Notes – A short drabble I've been meaning to write for a while based on the flashback scene in issue 43 of the comics, after reading it in Sonic Archives volume 12. King Max is a guy who gets much hate from the fans, and I don't even particularly like him, but back then he was just a king faced with betrayal. So I wanted to write about what he could have been feeling when he was thrown into the Void.
As King Acorn stared into the face of the Void, a swirling mass of distortion, he felt terror and he felt rage. He had no idea what this thing was, or if he would survive it, only that he'd heard Julian – no, Robotnik – say that Naugus and Kodos were already inside waiting.
The Void wasn't the first threatening thing that the king had seen that day, but he'd be lying to say that the robotisizer had come with as much of a shock as it should have done. On the contrary he'd been completely aware of its production and had supported Sir Charles in its creation.
On the outside it had been a medical miracle – making the limbs of the frail into robotic versions of what they once were, allowing the previously handicapped to perform to such a high standard and probably live a lot longer. But he never for a moment thought it would be used for… for this.
The image of one of his citizens, flesh entirely replaced by metal, played in front of his mind. Robotnik hadn't wanted to help people; he'd wanted to control them all. Their robotic minds answered only to him.
And now he had defeated King Acorn, the last piece standing in the way of his domination.
The king thought of all the people who would lose their lives because of this, because he had been too naïve to see it coming. What of Sir Charles? King Acorn couldn't believe that the kindly man had any involvement in this scheme. Perhaps Robotnik had already disposed of the poor guy. Sir Charles had a brother and a nephew who loved him for pity's sake!
…Sally.
King Acorn also had a family. That poor young girl who wouldn't have a chance to grow if this tyrant got in control. What would become of his little daughter and all her friends? Would they make it?
He hoped, he partially prayed, that Rosie had got them all out of there. They would be left behind no world worth living in but at least they would be alive at all. With life they could fight to get their tomorrow back.
The victorious ranting of Robotnik could be heard roughly in the background, he tried to focus on it. This man had been the first overlander, the first human, who his people had trusted. He'd assured them that Robotnik was a good man, and now they didn't even have the minds left to scorn him for his lack of judgement.
"A safe journey, my once and former king!" Robotnik yelled.
With that the SWATBot that had held King Acorn thrust him forward into the Void. Everything was over now. His mind flashed with images of robots, of traitors, of a crushed tomorrow, and of those poor children.
"I'll get you, Julian!" he called back, watching the dictator fade out of sight.
He was the last person who deserved to live, and the king hoped that if he could do nothing more that his daughter Sally and Sir Charles's nephew Sonic would live on to put a stop to this metallic death.
