The lab door hissed open. Dr. Tenma clenched his hands and looked up.
They had indeed brought the robot boy. He walked stiffly in front of President Stone, guided firmly by the man's hand on the back of his neck. His large brown eyes, once wide and cheerful, were fixed dully on the floor.
"Will you help me?" Dr. Tenma asked his fellow scientist Dr. Elefun in a low voice.
Elefun looked at him with sorrowful eyes. "But this is where we created him..." he said brokenly.
"Well, uncreate him," President Stone said harshly, shoving the boy forward. He staggered forward, face twisting slightly, but his eyes didn't move from the floor.
"Unplug him, whatever. It's a matter of national security."
Dr. Tenma stood there studying the glowing cuffs on the boy's arms, feeling his stomach twist guiltily. Those things could never hold him. He must have given up.
He sure seemed to have. He was standing there, shoulders slumped, looking like the loneliest boy in the world.
"Let me talk to him first," Elefun said quickly.
President Stone huffed, as if the very idea was a ridiculous waste of time, but there was a hint of curiosity in his demeanor as he watched Elefun step towards the boy.
The prisoner looked up and smiled weakly. "Hello, Dr. Elefun."
"Hello Toby."
"Toby...no one's called me that for a while," he said, a bittersweet tone to his voice.
"This isn't your fault, you know," Elefun said gently. "You're fantastic, absolutely first class...superb...wonderful..."
"Thank you," the boy replied softly. "You know, I tried to find my place in the world. I thought I had found it...but fitting in can be a lot more complicated than it seems."
"My dear boy, if you only knew," Elefun said tenderly, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"I think maybe this is what's supposed to happen," the boy continued. "That this is my...destiny." He gave Elefun a brave smile.
"Boo hoo," President Stone said, interrupting the moment. "It's a machine. Come on, let's get moving, people." The boy's face fell at the heartless words, but he did not resist as the president shoved him towards the operating table in the back of the room.
The prisoner's meek acceptance of his fate was too much for Elefun. "This is wrong, Tenma, and you know it!" he said, suddenly rebellious. Two guards quickly grabbed his arms to secure him.
Tenma tried to calm his pounding heart. "No," he said falteringly, unwilling to say the words but hearing them come out of his cold lips anyway. "The president is right. It's just a machine."
He knew the boy had heard him, but all he did was turn slightly and say quietly, "Goodbye, Dr. Elefun."
President Stone strode back towards the Peacekeeper and droned, "Load the blue core into the Peacekeeper. I've got a press conference scheduled in ten minutes."
The soldiers still with the boy lifted him onto the table and walked away, their boots clacking loudly on the gleaming floor of the lab.
It was time.
Taking a deep breath to steel himself, Dr. Tenma walked slowly towards the boy. He was sitting on the edge of the glowing blue table, staring forlornly at his shoes. But as Dr. Tenma stopped in front of him, the boy looked up. His beautiful brown eyes - so much like Toby's - searched Dr. Tenma's face, desperately looking for any sign that the one he loved most in the world had any love left in his heart for him.
Dr. Tenma swallowed hard and placed his hands on the boy's shoulders. Wordlessly the two of them gazed at each other. The bond between them was still there, despite everything the two of them had gone through.
Gently Dr. Tenma slid the boy onto his back, still looking into his eyes. Despite all Tenma's determination to see the child as a robot, he knew he was far more than that. There was a soul within those eyes, a quiet soul that burned with the purest love in the world.
Dr. Tenma's heart lurched with emotion, and he softly laid a thin hand on the side of the boy's face. The unhappy mouth lifted slightly at his touch.
Slowly, reluctantly, Tenma's hands drifted down the boy's upper torso and pulled his shirt up to expose his chest. The boy glanced at Tenma's hands hovering, trembling, over the part of his chest that contained his blue core energy heart. Then his eyes steadily fastened back on Tenma's face and he resolutely waited for the end.
It took a few seconds for Tenma to gain the courage to prompt the panel covering the core to open. He took another deep breath and grasped the shining blue and white sphere nestled inside. Hesitation gripped his mind and he moved his eyes back to the boy's face.
May I?
The boy nodded ever so slightly and smiled, gazing steadily into his creator's haunted eyes with nothing but love and forgiveness in his own.
Tenma pulled out the core, and instantly a horrible coldness rushed upon his body like ice water pouring through his veins. In the same moment he felt the spell of silence break.
"I'm sorry."
The robot boy's chest flickered with the remaining traces of power still in his system. "Don't be," he murmured, his lids growing heavy with the sleep of death. "I'm sorry I couldn't be a better Toby for you...Dad." His head slumped to the side and his eyes closed completely. He did not move again.
Dad. Dr. Tenma stared hollowly at the motionless body before him. He felt his heart shrivel inside his chest, just like it had when he'd realized Toby was dead. He forced himself to turn away and walk towards President Stone, who stood there expectantly.
"Well? Is it done?"
"It's done."
Unable to even look the president in the eyes, Tenma handed over the precious core.
President Stone smirked with triumph as he fingered his prize. "Good man. When I'm reelected, I'll give you the funding to make as many toys as you want."
That robot wasn't a toy. Tenma's eye twitched at the very thought. He's a...he's a...well, he's my son!
"No," he said in a iron voice, grabbing President Stone's arm. His eyes blazed with a sudden, almost mad defiance. "If you want the core, you're gonna have to kill me."
President Stone gasped as Tenma snatched it from his hands.
"No, let me take it," Dr. Elefun said, mock grabbing it. When the enraged president and his guards turned their attention on him, Tenma took the chance to slip back to the table.
By the time President Stone realized what had happened, Tenma had already activated the hanger protective door.
"Open this right now!" the president shrieked angrily, banging on the glass. Tenma glared at him determinedly before whirling around and setting to the task of bringing his son back to life.
After a few rushed moments the energy monitor was beeping steadily. Tenma's heart leaped as the robot boy's eyes flew open.
"Uhhh, wha-what's going on?" he asked, sitting up in shock.
Tenma grabbed his shoulders and looked right in his eyes. "You may not be Toby, but you're still my son."
"Dad!" the boy's face broke into a teary smile and he joyfully leaned into his father's embrace. Tenma closed his eyes tightly as he held his son, savoring the moment. At last the searing pain of Toby's absence began to lessen its weight on his soul.
The door hissed upwards and President Stone stormed into the room, followed by his soldiers. Tenma's heart beat faster, and he pulled away from the child.
"Now, fly!"
His son smiled, a glorious light in his eyes that had not been there before. With one well calculated snap he broke the cuffs on his wrists and rocketed right off the table and into the ceiling.
Dr. Tenma watched him, euphoric that for once in his life, he was absolutely certain he'd done the right thing. And no one, not even President Stone, could take that from him.