I love me a good story where the hero and the villain have to work together, forming an unexpected romance between the two, but villain redemption arks are over used and overrated. I love hero corruption arks, absolutely love them, it makes it better if at the end of the story you find out that the villain was the good guy after all but it's not necessary. I was thinking, for a hero x villain story, that what if no one knew the hero was corrupted.
What if hero and super hero were fighting against villain together but villain found a way to control heros body. Everyone knew hero was being controlled by villain because it happened during a fight but no one knew that hero was still technically conscious during that time. Hero was awake, just unable to control their body, they could think and see but not move or talk. The time they spent under the control of villain was, enlightening, for them and their morals changed. They learned that villain was right all along, and if they were given the choice they would help villain. After a while, the control villain had wore off and villain did nothing to re do it. Controling hero had its perks, yes, but villain had used them as much as they could by then and had no need for hero anymore. Hero realizes that they have control over their body again and just like they promised themself, they didn't leave villain and go back to superhero. Villain sees them still in their room and is all like:
"um, I'm not controlling you anymore, you can leave if you want. Or try and fight me, that's what I expected you to do." And hero's all:
" I know very well I can leave, or fight you, I don't want too though." And villain gets confused and says:
"if you think that staying is going to get you anywhere you're wrong" and hero responds with:
"I'm choosing to stay because I want to help you. I was conscious, I could think, I could see, I understand what you're fighting for and I want to help. What I thought before was wrong, but I've changed, please consider letting me help you." And after some convincing, villain agrees and together they defeat superhero.