Even if the battle's over, it doesn't mean we're done just yet. Because war is only ever the beginning. I hope you enjoy~

Feb 18, 2012

Dear Diary:

I'm not convinced anything in my life is real. None of it makes sense anymore, so how can such a world exist? Stress tears at my heart, then eases the beating. It lifts the weight from my chest just to allow it to crash down once more. I'm dizzy trying to keep up, like I exist in a dream that keeps fast-forwarding, whether or not the parts I miss are significant.

After all, how can a world without the Metarex be real? A world without war? A world where Tails commands the Chaos Emeralds?

A world without Sonic?

It's been two weeks since Tails defeated Shining Birch. Nearly three weeks since Shining Birch killed Sonic. A month since we had to leave home. Two months since Sonic returned to us in Metarex armor after being missing. More than five years since the Metarex took over. Six years since we encountered the Metarex for the first time.

I want to go back. I want to warn myself how to prepare for this future. Or, better yet, prevent it. Or at least what happened to Sonic. I'd change the world for him. I'd risk the world for him.

But instead, today, we're saying goodbye to him.

Mobius is celebrating the end of the Metarex with some party in Green Hill. Tails was even asked to speak. But as part of that, they're also taking time to recognize those we lost. Making everything final. Embedding it in history. Allowing us to find a way to move on.

But how do you move on when all you want to do is look back?

Love,

Amy Rose

Amy lowered her pen and notebook to the floor beside her. As her hands drifted back up, she slid her fingers down the edge of the blue ribbon tied around her forearm. Her head fell back against the wall behind her hard enough that she recoiled a fraction of an inch, wincing, before settling it back again. She stared up at the nose of the Blue Typhoon in front of her.

The ship and its hangar had been their home since the team had returned to Mobius. It wasn't like any of them had a home remaining on this planet—except for perhaps Cream, if they managed to find her mother. Their base had been overrun by Metarex and their homes before had been destroyed years ago

But this felt like the furthest they could be from any sort of home. Further than their base on the opposite side of the planet. Further than when they explored space. Though Amy couldn't quite describe why.

She tugged absent-mindedly on the ribbon, telling herself that she was just making sure that it was secure. But it was too needy of a gesture to mean so little, especially considering what the ribbon represented.

This world they lived in now didn't seem like a world without war. Maybe just because such a future seemed an impossible pipe dream. Such a place couldn't feel real. Or maybe it was just because it was hard to make a hangar a home.

Tails wandered toward her across the floor of the hangar. Or at least he seemed to be aimed her direction. His eyes weren't on her face but on the papers he held out in front of him. Though he continued forward, his eyes slid across the lines of text rather than watched where he walked. His own blue ribbon stuck out between his fingers where it was balled up in his fist.

Amy pushed herself to her feet using the wall behind her and was upright by the time Tails reached her. Only then did he look up. "Can you help me with this?" he asked, holding out the hand with the blue ribbon.

Amy took the ribbon silently and wrapped it around Tails's forearm in the same way she had hers tied around her own. As she pulled the last knot, she lifted her eyes to Tails, though he'd returned his to the notes. His eyes were blue again now, but when she blinked, she could still see the red they had glowed when the Energy of seven Chaos Emeralds burned through him.

Though she'd known him for nearly all her life, it tied her tongue and sent her into silence when she was near him now. She didn't know why it unsettled her so. Sonic had gone "Super" more times than she could count but never once had it unsettled her. At least not any more than the fact that he only ever used the seven Chaos Emerald when things had gone horribly wrong and he was about to throw himself headfirst into danger.

She released a heavy breath that she managed to keep mostly silent. Except that being right next to Tails meant "mostly silent" wasn't enough. He lifted his eyes at the sound. "It doesn't feel like we've won, does it?" he said.

Amy narrowed her eyes. "You tell me; you're the one who can use the Chaos Emeralds now," she said.

"That doesn't mean much," Tails muttered. His shoulders fell. "It doesn't mean I have any more answers than anyone else."

Amy's heart tightened in her chest. His words brought the pieces together in her brain. That was why Tails having that power inside him unsettled her so much. Because that was the same power Sonic had. And she knew Tails, his youth, his unsureness, his vulnerabilities. He didn't have all the answers.

It meant that Sonic hadn't either. Which meant Sonic wasn't a hero. He was as mortal and as fallible as the rest of them.

No wonder the Metarex managed to kill him.

She felt the edges of her thoughts cracking, like stability started slipping out of reach. Like if everything could be questioned, what was real? What did they hold on to? But at the center of Amy's vision was Tails. He watched her, blue eyes tilted up at her, waiting for her answer. Like the thoughts in his own head were the same as hers and he wanted her to stop them.

Amy's eyes shifted back to the blue ribbon that she'd forgotten to release after tying the last knot. Her fingers still clung to the slightly fraying ends. It had been her idea, the ribbon, as a way to remember Sonic, like how some people wore black to funerals. Sonic was never a funeral sort of guy, though. He couldn't slow down long enough to mourn. He just kept running. He held out for the hope that tomorrow would be a better day.

And just a fraction of the weight lifted from Amy's chest.

"I think it's over," Amy said softly. She shoved conviction behind her words like it was her job. "I don't see any reason not to hold on to hope. It must have been enough."

Tails's ears twitched. He closed his eyes and whispered, "Hope is stronger than fear." And when he opened his eyes again, the ghost of a smile alit his lips. "It's kind of a brave new world, isn't it?"

Amy nodded at the papers in Tails's hand. "You ready for it?"

Tails looked down at them, then folded them up. The crease fell into place easily, like he'd already folded the papers and pressed the crease many times. "I have to be," he said, not meeting Amy's eyes. "I'm the hero now.

-X-X-X-

Tails's View

Flying freely over the surface of Mobius without fear of being ambushed by Metarex still felt impossible, even as Tails did just that. His muscles tensed and his fingers tightened on the controls of the X-Tornado, as if he might need to initiate evasive maneuvers at any second. And while yes, Eggman could still be out there, waiting for his moment to strike, if he was still alive at all, that was absolutely not what Tails feared. His heart sought to soar. But his brain refuted the freedom.

There were holes in the world; that was the best way Tails could think to describe the feeling of tension. This wasn't the same world they'd left behind when the war first began five years ago. There could not be such a thing as returning to business as usual. Not when Sonic was…

Tails breathed in slowly, then forced a smile on his face. Sonic was free too. Free from the Metarex, from their control, from the horror they'd put him through. And besides, Tails thought, if he could see us, he'd be telling us not to cry for him. He'd hate to see us mourn him.

He and the crafts his friends piloted beside him descended into Green Hill and landed in the grass among the rolling hills. It lacked some of the vibrancy of its old life. Instead, it had dulled and grown somewhat yellow in color. Tails imagined the crunching of the grass beneath his landing gear rather than heard it and still winced. But when he turned to Cosmo and offered her his hand, he smiled like nothing was wrong.

It wasn't until he and his friends crested the nearest hill that he revealed his nerves. Down in the largest valley of Green Hill was a massive crowd mingling in front of a wooden stage. Several hundred people had to be here already, with likely still more on the way. Tails stumbled back a step at the sight. His throat tightened and threatened to close. "That's…a lot of…" Tails tried to choke out but kept losing his phrase.

Cosmo took his hand and squeezed it. "They're here to celebrate and reunite with their families and friends, not here to judge your speech. And besides, I'm sure you'll impress and inspire them all the same."

Tails swallowed. And nodded. But he didn't look at Cosmo. At least not until she took his other hand and steered him around to face her. "You defeated the leader of the Metarex," she reminded him, pressing her forehead against his. "Whatever happens today, that cannot be taken away from you. You have done more for this world—for all worlds—than anyone could dream of doing. And there is nothing more anyone can expect from you."

Tails's cheeks heated. "Cosmo…" he whispered.

Someone thumped him on the back, and Tails turned to see Knuckes standing there with a grin on his face. "The Brainiac who can build a ship and fight using the Chaos Emeralds is afraid of a crowd? Well, I guess you had to have some weakness."

"Knuckles!" Amy groaned.

But Knuckles's words actually brought a real smile to Tails's face at last. Cosmo…Knuckles…Amy, not to mention Chris, Cream, and Cheese, they all stood with him. The army with whom he'd fought the Metarex and won. But they were so much more than that. Five years holed up together, holding on, some days just getting by, they'd become a family in the truest sense of the word. Not that they hadn't felt like that to him before. But it was only now that Tails recognized how much deeper that bond had become.

Love and bickering and picking and affirmation. This was the world he had fought for.

Together, they descended into the valley beneath them where the sea of a crowd awaited. Amy led the way, creating a path through the mass of bodies. Tails followed immediately behind her. His eyes fell on where her hand pressed against the white bag bouncing against her hip. Within that bag was the single Chaos Emerald still within their possession—the Emerald the same shade of blue Sonic's fur had been. When Amy had offered it up to Tails after the fight against Shining Birch, as he was now the designated hero, he refused it. Until he needed it for additional power in the X-Tornado, he planned to continue to refuse it. He wasn't confident in his ability to use any fewer than the seven anyway. And besides, Tails could clearly tell how much it meant to Amy to hold on to it.

She treated it as though it was all she had left of the hedgehog she'd once loved.

"How long until your speech?" Amy said over her shoulder.

"Still have about a half hour," Tails replied.

"So what's the plan until then exactly?" she asked.

Tails hesitated. "I…don't know," he said after a second. The fact that Amy still looked to him as the de facto leader now made his squirm whenever it was brought to his attention.

"We don't need a plan," Cream said from where she followed behind Cosmo. She held Cheese in her arms, probably so he didn't get separated from her in the crowd. "It's a party! We're just supposed to have fun."

"You still need a plan at a party, Cream," Amy exclaimed. "How else do you make sure you do all there is to do and talk to everyone you want to talk to? Have I taught you nothing?"

Cream laughed, and it felt like it was the first time Tails had heard her laugh in years. It wasn't, not by a longshot, but the sound was so welcome it lifted the tense heart weighing down like a stone in his chest. She sounded like a little girl, exactly as she should, at twelve years old.

Though, at twelve, Amy had fought the Metarex for the first time.

At eight, Cosmo had stepped forward to give her life in order to defeat the Metarex.

Not to mention C2 not long enough ago…

Cream might be his youngest friend, but she was no baby, no child to be protected. She was the girl who had jumped into her plane and fought the Metarex at the first sign of them approaching their home. They all deserved peace and joy as much as she did.

"—you sure she'll be here?"

Tails heard half the phrase of a familiar voice in the crowd and watched Cream's face as she heard the same. Her eyes widened and mouth fell open.

"I have no doubt, Vanilla. A detective's intuition."

Tails twisted toward the familiar pair of voices in the crowd. But before he could even catch sight of their faces, Cream pushed past him. "Mother?" she exclaimed. Just like that, she sounded six years old again.

A woman raised her head at the sound of Cream's voice and found her eyes in the crowd. Vanilla—Cream's mother—exclaimed, "Cream, dear!" And she pushed through the crowd just as Cream did, without so much as a backward glance at Vector, Espio, and Charmy who had been standing with her.

Cream leaped into her mother's open arms, quickly followed by Cheese who barreled into Vanilla's shoulder. The chao dissolved into tears. Cream maintained her composure only a few moments longer than her friend. "Mother, I thought—I thought—"

Vanilla pressed her hand against the back of her daughter's head. "I know. But I'm here now."

Tails's chest heated and his heart eased, a sensation that had become increasingly unfamiliar to him. He'd forgotten what it felt like to witness such joy. Some piece he hadn't known to be missing in his chest locked back into place and the whole world made just a little more sense. He was distracted enough that he didn't notice Vector, Espio, and Charmy crossing the clearing over to him and the others until Charmy said, "We found Cream. So does that mean we're getting paid?"

"Not now, Charmy!" Vector snapped. As if that would make the whole scene subtler.

Espio rolled his eyes, though midway through the gesture, his eyes landed on Tails. "It's a pleasure to see you all in one piece," the chameleon offered in lieu of greeting.

"More or less," Knuckles muttered, summoning a new icy chill to sweep over Tails's shoulders.

But he couldn't fall apart now. He just rolled his shoulders back. "I better be going," he said. "Got to go get ready for my speech."

"Speech!" Vector exclaimed. "You must have really leveled up if they're paying you the big bucks."

Charmy flew in close to Tails and said, "Mind throwing some our way? Metarex blew up our office."

"Charmy!"

Tails smiled, cheeks heating. "It's more of a volunteer position."

He turned and slipped through the crowd before he could think better of the decision. Before he could think to run away. Or decide to hide in the crowd. The closer he got to the stage, the more fluttery his heart sounded, like it might just take off and fly away. He balled his hands into fists at his sides, crumpling the notes for his speech in his hand. He quickly un-balled his fist and worried over re-folding the paper, flattening out the worst of the crumpling.

Then…he just stopped.

And watched.

Mobians surrounded him on all sides. Like Cream and Vanilla, many of them tearfully united. He scanned the crowd, seeing how many people surrounding him had tears in his eyes. Some reunited…some mourning those they could not be reunited with...some likely revealing the nightmares through which they'd survived. All of those feelings were within Tails as well, all at once. He'd found friends and lost others. He'd lived through horrors that would continue to torment him for the remainder of his life. He'd faced the leader of the Metarex and won.

Why was he scared of a speech?

He knew why, of course. He wanted to be the hero the audience expected him to be. But they expected Sonic. The one who would never have bothered to slow down long enough to provide words of leadership and comfort to anyone beyond his friends. And no one expected more of him. Because he'd already done more than anyone else could.

But unlike Sonic, Tails wanted to do this. Fear might trill through him, but he wanted to stand in front of the Mobians and share his words. Offer the first step toward the long path of healing.

You don't have to be Sonic. You just have to brave.

Tails smiled and continued toward the stage, fully himself. At one side of the stage stood a young squirrel in navy blue uniform. Tails approached him and said, "Excuse me. I'm Tails—Miles Prower, I mean."

The young man's eyes widened at the sound of Tails's name. "Oh! Of course! Good afternoon, Mr. Prower." He reached out and took Tails's hand in both of his own and shook vigorously. "It's a pleasure to meet such an extraordinary hero."

Tails's face heated. Is this what Sonic used to put up with? Tails had seen some of it, from a distance. He'd been part of the "group of heroes" before but never had he been the hero. "Thank you," Tails said haltingly. "I'm…" He cleared his throat and tried again. "I'm supposed to give a speech?"

"Yes, yes, of course," the squirrel replied. "There will be an introduction for you any moment, and then you'll take the stage." He glanced over his shoulder, then back at Tails before quickly adding, "Can I just say thank you? On behalf of the whole planet? Or…or even just me? No one thought it would be possible to defeat the Metarex. We all just thought the planet was lost. Especially with Sonic the Hedgehog nowhere to be found. Which means, of course—"

"I was happy to help," Tails said quickly before the young male could finish his sentence. It took Tails a few seconds to realize he was tugging at the blue ribbon on his arm. It was one thing to know the truth about Sonic's fate, to discuss it with his friends. But he couldn't with a stranger. And while Tails logically knew that losing Sonic would affect the whole world—he was the hero of Mobius after all—no one outside his friends had really known him. Tails wasn't prepared to figure out how to share the grief of losing his big brother with a stranger who thought they had only lost a great hero.

An older beaver in the white uniform of Mobian council members took to the stage and approached the microphone. He hardly needed to say, "May I have your attention?" as the crowd quieted even before he reached the microphone.

The male continued, "Thank you all for coming here today. This day is truly great. We are here to celebrate—at last—the defeat of the Metarex."

The man hesitated for a brief moment while the crowd cheered before continuing, "This war certainly outstayed its welcome, lingering on far longer than perhaps any of us anticipated. Until finally, out of the destruction, arose one hero. And today, we have asked him to share a few words of encouragement. Please welcome Mr. Miles Prower."

The crowd cheered again, and the racing of Tails's heart began again in earnest. Never mind that he'd made the final blow against the leader of the Metarex. Never mind that he'd fought hundreds of Metarex prior to that moment, and fought even more of Eggman's robots before even then. Now, he stood alone before those he'd fought to protect all his life.

But he'd also known Sonic long enough to learn that being brave was about feeling the fear and doing the hard thing anyway. So though Tails's legs felt like gelatin, he climbed the stairs up to the stage and approached the podium awaiting him. He lowered his now very wrinkled speech on to the podium and pressed his hand against it to smooth out the worst of the crinkling. The crowd quieted quickly at the sight. No time like the present, said a voice in Tails's head that sounded very much like Sonic.

Gone. But never far away.

"Hi, everyone," Tails began. "My name's Miles Prower, but please call me Tails. It's the name my friend…my best friend gave me a long time ago." He took a deep breath to steady himself. "When I was asked to talk to all of you today, I didn't have a clue what I was supposed to say. I've never been the hero before. I've been the sidekick plenty of times, but they don't tend to be the ones to give the speeches. Though…neither was Sonic."

Tails cleared his throat. The crowd was too quiet. But without hardly looking, he found Cosmo's eyes. They steadied him. "So I wasn't sure if I was supposed to rally everyone to victory. Or tell you about the battle. Or to tell you we'll rebuild. But since I don't know what I'm supposed to do, I'm going to do what I feel like I need to do: mourn.

"War is always long, no matter the length. Maybe it lasts the length of a single battle. Or five years. Or twenty. But whatever that length of time is, it's impossibly long. Because it's not just about winning. We fought, we won, on to the next thing, right? No, it's not that simple. Because we also think about was given. Some gave everything."

Hundreds of Mobians and you could hear a pin drop.

Tails took a deep breath and continued, "Many lost their lives fighting for what they believed in. Still others lost their lives just because the Metarex decided to end them. Either way, those lives mattered. And they were ended too soon. They were fathers, sons, mothers, daughters. Friends, enemies, rivals, acquaintances, loves, and lovers. They laughed, cried, loved, hated, lived, just as we still do. The only difference between us and them is that we're the ones left alive."

Tails took in a shuddering breath and lowered his eyes to his notes, but found them too blurry to read in his tear-filled eyes. So he just closed his eyes and kept on talking. "I can't stop thinking about that. How I can still be here when others are gone. I look back and remember how much life was in them and don't understand where all that goes. But I think I've decided now." Tails opened his eyes again and lifted them to a crowd he couldn't see clearly. "The life's set free. It's all around us. And it's in us."

Tails pressed his hand to his chest. The Chaos Energy burned there at his urging. And in it, he felt what remained of Sonic in the universe. But the warmth was more than that. It was the thoughts in his head and the way he loved his friends. It was the way he looked at the world. It was the world itself, that Sonic had saved countless times before the Metarex even showed up.

He may be gone but he was everywhere.

Tails took one more steadying breath. "Today, let us remember those lives. The lives of the true heroes. Thank you."

The crowd was deafening. But Tails didn't look at him. He watched his friends, smiling up at them, even with the tears on their faces.

Even Knuckles's.

-X-X-X-

Amy's View

Darkness fell several hours later. Amy and her friends stood by the river cutting through Green Hill with many other Mobians as the last rays of sun shot across the horizon to glow half-hidden by clouds. Tails held in his hands a small raft assembled with small strips of wood. A lit candle sat at the center of the raft, flickering gently in the barely-there breeze. Behind it stood a picture of Sonic.

Amy's heart tightened at the sight of the photo in the candlelight. She had picked the picture, one where Sonic looked so happy, a grin so wide it might have hurt. One version of the Sonic she missed.

She missed all of them. The one with the glowing smile. The one with the cocky grin. The one with the fear evident in his eyes. Even the one who smirked to hide that fear. She missed all of him. So she might as well remember him happy. She hoped he was now.

A member of the council in white uniform stood on the opposite bank of the river, hands clasped behind her back. She recited, "In the dear memory of the fallen, we float these boats down the river. The fire represents the intensity of their spirits. As they travel down the river, they travel to a better place than the one they leave behind. And while they are gone, we can still see them by the fire they give off."

When she finished, everyone standing alongside the river lowered their tiny rafts into the water. Except for Tails. He held the raft and stared at the river as dozens of tiny boats floated by on the current. After a moment, he turned to Amy and pushed the raft into her hands. It nearly slipped through her fingers, so surprised she was that she barely took it. "What?"

Tails smiled; Amy could just see it by the candlelight. "Sonic was yours and you were his, in the end. You should be the one to set his raft in the water."

Amy's heart warmed as she lowered her eyes to Sonic's picture. His smile. Fearless. Even though, in the end, he had looked so afraid. And then she turned to the water. Her heart ached.

"He never liked water," she muttered. "We shouldn't put the raft in it."

Before anyone could argue with her, she turned away from the river and headed back up the small incline. She heard her friends following behind her, Knuckles groaning, "Now what?" But for once, her temper didn't rise to meet him.

She carried the raft until she reached a spot clear of grass beneath the branches of a large tree. Only half the leaves remained but it looked half-alive rather than half-dead. Like Spring, rather than Fall. She lowered the raft to the dirt, then gathered small stones to surround it in a circle, before stepping back to stand with her friends.

The type of memorial of which Sonic would approve.

Tears burned in her eyes. She closed her eyelids, but that only squeezed the tears out so they slid down her cheeks. A shoulder brushed against hers and she turned to see Knuckles standing at her side, looking down at the memorial in silence.

She turned her eyes back to the grinning picture of Sonic. Of her hero. Of…the best thing she had ever known. It was over now. But she was lucky for it to have ever existed. And now, she knew all he would want for her would be to keep moving forward.

But not for right now. Not tonight. Tonight, she'd do as Tails suggested in his speech. For one more night.

"I love you, Sonic," she whispered. "Good-bye."

A lazy breeze drifted by, but it was enough to snuff out the candle's light.

-X-X-X-

Tails's View

Torches burned steadily around Green Hill as the festivities continued on into the night. The sun sunk completely below the horizon leaving nothing but the torches and the specks of light scattered across the sky to fill the space.

Tails and his friends sat under a tree near the edge of it all. Noise of the partying—complete with a DJ—was somewhat in the distance, as if they were a couple rooms removed. Cream's mother had gone off with the Chaotix team to enjoy the party, after Cream urged her on, assuring her that she was fine. So all that remained was the family that had survived the Metarex together.

It felt…almost normal. Cream, Cheese, and Amy sat against the trunk of the tree, laughing. Knuckles lay back in the grass on the hill leading back down to the party while Chris sat beside him, just having a conversation. Tails and Cosmo sat not far off, also looking down the hill at the party below. But they remained in silence. Cosmo took Tails's hand, and he wove his fingers between hers.

"Hey, guys," a female voice said softly from behind him.

Tails turned toward the voice, as did his friends around him. Off to his left, just reaching the top of the hill, Nova and Shadow stood. Nova wore a long-sleeved velvet black dress. The symbol of Majyk hung from her neck.

"What are you doing here?" Tails exclaimed. He pushed himself to his feet, remembering to smile after an initial moment of surprise. He offered his hand to Cosmo and helped pull her to her feet as well.

Nova and Shadow continued forward toward them until they reached the small circle they all together formed. Nova explained, "I'm here as a representative of Majyk. Mobius contacted us and other planets to attend the celebration here." Her shoulders fell. "I'd been hoping to see you here. I worried I wouldn't."

Nova lowered herself to the ground under the tree near Amy, Cream, and Cheese. The rest of them joined her there, though Shadow remained standing behind her. For once, he didn't appear angry, glaring at the world. Instead, he watched Nova. After a moment, she reached up a hand and he took it. She hesitated a second, then looked at Amy. "I heard about Sonic when I arrived. Are you doing okay?"

Amy shrugged a single shoulder and offered Nova a small smile that just touched her eyes. "As well as we can, considering."

Nova nodded, though she looked at the ground rather than at anyone's face. Which made Tails think that their mourning must be all too familiar to Nova as well. "It takes time," she said after a moment. She lifted her head and met Amy's eyes again. "And even then that's not enough. But it's…easier."

Amy's fingers ran over the ridges of the blue Chaos Emerald she held in her lap, though her eyes didn't stray from Nova's. Eventually, it was Nova that looked away first to turn to Tails. "And then you, you were the one to defeat the leader of the Metarex."

"Not on my own," Tails said quickly, face heating immediately. He wondered if he'd ever grow out of that response.

"Don't even start with that," Amy snapped at him.

"You're the last person who needs humility," Knuckles added.

"Really?" Amy said, turning on Knuckles. "Mister splitting-up-is-always-a-bad-idea?"

"That has nothing to do with this!" Knuckles shot back.

Tails laughed, which shocked Amy and Knuckles into silence. "Anyway, I guess what I meant to say was thanks, Nova."

Nova shook her head in apparent exasperation, but she was smiling too. "Did Sonic ever tell you that he always believed you would be the one to save the galaxy?"

Tails's mouth fell open. And then he found he couldn't close it. Where he didn't answer, Amy did. "He said that to you?" she asked, her voice suddenly far too quiet to be hers.

Nova nodded. But at the expression on Amy's face, she frowned. "Yes. When we first met when I crashed here, I told him that I thought he was the one who would stop the Metarex. And he denied it, saying it would be you."

"He…never said…" Tails said haltingly. But then he closed his eyes and steadied himself. A sudden swift breeze whipped by, ruffling the leaves overhead. It forced air into his lungs and calmed him. It felt as though Sonic himself ran on that wind, carrying a message to where he could no longer reach. A smile eased on to Tails's face and he opened his eyes again. "I'm glad he believed in me, even before I believed in myself. Even if I didn't know."

But Amy's frown didn't so quickly evaporate. Her eyes fell on the Chaos Emerald she held in her hands. "I love him—love, not loved—but it still amazes me how he still manages to be irritating, even now. Even after he's…lost…"

"Oh, come on," a voice above in the tree groaned. Tails's heart stopped at the sound. But still the voice continued, "You should know by now that it takes a whole lot more than that to kill me!"

Not possible.