Work Text:
The Raft was cold, calculating and cynical.
Those three words had also been applied to Helmut Zemo after the loss of his wife, (Y/N), and his son, Carl. He was once a warm, loving and kind man but a loss like his had changed him in his core.
All Zemo ever did was sit in his cell at the Raft and think back on his life, his triumphs and his mistakes, his blessings and his regrets. All of them were to do with his family.
His greatest triumph wasn't working in the Sokovian Armed forces, even though he would always say it was. Truly it was wooing his wife. She had been the subject of his affections for many years before she agreed to start a romantic relationship with Helmut. She had her heart broken before and vowed to never let it happen again and Helmut had assured her that it wouldn't, and that was a promise he vowed never to break.
His greatest mistake was not protecting them as the city started to crumble and fall from the sky. He had gone away from the city with them, hoping that they would be safe but he underestimated the distance of which the carnage would spread. He watched, powerless, as they we're crushed by falling scrap metal and concrete. He had sealed their deaths with his poor calculations.
His blessing was his son. Carl was everything to the man. Helmut often thought back to the day he was born, the greatest day of his life. He was scared to hold him as he thought he may break him. All Helmut wanted to do now was hold his son one last time.
Zemo's greatest regret was not telling his family he loved them one last time. Words had escaped him when the rubble fell, he had so much that he wanted to say to them, but most of all he wanted to let them know that they were loved.
Zemo was cold, calculating and cynical but he had to be. He had experienced so much loss, anything more would have killed him too, so out of self-preservation, he remained in his cell in the Raft, knowing that it was where he belonged.