Chapter 2

Cosmo peeked around the open doorway, dreading what she might see. She was right to dread it, because she saw a huge pile of wreckage and Tails nowhere around. She called his name and got nothing.

"Tails, if you can hear me, do something to let me know!" she yelled.

Tails, underneath the wreckage, feebly lifted his head at the sound of Cosmo's voice. He weakly hit the pile of metal above him with his right arm; his left was pinned under a piece of the laser. Tails called her name as well: "Cosmo!" he cried from beneath the rubble. "Over here!"

Cosmo heard Tails' call and rushed to where it had seemed to come from. Naturally, he gets buried under the biggest pile, she thought grimly. "Hold tight!" she said to Tails. "I'll find Knuckles!" Cosmo rushed out of the Blue Typhoon's hangar and got into her plane that Tails had made for her and taught her how to fly. She took off at a high speed and rushed to Angel Island.

Upon her landing, Cosmo hurried out of her plane and ran to Knuckles' house on the floating island. "Knuckles!" she cried hysterically. The red echidna had a moment to turn before Cosmo unwittingly fell over on him. She got up, embarrassed, and apologized, dusting off her skirt with her hands. Knuckles gave her a weird look.

"What's such a big dea—"

"Part of the Blue Typhoon fell apart and Tails got buried!" Cosmo was hyperventilating. Knuckles told her first to calm down a bit, then proceeded to climb into the back of Cosmo's plane (Tails and Cosmo had never really bothered to give it a name) and motioned for Cosmo to get in. She hastily climbed into the driver's seat and took off, flying back to the duplex at breakneck speed. When Cosmo and Knuckles arrived, they went down to the Blue Typhoon's hangar. Cosmo motioned Knuckles to Tails' location, more or less. He began digging around until he saw a little bit of yellow fur. He continued to dig until he found the rest of Tails and pulled the fox out.

"What happened?" Cosmo and Knuckles asked at the same time. Tails failed to respond; he fell to the ground, unconscious.

"To the hospital," Knuckles groaned. "For the second time in a month."

When Tails came to, it was like a TV show. Sonic, Knuckles, Cosmo, Amy, and Cream were all standing around him, looking down at him. He felt a bandage around his head and his left arm in a sling. It was sore everywhere. "What happened?" he said wearily, and, in true TV show fashion, all the memories came rushing back the second he said those two words. "What the…laser…chaos…" When Tails said "chaos", everyone figured he was simply referring to the chaos of what had happened, not the spike of chaos energy where Nazo had been killed—or not. The white hedgehog floated outside, invisible to the naked eye, listening to the conversation. Excellent, he thought to himself. With the fox incapacitated, it will be that much easier to destroy this group once and for all!

A couple of weeks later, Tails sat in his side of the duplex watching a TV show vaguely reminiscent of How It's Made with a glass of lemonade in his right hand. It was found by the doctors that Tails had a concussion and his left arm had been fractured. He wasn't supposed to do anything that required a lot of mental effort (or effort at all, for that matter) for a month, and it was driving him crazy. Cosmo ran back into the room and put a pillow up behind Tails' head.

"Geez, Cosmo," Tails said, amused annoyance in his voice. "Will you stop fussing so much over me? I can still take care of myself."

"The doctors said you can't do anything until the end of next month, and I won't let you do anything until then," Cosmo replied with mock severity and laughed. Tails laughed too; the couple simply enjoyed being together. Cosmo pecked him on the cheek and went back into his kitchen. "Dinner in five minutes!" she yelled. In eloquent response, Tails sighed quite loudly to let her know that she should stop. Cosmo did an excellent job of ignoring it and continuing to fix up Tails' favorite meal, a chicken stir-fry.

At this moment, the doorbell rang. Tails made for it, but Cosmo gently-but-firmly pushed him back into his chair. Sonic was at the door. "Mind if I hang out for a bit?" he asked Cosmo.

"Dinner's just about to be ready, and…" Cosmo wasn't sure.

Tails spoke up. "Let him in," he said. "He can have dinner with us." Cosmo thought for a moment, then stepped aside to let their friend in. Sonic walked over to Tails.

"How're you holding up, pal?" he asked, sitting down in a couch next to Tails' chair.

"I'm alright," Tails said. He then pointed discreetly at Cosmo and whispered loudly. "Help me!" he said. Cosmo pretended to pretend not to notice. The three all laughed.

BEEP! BEEP! A sound emitted from the kitchen. "That's dinner," Cosmo said, and went off to the kitchen. "Sonic," she said from the kitchen. "if you could help me out by bringing Tails over here to the table, I would appreciated it." Sonic gave Tails a weird look, and Tails simply shrugged. Eventually, the two got to the table.

"So, what have you been doing lately?" Tails asked Sonic as Cosmo set out dinner. The fox felt bad that Cosmo was doing all this work, but he couldn't stop her if he tried. He had already, about three times.

Sonic seemed to strain for a moment. "Oh, the usual," he said. "Thinking of ways to KILL YOU!" Sonic passed out from the toll mind control had taken on him as a hole was blasted in the ceiling. Floating above the hole, Nazo stood with an evil look on his face. No mind games this time. He meant business.

Did you miss me? he thought-spoke. Tails' brow furrowed angrily as he heard that mental voice in his mind. This hedgehog had hurt Cosmo. He had nearly destroyed the Blue Typhoon. He had hurt Sonic and Knuckles. He had crippled (albeit briefly) Amy. He didn't deserve to live. Tails ignored all the restraints of his condition. Thinking quickly, he took a knife from the table. Instead of stabbing Nazo like in the past, though, he slit Sonic's arm first, wetting the blade with chaos-infused blood. I'm sorry, Sonic. The chaotic blood would surely kill Nazo; foreign blood would be like a poison. He threw the knife, and as it spun, Tails prayed that the blade would hit and not the handle. Tails' wish came true, for the blade hit Nazo's chest, dead-center. The hedgehog fell down and lay on the table, breathing heavily.

I can't lose, Nazo thought to himself. He then had an idea. A brilliant, devious idea. Using every bit of his power and will, he struggled to stay alive, though Sonic's chaos-infused blood mixing with his own was taking its toll. You win, he said simply. Thanks for the help, Cosmo. As he said this, Nazo proceeded to take over the plant girl's mind.

"I have tried my hardest to help destroy them," Cosmo said in an eerily normal voice. Tails looked at her in horror. "I am sorry for failing you, Master." With that, Nazo died forever, and Cosmo for an hour.

A/N: In his wake, Nazo has left a far more dangerous enemy behind. What will happen to Cosmo and the rest of the gang? How is Tails taking the information that Cosmo was helping Nazo the whole time? And how will the rest of the gang respond? Review and subscribe for more!