Dr. Eggman sat in his command chair specially designed with his incredible girth in mind. His right foot tapped rhythmically on the floor, a sign of his growing impatience. His left was doing more of a spastic dance as it thudded randomly against the metal. This was a much more obvious sign that he was seriously annoyed about how a dumb hedgehog and a weakling fox had tricked him. Again.
Although Eggman knew he probably looked like a psychotic double bass player, he didn't really care. Right now he was waiting for Bocoe and Decoe to finish the task he'd set them. With no way to move his base since Sonic had blown the legs off, he had at first contemplated abandoning the whole thing and flying back to his headquarters with the Chaos Emeralds using the other mobile shoulder joint. He then, however, came up with an idea to utilise the shoulder in a different way. Instead of spending days slogging back to his HQ in a cramped sphere or possibly weeks building new legs with what little materials he had on hand, he could simply install a weapons system into the shoulder and then assault Tails' house; a relatively easy task. Well, easy for him, but judging by the sheer amount of time it was taking, something of seemingly mind-boggling difficulty for the pair of buffoons to whom he'd appointed the job.
The fat man grumbled impatiently to himself and on a whim grabbed a nearby microphone. "What's taking so long?! Have you discovered a bag of white powder and sniffed it or something?!" Inaudible replies were fed into Eggman's ear. "Huh? Why don't I do it? That'd better be a very bad joke! It's only twenty machine guns, fifteen missile launchers, ten cannons, five laser beams and a bacon sandwich maker! Now hurry it up!" No sooner had he slammed down the microphone when he heard the entry doors behind him slide open. "What did I tell you about coming in here you ignorant bat?!"
He received no immediate reply, instead hearing only a masculine "Hmph!" which sounded half way between a laugh and a scoff. Eggman swivelled round on his chair and was pleasantly surprised to see a black hedgehog stood in front of him. The hedgehog smirked. "Expecting someone else?"
"Ah, Shadow! My apologies, I thought Rouge was trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds again. I have endeavoured to obtain two more since you last left!"
"So now you have six..." Shadow confirmed it with his own eyes. "Tell me Doctor, if you wield such power, why is half of this place missing?"
Eggman groaned. "Unfortunately I let my guard down." He explained in detail how he had found an unknown green rock substance, that Tails had built a detector to find the same thing and why the fox wanted to possess it. "He believes he can make a regeneration machine to bring back Cosmo." He expected Shadow to at least show a flicker of surprise or recognition, but the red-streaked hedgehog's face remained impassive. "In my eagerness to make a deal for the last Emerald, I failed to notice that Sonic had vanished." he continued. "By the time I'd realised, it was too late. That damned weasel destroyed the legs so I couldn't pursue them and took off with the Mowarium."
"Perhaps you should take a lesson from Rouge and not store your valuables in something that itself can be stolen." Shadow commented.
"Perhaps you're right. However, don't think that nothing good has come out of this. In order to buy time for Sonic, Tails had to tell me why he needed the Mowarium. That was his mistake; believe me, I have ideas of my own when I take it back."
"You don't think he was lying?"
Eggman grinned. "I thought he may have been at first, but think about it – Tails cared a hell of a lot about that plant girl. It would be far too painful for him to even suggest that he could bring her back unless he truly believed that he could."
Shadow nodded. "Fair point. But you do think he has the last Chaos Emerald?"
"Oh yes, he was lying about that, I'm sure of it. He denied it quite convincingly, but any doubt in my mind was removed when the Emerald radar's response faded significantly after their escape. Honestly, he must think I'm a fool! But he is the fool! As we speak my minions are arming the other shoulder with weaponry. Then we'll fly merrily over at night to ambush him and smash his sorry house to pieces!"
Suddenly Shadow smiled. "No need, Doctor."
"Hm? What do you mean?" Shadow pointed out of the huge window at a cloud of smoke billowing in the far distance. "What?! Is that...Tails' house?!"
"Most certainly. His regeneration attempt has likely failed." Shadow noticed Eggman's puzzled face. "What is it? You're not feeling sympathy for him are you?" he mocked.
"Why would I feel sorry for that two-tailed thief?! No, it's just that firstly I had no idea he was so close to completing his machine."
"It obviously wasn't complete." Shadow pointed out.
"You know what I mean!" Eggman snapped. "The other thing that's bothering me is the fact that he actually failed. As much as I hate to admit it, Tails rarely goes wrong when it comes to machinery and like I said before, that girl meant everything to him; there's no way he would try it until he was absolutely sure it would work. My guess is that he's got no second chance now, because it's improbable that the plant survived the explosion. He must have known that..."
Shadow shrugged indifferently. "Maybe desperation got the better of him."
Eggman paused thoughtfully and nodded. "Something like that." He shook his head to clear it and decided to focus on the benefits this provided for him. "Well, he's made it very easy for us to stroll in, hasn't he? Forget the weapons, we'll fly over there now and take the Emerald! Not only that, I'll see if I can discover any fragments of destroyed Mowarium near his house so I can synthesise more in my lab!"
Shadow's smile widened. "I think the deal just got even sweeter, Doctor." He pointed again at an unconscious figure lying on the ground some distance away from the smoke.
"Oh, this gets better and better! Luck's on our side today! The explosion must have blasted him out of the house! You know, I think we'll hold a ransom while we're at it! Shadow, go fetch that idiot off the floor and bring him back here while I look for the Emerald! HOOHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Ugh...what happened? Where am I?" Tails groggily opened his eyes. Everything was blurry and his mind was clouded. Indistinct voices talked in hushed tones, but he didn't know where they were coming from or who was making them; he was too out of it to understand. He tried to remember what had happened. "I'd made a machine. Something to do with green rocks? And an explosion while trying to bring back Cosmo..."
"COSMO!" he yelled as he shot bolt upright from the bed he was lying on. Everything rushed back into his brain. He had started the regeneration process, but something went wrong and the whole thing had overloaded. His vision also rapidly returned in sharp focus to see Sonic and Knuckles stood there looking terrified, probably because of his sudden shouting.
"Whoa, Tails! You gave us a shock there!" Sonic said after he'd recovered. "You've been out for quite a while, buddy; you were closest to the explosion." he explained. "Amy's taken Cream back to her house and we've been looking after you."
"Alright Tails, we've got some bad news, some good news and some more good news." Knuckles said with an air of uncharacteristic informality. Tails, on the verge of tears due to his failure, didn't really care but he wasn't given a choice to hear it. "The bad news is, as you might have expected, your workshop's been completely destroyed. But have you noticed that you're lying in your own bed? The good news is the explosion wasn't big enough to damage any part of the rest of your house!"
Tails bit his lip but couldn't stop the sobs that escaped his mouth. Then he gave up on holding back and let everything out at once, which turned out to be a lot. He collapsed back onto the bed, crying harder than he could ever remember doing. Knuckles gave him a look of terrible confusion. "What's wrong? I said it didn't blow up your house!"
"W-why should I c-care?" Tails managed between his moans of despair. "I w-wish the explosion had k-killed me..."
Knuckles looked as though he was going to give an insensitive response so Sonic gripped one of the echidna's namesakes hard to stop him. He knelt by Tails' bed and gently took one of his hands. "Don't say that, buddy." he said softly. "Why would you want that?"
"D-don't you see? There's no way s-she c-could have survived the explosion...n-now even her f-flower is dead..." He couldn't take the guilt anymore and screamed what was eating him alive. "I KILLED COSMO! AGAIN!" He let out what could only be described as a howl of pure agony. Tails knew he would never get over this. No amount of time or honeyed words would ever allow him to forget it, not for one second.
"Ah, now this is where that piece of more good news comes into play!" Sonic said happily.
Tails violently shook his head, even though by now it was buried in his pillow. "I d-don't care." his muffled voice sobbed quietly. "P-please kill me too...I n-need to be with her!"
"We're not going to assist in your unnecessary suicide that isn't happening in the first place." Knuckles said firmly.
Sonic nodded. Then, as though he were teasing a kid with a possible trip to a sweets shop, he said, "Besides, we've got a surprise for you!"
Tails looked up at him in disbelief. "How c-can you be s-so happy at a time like this? I d-don't care what surprise you have!"
"Believe me, you'll like this one." Sonic replied simply.
Knuckles cut in before Tails could retort. "Listen, we're gonna show you whether you want to see it or not, so we can do this the easy way..." He smacked his fists together. "...or the hard way."
"What Knuckles actually means," Sonic emphasised while giving the echidna an annoyed look, "is you can come with us to your guest bedroom or we'll carry you there if you don't have the strength."
Tails decided he might as well have a look – he could always bash his head against a wall later. "You said in my guest room, right?" he asked, rubbing his red eyes.
"Yup. In fact, why don't we leave him to it?" Sonic winked at Knuckles.
Knuckles actually grinned. "Sounds like a good idea, Sonic!"
"See ya!" they waved in unison. Tails watched them leave and heard them go downstairs. He took a breath and wiped the last of his tears away. Of course, if this 'surprise' wasn't a miracle solution to bring back Cosmo, he'd undoubtedly break down again.
He gathered his strength, got up and walked to the room next to his own. And sure enough the moment he opened the door, he started crying. "Oh – oh my God!" However, these weren't the tears of a fox who wanted to die; they were tears of joy.
Because there she was.
Even lying unconscious on his bed, Cosmo looked serene and peaceful. To Tails she somehow looked even more beautiful than he remembered: her skin glowed with health, her lustrous green hair shone and the twin buds upon her head appeared ready to burst into bloom at any moment. She had definitely matured during her six months absence, and Tails feared when she awoke and he gazed into her deep blue eyes that he would be unconscious one.
It was all he could do not to throw himself into a one-sided hug with her, but he knew she wouldn't feel it and couldn't hug him back. Tails forced himself to wait; it would be more than worth it when she woke up. For now he had to make do with pulling up a chair and holding her limp hand. He didn't mind, though, because at the moment he was just thanking whatever fateful forces were at work that she was here at all despite the catastrophic explosion.
He had no idea how long he waited there listening to her steady breathing, but he did know that he wasn't going to move until Cosmo awoke. After an indeterminable length of time with no clock or watch, Sonic came back to check on him. "Still nothing?"
Tails shook his head. "No, but I'm not leaving her side."
"I'd expect nothing less." Sonic grinned when he saw him holding her hand.
"I'm so glad that Cosmo was fully restored before the machine exploded. Where did you find her, by the way?" Tails asked.
"Well, we found you about fifty yards from your house here, but strangely Cosmo was lying exactly where the flower had been during the regeneration."
"Really? Must've worked better than I thought...or just got lucky." Then a concerned look crossed Tails' face. "Are you sure she's alright?"
"Oh yeah, there's no doubt she'll come round sooner or later. Obviously we couldn't use your X-Ray machine because it's in pieces, so Amy examined her. She's actually a pretty good nurse! Yep, there are no broken bones or anything. In fact she's in remarkably good shape for someone who's just been dragged back from who knows where!"
"Yeah, I noticed that too." Tails suddenly got up and hugged Sonic. "I'm sorry for treating you and Knuckles like that. You didn't deserve it and I should've believed you."
"Think nothing of it! I've already forgotten about it, but I'll tell Knuckles just in case!" Sonic pulled out of the hug and winked.
Tails sighed in relief. "Thanks! Listen, you two can leave if you want, I'll be fine looking after Cosmo."
Sonic smirked. "Aww, want to spend some time alone with her?"
"N-no, it's just -" Tails blushed and gave up pretending. "Ok, yes, but you can stay if you like."
"Nah, we were just worried Eggman might have seen the explosion and tried to get here. I know his base can't move, but you know how resourceful he is!"
Tails paused, weighing up the options. "I think I'll be alright. Even if he does come here he won't be packing much in the way of weaponry. Besides, I can count on you to get here fast if I ring you, right?"
"You sure can!" Sonic walked out to the top of the stairs and called down them. "Come on Knuckles, we're outta here!" They heard him shout back an affirmative reply that he would wait outside.
Tails smiled. "Bye Sonic! I'll call you soon after she wakes!"
Sonic nodded but his face suddenly wore a serious expression. "Just a word of warning, buddy. Cosmo's absolutely fine physically, but we don't know how her mental state is holding up. Remember, we haven't got a clue where we've just pulled her from and it was pretty intense. I don't want to dampen your spirits, but be prepared; when she wakes up she might suffer from hallucinations, panic attacks or even memory loss..."
The implied meaning of his words hit Tails like a train. "Oh God no...what if she doesn't remember me?"
"Also, she might not even be the same person mentally." Sonic continued. "We all know how nice she was before, but that may not necessarily be the case now. For all we know she could turn aggressive or -"
"Enough!" Tails shouted. "Please Sonic, can we just cross this bridge if we come to it? I don't want to imagine that right now!"
Sonic held up his hands in surrender. "Sorry Tails, you're right. I'm not usually this negative, most of what I just said was recited from Amy anyway. I only wanted you to brace yourself for whatever could happen."
"I understand that, Sonic." Tails said in a manner which suggested the topic was over.
A grin appeared on the hedgehog's face again. "Don't worry, I'm sure everything will be fine! See ya!" Sonic always spoke the final words in all their conversations, usually because he was gone before Tails could open his mouth. This was exactly what happened as Tails heard the front door slam shut.
The fox returned to Cosmo's side and began stroking her hair. He had to admit the combination of next to no sleep in the last few days, the stress of relentless effort and the raw shock of seeing Cosmo with his own eyes once again had left him drained. "Oh, I'm so tired...but I can't fall asleep! I'll just lean my head against the bed and rest my eyes. I have to be there for her when she wakes up...can't drift off...not even for a nap...I won't...must..."
...
