Chapter 21

Overcoming the Past

Colors began to return to his field of vision, and Tails found himself seemingly floating. For a moment he couldn't hear anything but as his senses adjusted to his surroundings he could make out numerous lights surrounding him but distant by a great deal. One light however he noticed to be quite close by, a light that struck him as familiar yet for some reason filled him with an immense sense of sorrow.

"Where am I? what is that light? And where's-?"

"Cosmo!" he cried out, his voice carrying through the endless voice he floated in.

Wait. It didn't just carry through…it almost sounded like an..

Did he just hear himself too?

He was sure of it. Their had been another scream, another voice cried out for Cosmo.

That sounded exactly like his.

"I know where I am…or when…Meta you monster" he said aloud coldly. Was this Meta's game? Take him back to this moment to torture him? How sick and twisted was this robot double?

Yes, Tails knew where and when he was. The place he'd seen in his nightmares for months.

Galactic coordinates 000, the day of the final battle, Cosmo's sacrifice.

Either this was Meta's idea of a sick joke or he intended to break Tails psychologically before breaking him physically. At that moment, Meta's words to Tails came back to him.

Tend to your wounds and those of your worthless friends then come for me and be ready to lose her again.

"I won't lose her again. I won't!" Tails called out in determination as he propelled himself through the vacuum of space, coming upon the blue typhoon as it floated in front of the disintegrating remains of Final Mova. As he drew closer to his ship, he could hear himself crying out in sorrow, hear the others crying as well, and hear Sonic and Shadow performing chaos regeneration. He knew how all of this would turn out, knew Cosmo would return, and yet he couldn't help the pull at his heart as he landed himself on the deck. Sure, he wasn't technically going through it again, but reliving it from an outside perspective didn't exactly help.

"Where are you!? whichever one of you is out there! Neo or Meta! I don't care what you do, I won't break! Cosmo came back! And if you don't tell me where she is I swear I'll-"

"Calm yourself Miles, I can hear you" Neo said as he walked out of the ship and came to a stop mere feet away from the determined fox.

"Neo. Where. Is. She?"

Neo gestured to the slowly disintegrating planet before them.

"She's right there boy"

Tails slammed his right foot down, his teeth bared"

"Don't play games with me! You know what I meant! Where is the present Cosmo!?"

His arm still extended, Neo calmly replied

"She's right there boy"

Tails' fists clenched so tight he was glad the glove he wore were so durable.

"I swear if you don't stop playing with me-"

"I am not fox, I mean your beloved Cosmo, past and present, are in that dying planet. The past Cosmo of course has already been reformed into the seed Sonic gave you, but the present one is currently in the center where her father used to be. I imagine when the disintegration reached her it will be most…unpleasant. I wonder what it's like to be atomized twice?"

Tails lunged forward, his namesakes giving him a greater burst of speed as he screamed

"LET HER GO! SHE'S DONE NOTHING WRONG! YOU LET HER GO OR I'LL-"

Once again, Neo cut him off.

"You'll what Miles? You don't really have time to waste your efforts trying to fight me. Time may move slower here, but that still doesn't give you much time to help her."

Neo caught Tails' fists in his mechanical claws.

"This delightful little time pocket is drawn from you specific recollection of this event. For you "time slowed to a crawl" the shock of things seeing to that. You always lamented not being able to think of another way to save her. Well now here's your chance to see what you could have done differently. Think fast Miles"

Neo through him back, using his jet to fly up above the ship and come to a stop on top of the ships spire.

Tails glared at the robot who stood, arms crossed, in an observant state.

His attention was quickly drawn to the bigger problem: how to save Cosmo and not relive the worst moment of his life.

"I won't fail again. Not this time" Tails muttered as he rushed inside the ship. He knew this ship inside and out, he had built it after all. He knew where the master emerald was. Perhaps he could use that?

"No" he thought to himself "the master emerald is in pieces, and even then what could I do with it? Time is already slowed down enough. Doing so more won't help me get her out of there"

And so he continued rushing forwards, there had to be something he could use. He reached the secondary command deck where he'd been during the final battle, only upon coming to the door and bursting in did he realize something.

"Crap! What about my past self? Or the others? Having two of me will probably freak them out! Heck, my past self might think he's insane!"

Fortunately for him, the place seemed vacant, not a soul present.

"Just gonna chalk that one up to time manipulation on Neo's part" he thought as he made his way to the command chair.

Coming to a stop just beside it, he began to feel that dreaded sense of fear and sorrow creeping up on him.

"Come on Tails, now's not the time for PTSD, it's a damn chair! It doesn't matter what significance it holds! Cosmo needs you! Get. In. The. Chair!"

Forcing his body to move, he sat down and began going over the ships systems, looking for how much power he could pull from the ship, perhaps with enough he could break his way into the planet, reach Cosmo, get her out and save her before it's too late?

"I don't know how I would even break through though, the gravity field Dark Oak created is gone but..wait that's it! The planet's surface should be much weaker now! And with it disintegrating more and more, if I immerse myself in the right amount of energy I should be able to spin dash my way through!"

He began typing furiously as he pulled up the ships energy readings.

Power: 40%

Aux Power: 0%

Emergency Power: 50%

Okay, so the main power was almost gone, the auxiliary power was out due to the master emerald being shattered, and the emergency power was at half. They had used the emergency power to get themselves home, but he didn't remember them using the rest of the main power.

"That's what I'll use then. Now I just need to find a way to use it on myself"

None of the ships cannons save for the Sonic Driver were capable of launching him far enough, and the Sonic Driver was a burnt out shattered husk.

His mind starting to panic, he dared to look out towards the planet, unsure how much time he had.

He regretted doing so. The planet was three quarters gone! He was almost out of time!

I can't do it!

No. Not now! Not now while he needed to focus!

"Come on Tails! Think! What can we use? Wait..what did Neo say? This time pocket is base on my recollection. So that would mean this is tied to my mind? Could I alter things here?"

Looking down at the Sonic Drivers remains,he sighed heavily, before redirecting power to it.

"Only one way to find out"

Bolting out of the command chair and down to the deck, he made his way up to the Sonic Driver and focused on it.

"Come on, come on! This has to work!"

His heart nearly skipped a beat when he heard the whine of bending metal and the pieces started to float up and connect back together.

"YES! IT WORKED!" he cried out in joy.

He immediately jumped in, curling into a ball and beginning to spin, he silently willed the cannon to begin powering up to fire.

"Almost..almost…"

He felt the cannon shake, felt himself bounce around against the inner walls and heard the increasingly loud hum of the systems as power coursed through the cannon and himself.

"FIRE!" he screamed in his head as he was launched at breakneck speed towards the planet, the power surging around him forming a protective coat of sorts.

He flew closer and closer towards the planet, his mind not allowing him to ignore the irony of him being to one to hit it this time. Before he had fired Sonic and Shadow at it and Cosmo had died, now he himself was flying at it to save her from dying a second time.

Whatever happens, I will stay by your side forever…

"I won't fail you again Cosmo" he though to himself as he finally reached the planet. He felt himself collide with it, felt the surface give way, he hoped he could control his movement better once he got deeper. As he got further in, he could hear his love crying out to him.

"Tails! Please help me!"

He wished he could call back, but as he was currently spinning through the planet, that wasn't possible.

Finally he heard a cracking sound before he was suddenly brought to a halt, the sudden stop nearly giving him whiplash. Looking beneath himself, he saw a lavender colored shell, which almost seemed transparent and covered in cracks. How much of the cracks were caused by him he did not know nor care, as he'd instantly deduced what it was: the core of the planet that Dark Oak had been in when he tried to make it explode as well as when he had been destroyed.

Remembering that Neo had said Cosmo was where Dark Oak had been, he looked closely at the somewhat transparent shell and called out.

"Cosmo! Can you hear me?"

For a few seconds he was met with silence and he briefly feared he was too late, before his heart felt relief as he heard Cosmo's voice answer him.

"Tails? Is that you? I can't see you. Where are you?"

"Right here Cosmo" he said as he smacked his palms against the shell to give her indication of his location.

She quickly located him and Tails felt relief and sadness at seeing his love okay, though her eyes were stained with tears, making it apparent just how terrified she had been.

"I'm going to try and break this shell, it's already cracked so I should be able to break it with my fists. Stand back"

Cosmo did as instructed, making her way to the back of the relatively fair sized core as Tails began slamming his fists down on the shell, he could hear the sizzling sound outside. He was almost out of time.

Letting out a frustrated scream, Tails raised his hands up and slammed them down right on the center-most crack.

The shell finally gave way, shards of it falling to the bottom of the core.

Breaking away more pieces to allow for clearer access, Tails quickly jumped down and was immediately enveloped in a joyful embrace by Cosmo, which he returned with equal vigor.

"Oh Tails! I was so scared! I didn't know where I was at first and then I heard Neo's voice telling me I was going to die again! I didn't know where you were and I was afraid he had…"

She cried into his shoulder, unable to finish, though Tails knew exactly what she was going to say.

"It's okay Cosmo, I'm safe, I'm here, and I'm getting you out of here."

He held her close as she did the same to him before he began spinning his namesakes, propelling them up and out of the core. As they flew through the tunnel Tails had made with his spin dash, Cosmo nuzzled further into his chest not unlike how she'd done when he carried her away from Shadow. In fact, the trip through the tunnel seemed similar, down to the light at the end that gave a sense of safety.

They exited the planet, neither bothering to look back as it finished disintegrating out of existence. Landing down on the lower deck, Tails put Cosmo down though neither broke their embrace.

"I thought I was going to lose you again" Cosmo spoke softly

"Not this time, not ever again" Tails replied, looking into his beloved's eyes.

Their faces drew closer, their lips nearly met before the moment was ruined by the loud cry of rage from their metal foe.

They looked over at Neo, who stood there a distance away along the line that ran down the center of the deck, looking enraged to the point of his fists shaking.

"You were supposed to give in to despair! Meta said you'd give in! I wasted my opportunity to kill you on this!? if I had known this would happen I would have never agreed to his foolish plan!" Neo raged

Tails glared at Neo "You failed Neo. You won't hurt Cosmo, you won't stop me, and you're going down"

"THAT'S WHAT YOU THINK! I'LL TEAR YOU APART MYSELF! META WON'T EVEN GET A CHANCE!"

Neo activated his jet, lunging at the pair while Tails simply stood there, holding Cosmo close and glaring at their attacker.

Neo was suddenly struck from behind with a bright beam of energy, the energy slamming him face first onto the deck before flying off into the distance.

"RAAAGH! WHAT!?"

Neo glared up at the pair, seeing a solid glare from Tails though a smile was beginning to form.

"You guys really need to stop spelling it out for me. We're in a time pocket derived from my mind"

Another blast hit Neo in the back, once again slamming him onto the floor. The confused Meta King lifted himself up onto his knees and looked behind himself, finding the Sonic Driver aimed squarely at him and crackling with a bright golden energy.

"And since this is based on my memory, my perception, I can control how things are here"

Another blast.

Neo's body was beginning to glow a bright red, the heat from the blasts beginning to affect his metal exterior.

"Bah! It doesn't matter if you can control this time pocket or not! You cannot stop me! And you certainly can't stop Meta!"

He began to move towards them, only to be hit with yet another blast. Catching himself, Neo glared at Tails and Cosmo. Cosmo watching in fascination while Tails' glare had changed to a look of smug triumph.

He had barely enough time to hear the sound of the cannon firing before he turned and threw his hands out to catch the blast.

"I'LL SHOW YOU HOW POWERFUL I AM! I'LL SHOW YOU HOW IT FEELS TO BE ATOMIZED!"

With great difficulty, he began to move his hands to the side, intending to direct the beam around himself and towards Tails and Cosmo.

"No. You won't" came Tails' reply.

The beam then increased in size and power. Neo's arms were thrown back as the golden light fully overtook him, his rage fill screams being drowned out by the roar of the beam as it flew past the fox and seedrian and out into space.

After the beam left, Tails and Cosmo looked on to find Neo on his hands and knees his arms beginning to melt and most of his head gone. His leg plates were now a molten puddle beneath him and his digital eyes were flickering. His former blue color being replaced by a crimson glow.

"Y-yoKRZZT-think you've KRZZT w-won?"

Tails and Cosmo walked up to their fallen foe, neither afraid.

"We've beaten you and your brothers" Cosmo said "We may not have won completely yet, but now only Meta Sonic remains"

"H-heKRZZT will never allow you to-to retain thisKRZTT…victory. I-I will be restored. Rebuilt. A-and I willKRZTT watch as he destroys…you"

NO NEO. YOU HAVE SERVED YOUR PURPOSE. YOU FAILED. AND I HAVE NO USE FOR FAILURES

The voice seemed to come from all around them, all three being perfectly aware of who it belonged to: Meta Sonic

"WHAT!? b-but you said-"

A WORTHLESS COMMANDER WHO CANNOT FULFILL HIS DUTIES IS NOT FIT TO BE REBUILT. YOUR PART IN THIS IS OVER.

Neo threw his head up as though looking for his master.

"NO! NO I CAN WIN! I JUST NEED ANOTHER CHANCE! YOU SAID WE WOULD NOT BE DISCARDED! YOU SAID WE WOULD MAKE THE UNIVERSE PERFECT!"

AND I SHALL! AND THAT MEANS REMOVING ALL IMPERFECTIONS! INCLUDING YOU!

From seemingly nowhere, a large multicolored mean came down and slammed into Neo, beginning to vaporize him as he thrashed and screamed.

"NO! NO! DON'T! YOU CHOSE ME! YOU DEEMED ME WORTHY OF YOUR FORMER NAME! I AM WORTHY I AM NEO METAL SONIC! I-I AM-"

With a flash of increased intensity, the beam finished vaporizing Neo, stopping as suddenly as it had begun.

Tails and Cosmo stood in shock, unsure of what to make of what they'd just witnessed.

Tails snapped out of it and called out.

"Alright Meta! We've beaten your Meta Kings! Face us!"

In response a large tear was suddenly made in the space in front of them, Meta's disembodied voice echoing through.

"Yes Miles, Cosmo, the time has finally come. Come to me, and let's end this at last"

"Tails" Cosmo spoke as they locked hands "We don't know what to expect on the other side…do you think…"

"We'll win Cosmo" Tails replied without hesitation "No matter who we face, we'll always win. Together we can't be beat"

Cosmo smiled "Then let's go"

Nodding, Tails returned her smile as they both jumped through the portal.

From his position in an endless void filled with all manner of shapes, swirls and odd spheres, Meta laughed quietly to himself.

"Cosmo speaks the truth Miles, you don't know what to expect. I on the other hand, have finally figured out my strange obsession with you, with your precious "White Seed". Yes, I know why these odd changes have occurred, I had not expected this infused tech to have such a strange effect on me. But now it is irrelevant. Now I have opened the door to ultimate power, power even the metarex could only dream of. I will end the two of you, this pre programmed obsession will be sated, and I will remake this reality as well as Earth's reality in my own. Perfect. Image."

All will kneel before the Cosmic Overlord.

Aaaand here. We. Go! The final battle is about to begin! The Meta Kings are gone, the rest of the heroes are separated into various time pockets, and now it's just Tails and Cosmo vs Meta Sonic! Let the finale begin…next chapter. See ya!