Chapter Text
Stone was pretty sure he was in shock. He was sitting on the side of the Thames, his clothes were soaked in a sickening mixture of tepid water and sewer contents, his home and all his possessions sitting in the silt at the bottom of the river. The temperature of the air had dropped and with his wet clothes, he knew he was risking hypothermia. And yet, he couldn’t bring himself to do anything but stare at the supernova in the sky.
His doctor, the only thing on this entire planet worth paying attention to, reduced to nothing but a video and stardust. The shattered remnants of the moon reminded him of his own heart. Something once so great, untouchable to but a few, now destroyed into an unrecognizable mess.
How could it possibly be that only days ago were living, maybe not happily, but safely in the crab. The doctor was barely in working shape, after having every bone and organ crushed from the fall in Montana and the strain of the Master Emerald. And Stone had only just seen some of his old spark rising from the ashes of his depression. The doctor becoming a streamer had been unexpected and it was something Stone initially protested. Both the aliens and the government believed them to be dead and streaming from inside their base could bring danger upon the recovering genius. But Robotnik had brushed away his fears and had found joy in amassing a devoted cultlike following, even if many of the ‘eggheads’ enjoyed bullying the doctor about his weight gain.
The ‘plan’ had been to gain so large and dutiful a following that Robotnik could convince them to overthrow the world’s governments and crown him as the supreme leader. Stone hadn’t believed in this plan of the doctors, but did trust that a few more months of recovery would get the doctor back to his normal evil and glorious self. And then Sonic, it was always Sonic, every bad thing that had happened to him and the doctor originated from that damned hedgehog, had needed their help. Stone hadn’t wanted to work with the little monsters, they hadn’t even apologized for nearly killing the two, but someone had been using Robotnik’s tech and that was of higher priority than making Hérisson à la terre.
He’d been delighted when Gerald found them, allowing them to ditch the anthropomorphic abominations. Plus, the Doctor now had family, something Stone knew he had always desired. That had been one of the man’s quirks; despite his adamant refusal for emotion, he had craved love and attention. Sure, it had hurt to see Robotnik so quickly forget about him, but it could be forgiven, he had Shadow to keep him company. The black hedgehog was far less annoying than his blue counterpart and it had been fun, showing the boy things he had missed while in stasis for the last 50 years. However, when Shadow revealed Gerald and his plans to destroy the planet, Stone felt his heart stop. He had to tell Ivo. For all of his evilness, Robotnik wished to rule the world and that wouldn’t be possible if the world was a lifeless crater.
He was angry when the pusillanimous fox flooded the crab. He was angry about having to swim in the disease-causing waters of the Thames. He only became more furious when Robotnik fired him after he tried to warn him of his grandfather’s treacherous plans. And now, as he sat alone in London, homeless and hopeless, he realized he was still angry. No, he was more than that. He was outraged. At Sonic, at GUN, at the world, and at Ivo Robotnik. The man’s final livestream being dedicated to him was akin to putting a bandage over a gaping chest wound.
Had he meant nothing to the Doctor?! Years of working under him while they were at the government. When he had been sent to the mushroom planet, Stone had followed his manifesto to a tee, overthrowing a coffee shop in the town of his enemy in a week. He spent eight months spying on the hedgehog, stealing from the government, and rebuilding Robotnik’s technology; never once doubting the doctor wouldn’t come home. When the man finally came back, albeit far more deranged than before and touting a red porcupine, Stone put up with his every whim. He had openly betrayed the government when he begged an emerald-crazed Robotnik to take him with him. When the mecha fell, Stone had dug through the rubble and carried the doctor to safety despite his own injuries. He had cared for the doctor when the man was in a full body cast. He had taken every harsh word, every punch and push and every threat to his life with open arms and a wide smile. He had taken bullets for the man; had broken every moral he ever had and had killed many a threat with no remorse. He, Agent Aban Stone, had stayed by his side despite every setback and failure, always supporting and praising and loving. And Doctor Ivo Robotnik had had the gall to drop him like carrion to the vultures.
And still, for all the fury Stone carried in his now fragmented heart, he couldn’t hate his doctor. Especially now that the man was at rest among the stars. No, he couldn’t hate the one person that ever made his life worthwhile. But he could hate the thing that stole him away from Stone’s arms.
“This isn’t over.” He whispered, as he watched the sky, feeling the pieces of his heart fall away until there was nothing left in his chest but a murderous rage. “The doctor will rule, even if it is only as a mantle. And anyone who stands or has stood in my path is going to pay.”
~
Doctor Robotnik had long stopped believing that his death would be a painless thing. Every near death encounter he has had so far was extremely painful, from crashing landing on an alien planet, to breaking his every bone and squashing his every organ in the post-emerald chaos. No, death was not going to come easy to him. He stood on the platform watching as explosion after explosion ate away at the ship around him. It had already melted his camera, though not before he was able to get out a final livestream. He really hoped Stone had seen it. These last couple of minutes had really opened his eyes into how terrible a person he’d been to the one man who had ever cared for him. He had fired Stone! What had he been thinking? And now, as he felt the cruel burn of flames lap at his skin, he could only hope the agent could forgive him.
Ivo closed his eyes, the heat of the fire becoming too extreme, and shuddered when he felt tears slip down his face. It seems that not even a genius like him was immune to the inherent fear of death. The burn was becoming stronger, pulling cries from his mouth as it charred his skin. He tried to back away, instinctually trying to escape despite his mind having accepted his inevitable death, but the fire was on all sides.
Then, without warning, he felt himself being picked up. “Come on, old man. We are getting out of here.” The voice was deep, sounding exhausted and pained, but Ivo recognized it.
“Shadow?” Was the only thing he was able to utter before it felt like his very cells were being torn apart. The pain lasted only moments, not unlike the pain he felt when the Master Emerald was ejected from his body, but it left him feeling incredibly weak and nauseous. He grunted when his body was uncaringly dropped to the ground and quickly rolled over to expel the contents of his stomach. At least the oppressive heat was gone. Wait, the heat was gone?
Opening his eyes revealed the impossible. Instead of blinding flames and melting metal, he was met with charred stone, blown-back pine trees and the familiar shoes of a black and red hedgehog, who was looking down at him in disgust. “Pitiful” Shadow growled, before sitting down beside him, teeth gritted against the pain. Ivo looked over at him. The creature certainly looked worse for wear, his fur was burned in many places, leaving bare patches of raw skin, his quills were in disarray with quite a few missing, and he was obviously trying to hold back tears.
“Give me a big fat break” Robotnik grunted, propping himself up so he could sit. Looking over himself revealed a multitude of burns, ranging from mild to a third degree burn on his leg. He nearly threw up again looking at the mess, shocked he couldn’t feel it, before he remembered that all the nerve endings in that area were burned away along with the muscle and skin. He gulped and looked away, turning his eyes instead to the sky, where an apparent supernova now rested. “Why did you save me? I was prepared to die up there, probably deserved it too, with all the things I’ve done.”
Shadow raised his head to look at the mess in the stars as well. He was silent for a few moments before standing. He looked back at Robotnik. “Leaving you to burn when I could save you wouldn’t be what Maria would have wanted.” With that explanation, he pushed himself back to his feet, walking forward, limping a little as he moved toward the center of the crater they were in. Ivo watched as he bent down and grabbed the two golden bracelets he normally wore, not having realized Shadow didn’t have them on. The thought of wristwear spurred him to look at his own wrists; and there it is, his watch. Tapping it, he was relieved to see it still worked, though the screen was cracked.
He was opening the tracking app in order to find Stone when a wave of dizziness hit him. Obviously, the adrenaline rush was wearing off. He grits his teeth and though struggling to stay awake, he managed to get Shadow’s attention. “Hey, I know you’ve already done a lot, saving my life and all, but I think I’m about to die anyways. Do you think you could use this watch to get me some medical help? It’s what Maria would want.” He tried to grin but felt the burns on his face crack in the process. As his vision turned black, Shadow’s approaching glare was the last thing he saw.
~
Shadow rolled his eyes as the old man collapsed, apparently unconscious for good now. He limped back over to Robotnik’s prone body, fighting back tears for the first time in fifty years. He grabbed the watch from the man’s charred hand and stared at the small, cracked screen. Before the doctor passed out, he seemed to have opened a map of some sort. Shadow poked at it in interest, his hand jumping back when the map zoomed into a blinking blue light. He narrowed his eyes as he read the fragmented words.
“Subject-Sonic the Hedgehog. Location-Green Hills, Montana.” Nodding, he grabbed the Doctor’s body before teleporting them slowly to the home of his…not-enemy.