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Dr. Robotnik is dead. The explosion hangs in the sky, particles and debris resting outside the atmosphere. It could almost be described as beautiful; fantastical.
There’s an explosion inside Stone, resting inside his heart and creeping into his lungs. It's a harsh, ugly, burning sensation. There was no beauty here.
Stone almost falls to his knees, wavering beneath the broken sky. But the streets were no place to have a breakdown, especially with the throng of bystanders looking skywards. Up to Dr. Robotnik’s sacrifice. A whole world who spurned him and hated him. And he saved them. And he left Stone behind.
What he wouldn’t give to trade places.
The walk back to the Crab was a blur. She was washed up by the side of the Thames, drying out in the last bit of daylight, her systems purging water effortlessly, just as she was designed to do. The Doctor was far too brilliant to make a destructible home.
Home. Not anymore. Not without him.
***
The Doctor’s chair was still wet, protesting with a squelch as Stone sinks in to where his boss had resided the last few months. Where he’d still be, if Stone…
If he hadn’t initiated the whole damn thing. The first tipping of the domino. Gerald could’ve done whatever the fuck he wanted - the government could’ve handled it. Sonic and his stupid little team could’ve handled it. If Stone had just waited a fucking week this would’ve all blown over and Dr. Robotnik would be alive and-
And there’s that breakdown.
Heaving sobs wracks his body as he curls as deep as he can into the chair that still smelled like the man he-
he Loved. Killed. The genius Dr. Ivo Robotnik, the most brilliant man this world had ever seen. The man this world would never mourn.
***
Stone awakes to a pounding at the door. There are words, a few different voices calling out. Stone knows twelve different languages, and none of them are coming through right now. The world seems muffled, a million miles away. And then there’s a blast of light shining in as the door opens, and Stone turns to see Sonic’s yellow friend enter his home, alone. He’s speaking, his voice simply washing over Stone without hitting its mark.
Stone should be outraged that they’re even here, in Dr. Robotnik’s space. They shouldn’t have ever been in here, that was a complete fuck-up on Stone’s part. It was a betrayal of the Doctor’s trust. No wonder the man rushed into the arms of his grandfather - Stone had proven just as unfaithful as everyone else, that he’d go behind the Doctor’s back, bringing his enemies into the fold.
This was probably the point where he should feel ashamed. But he finds that he doesn’t feel anything at all.
The yellow thing was still talking. Tails, he remembered, the foggy memory of a few days prior at the abandoned base resurfacing. The only critter in the trio that Stone never got to know well, and the one that mattered least to the Doctor. Sonic was the prize, Knuckles was the pawn. Tails just showed up one day.
There’s fingers snapping in his face, jolting him away from his thoughts and into awareness. Tails is holding out an opened bottle of water expectantly, and Stone grabs it as if on autopilot. As he sips the water - cold, and soothing to his throat - the yellow creature begins making some sense.
“-mpressed that it’s even still powered on, having taken as much water damage as it did. If we could get it to move just a few feet, we can get you settled in. But I don’t know this technology. I mean, I’m sure I could figure it out, given enough time, but that kind of feels disrespectful. And besides, it’s your home Mr. Stone.” His eyes softened, a pitying look that made Stone feel sick. “You know, I’m just realizing that I never got your first name. Unless it’s actually Agent.” Tails says, huffing out a weak laugh.
Agent was a leftover from his military days. A title to replace his name, after he worked his way into more secretive sects. To be brilliant and be a part of the Big Decisions of the world, you have to give up your old life. Your old name. He hadn’t said it out loud in years.
“Aban.” He whispers, throat raw and hoarse.
“Aban.” Tails repeats, smiling and soft and too fucking soft and-
“Everything still going good? Need us to come in or anything?” The unmistakable voice of Sonic cuts through the room, making both men jump. Tails quickly disappears from view with reassurances, and Stone takes the moment to gather himself.
Reality check: Dr. Robotnik is dead. The Crab is doing okay. The Primary Color Critters are invading his home. His body was sore from bad sleep. Dr. Robotnik is dead. He wishes he had died too.
“So as I was saying, can we get you to move this robot a few feet forward?” Tails was back, earnest as ever.
“Why?” Stone asks, but stands up anyway. He’s spent years taking orders and fulfilling tasks. It’s second nature at this point.
“G.U.N. seems to have their hands full with damage control, so while they’re distracted we want to move you somewhere safer.”
Stone scoffs. “Like prison?” The yellow creature’s two tails twist in displeasure.
“No.”
The man waits for him to elaborate, but Tails just focuses on the console. Stone obliges him by pulling up navigation - why was he blindly going along with these- these teenagers? But he does, finding it beyond himself to give a fuck at this point. At Tail’s cue a ring opened up in front of the mech, waiting for him to go through.
They’re obviously in Green Hills. Stone had lived there long enough in the Doctor’s absence to recognize the landscape.
“And if you could just steer her towards the trees so that nobody can see her from the sky-” Tails says, and Stone rolls his eyes, pushing a button and cloaking the Crab in invisibility. “Of course. Genius technology.” Tails smiled up at Stone, and it was all too much.
“Get out of my house.” He says quietly, yet it still reverberates in the empty space that used to hold so much life. The yellow creature’s face falls, but he gives a nod and makes for the door. Stone hears the murmurs of a conversation happening outside, and then the tell-tale swoosh of Sonic speeding off to who-fucking-cares where, with his lackeys no doubt behind him.
Stone is tired. His body feels empty and hollow. His lungs feel like they’re collapsing. He’s back in fucking Green Hills and once more without the Doctor, but this time he isn’t coming back.
Dr.
Robtonik
Is
Dead.
And he isn’t coming back. And the world fucking sucks. And Stone is tired. And Stone somehow simultaneously feels nothing at all and yet everything all at once.
And he is
So
Fucking
Tired.
So he goes into a room largely off-limits to him. And he crawls into a bed that he used to dream of falling asleep in, that still smells like the man he used to dream of waking up to. And he cries and cries until the black of sleep finally takes him.