Notes:

Takes place BETWEEN the Peacekeeper demonstration and when Astro wakes up in the morning.
Things this fic fixes the dissatisfying death scene and Tenma being so ok with immediately giving up on his new Toby after spending so long building him. I'm pushing Tenma overboard twice so in the morning he's done with trying.

This fic's finale has been a long time coming. Originally started on ffn December 16, 2009, we are now 9 and a half years later nearly to the day. Happy birthday lol
Thank you for your patience and continued support.
Rewritten as of May 2019.

Disclaimer: Don't own Astro boy the original, nor the newly revamped version (although I prefer the new one, but to each his own) they belong to Imagi, Osamu Tezuka and David Bowers etc... etc...

Moments before, Toby remembered thinking that the weaponized machine was amazing. Its adaptive technology modified its armour and by connection, its artillery, as it required. The battle between the emotionless droids had filled the air with an array of fireworks made of red and yellow beams. They seemed far more harmless in comparison to their actual deadly nature.

It had been fun to watch until things had taken a turn for the worse. The robot turned against its creators. As he had watched from the sidelines, he remembered feeling exhilarated as well as slightly scared for his father as the Peacekeeper charged full throttle towards the unprotected beings.

Out of the corner of the young boy's eye he saw the bony arm of his father lift up. As he turned his attention momentarily towards him he realized that he was activating the shield. A thumping began in his ears and made its way down into his chest.

Toby had been told to stay in a 'safe' place, which was in the janitor's closet that one of the guards had put him in. No one had known or even had the chance to realize that the sly boy had slipped out of the enclosure and snuck into the laboratory.

Feeling slightly safer that the shield was lowering at an increasing speed, he relaxed knowing that he'd be safe with the others…until he noticed his location…at the other end of the lab. The side that was being closed off from the Peacekeeper was at the opposite end. As soon as the glass would hit the floor and lock its position it would stay sealed and he would be trapped. Someone inside the sealed partition would have to disengage the emergency switch to open it again.

Heavy metal steps reverberated menacingly as they thundered across the laboratory floor. The Peacekeeper rapidly approached the console that separated the President and scientists from the raging machine. Monstrous steps shaking the floor as it run towards them.

Toby raced to the clear shield just as the Peacekeeper collided with it at such an unbelievable speed that the thick protective glass shook violently. Just as the shaking stopped and Toby pulled back both of his arms to hit the glass and call for help, smoke and sparks flew from the opening in the ceiling that the shield had emerged from.

"Dad! Dad!" Toby screamed as he pounded on the glass barrier, catching his father and Doctor Elefun's attentions. Their shock at seeing Tenma's son standing on the other side of the shield quickly turned to horror.

"TOBY!" the father shouted.

"DAD! HELP! PLEASE HELP ME!" He looked at the two men desperately pressing buttons on the console. As he watched his father yell, nothing moved and panic overtook him. A cold feeling of dread washed over the boy and nervous energy coursed through his veins. He felt himself go red from the exertion of pounding on the glass barricade.

Toby's thoughts bounced around the room, trying to remember if there was another exit. He came up blank. The heavy door he entered through locked on entry and safety was on the other side of the glass.

"DAD! DAD!" his voice raising, cracking and shrill to even his own ears. His calls for his father quickened in a vain attempt at willing the machine to function again. All while banging his thick hands against the barrier.

The Peacekeeper's red core light blared through the glass and shone onto their panicked faces. The deadly rogue robot pulled his club of an arm back menacingly before delivering two earsplitting strikes to the shield. They rattled Toby's head so sharply that he bent over in pain trying to protect his ears.

"Stop it!" he yelled to the machine. As he looked up, his father had raced towards him and was pressing his hands against the barricade, yelling his name.

"Dad HELP!"

"TOBY!"

"DAD!" He continued to desperately look from his father to the enraged robot beside him, hoping beyond hope that it's batteries would suddenly run out and stop it from striking out again.

"It's going to be okay Toby. I'm going to get you out! Everything's going to be fine. I promise." The more he tried to comfort his son, the harder the lies seemed to be to tell, and the more panic crept onto his face.

Toby stood in a panicked daze, dread filling his stomach as he slowly realized that his father's words were empty promises; hollow and desperate.

Trying to be strong, the scientist locked eyes with his son. His words a hopeful drum across the near impenetrable glass. As he spoke, the fear in his son's eyes overwhelmed the father. Choking back his words, he remained silent, taking in the distress and silent resignation that stretched across his son's face.

Toby's little chest picked up anxiously and heaved stuttered breaths as the foreboding red core energy grew horrendously gigantic in the cold metallic palms of the Peacekeeper.

A whirring noise came from the automaton and almost instantaneously the red core blast had enveloped all in its deadly and powerful glow, leaving those protected by the shield hanging in horror and anticipation.

Nothing but utter silence and a blinding red light.