This story is a companion to my main story, After the Metarex: Tails' Story. While that will have about thirty chapters, this one will probably be only six or seven. Yet they both start and end at the same place, so this story will be updated far less often.
AFTER THE METAREX: COSMO'S STORY
Chapter One
"Going Home"
"Tails, I am ready to receive your shot," Cosmo said.
"I can't!" Tails cried. There were tears in his eyes. "What about your promise…that you'd come back with us and live on Mobius?"
Cosmo smiled sadly. She was terrified, but she would not cry in front of Tails now. "Until the last, I've been a burden to you. I'm sorry."
"You were never a burden to me," Tails wailed. "I…I love you Cosmo!"
"Tails! You have to do this now!" Eggman said over the intercom. Tails had begged everyone to leave him alone while he made his decision.
"Don't worry about me," Cosmo said, "if you don't do this, I'll die anyway. So will you, and our friends, and your family, and everyone else. Please Tails, you know what you have to do. Shoot me." She felt an attack from inside. "Hurry! I can't hold him much longer!"
"How dare you!" Dark Oak demanded. "Don't you know that I'm doing this for you? For our descendents? I will protect you and make you queen of what will come!"
"Nothing will come!" Cosmo said. "You're insane! You will destroy everything! There will be no new kingdom to rule!"
"Disobedient child! I am your father!"
"No!" Cosmo cried. "I refuse to accept you!"
"Cosmo!" Tails sobbed. "I don't know what to do!"
"He's breaking free, Tails!" Cosmo sobbed. "In a few moments, he'll kill me anyway! Do what you know you must!"
Tails couldn't see her now through his tears. He placed his finger on the firing button. "Good-bye, Cosmo! I'll never forget you!" He pressed the button, sending Super Sonic and Super Shadow spinning towards her. "Cosmo…I love you!"
For both of them, the world stopped. Tails could see her in front of him now.
"Why is it that all I can see are smiling faces?" Cosmo asked. She saw her life flash before her. Mostly, she saw her life with Tails. "Good-bye, Tails," she said, "I'll always love you!" Then she knew nothing.
Then Cosmo saw Super Sonic and Super Shadow. They were trying to revive her. But something seemed wrong. Her body wasn't repairing itself properly. Was she too far gone? "It's all right," she said to them. "I'm at peace. Sonic…please take care of Tails for me."
"Cosmo…"
"Mother?" Cosmo smiled as she saw her mother for the first time, not as a tree, but as the woman that should have raised her. "Am I…am I dead, Mother?"
"It's time for you to come with me, my darling," Hertia said, holding a hand out for her.
"So soon, Mother?" Cosmo asked. "Please, may I say one last good-bye to the boy I've come to love?"
"Just for a moment," her mother agreed.
And suddenly, Cosmo found herself on the Blue Typhoon. Tails stared at her. "Don't be sad, Tails," Cosmo said, floating to him. "Whenever you think of me, I'll always be right here…by your side." She leaned forward to kiss him, but passed right through him. It was only then that it fully hit her that she was dead.
She was back with her mother. Hertia held out her hand again. "Come with me, Cosmo. It's time for you to come home."
Cosmo took her mother's hand. It was soft and warm. Cosmo threw her arms around her. "Oh Mother!" she sobbed. "I've always wanted to really hold you!"
"No more tears, baby girl," Hertia said, hugging Cosmo back.
"I-I'm ready," Cosmo said. "Where are we going?"
"To a place there are no words to describe," her mother said. Cosmo felt them move faster and faster. Then they were…elsewhere. Cosmo squealed with delight at the sight of her sisters. They each embraced her again and again.
"Welcome home, baby sister!" Galaxina told her.
"Girls," Hertia said, "watch over Cosmo until I return. She doesn't understand about where we are yet."
"But where are you going, Mother?" Cosmo asked.
Hertia sighed. "I must go speak at Lucas' trial." She looked sad.
"He was a monster!" Cosmo cried. "He destroyed the Seedrian species completely! Why do you care what happens to him now?"
"Because I loved him once," Hertia said simply.
"But shouldn't we all be there?" Cosmo asked. "Won't they at least call me to the trial?"
"I will try to spare you that if I can," Hertia said. Then she was gone.
"Come on, little Cosmo!" Galaxina said, taking Cosmo's hand. "You have to see!"
"Everything here is so beautiful!" Cosmo's large, heavy sister said.
"Even more beautiful than the Green Planet ever was!" the sister with ponytails added.
Cosmo allowed her sisters to take her to a beautiful garden. As her mother had told her, words couldn't describe what she experienced. Everywhere she looked, she saw Seedrians. Not just females like on the refugee ship. There were males who lacked the look of madness Lucas and his followers had shown. Cosmo recognized her aunts and cousins, but most were unknown to her.
Cosmo embraced the ones she knew. Then she started embracing ones that she shouldn't have known, yet somehow did. She embraced her brother, Landar, who had died protecting his wife, Starla, before Cosmo had been born. She knew one was her great-grandmother, another her third cousin, although she couldn't even have guessed how she knew.
Everywhere, light shined brightly, although there was no sun. The light was warm and gentle, never blinding. A beautiful river flowed through the garden. It was clearer than crystal. Flowers every color she could imagine grew everywhere. Trees containing many different types of fruits grew further than she could see. Cosmo started to cry. It was just too much for her. Her sisters held her, and one sang to her, but still she cried.
"Hush, baby sister," Galaxina said softly. "No tears here. This is a happy place."
"I thought I'd never see any of you again!" Cosmo sobbed. "Forgive me, please, big sisters, for being so silly!" She started to cry again.
"Love makes everyone silly," Galaxina said. "But no more. It's time to smile now and be happy."
"But… how long will Mother will gone?" Cosmo asked. If this was Heaven, it was incomplete without her mother there.
"She'll be back soon," Galaxina assured her. "Time has no meaning here. A few minutes, a few days, a thousand years, it makes no difference."
"That's…that's difficult for me to understand," Cosmo said. "I…this is all happening so fast! My head is spinning!"
"You'll get used to it, Cosmo," Nova said. "We all came here very confused."
"Relax," Starla, Cosmo's pigtailed sister said.
"Enjoy yourself," the large girl told her. "There's no more sorrow or anger here."
Cosmo tried to do as her sisters said, but she kept wondering about her mother and Dark Oak. Was he sorry for what he'd done? Should she try to forgive him? After all, he was her father. But how could he? After he'd killed her entire family. His family. His own wife and children. Because of him, the Seedrians were extinct now. She had been the last. What a sad ending for a once proud race. Was all this punishment for that pride? Cosmo knew she should be at rest, but it was impossible to stop thinking and worrying.
What had happened to her friends? Cream and Amy would cry because she was dead. And Tails…had she imagined that he'd said he loved her at the end? And she'd thought she just annoyed him! All that time lost now. Lost forever. What would happen to Tails now? Would he be all right, knowing what he'd done to her. Not that she blamed him. No, this was Dark Oak's fault. Him she could blame.
"Come, little sister," Galaxina said, leading Cosmo to the river. "Come swimming with us."
Cosmo loved swimming, and for a time, she was truly happy. The water was warm, and made her feel strong. She laughed. Yes, this was Heaven, and she was thrilled to be there. But then a tiny voice whispered to her, "What about Tails?" It would be many years before she would see him again. She prayed that he would be all right. That the damage shooting her must have done to his heart would be healed one day.
"Cosmo."
She turned and saw her mother. "Yes, Mother? Have you come to join us?"
"Cosmo, you must come with me," Hertia said. She held out her hand, and helped Cosmo out of the river. "We must go, little one."
"But, I need to dry off first, Mother," Cosmo said.
"But you are dry, my darling," Hertia said. And Cosmo realized that she was.
"Mother," Galaxina said, "what's happening?"
"The judge wishes to speak to Cosmo," Hertia said, "and then…and then Cosmo needs to make a very, very important decision."
"A decision?" Cosmo asked. "What sort of decision, Mother?"
"One so important, you will need to think long and carefully about it," Hertia said, leading Cosmo through the garden.
"That sounds scary," Cosmo said. "What must I decide, Mother."
Hertia turned and looked her in the eye. "Cosmo," she said softly, "do you wish to live again?"
To be continued…
Next chapter: Cosmo speaks at Dark Oak's trial, and learns that maybe everything wasn't entirely his fault.
