There is something appealing with this place; the Space I mean... This perfect silence, the intensive loneliness and the unbroken peace, which has always reigned here.

...Or at least, it's almost always reigned here.

My name is Miles Prower. My friends usually call me Tails since, well, since I have two fully functional tails since birth.
For as long as I could remember, I'd fought alongside my adoptive brother and best friend; Sonic the Hedgehog; and his friends, against a manial scientist and criminal named Dr. Robotnick, A.K.A Eggman. Our battles with him had taken us to all the corners of our planet Mobius, but never out here in Space...

To be honest, it wasn't even a battle with that misshapen human that took us here... but rather the battle of another...

I could tell you many a stories about Cosmo Sunflower; how I met her, how she warned us of the evil Metarex, how she encouraged us to fight them before it was too late, or how I fell in love with her...
...but I won't.
I'll simply say that her death seven years ago, due to her role as a martyr, has taken its toll on all who knew her kindness and wisdom...
But none took it harder than I did, and for a good reason...

It was I who killed her...


Cosmo is... was, what is called a seedarian, which is a form of creature much like animals, only that they technically are a form of highly evolutioned plants! They look like a short human, only that they have flowers growing out from the top of their head. Or to be precise, Cosmo's subspecie of seedarians look like that. There used to be another form of seedarians, one which was more of a resemblance to a muscular deer on two legs, antlers and everything, than a humanoid plant. It was these seedarians who eventually turned into the feared and hated cyborg army known as the Metarex.
Their initial intentions weren't actually of evil. They only sought the taboo force of cybernetics to defend the home planet of the seedarians; Greengate; from a powerful army of space pirates. But I shall not take them in defence, since their actions, under the leadership of the power-hungry and insane Dark Oak, cost the Galaxy many innocent lives... it almost even cost the Universe itself...

That's one story I have to tell you...

It was the final battle of our adventure with Cosmo, and the battle which eventually would destroy Dark Oak and his generals, and I was about to realize just how much it would take me to defeat the leaders of the Metarex... not in strength or skill in combat, but rather... with my heart...

It was a true test of unselfishness and emotion, as Cosmo suddenly appeared before my eyes...


My recollection of the events which led to Cosmo's death are silent, and blurred, in an attempt of my mind to lessen the hurt I feel... but I truely believe that my pain would be lesser if I could remember this to its full extent. But as it is, I will simply say what I can recall.

Me, Sonic and our friends were arguing how to fight the Metarex, as they'd recently decided that, in Oak's own, selfish and mad-driven words: "If we cannot conquer the Universe we'll simply destroy it instead!" The means of how he would do this is simply too horrid and complicated to speak of, but never the less...

In order to prevent Oak's plan, we had to destroy a "planet" that was created by Dark Oak himself, but this planet was protected by a form of energy which none of us had formerly seen! It was so powerful that none of the arms we possessed could even force itself through this "shield", even less do any damage to the planet...

There was one way to possibly break through this shield though: By overpowering the main cannon on The Blue Typhoon, the ship I built myself, and firing out Sonic in his "Super State" in which he's all but invincible, we could possibly break through. The drawback was that we only had one chance at this, as the "Sonic Driver" would be destroyed in such an assault. And that was basically the center of our argument: Could this work? Would this work? And if not, then what would we do?

...And there was the light.


It certainly couldn't have lasted for more than a minute. But once I looked up, and saw Cosmo's shifting body in the space right outside the observation window... time stood still as she grew physically mature at a rapid pace, right in front of us... I didn't know why, but I knew when I saw her turning into an adult like this, that she was going to do something drastic... something very drastic.

I really couldn't have been more right about that gut feeling...

After her transformation was completed, Cosmo looked over her shoulder, and towards us in the command bridge. She saw us, she saw me, and then she smiled... she smiled at us lovingly, and with determination... and then she floated, no, she flew through Space, towards the Metarex Planet. When she reached it, her still glowing body passed through the energy field like if it wasn't even there, like if it was never there...

Another bright light, which was much more powerful than the first, blinded us... And when that too died down, Cosmo was gone. She had been replaced by a large... a gigantic tree, much like an oak but larger than even those who lived through the ice age, and dropping from it from an invisible force was tiny, pink leaves, just like those of Cosmo's two roses...

Our friends were stunned, and one of them couldn't even grasp what had happened to Cosmo. But Sonic and I... especially me... we understood at once...
As Cosmo had disappeared, so had the shield of the Metarex. I knew how it worked at the moment I saw it: The tree which Cosmo had turned into weakened the planet so much that it could no longer sustain its shield.
Once again, the others started arguing, but this time for the fate of Cosmo. I saw everyone's fear and every little tear... Everyone cared for Cosmo, and so their worry for her sake was crystal clear...

But as I shed my first tear... I already knew there was no other way now... it was inevitible... Cosmo had to be killed along with the Metarex planet, and lest I wanted to feel an unending despise and guilt, I was the one who had to fire the cannon...


One by one, the preparations were made, the signal was given, I removed the safety and got ready to fire...

That's when I broke down...

My friends tried to encourage me to fire the shot, they even started yelling at me in desperation... but no matter what they did, I couldn't bring myself to killing Cosmo, despite that it was the only way to prevent Oak's horrible plan, and defeat the Metarex.

Suddenly, everything and everyone turned silent... and then I heard Cosmo's voice one last time... I can't even recall what she told me... her words however, did bring me back to my senses, and awoke my bravery just enough to realize what had to be done...

The thought of what I was about to do forced me to crouch into a ball, my tears which before had been a small river were now a flood, but my right hand still held on to the trigger...

I then in quick succession unfloded from my ball, and I screamed into the empty command bridge...

I screamed "I love you!", and then I pushed the trigger, firing the Sonic Driver... I watched how Sonic, and to my surprise his rival Shadow, both were shot through space,empowered beyond belief by the now crumbling Sonic Driver, towards the Metarex planet...

I saved the universe... and killed my one and only love...


Suddenly, I felt myself blurring out from reality... I closed my eyes for a second, and then I looked up...

I saw myself in a world of flowers, trees, rivers and a large sea, all streching out as far as my sight would travel, in every direction.
And admidst all this, I saw one thing standing out of the picture... In the long distance, there was a huge tree, tall enough to pierce the clouds, and broad enough to cover the entire Cerenity City of De'Warrace, the single largest city in the known universe!

There was no question about it... The tree I saw was Cosmo, it couldn't be anyone or anything else...

"Tails..." Her voice was echoing inside my head, calling out for me. I was on one end of this world, at the shores of the beautiful ocean, while she was beyond the lush and dense forest, on the other side of the world...

I didn't even think about it. I'd rather run across all the planets of the universe twice than to be seperated from Cosmo...

"Tails..." Her voice called for me again... by this time I was already running like the wind itself for her.

But then...

"Tails... don't do it!" When I heard these words I gasped in shock, but I still as told and stopped dead in my tracks.

I didn't understand it... "Why can't I save you Cosmo?" I asked with a big lump in my throat and tears pouring from my eyes.

That's when Cosmo appeared, right in front of me, as the child she still was and had been since I first got to know her.
I tried to touch her face to remove a tear on her cheek, but when my hand passed right through her head, I solemnly came to realize she was just an illusion, a ghost...

"You had to destroy me for those same reasons..." she told me, removing the tear on her cheek herself afterwards. "Think about it... if you would've saved me back then, what would've happened? If you'd chosen not to kill me... then you would've chosen to destroy the whole universe instead..."

"Th-the whole universe?" I had to ask her, despite that I knew it to be true...

"Including you and me..." After saying this Cosmo eyed downwards. I looked down without question...

I was stunned to find everything at my feet, and everything which I had left behind them was either dead or dying... The image made me back one step away from Cosmo... but then, everything I touched suddenly returned to life, healed...

"To do that for me Tails, would be nothing but a fool's doom upon the universe, and everything in it..." Seeing her tears made me realize this was just as hard for her to accept as it was for me, but she still somehow made herself continue.

"Tails, you have to let me go... else you will destroy yourself and all of those you care for... your universe..."


To let go of Cosmo... it was unthinkable to me!
I knew logically what she said to be true. But to accept it at an emotional level... that's always the problem with these things I suppose. You need to convince yourself that it's the right thing to do, the only thing to do... when your heart would rather destroy itself than do what you ask of it...

"I... I don't..." I had trouble to find the words to speak.
"...I don't know if I can ever let you go Cosmo. You mean the universe to me... to let you go would be like stabbing my heart out with a blunt dagger..."

Having never confessed the extent of my feelings for Cosmo before, I wasn't so surprised by her surprised expression.
"I... I had no idea... I didn't know you felt so strongly for me Tails... It's no wonder it was so hard for you to destroy me back then... I'm sorry I forced you to go through such a thing..."
Cosmo seemed to hestitate a little with what she said next... but not even for a whole second...

"I know what it's like, being forced to give up those you treasure, and love." She looked at me with tears in her eyes as she said the two last words. "It's not something which can be done without a great amount of remorse and feelings of guilt... Me fleeing from the Mothership and leaving everyone I knew behind, friends and family alike, is something I'll never forgive myself for doing, even now in my death... I knew it was the only way for me to reach you and your friends, and that the other seedarians would most likely support my choice, but still... You know what I speak of, what I feel..."

"Y-yes, I know Cosmo... I know all too well" I said, feeling my tears return to me once again.

"Doing what is right is never easy... but you already know this Tails." Even though I couldn't feel her hand on my cheek by touch, the simple knowledge that Cosmo was there brought out a smile on my tear-stained face as I felt some warmth return to my heart.
"I know I may never return to life... but my spirit shall remain with you. In life and death, heat and cold, day and night, dream and reality, I will always be there for you."

My tears were bittersweet, but at least now I could see... We would be seperated by life and death, but in our world of dreams we could still be together...

"And I will be there for you as well Cosmo" I told her, looking straight into her eyes.

"I only ask that you remember reality, as well as the friends and family you have there" she told me, smiling back lovingly.

Suddenly, the world around us started to blur. "Wh-what's happening?" I asked in fear of what I saw.

"You are awakening Tails." As I looked at her again, Cosmo's image was fading away as she spoke. "Do well in your world Tails... and do not mourn my death... for my last time has been one of happiness and love... and now I can be together with those I left all too soon in my mission to stop the evil Metarex."

All that was left of her now was her eyes... but just as they disappeared, I heard her last words echo through my head...

"I love you too..."