Bender screamed Fry's name and rushed to his best friend's side. With strength far beyond any human, the robot was able to push the globe off Fry. He almost wished he had left it in place rather than see his friend's broken body. There wasn't much of Fry that wasn't crushed. It would take a miracle if he survived. Bender knelt down beside the human, taking the hand that had stuck out uninjured from the globe.
"Come on, Fry, you're gonna be fine!" He looked in desperation at the Professor and Zoidberg. "Right? RIGHT? You can clone any part he needs, or whatever else it takes, can't you?"
Everyone looked at him, and he saw little hope in their eyes. This couldn't be. Fry could not be too injured to save. Leela was standing looking down on him, tears streaming from her single eye. Zoidberg started working to stabilize him, but that only increased Bender's worry. Bender tried to stop him, but Hermes grabbed his shoulder.
"As bad as Fry is now, Mon, he can only help," he said. Bender reluctantly let him work. At lest it was something being done.
Somehow, Dr. Zoidberg was able to keep Fry's heart pumping, although he wasn't exactly sure where a human's heart was. Amazingly, Fry was still alive when they reached Dr. Cahil. Everyone was forced to wait outside the operating room while Fry was in surgery. Leela and Bender both kept pacing the floor while the others sat in silence. Bender stopped pacing long enough for Leela to touch his shoulder, making him jump. She looked at him with concern, knowing how much Fry meant to him. The robot immediately tried to hide his feelings.
"Ah what are we all so worried about Fry for, anyway? If he dies it isn't like the Professor can't just clone him like he was going to with that dumb dog of Fry's, right? It's not like Fry would be gone forever."
"I'm sorry, Bender," the Professor answered. "But Fry's already been brought back once. With his unique brain, he can't have his brain waves duplicated again. It was sheer dumb luck the last time when I used stem cells on all of you. If I cloned him, all there would be is his body."
"So it wouldn't really be him," Leela said, tearfully absorbing the knowledge herself.
They continued waiting, and time passing so slowly made Bender think how long Fry had been frozen, and how well he fit into the future. He thought back to the day they'd met. If it hadn't been for Fry, he would have gone through with committing suicide. It had been Fry who had gotten him to go against the limits in his own programming. Then there had been that moment Bender had never expected.
You really want a robot for a friend?
Yeah, ever since I was six.
While not exactly slaves, it was true robots were seen as second class citizens in many ways. Often they were seen as only tools. Bender's uncle had received a burial, but often robots were simply scrapped when they were broken beyond repair. True friendships between a human and a robot were about as common as a friendship between a human and a toaster.
Bender smiled slightly remembering when Fry and Leela had celebrated Robanuka for him even knowing he'd made it up, just to show him they cared about him robot or not. There was the time Fry had been so jealous when Bender had been a werecar destined to drive over his best friend. Bender, not knowing what he was doing, had tried to drive over Leela instead. The robot cared about Leela too, but he'd always been closer with Fry.
"If I had it to do over again, buddy, if I could choose, I'd drive over you every single time!" Bender whimpered.
And of course, the ultimate time Fry proved Bender being a robot made no difference to their friendship was today. Fry could have chosen to only save one of them. He would have been able to get clear of the globe himself then. He might have only chosen to save the human. But Fry had proven he cared about robot life just as much as human life. He couldn't choose between them.
Dammit Fry why did you have to be so noble and caring? Why couldn't you be more like me, Bender?
His thoughts were broken when Dr. Cahil came out. None of them had ever seen her look so serious.
"You can see him now," she told him. "But he won't know you're there. It's too soon to say if he'll ever wake up again."
There was a collective cry at that, and they all hurried to Fry's side. Bender looked at his fallen friend, drops of oil coming from his eyes.
"Whenever I said 'kill all humans,' I always whispered 'except one.' Fry was that one," he sobbed. "And I never told him so."
Leela gasped as that reminded her of something. In her dream, when she'd been in a coma from the sting of the space bee, she'd dreamed Bender had said exactly that.
"Bender, maybe we can help him after all! Fry kept talking to me when I was in a coma. That helped me wake up when the doctors thought nothing else would. We'll keep taking to him. It's worth a try, anyway."
The robot looked back at Fry and vowed he would stay there talking to Fry until he woke up, however long it took. And he would wake up. Bender would not accept anything else.