I had a vague memory of this post and I rediscovered it and now I’m so sad 😭. I NEED a positive ending to this amazing idea. I’ve finally taken it upon myself to write down a potential resolution:
A team member, maybe the team leader, comes to ask the reformed villain something at an odd hour when they’d normally be alone, but before they get to their door, they hear crying.
Their instinct is to see what’s wrong, so matter who it is, so they open the door.
They find villain quietly sobbing in a tight ball on the ground, but villain quickly sits up in response to the door being opened. It’s too much for them to see someone from the team while in this state, so they can’t stop themselves from continuing to cry
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Their tone isn’t that concerned, but they have to check in. Certainly there must be something seriously wrong for such a cold and indifferent person to be sobbing on the ground in their room.
Villain can’t bring themselves to say anything at first, and then finally gets out a broken “I’m sorry”
The hero takes a few steps closer and puts a hand on villains shoulder. “What do you mean?”
Villain starts babbling about how they’re “sorry” and they “didn’t know”
The hero eventually pulls them into a hug and villain doesn’t reciprocate at first because maybe they don’t feel like they deserve it, or doesn’t really know how, but eventually they melt into the first scrap of comfort they’ve been offered in months
Maybe the hero team captures one of villains old team members, and they can see by the way the teammate talks to villain that there’s some weird history there, but they’re not sure what
Eventually they go through the ex-teammates phone and find a ton of videos of their “team bonding”
Dozens of pictures and videos of villain being used as a punching bag, being made to do humiliating things for the rest of the team, pictures of their bruised and bloodied face, etc.
Maybe they ask the ex-teammate why the hell they’d do that to one of their own team members, and they just shrug and say “team bonding”
The hero team is horrified, and finally connects villain’s behavior to their past
Maybe one teammate leaves the room to go find villain, and as soon as they do, they don’t say anything, just grab them into a tight hug
The villain doesn’t know why the hero is doing this, but finally getting the touch they so desperately craved causes them to break down crying, clinging onto the hero