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Robert doesn’t know how long he has been in this dark, stone-cold cell, sleeping on the hard ground with only the dead silence keeping him company. It feels like months, years, forever, like he has known nothing else but this.
He barely remembers the faces of the Z-Team, his memory of them fading with each passing lonely day, along with the hope of them ever coming for him…
Robert tries to push the thought away, trying to hold onto hope that they will rescue him from Shroud, but it becomes harder, his hope vanishing little by little with each passing day.
He misses Courtney’s snarky comments in the break room, even if they came off as a little mean. He misses his talks with Blazer that sometimes became flirtatious on her end, despite him not feeling the same way. He misses Chad’s gentle but teasing head pats after they worked out. He misses the Z-Team’s playful insults at him.
What Robert wouldn’t do to have all that back…
But here, in this bare cell with no windows and only a locked door, he has never felt so lonely in his life.
No one speaks to him, no one touches him, no one even acknowledges he exists except when one of Shroud’s masked underlings brings him just enough food and water to keep him alive another day. Sometimes one would hit him in the gut or kick him in the face.
But that has stopped days ago, and Robert starts to miss it. At least a fist against his nose was something. But now that’s gone too…
He has forgotten why Shroud captured him in the first place. Robert is surprised the supervillain hasn’t killed him yet, something he slowly starts to prefer to the loneliness.
“Why would I put a bullet in your head when my daughter wants you alive?” Robert vaguely remembers Shroud saying before being thrown in his cell, the cell he’s still wasting in and will certainly die in. No doubt she’s just as much of a villain as her father, but Robert can't bring himself to care what she has planned for him…
He will eventually rot here, forgotten and alone, slowly dying of starvation or bleeding after being tortured just for the fun of it, never seeing his team again.
A tear rolls down Robert’s cheek at that thought. What he won’t give to see the Z-Team one last time, to be embraced by them, to hear their voices one last time…
Curled up in the corner of his cell, he eventually falls asleep, remembering the team of villains-turned-heroes he loves so much.
A gentle hand on his cheek startles Robert awake from his light sleep.
He flinches, the sudden touch so unexpected it feels surreal. Robert feels another hand on his shoulder, gentle but firm, preventing him from pulling away. His instinct tells him to run, to get as far away as possible.
But opening his eyes, all of those fears fades away in an instant when he sees who it is.
It’s Blazer…
“Hey, Robert.” She greets him, her voice soft and her smile angelic, gripping his shoulder a little tighter. “I’m here now.”
Robert lets out a sigh of relief as a smile spreads on his face, tears of joy burning in his eyes. He leans into her touch, wrapping his arms around Blazer’s middle, hugging her like she will disappear any moment.
They stay there for a while, holding each other, not moving. Robert wonders why Blazer doesn’t feel any haste to get him out of here, why she’s staying right where she is. He wants to ask her all that, but the thought melts as quickly as it comes, too overwhelmed by the affection she gives him.
Moving her hand from his cheek to his hair, Blazer places a soft kiss on his forehead, brushing through his brown locks with a satisfying smile on her face.
“You’re finally mine, Robert…”