He was in the forest again. Except this time, instead of it being in ruin, it was filled with leaves and grass. The trees were intact and weren't burnt out. It was almost like the explosion never happened.
As before, Tails heard Sonic call his name out, and just like before, he began to walk towards where the voice was coming from, eventually finding himself in a clearing with Sonic standing at the center of it.
For a moment, Tails hesitated to head over to him, afraid of what he might say due to him losing the emeralds. However, much to his surprise, Sonic turned towards him and waved at him.
"Hey come over here lil bro." He said.
Tails remained where he was, uncertain of what to do.
Sonic smiled. "Come on, I don't bite."
Knowing he was going to have to move eventually, he walked forward. Surprisingly though, instead of the bog that was in the previous dreams, it felt like he was walking on solid ground.
He eventually reached where Sonic was.
"How you doing Tails?" Sonic asked.
Tails gave a sigh. "Not well really. Metal's disabled, and Eggman has the emeralds. Which means he's probably going to use them for whatever he has planned."
"I see." Sonic replied. "So, pretty much a usual situation whenever Eggman has something bit planed."
Tails nodded. "Yeah. Except I have no idea what to do right now. Metal has a restraint that prevents him from attacking Eggman, most of the others aren't going to believe me about Metal being on our side now, and who knows what Eggman is going to deploy to prevent the Chaos Emeralds from falling out of his hands."
"Hey calm down, you've dealt with this before, and you knew that he would strike again."
Yeah, but you were always there." Tails pointed out. "And yes I expected Eggman to strike without out, but I didn't think it would be so soon. I hoped that it would be later, when I had managed to convince others that Metal was good now."
"Well sometimes things don't go the way you want." Sonic replied. "Just like my own death for example."
Tails didn't say anything at that. Instead, he looked away from him.
"You're still trying to move on from my death aren't you?" Sonic replied, noticing Tails' silence.
Tails waited a few seconds before nodding. "I don't blame myself for your death anymore, but I don't think I'm ready to move on yet."
"But you know that you have to if you're going to beat Eggman." Sonic continued, finishing Tails' line of thought.
Tails continued speaking. "And I know that Metal has dealt with losing before, you've beaten him numerous times after all. But a defeat like this, when he's on our side, he probably doesn't know how to handle it."
Sonic didn't reply to that. Tails was uncertain if that meant a small part of him didn't trust Metal, or he didn't know what to say at that.
"Please, just tell me what to do. I need to know what you would do in this situation."
"I think you need to stop thinking of what I would do, and think about what you would do in this situation." Sonic said.
Tails was taken aback by the response. "What?"
Sonic turned at him and smiled. "I said you should think about what you would do in a situation like this. After all, you've had to deal with my losing a few times, and you knew how to comfort me."
He then put a hand on Tails' shoulder. "Use that to try and comfort Metal, make him realize he hasn't lost yet."
"But I..." Tails tried to say before Sonic interrupted.
"You need to let me go." He continued. "You need to do that if you want to beat Eggman."
Tails was silent at that. Inside, he was conflicted. He knew that he and Metal had to stop Eggman and whatever he had planned, but he wasn't ready to let go of Sonic just yet. He had hoped that he would have time to get some time to eventually accept Sonic's death in between collecting the emeralds, and when Eggman attacked.
Now though, Eggman was probably getting ready to enact his plan, Metal was most likely not in a good mood, and he was forced to either choose to move on from Sonic, or let Eggman win while he tried to do the former. It wasn't an easy choice.
But deep down inside, he knew he had to do this. He had to move on from Sonic.
For Metal's sake, for his friend's sake, for the worlds sake.
And most importantly, for Sonic's sake.
He began to feel tears streaming down his eyes. Looking at Sonic, he leaped forward and hugged him. After a few seconds, he felt Sonic wrap his arms around him.
"I'm going to miss you." Tails said as he cried.
Sonic gave a small smile. "I will too."
The two let go and Sonic looked down at Tails. "Now use what you learned from your experience with me and give it to Metal.
Tails remained still for a moment before nodding, and he walked past Sonic and towards the forest. Just as he reached the edge of it, he paused and looked back at where Sonic was.
He saw him silently waving his hand, as if he was saying goodbye to him.
Tails looked at him for a few seconds, before looking back to the forest and walking through it.
He stirred awake, finding himself back on the small beach. However, instead of lying on top of Metal, he found himself lying on his back, staring at the sky.
Getting up, he saw that Metal wasn't where he put him when he rescued him. Looking around, he couldn't find him anywhere else.
'Where could he have gone?' Tails asked to himself. 'Did he go after Eggman without me?'
No, that wasn't possible. Metal's thruster was still a bit damaged and he couldn't have flown far without it malfunctioning. He had to be around somewhere.
Looking down at the sand, he saw footprints going off in the direction of the Tornado. Judging from the footprints, they looked pretty recent, so Metal couldn't have gone far.
Deciding the follow them, he began walking near them. The footprints eventually went to the grass and moved past the tornado into the nearby forest. Entering it, he walked for a couple of minutes before spotting Metal.
He was sitting on a rock with his back turned and his head low. He didn't appear to have noticed Tails, remaining still as he approached him.
"Metal?" Tails asked once he was close enough.
Metal moved his head to look at Tails. "Hello Tails." He said in a tone that seemed almost defeated.
"Are you okay?" He asked, though he most likely already knew the answer to that.
"No." Metal simply responded. "I have failed in my mission to retrieve and protect the emeralds."
Tails was gave a small nod. "I saw."
"I should have known that Eggman would go to Angel Island to retrieve the emeralds before going after us to get the ones we collected." Metal said, looking away from Tails. "In a way, I am responsible for this."
"Metal, it's not your..."
"I did succeed in leading Eggman to get the emeralds from me. Which was my original objective when I left him. In a way, I had completed my original objective, and I have failed my new one."
"Metal, we still have time to stop Eggman. Every second we stand here, it gets him closer to winning."
"Then go." Metal said in an almost harsh tone. "You can get your friends to help you stop. They would not accept me anyway, with me having collected the emeralds for Eggman."
"I can explain what happened. They might be cautious towards you, but you didn't willingly give Eggman the emeralds." Tails said, trying to get Metal to see that it wasn't his fault.
"It does not matter. I tried to be like Sonic, and I ended up making things worse. I was foolish for thinking I could be better then Sonic, and I was even more foolish to think I could be a hero."
It was at that moment Tails realized what he needed to say. He had seen Sonic like this a few times before, and he had been there to comfort him and get him back on his feet. Sure there were a few times that he wasn't there for him, but he knew that even without his motivation, Sonic would always keep moving to stop Eggman.
Now, it was his turn to help Metal. He didn't know what a defeat like this felt, so it was time to handle this as if Metal was Sonic.
"Sonic made mistakes too you know." He said.
Metal turned towards him, almost surprised. "What?" he asked.
Tails continued. "There were times where Sonic would screw up, make things worse, or cause some of the situations he went through. I've certainly witnessed a few of them myself."
Metal tilted his head. "Such as?"
"Well he caused the planet to break when he fell into Eggman's trap which also resulted in his werehog transformations, he accidental made a black hole that indirectly resulted in the time eater, and when he broke the thing that kept the Deadly Six in Eggman's control." Tails said, listing a few he could name off the top of his head. "Though looking back at that last one, I was too harsh on him for that mistake."
"What is the point you are making?" Metal asked.
Tails sighed. "The point is, Sonic wasn't perfect, but he didn't give up when he made those mistakes, and you shouldn't either. As I said before, Eggman might have taken the emeralds, but he hasn't won yet. We still have time to stop whatever he has planned."
Metal was silent at that, as if he was trying to process what Tails had said.
Tails continued, placing his finger on Metal's chest. "If you do want to be like Sonic, you're also going to have to deal with losses that come with it at times."
Metal was silent for a few seconds. Tails couldn't tell if he got through to him due to Metal's robotic face.
Finally he stood up and responded. "Can you contact your friends?"
"Sure, why do you ask?" Tails replied.
"If we are going to defeat Eggman, we can not do this alone." Metal explained. "We will need your friends help, even if they do not trust me."
Tails smiled. "That's exactly what I wanted to hear."
He got out the Miles Electric and dialed Amy's number. After a few seconds, Amy voice came out the other end.
"Tails, is that you?" She asked.
Tails nodded. "Yeah, it's me."
"Are the emeralds still with you, or did Eggman…." Amy began to ask before Tails interrupted.
"Yeah, he has the emeralds, but we still have time to beat him. I'm going to head over to where you are and maybe we can discuss a way to beat him."
"Okay, me and Knuckles will be waiting." Amy responded. "One more thing Tails."
"Yes, what is it?"
"Are you going to bring him with you?" Amy asked, emphasizing the him in that question.
Tails looked back at Metal, who simply nodded his head, before turning back to the Miles Electric and answering.
"Yeah, he's going to be with me."
"Okay."
She then hung up.
"Okay, let's go to Amy's." Tails said turning to Metal. "Hopefully this turns out better then the last time she saw you."
Metal nodded. "I also heard Knuckles would also be there."
Tails sighed. "Yeah he is. He probably doesn't know you turned good, so we're going to have to deal with him attempting to attack you."
"What do you want me to do in that situation?"
"Just try not to injure him. He's probably not in the best moods right now because of what happened to the emeralds."
The two then walked back to the Tornado, getting ready to fly to where Amy was.
At Amy's house, Amy and Knuckles waited for Tails to arrive.
"I hope he get's here soon." Knuckles said.
"He called me a couple hours ago." Amy replied. "He should be here soon."
"Well the sooner he gets here, the sooner we can stop whatever Eggman has planned."
Amy thought about Eggman's recent activities. They had no idea what he was up to due to him being mostly absent since Sonic's funeral. They had seen the occasional robot squad, but up until now, Eggman sightings were pretty rare.
"Did you hear or see anything about what he had planned when he attacked Angel Island?" Amy asked Knuckles.
Knuckles thought about it. "Well, I recall him saying the seven emeralds were more then enough for his plan, but that's about it."
Amy sighed. "I guess we'll have to figure it out as we go along."
Just then, they heard a knock at the door.
"That must be Tails." Amy said as she walked to the door, with Knuckles following her.
As they approached it, they heard Tails say something. "Remember, I don't want you to injure Knuckles if he attacks you."
Hearing that, Amy figured out who Tails was talking to, but Knuckles was a bit confused and wondered who Tails was talking to.
Amy opened the door, finding Tails was in front of it and Metal Sonic standing behind him.
The moment Knuckles spotted Metal, his eyes narrowed in anger. "You." He said in a low, angry voice.
"Knuckles, wait…." Tails tried to say before Knuckles lunged forward to attack Metal.
He hit Metal in the head, causing him to stumble back a bit. Recovering, Metal glared at him and activated his thuster, charging towards Knuckles.
"Metal no." Tails cried out before he and Amy dived out of the way of the two. The two flew into the house, with Knuckles struggling to escape. However, just before he was about to hit the wall, Metal deactivated his thruster and skidded to a halt.
Knuckles, despite some slight confusion on why he did that, continued to attack him. He punched Metal in the chest, causing him to let go of him. He brought his arm back for another punch, but when he threw it, Metal caught it with one of his hands. Undeterred, Knuckles attempted to punch with his other hand, which Metal also caught.
"I am not here to harm you." Metal said as he struggled against Knuckles.
"Liar." Knuckles said through gritted teeth. "You probably are here to taunt us for losing the emeralds, and you probably have Tails as a hostage so we won't attack Eggman."
"I am not holding him hostage." Metal stated, with some annoyance in his voice.
Knuckles responded however, with a headbutt, which threw Metal off balance and caused him to let go of him. While Metal was staggered, he threw another punch, knocking Metal to the ground away from him.
He was charging forward, prepared to hit Metal again, when Tails came in between the two.
"Enough you two." He said, sounding a bit angry.
"What are you doing Tails?" Knuckles asked, bewildered over Tails' defense of Metal. "Don't you know who that is?"
"Yes." Tails replied to Knuckles. "But we need him to stop Eggman."
"By what? Holding him hostage and telling Eggman give back the emeralds and we'll set him free?" Knuckles asked, sounding somewhat sarcastic.
"Negative." Metal stated. "I am no longer working with Eggman. My intentions are to now defeat Eggman."
"I'm not buying that for a minute." Knuckles replied. "We know the last time you weren't working with Eggman, you still tried to fight us and take over the world."
"Knuckles, he isn't going to do that this time." Tails said. "He's really done with Eggman this time."
"Tails listen…." Knuckles said approaching the two.
Amy, who had bit witnessing this stepped forward. "I think we should hear him out, Knuckles." She said.
Both Tails and Metal looked at her in surprise, not expecting her to defend them.
"Amy, you do realize who Tails is with, right?"
"Look, I might not trust him as much as Tails does." Amy continued. "But I think he might be our only chance at stopping Eggman."
Knuckles looked back and forth at Metal, Tails, and Amy for a few seconds before letting out a frustrated sigh. "Fine, we'll listen to what he has to say."
Metal got up and everyone walked into the living room, with Amy and Knuckles sitting on a couch nearby, while Metal and Tails stood.
Before he spoke, Metal looked at Tails, who gave him a nod. Once he did that, he turned his attention towards Amy and Knuckles
"I know you do not have any reason to trust me." Metal started.
"Would you like me to count them for you?" Knuckles remarked.
"Knuckles be quiet." Amy said.
"But I no longer work with Eggman, Tails and I were collecting the emeralds to deliver them to Angel Island for protection." Metal continued. "But now Eggman has the emeralds, and I have concluded that neither of us can not do this alone."
"So you're asking for our help?" Amy asked.
Metal nodded. "Affirmative."
For almost a minute, no one spoke. Amy and Knuckles looked at each other, uncertain of how to respond. Though Metal could see Knuckles still didn't trust him.
Knuckles was the one who broke the silence. "So, can you tell us what exactly Eggman has planned?"
Metal looked away. "Negative, I do not know the what he has planned. The Doctor did not let me in on what he was planning."
"Oh so you're going to be helpful since you don't know anything."
Metal glared at him. "I do know parts of it, through glimpses that I caught when I was at his base. But I do not know the full picture of what he is planning."
"Well you better tell us what you saw fast, because who knows what he has planned fast." Knuckles said as he got up and stomped over to Metal. "Because he's probably going to strike soon and we need all the information we can get right now."
"I will tell you, if you stop being antagonistic towards me." Metal stated.
Knuckles simply glared at him, one of his hands clenching into a fist.
At that moment, Amy put a hand on his shoulder. "Knuckles that's enough."
She then turned towards Tails. "May I speak to Metal please."
Tails looked at Metal for a moment before responded. "Uh, sure."
Amy got up from off the couch and grabbed Metal by the arm, dragging him in the other room.
Once the two were alone, Amy spoke. "I heard about what happened to those cavers."
"I assumed that would be on the news." Metal said. "From my analysis of previous events, those tend to be noted."
Amy gave a small nod. "That story got me thinking about my last visit to Tails, and what he told me about you turning good."
"Are you saying that you now believe I am good?" Metal asked.
Amy looked away at him and paused a few seconds before responding. "Not really. I still don't trust you, and part of my still thinks that this might be an act and that you might betray us at the last possible moment."
She then looked at him. "But at the same time, I think that Tails might be right and that you really have quit working with Eggman."
Metal processed the response for a moment. This was something he had hoped for after the cave rescue, that others would hear and begin to realize that he had really turned good. While Amy still didn't trust him fully, and it was clear Knuckles was not ready to trust him, it was at least a start.
He then looked at Amy. "I thank you for giving me a chance this time." He said.
Amy gave a very slight smile. "You're welcome."
Metal then extended his hand. "I also want to offer you my friendship. I want a fresh start and forget what I've done with you in the past."
Amy stared at his hand. She wasn't sure if whether to accept his offer of friendship. After all, he had kidnapped her when he was first built, attacked her, Sonic, and his friends multiple times, and the previous time he turned against Eggman, he tried to take over the world and kill them. There was a lot to be cautious about with Metal.
But at the same time, both due to his recent actions and from what she had heard from her visit from Tails, Metal seemed to have turned around and no longer wants to fight against them, but with them. So maybe she should accept Metal's offer.
She was just about to reply when Tails voice came over from the other room.
"Guys, I think you might want to see this."
Metal and Amy looked at each other for a moment before they ran into the living room. The saw that Tails had the Miles Electric out, and both he and Knuckles were watching whatever was on the screen.
"What is it?" Amy asked as she and Metal moved to behind the couch to watch what was on the screen.
Tails silently pointed to the screen, and the two watched.
On it was Eggman, standing in front of a large ship, and grinning evilly, behind him was a pedestal with a cloth over it.
"Hello citizens of the world. Did you miss me?"
Metal clenched his fist in anger. "It's the Doctor."
"Now then, I'm sure your wondering the reason for my absence." Eggman continued. "Well, after Sonic's death, I decided to take a brief break to grieve for him."
Amy simply glared at the screen in anger, remembering her encounter with him at Sonic's funeral. She knew he was planning something.
"But after that brief grieving process, I went back to business as usual. I worked on a plan to strike when the world was at it's most vulnerable. It had to be the perfect plan, and I came up with one."
He then grabbed the cloth behind him and turned towards the camera. "Of course, I needed a power source for my plan. And I found one."
He then pulled the cloth off, revealing the Chaos Emeralds. At the sight of that, Knuckles clenched his hand into a fist and let out an angry growl.
He then grinned evilly. "Now then, in just a few hours I will use these emeralds to enact my latest plan. Within this ship is not just an army of robots, but my greatest creation as well, which the emeralds will power. With those combined, I will be unstoppable."
Tails looked away for a moment to check on Meta's reaction. He could tell that he was angry as he was glaring at the screen and shaking, his hands digging into the couch.
Eggman continued his speech. "Now then, I'm a merciful person, so I'm going to give you a chance to avoid this. You can surrender and no one has to get hurt. Otherwise, I will put my plan into motion and you will all suffer. That is all."
He then turned to the camera. "Oh, and to any of Sonic's friends that are hearing this, you are free to try and stop me. But know this, you don't have your blue friend around anymore."
With that, the transmission stopped.
For a bit, no one spoke, they were all trying to process what they just watched.
Finally, Knuckles spoke. "Why that Eggman." He said angrily. "The moment I get my hands on him…."
"Calm down Knuckles." Tails said. "We can still stop him. He did give us a few more clues to what he's planning."
"Even then, it's not much." Amy said. "Just the fact that he's made a robot that's powered by the emeralds, and he's going to attack somewhere."
Tails then turned to Metal. "What about you Metal?"
He saw that Metal was staring at the now blank screen intently.
"Uh Metal, are you okay?"
"Can you replay the transmission?" Metal asked. "I saw something that could potentially help."
Tails paused for a few seconds before nodding and bringing the transmission up again.
"What exactly are you looking for?" Tails asked as the transmission played.
Just as Eggman walked towards where the emeralds were, Metal spoke again. "Pause it."
Tails did so, and Metal pointed at the ship. "I recognize the ship behind him."
"What have you seen it?" Knuckles asked.
"Not physically." Metal replied. "But I have seen blueprints for it. From them, the robot Eggman has built will most likely be in there."
"So he's probably going to take the emeralds there." Knuckles said.
Metal nodded. "That is correct."
"So if someone gets on that ship, they can take the emeralds back before Eggman has a chance to use them." Amy said, realizing what this meant.
"Affirmative." Metal said.
"There's still the army of robots Eggman mentioned." Tails said turning to Amy and Knuckles. "He could deploy them to distract us, and I highly doubt we can defeat them by ourselves. We should get the others to help."
"That's a good idea." Amy said.
"Just one thing, how do we explain…." Knuckles said before he indicated his thumb towards Metal.
"We can explain why he's here." Tails answered. "Though Shadow, Rouge, and Omega should already know about me being with Metal already."
"Okay, start calling the others." Amy said.
Tails nodded and he turned back to the Miles Electric and began making calls. As he did so Metal stood and thought about the situation.
This was going to be his big test for the others who were still skeptical of him. This was his chance to prove to them that he is now with them for good now.
He knew that he had to succeed. Because if he failed, Eggman would bring disaster to everyone.