Maybe it would have been better if he had never been able to talk with Knuckles. He could have just dropped the renegade red rascal at the hedgehog's home to do whatever it was he had assumed Knuckles wanted – he had assumed punching, ripping some quills, and moving on, if he had had to hazard a guess when he had been unable to hear – and been none the wiser about the Master Emerald.

He could have been content about the hedgehog getting some much deserved use as a punching bag and moved on with his own plans. Getting to Stone, kissing him silly, freshening up, eating actual food, getting a good night's sleep in an actual bed (preferably with Stone in it), getting acquaintanced with the cafe lab, and making plans for further actions in the morning. Plans that likely would have involved checking up on the hedgehog to see if there was anything left to salvage in the wreck for science, and whether further revenge was necessary. Getting to his secret lab. Considering negotiations for his re-employment with the government – he had done nothing wrong, he had been acting on their orders to find out what had caused the blackout and he had been given the leave to deal with it in any way he deemed necessary.

He didn't understand why the government had tried to erase him for his efforts, and there were very few things on this planet that he didn't understand. But it genuinely made no sense, from any standpoint – logically they should have been happy he had been following their orders to a T and given him a posthumous medal or something if they had assumed he had died on duty; emotionally they should have been more invested in him than in anyone else involved in the situation simply due to being on the same side, even with no love being lost between him and them; psychologically they should have doubled down on eliminating the hedgehog due to it making one of their most important assets disappear. The government should have swooped in to get the hedgehog after his own failure, and then either paid the entirety of Green Hills to stay quiet about it or brought them before the court for attacking a government official and harboring an illegal alien immigrant. They were objectively the criminals and should have been punished accordingly, not him.

It. Made. No. Sense.

This is why he hated humanity as a whole, they were backstabbing traitors that always left him to fend for himself even when he did everything that was asked of him, and usually perfectly at that.

But he was getting off topic.

If he had never heard about the Master Emerald, he wouldn't currently be lying in the wreckage of his largest project, half buried under the rubble, both of his hearing aids giving him nothing but tinnitus again, and unable to feel his legs and definitely better off for that at least. He was in enough pain from… well, everywhere in his body, and didn't need to add to it with what would definitely be the worst part. Adrenaline was keeping the bulk of the pain in check, but that wouldn't last forever. Even if his forever was likely to be very short indeed.

He wished he had had the time to kiss Stone more. He had thought he would have the time after he had the ultimate power secured and had squashed the hedgehog.

He had always thought he'd have more time for everything Some Day. He had prioritized his job, he had pushed off the things he wanted to experience in his lifetime, he had always counted on there being a tomorrow.

He hadn't even been able to say goodbye to Stone. The only silver lining about the situation was that he had teleported Stone out of the robot after Stone had hit his head and been in danger due to being unable to protect himself. Stone was safe and sound. Probably. He pointedly didn't think about a potential concussion and brain hemorrhage and-

He didn't think about it!

Stone had to be safe. He was safe. Robotnik could die knowing that, and strangle Stone in the unlikely-but-not-unproven afterlife if he was greeting him there upon his arrival.

Robotnik closed his eyes. He once again considered the merits of trying to untrap his legs from the debris, but he was all too aware that he didn't have the leverage necessary from his position. He had tried once already despite the knowledge, and had only hurt himself further. He then considered the various sharp pieces of metal around him – he could hasten the process of finding the truth about the existence of the afterlife – but ultimately he didn't have it in him to do that, despite everything. He had too much to live for, so much he still wanted to do and achieve.

He kept hoping against all hope that maybe, if he held on just a little longer, then maybe…

A shadow fell over him and he opened his eyes.

Stone.

Stone was standing above him. It was really him.

Stone looked like shit. His suit was dirty, his face was bloody from a cut by his right eye, and his expression was frantic. His mouth was opening and closing.

Oh.

'I can't hear you', Robotnik signed, hands shaking more than they had when he last used them.

'How hurt are you? Can you move once I get you out?' Stone asked, looking somewhat relieved, but understandably still very worried. 'I'm so glad you're alive!'

'Can't feel my legs. Hopefully they're just broken and trapped, but I'm not ruling out the need for amputation if they're crushed beyond repair or have gangrene from blood circulation being cut. They shouldn't be severed; I would feel the blood loss if they were.'

Stone grimaced, but nodded. 'I'll move the debris, prepare for a lot of pain. I'm sorry.'

"A lot of pain" was a massive understatement, but at least he was dug out eventually, and had both of his legs still attached to his body and enough feeling returned to them to rule out gangrene. Not that the returned feeling was positive for any other reason, because the pain was nigh intolerable.

Stone carried him out of the wreckage and left him to wait in a relatively out of sight spot for what felt like ages. The pain was mounting to a point where Robotnik was starting to wish he had actually died instead.

Finally Stone returned, dressed as a G.U.N. soldier, face cleaned of blood, and with a gun and a first aid kit with him. They splinted Robotnik's legs to their best ability, he ate a bunch of generic painkillers, and off they went to steal an army vehicle Stone had already scouted out and prepped.

Robotnik really needed to put a ring on it as soon as he was in any shape to do so, because he planned to never let Stone go. It would likely be months, but it never hurt to plan ahead of time.

ooooo

Robotnik slipped out the faulty hearing aids from his ears and reached over the parking brake to Stone's side. He deposited the aids in Stone's breast pocket, and leaned back in his seat with a pained grunt. Despite the pain killers, every movement he made hurt like a bitch.

"Those are easily fixed once we're at the lab", he said, speaking out loud so that Stone could keep his eyes on the road as much as possible. "Might even have an extra pair there."

'You're sure we shouldn't go to the hospital first?' Stone asked one-handedly while driving.

Robotnik scoffed. "I need to show you where it is, how to get in, and enter you into the system. Can't do any of that from a hospital bed. You need a place to stay while I'm incapacitated."

He also needed his fake ID to get admitted to the hospital and to provide them a fake address for the massive medical bill he had no intention of actually paying. And of course Stone needed access to some cash so he could buy food and other necessities for their new home base.

Home.

With Stone in it.

Maybe not the house he had wanted to get them, but the panic room could be easily converted into a proper bedroom, and living in the lab was arguably better than having to commute between two locations.

"You won't mind living in the lab with me, right?" he asked, just to be sure. He had no reason to think the answer would be negative, and he was always right, but…

'I'd love to live with you', Stone said, and directed a wide smile at him for a second, before he had to focus on the road again.

Robotnik's chest ached, but it was a good ache rather than yet another complication from his fall. He wanted to kiss Stone again, but dying in a car crash didn't sound very appealing after all the trouble they had gone through to keep him alive.

ooooo

The lab was dusty from about a year of complete disuse, but safe and working. It didn't have all of the equipment installed or even unboxed, because while he had always made sure to order his lab equipment in doubles when he made new purchases for his government lab – he had paid back, he had claimed to do the buying through the company for the tax reductions and not at all mostly in order to obfuscate his own lab's location by having nothing delivered directly to it or his house – he hadn't always had the time during his vacations to actually put everything away properly. It had been more important to get the lab functional and protected, and to back up all his new data, and to create and then send up that satellite…

It would keep Stone busy while he was stuck in a hospital bed. Cleaning, organizing, and making everything wheelchair accessible.

Robotnik was sat awkwardly in an office chair while Stone ran around, collecting things in a duffel bag for him. Clothes, bathroom products, fake ID, cash, a couple of books about neurosciences for light reading, moustache wax, his prescription slips were printed out – forged for now, he would legally reapply later, maybe – and so forth. No hearing aids though, he'd have to fix the ones he had, so Stone packed him the necessary tools and parts for that.

Finally, Stone deposited the bag in the car and came back for Robotnik.

'No last minute additions?' he asked, looking worried again. 'Of course I can just bring anything you might be missing later; I will visit daily, obviously.'

Now that was a novel thought, and one he found himself looking forward to greatly. Robotnik crooked a finger at him and when Stone stepped close enough, pulled him in for a long, languid kiss.

Stone looked radiant after.

'Now I have everything, let's go.'

The recovery would no doubt be rough, but he was home, he was free from the government's shackles, and he had Stone. Whatever awaited them in the future was a problem for later, and one they would tackle together.

Screw the government, screw the hedgehog, screw Knuckles, screw the Master Emerald. He wouldn't trade away a second of his life, when it all led him here.