Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Deep in a drawer in Robotnik’s laboratory, there is a yellowed and worn piece of paper, issued to him the day he was given Stone. In several places the text has been struck through and annotated, in the doctor’s near-illegible handwriting.

Doctor Robotnik,

You have been given command of Agent █████ Stone.

The agent is considered one of G.U.N.’s top assets, with a kill count of ████.

Agent Stone is difficult to control; simple commands have the greatest rate of success.

The current commands it has been programed with are as follows:

Attack-to make the agent attack the closest target.

Stay- To make the agent remain in current location until otherwise ordered.

Heel- used to make the agent follow handler.   “With me” I’m not calling him like a dog

Leave it- to make the agent disengage from current course of action.

Drop it- to make the agent stop attacking a target.

Lead- to make the agent lead the indicated target through an area, or out of danger.

Fetch- used to make the agent retrieve an indicated target. (May be an item, person, or other mission objective.) “retrieve” making him ‘fetch’ is demeaning for both of us.

The last command had been completely covered by scribbling in black pen, rendering it illegible.

No. just no. Ya’ll are sick puppies for this one. I’m not making him do that.

***

Robotnik’s eyes caught a flicker of movement in the darkness.

The lights had gone out… ten minutes ago? An hour ago? They’d taken his gloves when he and stone had been captured, so he’d lost all sense of time. He’d been hearing alarms, gunshots, distant screams- unfortunately, his guards were semi-competent, and had remained at their posts.

He hid a smile behind his mustache and started humming the theme from ‘Jaws’.

The screams had stopped.

“Hey! Stop that you-“

A flash of white teeth in the darkness and the guard went down, in a gory spray of arterial blood.  

Before the second guard even had a chance to draw his gun, a shot rang out, and he fell.

Stone stepped into the dim shaft of sunlight coming in the window. He was coated in blood, suit jacket ruined, and the lower half of his pants saturated from stepping in bloody puddles.  There were splatters all over his face, and his white shirt had turned pink.  

One hand held a blood-soaked knife, the other a smoking gun. His chest heaved with heavy panting gasps. His eyes were cold, blank, holding none of the warmth they usually had for Robotnik.

“Good boy, Stone…” Robotnik said, barely above a whisper.

Stone blinked, a bit of recognition coming back to those big, brown eyes.

“Doctor?” his voice was quiet, slightly raspy. “Are you hurt?”  he asked, even as he knelt to cut Robotnik free.

“No. they were too busy dealing with you to start torturing me.” Once his hands were free, he rested one on his agent’s head, petting gently. Stone’s whole body shuddered at the touch, before relaxing into it. “Is there anyone left?”

Stone shook his head, resting his forehead against the doctor’s leg.

“Good boy, Stone. You did such a good job protecting me.” A shiver went through Stone’s body at the praise.

They waited a moment more.

“Lead me, Stone.”

Stone stood up at the command, dropping the empty gun carelessly on the floor, and taking the doctor’s hand.

Stone led the doctor through room after room of corpses, a bloody massacre, a gory spectacle, that no one would ever believe was just one man’s work.  They stopped just long enough for Robotnik to take back his control gloves from the piles of viscera that had once been scientists.

Finally, they stepped out, blinking into the sunlight.

They were in the courtyard of the compound.

Some of them had tried to run.

They hadn’t made it far.

There was a quiet groan. One of the corpses was still-just barely- alive.

Stone’s head snapped toward the sound, teeth bared, a deep growl rumbling up from his throat.

“Leave it.” the doctor said, “if there not dead yet, they’ll be dead soon.”

Stone reluctantly disengaged with sharp shake of his head, taking the doctors hand again, gently pulling him toward the exit of the courtyard.

Once they were outside, and far enough away, Stone slowed his brutal pace and stopped. He pulled the doctor close, and buried his face in the doctor’s shirt. It didn’t take long for the shaking to start, as Robotnik was finally able to signal for extraction with his gloves.

He gently pet his agents hair, forcing down revulsion at the feeling of blood on his gloves.

“Asimov, he’s covered in it.”

Robotnik watched as helicopter’s circled in the air above them, spotlight’s illuminating him and Stone.

Stone was clinging to his shirt, face buried in his chest, shaking like a tiny nervous purse dog.

One of the helicopters landed, and several agents leapt out, running toward him and Stone, sweeping their firearms across the empty field.

Stone heard them approach, and pulled himself off the doctor, snarling. His hand clutching at the doctor’s shirt had been hiding a blood-soaked blade, ready to defend the doctor at any moment.

“No, Stone. Leave it. Leave it.” His voice was low, strained as he looked between stone and the agents, staring down the barrels of their rifles.

Stone stopped snarling, but didn’t lower the blade, keeping his body between the doctor and the agents.

“They are our allies, Stone. I called them.” the doctor said, slowly and calmly, keeping his hands in view. “You guarded me well, there are no threats left.”   

Stone slowly let his hand drop, and the knife fell from nerveless fingers.

It didn’t take long for the two of them to be bundled into a helicopter and whisked away to the nearest G.U.N base.

***

Stone launched himself at the male nurse. They went down hard, Stone landing on the man’s chest and knocking all the air out of him. Stone’s fingers locked around the man’s neck, ready to strangle the life out of him. The nurse gagged, choking, fingers scrabbling at Stone’s hands.  

“Drop it!” Robotnik snapped. “Drop it!”

Stone let go the nurse’s neck, still straddling his chest, teeth bared. The nurse gasped for air, eyes wild with animalistic fear.  

Robotnik put his hand on Stone’s shoulder “The nurses aren’t going to hurt us, Stone.” he looked up, locking eyes with the other nurse, who was frozen in fear, hands over her mouth. “Let’s not try to separate us for care, hmm?”

She nodded, slowly, then pulled her walkie-talkie out of her pocket and whispered into it.

“We have a nurse down in examination room 7 B, please send a trauma team. And... um… more nurses?”

 At the same time, Robotnik was coxing Stone off the nurse.

“Yes Stone, you did such a good job protecting me from that big scary nurse…” he beckoned Stone, as he slowly backed up. He was using a soothing tone used for small children and animals, something very few people would believe him capable of.  

Stone tilted his head, then climbed off the man slowly, eyes fixed on the doctor.

“Ooo… this is nice and soft.” Robotnik patted the examination table invitingly. “Aren’t you tired from looking after me, Stone? If you climb up here, you can have a nice rest…”

Stone slowly climbed onto the table and sat down, leaning slightly to one side out of exhaustion. Robotnik put a hand on his chin, swiping away a smear of blood with his thumb. Stone leaned into the touch, eyes drifting closed.

“Lets get you out of those blood covered clothes, hmmm?” he said as he loosened and removed Stone’s tie one-handed. “they must be getting uncomfortably sticky by now…”

 The claws in the control gloves were perfect for cutting the buttons off Stone’s shirt. Stone leaned his head against Robotnik’s chest, letting the doctor gently strip him of his blood drenched clothes. He was soaked to the skin, hands dyed dark red.

A nurse handed Robotnik a package of wet- wipes, which he set on the examination table with a whispered ‘thank you’- something that he usually wouldn’t hand out willy-nilly to strangers, but he was tired.

“Stone?”

“Mm?”

“Can you take care of your own pants?”

Stone blinked slowly and nodded. He pushed himself up enough to wiggle out of the tight slacks, and let them drop. While he did that, Robotnik grabbed a handful of the wet wipes.

“Can you use your words right now, Stone?” Stone blinked slowly, then shook his head, leaning into the doctor’s chest.  Stone watched, glassy eyed, as Robotnik started to clean his hands off with a wet wipe.

Robotnik carefully waved over one of the hovering, anxious nurses.

“I’ll get the worst of the blood off him; you check him for injures.”

She nodded, as Robotnik spoke to Stone again. “The nurse needs to look you over, Stone. Tell me if hurts. Be honest.”

Robnik managed to get his right arm clean, and the nurse poked and prodded at it.  Stone grunted when she poked at his wrist.

“That hurts.” Robotnik dutifully relayed, as he finished getting the blood off Stone’s left arm, revealing two deep gashes, sluggishly bleeding, and colourful bruising.

“I think it’s just sprained.” She said, gently setting his hand down on the table, before going to his other side. She hissed in a breath at deep gashes on his arm.

“That looks like it hurts, big guy…” she said to Stone, as she gently poked at the gashes, assessing the best course of treatment.   Stone made a small noise and tried to pull away.

“Hey, hey, hey…” Robotnik gently grabbed Stone’s chin, making Stone look at him. “Pay attention to me, not her, ok?” Stone leaned into the grip, as Robotnik wiped the blood from his face and neck.  As the blood came away, it revealed a small cut on his cheek bone that started to bleed again.

The nurse finished poking at the gash on his arm. “Looks like that’ll need stiches, but it’s not bleeding like a faucet, so we’ll finish the assessment first.”

She pulled a small flashlight from her belt.  “I need to look at his eyes, sir.”

“Stone?” Robotnik asked, to see if Stone had completely dissociated, or was still semi-there.

“Mm?”

“Can you lean back and follow the nurse’s instructions?”

Stone nodded, and Robotnik helped him lean his back against the wall.

She shined the light in Stone’s eyes, as Robotnik set to cleaning off Stones chest.

“Did you get hit in the head at any point?”

Stone shook his head.

“Are you certain?”

He nodded.

She held up two fingers “How many fingers am I holding up?”

Stone looked to Robotnik, panic in his gaze.

“He’s lost speech. Stick to yes or no questions.”

Her brow furrowed, and Stone flinched, grabbing the doctor’s sleeve as his gaze flicked toward the rooms exit.

“No. No.” Robotnik said, like he was telling off a dog. He looked over his shoulder at the nurse. “Loosing speech is normal for him when he dissociates. If he says he doesn’t have a head injury, I believe him.”

“…Right. You continue cleaning him up, I’ll get the supplies to stich that up.”

As the nurse left, he bent over slightly so he could better clean stone’s stomach. Stone rested his chin on the doctor’s shoulder. As Robotnik wiped the cloth over his stomach, he hissed, and the well-defined muscles fluttered. “Cold, Stone?” Robotnik asked, wanting to check that it hadn’t hurt. He felt Stone nod against his shoulder.

“I need to get this blood off you, Stone. It might be hiding injuries’… ah-hah! Speaking of injuries, I just found one!”

“Hm?”

Robotnik gently poked a now-revealed burn on Stone’s side, and he hissed in pain.  It looked like it came from the muzzle flash of a gun- it was only through pure luck that the point-blank shot had missed.

A spike of anger flooded his system, and he took a deep breath, riding out the wave. All the people who had been in that compound were dead, at Stone’s hands. There was nothing left to take out his anger on.

He finished cleaning off Stone’s stomach and started on his legs. His thighs only had splatters of blood, but his calves and ankles were coated in it.  

He’d even managed to get blood between his toes.

“Stone, can you turn around? I need to get your back.”

Stone shook his head and whined. It took far too long for Robotnik to figure out what was wrong.

“Don’t want your back to the door?” Robotnik asked, and Stone slowly nodded.

“Can you turn sideways?”

Stone blinked, then shuffled until he sat sideways on the examination table, and the doctor could see his back.

Several large gashes marred his back- a slice from a blade, a few grazes from shots that went wild. Nothing that would kill him, but Robotnik realized with a start that there was blood smeared on the wall from when Stone had leaned on it for the nurse.

“Stone! Why didn’t you say anything!”

Stone shot a heavy-lidded deadpan look over his shoulder at Robotnik.

“Well, at least he’s feeling well enough to be sarcastic!” Robotnik thought.

“I know you couldn’t use your voice, but you could have indicated it some other way!”

Stone huffed. It sounded suspiciously like a laugh.

Robotnik raised a hand to slap Stone on the shoulder for laughing at him, then looked at his back again, and instead set his hand on Stone’s head, running his fingers through the short hair.

“Stone, I need you to tell me when your injured. You can’t protect me if your dead.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Stone’s eyes roll. He could practically hear Stone’s voice “Should I tell you every time I get a papercut, Doctor?”

Robotnik sighed and went to cleaning Stone’s back.

As he did so, the nurse finally returned with her tools.

She took one look at Stone’s back, then leaned out the door and called another nurse to bring more bandages.

The nurse picked up a vial of numbing medicine from the cart, and a started tearing open the package of a syringe.

“Don’t use the numbing solution.” Robotnik said, keeping his tone light, as he ran a thumb over Stone’s cheek, keeping Stone’s attention on him. “He’ll pull out the stiches.”

“S-Sir? Are you certain?” she sounded scared, like Stone, despite being barely conscious, was going to leap at her at any moment.

“Stone?” he asked, gently “Do you want the numbing solution?”

Stone shook his head.

“There you go.” Robotnik answered easily, lightly, even as Stone buried his face in the doctor’s shoulder.

She set those tools aside, snapped on a fresh pair of gloves, then set about preparing a needle and thread. Once that was prepared, she popped the cap off the antiseptic spray, tore open sterile wipes, then started snaping the tops off of containers of sterilized water.

Stone flinched every time he heard the pop of the containers opening.

“sh, sh, sh… It’s ok. Focus on me, not her…” Robotnik ran his fingers through Stone’s short hair, gently holding Stone’s head against his chest.

As she started to flush the wounds on his back, making sure there was nothing stuck in them, Stone kept shuddering and trying to look over his shoulder at her. As the antiseptic spray hissed onto his back, and started to foam, he managed to wriggle free of the doctor’s grip. He snapped his teeth at the nurse, wordlessly snarling at her.

“This isn’t working.” Robotnik thought. “I need a different approach…”

It didn’t take long for him to come up with a plan.

“Stone.” he said to get the agent’s attention, then took a step back.

Stone let out a heartbroken whine, and reached for the doctor. It felt like his heart was made of aluminum, and Stone was dropping gallium on it!

“Stay.” He put up a hand, and Stone slumped, giving him the biggest kicked puppy eyes. “I’m just going down the hall to the vending machine I saw on our way in. I won’t be more than ten meters away, ok?”

Stone sniffled, hugging himself sadly, but nodded, letting the doctor leave.

Robotnik practically ran to the machine- luckily it was one of the new ones, that take card, so it was the work of a moment to hack it. He hurried back, pausing a moment to flag down one of the nurses.

“Get me water- cold, in a sealed bottle.” The damm nurse just stood there, staring “Well? What are you waiting for!?” his volume rose with every word, “A signed invitation?!?”

The nurse flinched, then hurried off, hopefully to do what they had been ordered.

He stepped back into the room.

Stone was crying.

Stone was crying.

He looked absolutely dejected, curled up on himself, shoulders shaking with silent sobs. His eyes… they were heartbreakingly sad, like the abandoned horse in the movie Stone had made them watch.

Tears poured unimpeded down his face.

“Stone…” at his voice, Stone’s head snapped up, and he was immediately reaching for the doctor, fighting his order to ‘stay’. Robotnik crossed the room in two long strides.

“I want to comfort Stone… but his inur-“ Stone didn’t let Robotnik spiral about accidently hurting him, throwing his arms around the doctor and burying his face in Robotnik’s chest, much to the chagrin of the nurse who was still working on his back.

“Oh Stone…” he whispered, fond expiration colouring his voice “I was gone for less than five minutes.” He rested a hand on Stone’s head, carding his fingers through Stone’s hair. “You really are a needy puppy…” Stone nodded into chest, getting his already-ruined shirt covered in snot and tears.

Something poked Robotnik in the shoulder, and he jumped about a foot in the air. The sharp movement jostled stone, setting off a fresh wave of tears, and a fresh wave of cursing from the nurse still trying to stitch up his back.

“WHAT?” he snapped, all puffed up like angry songbird.

It was the nurse he had waved down in the hall, holding two sealed bottles of water that were dripping condensation. Robotnik snatched them out of his hand, setting them on the examination table, and making a shooing motion.

Stone sniffled once, twice, then pulled his face away from the doctor’s chest. Robotnik used his sleeve to wipe Stone’s face. This jacket was a lost cause anyway.

He reached into his coat pocket. He could finally use what he had left to grab!

He pulled out a package of peanut m&ms and Stone immediately fixated on the familiar yellow packing. He licked his lips, watching the packet as Robotnik waved it back and forth, hypnotized.

“Look Stone! I found your second-favorite treat!”

Robotnik held up the package in front of Stone, turning it this way and that, proving that it was still sealed. He popped out one of the control glove claws, and neatly slit open the packaging. He poured some into his hand, then tucked the package back into his pocket.

He put one of the M&M’s into his mouth and crunched down on it, the sound overly loud in the quiet room. Stone trusted him not to try and poison him at this point, but it still helped to prove it every once and awhile.

He picked one up and pressed it to Stone’s lips.

Stone’s lips parted as he took it ever-so-gently from the doctor’s fingers, teeth clinking against the metal caps of the control gloves.  

For a moment he almost wished that his hands were bare, so he could feel that warm, damp tongue against his finger tips.  

He pulled his hand back and Stone whined at the loss of contact. Robtnik could see him mentally debating chasing the hand, and changing his mind when the nurse pulled the thread of his stitches tight

He blindly reached for the bottle of water, cracking it open.

“Water, Stone. then you can have more.” Robotnik lifted the bottle of water to Stone’s lips.  The moment the water touched his tongue he realized how thirsty he was. He drank it down greedily, making Robotnik wince at the sound of thin plastic crumpling.  “Slowly, Stone, you’ll make yourself sick.” He pulled the bottle away.

“Ugh, hate that sound. Wish we were back at the lab…” Robotnik thought longingly of the fridge full of glass bottles of filtered water that was back at the lab. It was Stone’s job to fill and refresh the bottles every twenty-four hours, even if they went un-drank, so they’d be fresh and refreshing. Bottled water tasted like sewer-swill, but Robotnik knew that stone wouldn’t drink from a cup of water unless he had poured it himself, or watched it be poured.

Robotnik blinked back to reality as Stone made a small noise, and pushed the bottle of water toward him. Stone whined, and gave him biggest sad puppy eyes, until he lifted the bottle and took a sip himself. it tasted like shit, but seeing Stone cheer up was worth it.

He pressed another M&M to Stone’s lips, watching the way his tongue darted out, wiping away the trace of artificial colorant it left behind.

the only sounds in the room were the crunching of candy, the crinkling of cheap plastic water bottles and thread pulling through skin.

Chapter Text

Rockwell stormed into commander Walter’s office, trailing all the fury of a Valkyrie.

“It’s been five years!” she snarled, slamming her hands down on his desk, nearly knocking off a photo of little girl, who Walters had refused to name.

“WHY HASN’T STONE KILLED HIM YET?!” she screamed, loud enough that she had to pant for breath.

Walters caught the photo before it could fall off the table and smash. “Sit down, and take a deep breath, young lady.”

She threw herself into the cheap office chair, making it creak ominously.

“RGGGHH!” she scrubbed at her face with her hands “I just don’t understand! It’s been five years! Asset Stone has killed every other handler within two years of being assigned to them!”

“Rockwell, we agreed on this course of action; Robotnik grew suspicious of the assignation attempts.” He calmly took a sip of his coffee, then winced at the taste.  

As she sighed, and slumped in her chair he stood up, cracked open the door of his office, stuck his head out to make sure no-one was nearby and pulled his head back inside. He closed and locked the door, then went to a framed painting on the wall- a copy of Washington crossing the Delaware, of course- and pulled it back, revealing a mini fridge with a bottle of bourbon, and a few glasses.

He popped out the cork, and poured a generous amount of the expensive bourbon into his coffee. “That man drives me to drink…” he muttered, almost under his breath.

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest “Not like you have far to go.”

Walters raised an eyebrow at the insult “Just because you’re my nice doesn’t mean you have an excuse to speak to me like that.”

She flicked him a disrespectful, lazy, two fingered salute. “Yes Sir, sorry sir.” She drawled out mockingly.  

He inclined the bottle towards her “Want a tipple?”

“Just give me the bottle…” she sighed but stood up and grabbed a glass from the fridge, setting it on the table.

He poured a generous two fingers into the glass.  

She picked it up, and knocked it back like a shot, slamming the glass onto the table.  He sighed, and shook his head, “A waste of good bourbon…”, but poured her some more.

This time, she took a small sip, then rested the glass on the arm of cheap chair, as she leaned back. She crossed her legs, foot bouncing with frustrated energy.

She rubbed at her brow “I just- ugh- he’s supposed to be dead already, but that man is a god-dammed cockroach!” she spat, nearly spilling her drink with a harsh gesture.

Walter’s heaved a dark chuckle and took a sip of his spiked coffee. “And you’ve only had to work with him for ten years… I’ve been trying to work him to death for thirty.”

They sat in silence, sipping their drinks, wordlessly topping them up when they went dry.

She set the glass on the table, and pulled her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. “Stone was supposed to be the solution….” Her voice trailed off to a whisper “I just don’t know where I went wrong…”

Walters stood up and put a hand on her shoulder. “Just be patient; your plan will work eventually.”

Chapter Text

Agent Stone rounded the corner, two coffees in hand.

The meeting on the …incident that had happened yesterday had just adjourned. Robotnik had gone up one side and down the other of the top brass for “daring to even consider sending one of their most valuable (and here the doctor made air quotes, which made something in Stone’s chest ache) assets into a known danger-zone.”

He had, unfortunately, then been forced into some small talk.

Stone had been sent away for coffee, supposedly “the information was above his clearance level”. Jokes on them- he didn’t mind.

Being underestimated was a useful tool in his belt.

The coffees were warm in his hands.

“Your latte Doctor, with steamed Austrian goat milk.” He announced, making the brass with more medals than sense flinch in surprise.

“Ugh. You should put a bell on him, Robotnik.”

Robotnik grabbed the coffee as he over-exaggeratedly rolled his eyes. “Tried that, made him worse, never again.”

Some random agents were chatting in the corner, barely above a whisper as they stared at Stone and Robotnik.

“Did you hear?”

One of them leaned over and whispered something in  another’s ear, making their eyes go wide.

“Really? That many? You have to be pulling my leg!”

The other agent shook their head, still staring at stone and Robotnik.

Another agent shuddered “He should have just let him die, the doctors a freak.”

Robotnik watched as stone’s head snapped up, and he laser focused on the other agents.

The smarted one’s took a step back. The other two kept laughing at each other.

Stone was smiling as he approached them. It wasn’t a nice smile.

“Excuse me, what did you just say about the doctor?”

Before one of them could be stupid enough to actually answer that question, the doctors hand shot out, catching Stone’s shirt collar with a single finger.

“Leave it, Stone.” He said quietly, voice laced with a dangerous calm.

Stone snarled, and shook himself, almost like he was trying to dislodge the doctors tenuous hold.

“Leave it!” the doctor snapped.

Stone’s hackles reluctantly fell, and he turned back to the doctor, taking a sip of his nearly forgotten coffee.

The doctor sighed, shaking his head. “We’re going to need to do some re-training later.”

Stone perked up, eyes shining. If he had a tail, it would have been wagging.

 The doctor rolled his eyes, “Not fun training. Target differentiation training.”

Chapter Text

The doctor’s hand idly ran through Stone’s hair, as he half watched the tv.

Today, he had decided to leave the crab for a while. They had been just offshore of the Monterey Bay aquarium, somewhere he had always wanted to go, but never had the holiday time.

An off-duty GUN agent on vacation had noticed them, and a fun afternoon out had turned into a live fire exercise.  

It had been over in a few seconds, so Stone was feeling a bit drifty and clingy, but not fully dissociated or having lost speech.

GUN’s best murder weapon was half asleep against him, cuddled up against his fat, disgusting form, watching a stupid show meant for desperate housewives in loveless marriages.

“Why haven’t you killed me yet?”

“Hmm?” Stone sat up slightly, those breath-taking brown eyes looking at him through those dark, thick lashes.

“I know that you were assigned to me to kill me. Why haven’t you?”

Stone yawned, then flopped across robotink’s lap. His shirt rode up, baring his vulnerable belly to the doctor. Idly, the doctor started stroking it, like a dog. “Because of this, doctor.”

Robotnik blinked, drawing a blank. “Error. Msg not found. Please try again.”

Stone wiggled to get more comfortable, like a dog asking for belly rubs “Because you let me cling, after.” He reached up, and patted the doctor on the cheek. “And you don’t expect me to be fully functional immediately afterword.”

Robotnik scoffed. “That’s stupid. Even my machines need maintenance.”

“mm-hm.” Stone sighed, and blinked slowly up at the doctor, like a cat. “They wanted me to de-brief right afterword, when I was dissociated and couldn’t talk.”

The doctor’s hand stilled on his stomach, the other beginning to slowly stroke his hair.  Stone’s eyes drifted shut as he continued to talk “They tried whipping me, beating me, keeping drugged and restrained between missions… even shock collars. That’s why I had one when they gave me to you.”

Stone felt the doctor’s hand still in his hair. He could feel the doctor shaking. it wasn’t fear, or an adrenaline crash-it was rage.

“I still killed them all. Don’t worry, doctor. They can’t hurt me anymore... Hurt us anymore.”

Stone’s eyes were startled open when the doctor slipped an arm under him, pulling him against doctor’s chest in a tight embrace. He was confused for a moment, until he felt dampness in his hair, felt the doctor’s chest hitch on a sob.

“It’s going to be ok, doctor. I won’t let anyone hurt us anymore.”

The doctor mumbled something into his hair, that he couldn’t catch most of “-never should have happened-“

“But if it hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t be here, doctor.”

Robotnik whispered in a small voice, dragged out of his injured inner child “I don’t want you to get hurt, Stone.”

“I won’t, Doctor. I’ll be here as long as you need me.”