Miles opened his eyes to pain and sunshine.

Both were surprising. Injuries typically didn't last long in Madworld's constant state of reversion, and sunlight meant that he'd somehow left the abyss the two of them had wandered for days. Cosmo wouldn't have-

His brain caught up only a moment after his eyes did, the pale fur with orange markings, slightly longer than the original, slightly fluffier, gazing up at a glowing yellow sunflower with tears in her eyes.

His Cream. His partner in Happy Days, last of an unbroken chain of Creams sacrificed to keep him company, a companion through the centuries, slowly growing closer, more dependent on her company...

And then he'd all but killed her to escape.

And then he'd killed her Mama.

"I still hate you, Mister Tails." Cream murmured, not looking away from the flower.

"I know." Miles nodded with a sigh, heaving to a sitting position to see rolling turquoise hills stretching out into the distance, rainbow colours painting the landscape in both trees of vibrant colours and the genuine article arching overhead. Glowing fairies with gossamer wings fluttered across the hillside, and a terran horse with a single spiral horn on its forehead traversed the terrain in a graceful gallop.

"Were you two the only survivors? How did you-"

"I don't even remember landing." The rabbit shrugged.

… Huh. That made sense. He'd paradoxed her into a past version that hadn't been injured in the first place, after all.

"Miss Cosmo said you nearly killed yourself saving us."

Hm. Yeah, whoops. Probably shouldn't have entrusted his life to a rabbit kit that was about to forget everything he told her. Good thing she'd figured it out somehow.

"And she told me to call you a 'rapacious fool' when you woke up."

Miles snorted. A fine quality for a villain.

"Well, she hates me too." He shrugged. "Where is she, anyway?"

Cream jerked a thumb over her shoulder, Miles peered through what looked to be a dozen sunflowers, poking from the muddy swamp grass as merrily and easily as anywhere else, to a hut suspended on bamboo stilts above the muck, constructed out of the same worked stone as the city, impossibly supported atop those slender poles. Trees and greenery sprouted from a living roof overhead.

And beyond the sunflowers stretched that alien world of purple and decay, a trail of burning flowers marking the path of their escape across blighted grass and through tainted river from a distant cave.

They were on an island of green, trapped between horrid putrefaction and halcyon perfection. One side hard up against the sunflowers, the other a natural border where mud and vine gave way to a bed of wildflowers. Odd how-

"She wouldn't let me leave you." Cream interrupted his thought half formed.

"She needs me to destroy the world for her." Miles shrugged.

"You're good at that."

Miles flinched.

"I missed you, Bunny."

Cream flinched back.

"I know you hate me." Miles sighed, rebelling against the forced happiness that brought back memories of warm sunshine and cosy afternoons and endless hours spent with the girl at his side to focus instead on the aching sense of loss he'd felt when he'd torn free of that cosy prison. "But... I'm glad you're around to keep hating me."

"You killed Mama," Cream replied flatly. "She told me you would."

"We planned it that way, after all." Miles shrugged, plopping dirt on the floor to form a makeshift chair to rest his back against.

"What?" Cream glared at him.

Miles nodded.

"Funny how time travel works, huh? In the end everything was my fault. I made Mama, I made you, all of you. All the children in Happy Days."

"... Why?"

"Because someone had to." Miles grinned. "And I realised if I did it… I could save the world. I sacrificed you hundreds of times, over. I sacrificed thousands of children. I did it so the original Cream could see her Mama again, and I killed your Mama to do it."

His grin faded despite his best attempts and the field of flowers around him.

"So yeah. I killed a whole lot of people, including everybody I care about, and if you're going to hate me you might as well hate me properly because I've hated myself longer and worse than you ever could."

Miles wiped an orange furred hand across his cheek, staring out across tainted hills to where an oily slime creature launched itself towards them at a leisurely rate.

"Thank you."

"Huh?" Miles tilted an ear in surprise.

"For not calling her the real Cream." Cream slumped forward, fiddling with the orange tips of her ears.

"She's not the real Cream." Miles caught her look. "Not like that. I mean you're real too. All of you."

"I am all of me." Cream didn't look at him.

"And you are… were the one that was my friend. Not her."

"... You're not a very good friend, Mister Tails. I think I see why Miss Cosmo calls you a villain."

Miles chuckled mirthlessly. "I'm good at that."

"I don't think so."

"No?" Miles pulled his guitar into his hands, swinging it into the slime with a tonal wail. It splattered across the ground in pieces.

"Aren't villains supposed to do things to make themselves happy?"

"You got me there." Miles sliced the guitar through the slime's smaller chunks as they hurled themselves at him one after another, reducing them to formless mush without bothering to stand. "I guess I'm just an idiot then, cause I did the opposite."

"Were you happy?"

"With you?"

Cream quirked her head slightly.

"...Yeah." Miles rubbed the back of his head. "Guess I was."

She nodded. "I hate you for taking that away from me." She stared at the flower above her with a sigh. "But I don't hate this."

"It feels the same, doesn't it?" Miles whispered. "Just… in a flower."

"Not just that." Cream stood with a sigh. "I'm going inside. I was only out here to keep everyone safe from any monsters that showed up."

"Why am I out here then?" Miles raised an eyebrow.

"What do you think I was using to hit them?" Cream smiled sweetly. "My own flaming club. It was very therapeutic."

Miles gaped at her. No wonder he ached.

"You used to be so sweet."

"And you used to bully me for it." Cream turned her nose up at him and turned away. "Your stuff is over there by that rock. Don't take too long, Miss Cosmo probably wants to yell at you now you're awake."

Miles nodded with an absent frown. She couldn't have just used his rifle? Or a rock? Or-

"Oh, Mister Tails?"

"Huh?"

"I'm glad you're still around to hate. Thank you."

"Anytime." Miles waved, putting on a bright smile as she slipped inside.

Then he placed his head on his knees, wrapped his arms around his tails and silently shed as many tears as the flowers would let him.