Chapter 3:

Shadow stared at the figure behind him. It was unmistakably Tails, but his normally orange fur was now sliver, and his eyes were now turquoise. Tails was glowing with an aura that reminded Shadow of his own super form, but there was definitely a difference. Shadow quickly recovered his composure as Tails walked towards him and threw a chaos spear that caused an explosion. However Tails walked out of the blast unharmed. Next Shadow turned and ran towards Cosmo, he was hoping to grab her, run, and finish her elsewhere. Tail's eyes glowed and a silver force field appeared around Cosmo. Shadow wasn't expecting this so he ran right into it and bounced off. Tails ran at Shadow and knocked him across the hanger with a powerful tail swipe. Shadow got up and pulled his Chaos Emerald but before he could use it, streams of silvery energy appeared around him, one grabbed his hand and another wound around his mouth and throat. Without air, shadow couldn't say "chaos control" in order to escape. Tails ran up and knocked the Chaos Emerald out of Shadow's hands. Then the silver binds around Shadow exploded, sending him flying once again. Shadow landed hard and struggled to get up. Sonic had been watching the fight while struggling with his own injuries until Knuckles showed up. The two of them helped each other hobble over to where Tails had Shadow cornered and restrained. Rouge was also watching the fight, but after seeing Shadow's condition she knew to stay hidden. Tails heard Knuckles quietly ask Sonic "What happened?" Before Sonic could answer Tails held out his hand and a sword made of the same silver energy appeared in it. He pointed it at Shadow's throat and said "Why did you attack Cosmo. Tell us why!" Shadow replied, "I won't tell you anything" but his voice was strained. The energy binds around Shadow glowed as if they were very hot and he gritted his teeth against the pain of being burned. Tails spoke again, "Tell us NOW, or I will use this" at the last word he brought the sword right up to Shadow's throat so Shadow could feel the tip of it against his fur. Shadow knew that not only was Tails serious in carrying out his threat, there was nothing he could do to stop it. The fear showed on his face and he spoke nervously, "She's a spy for the Metarex. They planted a bug inside of her." Tails withdrew the sword and as it dissipated Shadow collapsed from exhaustion. Once he noticed that Shadow was out cold, Tails's fur and eyes returned to their normal color and the binds disappeared. He turned to Knuckles and said "Seal him in the stasis tube in the medical bay so he doesn't try to hurt anyone else." Knuckles and Sonic just stood there. After a few seconds Sonic finally spoke "Tails... what was that?" Tails quickly came up with an excuse, "I'm not sure. Something must have happened to me when I collapsed in space earlier." Chris's voice echoed from the load speakers, "Tails, I need you on the bridge right away. There's a metarex ship incoming."

Tails ran for the bridge while Knuckles carried Shadow to the medical bay. On his way up, Tails quickly came up with a plan. Once Tails reach the bridge, Chris asked "What should I do, captain?" Tails replied, "I don't think this fight is worth the time since the Metarex have such a large reserve. Have the shields ready in case they get within firing range. I'm going to bring the warp field drive online." A minute or two later, the Blue Typhoon warped away to a relatively sparse region of space. Once they were out of danger, Tails considered what he knew, both from the previous timeline and what he was allowed to share in this one and thought about what course of action he should take. "I have to free Cosmo" he thought to himself, "I was too scared of hurting her to do it before but it's the only way to save her now".

Tails told Sonic about his plan, and after doing so he stopped at the medical bay and then brewed some tea for Cosmo in the ship's kitchen. He found Cosmo in her room staring off into (figurative) space. "You must be pretty shaken after what Shadow tried to do to you" Tails said. He offered Cosmos the mug of tea and added "Drink this, it'll help you feel better". Cosmo smiled and replied "Your too kind" as she accepted the mug. After Cosmo had finished the tea, Tails stayed in her room with her, he knew that she had something on her mind and had a good guess what it was. After a few minutes, Cosmo voiced the concern that was bothering her: "I wonder if anyone here will accept me now that they know I'm a spy." Tails thought for a moment and then replied, "I'd never peg you to be someone to do that kind of thing willingly". Cosmo still looked concerned so Tails added, "I'm sure it'll work out." Cosmo replied, "How can you be so confident..." and trailed off as she fell unconscious. Tails caught her and said, "I'm sorry Cosmo. You'll thank me later after I get that implant out of you".

Now that Tails had given Cosmo anesthesia, he had a limited amount of time before it wore off to remove the spy implant. Tails quickly brought Cosmo to the medical bay and started the operation. However, half way through the very complex procedure Cosmo's vitals seemed to be speeding up. Tails noticed the changes via a computer screen and had the horrified realization that the anesthesia he used must not last as long on Seedarians as he'd predicted. He frantically looked around for some way he could complete the procedure in time, and found one... but would it work?