Chapter Text
"I'm sorry I failed you...I failed you all..."
"But I hope you can forgive me, wherever you are..."
"And I'll be back with you guys soon..."
That's all Darwin could hear now. Those whispers from someone below.
He didn't know who's they were, well at least at the moment. But slowly and surely, the suckerfish was beginning to figure this all out.
But before he could fully do so, Darwin's thoughts suddenly went cold as a familiar voice began to speak in the real world.
(Back at the warehouse located in the Elmore Wrecking Yard...)
"Hello, Darwin..."
"It's time to wake up now..." Rob muttered to his victim, who was strapped down in a "upgraded" version of the electric chair from earlier.
"Huh...? Wait, where am I... What...what the heck did you do to me?" Darwin groggily responded.
"You're fine, Darwin. After all, I wouldn't treat you that bad considering what...well...uh..."
Rob had awkwardly stopped in the middle of his sentence, clearly lost among his thoughts. However, he rapidly returned to reality and attempted to continue on, hoping that Darwin didn't notice this weird reaction at all.
"Anyways, moving on..! You're now in my lovely 'house', and you can't escape. So don't try to. It's pointless."
"But...but Rob, you do know that my fri-" Darwin tried to stutter back.
Rob quickly interrupted him though, clearly showing a bit of a unhinged grin as he did so. "Oh don't worry, I've prepared for them. If they come anywhere in a 5 by 5 foot perimeter I've set up around this place, let's just say that it won't end too well."
Darwin only gulped in fear at that statement.
Sure, his friends and family were strong in their own ways and could easily beat many foes. But honestly, he wasn't too sure on if they could defeat Rob, particularly when no one knew what else he had up on his sleeves.
"Now uh, let me give you a few rules of mine since you're a new house guest, I guess," Rob suddenly snapped at him, to which Darwin instantly returned from his thoughts and focused on his captor once more.
"So first off is that you should probably not move a lot. Like the only things you can really do is talk and breathe. Nothing else. If you do move too much, then the thing you're strapped in will shock you, and uh...I don't want that to happen too much, even if I'm a villain or whatever."
"And second of all, is that I don't really have anything else to tell you since I basically just made these rules up."
Once Darwin heard that one though, he honestly felt a bit of confusion and concern for Gumball's old nemesis. "What..!? Are you serious, Rob?"
"Well, it's kinda hard to figure that stuff out when you're as busy as me. Also, I literally have no friends or family too, so....yeah. You get it."
"Anyways, I'll see you later. Don't do anything stupid or I won't hesitate to do something in return," Rob remarked before quickly walking out of the room, the grey door shutting behind him soon after.
This left Darwin in that cold, dark room with nothing to do other than to just reflect on his thoughts and what he had witnessed.
He practically had just saw the part of unhinged nemesis, which was completely different from what he used to be back then.
What was more interesting however, was that he saw Rob obviously hesitate on finishing his sentence earlier, which he could only assume was about Gumball.
But what could he have done to Gumball then? Well, at least that's what Rob seemed to be saying from what Darwin could tell.
Eventually around 5 hours later, the door finally opened once again and the dark-cloaked nemesis stepped through in a matter of seconds.
"Uh, don't worry about what I'm gonna do right now, Darwin. Just don't move or you'll get shocked." Rob said as he pulled out a device from his pocket and fired at the suckerfish.
And before he could react, Darwin quickly disappeared in a flash.
Shortly afterwards, he quickly reappeared at a kitchen of some sorts, although he was still strapped to the electric chair from before. And Rob soon joined him as well, with him walking out of a nearby room before dashing over to the oven, pulling out two bowls of heated up mac and cheese that were ready to be eaten. "Yes...I know. It's mac and cheese. Sorry, I couldn't find anything else to eat."
Darwin wasn't exactly listening to his kidnapper however, he was more so in awe at the sight before his very eyes.
The kitchen itself was honestly pretty nice compared to what he would've thought for someone like Rob. Then again, it had been about 2 years since he'd last seen him, so plenty of things could have changed.
The white marble counter tops...
From the lovely, clean wallpaper...
It was marvelous.
"Wow, I didn't expect your house to be so nice," Darwin remarked.
"Oh, uh....thanks I guess. I've never really gotten a compliment before..." Rob replied while he was doing something to the electric chair Darwin was currently strapped to. "Alright, I'm gonna turn down the sensitivity of this so you can eat and all. But DON'T try to escape, because if you do...well..."
In a instant, Darwin only could hear the sound of a plasma gun being cocked against the side of his head. And he didn't bother to look at that accursed weapon, too scared by the possibilities of not doing what Rob told him to do.
"You understand?"
"Uh....yeah! Yep...no escaping!" Darwin anxiously let out at once.
"Good."
"Now, I hope you enjoy your food..."
And for the next 30 minutes, it was dead silent as the two respectively ate their food and didn't talk at all.
Rob was just minding his own business, as usual.
On the other hand however, Darwin was pondering on if he should question Rob on what happened to Gumball, or if he knew anything about his disappearance.
It was a long shot, sure. But Darwin knew that when his friends and family came to eventually save him, they still would need to know where Gumball is.
And what better time was there than now?
So as Rob was just about to teleport Darwin back to the locked room from earlier, the suckerfish suddenly asked him something unexpected, to say the least.
"Hey, Rob?"
"Yeah?"
"Uh, do you know what happened to Gumball..?"
Upon the mention of that damned name, Rob immediately stopped dead in his tracks, being as still as a statue.
"Nope. I know nothing. Anyways, it's time for you to go."
Darwin clearly could tell that he was lying though, so he pushed on in his quest for information. "You're lying, Rob. It's very obvious you're hiding something about him."
"What...what do you mean!? I'm not hiding anything!" Rob nervously shouted in a attempt to make his victim shut up.
"Yes you are. I mean, why are you so nervous about it then?"
"Uh, well....um...."
"Come on, Rob. I just want to find my brother, please..." Darwin slowly said with tear-filled eyes, which was a bit of a effort to guilt Rob into leaking what he knew.
Instead of being instantly met with any more of a fight however, Rob practically ran at the speed of sound to Darwin and held the gun right in front of his own two eyes, forcing Darwin to finally keep quiet in fear of his own life.
"Shut up. Just shut up. JUST SHUT UP ALREADY! OKAY!? JUST. SHUT. UP. AFTER ALL, YOU WOULDN'T WANT ME TO KILL YOU NOW, WOULD YOU!?"
...
"Ugh....why the hell did you make me do this..!?" Rob begrudgingly said after a few more minutes of silence, with him pulling down the gun along with the sigh as well.
"Uh-" Darwin tried to say, but he was quickly met with a huge meltdown from his captor upon daring to even talk anymore.
"Listen, I did it all, okay!? I fought him...I beat him...I fricking deleted him for goodness sake! And now, he's gone, Darwin! Your brother is gone! HE'S [REDACTED] GONE, OKAY!?"
"I [REDACTED] REGRET WHAT I DID TO HIM! I BASICALLY SENT HIM TO A PLACE WORSE THAN DEATH, AND HE NEVER DESERVED TO GO THERE AT ALL! BUT I WAS SO DAMN SELFISH AND STUPID THAT I DIDN'T [REDACTED] CARE! AND NOW, IT'S TOO LATE! HE'S GONE FOREVER, DARWIN!"
"I DID ALL OF THIS, AND IT'S ALL MY [REDACTED] FAULT! IT'S ALL MY [REDACTED] FAULT! IT'S ALL My [REDACTED] fault..! It's all my [REDACTED] fault..."
"it's all my fucking fault."
Rob then ran out of the room in a flurry of tears, with his cloak being left behind at the kitchen while Darwin could only stare in shock at what he'd just witnessed.
The first part was...
What had Rob done to his long lost brother?
What had he done to his best friend?
And the second, more important part was...
Where was he now?