Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Stone wakes gradually, at first aware only of the cold, hard surface at his back and the acrid fumes of mechanical fire coating his throat and lungs. His head aches, the pain intensifying when he coughs, and his ears are ringing. He pulls in a deep, rattling breath, tensing for the smoke that will accompany it, but it doesn’t come. The scent is gone now, and the dull ache across his entire body is fading with it.

He opens his eyes, briefly forced to close them against the bright light, before trying again. He sees a clean, white ceiling, partially blocked by Ila, his personal Mininik, a handful of Badniks, and the Doctor himself. Strangely, the Doctor looks concerned, his brow furrowed and his hair falling into his face.

Wait…his hair?

“Stone, are you with us?” Robotnik asks, a gentle hand coming to grasp the agent’s right shoulder.

Stone attempts to answer, but only manages a sound he’d describe as a keen. The Doctor frowns, helping Stone sit up as he orders one of the Badniks to scan him. Stone takes a moment to look around, noting that he appears to be in the primary lab, with a non-bald, dressed in mainly black, Doctor. Which doesn’t make sense, because the primary lab has been compromised since Robotnik’s disappearance and his new post-mushroom look was decidedly red (and then green).

“Your vitals are stable and I see no sign of injury. No noticeable sign of illness, either. How do you feel?” Robotnik is still crouched beside him, looking between Stone and the holoscreen from his glove. Stone takes another deep breath, attempting to assess. He had felt like death warmed over moments ago, but now he just feels sort of tired? He relays the information to Robotnik, who “hmms” in response.

“I’m sorry, Doctor, I’m…not sure what happened,” Stone mumbles, glancing down at his hands. Hadn’t they been bloody? And his left hand, it had been burned. Now, they both looked fine.

Robotnik gets to his feet, grabbing Stone by the bicep and pulling him up as well. He stumbles once he’s upright, his head swimming despite the pain fading, and the Doctor tightens his grip to keep him steady. Stone thinks he might be sick.

“Well, go on then,” Robotnik says, pushing him towards the lab door (Stone had apparently voiced that thought), “Don’t do it in here.”

Stone aims for the nearest bathroom, almost tipping over as he shoves his way in, locking the door behind him. Once it’s closed, he leans back against it, taking a slow deep breath. His head has settled, but his stomach is twisting. This is all wrong, he isn’t supposed to be here. His most immediate memories may be fuzzy, but he knows where he was before that–

Co-pilot in the giant robot the Doctor had created with the Master Emerald, fighting against Sonic and his tagalongs outside Green Hills. And before that, before Robotnik’s return, Stone had spent months waiting and following his orders, building a lab and keeping the tech he could get his hands on safe.

Stone pushes away from the door and goes to the sink, cupping his hands to splash a bit of water on his face before grabbing each side of the basin to keep himself upright. He just needed to think, to figure out what happened. He had been in the robot, and then he had been here, in the compromised lab, with a Doctor who…well, had hair? Clearly pre-mushroom planet, but by how long?

He considers the option that this is all a dream, but quickly waves it off. Why would he dream of this? He’s never been one to lucid dream anyway. Maybe someone did something to him? Sonic? Or the fox?

Or that damn space porcupine.

They could teleport, fly, generate electricity from their hands, who knows what else they’re capable of? Hallucinations? Poisoning? What else could–

“Time travel,” Stone whispers, eyes widening. He looks up from the sink to the mirror. “Time travel?”

He fears finding a much younger face looking back, but the only noticeable difference is that his hair is a tad shorter than it should be. So if they did send him back, it wasn’t too far in the past. It felt insane to consider, but those creatures' very existence was insane. Stone had seen enough in the past year to be open minded.

“Stone! You alive in there or do I need to start looking for a new assistant?”

Stone jumps, hands squeezing the sink at Robotnik’s booming yell. “I’m fine, Doctor! I’ll be out in a moment.”

Robotnik “hmphfs” on the other side of the door and audibly walks away, Stone slumping forward. He takes a minute to calm down, stomach still uneasy. He makes for the door, running a hand down his face and stepping out into the hall.

Despite the footsteps, Robotnik is waiting only a couple feet away, Ila hovering beside him.

“You’re fine, are you?” Robotnik asks, holding out a hand. Stone takes it automatically, allowing the Doctor to reel him in, his free hand pressed against Stone’s forehead. “You don’t look much better than you did in the lab. Ila, scan him again.”

“I promise, I’m feeling much better,” Stone says, leaning against the Doctor when he lets go of the agent’s hand to instead hold him by the waist.

“Hm,” Robotnik pulls his hand away from Stone’s forehead, looking at Ila’s results, “No change. If Walter’s wasn’t insisting we leave for bumfuck nowhere immediately, I’d send you to the doctor’s. In fact, I’ll be doing so as soon as we return home. For now, you will tell me if you begin to feel ill or in any way abnormal. Understood?”

“Understood,” Stone replies, trying not to get too distracted by the warmth of the Doctor along his side. His Doctor had only been home for maybe a day or so before the battle, they had barely gotten to reunite. “Wait, ‘bumfuck nowhere’?”

Robotnik sighs, using his hold on Stone to lead him back to the main lab. “Green Hills, Montana. We received the order right before you dropped on me. Some electrical based anomaly that the brass aren’t smart enough to figure out on their own, so we get to waste our time doing their jobs for them.”

Stone nods, letting Robotnik settle him in a chair and watching as the Doctor begins ordering Badniks around, packing up anything the mobile lab might not have, and complaining the whole while. Ila rests in his lap, Stone patting her as he leans his head back against the chair. He can’t say he was expecting to be thrown right back into everything, but maybe it was for the best. The sooner he found his way home, the better.

Chapter Text

The trip to Green Hills, and most of their first day there, go about how Stone remembers. Lots of complaining, interspersed with gratuitous insults, and then diving right into chasing after Sonic. The only noticeable difference is that Robotnik is staying much closer to him this time, monitoring him with a distinct lack of subtlety. Stone doesn't like that he’s causing a distraction for the Doctor, so he does his best to act like nothings wrong–all that does is earn him prolonged stares.

It doesn’t help that he’s now actively lying to the man. Stone knows where Sonic is going, and he knows when the hedgehog will get there. They could easily beat him to San Francisco, but the longer Stone is here, with no sign of present (future?) Robotnik coming to retrieve him, the more concerned he is about consequences. He’s seen movies, after all, he knows all about the butterfly effect.

What if he does something that causes an even worse outcome than the one he’s already lived? What if something goes wrong with the prototype when Robotnik takes it out and he never makes it to San Francisco? What if he dies on the mushroom planet? Or on impact before even getting sent though? Or he lives, but never finds his way back, cursed to spend the rest of his life alone with only mushrooms for company, because Stone couldn’t follow the script–

“Stone,” Robotnik’s voice is sharp, loud, and Stone flinches, almost knocking over the water bottle on the table beside him. “I can hear you thinking and that’s never good. This is the third time today you’ve…drifted on me. I thought I told you to tell me if you weren’t feeling well.”

Stone looks over to the Doctor, half dressed and sitting on the edge of the dingy queen bed that takes up half of the motel room. He’s got his legs crossed, arms folded, and he looks annoyed, but Stone’s trained to see past that.

“Sorry,” Stone says, turning in his seat to face the other man, “I really do feel okay, I was just thinking.”

“Now’s not the time to be distracted.”

“I know, I’m sorry, Doctor,” Stone apologizes again, looking away towards the bathroom door to avoid direct eye contact. Robotnik sighs.

“It’s late, and with whatever you've got going on, you need rest. Come to bed.”

“We’re on a mission, I need to keep watch,” Stone says, looking back at the Doctor. Not only was standing guard protocol, it was also what he had done the first time around.

“Keep watch from what, the alien running in the opposite direction? I’m not concerned,” Robotnik scoffs, getting up from the bed and crossing over to Stone, gently manhandling him up from the chair. “Besides, that’s what the security detail is for. Your job right now is to sleep so you don’t collapse on me again in the middle of the mission.”

This is wrong, this isn’t how things went before. What if this was the change that made things worse? What if sleeping right now got Robotnik killed?

The Doctor is already pushing Stone onto the bed, giving the agent no choice but to lie down.

“Shoes off, I’m not sleeping with those things. The cleanliness levels of this dump are bad enough,” Robotnik says, climbing into bed beside him. Stone nods, biting back the urge to comment on the fact that his partner is coming to bed without coercion, and pulls off his loafers, along with his jacket and tie.

Robotnik is already settled when Stone crawls under the sheets, lying down beside him. The Doctor angles towards him, dropping his arm across the agent’s waist, and Stone curls in closer, breathing in the older man’s scent. It’s just how he remembers it–the remains of warm, spiced cologne, a sharp note that Stone recognizes from the lab, and just a hint of coffee. Stone always figured that last bit was due to Robotnik regularly ingesting enough coffee to kill a normal man.

It's a scent he hasn’t experienced since his first time in Green Hills and he can’t help the small whimper that escapes him, his hand grasping the back of Robotnik’s shirt perhaps a bit too tightly.

“You’re shaking,” Robotnik says, Stone feeling the words rumble through the other man’s chest. “Are you cold?”

Stone shakes his head and Robotnik lets out a small sigh. The bedsheets rustle as he moves the arm currently under Stone’s neck, bending it so he can cup the back of Stone’s head.

“Get some rest, Aban. We have an alien to catch in the morning.”

Stone wakes last the next morning, the Doctor already dressed and studying something on his tablet. He briefly glances over as Stone sits up.

“Up and at ‘em, Agent! Seems the alien was spotted at a nearby redneck den.”

“The Piston Pit?” Stone asks, too groggy to realize his mistake until he looks up and sees Robotnik watching him with a raised eyebrow.

“Visit these parts a lot, do you?”

“Oh, I um, checked the area out last night? On my phone. And I saw the Piston Pit on the map, and the name sort of sounds redneck? Just guessing, of course,” Stone cuts off his rambling at the Doctor’s nod, desperately hoping that his slip up wasn't enough to cause any damage.

“I have enough footage that I’m confident the alien and his human accomplice were there last night, but thanks to Walters, we have to waste time checking it out in person. So hurry up and get dressed, we don’t have all day!”

“Of course, Doctor,” Stone replies, scrambling to grab his shoes and coat. Time to see if he fucked anything up.

Chapter Text

Two hours later finds the mobile lab parked in a clearing off the highway, surrounded by a loose circle of black SUVS. Inside, Robotnik controls a vehicle miles away, chasing Tom and Sonic, as Stone watches from near the Badnik racks. Watching the Doctor work, no matter what he’s doing, has always been one of Stone’s favorite parts of the job and he’s glad for the chance to do it again. He is a tad uneasy though, after their stop at the Piston Pit.

It had mostly gone how Stone remembered, until the large man in the neck brace made a particularly rude comment towards him and Robotnik had stepped in. The first time around, the Doctor had pressed the man for more information before ordering Stone to toss him through the freshly replaced window. This time, Robotnik had stepped up frowning, snapping that a “lowlife like him had no right to speak to his agent in that way”, and had proceeded to toss him through the window on his own. It had left Stone speechless–he knew the Doctor wasn’t weak, but he hadn’t expected that. The grumbling kiss when they returned to the mobile lab had been pleasant though, despite the punch he still received on the walk out.

Stone focuses back on current Robotnik, watching as he deftly moves the vehicle through traffic, careful to only aim at the pickup truck. They both wince as a small emp device is dodged, causing it to hit a minivan instead. Robotnik curses, entering a new command, and gives a sharp yell a few moments later when the outermost part of the vehicle is destroyed. Stone crosses his arms, knowing it won’t be long before the smaller offshoots succumb to the same fate.

“Give me a BIG FAT BREAK!” Robotnik yells as the next portion is destroyed, storming down the lab towards Stone and then quickly back to his command center. Stone moves in closer as a tiny Badnik exits the remains, watching as it slices the top of Tom’s truck off. Robotnik cheers, taking a moment to look over at Stone with a grin, as Sonic smashes the Badnik and gets stuck with a tiny bomb for his trouble. Stone knows it won’t be enough.

When the smoke settles and Tom and Sonic prove to be alive after the blast, Stone still comments on their survival, hand reaching towards his throat before Robotnik even orders him to pin himself. This is good, this is what happened last time, and it’s a perfect outlet for the Doctor to let out some of his bubbling frustration. Besides, he still hasn’t remembered the quill secreted away in Stone’s jacket yet.

“I need to test this immediately,” Robotnik says, eyes on the quill as he steps back, “Agent, go commandeer a kitchen somewhere and make me a latte. I’m going to need it.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

Stone is relieved to return to the Doctor dancing, just as he had before. He’s less relieved when he’s ordered to prepare the prototype and realizes he has to make a choice.

“No.”

“Would you like to repeat that, Agent? Because surely I misheard you.”

“I said no, Doctor,” Stone says, standing at attention. Saying no to the Doctor during work hours is a horrible idea, made worse by the fact that he didn’t do this the first time around. But he knows what’s coming next and he has to try.

“Well, pray tell then, why you would dare to defy me on a mission this paramount?”

“The prototype hasn’t been tested properly in a while, I don’t think–”

“I don’t pay you to think, Stone!” Robotnik interrupts, moving in closer to leer over him. “Tell me, what is your job here?”

“To protect you, which is what I’m trying to do,” Stone says, staying still but narrowing his eyes.

“My machines can do that. Your job is to do what I tell you to do, when I tell you to do it. And I am telling you to prepare the prototype.”

“No.”

“Agent–”

“No,” Stone repeats, dropping his stance to instead grab Robotnik’s arms. The Doctor’s nostrils flare, his muscles tensing, but he doesn’t throw Stone off. “You’re taking an untested machine out to fight an almost completely unknown opponent! It’s too dangerous, we can come up with another solution.”

“I think I know the risks of my own creations,” Robotnik snaps, still not shaking the agent off, “And I can decide for myself what’s dangerous. For example, the alien is an active threat and I’m taking him out myself, right now, with the prototype, and you will obey me.”

“Ivo, please, just listen–” Stone knows he’s gone too far before Robotnik jerks his arms out and sends him stumbling back. The older man glowers at him, mustache trembling as tiny breaths escape his nose. Stone backs up another step, giving the Doctor space as he fights his own anger currently vortexing his guts.

“You know better, Agent,” Robotnik finally says, voice low, “Unless you want to exit the mobile lab right now and walk back to D.C., you will go stand in the corner and take up as little space as possible.”

Stone gives a half nod, fixing his gaze on the floor, hands clenched so tight he can feel his nails digging in. Robotnik strides off towards the other end of the lab, where the prototype is kept, and Stone looks up enough to watch. When he does, he catches sight of something purple.

He looks back down, at his hands, and finds a soft purple light emanating from them. He raises them up to look closer, unclenching them and following the light to his wrist. He shoves his right sleeve up enough to discover the light is coming from his veins, which are currently glowing a bright, pulsing purple.

“What the fuck?” Stone mumbles, pulling back his left sleeve to find those veins are glowing as well. When his gaze travels across his chest, he notes that there’s purple light attempting to shine through the fabric of his shirt, just barely visible near the seams and buttons. He reaches up to start unbuttoning his shirt, but stops half way when an image of a fist sized purple emerald appears in his right hand. His head swims as he looks at it, his eyes burning, and he hears Illa beeping at him and then–

He jolts up in the middle of the battlefield he left behind, head pounding, sharp pain thrumming along his left arm and leg. The rest of him is one dull ache, his throat burning from the thick black smoke billowing up around him. He checks himself over first–parts of his clothing on his left side are burned away, left hand covered in blood and what he thinks may be second degree burns. There’s blood on his right hand as well, source undetermined, and blood coming from a head wound, based on the partially blocked vision in his right eye. Nothing immediately life threatening.

He moves on, looking up, and he can’t stop the gasp that scrapes its way out. Wherever they’ve ended up has been absolutely destroyed, the ground torn up, trees downed and flattened, the bridge behind them missing a good forty feet of its length. Robotnik’s giant robot is in pieces, chunks of burning metal scattered around him, some near enough to feel their heat. Stone’s stomach twists and he drags himself to his feet, looking for any sign of the Doctor.

It doesn’t take him long, there’s a glimpse of bright red about twenty feet away and Stone runs for it.

The adrenaline burst he gets lasts just long enough for him to reach the Doctor, collapsing beside him in a mess of limbs. Stone quickly pulls himself back up, looking Robotnik over, and his heart drops. The Doctor’s legs are partially covered by a sheet of twisted, blackened metal, his left arm clearly broken, and a large pool of blood has spread out around his head and shoulders. His eyes are closed, his expression peaceful, and Stone’s hand shakes as he presses his fingers to the Doctor’s neck. Nothing.

He considers attempting CPR, but between the blood and the chill of the skin under his hand, Stone knows it’s pointless. The Doctor is gone and he’s alone again, for good this time. The sob he chokes out sounds a thousand miles away, the pain in every inch of his body just as distant, and he collapses across Robotnik’s chest, clinging to him.

Too soon his grief is interrupted by cheering and he turns his head to see Sonic and his friends celebrating some distance away, the hedgehog's usual blue replaced by glowing gold. Stone sits up, hands still tangled in Robotnik’s coat, anger churning in his gut. How dare they celebrate killing the smartest man alive? The most important man in the universe? But before Stone can get to his feet, something happens.

Still dozens of feet away, Sonic hovers above the rest of them, the golden glow encompassing him briefly brightening before going out. As it does, a handful of colorful gems, smaller than the Master Emerald, leave him, floating up towards the sky. Stone doesn’t know what they are, he’s never heard anyone mention them, but if they’re connected to the Emerald somehow, then maybe they could have similar powers? If he could just get one, maybe he could use it to fix things, save the Doctor, but they’re so far away and even if he could move right now, he’d never–

Just as the gems fade away, Stone watches one disappear seconds before, yelping as it reappears directly in front of him, floating at eye level. It’s palm sized, shaped exactly how Knuckles had described the Master Emerald, and colored a deep purple. It’s lit from within, shimmering light shifting about beneath the surface. There’s a humming in Stone’s ears that he assumes must be coming from the smaller emerald, drowning out the sounds of their enemies happy ending.

No, they weren’t getting a happy ending, not anymore. Stone was going to fix this, bring back his Doctor, and make them pay. Stone takes a moment to look back at Robotnik, lifting a hand to his cheek and pressing a slow kiss to cold lips.

“I’m going to fix this,” Stone whispers, pulling back, “I’ll see you soon.”

Stone grabs the emerald.

Stone jerks awake, limbs thrashing out and hitting something hard enough to be a wall and something soft enough to be a human. He opens his eyes as Robotnik grabs his arms, gently pinning him down. The Doctor looks even more worried than the last time Stone woke up like this.

“I thought I told you to tell me if you weren’t feeling well,” Robotnik says, turning to whistle for Ila. Fresh out of his memory, Stone breaks the Doctor’s hold and sits up, throwing his arms around the other man, hands gripping tightly to the back of the flight suit he’s now wearing. Robotnik tenses for a moment and then returns the embrace, chin resting atop Stone’s head.

“I promise I felt fine earlier,” Stone says when Robotnik pulls back to meet his eye, “I would have said something otherwise.”

“I believe you, but I’m still concerned,” Robotnik snaps his fingers, Ila floating down and pulling up a holoscreen of Stone’s data, “Your vitals were a tad high, but not abnormal. I haven’t been able to find anything else. As soon as we’re done here, you’re seeing a doctor.”

Stone nods, taking a discrete look at his arms–the glowing is gone. Which is good, since he has no clue how to even begin to explain that, but it also leaves him feeling a little off balance. He hadn’t imagined it, right? Beside him, the Doctor sighs, waving Ila back.

“I know you’re concerned but I know you trust me,” Robotnik says, Stone nodding again, “Everything will be fine; I’ll have the rat disposed of within the hour and we can put a pin in this imbecilic mission.”

Robotnik leans forward to press a kiss to Stone’s forehead before getting to his feet, ordering Ila to keep an eye on the agent. Stone watches, stomach twisting, as Robotnik leaves, powering up the prototype and exiting through the rear of the mobile lab. Above him, Stone can hear Badniks leaving the upper storage compartments to accompany the Doctor. Like their master, they won’t come back.

He tells himself that at least it’s the mobile lab Badniks, and not the ones from the primary lab. The mobile ones don’t follow him around and nudge him for pets, they don’t chime along when he sings or float around the Doctor as he dances. They aren’t the ones he knows. But they’re still Badniks and Stone still feels awful anyway.

He pulls himself up with a bit of help from the wall, still shaky from the memory he just vividly relived, and heads for the chair in front of the main holoscreens. Real time data is already pulling in, showing Robotnik's vitals, his current location and altitude, and the prototype’s status. Everything is fine at the moment, a small video in the bottom corner showing the view from the front of the ship (said view is partially blocked by Badniks). According to the screen, the Doctor is already near San Francisco.

Stone watches slumped in the chair, the Doctor’s coat (which had been shoved under his head as a pillow) in his lap. When the geographical data starts jumping abnormally from country to country, there is no anxious pacing. When the prototype stops moving in Green Hills and the now damaged camera shows Sonic passed out in the street, there’s no excitement. He just watches, hands buried in fabric, until the screen starts flashing errors, all data cut off. Last time, Stone had spent the first twenty minutes feverishly attempting to fix what must be a transmission error, calling and messaging the Doctor over and over again, because surely he was fine. He was always fine.

This time he sits until the phone rings–Walters–and proceeds to ignore it, instead setting a course for just outside Green Hills. Potential future ruining actions or not, Stone refuses to wait another eight months for Robotnik to return. He can’t do it. He’s going to bring the Doctor back himself.

Chapter Text

Within a week, Stone is crouched among the shrubbery outside the Wachowski’s house, executing part one of his plan to bring back the Doctor. It’s late, the home’s inhabitants are all fast asleep, and Stone is watching a live feed of Ila’s camera as she slips through the open circular window to the attic. He can’t say he understands why these people would choose to adopt an alien capable of God knows what, but it at least makes his job easier. Although, he would have preferred to come by sooner; Walters just had to take his time dropping off the government’s generous Olive Garden voucher.

Stone rolls his eyes and looks back down at the feed. Ila is hovering near the bed now, the worn brown sack that Sonic stores his magic rings in visible on the nightstand beside it. As much as he wants her to just grab the whole thing, he knows it’s better if Sonic doesn’t realize some have gone missing. So he has Ila only take a handful, silently maneuvering her small arm extension through the opening of the bag and coming out with four. She waits a moment, confirming that Sonic is undisturbed, before exiting the room and heading back to Stone. He catches her with a smile.

“Good job, sweetheart,” Stone whispers, collecting the rings and transferring them to an inner pocket in his jacket. She gives a very quiet beep in response, following after him as he makes his way off the property. Unfortunately, bringing the mobile lab in this close to Green Hills wasn’t an option, so he hops on the bike he stole a few days prior and starts the trip back. He imagines Robotnik would be making fun of him if he could see him, but at least he has no engine to give himself away. He isn’t about to slip up and gain anyone's attention now.

Back in the mobile lab, Stone gets to work gathering supplies for his impending trip. He has no plans to stay longer than absolutely necessary, but he also doesn’t know what shape the Doctor may be in. He hadn’t mentioned any severe injuries when he returned, but it’s also likely he just wouldn’t bring it up. So Stone packs a small bag with food, water, and a sizable first aid kit, just in case. He also considers changing back into his suit, for familiarity, but decides the more tactical outfit he donned for the robbery makes more sense.

Thanks to Knuckles, Stone knows how to use the rings and he moves to the middle of the lab, holding one tightly in his hand. He’s never been to the mushroom planet, he’s only seen a glimpse of it on the military's footage of the Green Hills incident, but he hopes, between that and picturing the Doctor himself, it’ll be enough to get him there.

With a deep breath and a glance to confirm Ila is with him, he tosses the ring.

It freezes in the air about five feet in front of him, hovering for a moment before expanding outward, revealing a large circular window to an expanse of mushrooms, lit in glowing gold. Stone runs through, Ila chirping as she follows.

He lands on a mushroom, the top swaying beneath his feet with the momentum and forcing him to jump to another, larger one. He settles into a crouch to catch himself, head snapping up to look around. Robotnik had briefly mentioned the planet being nothing but mushrooms but it’s really nothing but mushrooms, dozens and dozens of various sizes sprouting up around him in every direction. The sky above is a sickly beige and he can’t tell if it’s clear or overcast, despite how bright it is. When he breathes in, the damp air feels akin to inhaling mushroom soup. Stone grimaces and stands up, turning to Ila.

“You know the plan, scan for the Doctor.”

Ila beeps in confirmation, letting out a low hum as she initiates the scan. However, the scan turns out to be unnecessary when Stone hears a familiar voice curse nearby. He follows the sound to two mushrooms over, stopping at the edge to look out over a clearing below. On the far side is the Doctor, hunched over the remains of the prototype and grumbling audibly, not that Stone can make out what he’s saying. He appears uninjured, save for a bandage wrapped around his left calf, visible thanks to portions of his flight suit having been torn or burned away. He also hasn’t gotten around to shaving yet, his hair splayed about and unstyled. All in all, he’s intact.

“Doctor!” Stone calls, already smiling.

Robotnik stiffens, looking directly up, “...God?”

Stone can’t help but laugh, Robotnik spinning around and holding up a wrench in his direction at the sound.

“Stone?”

“It’s me, Doctor!” Stone looks around, spotting a shorter mushroom to his left that will take him down to the clearing. “Just a moment!”

Robotnik is already waiting at the bottom of the lower mushroom when Stone drops down, standing close enough that he practically catches the agent, pulling him into a bone-crushing embrace. Stone lets out an “oof” but doesn't get the chance to reciprocate before the Doctor is stepping back.

“Why are you here? Did that rodent send you here? How did he find you? Did he hurt you? Is he–”

“I’m fine, Doctor,” Stone interrupts, grabbing Robotnik’s hands mid-gesture and squeezing them, “I saw footage of what happened in Green Hills and tracked down Sonic to steal some of his rings. I came here on my own.”

Robotnik relaxes, humming in acknowledgment, but the moment doesn’t last long. His brow furrows and he yanks his hands back, turning around and stalking back over to the prototype.

“Doctor?”

“So you came to save me, hm? Your damsel in distress? Didn’t think I could come back on my own?”

“Doctor–”

“I am the smartest man on Earth! I’m gone for five days, and you think you have to save me? That I need rescuing? I am perfectly capable of finding my way off this planet and it will be that goddamned rodent that will need rescuing when I get there! I’m–”

“Ivo!” Stone snaps, forced to interrupt again. Robotnik glares at him, eyes gleaming with a ferocity that has sent other agents running before, but none of the rage from their previous argument is there. Stone knew it wouldn’t be.

“I know you could find your way back on your own, but I didn’t want to wait. Once I had those rings, all I wanted was to make sure you were okay. I can take us home right now. Wouldn’t you rather just come home than be stuck here with limited materials for eight months?”

Robotnik raises an eyebrow, maybe eight months was too specific, and then looks back to the prototype with another, lower hum. Stone knows the answer, but still waits patiently. He lets out a soft sigh of relief when the Doctor picks up the still intact tube containing Sonic’s quill and turns away from the remains of the prototype.

“I suppose you have a point,” Robotnik says, sounding more tired now than Stone has ever heard, “And if you’re already here with the rings, then there’s no reason to waste time. I’m banning mushrooms from the lab for at least a month.”

Stone doesn’t hesitate, pulling a ring out and picturing the mobile lab before tossing it out in front of them. The portal springs to life with the same golden glow, the welcoming sight of machinery on the other side, and they duck through quickly. Ila chimes excitedly as the portal closes, just now greeting Robotnik. The Doctor smiles at her, patting her with one hand and giving Stone the quill tube with the other. Stone sets it down, along with his bag of unused supplies, and turns back to Robotnik, opening his arms but staying silent.

Robotnik enters them with a long, deep sigh, wrapping himself around the agent. Stone relishes the embrace, nuzzling against Robotnik’s neck, and acknowledging to himself that he’s done it. He’s brought the Doctor home, in one piece, with no sign of Knuckles or mention of the Master Emerald. Everyone’s alive, no ones erased–he’s fixed it. And then the security system gives an alert.

“Expecting guests?” Robotnik asks, slowly untangling from Stone to examine the main holoscreen. Stone follows him over.

“Not that I’m aware of. No one should even know where I am.”

“Looks like Walters does. Probably wondering why his river of high-tech robots has run dry,” Robotnik says, pointing to the video feed from the side of the lab. Walters is out there, along with a dozen or so agents, a handful of SUV’s parked behind them. Stone frowns, leaning in to get a better look. He supposes Walters tracking him down isn’t impossible, he’s probably been wanted since he ignored that first call and went AWOL, but why show up with so many men?

Robotnik strides right out, greeting Walters with far too much attitude for the situation, in Stone’s opinion. He hurries out after him, stopping to stand at the Doctor’s left.

“Doctor Robotnik,” Walters greets, folding his hands in front of him, “It’s good to see you’ve returned in one piece. You had us all quite worried after the incident in town.”

“Oh, I’m sure I did,” Robotnik replies, crossing his arms and giving the Commander an unnaturally bright smile, “And I sure do appreciate the warm, gracious welcome back you’ve brought me! Isn’t this just so nice, Stone?”

Stone says “yes, Doctor” out of habit only, brain racing as he tries to figure out why this new event is happening. Robotnik drops the smile, moving his arms down to clasp his hands behind his back.

“So, what is it you want? Did you run out of people to order around and robots to abuse in the few days I was gone? I’m not surprised. Really, it’s only expected that men of your caliber get a little lost when the big dogs leave!”

Walters frowns, and with a snap of his fingers, the agents circling them cock their weapons. Robotnik, who has just drawn a breath to speak again, hesitates.

“Doctor, Agent, let me explain the current situation. Last week, in the interest of national security, Doctor Robotnik ceased to exist.”

“National security?!” Robotnik sputters, aiming to say more but stopping when Stone grabs his forearm. With a raised eyebrow, Walters continues.

“When you disappeared, Agent, I assumed it was related. I didn’t imagine you’d be able to bring back the Doctor from that, but since you have, we find ourselves in a tough spot. As of right now, the two of you are unnamed civilians, currently obstructing the collection of government technology. Any attempts to further obstruct will be considered grounds for treason and domestic terrorism. So you have two options.”

Stone tightens his hold on the Doctor’s arm when he starts to interrupt, scanning the agents around them to see if there’s an opening. There isn’t.

“I’m not a cruel man. If you both agree to leave the lab, as well as the rest of your technology, to us, we can have you on a plane with new identities within the hour. You’ll be banned from American soil, of course, but there’s plenty of world out there.”

“Absolutely not! I’m not handing my work over to a bunch of troglodytes that don’t know their mouths from their asses. You wouldn’t even know what you’re looking at! Your brains are too smooth to even begin to comprehend my work. You’ll touch it over my dead body!”

Stone doesn’t bother trying to stop Robotnik this time, not when he’s in agreement. Instead, he tries to find an escape route. The agents have them properly surrounded, no gaps, not that Stone thinks they’d make it through with this many weapons trained on them. The door to the lab is still open behind them, but they’re at least two feet from the steps. They’ll be shot before they make it inside. He could try to make a distraction, give the Doctor a chance to run, but he imagines he can’t distract all of them. There doesn’t appear to be a way out.

“Well, your answer is quite clear, Doctor. Agent, if you wish to leave, now is your chance.”

“No thank you, sir,” Stone says, taking a small step closer to Robotnik. Walters nods, raising his right hand to shoulder height, palm out.

“You were always a great asset, Agent Stone. I’m sorry to see you go.”

Walters brings his hand down and the agents circling them fire. Stone twists to place himself in front of Robotnik, dragging him down in the process. It’s a foolish attempt at protection, but Stone tries anyway, gasping at the immediate pain in his back. There’s a hand on his neck, the Doctor is howling his name before cutting off halfway through, and Stone feels them collapse together.

There’s a heat in his chest, warm and gentle in comparison to the scalding pain in his back, and it expands, encompassing him, and then–

Chapter Text

second attempt

Stone wakes gradually, at first aware only of the cold, hard surface at his back and the burning ache traveling down along his spine. His head pounds, the pain intensifying when he coughs, and his ears are ringing. He pulls in a deep, rattling breath, tensing for the pain he expects to worsen in his chest, but it doesn’t. Instead, it fades gradually, leaving a residual warmth in its wake.

He opens his eyes, briefly forced to close them against the bright light, before trying again. He sees a clean, white ceiling, partially blocked by Ila, his personal Mininik, a handful of Badniks, and the Doctor himself. Strangely, the Doctor looks concerned, his brow furrowed and his hair falling into his face.

Wait.

“Stone, are you with us?” Robotnik asks, a gentle hand coming to grasp the agent’s right shoulder.

He’s lived this before. Recently.

Stone nods, sitting up with assistance from the Doctor. He stays there for a moment, memories of what just happened (reliving Green Hills, saving Robotnik from the mushroom planet, Walters killing them? God, what the hell) slotting into place quite easily. Something had gone wrong, he must have changed too many things, and they both paid for it. But somehow, he had another chance? He notices the warmth in his chest, slowly fading now, and remembers feeling it right before he…well. He had felt it right before. Was it the emerald?

“Stone?”

Stone looks up, realizing that he hasn’t said a word to Robotnik yet. Shit, he had to play this off and fast, before he changed something again.

“Sorry, I'm okay. Just didn’t get enough sleep last night, that’s all.”

Robotnik frowns but doesn’t press, helping the agent to his feet instead. When Stone sways a bit, Robotnik sighs and leads him over to a chair.

“Sit for a few minutes. We can take care of preparations for this colossal waste of time Walters is sending us on after,” Robotnik says, leaning down to press a kiss to Stone’s head before walking over to his main workstation, immediately typing a mile a minute. Probably a complaint email to Walters. Stone feels concern over possibly upsetting the Commander, which is a very new feeling, but stamps it down. He needs to keep things as close to how they originally happened as possible and worrying about something that didn’t take place the first time wouldn’t help. He’s going to get things right this time. He has to.

Stone does his best to follow his memories as they make their way to Green Hills. He almost slips up a few hours into the trip when Robotnik notices him staring at the prototype, lost in thought and unaware of the question he’s just been asked. Stone flinches when he realizes the Doctor is now standing beside him, but all Robotnik does is comment on how he hopes this mission will be the one he gets to finally take her out on. Stone nods and fights back nausea.

The rest of the trip goes smoothly, Stone only complaining a little when he has to leave the mobile lab and finish the last leg of the trip in an SUV. Something about presenting a united front by arriving together (Stone doesn’t even remember who ordered that, just that it was stupid because why did that matter if they were leaving the charge alone to do it? But he had gone along with it before, so he goes along with it now). Annoyed as he feels, he follows the script up until Robotnik runs off on his own to investigate the Wachowski’s house, which is when things decide to go wrong.

When Stone gets out of the SUV, there is no silver truck tearing off in the other direction. He hurries up the driveway, noticing it still parked and empty near the house. Had he arrived too early? He was so sure he had waited long enough, had he made another mistake?

The door is wide open again, so he heads inside, skidding to a stop in the entryway. The last two times Stone entered this house, Robotnik had been alone and downed by a punch. This time, he walks into a standoff, Tom holding a gun aimed right for the Doctor, Sonic hidden behind him, and a Badnik destroyed on the floor between them.

Tom glances over at him for just a second, his expression hardening, and before Stone can pull his own weapon, he fires.

“No!” Stone yells, launching himself at Tom and knocking him to the ground. They scuffle for a moment, Stone grabbing Tom’s wrist and snapping it back, forcing his hold on the gun to weaken. He takes it from him, knocking his elbow into Tom’s throat before slamming the butt of the gun to his temple. Tom slumps, his eyes rolling back. Above him, Stone empties the clip, tossing the ammo into the kitchen and the gun itself behind him. Sonic, crouched only a foot away, whimpers, but Stone doesn’t spare him a second glance as he goes to the Doctor.

Robotnik is sprawled on the floor, eyes closed, too much blood staining the rug beneath him already. Stone drops beside him, gently sliding an arm under his shoulders to lift him up, Robotnik grunting in response. Stone uses his free hand to search for the wound, the Doctor’s preferred all black making it hard to spot, and it comes back slick with blood, originating from the lower right of his chest. Bottom of the lung, Stone is sure.

Robotnik opens his eyes, tries to speak, and only blood bubbles from his lips. Stone cups his face, wincing at the blood he smears there, and racks his brain for a solution.

He already knows there isn’t one.

“Ivo, it’s alright,” Stone whispers, as the Doctor gurgles again, eyes fluttering shut. “It’s alright, I’m right here, you’ll be fine.”

Stone knows if Robotnik could speak, if he could even understand what he was saying, he’d be chastising him for attempting to lie about a fatal situation. He’s heard enough complaints about it happening in movies to know exactly what he’d say. But Robotnik is dying again and Stone can’t do a goddamn thing, so he thinks it’s allowed.

Robotnik’s breaths are labored, slower, and Stone leans down for a kiss before pulling him to his chest, holding on tight as he waits for the inevitable. He can only hope that the emerald decides he gets another chance.

third attempt

When Stone wakes back on the floor of the primary lab, he does so fully aware of what he was just doing. The warmth in his chest is stronger this time, reminiscent of drinking hot coffee too soon and feeling the heat slide down his esophagus. It spreads out into his limbs, tingling along the palms of his hands, and when he opens his eyes, his vision is ever so briefly tinted purple.

Robotnik, alive and safe, is leaning over him, Ila hovering by his head. Stone, grappling with fresh memories of blood on his hands again, grabs for the Doctor, the older man forced to steady him as he pulls himself up. Once upright, Stone buries his face in Robotnik’s chest, breathing in his scent, hands clutching at the sides of the Doctor’s coat.

“Aban? Are you alright?” Robotnik asks, a hand coming up to run through Stone’s hair while the other stays firm on his back. Stone shakes his head and Robotnik asks for one of the Badniks to scan him.

“Your vitals are slightly elevated, but not concerning. Your body temperature, however, is sitting at 101°. Are you ill? Why didn’t you say something?” Robotnik attempts to lean away, to look at Stone properly, but the agent hangs on, keeping him in place as he thinks.

Returning to Green Hills has only ended fatally so far, so maybe his next attempt should be to avoid Green Hills altogether? Maybe if he says he’s ill, plays it up, he can convince Robotnik to turn down the job? Although, Commander Walters would be more of an issue here than the Doctor, since Robotnik never wanted to go in the first place. If Stone is adamant he’s too ill to go, then he knows the Doctor will stay back as well. But what if Walters turns on them again? No, he wouldn’t, not without the portal incident, right?

“I can smell you thinking, Stone. You’re stinking up the place,” Robotnik says, trying again to pull back and look at him. This time, Stone lets him. “Talk.”

“Sorry, Doctor, I just…I’m not sure what’s wrong. I feel awful, I’m not sure it’s smart bringing me with tomorrow.”

“Well, if you’re not going, I’m not going,” Robotnik replies without hesitation, bringing a gloved hand to Stone’s forehead, “You’re hot enough I can feel it through fabric. I’ll tell Walters he can send someone else to waste time on his mystery EMP. Come on, let's get you up.”

Robotnik keeps hold of both of Stone’s arms as he pulls him to his feet, leading him over to a chair once he’s upright. Stone watches as he strides over to his workspace, ordering the lab to call Walters as he goes, the Commander answering on the second ring. He doesn’t pay full attention to the conversation, more focused on staying upright in the chair. The lingering effects of the emerald are starting to fade now, but he still feels like he might tip over. When he starts to list too far to one side, Ila nudges his cheek to make him straighten. In the background, Robotnik is yelling something at Walters, but in a tone that sounds like they might be going home soon. Stone tries to stay awake.

They leave the lab about a half hour later, Stone slumped in the passenger seat of his own Range Rover (which he hasn’t seen in a very long time). Robotnik preferred to never drive if possible, but with Stone out of commission, he had begrudgingly offered. Ila sits on the dash, watching the road ahead of them as Robotnik drives them to his house. It was where they usually went, when Stone could convince the Doctor to leave the lab properly, even though Stone still had an apartment of his own. Well, did? No, still does. Time travel details were too much for him to handle right now.

The house is about twenty minutes from the lab, in a neighborhood clearly chosen for the space offered between homes. There’s nothing special about its appearance-beige siding, a spattering of brick accents, and a bare front yard, but it’s outfitted throughout with the Doctor’s latest tech and security systems. To Stone, it feels like home.

They’re both scanned at the door before entry, and greeted by a free roaming Badnik as they enter, Stone giving it a pat. Robotnik leads Stone upstairs to the bedroom with an arm around his shoulder, telling Ila and another Badnik to grab medicine and water as they go. Once Stone has changed and been scanned again (his “fever” has gone down some), he drops heavily onto the bed, snuggling into the familiar bedding and momentarily consumed by just how much he had missed it. Limbs heavy and head fuzzy, he fights to stay awake as he listens to Robotnik moving about in the bathroom. It feels like only a second has passed when Stone notices the Doctor has joined him in bed, the older man briefly feeling his forehead before pulling him in close. He’s saying something, Stone can feel it rumbling through his chest, but he’s too far gone to make it out.

When he wakes, it’s to Robotnik’s ringtone cutting through the quiet, the Doctor grumbling in response as he rolls away from Stone to grab his phone.

“Walters,” Robotnik groans, climbing out of bed as he answers. Stone sits up, yawning into his hand, and ignoring Robotnik when he notices and mouths for him to lay back down. The Doctor rolls his eyes and steps into the hall, returning almost five minutes later with his usual “Walters is a dumbass” expression. Stone raises an eyebrow.

“Walters wants to take some Badniks with him. I told the imbecile that no one there will be able to use them, but he’s adamant. I swear, there’s not a brain cell to be had in that man’s head,” Robotnik says, dropping his phone onto the mattress and sitting beside Stone.

“So we need to go in?” Stone asks, reaching out to run his fingers through Robotnik’s hair, the Doctor’s eyes fluttering shut as he leans into the movement.

“I imagine you won’t stay here and rest even if I order you to, so yes. So let’s get a move on, the sooner we’re done, the sooner Walters is out of my hair.”

The sun has only just breached the horizon as they enter the lab, the building humming awake around them. Robotnik leads the way to the main lab, Stone right behind with tablet in hand, skimming over the list of requested tech Walters had sent over a few minutes prior. It’s more than he was expecting, but without Robotnik coming, the Commander seems to be panicking. It would explain the request for what can only be described as a tank Badnik.

Leaving the Doctor to deal with the more specialized Badniks, Stone heads to the mobile lab to collect some standard models, neither of them comfortable with sending the ones from the primary lab on their own. The prototype feels menacing as he passes it, doing his best to avoid properly looking at it and getting distracted again. He wishes he could return to looking at it with awe, like it deserved.

When he returns to the lab, Robotnik is at one of the larger work tables, elbow deep in a newer, wasp shaped Badnik. Stone moves closer, stopping to Robotnik’s right, to watch him work, and is close enough to hear when the drones innards release a strange chime. The Doctor pauses in his movements, one eyebrow tilted up.

“Stone, hand me that–”

Everything is suddenly bright, and hot, and decidedly on fire, Stone’s ears ringing, and he can’t see the Doctor and his chest is on fire and–

Chapter Text

fourth attempt

Stone wakes with a gasp, choking on non-existent smoke, and Robotnik helps him sit up as he coughs. When he catches his breath, he does his best to play it off, but it's clear the Doctor doesn’t buy it. He’s forced to rest in a chair again, Ila hovering, as he debates how to handle this one.

The warmth from the emerald is suffused through his body, accompanied by a sort of buzzing beneath his skin that he can only compare to touching a Van de Graaff generator. It’s not a feeling he enjoys, but after seeing how badly staying home went (not to mention just how quickly it had all happened), Stone decides that going to Green Hills again might be safer. So he needs to convince Robotnik he’s fine. He’s done it before, he can do it again. At least he didn’t wake up glowing.

He manages it, somehow, and the two of them leave for Green Hills the following morning. It’s getting harder to remember the details of how things went on that first trip, but Stone thinks he’s following the past closely enough--the Doctor's not distracted by Stone being sick and Stone hasn't slipped up around the prototype. Thing's seem fine, at least until the last leg of the trip, when he again transfers to an SUV and watches as a semi crosses the median up ahead and crashes head first into the mobile lab. The agent driving breaks hard, Stone leaping out before the vehicle has come to a complete stop, heart in his throat despite knowing that the mobile lab is built to withstand literal bombings.

Except, when he makes it past the SUV ahead of his, he sees that the lab has taken as much, if not more, damage as the semi, the front end crushed in and pushed back.

“Impossible,” Stone mumbles, stopping unintentionally to stare. There’s smoke billowing out from where the engine is, agents mobilizing around him, someone yelling to someone else to call for help. A hand grabs Stone by the bicep, tugging him back, saying something about a fire, and Stone jerks his arm away.

“The Doctor’s in there, you idiot!” Stone snaps, the other agent stumbling back. Stone turns back to the mobile lab, more smoke pouring into the road and obscuring his visual of it. He calls for Robotnik as he heads for the door, but he never makes it.

fifth attempt

A car accident. A fucking car accident? The mobile lab was built to withstand nothing short of a ground zero nuclear impact, and a fucking semi truck took it out? Stone sits up, almost knocking into the Doctor, breaths short and quick. His blood feels like it’s boiling, body buzzing like a live wire, and when he opens his eyes, everything is purple.

“Stone? Why the hell are you glowing?”

Stone’s head snaps to look at Robotnik, seeing the man in shades of transparent purple, before glancing down to notice that he’s lit up like a glow stick and it doesn’t appear to be fading. He moves to get up but pauses in a crouch as the Doctor orders the Badniks around them to scan him. He needs to say something, explain the glowing, but how? He can’t even begin to think of a good way to try and explain what’s happening, not without the Doctor knowing about Sonic. Not with his thoughts spinning around in hyper loops, feeling akin to a wild animal as he fights against the frustration building up in his chest.

The Badnik in front of him lets out an alert Stone has only heard a handful of times, one that means they’ve spotted a threat to the Doctor. Robotnik’s eyes widen and he looks to Stone, but he doesn’t call the Badniks off as their weapons slide out and charge up.

“Wait,” Stone says, holding up a hand. The Doctor opens his mouth.

The Badniks fire.

sixth attempt

Stone wakes to his body still humming with energy, his ears ringing, and his chest warm and throbbing. The Badniks hadn’t missed, not that he would ever expect them to. There’s a hand on his shoulder, but it pulls away quickly.

“Stone? Why are you–”

“I can explain,” Stone interrupts, bringing his hands up to cover his face, “I just need a moment.”

The Doctor doesn’t order the Badniks to scan or attack, so Stone takes that as approval and does his best to calm down, breathing in slow. The energy of the emerald seems to pulse in tune with his heartbeat, steadying and calming as he breathes. When he finally opens his eyes, the glow is still present but faint, his vision clear. He stays on the floor a little longer, Robotnik sitting cross-legged beside him, debating his next course of action. Multiple attempts to go to Green Hills hadn’t worked, staying home hadn’t worked, and he wasn’t dumb enough to think just running away somewhere would make any difference. He has to try something else.

Maybe he should just tell Robotnik the truth? If the Doctor chose to believe anyone about anything, Stone was the mostly likely candidate. If he told him everything, maybe he would have a better solution? He was a genius, if anyone could solve this, it would be him. Stone should have tried this sooner.

He sits up slowly, Robotnik looking up at him as he does, questioning. With a deep breath, Stone tells the Doctor everything.

Stone stands in the primary lab, an hour after their return, with his tablet in hand and relief starting to eat away at the tension he’s been carrying. Telling the Doctor had gone better than expected, and now they were home, Sonic strapped down to a workbench and silent for once. The hedgehog is still alive, of course; despite hearing everything, this Robotnik held no active grudge against the alien and wanted only to study him. And whatever the Doctor wanted, Stone would agree to.

At the moment, Robotnik is hunched over a separate workbench, looking over the initial blood samples he’s collected, humming along as he works. Stone thinks it’s probably time to bring Robotnik some coffee and sets his tablet down on his desk, patting Ila where she hovers near his monitor and relishing the normality of it all. He’s interrupted by a horrible, familiar sound, turning to see a large, golden portal tearing open above Sonic, Tom stepping out and onto the table, feet framing the hedgehog's form.

“What now!” Robotnik snaps, spinning away from his work and pushing his goggles up to get a proper look. Tom doesn’t bother responding verbally, glaring as he chucks a gold ring at Robotnik’s feet.

Another portal opens up directly beneath the Doctor, revealing a landscape of mushrooms from far too high. He just manages to pull a look of surprise before falling through, Stone yelling for him and diving across the space between them.

Stone’s not fast enough, landing hard on the tile with nothing but air in his hands, not a trace left of the man who had been standing there a moment ago. The heat spreading through the Agent’s frame in the aftermath is more than just anger, the emerald burning to life in his chest, energy pulsing through him. Stone pushes himself up, hands and chest glowing again, and he turns towards Tom, still standing over Sonic on the workbench. The idiot has the decency to look scared, at least.

“How dare you,” Stone growls, stalking towards the table and reaching up to grab Tom by the front of his shirt, “Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?”

He doesn’t get the chance to do what he wants to the sheriff before the Doctor reaches the ground whole universes away.

Chapter Text

seventh attempt

Stone’s on his feet as soon as he wakes, veins thrumming with power. And yet, for all the emerald seems to be doing to him, it hasn’t done a thing to help save the Doctor. Nothing he’s tried has worked–there has to be something else.

His veins are glowing purple again, emerald warm where it’s settled in his chest, and isn’t that strange? Stone realizes he knows almost nothing about the emerald, and wonders if it’s fully corporeal. Is it just sitting inside him? Can he use it the way Robotnik used the Master Emerald? If he could control where or when he went, maybe he could find something that works.

“Stone? Why are you lit up like photobacterium phosphoreum? Were you playing with chemicals behind my back? You should know better.” Stone ignores the Doctor, although he primarily does so to keep himself from clinging to him like a koala again. He doesn’t have time for that.

And he doesn’t have time to go through all of this again. What was the point of reliving the same handful of days over and over if they always ended the same? No matter what he did, the Doctor died. The emerald is still humming beneath his skin, active from its reaction to his desire to take down Tom. If he had had the time, would the emerald have made him stronger? Could he use that power for something else?

He needed a new option, a new starting point maybe. If he could get the emerald to send him to a different moment…the Doctor had used the Master Emerald with just a thought, maybe Stone could do the same.

Come on, Stone thinks, fists clenched, eyes closed, Ila beeping around his head on Robotnik’s nervous orders, You’re a chaos emerald. You came to me so I could fix things, right? So help me fix them! Do something! 

The emerald pulses in his chest and he gasps, reaching out to steady himself against the bout of vertigo that accompanies it. When he opens his eyes, he’s looking not at an entourage of increasingly worried Badniks, but instead a large screen displaying a detailed map of Siberia. Behind him, he hears a sharp crack and an annoying, familiar voice declaring that they have destroyed the “tiny hedgehog”. Knuckles.

Stone turns and there’s Robotnik, only a foot away, grimacing at the echidna. It’s the Doctor he left behind–red coat, wild eyes, notable lack of hair. Stone’s grabbing him by the upper arm before he can stop himself, the Doctor’s head snapping to look at him.

“Doctor, can we talk?"

Robotnik tilts his head, allowing for a pause of abnormal length, before responding. “Fine, out with it.”

Stone pauses himself for a moment, not having thought about what he would say, just that he needed to stop the Doctor from leaving with Knuckles. If he could convince him to stay…

“I know you plan to leave immediately to track Sonic, but maybe you should wait? I mean, you just got back and we don’t really know what after effects that planet may have. You need rest, probably some food. I don’t even know if you’re injured or not, we haven’t scanned you.”

“Stone, did you manage to get dumber while I was gone?” Robotnik asks, interrupting Stone’s building rant and shaking off his hand, “ Clearly I’ve considered every factor and retrieving the Master Emerald as soon as possible is of utmost importance.”

“But Doctor-”

“Bzzt. Nope! No buts, I don’t pay you to but me. Who’s the genius here?” 

“You are, but–”

This time Robotnik interrupts by clapping a hand over Stone's mouth, raising an eyebrow and waiting until Stone nods. The agent stays quiet as the Doctor pulls back his hand and makes his way around the counter to where Knuckles is waiting. Stone steps up to the counter, forgetting the broken screen until he puts his hand in the shards. He keeps his attention on Robotnik, calling out.

“What about me?”

Robotnik and Knuckles both pause in the open doorway, looking back at Stone. The echidna seems uneasy, as hard as it is for Stone to interpret the small alien, but Robotnik just shrugs. 

“Make some coffee, clean the place up, crack open a cold one! I’m sure you can find something useful to do.”

The two are gone, the bell above the door ringing as it shuts, before Stone can think of a response. He had forgotten how…off the Doctor had felt upon his initial return. Convincing him to abandon his plans for the Master Emerald would never work, not here. Stone closes his eyes, hands closing around the screen remains he had once cleaned with no complaint, and thinks of the moment Robotnik had returned to the Mean Bean. He’s not even sure how to get there, just starts asking his own emerald for help again, and then the vertigo hits.

7.1 

He’s still in the Mean Bean, but the scene has changed. In front of him, Wade sits handcuffed to the same chair Stone had previously been in. To his right is the Doctor, merged with the Master Emerald in shades of black and green, electricity bouncing off him in every direction. He’s grinning at the gathering military outside the café, the hair on Stone’s arms and neck standing on end as the Doctor readies himself. 

Stone looks out the window, and then back at the Doctor, trying not to panic when he realizes he has no plan. He knows what’s about to happen and that he needs to change it, keep them from ending up on that battlefield, but he doesn’t know how. And he doesn’t have time to figure it out. 

The Doctor starts to walk to the door and Stone calls out to him before he can really think about it. Robotnik pauses and looks back.

“Yes, sycophant? What now?” His voice comes out layered and lyrical, unnatural, and when Stone doesn’t promptly respond, he wiggles his fingers at the agent in a come hither motion. Stone jumps when the movement causes lightning to shoot in his direction, Wade yelling out in fear behind him.

“You said you have a plan!” Stone says quickly, fighting the urge to take a step back, “What is it? There’s at least thirty people out there.”

“Don’t you worry, Stone! Papa’s got it allllll figured out. You just sit here and wait like a good boy.”

Robotnik’s out the door before Stone can formulate a response, the café lights flickering as the abnormal energy source exits with him. Beside him, Wade lets out a whimper, Stone glancing down to see the man on the verge of tears. With a sigh, Stone reaches out to squeeze his shoulder in a way he hopes the other man finds comforting. Wade may be dumb and in the way, but he had been one of Stone’s regulars while running the Mean Bean. He wasn’t a bad guy.

And then, between one blink and the next, Stone is holding nothing but air. Wade is gone, replaced by a pile of ash slowly sliding off the seat. He stares at it, and then his hand, and then at the open doorway, where he can still see the Doctor floating out front. He doesn’t see anyone beyond him, despite remembering otherwise.

“Doctor?” Stone asks as he hurries outside, the older man turning his whole body to face the agent. He gives a questioning hmm.

“Doctor, Wade just became a pile of ash? Did you…” Stone trails off, noticing now that the street is littered with ashes, some still in piles, some already scattering. There’s a sizeable amount where he remembers Walters and the Wachowskis standing. 

“Did you…is everyone–?”

“Gone? Yes! Ashes to ashes and dust to dust and all that. Fitting, don’t you think? Of course, I could’ve gone smaller, but where’s the fun if you can’t see the results?” Robotnik sounds downright giddy as he explains, Stone walking a few feet into the road so he can see if anyone might have escaped the Doctor’s dusting. 

“All of them?” Stone asks, when he sees nothing but ashes and abandoned vehicles. 

“Oh, do think bigger, lovebug!” Robotnik exclaims, floating over to Stone and grabbing him by the arm. “Why stop with them? Or Green Hills? Or the state of Montana? Or even the good old US of A! I got rid of them all!”

“What do you mean by all?” Stone’s fairly sure he already knows and his stomach sinks.

“The whole world! All those pesky, annoying humans, and those damn aliens! All gone. We’ve got the whole place to ourselves now!” Robotnik adjusts his hold on Stone, pulling him into a waltz that the agent stumbles through before pulling back. Robotnik frowns but allows it, crossing his arms.

“You killed everyone? The whole world? I know that humanity annoys you, but destroying all of it?”

“Of course,” Robotnik scoffs, rolling his eyes, “I possess ultimate power now; I may just be the most powerful being in the world! No, the universe! Dealing with humans is beneath me.”

“But you’re human–”

“Bzzt. Wrong! I was human. Now I’m something more, something better . And I can make you better too. A couple cybernetic enhancements, a few organ removals, and you’ll be great. Perfect, even! He seems to like you all human and squishy, but that just isn’t feasible.”

“He? Who are you talking about?” Stone asks, trying to ignore the plan the Doctor is laying out, following after the man as he heads back into the Mean Bean.

“Oh, you know, him . Ivo, ” Robotnik flaps a hand as he speaks, grimacing as he says his own name, “The real humany bit. He didn’t want you dusted, which is fine, but he’s complaining about everything else. Ungrateful if you ask me–Hey!”

Stone has grabbed the Doctor by the arm, clenching his teeth against the electricity that snaps out at him, and forces the man to face him.

“Ivo, if you’re in there, I’m right here. If this isn’t what you want, we can fix it. We can bring everyone back, get rid of the emerald.” 

Robotnik growls at that last bit, yanking his arm back and then shoving Stone away from him, eyes taking on a greenish hue as the electricity builds around him.

“‘Get rid of the emerald’, I should have known you’d betray me. I’ve always said you can’t trust humans! Too emotional. I bet you don’t even want the power, you just want to save everyone like some good little soldier, right?”

“I want to save you !” Stone snaps, stepping closer despite the arcing lightning, “I don’t give a shit about anyone else, but I know this isn’t how you’d want things. What good is an empty world? There’s nothing for you in a place like that! This is…this is too far.”

“I see,” Robotnik says, lower, solidified rather than layered and disjointed. When he looks Stone in the eye, the agent feels real fear in regards to the Doctor for the first time in his life.

“Well, Stone, I’ll keep this simple for your feeble brain. If you aren’t with me, then you’re against me. And I don’t give second chances.”

“Doctor. Ivo–please.”

Robotnik snaps his fingers.

Chapter Text

 7.2

Stone wakes with gasp, back on the cold lab floor, but he doesn’t stick around. Moving with the emerald is easier now and he tries anything he can think of.

He goes back to Green Hills and follows the Doctor when he goes to the Wachowskis. Tom follows them with a gun.

He goes back to the mobile lab, before the Doctor leaves, and begs him not to take the prototype. They argue again, Robotnik leaves, and he doesn’t survive impact.

He begs the Doctor not to take the prototype and this time Robotnik agrees. A portal opens in the lab an hour later because Sonic decided he didn’t want to live alone on the mushroom planet and Tom was willing to do what needed to be done.

He visits the Wachowski's the night after the incident and socks Tom in the face when he opens the door. They both end up on the ground and Stone's hands are around Tom's throat when Sonic hits him from the side and sends him crashing into the dining room table. He leaves before the hedgehog can pull out a ring.

He goes back to the Mean Bean, before Robotnik and Knuckles leave, and asks him to wait. To rest. To reconsider.

Again.

And again.

And again.

              “What about me?”

              “What about you, Stone?”

He finds Robotnik in the primary lab, days before receiving the Green Hills job, and panics when the Doctor’s eyes reflect green in the light of a holoscreen. He leaves before Robotnik can scan him.

He’s in the woods surrounding the Wachowski's home, pacing, the Doctor waking from a punch with no agent to pull him to his feet. This isn’t working, none of this is working. 

No, maybe he’s just going about this the wrong way. The Doctor isn’t the problem, just the victim. That hedgehog is the problem! If he could remove the problem, permanently, maybe Robotnik would be safe. Maybe they could just go home.

The vertigo hits a bit harder than usual this time.

 7.???

Stone storms out of the woods moments after Robotnik has entered the Wachowski’s home, hurrying up the front steps and through the open front door. The Doctor and Tom are in the kitchen, Sonic not yet revealed, but Stone doesn’t bother waiting. He slides around Robotnik, who flinches away before calling his name, and rounds the counter. There, a speck of blue behind the island.

“Out, now,” Stone growls. The emerald is humming in his chest, in his veins, far more in tune to his rage than it used to be. He feels its energy spike when Sonic sticks his head out.

“I know it’s me you want,” the hedgehog says as he steps out, hands held up, “Just leave Donut Lord out of it.”

Robotnik starts to say something, something agreeable, and Stone grabs the hedgehog in a headlock, pulling out his gun with his free hand. He spins them to face the other two, the barrel of his pistol resting against Sonic’s temple.

“Whoa, whoa, easy,” Tom says, raising his hands up.

“Care to explain what the hell you think you’re doing, Agent Stone?” Robotnik asks, arms crossed and Badnik hovering over his shoulder.

“Doctor, I need you to return to the mobile lab.”

“I’ll do no such thing. We’re to capture the alien alive, in case you forgot.”

“I abandoned orders a long time ago. Return to the lab, now.”

Robotnik’s cheeks grow rosy and Stone braces for an ill-timed lecture, half focused on keeping Sonic from wiggling out of his grip. Tom, however, chooses that moment to rub some brain cells together and grab for Stone’s gun.

They grapple for a moment, Stone attempting to kick Tom’s feet out from under him, but his head swims with the sudden movement. He’s forced to lean back against the counter to stay upright, releasing his hold on the gun to instead keep hold of Sonic, who’s thrashing has escalated with Tom’s action.

As Tom steps back, gun raised, Stone gives a sharp three note whistle, the Badnik behind them activating it’s weaponry.

“Tom Wachowski is an active threat to the Doctor,” Stone says, still leaning heavily against the counter. The Badnik takes aim.

“What?” Tom exclaims, only to immediately be spoken over by the Doctor.

“Stone, what are you doing?” Robotnik asks, brewing lecture forgotten. He’s almost looking at the agent in concern, despite the company. 

“I’m trying to save you,” Stone grits out, what little energy he has quickly being consumed by Sonic’s continued attempts to escape. And now, with no gun, he’s not even sure what to do. The Badnik won’t fire at the hedgehog if Stone is holding him, and he can’t initiate it’s self-destruct with Robotnik right there. 

The emerald burns in his chest, pulsing again, and when Stone looks to the Doctor, there’s briefly four of him. He’s running out of time, he needs to do something now , if Robotnik would just leave like he told him to–except Robotnik is calling off the Badnik and ordering Tom to hand over Stone’s gun. 

“Stone,” Robotnik says, pocketing the returned weapon and stepping closer, “We’re returning to the lab now, with the alien alive. Understood?”

“No. No, if he lives, then he’ll kill you! I have to–” Stone breaks off to cough, Sonic slipping away as he doubles over.

“Stone?”

When the coughing finally subsides, Stone fighting to catch his breath, he pulls his hands away from his mouth and finds them splattered with blood. Robotnik is in front of him now and grabs them as soon as he sees, cupping them in his own and raising them up to examine.

“Aban,” he says quietly, leaning down a bit since Stone still isn’t upright, “What’s going on?”

Behind them, Sonic and Tom are escaping through the front door. When Stone points this out, Robotnik waves him off. 

“You’re actively coughing up blood; we’re returning to the mobile lab. We can catch up to those two once I look you over,” the Doctor responds, placing an arm around Stone’s shoulders to help him out of the house. 

As he’s being led down the Wachowski’s driveway, he begs the emerald to send him somewhere else. Another moment where he can take out the hedgehog, save the Doctor, anything before he runs out of time.

The vertigo hits again.

When Stone’s vision clears, he’s back on the battlefield, standing on the platform of the damaged but still standing robot. The Doctor is only twenty feet away, in the middle of the platform, alive and taunting a glowing gold Sonic. He’s back where he started, technically.

The emerald is burning hot in his chest, energy pumping through his limbs, lighting arcing off his skin much like how the Master Emerald had responded to the Doctor. Despite this, he hasn’t been noticed yet, Robotnik distracted by Sonic…who is currently kicking the side of the robot with enough strength to tip it over.

Between one breath and the next, Stone is beside the Doctor, grabbing him as the platform tilts beneath them. Robotnik screeches in surprise, clutching Stone as the agent hoists him up bridal style, willing the emerald to hold them aloft. After a moment of not being able to tell if it’s them or just the robot falling, Stone finds them safely floating above it. He’s not willing to risk trusting that for too long though, and with a pointed thought, moves them to the ground.

They land near Sonic and the others, to Stone’s annoyance, but it means they’re a safe distance away from the robot, Stone spinning them as he sets the Doctor down to attempt to protect Robotnik from the cloud of dust that comes when the robot finally lands. The ground shakes as it hits, the two holding onto each other to stay upright. The long, low groan of settling steel prevents any initial conversation, but the Doctor is speaking as soon as he thinks Stone can hear him.

“What the hell’s going on? How did you get up there? Why are you glowing purple?” Robotnik is firing off questions, looking Stone over, patting his cheeks, examining his hands and arms. He’s running a hand over Stone’s chest, right where the emerald is warmest and brightest, when they’re interrupted.

“Your goat milker is in possession of a chaos emerald.”

Stone spins, hand shooting out to blast Knuckles back with a burst of energy, the yellow fox beside him screaming and dodging. 

“I have a name, space porcupine ,” Stone growls, staring the echidna down as he gets back to his feet. Just visible behind him is Sonic, back to blue with the Wachowskis hovering, chaos emeralds scattered on the ground around him. The purple one is missing–how convenient.

“Stone, where did you get an emerald?” Stone turns back to the Doctor, who’s voice is half an octave higher than usual. He doesn’t get the chance to answer before Knuckles is there.

“You need to release the emerald immediately, it’s consuming you.”

“It’s what?” Robotnik asks.

“No,” Stone responds, before really thinking about it, “I fixed things for now but who’s to say it’s permanent? I’m keeping the emerald; I can’t keep the Doctor safe without it.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’ve clearly possessed the emerald for a while,” Knuckles says, staring straight at Stone’s chest. Could he see the damn thing? “If you don’t release it soon, it will kill you.”

“Stone!”

“I already said no. I’ve gone through too much to give it up now and risk everything,” Stone says, crossing his arms to try and block whatever Knuckles is seeing. The echidna just shifts his glare upwards to meet Stone’s eyes. 

“I didn’t take you for a fool, Goat Milker.”

Stone’s hands are spread and aimed but Robotnik grabs his wrists and tugs them down, the burst of energy (and its accompanying lightning) ripping into the ground. 

“Enough!” the Doctor snaps, letting go of one of Stone’s wrists to instead grab him by the chin, forcing him to make eye contact. “Not to agree with the mouth breather, but you look awful and you’re quite literally luminescent. Get rid of the emerald.”

“I can’t, I need it. If something goes wrong again, I need to be able to fix it!” 

Robotnik frowns, still holding Stone’s face, the agent too tired to try and pull away. “Why are you so concerned with things going wrong? Do I need to start calling you Nervous Nancy?”

“Because I’ve seen things go wrong too many times! And I couldn’t stop any of it–” Stone breaks off to cough, hard enough he wonders if the emerald is about to eject like a hairball from his body. Of course, it stays put, Stone doubled over and held up by Robotnik, who says his name in alarm when he sees the blood on the agent’s hands. Heaving for breath with burning lungs, Stone grabs one of the Doctor’s arms to straighten back up.

“ Stone –”

“You don’t understand, I can’t. I have to keep you safe. And you, you don’t have the Master Emerald anymore, but you can use mine! You can use me. Whatever you want, whatever you need, I’ll do it.” 

Robotnik grabs Stone's face again, cupping it with both hands this time, appearing more distraught than he had back in the Mean Bean when Stone told him what their ex-employers had done. He leans forward, resting his forehead against the agent’s, and Stone sighs.

“Aban, I need you to let go of the emerald.”

“Doctor–”

“No, whatever you’re so concerned about, we can deal with without it. I’m a genius, remember? Or is the emerald killing what limited brain cells you have?” Stone pulls back, shaking his head. “Good. Because I want to save you too, idiot.”

Stone looks up, catching a small nod from the Doctor, and then something hits him hard from behind. He sees a flash of purple fly forward, Robotnik ducking out of the way briefly before moving back in to catch Stone, the younger man collapsing against him. The radiating warmth and energy is gone, replaced by sharp pain that seems to emanate from every limb. He doesn’t stay awake long enough to hear what Robotnik is saying, only feeling the rumble of his chest as he drifts off.

Chapter Text

Stone wakes gradually, warm and encompassed in something soft, familiar music playing quietly around him. As he becomes more aware, he picks up the scent of lavender and fresh laundry. Light is noticeable through his eyelids, but not painful. It’s a far cry from how he’s been waking up recently.

He opens his eyes to what he thinks is a guest room—beige walls, floral linens, and a couple of paintings clearly picked up from a Homegoods. There’s a door to his right, closed, and a Badnik hovers beside the bed, connected to Stone by IV. To his left is Robotnik, seated in a chair between the bed and the window. The Doctor is scrolling though one of his tablets, not yet aware of his audience, dressed in just a long sleeve black top and black pants. No coat, no goggles, no gloves. Stone attempts to greet him, but the word comes out as more of a gravely noise. Robotnik almost fumbles his tablet as he looks up.

“Stone! You’re awake. Ila, scan please.” As Ila floats over from the nightstand to check him, Robotnik sets his tablet down and moves to sit on the edge of the bed. As he reads over the holoscreen she presents, he takes Stone’s left hand, gently holding it with both of his in his lap. Stone notes that it’s almost completely bandaged.

“Your vitals look good, and your brain function is where it should be. How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” Stone says, pausing to clear his throat when the word comes out thin and weak. “Sore?”

“Rate your pain.”

“A two.”

“Good. A two we can deal with. How much do you remember?”

Stone runs back over his memories, explaining that he last remembers the battlefield with the robot, and discussing the chaos emerald that’s now clearly gone. Robotnik nods, confirming the memory’s accuracy, when Stone notices a light layer of reddish-brown peach fuzz covering his scalp. That hadn’t been there the last time he was awake.

“How long have I been out?” Stone asks, motioning to his own hair when Robotnik raises an eyebrow.

“Ah, yes. About a week and a half. The emerald did a number on you, but you’ve been recovering well. Your body just shut down for a bit to accommodate that. A necessary weakness of the human form.”

Stone looks at his left hand again, still held by the Doctor, and sees more bandages going up his arm. There’s a dull pain along the limb, but not unmanageable. The memory feels like years ago now, but he had been burned there, hadn’t he? In the original fight. But that had gone away when he first reset, why was he burned again?

“What I’m confused about, however, and you know how I hate to be confused, is where most of your injuries came from. The emerald caused some internal damage of course, and the hit from Knuckles left some significant bruising, but that doesn’t explain the sudden appearance of bleeding wounds and serious burns. I need you to tell me what happened while you had the emerald.”

Stone nods and moves to sit up, Robotnik reaching over to help him settle against the headboard.

“Scooch, you’re well enough to share,” Robotnik says, shifting to sit beside Stone, waving a hand for him to start. He opts to tell the Doctor everything, starting from that first death in their battle with Sonic; Robotnik listens with an unnatural patience, at one point picking up his tablet to take notes. When Stone finishes, they sit together in silence for a bit as Robotnik absorbs the information, eyes scanning his notes over and over. Stone does his best not to drift off as he waits–all that talking was more exhausting than it should have been.

“So, obviously , I have questions,” Robotnik finally says, still typing, “but I’ll save the more technical requests for when you’re feeling better. Although, without the emerald to study, I imagine we’ll never know exactly how it all worked, whether you were actually traveling back and forth in one timeline or hopping between multiple. I’m sure in the moment you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference! Fascinating really, to see evidence of either possibility, especially since you made it back to your original starting point.”

Stone lets the Doctor continue to rant about the inner mechanisms of the agent’s time travel, leaning back against the headboard to watch the older man wave his arms about with a smile. Having Robotnik here beside him, knowing he’s finally safe, leaves Stone so relaxed it feels like he's melting. He doesn’t even realize Robotnik has asked him a question until the Doctor is patting his cheek to get his attention.

“Yes?”

“Stay with me, Agent. I know you’re tired, but it’s good to have some active brain activity after how long you’ve been out. Now tell me, why did you offer yourself up to me like that?”

Stone’s brow furrows. “What?”

“When you refused to give up the emerald, you explicitly told me to use you , as if that would change my mind on the matter. I thought we had put this to rest.”

“We did,” Stone says quickly, the specific details of that last conversation a bit more clear now, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking, I don’t know–”

“You were desperate,” Robotnik interrupts, reaching out to take Stone’s left hand in his again, holding it in his lap, “That much was clear even before hearing what happened. My issue is that you found yourself in a place where you believed I would want the emerald more than you, even if only for a moment.”

Stone hums, unsure of what to say. He hadn’t exactly intended on rehashing this subject.

“Stone, would you like to know why I was so desperate to get my hands on the Master Emerald? Besides the ultimate power? Don’t answer that, I’ll tell you.”

Despite the gusto of Robotnik’s initial statement, he falls silent for a few moments, his hands tightening around Stone’s. The agent squeezes back. 

“I was…scared, Aban. Being alone for eight months in that fungal hellhole was not kind to me. And when I first returned, a part of me was worried that damned hedgehog would be right there waiting with another ring, ready to send me to some other godforsaken planet. But that was easy enough to plan against.

I was also worried about you. If you had confronted Sonic and befallen the same fate as me, or worse, sent to a less hospitable planet. Whether our waste of space employers did something to you. Even just you getting tired of waiting and moving on. But you were still here, and you had prepared everything , and I couldn’t let that go to waste. I thought with the Emerald, I could keep us both safe. No more hedgehogs, no more planetary exiles, no more irritating military buffoons. I…may have bitten off a bit more than I could chew, I’m willing to admit that.”

Stone squeezes Robotnik’s hand again before gently pulling away, smiling when the Doctor’s head snaps to look at him, and sliding it behind Robotnik’s back, pulling him closer. Robotnik sighs as Stone rests his head on his shoulder, the Doctor resting his own against Stone’s once he’s settled.

“It’s alright, Ivo. I know you hate emotional vulnerability, but I can assure you, anyone else would have handled it much worse.”

“Of course they would’ve,” Robotnik mumbles, wiggling a bit against Stone’s hold.

“And thank you for worrying about me,” Stone adds, turning slightly to press a kiss to Robotnik’s cheek, “I wish I could’ve helped more.”

“You apparently saved my life multiple times, I think you helped plenty. I’ll just have to work on reteaching you how irreplaceable you are to me.” Robotnik nuzzles into Stone’s hair, the agent laughing softly before sliding down and pulling the Doctor down to lie beside him. They lie there for a while, Stone fighting sleep in favor of enjoying Robotnik’s presence, Ila still quietly playing music for them. The agent is about to give in and doze off when he realizes he still doesn’t know where they are. 

Robotnik stiffens when he asks and Stone pushes himself up.

“Ivo, where are we?” Stone repeats, watching as the Doctor slowly sits up, looking anywhere but at him.

“The Wachowski’s.”

“We’re what?!” Stone exclaims, sitting up, only for Robotnik to promptly, but carefully, push him back down.

“Settle, we have a truce.”

“Tom killed you! Multiple times!”

“In timelines that no longer exist. This Tom hasn’t done any of that, and after a bit of conversation, was clearly too dumb to realize what he was doing when he threw that ring.”

“But, Sonic’s your enemy!” Stone tries, glancing at the door as if the hedgehog might burst in any second.

“Yes, technically,” Robotnik says, crossing his arms, “but he helped save your life. So at the moment, we’re frenemies.”

Stone raises an eyebrow, making a circling motion with his hand when Robotnik doesn’t immediately offer more information. The Doctor sighs.

“You were severely injured, I had no intact Badniks or transportation, and Walters was closing in. Maddie knows more first aid than the average neanderthal, and they offered to help. At the time, it was the only option I could see to keep you safe.”

“And the government? Did the Wachowskis just lie to them?” Stone asks.

“Yes, though that wasn’t surprising, considering they’ve been lying about Sonic this whole time. Tom and the hedgehog stayed behind to tell Walters we were in the robot when it fell. I tossed my coat and goggles, and a bit more fire, in to seal the deal. Knowing Walters, he didn’t care enough to find actual bodies and just wrote us off.”

“Right, okay. And the Mean Bean?”

“Snuck in to collect everything and blew it up after. Hope you don’t mind.”

Stone minds a little; he had actually liked the Mean Bean itself when there weren’t customers milling about. At least they wouldn’t be starting from scratch. He relaxes back into the pillow, not entirely happy about his location, but less concerned in the face of Robotnik’s reaction. 

“Don’t worry,” Robotnik says, reaching over to pat Stone’s thigh, “we’ll be leaving as soon as you're well enough, which won’t be too long now that you’ve woken up. If you have any suggestions on where to go next, the floor is temporarily open.”

As an agent, Stone has considered plenty of getaway plans over the years, including ones that involve the Doctor. He brings up the easiest one–starting in Canada.

“Hmm, not particularly imaginative, but it’s a start. We’ll discuss it when you’re a bit more coherent. Which means you need to rest.”

Robotnik moves to stand, presumably to take up his post in the chair by the window again, but Stone grabs his hand before he’s fully upright.

“Rest with me? You look exhausted.”

Robotnik stares down at him, mouth twisted, before his expression relaxes into something almost loving.

“Fine, you pain, if it means you’ll sleep.”

Stone grins as Robotnik climbs into bed properly, sidling up against him and settling in with his arms around the Doctor’s waist. If the Doctor holds him tighter than usual, Stone isn’t going to say anything; he just smiles into the kiss Robotnik gives him before drifting off.

Chapter Text

Hi guys!!! 

Adding another chapter so you all can see the amazing art Red (aka dantouboshi) did!!!! I’m crying and wailing thank you bestie 🥰😭

you can see it on tumblr here