Chapter Text
Contrary to the belief, Robert Robertson the third had always known what his legacy was.
He had always known it came with death, sacrifice, and pressure.
He remembers the day his mother had left- claiming she had done her duty to provide his father a son- and vanished for a life without responsibility. Robert was only five at the time and has never seen his mother again since that day.
He remembers when his father finally told him the truth about their legacy: how his own father had sat him down and given him “the talk” about taking over the Mecha Man suit. Robert had been only eleven and was already feeling the weight of impressing a man who’d died long before he was born.
He remembers the day that he had been dreading and preparing for all at once- watching how his dad had left with the team, promising he would be back that night. That was their last conversation. His father hadn’t even bothered saying goodbye to his own son.
He remembers how the news broke out while he was sitting alone in the living room of that big house. Even Track star had been called out and couldn’t watch him. (Robert suspected the man had grown attached to him in some way, considering he was far too old to have a babysitter now). He remembers seeing the panic on the reporter's face as they announced the death of Mecha Man while chaos raged in the background. Robert was fifteen, and in that moment, he knew that the curse of his family had been passed on to him.
The public ceremony of Mecha Man had been huge and exhausting, with citizens and heroes alike paying respects to the man behind the suit. The private burial for Robert Robertson the second, however, had been small- just Track star and Robert, standing side by side against the graves of two generations of Mecha Men.
Despite Track star’s attempts to help, he too started to fade away from Robert's life, leaving him alone with a legacy he didn’t want and a suit in desperate need of repairs.
Robert spent years trying to keep the Mecha Man legacy alive, chasing leads on Shroud, running out of funds and energy. Eventually, he finally had to sell that big old home and get a crappy rundown apartment. His only companion was a little black and white dog he had found - all alone like him- and named him Beef.
He finally knew he was fucked when he went to go fight Shroud and ended up in a coma for months, gaining only more scars and losing all his progress, strength, and the suit itself. He'd never felt more like a failure than when he had stood before the press, admitting to the entire world he could no longer be the man they wanted and needed him to be. When that reporter asked about how he had “killed his family legacy”, he wanted to disappear. The truth was, he didn't know what his dad would think- the man only talked to him to show him how to be Mecha Man. Part of him wishes he had died in the suit that night, just to ask.
But then he met Blonde Blazer and got that job at SDN. He was given the chance to finally get the help he desperately needed to become Mecha Man again. He got to see Track star again. He had started to finally warm up to the Z-team- even Invisigal.
For once in his life, Robert didn’t want to die in that suit. He didn’t want to be Mecha Man.
No- for once, Robert wanted to live.