The Fox and the Seedrian: A Taismo Story

Chapter One: Chili Dogs, Lemonades, and Resurrections

"Well, here's to one year, bro. If I hadn't been up here two hundred times since, I would never recognize the place." Sonic toasted, raising his glass of lemonade up to the center of the table, where it was met by three others as Tails, Amy, and Cream raised theirs to meet his. There were clinking glasses all around the circular patio table that had been placed a short distance out from the rear of the gargantuan building that served as the hangar for the X-Tornado.

"Thanks, Sonic." Tails replied before taking a gulp of lemonade, washing down the chili dog he had just finished. It had been quite a year since returning home from their journey through the galaxy. The first few weeks had been a mess. After Cosmo died, he fell into depression, started to shut his friends out, and blamed Sonic for everything that happened. Then when he had started to restore his backyard, and planted Cosmo's seed, things began looking up again. Sonic had visited him up here everyday, seeing how he was doing and how his project was coming along. A month later, he apologized profusely to his best friend for the things he had said and how he had treated him, and the hedgehog forgave him without a second thought. It had been a good day for both of them.

Tails set his glass of lemonade down and glanced out to the centerpiece of his backyard; the pink-leafed tree that had been the seed Sonic had given him one year ago. It looked identical to the one Cosmo had transformed into at the climax of the battle with Dark Oak. It was the only way to cease his invulnerability and leave him open to attack before he wiped out all non-plant life in the galaxy. Unfortunately, it also came at a high cost; Cosmo's life. Luckily, his hard gardening work had paid off immensely, the dry and arid dirt patch was, like Sonic remarked, now unrecognizable, and Cosmo's tree had considerably less bleak surroundings than it had a year ago at galactic coordinates 0-0-0.

Not only that, but when summer turned to autumn, and that likewise gave way to winter, Tails knew he had no ordinary tree on his hands, because it never stopped blooming, never lost its leaves. Not only that, but when Tails inspected it more closely during a particularly freezing blizzard, he found that the bark was warm to the touch, and the roots also kept the surrounding soil and grass warm and full of nutrients. Snowfall never accumulated on the leaves, branches, trunk, or yard; it was as if the tree and surrounding area was in an eternal spring.

Lastly, it hardly resembled a tree that was barely a year old. Its growth had accelerated considerably; Tails recorded inches gained daily, and now was bigger than a tree thirty years old or more. Tails had promised to keep himself open to the possibility of it being just a tree so he wouldn't slip back into depression if Cosmo never returned, but the way it completely ignored the weather cycle made him lean towards his greatest hope.

"He's right. Who knew you had such a green thumb under all that grease?" Amy quipped, referring to his lifelong passion for all things mechanical. Tails smiled in return. Sure, he had appreciated a great view as much as any nature lover would, but after he met Cosmo, it had gone to a whole other level; especially when he was given that seed. Now he researched plants as much as he had fusion coils, jet engines, and every screw, nut and bolt in between the two.

When they returned home, aside from cultivating the seed and hopping in the X-Tornado whenever Eggman stirred up trouble, Tails also had to figure out what to do with the undoubtedly broken-in Blue Typhoon, which had taken considerable damage not only in the skirmishes with the Metarex fleets, but in the final battle with Dark Oak. If he was honest with himself, he had made almost no progress with it. With how preoccupied he had been with his backyard, he spent maybe two hours a week on-board, patching hull breaches, running diagnostics, and wondering if he should perhaps look into alternative power sources other than Chaos Energy. When he had landed and disembarked, it was a full two months before he stepped on it again; too many memories with Cosmo that he hadn't been ready to confront yet. Undoubtedly the biggest job would be the entire replacement of the Sonic Driver, which had been reduced to a molten heap of slag from the final blast that had ended the Metarex threat. Lately, he had more time to devote to the repair of the Typhoon, as his backyard was now healthy, past infancy, and needed less attention on a daily basis. For the past year, he had managed to land it on the beach below the Emerald Hills. He would probably be able to squeeze it back into the dry dock it had launched from, but that would have taken time, and he didn't want to expose his yard, or the tree, to that kind of jet wash at all; the Typhoon's dry dock was barely one hundred yards away from where his new garden was now. He had even considered dismantling it and designing a new one with Chris, before he discovered that the boy had to leave in a hurry.

"Anyone want seconds?" Tails asked, picking up his plate to go over to the grill for more chili dogs and chips.

"Chao, chaochaochao!" Cheese exclaimed, fluttering his wings excitedly, floating around Cream's head.

"Is that a 'yes', Cream?" Tails asked the Chao's owner.

"No, I think that was a, 'Look, the tree is glowing.'" The rabbit replied. This put all eyes on the tree, which had indeed developed a white aura around it's body and branches.


Cosmo stood on a field of grass, surrounded by an endless expanse of white no more than twenty or thirty feet out. She had spent the past year in this ethereal plane of existence, but she knew exactly where she was; Tails' backyard. She knew she couldn't be seen in a physical sense, but what allowed her to see her surroundings was the plant itself; that seed that her consciousness had been reformed into when Sonic had used his chaos energy to keep her from passing into whatever had awaited the rest of the seedrians. She was barely able to make out a table with four chairs a short distance away. Tails was there; she could hear his voice, along with other voices; it had to be Sonic and his friends.

It had started as a sea of black, she had no idea where she was, or how much time had passed; for a time she thought that this was what happened when one died. But then the first patch of soil came; the first thing she could make out as the sea of black gave way to white. For a couple weeks, all she saw was a window, and she heard Tails' voice around her every few hours. At this point, she knew what had happened; the seed had given her a single connection to the physical plane of existence. Tails had cultivated the seed, and it was growing. As it grew, so did her connection to the existence she had sacrificed herself for. She began to see her body again as Tails kept careful watch over the growing stem and leaves. Another couple weeks had gone by, and then the plant had been moved to his backyard, and still the sea of white slowly expanded and gave her a greater view of what surrounded the plant. Now, she could see almost all of Tails' yard and garden. She knew the time was quickly approaching when she could finally pass through the barrier that separated the ethereal from the physical. She could feel it.

She still hadn't seen him since that fateful day at coordinates 0-0-0. All she heard was his voice; she never saw him in his yard, nor anyone he talked to; she was fairly confident that she heard Sonic here almost every day as well.

"You were the last seedrian, my daughter, and now, perhaps, you will be the first. Are you ready for that?"

She heard her mother, Earthia, at her side; a glowing white featureless silhouette; a spirit that had long since passed on.

"It's not about being first or last, mother. It's to be with him. He repeatedly stood against a superior opponent to protect me. He and his friends confronted Dark Oak directly instead of risking my hearing and eyesight. Shooting me to ensure the defeat of the Metarex was the hardest thing he's ever had to do. He proclaimed his love, and he's spent more of the past year in this garden than anywhere else, ensuring the very best for my seed, hoping that one day I would be able to come back. I want to spend my life returning that love."

"Will you Join with him?" Earthia asked.

Cosmo whipped her head around, blushing at the white glowing spirit.

"Mother! I... I don't know! I haven't thought of that. Even if it were possible... This is his home, which means his culture, his traditions. I don't want him to change those for me."

Her mother's spirit nodded in understanding.

"Well, you have fulfilled your destiny, Cosmo. The rest of your 'new' life is yours to live and yours alone. Best of luck to you, my daughter."

With that, the white spirit of her mother slowly faded from view, as Cosmo took a step forward. She knew it was time.

"Anyone want seconds?" She heard Tails' voice over by the table. She took another step, reached out, and felt an invisible barrier. She began to press against it, gently at first, then more firmly, and it began to lose its resistance.

"Chao, chaochaochao!"

"Was that a 'yes', Cream?"

"No, I think that was a 'Look, the tree is glowing.'"

She reached out with her other hand, and began to part the barrier as if it were a heavy curtain. As she did, the white nothingness began to fade and give way to an expanse of clear blue sky and rolling hills.

"Tails? Tails? Everyone?" She called out, taking another step forward, the barrier allowing her to slowly pass through as if there were a hole made for her form alone.

"Oh my gosh, look!"


"Tails? Tails? Everyone?"

Was that...?

"Oh my gosh, look!" Amy exclaimed, pointing at the now intensely glowing tree. The bark was now almost blinding white; nearly to the point where they had to bring their arms up to shield their eyes; then out of the white, came a pale yellow hand, then a second, followed by the gold wrist bands, green sleeves, and white, green-tipped petal-like pieces of a skirt; attire they recognized all too well.

Tails was frozen where he stood by his grill, plate and tongs in hand, unable to move, barely able to breathe, as a figure slowly began to emerge from the brilliant white trunk of the tree.

"Cosmo!" The three figures at the table exclaimed.

The seedrian girl passed completely through the tree, then as the intense white glow quickly faded, she wobbled and fell to her hands and knees, unaccustomed to the weight and balance needed for being in a physical form again. She heard several sets of footsteps approach through the yard, and then looked up to see the blurry figures of Amy, Cream, Cheese, and Sonic surrounding her.

"I can't believe it! It worked! It actually worked! He's gonna be thrilled! Hey Tails! Tails! Uh, Tails?" Amy asked, and Cosmo's vision began to slowly focus from the blur she had emerged with. She tried to look through the pairs of legs surrounding her, and saw an orange figure, laying on the ground about thirty feet away. Sonic ran up to him.

"Well, he will be thrilled. As soon as we wake him up."