typhoon. He'd shut himself in his room after making the repairs needed for he and his friends to return safely to Mobius instead of being lost in space. Despite the fact that they'd just saved the entire galaxy from being destroyed by the metarex, he felt as though he'd just lost everything instead.

Amy's voice came through the intercom to his room, since he'd locked his door. "Hey Tails, come out and see the view of Mobius from space: It's beautiful." Tails barely heard her. After a few seconds pause Amy exclaimed, "There's Sonic, gotta go." Tails faintly heard her say "Sharing a kiss among the stars will be sooo romantic." as she walked away from the other side of his door. Upon registering those words Tails felt like he'd been buried under an additional mountain of lead. He started to cry again, though his muzzle had a coating of dried tears already. He could never share the view of mobius from space, or anything else with his loved one: Cosmo was dead.

He'd slowly fallen in love with her over the course of the journey through space to fight the metarex. He was shy about it at first but eventually his love grew. However just when his feelings began to blossom, the final battle was upon them. In the end Tails had to fatally shoot the final metarex commander with the Sonic power cannon in order to save the galaxy. However Cosmo was immobilizing Dark Oak at the time so the shot killed her too. Saying he didn't want to was a horrible understatement, but Cosmo had begged him to and there was no other option. [Author's note: I'm basing this recap on the Japanese Sonic X episode 77, not the horribly edited English one where Tails doesn't seem to be bothered at all when he pulls the trigger]

Shortly after returning to Mobius the mayor of station square contacted Sonic and asked that he and his friends be part of a formal award ceremony commending them for saving the planet. Sonic arrived at Tails' workshop and let himself in. After checking the living area and the workshop he found Tails lying on his bed in his room staring at the ceiling. He walked into the room and said "Tails, we've been invited to an award ceremony for saving the world." No response. Sonic continued, "I know your depressed but some fresh air will do you good." Tails replied, "Go without me." Sonic responded, "Without you we'd have never gotten off the ground, literally" Tails turned away from him, but then Sonic heard Tails' stomach rumble. Sonic gently grabbed Tails' hand and pulled him off the bed as he said, "You should at least eat a bit so you don't starve." Tails didn't resist, but didn't move to help as Sonic led him to the kitchen.

Sonic and Tails arrived at the city center at the last minute. After they took their positions on stage, the mayor began a prepared speech praising them. Tails hardly heard any of it. The flowers in a nearby field along with the happy couples in the crowd were glaring reminders of how he'd lost Cosmo. Tails was brought back to the present when the crowd cheered. A cameraman came up to him as the mayor moved to present him with a medal. The cameraman whispered to him, "Your on TV right now, you could be a bit happier you know." That tore it. Tails cried out, "What do any of you know!" and ran off.

He sprinted back to his workshop and closed door. Sonic didn't seem to be following him so at least he'd be alone for a bit.

A few minutes later, Tails looked at his favorite photo of Cosmo and a fresh wave of tears came from his eyes. "Why did it have to end this way" he said aloud, though no one else was within earshot. "You were supposed to come and live with us... we would have been so happy together... I loved you!" He finished desperately. A few seconds of silence passed and then Tails buried his face in his hands, tears still flowing.

"I have the power to grant what you desire." a deep voice said from an unknown source. Tails lifted his head up and frantically looked around. "Who's there?" he said quickly. "I am the Kage no Kitsune [translation: Kitsune of Shadows], a being as old as time itself," As Tails took this all in the voice continued, "and I have the power to save the one you love... if you complete my challenge". Tails's eyes widened, then he dried his tears on his arm. "Whatever it is, I'll do it" he said firmly. "Then allow me to brief you on your task" the voice said. Slowly everything around Tails faded to blackness.

The space around Tails rematerialized into a room made of what appeared to be carved obsidian, it had no windows, but seemed to be fully lit despite not having any obvious light sources. Standing in front of him was a nine tailed Kitsune, its fur was as black as shadows and it appeared to be fully matured. "I'm glad you could make it Tails" it said, it's voice sounded the same as the one from before so Tails knew it was what had spoken to him in his workshop. "What is the challenge" Tails asked firmly, inwardly he prayed to Chaos that it was something he could actually do. The dark kitsune looked at him. Under its gaze Tails felt as if his very soul was being examined somehow. The whole situation made him very nervous, but he knew that he'd never forgive himself if he ran from this chance. After a moment the other kitsune replied, "Are you familiar with the world of pokemon?". The question caught Tails off guard. "Isn't that a TV show from Chris's world?" he blurted out. "I'll take that as a yes... your challenge is to defeat Mewtwo at the Battle of New Island." "Mewtwo?" Tails thought to himself, then memories of a movie night at Chris's house came flooding back to him. Mewtwo destroying the lab in which it was created. Giovanni's mistake in trying to tame it. The raging storm that almost destroyed the pokemon world. Most of all, the fact that nothing anyone tried even came close to defeating Mewtwo.

"Fear not" the dark kitsune said, shaking Tails out of his nervous thoughts, "I won't send you in without some hope of success." Tails tried to calm down as he listened intently. "Since you are a Kitsune, with full maturity comes nine tails and incredible powers. I will allow you access to these powers for the duration of the challenge, and knowledge of what they can be used for." With these words Tails felt his body changing. In a matter of seconds he grew seven more tails, but he hardly noticed them growing in as knowledge was forming in his mind of what he could do with his new powers. "This challenge has two rules" the kage no kitsune finished, "You must not interfere with Mewtwo's path until the events of new island and you mustn't let Ash Ketchum be involved at that time: this is your battle not his." With those words everything around Tails faded once again.