Tails woke up and instantly felt great, despite waking up much earlier than he usually did. This was something he hasn't experienced in a long time. Ever since he went blind, waking up was a complete hassle that he never enjoyed. Waking up from a dream where he could vaguely remember what everyone looked like, and realizing that in the real world everything was black and depressing was not a good feeling.

However, today was going to be different. He was going to be flying his beloved Tornado again. He couldn't believe that he was going to be pursuing his lifelong dream even after what happened to his eyes. He was not going to loaf around in bed, struggling to get up on a day as important as this. He woke up at sunrise, not wanting to fly after the sun had set. Even if vision was not an issue he would have to deal with if things went right, flying in the dark was sort of a jinx he didn't feel comfortable doing.

Tails got up and headed downstairs, straight into the workshop where his proudest creation slept peacefully.

"Hey buddy," Tails whispered, placing a hand on its cold wings. He wanted to hop in and start flying just like he did back when he was abled. "Today is the big day. I'll be flying, you'll be flying, and things will be ever so slightly back to the way things were. Isn't this so… Exciting?" He sighed, leaning on the side of the plane and rubbing his hands over the hard, metal surface.

"If only you can treat women like that, Tails."

"Ah! Wave! What the fuck are you doing here?" Tails let go of the Tornado and kept his hands to himself, an action one might take if they were doing something dirty. "How did you even get in?"

"Your front door was unlocked. I assume it has to do with the two girls you keep in your house all the time." She smirked, glancing at the way he kept his posture. "Strike that. Three girls, seeing how you treat your plane."

"Don't say that! What if someone gets the wrong idea?" Tails blushed and pouted, crossing his arms. "You know full well that those two are dating each other. Marine is spending a lot of time with me to build this beauty, and Cream just follows along since they want to spend as much time with each other as they could." He explained, not knowing aboutthe complete lack of attention Wave was giving him. Her attention was more on the red plane in front of them.

"Yeah, sure thing, Mr. Objectophile." Wave brushed her own hand above the wing, but hastily took it off when she thought of all the things that could have happened there. "Anyways, what were you saying about flying again?"

"Yeah, er, I thought about what you and your father said to me a while ago deep and hard, but I decided that if the result is a failure, I want to go out knowing I did everything I could do."

Wave placed a hand on her chin and nodded. "I see. So do you have low hopes for this?"

"Actually, I have pretty high hopes, but you'll see." Tails smiled, patting the plane a couple times with pride.

Wave was slightly disappointed with that answer, but she continued nodding nonetheless. The nodding was strictly for herself since Tails couldn't see her doing the action.

It was clear what Tails was saying was just to reason with himself. He didn't actually believe in what he was saying. He didn't want to give up, he wanted to fly, and he was ready to try literally everything he could before he gave up. He just needed an excuse to justify his actions, and it had to be an excuse that people couldn't easily point out the flaws. If he himself pretended that he was heading for failure, what could they do?

"How did you even know I would be here?" Tails asked casually, trying to change the subject into something more manageable for him.

"Sonic told me that you would be waking up early today. He asked if I could come to see if everything was alright with you. He was very worried and wanted a third opinion on this. Keep in mind, I had no idea what he was talking about. He just said that he wanted me to come to see you for something, and didn't explain what you were doing." Wave snooped around, looking for any mistakes the two could have made.

"Hah! Good luck trying to find anything we missed. This one's a beauty, isn't she?"

"Depends. Mind if I take a look inside?" She peered in before Tails could even answer.

Everything seemed fine, although most of the mechanics were lost on Wave. She built Gears, not planes. A big difference that laymen like Sonic forget all the time.

"Well, despite what I said leading up to this moment, I hope everything goes well, Tails. I mean it." Wave got out of the plane and walked up to the young mechanic, pecking his forehead and patting down on his bangs. She walked out through the way she came in, and Tails spent a good half hour stuffing his face between his namesakes to calm his beating heart and flushing face down.

After that whole ordeal, Tails ate a light breakfast and readied up the Tornado for flight.

It was exciting, to say the least, hearing the engine turn on for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. He grabbed his canteen of warm coffee, a sandwich to munch on if he felt hungry, and a plastic water bottle if he needed to take care of business. Tails hoped to Chaos that he wouldn't need to reach that point.

After going to the bathroom twice in the last hour to make sure he wouldn't have to use the bottle mid flight, he headed out towards the runway where he would take off. He waited for Marine and some others to come by for a final wish of good luck. He felt like he needed it.

Marine was the first to come, as she was told to come early.

"Well Tails, I made it. Despite your directions." She said with a yawn, not being used to waking up so early.

"Ah, Marine. Thank you so much for coming. I want my friends to be here when I succeed." He smiled, greeting her brightly. "I don't hear anyone else with you. Did Cream not come?"

"She's probably coming, but I wouldn't know. It's not like I spend every moment of my life with her, you know." Marine let out a huge yawn along with some stretches, making it very clear she did not get the recommended 8 hours of sleep.

"Hey, buddy!" Sonic yelled, running towards him. He also seemed pretty tired, but Sonic just couldn't miss what his younger brother had been working towards for the last Chaos knows how long.

"Sonic!" Tails spread his arms wide, letting him tackle himself with a tight hug. "Thank you for making it. Did Amy say she was going to come?"

"No, she had something to do. She wished you the best of luck, though." Sonic pat the fox's head a couple of times, making the mechanic smile from his brother's encouragement.

"So Tails," Sonic asked, looking at the plane that was based on what was once his. "When are you gonna be flying off into the horizon?"

"Soon. I hoped more people would come, but it is very early in the morning… Thank you so much for coming, really. Both of you. I can't thank you guys enough." Tails turned to face both of them, even if he couldn't see their faces. If he could see them, however, he would see faces full of pride for the fox.

"We're smiling for you, Tails," Marine replied, hugging the boy for a final good luck charm. "I really hope all our work wasn't for vain."

Tails nodded and hopped into the cockpit. He turned on the engine, checked all the systems for proper operation, and turned on the sonar. "Ready to take flight, guys. I'll cya tomorrow… Hopefully." Tails smiled, waved towards his friends, and lifted off.

The runway was long and straight and had an overall smooth surface for him to successfully take off. The climb also went smooth. He was slowly but surely gaining altitude until he was at a height that he was comfortable with. He purposefully chose an empty field as his runway, as even if he had a sonar machine to work as his eyes, he would rather not take the chances.

Everything was going smoothly. Tails pumped his hand up in the air, smiling brightly. "Yes!" He cried, clenching his fist and feeling small drops of tears falling from his eyes and onto his cheeks. He wiped them off with his wrist and focused on hearing the alarms from the sonar machine.

But, without a second to react, Tails felt a large bump and the plane hated, falling downwards towards the ground, the opposite of where he wanted to go.

"NO!" Tails screamed, grabbing the control wheel and pulling up to salvage this in any way he could.

He blacked out along with a loud crash, leaving him, once again, in the dark.

Tails slowly woke up and felt terrible. Every part of his body was aching, and even though he could feel through the warmth of the sunlight that it was midday, he was beyond tired.

"Good morning, Tails. I see you've finally awakened." He heard a calm and gentle voice he had not heard before.

"H-Hello? Where am I? Who are you?" He tried to get up, struggling as every muscle in his body gave up mid way and refused to act on order.

"It's me, Wave. You can't even recognize your friend's voice?" She asked, calming him down by placing a hand on his arm and stroking it softly. "You're hurt. You need to rest right now. Talking can come later."

"No… I don't need rest. I need answers. What happened?" Tails sat up in his seat, grunting with every movement. He barely managed to lean onto the headboard of the bed and faced in the general direction the voice was coming from. Directly next to him. "What happened, Wave?"

"You crashed, Tails. Eggman somehow knew you were going to be flying today and shot you out of the sky." Wave explained as carefully as she could. Every word had an emphasis that told him she practiced giving this speech.

"That's impossible! The sonar didn't detect anything!" Tails refuted her statement, but it was futile. He knew it, she knew it, everyone knew it.

"Tails, a submarine goes as fast as 20 knots, and that's an overstatement. Why did you think that a visual technology meant for submarines would work for planes?" Wave told him with care, trying to keep her voice composed at all cost. He was in a delicate state, and he did not need her sass.

"..." Surprisingly, Tails didn't say anything. Wave expected him to argue, talk about how this was only because Eggman got in the way, or how that with another try, he could have made this work the way it was intended.

But he didn't. He stayed quiet. He just stared out the window, even though he couldn't see anything, and blinked a couple times.

"...Tails?" Wave asked. She was suddenly scared.

"..."

"Tails, if it makes you feel any better, Sonic was there to rescue you as quickly as he could. The plane was also mostly undamaged, so Marine and I managed to fix it while you were out."

"How long was I out?" Tails turned his head towards her, staring at her with those pale blue eyes that used to be so full of life.

"A week. Blaze and Silver had to hire a personal pilot to fly them back to the mainland. I think his name was Antoine or something, I couldn't care less."

"..."

"Sonic and Amy and that Raccoon visits every day. They came over earlier when you were still asleep. I just happened to be here when you finally woke up."

"I see."

"Tails, you're making me worried about how quiet you are being. You aren't-"

"I'm not going to kill myself, Wave. Don't worry." Tails cut her off before she could say the words herself.

An awkward silence filled the room in a way that made Wave incredibly uncomfortable. She looked around, rubbed the back of her neck, twiddled her fingers, anything that would make the situation just a tiny bit more bearable.

It didn't work.

Finally, Tails spoke up.

"You were right, Wave. I couldn't fly."

"Tails…"

"I did everything I could. I wanted it more than anyone." Tails sighed, hugging his knees and bringing them together. "And I thought- I thought if I wanted it enough...I could show everyone that… That I'm special."

"Tails, you are special."

"But I couldn't fly. I'm not a pilot. I'm just… Not."

It was Wave's turn to be silent this time. She had nothing she could say to the young fox.

"No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try… I'll never be able to fly again."

"Are you sure, Tails?" Knuckles asked, lifting the box full of heavy parts and materials.

"I'm sure, Knuckles. Those go on the shelf over there." Tails smiled, scratching his cheeks that were covered in bandages. He left the hospital a couple days ago and had gone on a bit of a cleaning session with the help of his friends. He was currently cleaning out the workshop with Knuckles, moving most of the tools and whatnot into the shelf where they belonged.

"Tails, you don't have to give up engineering as a whole." Knuckles tried to convince Tails otherwise, but Tails had already made up his mind quite firmly.

"I'm not quitting, Knuckles. I'm just taking an indefinite break from it. I want to try other things. Maybe… Something I could do more easily in my condition. Perhaps I could get into writing for blind folks? I don't know."

"Well, as long as you're happy, bud. I hope you find happiness in your new ambitions." Knuckles moved the last bit of the boxes and placed a hand on Tails' shoulder. Tails nodded and stayed in the workshop for a bit longer while Knuckles left.

Tails stood there, taking in the atmosphere of the room he spent so much of his life in. Ever since he met Sonic, he spent his life here, developing this room as his very own. He spent so much time perfecting the Tornado, making sure that every inch of the place was optimized for future projects. He expected to spend the rest of his life in this room, working away until the day he died. But maybe, in some sense, he did die. At least the old Tails did.

He left through the door he came in from and closed the door shut behind him.