Undina was in front of a crowd waiting at the school. She spoke to a camera "We're covering the first day of senior year for our most famous student. Miles Tails Prower. Go get them, Prowl. The crowd here seems equally divided between supporters of the Prowl and protesters". Tails, Barby and Ray nervously walked in between the crowd trying to look at them. The praise from one half didn't help. Tails felt very uncomfortable from all the attention. Barby reassuringly took Tails' hand. A lot of people were yelling at them "Hey, back off!" Ray yelled. One girl looked at him "Who are you" "I'm Ray. I'm his best-" "Best friends". Ash the Mongoose suddenly put his arm over Ray's shoulder "You come at my boy, you come at Ash. If you want to read about our inspiring friendship, you can now in my new book, Rising From the Ash". He holds out a book with the cover with him doing a pose "One hero, two hearts, a million crazy-ass memories. Check it out". Ray rolled his eyes and kept walking. The three of them had to be searched before entering the school and a woman pushed Tails forward "You gotta keep going" "Uh, I'll see you inside". He went up the stairs fearing that he was about to come face to face with students but instead saw Mr Stewart, Pierre and the gym teacher waiting. Pierre stepped forward "Miles, we would love to welcome you back to school where we shape heroes". Mr Stewart gestured to a display for the Prowl but then "Or murders" the gym teacher said. Mr Stewart glanced at him "Stop it. It's an honour to serve you, sir". He saluted Tails but "It's not. Forelock was right" "No. Stop. Some of the students put the display together for you" "No you did that" "I helped a little". Tails felt very awkward right now. Pierre gestured to the display "Feel free to walk or fly through the hallway to avoid everybody" "Okay, I'm just gonna…". He starts walking but "I know what you did" "Stop, you're embarrassing yourself" "I know what you did". Tails turns down a hallway where the crowd he was originally expecting was waiting. He walks trough them as they all took pictures, Tails kept his head down and pretended that they didn't exist.
Tails and Barby were lying on the roof of the school "Can we just stay up here all day? It is so crazy down there". Barby was reading a newspaper and laughed "This one's good. 'Some suggest that Prower's powers from the emerald include the ability to hypnotise females which he used to seduce Barby the Koala into his cult of personality" she laughed. Tails sighed "Hypnotise… Where did this come from?". Barby opened her eyes wide as if in a trance "I don't know. Would you like me to hunt down the writer my two-tailed lord?". They both laughed and then started to stare at each other. They got on their sides and moved closer about to kiss when "Finally some privacy. It is so crazy down there". Ray gets up onto the roof. He kneels down next to the and opens up his bag "So I was thinking when we get into MU, we should live together" "Uh, yeah for sure" "Yeah, I'd love that". Ray opened his laptop and showed promotional picture of MU "This is gonna be us" "Yes, minus the frisbee and the smiling". Tails nodded "MU's obviously the dream but if we match up our backup schools, then either way, we'll all be in the same city. New school, new town. I can Prowl there. I mean they have crime elsewhere, right?" "Yes. Wicked crime" Ray agreed. Tails noticed Barby wasn't looking enthusiastically "What's up?" "I don't know. I just feel like, if you don't… If you expect disappointment, then you can never really get disappointed". Tails took her hand "Come on. Be a fresh start. And we'll all be together". She slowly nodded and put on a smile "Yeah. No, you're right. Fresh start". Ray awkwardly held both their hands "Fresh start".
Bunnie ran into the apartment holding an envelope "First's one's here!". She sat next to Tails who was standing next to the table. He had a slow breath and took the envelope. He opened it and only read the first few lines before putting it down "It's okay. It's a backup".
Sometime later Bunnie ran in with another envelope "Miles". Tails hovered right below the ceiling before casually landing. He paced impatiently as Bunnie this time opened the envelope instead. She sighed and Tails stared at her "No?".
Another day another envelope "Last one" Bunnie said. Tails looked more scared than the previous two "MU?". As he stared at it Dummy accidently knocked over stuff from the table. Tails sighed, took the envelope and left the apartment.
Tails flew through the city until landing in front of a café. He went inside where Barby was working behind the register and held up his envelope. She saw him and did the same. They both went to the back of the shop where Ray was waiting with his envelope. Barby took a few breathes "Okay" "I feel like I'm gonna puke" "Don't because I'll have to clean it". Ray looked down at his envelope "This is our only shot. It's here or nowhere". Tails shook his head "Hey, come on. Come on, let's do it" "Okay, on three". Barby nodded "Okay, one, two, three". They all opened their envelopes and silently read them. Tails felt his heart sink, he was denied. He immediately looked up at Barby who shook her head "No". Tails sighed then looked to Ray "Ray?". Ray was frowning "In light of recent controversy, we are unable to consider your application at this time". Tails dropped his letter "This is so unfair. I mean, this is so not fair. I didn't do anything wrong. And you guys definitely didn't do anything wrong" "Expect disappointment and you will never get disappointed" "Barby, get back to work!". She started tearing up the letter "You know what. I wouldn't change a thing I did" she went back to the register. "Me neither" Ray said before tearing his up too. He got up and patted Tails' back before leaving. Tails now sitting alone trying to hold it together when he noticed something hanging up on a wall. A golden staff which reminded Tails of someone. And then an idea entered his head.
Tails approached the Station Square Sanctum, not fully knowing how it worked he just pressed the doorbell which made the door open immediately. The inside of the sanctum was covered in snow. Tails slowly walked in and saw two teenagers shoveling snow into a bucket "Um, hi". The two robotically stopped and stared at him "Hi? I'm, uh" "The most famous person in the world. I know". Tails saw Merlin walk out of a portal in a winter coat and carrying luggage "I'm Merlin. Try not to slip. We don't have liability insurance". Tails looked around the room. He had to admit if it wasn't freezing he would have thought it looked nice "Is all this for a holiday party?" "No. One of the gateways connects to Ice Cap. A blizzard blasted through". Khan the descended down the stares on a cloud "Because someone forgot to cast a monthly maintenance spell to keep the seals tight" "You seem to forget I now have higher duties". Khan landed and almost slipped but maintained his balance "Higher duties?" "The Sorcerer Supreme has higher duties". Tails didn't understand "Wait, I thought you were the Sorcerer Supreme" "No, he got it on a technicality because I blipped for five years" "Oh, congratulations". Khan rolled his eyes "If I'd been here, then-" "You'd burn the place down". Merlin points at the two teenagers "You two, no one said stop shovelling". Khan took a drink of coffee "So, Tails, to what do I owe the pleasure?" he walked over to a fireplace. Tails followed him "Right. I'm really sorry to bother you, sir" "Please. We saved the whole universe together. I think we're beyond you calling me sir" he made a gesture and the fireplace lit up.
Tails nodded "Okay, Khan" "That feels weird, but I'll allow it". Tails tried to think of how to ask "Uh, when… when Forelock revealed my identity, my entire life got screwed up and I was wondering… I don't know if this would actually work, but I was wondering if… maybe you could go back in and make it, so he never did?". Khan smirked but looked down "Tails, we tampered with the stability of space-time to resurrect countless lives. You wanna do it again now just because yours got messy?". Tails shook his head "It's not about me. This is really hurting a lot of people. My Aunt Bunnie, Antione, my best friend, my girlfriend, their futures are ruined just because they know me, and they've done nothing wrong". Khan considered but "I am so sorry but even if I wanted to all our time travel capabilities was from the Red Gem. We don't have it anymore". Tails' hope left him "Oh. I'm… I'm really sorry I wasted your time". Khan shook his head "No. You didn't-" "Forget it about it". Merlin walked past with luggage "Oh, he will. He's very good at forgetting things". Khan rolled his eyes but then he clicked his fingers "Merlin, you've actually generated a good idea. The Runes of Zeon" he said intensely. This worried Tails "The Runes of Zeon?" "Oh, it's just a standard spell of forgetting. Won't turn back time, but people will forget you were the Prowl". Tails' face lit up "Will that work" "Yeah, it's simple. All I need is the origin of the knowledge. You made yourself a superhero and you came here willingly, so we have everything we need". Merlin stepped forward "No. That spell travels the dark borders between known and unknown reality. It's too dangerous" "We've done it for less. Do you remember the full moon party of Groovy Train?". Merlin narrowed his eyes "No" "Exactly. It took me ages to find the party planner to perform that spell. Come on, Merlin. He's been through enough and I owe him my life". Merlin glanced away "Leave me out of it" he walks through a portal and disappears. Khan smirked at Tails "Follow me".