Authors Note: Merry Christmas, here's my present for you.
I apologize for the massive delay, I kind of had a minor case of writers block that slowed the writing of chapter significantly. Also I had some college work, so that helped delay writing as well.
Also, this story has reached 10,000 views, which I cannot thank you enough for.
Anyway, enjoy the chapter.
He dreamed he was back at the funeral. He was standing at where they lowered Sonic's coffin. As he watched it, he tried his best to keep his composure.
He tried to avoid looking at it, thinking that if he didn't see it, Sonic would be still alive. However, even though he was staring at the ground instead of the coffin, he still couldn't get what happened out of his mind.
Standing near the tornado, holding the Miles Electric, as he head the last words his brother would say to him.
"I'm sorry Tails."
Then, seconds later, seeing the explosion in the distance. At the time, he prayed it wasn't the worst case scenario. The moment he saw Sonic's communicator activated, it gave him a small hope that he was alive. But as he got no response, he began to realize the awful truth.
His brother was dead.
But he also thought about the events leading up to his death. When the tortuse shot the tornado as he was analyzing it, he was focused on landing safely that he didn't have time to analyze the robot properly. When he heard Sonic ask how long he had before the energy that was powering the robot explodes, he realized something.
Tears began to well in his eyes and his hands shook as he began to realize something relating to his death.
Turning away from where the coffin was, he ran away from it. Not wanting to be around where his brother was being laid to rest. Once he was sure he was far enough, he began to cry.
As he cried, he heard a couple of pairs of footsteps come from behind him.
Looking back, he saw that Knuckles and Amy had followed him, both having looks of concern on their faces.
"Tails, you alright?" Knuckles asked. "We saw you run away from Sonic's…." he didn't finish that sentence, as if even he didn't want to say it.
Tails said nothing, he just stared at him with a look of sadness on him.
"Tails, I understand Sonic's death isn't easy for you. Believe me, it isn't any easier for me." Amy said. "But I don't think he'll want to see you like this."
"It's my fault." Tails interrupted, turning away from them.
"What do you mean?" Knuckles asked. "If you're referring to Sonic's death, you're not the one killed him."
"I didn't warn him." Tails interrupted as tears streamed down his face. "He died because of me."
"Tails, it's not your..." Amy tried to say, but Tails stopped her.
"If I had just warned him about the energy sooner, he would still be alive." He cried.
"Tails, you didn't kill him." Knuckles said trying to approach him. However, Tails had run off, feeling devastated over the situation.
"Tails wait." He head Knuckles yell out, but he continued running.
As he ran, he began to notice that he was in a forest now. This is despite recalling that after he ran from Amy and Knuckles, he went to the Tornado to fly back to his home.
Stopping, he looked around at the forest. It was the same one that he'd been in and the same one that Sonic died in, still burnt looking. However, he noticed that there was some grass growing, and a few of the tree's didn't look as burnt and some even had leaves in them.
As he looked around, he began to hear a familiar voice once again.
"Tails, are you there?"
Despite knowing what was gonna happen, Tails ran towards the voice. Eventually reaching the same bog where he once again, saw Sonic standing on the island in the middle of it, facing away from him.
Tails was about to run over to him, but remembering what happened the previous times, he hesitated and looked at the bog Carefully stepping in the bog in front of him, he made his way a bit more slowly then he usually did whenever he was in the dream.
He eventually reached to where the island and approached Sonic. Just as he was about a few feet away from him, Sonic spoke.
"They still don't believe you about Metal don't they?" Sonic asked.
Tails lowered his head. "Not really." he replied.
"Figures." Sonic said. "He was one of Eggman's robots."
"But I think Rouge believed me." Tails added, hoping he could get Sonic to see that Metal wasn't shunned by everyone. "Why else would she let him go?
"Well even if she did believe you about Metal, almost everyone doesn't believe you." Sonic replied.
"They will eventually." Tails said. "They just need time."
Sonic gave him no reply at that.
Tails sighed and looked away from him. 'It's not really him.' He thought. 'It's just a manifestation for my dream. Just to remind me of my failure to save him.'
Suddenly, Sonic spoke. "You can stop blaming yourself you know."
Tails looked at Sonic in surprise. "What?"
Sonic turned to him with a small smile. "My death. You can stop blaming yourself for it.
"But..." Tails stammered. "I didn't warn you what would happen if the energy became unstable. You died because of me."
Sonic shook his head. "I didn't die because of you. Running away out of the city with the Tortoise was my only option after what you told me."
"But if I warned you before the energy became unstable, I still could've saved you."
"And how would I have dealt with the tortoise with the information you found out?" Sonic asked. "Let's not forget I also had to deal with Metal Sonic."
"But maybe if I told you how to neutralize it, maybe you wouldn't have died." Tails argued.
Sonic crouched down at Tails. "Look, I know that you're trying to think of ways you could've saved me, but what happened happened. You need to accept that what happened to me wasn't your fault.
"But..." Tails tried to say before he heard something.
Looking to his left, he once again saw the Tortoise robot.
Knowing what was coming next, Tails looked away and sighed sadly. The robot exploding not long after. The fire consuming both him and Sonic.
Tails woke up with a small gasp. As he caught his breath, Metal, who was standing in front of him, turned his head.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"Yeah." Tails asked. "Just had a bad dream."
He thought about the dream he had. As he did, he realized that the Sonic he spoke to in the dream wasn't as angry at him as before. Sure he was still somewhat dismissive of Metal being good now, but he didn't seem angry at it. He was even trying to convince Tails that his death wasn't his fault.
Still, Tails was uncertain of the latter. He still felt that Sonic died because he didn't warn him.
He turned his head towards Metal, trying to put aside the thought. "How's your thruster after the maintenance I did?"
"After a test I put it though, I have concluded that it can now use it for exactly 16 seconds before malfunctions. With that information, I have also concluded that I will be unable to fly for long periods for now." Metal stated.
"Guess you still need to fly on the tornado." Tails said as he got up.
"Affirmative." Metal replied.
"Well, let's just do some practice with the arm and we can head off to the next emerald."
As Tails got the fake arm and put some sticks in it, Metal analyzed Tails. It was clear to him that he looked a bit distracted given that he kept looking up at him every now and then, like he wanted to tell him something but was reluctant to do so.
He figured it probably had something to do with the talk with Rouge. While he figured that he managed to convince Rouge that he changed, he also knew that she must have asked Tails something that is making Tails act like this at the moment.
He needed to figure out what that was.
After Tails finished setting up the arm, he put on the helmet and approached Metal. "Okay, I want you to just grab the arm and hit the shield in front of me. Understand?"
Metal nodded. "I will attempt to do so."
Tails then begun to swing the arm towards Metal, though in a way that wasn't easy for him to grab. So until he could find an opening, Metal dodged the attacks.
It only took him exactly 7 seconds to figure out an opportunity to grab the arm. When Tails was swinging it to his left, there was an opening that could allow him to catch it.
Just when Tails was swinging it, Metal extended his hand and caught the fake arm. For a few seconds, Tails stared at Metal grabbing the arm. Clearly thinking that Metal finally learned some restraint
Metal then tightened his grip on the arm, causing the sticks to break. He then used his free hand to punch the face guard that Tails was wearing, causing Tails to be knocked to the ground.
Tails sighed in frustration. "I didn't say break the arm, then punch me Metal."
"I apologize." Metal stated. "I will account for that for the next practice."
Tails sighed and began to replace the sticks in the fake arm, glimpsing at Metal every now and then.
"Do you want to talk to me about something?" Metal asked, now seeing an opportunity to talk to Tails.
Tails looked at Metal in surprise. "What?" He asked.
"You keep glancing at me." Metal replied. "This indicates that you want to tell my something, but are reluctant to do so."
Tails looked down. "I want to ask you something. I probably never asked you this at any point since you moved in."
He looked at Metal. "Why did you leave Eggman?"
There was a moment of silence before Metal responded. "I assume Rouge brought then up during your talk with her."
Tails nodded.
"If you think that Sonic's death was a cause of my turn against Eggman, you are partially correct." Metal stated. "But there was another factor in that."
Tails looked at Metal in surprise. "Really? What was it?"
Metal looked away from Tails. "The other factor was that I had no idea what my purpose was anymore."
"What do you mean?" Tails asked in surprise. "Couldn't you still have worked with Eggman even with Sonic dead?"
"I was created for the purpose to be superior Sonic in every way." Metal replied. "When I saw his body after the explosion, I should have felt glad. My nemesis was dead."
Metal then looked away. "But instead, I felt uncertainty for myself"
"But why?" Tails asked, surprised by Metal's answer.
Metal continued. "I was uncertain of what Eggman would do to me after Sonic's death. Would he scrap me, or use me for a different, less important purpose?"
"He still could've had you fight us." Tails pointed out. "After all, it's not like he had you exclusively fight Sonic."
"It would not have been the same." Metal replied. "I could have fought Shadow, and still not feel the same compared to fighting Sonic."
He then lowered his head. "Even the idea of me now being the superior Sonic felt meaningless to me. How could I be better then him if he is willing to sacrifice himself to save others?"
He then sat down on the ground. "I simply felt I had no purpose anymore."
For a few moments Tails was silent. While he knew of Metal's goal of being the superior Sonic, he figured it was never going to happen as Sonic kept beating him, so he never thought about how Metal would react if he did defeat him. Even before Metal arrived at his house, he was too wrapped up in his grief to think about it.
But now, after listening to what Metal said, it surprised him with how he reacted to Sonic's death.
"So you had an existental crisis?" Tails finally asked.
Metal nodded. "If that is what you call it, then yes."
"But why did you wait to leave?" Tails asked. "Why did you stay with Eggman for a bit after Sonic died?"
"It would have caused Eggman to become suspicious." Metal replied. "He would have known I was trying to turn on him. I had to wait for an opportunity to leave. I finally saw one when he ordered me to collect the chaos emeralds."
"And that's when you went to my house." Tails finished.
Metal nodded. "Does that answer your question?"
Tails thought about it for a moment before replying. "I guess so."
He then began to change the sticks in the arm. "We'll practice a few more times, and then we'll fly off to the next location of the emerald."
Metal processed the info for a second before replying. "That is acceptable."
Once the sticks were in the fake arm, Tails put the helmet back on. "Remember, grab then punch, understand."
Metal nodded, and they begun to practice again.
Meanwhile, at his base, Eggman was watching footage of Metals fight with his robots.
"Hmph. It looks like Metal is going be a bigger nuisance then I thought" Eggman grumbled as he watched the footage.
He expected that Metal wouldn't be deterred by the restraint he put in him. But he didn't expect he would still search for the emeralds, except this time with a different purpose.
"I need to get those emeralds." He said as he stood up and began to pace around. "Even without Metal to retrieve them, they're necessary to my plan."
He thought about it, he knew that he couldn't send his robots to simply fight Metal as he would just destroy them, and he didn't have time to make something that would make would make Metal's restraint go off whenever he attacked his robots. So those were out.
Just then, he realized something. Switching the footage to a map, he looked at several signatures on the map, indicating where the emeralds were.
"Knowing Metal, he and Tails have probably planned to head to the nearest emerald." He said.
He then turned his eyes towards the next nearest emerald. "Of course, I don't have to go after that emerald." He said as he sprouted a grin.
He then turned his eyes towards an area that had four signatures grouped together as his grin got larger. "Of course, I can go for a larger prize first."
Authors Note: And we're done. I will say this, don't expect another chapter anytime soon. I'm going to focus on writing a couple more chapters of The Beast Inside before I write another chapter of this story. That and I need to Sort of get an idea for how this next section is going to go.
See ya next time.