Chapter Text

Prologue

Rocky's 3 fingers held onto Grace's hand as tightly as they could without harming him, listening to the beating of his heart and the blood flow beneath his skin. It didn't happen right away, but when it did it was abrupt. His heart was beating one second, then perfectly still the next. His lungs gasped out a final breath before they, too, deflated for the final time. Rocky whined as he listened as closely as his sonar would allow, tapping the ground urgently as the feedback from Grace's body lessened.

He was dead. Or at least his body was.

Rocky had not prepared for this. Of course Grace's body was going to die, without someone in the drivers seat it simply could not function anymore. But Rocky had not prepared for just how fucking terrifying it would be to listen to this noisy body's melody halt altogether.

And Grace had been right, there was always the chance that that was the final song he would ever hear any version of Grace sing. Rocky refused to believe it then and he still didn't believe it now, but he was suddenly overwhelmed with the fear of 'what if'.

So he kept holding Grace's hand. He pet over Grace's knuckles with reverence and continued to sing to him, Adrian having stopped long ago. Rocky actually didn't know if Adrian was even still here or if they had left to speak with the science team, but he couldn't find it in himself to care right now. He told Grace he would watch him sleep and he intended to keep that promise, just as he had with his crew. Rocky was many things, but he was never one to break a promise.

Grace's body was fully still by the time anyone dared to break Rocky out of the fog he had settled into. A clawed hand settled atop his shoulder with a gentleness that could only point to one person. "My love, Dr. Tumble wishes to speak with you." He did not move. He heard Adrian make a sorrowful sound, tapping the ground with one of their back claws. "Rocky, its about Grace. Please come."

"If they want to talk to me they can come here," Rocky gritted out. "I will not leave Grace." Adrian whined again but relented, pulling away and walking back through the airlock. Rocky only huddled closer to the bed that Grace's body laid on with his hand practically welded into Grace's. He barely even heard the airlock cycle as Adrian returned with Tumble, the lead medical science expert Rocky had hired to lead the project.

Tumble is an almost unnervingly smooth Eridian that stood at a smaller stature than Rocky, making them one of the smallest full-grown Eridians Rocky had ever worked with. They are very monotone and detached, but beneath that lies a layer of passion unlike anything in the other medical science experts Rocky and Adrian had been choose from. Words did not phase Tumble, only numbers did. And even then, it was near impossible to truly rattle them. This made them an invaluable asset to this specific segment of the project. It also made them a bit of a crass, apathetic asshole.

"Savior Rocky," Tumble greeted smoothly. Their notes were rough around the edges, which was ironic considering how smooth their entire body was compared to the usual Eridian. "We are detecting brain activity within the vessel at approximately the same rate in which it is decreasing from Savior Grace's brain. We believe the transfer of consciousness is going to plan."

Adrian purred happily, looking to Rocky hopefully. "Isn't that great news, ♩♫♩?" Rocky did not respond, instead tapping the floor in an attempt to hear anything at all from the other side of the room where Grace's prospective Eridian body sat strapped to a medical table. He could not hear anything at all aside from the machine-assisted heartbeats.

"I don't hear anything," he grumbled. "Don't make promises you cannot keep." Adrian squeaked and immediately began to apologize to the doctor on Rocky's behalf, however they did not seem to mind the dismissive response in the slightest. If anything, it only emboldened them.

"I make no promises, Savior Rocky. You will not hear anything from it for quite some time," Tumble began calmly, speaking with the clinically precise tone that only someone of their expertise could without sounding like a complete dick. "The vessel is in a state of paralysis, much like that of a typical sleep cycle. As it and Savior Grace's brain exchange neural information, more things will begin to activate. For instance, we are already seeing a resistance to our cardiac equipment, suggesting the brain is attempting to control the vessel's hearts itself."

The doctor continued speaking in medical mumbo-jumbo (a witty phrase Rocky had adopted from Grace years ago) for what felt like forever. Rocky barely heard any of what they said. Its not that he was consciously choosing to ignore Tumble, but he was so overwhelmed with this strange grief and fear and so so so much uncertainty that it felt like his brain simply couldn't handle the task of interpreting words right now.

"This process will take time, Savior Roc-"

"ROCKY."

Both of the other Eridians froze as Rocky finally rose back to his feet, still refusing to unlink his and Grace's hands. He was bristling with more emotions than he could name right now. Adrian seemed alarmed by the unexpected outburst, while Tumble seemed unperturbed as usual.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Its. Rocky. My name is Rocky, his name is Grace. Stop with the 'Savior' ♫♫♬ ♪♫♩," he growled. "He hates being called that." It was true, Grace had never commented on it much but it was obvious by the minuscule shifts in his face whenever he was referred to as 'Savior Grace' that he didn't like the name. While Rocky would beg to differ, Grace simply never saw himself of deserving such high praise and thus felt uncomfortable with the usage of such a title as savior. Rocky had never been shy about correcting others, however.

"I had no intention to offend."

Rocky simply grunted in response. Adrian looked frantically between the two as they faced one another before deflating. "This is not working. Come, we will talk instead." Adrian sighed, guiding Tumble back towards the airlock. They looked pissed and so very stressed. Rocky would get a mouthful from his mate later, he was sure. But he just couldn't stand to listen to that stuck up asshat and their doctor-speech right now. Rocky trusted Adrian to receive and transmit any important developments to him anyway.

He settled back down onto the floor and began to softly sing to his Grace again.

-

"What on Erid has gotten into you?" Adrian stomped their claw on the ground angrily. "You could not have been any more rude to Tumble earlier!"

"…"

Adrian bristled angrily as they loomed over their mate, who was still solemnly sat at the base of Grace's bed. "They had very important things to share with you regarding Grace and you, what? Ignore them as if they are not the one working day and night to keep Grace here?" They stomped their foot again in an effort to hold Rocky's clearly limited attention, which thankfully worked if the flinch it elicited said anything. "I cannot believe this."

Rocky awkwardly fiddled with his claws that weren't holding onto Grace. Adrian waited.

"I am sorry Adrian."

"You better be," they gritted out. "Do you know how embarrassing that was? The entire science team saw that! You cannot treat those that seek to help Grace, and you, in that way."

"I know, I am sorry."

"Are you? Because you have still not moved from that spot and made an effort to apologize yourself. You just left me to deal with it alone." All 5 of Rocky's hearts plummeted. He shot to his feet, remaining close enough to maintain his grip on Grace's hand.

"I'm scared, Adrian!" He cried out. "I'm scared, Grace was right. I'm not ready." Adrian stood silently before him as Rocky spilled. "I was not prepared to listen to his body die, Adrian. I was not ready."

They made a softer, considering sound, shoulders loosening. "Rocky, my love, this has been scary for me too. But I am not going around making it everyone else's problem, am I?" Adrian sighed, lowering themselves to the floor and settling with their legs tucked beneath their carapace. Rocky remained standing, but at least Adrian's much taller body wasn't looming over him anymore.

"You cannot stay here forever," Adrian's voice softened. They reached for one of Rocky's free claws, which he allowed them to take. They held him gently. "The team is preparing to move Grace's body to the mortuary freezer in his dome, you must let him go."

"No."

"Rocky-"

"I promised I would watch him sleep!" Rocky yelped, hearts racing in panic. He yanked his claw from Adrian's grip. "I promised! I cannot leave him, Adrian, I can't."

"If his body is not stored right away it will begin to decompose!" Adrian argued back, the frustration bleeding back into their notes. "Grace's wish for his body was for it to be donated to Eridian biological studies. You would not want to ruin that for him, would you?"

Rocky fell quiet. He turned back to the body resting atop the bed with a sad whirring sound before refocusing on his mate.

"I'm not ready."

"I know," they agreed. "But you must be strong. If not for yourself, for Grace."

Rocky squeezed Grace's hand as his emotions threatened to boil back over. Adrian was right, they always were. He hadn't prepared for this part of the project and now they were both suffering the consequences of that.

"Besides," Adrian added. "If you had allowed Tumble to speak, you would know the transfer is going to plan. They are no longer detecting neural activity within Grace's brain but instead are detecting almost identical signatures in the new body's brain. He is not gone, Rocky."

This gave him pause. He had heard Tumble say that before he'd zoned out before. But to hear it from Adrian meant something.

"What do you think?" His notes came out in a mere whisper. "Is he right? Is it really working, question?"

"If you saw the readings yourself, which I have, you would agree it is most definitely working."

"So hes not gone? Question?"

They shook their carapace, tension unspooling again. "No, my love. Our Grace is not gone." They got to their feet, offering their claw again. "Come, I can show you."

"But-"

"Do what you must," they added. "But you must leave him soon. They need to move his body immediately now that it is no longer needed."

Rocky turned fully to Grace, feeling Adrian's attention from behind. He reached up and caressed Grace's arm with the claw that had been holding his hand the past.. who even knows how many hours it had been. Another claw brushed along his jawline, slowly dragging up and mapping out all the ridges and hills along Grace's face. Rocky wanted to memorize every plane of Grace's body, and even though he almost certainly already did, he needed to feel him one more time to make sure he remembered. The claw on his arm moved up to drift along Grace's pectorals, then down the expanse of his torso. Another claw reached for his leg, feeling from the hip down to his ankles. Rocky didn't dare to touch Grace's feet, though. He knew Grace didn't like his feet touched. He only touched where Grace would've allowed him to.

If Grace's head hadn't needed to be shaved bald in order for the electrodes to work properly, he would have wished to ruffle Grace's hair. Grace would always act annoyed when Rocky did that, saying that he'd spent sooo long making it look nice even though Rocky knew he absolutely had not. He knew Grace liked it, too. Many nights had been spent with Rocky's claws tangled in those messy locks, scratching the top of his Grace's head and petting through his hair as the other drifted asleep.

Rocky's claw wandered back down Grace's arm, both of his other claws retreating back to the floor. He stopped over the scar he'd left during the incident above planet Adrian, feeling the scar tissue raise beneath his fingers. Rocky rested his claw over it, spreading his fingers over it to perfectly fill the shape. The one time they'd ever actually touched, and it had burnt a permanent reminder of it into Grace's skin. While Rocky had felt immensely guilty as the scurvy caused that very scar to peel away and bleed as they hurtled towards Erid, he'd come to take a lot of pride in it.

It was his claw. Rocky's claw, on Grace's arm. No matter who or what saw Grace, they would know who he belonged to. He would always be Rocky's.

Adrian's claw settled atop his shoulder again, much like earlier. "I will miss him like this." They admitted softly. "It will be strange to get used to him as anything but human."

Rocky hummed in agreement, stroking over the scar now with reverence usually reserved for affection between mates. Adrian raised a claw to rest atop of Rocky's, holding onto him as the claw beneath theirs traced over the scar carefully.

"You never did tell him, did you?" Their voice dropped to a low hum, quiet enough that the science team on the other side of the wall would not be able to hear.

"It was not like that," Rocky hummed back. "It was the only way to save him, burning him was not intentional."

"Yes, but the implications of such a marking are still there."

"He did not choose that," his claw finally dropped, not until after lifting Grace's arm from where it dangled off the table and resting it along the side of his body. "And he liked the scar. I did not want to ruin it with cultural connotations he was not aware of."

Adrian hummed. "Perhaps he will choose to receive such a marking again."

If Rocky wasn't so overwhelmed with emotion, he may have yelped or grew too flustered to get out a proper sentence. But instead, his hearts warmed at the thought. Grace's arm baring his and Adrian's mating stones and their arms baring his. What a thought that was.

"Yes, I hope so."