Chapter 1:
Note that "Emel" is NOT a typo. Emerl was mistranslated as "Emel" for the English dub of Sonic X. I'm choosing to keep this (mis)translation for my story.
Watching episodes 45 and 46 (46 only up until Tails and Amy collide during a fight scene) of Sonic X is highly recommended before reading.
After winning the battle tournament held by the U.S. government, Emel was presented a chaos emerald. The energy of the emerald re-activated his true nature, and he went Berserk. He attacked people in the audience and went on a rampage in the city. Sonic Knuckles and Rouge tried to stop him, but were unsuccessful. Sonic had just rushed Amy out of danger and Emel had just screw kicked Knuckles when Tails decided to join the fight. "I'm going to take Emel apart!" Tails yelled. "Let me have a crack at him first Tails!" Amy replied. Tails was closing in and could see Amy approaching when Emel jumped away at the last second. Tails and Amy collided hard.
Tails opened his eyes to see that he wasn't lying in a wrecked street. In fact, he was lying on an invisible surface in the middle of a sea of stars, as if he was in space but with an invisible floor and gravity. "Sonic? Amy?" he said. His words traveled as if the space around him was endless. "I'm glad you're awake " came a voice from behind him. Tail turned and saw another two tailed fox but unlike him it fur was silver and it had emerald eyes. It looked to older then Sonic, but not into old age by any means. "Where am I... and who are you?" Tails asked. "I am called the Silver One" it said. Its voice was calm and even. "You are in a pocket space that I created with my power, since I want to give you another chance to prove yourself." Tails quickly replied, "My friends are in danger, I have to go back." The Silver One looked like he'd expected the response. "Time passes differently here, your friends will be fine even if you stayed here a full day or more." Tails was surprised, but he asked again "Please, how do I get back". The Silver one once again wasn't surprised. "Your loyalty to your friends is commendable and I will help you save them. I could manifest myself in your world and take care of Emel myself with my awesome power. However my greater desire is for you to become who you truly could be, since I admire you for who you are and for your untapped potential." Tails gave a confused look. "To put it simply, I'm going to use my power to send your mind back to the day the tournament began so you can stop Emel, but you must obey the following rules" Tails' expression changed as he listened intently. "Rule 1: You cannot tell anyone about me or that you know about the future. Rule 2: You must not escalate a fight until people are in danger. Rule 3: You must not destroy Emel until after he's started his rampage. This may seem convoluted, but overcoming this situation will make you stronger and I can give you as many retries as you need" The Silver One's expression changed to be more encouraging as and it said, "Don't forget to give that cheating bat a smack or two for me." Then everything faded to blackness.
"Wake up Tails" Chris's voice came floating into Tails's ears. Tails awoke slowly until he remembered the fight with Emel. "Is Sonic ok?" Tails asked urgently, his expression was suddenly concerned. "He's fine, why are you so worried?" Chris replied. Tails was about to say "Did he beat Emel and was anyone hurt?" when he suddenly had a coughing fit. Tails heard the Silver One's voice in his head, "I told you your mind is back in time and that you can't tell anyone, and no I'm not just a dream". Tails quickly recovered his composure and said "Sorry, I must have been having a nightmare." Chris smiled and said "That's ok. The stress of today's tournament is getting to me a little bit too".
The rest of the morning played out normally enough, only everyone else noticed Tails seemed distracted. Sonic confronted him about it before the tournament started. He walked up to Tails and said "Something on your mind?" Tails knew the rules, so he replied, "I'm just thinking about the tournament". It was partly true, Tails was thinking about what he could to do stop Emel. "You'll do fine, just trust yourself" Sonic said and ran off. Soon the first few matches started. The president lost, Chris won, and then it was Tails's turn. Tails knew he could beat Hawk, so he let the match play out the same way. Tails was silent as he held the referee's hand for a victory photo shoot. "If I do the same thing, things will be the same, so what do I do" he thought to himself. The rest of the matches played out the same way until Tails faced Rouge. The bell rang and Rouge said "Not Exactly what I'd call a challenge, but here goes." The fight went on for a minute or two, then Rouge said "You're not bad, for an amateur" Tails was so flustered that he fell right into Rouge's cheap kiss trick again. "I want to give you some training and another chance to defeat that cheating bat, you game?" the Silver One's voice said in Tail's head as he lay on the ground. Tails thought about how humiliating it was both times he lost to Rouge and nodded. He found himself in the strange see of stars once again.