Chapter Text
It has been a couple days(3 to be exact) since his discovery of dicklessnes, and the fact he had apparently been turned into a cyborg. Robert has been doing pretty well to his standards after waking up(at least for no longer being completely human intact).
“I’d like to take your recovery slow due to this being a very new and recent type of treatment that hasn’t been tested to this much of an extreme.”
Eva crouches down and moves bundles of wires out of the way. They were all still connected to him in many ports, most of them coming from his chest or left shoulder. It was weird, he could feel them in him(pause on that) even though most of his body was very obviously lacking the vital components to touch, skin and nerves. Robert was a mechanic not a doctor or bioengineer so he had no clue how this worked.
Mandy was visiting him today, all of them (other than the Z-Team, which he hasn’t been able to see yet) took turns checking on him. He hasn’t noticed it till now but even as she was wearing the amulet, he could still see the dark marks under her eyes, the slight shift in purples and brown tones fading down from her waterline.
“Robert, I was able to bargain a little and got you medical leave for two more months, so take as much time as you need to recover. Like Eva said, is some new science shi..stuff that hasn’t been taken to this much of an extreme, I- we were worried you wouldn’t…you know, wake…”
Mandy trails off not wanting to finish the sentence as she walks up to his bed side. Her eyes were starting to gloss over with tears, seconds away from falling down her soft face. Mandy practically collapsed on top of him, trapping Robert in a hug of love and tears. Mandy didn’t put all her weight on him, of course, he could feel her still keeping herself up against the bed. He lifts up his robotic arm, resting it on her middle back, cautious of somehow scaring her. Small sobs leave her sorrowful face before she pulls back.
“I don’t want to get you wet with tears just in case it’ll electrocute you.”
She lets out a small laugh, trying to cope with the new situation. Robert looks at her in the eyes and wants to smile to comfort her, reminding him of what’s on his face.
“I’d love to smile at you but I still have no idea what’s on my face.”
Suddenly the rooms air feels thick with an awkward, all because he motions his face.
“About that..your- uh, how do I explain this…”
Evangelina looks around and locks eyes with mandy, giving a look of worry and guilt. What was wrong with his face? He still couldn’t remember too well of what- with… wait, what did happen?
“Do you remember what happened on the roof top fighting shroud?”
Mandy jumps in, her voice cracking with worry, her words sound as if she’s stepping around a minefield. He really wanted to know what happened to get him to end up like this. It was all still a cloudy mess in his mind, thick swamps of static blocking him from thinking clearly.
“Not really? I got out of the mecha suit and that’s about it, wish I could t tell you more but, it still feels like I got shitfaced drunk and can’t remember the night before.”
Robert shrugs, shoulders moving up then down only one of them making the noises of electronic motors moving. All of this still freaked him out, the first day was rough, learning how to grab things and coordinate his brain to his left side. Movement still felt like a foreign concept, not for his right side, his right side was still normal other than the fact he had gained a new collection of scars.
Mandy sits down on the bed, weary of touching his leg before Robert bends his knee and moves it out of the way. Eva gathers her papers and rushes her way out the door.
“I’ll give you two some privacy.”
Mandy and Eva exchange a look of understanding, the door closes with a nice click, confirming no one else would enter.
“Do you know why you stepped out of the mecha suit?”
“Not too sure, probably not for a good reason.”
Robert looks to the side before continuing the, now serious, eye contact.
“Shroud was…he held Beef hostage after we all took down his own mech, demanding that you give him the Astral Pulse. You fly up there and go to give it to him.”
Ah, so that’s why, the muck and clouds of static start to clear, letting in cleaner rays of memories, unwanted, terrifying ones.
________________
“I’m not steps ahead. I’m miles. So don’t fuckin’ test me.”
Robert felt the two Pulses in his hand, both glowing with a bright, powerful warmth. Walking felt as if he was treading knee high water, the sight of Shroud hanging Beef from his sage green collar.
His innocent face clueless of the hands that are near seconds away from killing hurting him, unaware of the danger he’s hanging from. There’s just a drop of doubt in Beef’s round glossy eyes, looking at his owner asking for help in his small predicament.
Now standing, staring with his hand hovering over a leather covered hand,
Robert had two options now,
One; Give him the Astral Pulse, let his powers be enhanced by the strength of a star.
Two; Give him the Proto Pulse, risk the chances of him not know which is which and have him install an unstable bomb into his head.
Fuck
It seemed like a loose loose, Shroud can read a person better than that person even knows themselves. He will know if Robert gives him the fake. No matter what he does, Shroud is getting his Astral Pulse.
There is one more option, one riskier than the second, but worth a shot, would he outsmart this man with a 50/50?
________________
“I couldn’t see much, but you ended up giving him both of the Pulses, and you had a small argument with him. Nothing too violent, just bickering.”
Now he’s starting to remember, reminding the sound of glass and metal clinking as they fell into Shrouds hand, the disappointment in his voice as he held the two identical Pulses. A 50/50 than ended up ruining the man’s life.
_____________
“Look, you’re right, I can’t outsmart you…cause, you know what? I’m not a smart guy. So the only way to keep you from knowing what i’m doing is to not have any idea in what i’m doing. Which is how I feel all the time but, I trust my gut and take my best guess.”
Robert scoffs at the last sentence before finally looking up at the person in front of him. The man he used to know well.
“Just like you used to do. Before you plugged all those fuckin’ christmas lights into your head”
His words are rushed and pumped full of anger, borderline from pure hatred.
“Before you were afraid to make your own decisions…Elliot.”
______________
“I still can’t believe that, all you had to do was give him a choice to make for himself and he…”
Mandy laughs, a small chuckle before leaving the thought unfinished in words.
“Well, after that, he ended up choosing one, puts it into his brain and starts floating for a bit,gives a whole speech about villainy, aaaanddd ends up throwing up after choosing the wrong one.”
A hushed snort comes out of her as she recalls the once all powerful man throwing up and bitching about it.
“You know what, I think I remember that part.”
Robert gives a sarcastic look(and answer), wishing this moment could stay like this, laughing over Shroud vomiting all over himself like he can’t keep his liquor down. Why can’t this moment stay like this, stay and freeze so they stay happy. It’s like the calm before the storm.
He knows what comes next.
______________
“You know, someone has to clean that up, right?”
Amused and relieved, Robert replies to Shroud. The tension in the air seems to have vanished over the last couple minutes of mass amounts of stomach acid spewing around the ruins of SDN. While it is true that someone is going to have to clean it up, it’s the least of everyone(even the janitors) concern right now.
“You sonuvabitch.”
The words come slurring out of Shroud’s mouth as he stumbles up like he’s sips away from being blackout drunk, except, he hasn’t been drinking(probably) and the true cause is from plugging a false star into his head. What did you expect to happen? Projectile vomiting is a sign of brain trauma.
“Don’t be mad. You lost. It happens.”
Robert sounds like he’s trying to teach a second grader not to be pouty after loosing his first soccer game. Though it wouldn’t be too far off from what he is currently doing.
“Sorry kid, we both lose.”
The tension spikes as the sickly man reveals a gun. The revolver points straight at Robert, aiming shockingly perpendicularly to his chest. The change in atmosphere and pressure of the whole situation leaves him frozen in shock without time to react.
Time seems to slow as the clicks of the gun’s barrel turning, it’s all he can hear. He stares right through the metal path the bullet follows, the hand of the person hold it jerks back at the recoil and shear strength of power against Shrouds fragile state. It whistles through the air, inch by inch, second by second as it makes it way closer to him.
Something splats with a grunt as the bullet slow, making its way through an invisible barrier, spraying crimson red around the entry and exit of the metal fragment. The total force of the billet isn’t completely stop as it lodges its way into Robert’s chest, right above his heart, knocking him back onto the rough, ashy concrete roof. The bullet drops into his hand as he cupped it around the small bleeding dent in his chest.
___________
“Yeah, yeah, well…Shroud ends up pulling out a…gun on you and Visi…she takes the bullet for you, literally, and it hits her in the shoulder.”
Mandy’s cheer attitude is gone, engulfed in sorrow and tears threatening to run down her face in sobs.
“You end up lunging at shroud, that’s the last thing I could see though, another fight broke out as the Z-Team started to take down the vomit covered Red ring members.”
Her hand trails up and she rests it on his prosthetic knee, uncaring that he can’t feel it. He wants to though, the slight weight on his knee satisfied his hunger for her touch, her love.
“I’m not sure what happened…after that, everything seemed to just stop when a bright flash of blue washed over everything,”
Trying to keep the tears at bay, she pinches her nose bridge.
“I’m not sure if you remember yet or if you remember at all. We don’t have to push to though, we can always wait.”
Robert does, he knows what got him here, what got him in this robotic body. He does know, it’s just the debate whether he has the guts to tell her.
_______________
The blue glowing tube sits in Shrouds blood dripping fingertips, all the anger in him settles for a second, why did he stop Shrouds teeth lay scattered around him, along with small splatters where blood jetted out of his face.
It all happened so fast, there was nothing he could’ve done not now, too late.
Shroud smashes the damn thing into the ground, time felt as if he was moving in sludge. It all started when the glass breaks, fragments fly out and melt into blobs of molten heat. The burning pases by fast, skin blistering for a short moment before it’s ripped away. His left arm goes back, elbow bending back before his shoulders ligaments give out with a frightening sound of bones snapping and muscles squelching with freed blood. Robert’s jaw is next, not spared from the force of the bomb, blowing to the side before torn off its last organic hinge in his skull.
Blue is all he can see, burning his retina, that blue is burned into his mind that color is never leaving his head. Robert’s chest is pushed back, skin and muscles still flying off his ribs and what’s left of his shoulder. Pain is an after thought, the burning is gone, nerves have been boiled and melted away into nothing.
Rumbling
Rumbling is the next thing he heard, followed by a sinking feeling.
The roof caves in.
A flying, weightless moment of calm, the organs floating free with his blood. It’s only a moment, no shorter, not much longer. Time speeds back to normal-
Crack
His head slams into the collapsing roofs edge, concrete strait to the cranium. Robert falls forward into the ruins of SDN, slabs of rubble falling around and below him as he starts to black out, just for a second relief from the agonizing pain.
He wakes up to is falling.
Down
Down
Down
A crunch mixed with a splat sounds when he hits the dusty floor. All the wind in whatever is left of his lungs is forced out, leaving him sputtering up mists of blood. There’s distant noise of metal groaning, a light blue orb floats in the sky from where he fell, a straight path to the red and fiery orange sky.
A moment of calm, in the eye of the storm if not, where he can try to focus on what has happened other than pain.
Another explosion comes out from the blue ball in the sky. A ring of energy washes over everything, like the foam of an ocean wave, finally exerting itself from this world’s existence.
Shaking consumes the building, it’s dark but the noise of booming and the thuds of the remaining parts of the roof and floors fall around him tells Robert he’s still in danger.
Something pins him to the floor, Robert’s legs are flattened by a large(obviously) heavy object. His knees bend and grind into the ground, fleshy wounds being littered with bits of dirt and tiles, femurs are pulverized and unusable.
He’s stuck.
Pinned.
Trapped.
Adrenaline runs dry and his brain starts to give way to unconsciousness. Black consumes his vision and thinking is incomprehensible.
His mind fades in and out from the present moment.
Eyes open and the bleeding sunset leaks through from above, his surroundings still caped over in harsh shadows, but Robert can now see what’s on top of him. Obviously rubble but as well as desks and chairs, furniture mixed with what’s left of the roof above from where he fell like a fallen angel.
A fallen angel.
He would consider himself one.
The last sliver of words stay in his head playing over and over until he’s ready to go he’ll never be ready.
There’s no way he’s surviving this. In the last 15 years he may have been ready to die, ready to give his life to continuing the legacy. Robert Robertson III would die in that suit, there was no other destiny, Robert always knew that.
Death, like a bittersweet escape from the torment life would bring him. Dying was the only escape route he had in mind. That’s why he had given up his bed to drop Toxic off his balcony, why he had given the rest of the bag of dog food for beef and the bowls of water. Robert was ready to not come back to that apartment that day.
Ready to die and kill the legacy with a heavy heart.
But things have changed so much since then, Death was no longer the only option to save him from the pains his mind injected into him.
Maybe he wasn’t ready.
He was ready then, when he thought he had no one left for him.
But not now, no.
He had so many people that now cared for him. The times between then and now were much different. He didn’t want to die now.
Mandy…Chase…
He’s gonna miss the pair
I’m sorry
A golden light flashes above Robert and he wishes he could stay awake a little longer.
“Robert?!
Robert?!
Rob-
Oh my god… Robert don’t close your eyes yet pl…”
Her words fade out, nothing matters anymore, he’s gotten to hear her one last time.
I’m so sorry Mandy,
Is what he wants to say. He pleads against the will of his broken body, forcing yet still guiding him to slowly slip away.
____________
“Robert? Are you still with me?”
Mandy reaches to his right hand, squeezing it with reassurance. Her eyes meet with his, a distraught filled expression drooping over her.
“Yeah, yeah no i’m good, its- I just…I remembered what happened.”
A shaky breath leave his half artificial chest. Mandy had infected him with her tears as the now edged off of his water line.
“How…much of it do…you remember?”
“A lot.”
Robert remembers her voice. Even as his body had been ripped and shredded, hanging on for dear life, to keep pushing and fighting for another breath, another heart beat, another chance to survive.
He never wants to hear her like that again.