Cosmo Beginning

Darkness.

What seemed like moments ago, Cosmo saw Tails, the two-tailed orange fox and the source of love that she had never felt before, sitting over her with tears in his eyes. In a flash, that vision was gone, replaced by nothing but black. The sound of Tails's sobbing and Sonic's attempts to comfort him were nothing but a memory now.

It took some force, but Cosmo opened her eyes. The darkness was beginning to slightly fade, and Cosmo could see multiple figures appearing in front of her. There were three: an orange-colored female echidna dressed in tribal garb, a blonde-haired female human in a long, flowing blue dress, and a blue, liquid-looking monster with piercing green eyes. As the three appeared before Cosmo, the human and echidna gave her warm, welcoming smiles -- the monster seemed to lack emotions, but he did lazily wave in greeting.

"W-Where am I?" Cosmo forced out the question, surprised she could speak. "Why am I not on the ship? Where are my friends?"

"You've died, Cosmo." The echidna explained. "My name is Tikal, and your spirit now rests here, in the body of the Master Emerald." Tikal approached Cosmo - or, more of floated towards her - and took Cosmo's hands into hers. "Unfortunately, you won't be able to exist with your friends anymore. You can visit them in spirit, but from now on your place is here, with us."

"It won't be so bad, though!" The human spoke up, also approaching. "Tikal is very nice, and living here is a great way to spend the afterlife. It might not be the heaven we were all promised, but it's definitely better than just floating around aimlessly!"

"... Heaven?" Cosmo tilted her head in confusion. "Is that what this is?"

"No, Cosmo." The human shook her head. "Like Tikal said, your spirit is here in the Master Emerald. You'll be at peace here." The human also placed her hands on top of Cosmo's and Tikal's. "I'm Maria. I hope we'll get along from now on. The blue creature over there is Chaos, but don't worry. He's very kind."

"Chaos ... Maria ..." Cosmo repeated. "It's nice to meet you, but how do you know my name?"

"I foresaw your coming here." Tikal spoke up once again. "Through your friend Knuckles, I have been watching your battles. When I found that you would be joining us, I wanted to make sure you would be comfortable. Is there anything you would like to talk about, to get off of your mind, before you start your new afterlife?"

"Well, I ..." Cosmo started, but before she could explain, she heard a new sound: Maria was laughing, snickering with her hand over her mouth.

"I can't keep this up anymore, Tikal!" Maria laughed. "Enough with your mystical jargon, let's be honest here!" Tikal blushed at Maria's words, and smiled at Cosmo.

"Cosmo, I'll be blunt." Tikal said. "The five of us basically stay here and watch over the planet. When things are peaceful, or for a lack of a better word, boring, we usually have our time to chat or see what our loved ones are up to."

"That sounds a lot less magical." Cosmo replied, looking annoyed. "What kind of things do you talk about, anyway?"

"If I could start," Maria said. "Cosmo, I left many people behind when I passed. One in-particular, though, I will never stop missing. Shadow the hedgehog was my best friend when I lived on-board the Space Colony ARK, and he even saved the entire planet just to fulfill a promise we made. I'll always love him, and even if I can't be with him anymore, we'll always be together. If you have your own person that you feel that way about, you're not leaving them. You'll still be with them in heart and spirit."

"And also ..." Tikal grinned, nudging Cosmo's arm, "Aren't you going to miss sex now that you're gone?" Tikal asked. She smirked; this echidna's character seemed to change in an instant. "I know that without Chaos, I would be positively starved in here!"

"S-Sex?!" Cosmo stammered. "What? That's ... a weird thing for the dead to talk about!"

"Nah, not at all!" Maria dismissively waved a hand. "Come on, sit down!" With a snap of Maria's fingers, a round table appeared, with multiple chairs. The girls all sat down, and mugs of coffee appeared in front of them. "Since you're new, I'll start off. You remember Shadow, the black hedgehog who was on your ship? He was my best friend growing up, and he was so ... so ..." Maria trailed off. A line of drool poured down her face. "And even before him, the scientists in the ARK were ..." Maria chuckled with a perverted look on her face.

"Get on with it!" Tikal and Cosmo shouted. Maria snapped back to attention.

"Fine, fine!" Maria yelled, clenching her fists. She took a sip of coffee to calm herself. "It all started one day on the ARK ..."