Chapter Text
"STOP RIGHT THERE!!!", one of the soldiers yelled out loud, chasing Eggman and his henchman throughout the hallways of G.U.N's base, with five other comrades of his accompanying him with rifles in their hands.
Three of the men from the group in uniforms, stopped and pointed their rifles at the the large figure and the smaller one next to him, as fires were shot out of their guns, thanks for the henchman's wrist cannon gear, he was able to create a purple shield out of it to protect them both.
"I-I told you, sir", the anthropomorphic goat started talking panting as he ran side ways in much higher speed to keep up with the his boss and keeping his arm behind them for the sheild, "this was a trap", he continued out of breath.
"None sense, Agent Stone", Eggman looked down at Stone as he was also out of breath, "if this was indeed a trap? they wouldn't have left this for me to steal, would they now?", he lowered the black orb in his right hand to his henchman to see it.
Stone rolled his eyes slightly, feeling himself falling behind his Doctor, and his wrist rounded cannon heating up the shield he had put up started to glitch, a bullet was able to break through the shield almost hitting The Doctor.
The Doctor took notice of this, "THATS IT!", the man gritted his teeth in frustration, he started typing quickly on his wrist controller, "Let's see how they can handle my babies"
With one last type, the doors far away in front of them were blown open, revealing the outside world as the sun ray beamed through the doors into the dim hallway, that wasn't the only thing coming through the entrance, as a herd of motobugs made it's way towards them and they made it fast, some were flying some where speeding on the ground.
Stone watched the ladybugs look like machines pass him and the Doctor at an incredible speed, he let his hand fall to his side with the shield disappearing, cold wind left in their path from moving this fast so close to him, but not hitting him nor the Doctor, that made every last strand of fur on his body to stand up straight.
Him and the Doctor paused to catch their breath for a second, they looked back and watch the herd of badniks attacking their chasers, what a beautiful sight it was to look at.
"Come on, Stone, we can't stay here", Eggman said in between heavy breaths, tuning on his heals continuing heading towards the entrance only this time walking.
"Of course, Doctor", Stone respoded, fast pacing to walk next of his Doctor, hearing the cries of men coming from behind them with the shrieking sounds of the badniks, The Doctor had once told him those were laughter from the machines.
"I don't like it when you doubt my geniuses, Stone", The Doctor stated not bothered to look down at the goat.
Stone looking up to his Doctor, he felt his chest tightening, "I'm sorry, sir", Stone placing a hand on his chest lowering his head and leaning his body forward, "it won't happen again", he finished his apology.
That Eggman took notice of, at how absolutely devoted Stone was to him, how he was still leaned over as he walked with his head low, as if waiting for permission to go back to his normal stand, waiting for his apology to be accepted, waiting for anything the man has next to say.
Stone stayed like that as they walked for more few seconds, "it better not", the Doctor hissed looking down at him.
Stone straightening his back, lifting his head up flashing the Doctor a warm smile, his hand still on his chest, "of course, Doctor", he let his eyes close this time with a brighter smile than the one before.
Eggman huffed at his henchman moving his gaze back to the entrance they are so close to, Eggman looked at his wrist controller typing in it once more a command for the Egg-Jet to meet them outside, the cires in the back had started to fade away, leaving the two walking in silent peace in the base's hall.
The moment of silent was awfully ruined by, "DONT MOVE!!!", shout coming from the very direction they are heading to.
A gasp escaped Stone at the sight of three men at the entrance with rifles aiming to them, "huh?", The Doctor looked up from his device, before he could process the new standing figures in front them, bullets had already been shot.
Stone's body moved before his thoughts, the rush of adrenaline gave him the strength to jump and push the much larger man to the side with his full body, he didn't have time to think of anything but keeping the man next to him alive, he just hoped his push was strong enough to get his Doctor out of the way of the bullets.
In luck, it was, he manged to knock Eggman off his feet sending him to the close wall of the hall, the man hit the wall and fell on his bottom, hidden behind a set of boxes, he had knocked few ones down on top of him, but at least hidden.
Stone however pulled both hands in front of him when he had made contact with the ground once again, purple sheild reappearing in front of him, it glitches in and out, Stone held his position for just one more second untill the sheild had given up, his wrist cannon let out sparks, "ahh", he screamed at the electric shock it gave him, grunting in pain.
Bullets came flying around him, one manged to hit one of his horns, the pain of his now broken horn in halves sent a wave of unimaginable pain through his spine, he let out a cry of pain before collapsing on the metal floor.
The shooting had stopped, smoke coming out of the rifles with the sound of bbullets hitting metal still echoing, the men shared a look with one another, putting their rifles down, and back at the fallen goat and the pile of boxes in a mess, there was no movement from any of the two objectives, one of the men let out a sigh of relief, but little did he know, he had celebrated way too soon.
BANG
A bullet went through the man's head, breaking through the hard helmet he had on and existing it, splashes of blood came out of his head when he went limp and fell to his side, scaring the shit out of the other two men now covered in the blood of their friend.
They moved to let their rifles - BANG - another bullet in the head sent another one flying back, his body landing next of the other lifeless body, two down, one to go.
The last man was lucky enough to get a look at the shooter, his eyes widened at the sight in front of him, his body still reacting to the death of his two friends, shaking scared, he could swear he was staring death in the eyes in front of him.
The Agent they shot down earlier, is back up standing once more, blood gushing down his face from his broken horn, he gritted his teeth, holding out a gun he held so tight with smoke still coming out of it - BANG - the third man was a lifeless body next of his other comrades, at least one of them get to tell the others what killed them, an angry anthropomorphic goat killed them.
Stone dropped his gun letting a metallic thud echoing in the now quiet hall, he hugged himself tightly dropping to his knees, if he pushed his teeth any harder on one another he was sure they will shatter, his head and chest hurt so badly, he couldn't see properly with the blood soaking his vision red.
"AAGHHH", An angry yell came from the pile of boxes, Eggman threw the boxes on top of him away, digging himself out of them, with each box being moved, metal clicking sounds can be heard coming from out of them, he was still holding a tight grip over the orb, "STONE!!! I'LL KILL Y-", he cut himself when he came back to his feet and opened his eyes to see his agent knelt down curled up into himself looking at him with his big eyes, with blood coming from the top of his head down to his muzzle, his brown fur turned red.
The Doctor froze at how his Agent looked, only snapping his eyes away from him when he heard loud footsteps coming from down the hall where his babies where last seen, he still couldn't see who it was due to the hallway being curved but he could hear them approaching closer and closer, and it was more than at least ten soldiers.
"Shit!", Eggman cursed under his breath moved fast to his Agent still on the ground.
He grabbed Stone by the back of his suit's collar, the poor thing practically weighted nothing, he threw him under his left armpit, keeping tight hold over him with his left arm wrapped around him, once be had his agent secured there, he sprinted to the entrance that is now their exit.
Not short after they were both out, the sun hitting Eggman's face blinding him for a second, he looked to the sky to see his Egg-jet hovering not far away from them, he held out his right arm in the air, still keeping a tight grip on the orb, letting his wrist aligned to his jet in the air, he stopped moving panting waiting patiently for... beep beep.
A small sound came from the controller on his wrist, "finally!", he dropped his arm to give more support for his left arm to keep hold of his Agent, the rising sound of footsteps behind them only grew louder and made his heart beat faster, Come on come on come on, He just thought of how his jet couldn't take any much longer.
His Jet finally landed not far in front of him.
"THERE!!!", a shout came from behind him with many other shouts overlapping each other.
"Okay time to go Agent", Eggman moved to the jets pod that had slid down from under it, the man stood in the pod as it started moving back up, levitating him and his Agent into the Jet, "SO LONG SUCKERS HHHHUHHH", his menacing laugh was the last thing heard as the pod came to a full shut.
The Egg-jet's engines roaring back to life at full power, by the time the men had arrived outside, it had already been flouting above the ground, the engines had a glow to them, a glow grew bigger and bigger, when - swoooosh - the jet went in sonic speed away from the base, anything stood behind it went flying, in this case it was the men in uniforms.
Eggman let go of the Agent, the goat unlike a cat, he didn't land on his feet, he dropped with a loud thud on the metallic hard ground of the Jet, the Agent let out a mumbling noise and few grunts with his face down to the floor.
"Oh walk it off, Stone", Eggman walked over Stone, being careful not to step on him was the bare minimum, he did that just to make sure he doesn't trip over, nothing more and nothing less.
With few steps Eggman reached the table closed at the bottom that was in the center of the room, it was the closest table he found, the luminousing blue lines of energy glowing at its walls, starting from the ground and ends at the surface of the table, he placed the black orb he had on the technological table, the orb stood out among all the blue prints, screw drivers, nails and other gears he had on it.
He pushed few buttons down on the the side, and a cylinder stand came out of it, pushing the orb upright closer to the light coming down from the ceiling, he grabbed it with his hand getting the light shine on the right angle of it, he pushed few more buttons and arms extended from the cylinder scanning the orb.
"Behold, Stone", Eggman broke the slight silent, as the small arms span around the orb with light coming out of it scanning the object, "this orb has an evil powerful energy deep within it, I can harness this energy and put it into my babies, I won't even have to make something big for it, the orb itself will give an evil spirit to any machine i put it's energy into, upgrading it, giving it more villainous weaponry and abilities, bringing it to life with pure evil", the man let out an evil sinster laugh leaning back, his arms spread to his sides with his hands in claw gesture, the man truly looked evil.
He could've stretched his laughter for a little longer but the lack of something frustrated him, it was even getting under his skin, he didn't know why but it did.
He stopped laughing and paused for a second looking at the orb once again, waiting for the inevitable, "thats brilliant, Doctor", but, it never came.
Eggman grunted in frustration before turning back to see where he last saw his Agent laying down on the floor.
And there he was, still laying face down on the floor, only now there is a paddle of red surrounding him, the sight made Eggman's blood run cold, he felt a fuzzy hateful feeling in his stomach, the Agent had been bleeding on the floor and he didn't even notice, he just left him there, too caught up in his future evil plan to focus on the present, the present of his Agent bleeding behind him.
"Stone!", Eggman hurried to the unmoving small body, he could feel every beat of his heart, and each one felt heavier than the one before it, that made breathing harder on him.
With few long strides he was right by his henchman's side, dropping knees first on the ground, a loud thud echoed throughout the jet, his knees screamed at him with pain at the stupid decision, but he didn't care, he couldn't care about anything at the moment but for Stone.
His hand was shaking when he reached out for Stone, grabbing him by the shoulder, turning him over towards his own body, allowing the goat to turn over and rest on his thighs.
Stone was unresponsive.
His face was completely covered in blood, unlike when he last saw it being only one side, the side of where his horn had been shot, his suit was soaking wet from blood, if the suit was any color other than black it would have been painted red for sure, just like how his once purple tie is no longer purple but red, stupid dark crimson red, covering his once beautiful brown fur, his eyes where shut closed.
but the fact his chest wasn't rising and falling back, was what pushed Eggman back up to his feet, he held the limp body close to his chest, "MD-14!!!", Eggman shouted, even though his throat was actively working against him, almost choking him.
Ruching back to the table, he held Stone's head with his right hand, placing all the weight of the fragile body on his right arm, pressing him closer to his chest, this gave him the chance to let his left hand go free, he pushed the same button he pressed before, the cylinder that held the orb had started to retreat back into the table.
With one swift movement with his full left arm, he swooped away all that was on the boxed table from blue prints, tools, even the black orb, everything on the top of the table went flying away to its side, clearing the once messy surface, so he could place Stone on his back very gently.
Flying white, with red stripes egg shaped drone float into The Doctor's view, "Scan-", his voice cracked with the word, he couldn't talk, the choke hold over his throat only grew tighter, a lump forming that made speech impossible, when he had left Stone's body and had him so close to him, he didn't feel any breathe hitting his chest whatsoever, panic had started to grow more and more in him.
The drone did as it was instructed, scanning both The Doctor and the body before him, the light of the scanner went over them both several times, he cupped his Agent's cheek with his right hand, placing his left one on his chest, there was no movement, no sound, no rising, no falling, it was just...still, a shaky breath left him, a stinging unfamiliar feeling in his eyes had made its presence known, when... beep beep, 'scanner complete'
He looked up in front of him, at the source of the robotic voice that came from the drone floating closer to him, 'detecting one life form, would you want to see the vitals to it, Doctor?', MD-14 gave its scanner's analysis waiting for further instructions.
One.
But there's Two of them.
With that, the marvelous ever so genius Doctor Ivo Robotnik felt all the air being sucked out of his lungs, he let gravity pull his body down once more on the hard ground on his knees, his hands slid away from Stone.
"No!", Ivo said under his breath, with defeat in his voice, his head in between his arms, he gripped the edges of the table so tightly, pressing his forehead on it's wall, "no! no! no!", he looked back up at the now lifeless body, Stone's body.
Ivo lefted himself up a little, his shaky hands finding their way back to hold Stone, before dragging his body across the surface, "oh, Stone!", pulling him closer, he let the body full into his lap, catching him in his arms, "my Stone!", turning around still carrying Stone, he let his back rest on the table's wall, benting his knees bringing them closer to his chest
His vision started to become blurry, he immediately took off his blue pince-nez glasses, throwing them to his side, rubbing his eyes not caring for the blood on his gloved hand.
But they kept stinging him, his vision only got more blurry when he looked down at his lap and saw the blurred out mess of reds and browns, what was happening to him?, his whole body ached in a very unfamiliar unpleasant way, breathing had become hard, every breath he took was shaky, weak...pathetic, he was pathetic, unaware why his body is torturing him, making the simplest actions hard to do, breathing, talking, standing up and now even looking.
Shutting his eyes hard holding them closed for a second, he needed to clear his vision now, he needed to look at the body in his arms, his Stone's body, the only one to never leave him, always by his side no matter how hard times got, loyal to a fault, it's what led him to his demise, no, no it wasn't Stone's fault, it was Ivo's own.
When he reopened his eyes, he had got what he wanted, he finally could see Stone, but it came with a string of water ricocheting from his eyes, a realization hit him hard, Stone is dead, more water drops falling from his eyes down his cheek stopping at his mustache.
Ivo pulled his right hand from under Stone, it was insanely numb, he traced the trail the water drops left on his face, were those tears? was he...crying?, impossible, Eggman never cries, he is immune to such action, never done it in his younger years, obviously not in his adult ones either, he found any human emotion to be weakness for the mind, crying doesn't do you any good, it only hurts you, so why would he objective himself to self torture?
And yet, here he is, on the floor of his Egg-jet, his body shivering, his stomach close to throw out whatever was inside of it, his heart...huh his heart won't shut up, it was beating in his ears, every breath he took it brought hurt with it, Stone is dead, He was gone, leaving Ivo alone.
The thought of never having Stone ever again beside him made him sick, never to hear his "That's brilliant Doctor" ever again, never be greeted again with his smiles and big brown eyes, never almost having a heart attack when the Agent sneaks on him with his lattes, never hearing the concern in his voice asking his Doctor to take a break and eat something, never teasing Stone again for whenever his tail starts wagging after a complement, never getting the chance ever again to carry his Agent around in his arm like a toddler simply because he can...all of that was gone now, all of his Stone, the only good thing in his life stripped away from him.
It was his fault, he had only himself to blame, his fault for not caring for him enough, ignoring him when he needed him the most, just walking away from him, he walked over him, left him on the floor bleeding out, more focused on his evil schemes, he didn't even notice him slowly slipping away right behind him, he was alive when he had dropped him on the floor, when he had thrown him away like some object, ordering him coldly to just "get over it" when he was dying.
If only if he had cared, oh if he only ever cared, he would've attended to his wounded horn, and in the process would’ve noticed the other wounds in his body, he would've at least tried to save him, get the chance to say goodbye, giving the Agent a comforting goodbye, instead of dying in a pool of his own blood ignored.
But he did care, he did care for Stone, if he didn't care, why would he be in the position he is in right now, tears flooding his eyes, trying his best to push them back, scared and confused of the new ability his body decided its time to show.
"Stop this!", he wiped away the storming tears, "What- What is this?", his voice cracking, he felt weak, even though he is sitting down, he felt weak, so vulnerable.
"Make it stop, please", he begged to no one, dropping his hand seeing it was of no use to push back the tears, he clutched Stone's body bringing it close to his chest, his knees curling up closer to chest as well, trapping Stone between his body, the Agent's body had become cold, a contrast to the warmth it had when he felt carried him.
"What have you done to me?", Ivo pleads to Stone, his left hand lefting the Agent's head, digging through the fur at the back of his head, "Why are you doing this to me?", he shoke the body once, still unresponsive.
He snapped his head back smacking his head to the table, closing his eyes, recalling his last moments with Stone, them together storming the base to get the orb, Stone feeling suspicious every step of the way of there being a trap, him lefting Stone up on his shoulders to get to the top glassed box that held the orb, them being chased down the hallway with Stone protecting their backs.
A burning sensation came to his chest, screaming to be let out, but he pushed it away, letting out another shaky breath, tears forming under his eyelids.
He remembered scolding Stone for doubting his plan, Stone pushing him away from harm danger, protecting him from the firing shots, but who protects the little goat.
His eyes shot open looking down at Stone curled up close to he chest, he moved is right hand to unbutton Stone's suit and shirt, he sniffed tears throughout the whole process, his fingers would sometimes disobey him going numb or start shaking.
Ivo pushed away the tie and the only two pieces of clothing Stone had on, revealing his bloody furry chest, if Ivo had troubles breathing before, he had now completely stopped breathing.
There was red everywhere that can't be denied, however, there were two dark spots that stood out, one on his chest right where his lungs are, the other one in the very center of his upper body.
Taking in the sight before him, he knew Stone had drowned in his own blood... and Ivo did nothing about it.
He allowed the burning lingering feeling in his chest to take over his body, the air around him suddenly felt chill, rapid breath building up to something, to an upcoming explosion within him, and sure enough, it exploded.
He cried, he cried and cried, lowering his head and pulling Stone's so their foreheads could touch, he sobbed so hard it rocked his whole body, he never cried before, let alone like this, every mask he had wore perfectly over the years broke in that moment, all the walls he had built up in his mind came crumbling down, his cries came out messy, painful even, he had lost the only person he ever cared about, and it hurts, really really fucking hurts.
His mind still rushing through many memories of Stone, going back and forth between fond ones and the most recent events.
He remembered, he remembered yelling at Stone despite him saving his life, Stone bringing him his latte with steamed austrian goat milk with flouting hearts on the foam, the look of horror in Stone's eyes when he got yelled at with blood on his face, waking up on his workbench covered by a blanket he remembers not falling asleep with..."STONE!!! I'LL KILL Y-"
His own words replaying on repeat in his head, over and over again, he didn't mean them, God he didn't mean them at all, but did Stone know that, even when he was able to cut himself before finishing his sentence, he knew it would have not prevented Stone from knowing the rest, he regretted ever saying them, he wishes he could take them back, he could take his Stone back.
He wondered what Stone had mumbled when he left him be on the floor, what where his last words, his last thoughts, what his face looked like, but he will never know, he doesn't get to know.
He sobbed more holding the lifeless body tighter, he mourned Stone, he mourned what he had with him, their relationship, what it was and what it could've been, mourning the moments they had and dreamed of having, the time he had lost with Stone.
"I'm sorry", Ivo whispered weakly among sobs.
"I'm so sorry Stone", he broke the touch their foreheads had, moving his lips to place a soft kiss on his Agent's forehead, he didn't care for the dried blood, the blood that is covering both of them, his white gloves have been painted red, his red jacket has more red to it now, his face was covered in the same red as well, the red that didn't belong to him.
"I'm so so sorry", Ivo kept whispering, lips pressed to Stone's head, "sorry, sorry", he apologized to the dead body.
The great Doctor Ivo Robotnik never apologizes, the word 'sorry' was foreign to him, and yet, he is saying it easier than breathing now, with tears streaming down his cheeks because he was crying for the ever first time, crying for Stone.
"Please forgive me, Stone!"