Chapter 16

Beginning Endgame

No

No

NO

This couldn't be happening. Not again! Please, not again.

He couldn't believe how cruel fate had been to him. But then again, it had always been that way hadn't it? His whole life fate had decided to make him its punching bag. He'd been tormented for his having two tails up until he met Sonic, after that things had looked up, he'd even found love! And then fate saw fit to take her from him. No, not just take her from him, but also make him do so himself. And when he was at his absolute worst, unable to bear the pain any longer, his love had been returned to him.

And now she'd been taken from him again.

How could fate be so cruel? Had he done something to deserve this? Why was he being made to suffer so?

And in his despair, old demons surfaced once more.

Yes, he'd done something to deserve this. He'd killed the girl he loved. She'd told him there had been no other way, that she never once blamed him for it, and for a time that worked as he'd felt the guilt dissipate. Now however, having failed to save her once again, he couldn't hold back the self loathing thoughts.

"Why is this happening again?" he muttered to himself, on his hands and knees finding himself in a similar position to how he'd been when Sonic had handed him that seed. The seed which had returned his love to him.

"And now I failed to keep you safe Cosmo" he whispered, his fists tightening in self-hating rage.

"DAMN IT!" he screamed as he began to pound the floor "IT'S NOT FAIR! SHE DOESN'T DESERVE THIS! WHY CAN'T WE JUST BE HAPPY!? WHY!? WHY!? WHY!?"

His strength giving out, Tails collapsed onto the floor completely, sobbing uncontrollably, only able to whisper his loves name as despair sapped his strength.

"Cosmo…Cosmo…"

Meanwhile…

Cosmo was terrified.

Here she was, trapped in some sort of metal pod not unlike the one she and Chris had been trapped in by Black Narcissus, and an army of Metal Sonics walking around and occasionally glaring at her. She had used most of her strength to save Tails, and even then it was unlikely anything she tried would be able to free her. She would have to simply wait until her love came to rescue her.

"Tails…please be okay" she whispered to herself, tears showing in her eyes. While she had successfully robbed Meta Sonic of his shorter than normal super form, she had still been unable to stop him completely, the monster being able to move and attack still. Worse, she'd been taken by his duplicate, leaving Tails to fight that metal monstrosity alone.

Curling up in a fetal position, Cosmo felt her tears begin to run. However before despair gripped her completely, her attention was drawn to the sound of a door sliding open followed by metallic footsteps heading in her direction.

Still, she refused to look up. She wouldn't let them see her fear, Tails had taught her that. Show no fear, and the enemy loses some power over you. She'd seen him do so many times during the metarex war, always brave against the genocidal monsters that had taken everything from her and billions more. He'd told her before she was capable of such bravery and had been proven right that fateful day at coordinates 000. now, she would do so again, despite the sorrow she felt at the possibility of her love being hurt or worse.

"Cosmo, it's okay, don't be afraid. I'm here"

Her eyes shot open. Tails? But she could have sworn-

Looking up, she saw him standing there, smiling at her with a caring expression.

"Tails! You're okay! Thank goodness! I was so worried!" she cried, standing up and walking up to the glass.

"Yes, I'm okay. I'm sorry I worried you Cosmo"

"Please, help me out of here Tails. We need to go before he comes back"

Tails just stood there, the expression on his face not changing even slightly.

"I'm okay" he repeated

Then his eyes turned completely red, and his caring smile became a malicious one as his body began to morph into what resembled a silver liquid.

"But I won't be for long"

It was then Cosmo took notice of the fact that all the other Metal Sonics were still in the room. In her disbelief she hadn't even noticed. Now it made sense.

He was toying with her.

Meta Sonic finished changing back to his own form and began laughing.

"Copying the data of others can prove truly useful can't it Cosmo? I can copy there voice, thought processes, appearance and abilities. As I will do with you, though your powers are all I care about"

He began to walk forwards, Cosmo backing away in a hopeless effort to keep away from him.

"You needn't cower yet, I don't need to harm you to copy your bio data, this method will suffice"

At that, long tendrils emerged from Meta Sonic's right hand and made their way towards her, the glass like barrier dissipating to allow them passage.

Though she tried to scramble back, Cosmo eventually reached the opposite end of the barrier and with nowhere to go, closed her eyes to brace herself.

There was no pain, she didn't feel anything pierce her body though she did feel something on her.

Opening her eyes, Cosmo found the tendrils had latched themselves onto her hands and one on her head, each emitting a strange light green glow.

As soon as she saw this, they retracted, returning into Meta Sonic's hand, his eyes emitting that same green glow which slowly faded back to his usual red.

"There see? That wasn't so bad now was it?" he asked mockingly.

He paused a moment to look at her, before a low chuckle escaped him.

"By the look on your face, I assume you expected the process to be painful or even lethal. Come now, didn't Tails ever mention when I had copied the others' bio data before? Or didn't either of you question how I already copied his even though I had yet to confront either of you? I can copy bio data from a distance, as I did with Tails and the others. However, your bio data is unique, to get the best results I had to do so directly"

Again he paused, to allow Cosmo to take all this in before continuing.

"Naturally this doesn't mean I'm letting you go. After all, you being here just gives Tails more incentive to come here. And if he comes, so will the others"

Cosmo's face lit up for a split second. Tails was okay!

Although she quickly caught herself, attempting to prevent him from getting any other reaction out of her, he had easily caught her brief display of relief.

"Yes Cosmo, your boy is alive. And though he is…injured, he can still recuperate quickly and make his way here. But you should dispense with hope. Before long, you'll wish I had ended him then and there"

Again Cosmo heard the door open and this time four sets of metallic footsteps were heard as they made there way over the her and Meta Sonic.

Seeing them, she noted they each resembled Meta Sonic when as he had been before his merger with metarex technology, as she'd seen on one of Tails' monitors while he was going over the information they'd received. Each of them save for one however, was colored in something other than blue. Red, yellow and green, they stood there next to the blue one whom she recognized as the one who'd helped kidnap her, the one who now had the name Neo Metal Sonic.

"Your bio data has allowed me to unlock the dormant abilities of this metarex technology, and it has also granted me the power to harness and direct planet egg energy. So too will it give such power to these four behind me: Ruby Sonic, Topaz Sonic, Emerald Sonic and of course, Neo Metal Sonic"

As he spoke, each of them were immersed in that same green glow, indicating the power flowing through them as well.

"You should feel privileged Cosmo, your bio data will be the bedrock of my greatest achievement, my ultimate victory: a Metal Universe!"

Cosmo fell to her knees, burying her face in her hands as she sobbed, the sounds being drowned out by Meta Sonic's power mad laughter.

"Whoa, what hit me?" Sonic asked as he slowly lifted himself up. Looking around, he saw the destruction surrounding him. What happened here? Did one of Tails' inventions blow up or something?

Wait. Tails!

That's right! Something had been happening. Something bad. Moving to stand, Sonic felt the sharp pain run through him, his body aching all over. But from what? He remembered coming over to Tails' place…with Amy and Knuckles, even Eggman. They were discussing what to do about Metal Soni-

Now he remembered. They'd been fighting Neo, or as he called himself now: Meta Sonic. And judging by the sheer destruction of Tails' lab as well as the aching pain his body was experiencing, they'd lost. Bad.

"But where's everyone else?" he thought.

Hearing a groan, he looked to his left and found Knuckles getting up from underneath some debris, Amy slowly rising to her feet just a foot away.

"How are you guys holding up?" he asked.

Knuckles growled, rubbing his back as he'd been slammed into the wall during the fight. "How do you think?"

"It feels like I've been hit by a truck. And I mean the huge G.U.N. trucks" Amy moaned, rubbing her arms.

"Well at least we're still standing, that fake me gives me a run for my money when he's just plain Metal Sonic. Glad to see we can take a beating from an improved him in a super state"

The only response from the hedgehog and echidna was an unamused glare.

"Wait, where are Tails and Cosmo? Did they escape?" Amy asked.

Scanning the room, the three soon came upon Tails still beside the wall he'd been pinned to. Sobbing. Without Cosmo.

"Oh no" they muttered in unison.

Sonic, ignoring the pain, rushed over to his brother and knelt down.

"Tails. Tails buddy, please tell me what happened"

Tails looked up to him, eyes bloodshot and a look of defeat on his face Sonic had only seen once but had hoped to never again see.

"They took her Sonic. I couldn't stop them…she managed to get Meta Sonic to lose his super form but…it wasn't enough. I..I wasn't strong enough. I failed her. AGAIN!"

The fox then started sobbing uncontrollably once more, Sonic, Amy and Knuckles eyes widening. Their worst fear had come to pass, Meta had taken Cosmo.

As they looked with pity, Sonic thought to himself, attempting to figure out what to do. Normally planning was Tails' thing, but right now that wasn't possible. Not until he composed himself.

"Tails listen, I'm sorry we couldn't stop them. But right now we need to think of a plan. I know you're upset but-"

"UPSET!? Sonic the girl I love has just been taken by an evil robot you that we can't even beat in a straight up fight! Who knows what he's doing to her right now!? All because I failed to save her? Again! I-"

Grabbing Tails by the shoulders, Sonic looked him dead in the eyes, his expression stern though not angry.

"Tails I get it. You blame yourself, we've been there before. But she's not dead, she's kidnapped. Which means we can still save her, you can still save her. But that's not going to happen until you get yourself under control. She needs your help Tails, so please, get ahold of yourself so you can figure out how best to kick Meta's robot butt"

For a moment everyone was silent. Tails however, took a few deep breaths and steadied himself.

"Thanks Sonic. I needed that"

"No problem bro. So what's the plan?"

"There is none."

"Hold on, what?" Amy asked walking up "What do you mean there isn't one? You can figure something out! Planning is your job in these situations! And you've always done good before so why stop now?"

Shaking his head, Tails replied "Because now, Meta Sonic will be expecting us, and with the lab destroyed I can't get any more data on his base or what he's doing. I also can't build any sort of weapons to counter him or his army specifically as all the materials are ruined or outright destroyed."

"Great, so what are we going to do then?" Knuckles groaned.

Smirking, Tails replied "Actually, I thought we'd take a page out of your book for once and do it the old fashioned way"

Sonic, Amy and Knuckles were stunned, before Knuckles grinned and brought his fists together "Aw yeah! Now that's a plan I can get behind!"

The other two weren't so sure. A direct assault on Meta's base? With not just him, but four other duplicates of him and an army of Metal Sonics? I sounded like a suicide mission.

"Tails, are you sure about this? We don't have much chance against Meta on his own, much less all the others in that base" Sonic asked.

"I know Sonic, but right now we don't really have anything else we can really do, nor do we really have the time to try and find something. I know, it sounds like suicide but hey, how many times have we gone into a suicide mission and turned out just fine?"

Sonic and Amy exchanged looks, he had a point. This definitely wasn't the first time they'd been in this kind of dire situation. Heck, this was practically the norm for them.

"Okay Tails, if you think that's best we're with you" Sonic said giving a thumbs up.

Meanwhile at Eggman's base.

"What's the hold up you two!? I don't have all day to wait on you slackers!" Eggman barked as his three lackeys typed furiously at three different consoles.

"Slackers he says. While we're working harder than those egg pawns down there in the hangar" Decoe muttered.

"What was that?" Eggman growled.

Quickly turning to face the doctor and waving his hands in front of him, Decoe stammered "N-nothing doctor! Preparations are almost done!"

Sitting back in his command chair, Eggman scowled but sighed with relief nonetheless. "Finally, Metal Sonic's still running loose out there and chaos only knows what he's doing right now"

Grabbing his head and gritting his teeth, Eggman seethed.

"This is the problem with being such a genius! I can't help myself from making such an efficient killing machine! And worse, such genius gets no gratitude from my ungrateful creations!"

Leaning over to each other, Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun looked at each other with frustrated looks.

"Yeah, its hard to be grateful to the creator who's constantly yelling at you and calling you names who can't even win himself" Bokkun muttered to the other two who chuckled.

"ONE MORE SNIDE COMMENT OUT OF YOU THREE AND I SWEAR I WILL USE YOU AS FUEL IN MY NEXT MACHINE!" Eggman roared, slamming his fist down on the armrest of his command chair and causing the three robots to jump and go back to typing at their consoles with a simultaneous "Sorry doctor!"

Seconds later, Bocoe's console lit up and he turned to Eggman.

"Dr. Eggman, preparations are complete. We're ready?"

Lighting up, Eggman grinned "Excellent! And what of our "Emergency power"?

"The chaos emeralds are in the auxiliary weapon core and on standby"

"Fantastic! Then let's get moving!"

With a simultaneous "Yes sir!" the three lackeys began to activate various systems and soon the feeling of movement could be felt from Eggman's command chair. As the ceiling began to open up above, the room gradually ascended before reaching high into the sky.

"So you want to go rogue eh Metal? You think Mobius is yours to conquer? You think you can betray me twice and get away with it? Well this time I won't be salvaging you, I'll destroy you myself this time." the mad scientist thought to himself as he and his lackeys began to move forward in the sky.

From the room they were in, one could see the massive craft it was connected to. From a distance, it resembled the Crimson Egg in coloration, but also seemed to take elements from Dark Oaks flagship. A keen eye would even notice elements of the Blue Typhoon in its shape, as well as it's central cannon hidden beneath the center most part of the craft resembling the doctors face with the cannon emerging from the "mouth". Of course, being who his is, the doctor would claim he didn't steal those design elements but rather "improved" them.

"Let's see how you like the new and improved Egg Carrier 3 you treacherous machine!" he muttered to himself with a malicious grin.

For his part, Meta Sonic was ready and waiting. The heroes would come. His obsolete creator would come. And then he would annihilate them all and begin his ascension to ultimate power. He had Cosmo's bio data. He had his army, he had the stolen power of the master emerald. Ah yes, the master emeralds stolen chaos energy. He'd almost forgotten. In truth the power of the master emerald was little more than a temporary tool, a source of power he could call upon for specific situations, as he had done before attacking the heroes at Tails' home. Though the power of the master emerald is great, it was by no means absolute. The metarex war had proven that. No, true power could only be obtained with the collective life energy of all things. And soon that power would be his. Nothing would ever be able to stand against him again. Not Sonic, not Dr. Eggman, and not that miserable pup Tails.

Briefly perplexed, Meta Sonic pondered a strange realization he'd come to: he seemed to have developed a much greater hatred for Tails than his organic template. Why? The fox was no greater threat to him in direct battle than Sonic, and though his resourcefulness had humiliated him, he still won. And Sonic was the one he had been created to kill to begin with and had been the focus of his hatred and obsession for his entire existence. So why the fox? Perhaps that was it. He had easily bested Sonic and Knuckles both after attaining his upgraded form. He hadn't even needed to go super to pummel them into the dirt where they belonged. But Tails had actually held his own. Humiliated him. Very nearly thwarted his plans before they could truly begin! Yes, that was it. He hated him more than the others because he'd still been unable to best him at first.

But he'd beaten him after going super, broken his spirit and now held his love captive in his bait as a lure for him and his friends. So why still the burning hatred? He could feel the metarex A.I. within him seethe whenever he thought of the fox. It still couldn't overtake his own consciousness, but he could feel it's rage. It burned withing him, and though he could not figure out why, he knew to retain his focus he would compromise with it. Yes, Tails would die first. Then "White Seed". then the others.

Wait. "White Seed?"

Before he could analyze this strange thought, his attention was drawn to the gigantic monitor before him, two different blinking dots coming towards his base. So heroes and the doctor are ready for the end are they?

"Much sooner than I expected of them. But it makes little difference, I'm ready"

Walking out onto an observation deck, Meta Sonic looked out at his Meta Army, which stood in front of a large, towering machine radiating a multicolored energy. The master emeralds energy was about to see it's final use.

"Come heroes, come. And let's have one last climactic battle as we approach the endgame"

This was it.

Okay, yeah. I'm not going to lie. I'm not entirely pleased with this chapter. There were certain points where I was just wondering "Will this work?" and I tossed ideas here and there before I just decided to run with it. Anyway, here we are at the beginning of the final act. And as for what the master emeralds power is for? (thought I'd forgotten about it didn't ya?) That's for next chapter. The purpose for that and the four Neo Metal Sonics will be revealed in the next chapter in fact. Until then, hope you're enjoying the story. See ya!