Tails, at the moment, was not terribly happy. He didn't feel very good either, and his hands were covered in cuts. So many cuts, he felt like throwing the chisel and hammer that he was cutting himself with to the ground.
And indeed he would have if he hadn't been carving out a tombstone for none other than his beloved Cosmo. Sure, he was no were near talented at tombstone carvings, but he didn't need to be to make the rough shape. Just one rough shape. He looked at his hands again, and then considered going inside again to acquire a few bandages. After half a second of thought, he decided to keep on working. He was almost done, after all. And he was doing all this for Cosmo, even if there would be no body to be placed underneath his crude creation. Almost done. Almost done.
Tails was so caught up in his work that he didn't notice Sonic coming outside to see how he was doing. And he still didn't notice him for another five minutes. And he would have probably kept laboring in tormented ignorance if it weren't for the fact that Sonic spoke.
"Um… Tails?"
Tails cut his hand again, and cursed for the billionth time, which was not in his nature. Sonic took three small steps backwards, something that he had been doing a lot when he was in the same area as Tails since Cosmo had perished. It had taken a while for the reality to sink in, but after a while, it did, and it seemed like Tails would never be the same.
"Yes, Sonic?"
"Amy made tea, we were-"
"NO!" Tails yelled, a bit louder then he had intended to.
"Okay then…" Sonic said as he carefully backed away from the grief-stricken ruin of his best friend.
Tails worked for another long time, until something weird started to happen. At first he thought that it was just some hair in his eyes, but after a while, it hit him. Something was one his head. He reached up, almost afraid of what he was going to feel… And he felt cloth. He removed the band of fabric from his head, and realized that this was not the first time that he had dawned this particular garment. It was the scrap of cloth that Cosmo had tied around his heavily bruised head, that one day they had discovered that underground chaos emerald factory. Murmuring his amazement to himself, he squeezed his eyes shut for no apparent reason. And when opened them, something had changed.
At first Tails thought that his fur had turned gray, which would have been very odd. After half a seconds inspection however, it was revealed to him in quite an obvious way that it was not just him that turned monochrome, but the entire world too. Everything was in black to white. And then the ground gave way.
He was falling, but not for long. He landed, and when he opened his eyes, he saw just blackness. Nothing else. Black black black, and in the middle of that, a gray fox, waiting desperately for something to happen. And then something did happen.
It started out as a voice, one smooth, clean, and laughing.
"Hello, Tails."
"Who are you!?" Tails shot back at this voice, as he had been accustomed to doing with other people that attempted to interact with him.
"That doesn't really matter right now. You are here because I want you to be."
"Then why do you want me here?"
"To go into my kingdom."
Tails immediately knew that something was behind him. He turned around slowly, and found himself face to face with a huge skull.
"I am Death."
Tails swayed, and began to fall, but an invisible hand caught him gently, and then hoisted him back up to Death's eye level.
"Go down into my land, and find her soul. Then you will have a small decision to make."
"And what's that?"
"I don't like to spoil surprises. Tata!"
Then Tails fell. He fell out of the blackness, into a gray world. He landed comfortably on a strange rock formation, covered in gray grass. He looked up, and saw stars, twinkling in a dark sky.
A dead sky.
He looked around the ground, and saw his first soul. It was a small glass ball, and it smoked a pale smoke. Inside it was a mobian, sleeping. Forever. He could waste time, he had to find Cosmo's soul. Cosmo's soul was all that mattered. If he found it, he could bring her back! Then he would be happy.
His happiness lasted all of two seconds. Finding Cosmo here would be on the verge of impossibility. He had no idea how big this land was, and he couldn't take more that five steps without seeing another soul. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack. He paused to take a better look at the realm of the dead. It was peaceful, covered in gray fields spread smoothly around him, studded with odd rock formations. In the distance, there were mountains. And up in the sky, there was the moon. But this moon was different. It was huge, ghostly, and it glared down at him, as if to scold him for coming here alive. Eventually, he began to trek towards the mountains, checking every soul as he went. Not one of them was Cosmo. This was going to take awhile. Wearily spinning his tails, he soared out towards the mountains, not bothering to look behind him. If he did, he would be scared.