Minor references to the Teen Titans, but they won't be a major plotline
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Robin was tired of this. He was tired of how everyone was treating him. He had endured it; he had tried to like it. He took everything with a smile on his face.
Until now.
Ever since the Justice League was taken over, back during the first year of the team, Batman had been nasty to Robin, pushing him to perfection inside training and neglecting him outside of training. The Batcave had become filled with tension as Batman forced Robin to act like Batman himself- the one thing that Robin didn't want to be- and then would ignore or hit Robin after he failed. Robin felt as though every step that he made, every decision, was just another mistake to Batman.
And Bruce was worse.
Bruce would just ignore Dick. That was it. He would put up a front for the media, but as soon as the cameras were pointed away, Bruce's back was turned, and Dick was alone. Alfred would try his best, but he was Bruce's butler through and through, and couldn't give Dick the attention he needed. Whenever Dick felt like he was drowning in the tenseness of Wayne Manor, he would put on a pair of sunglasses and hop into the zeta tube to the Cave.
That wasn't saying that the Cave was better, though. While Robin was ignored at the manor, he was the center of attention in the Cave. Everyone would smother him, not letting him have his space, and if a mission came up, he got the easiest job- unless a hacker was needed, then the mission became half of the Team guarding him as he received information. If there was a fight, he was immediately taken away, back to the Cave where it was "safe". Then, behind his back, they yelled, argued, and didn't trust him due to the fact that he was still hiding secrets from them.
Robin- no, Dick- was sick of it, of being ignored and neglected, then smothered again. He was sick of working, training, being beaten again and again just to be babied and not trusted. He was sick of the disappointment, the lack of trust, the abuse from Batman; the negligence from Bruce; the babying and smothering from the Team. He hated it; he hated his life right then. But he still soldiered on, hiding all negative emotions behind a mask, becoming numb to all of it. It was a part of his life. He had to endure it.
Dick endured it for two years, two long years of numbness. He was just an investment for the Batman, a charity-case for Bruce Wayne, and a hacker for the Team; that was all he was. He might have meant something to his true parents, but they had been dead for years, and they had probably just used him for popularity as well. Then the circus gave him up, after all, who'd want a little circus freak who doesn't know English?
All of this was hidden. What happened in the Batcave stayed in the Batcave; either that, or Alfred didn't care either. What happened in Wayne Manor stayed in Wayne Manor; that's why he never told anyone his secret ID. What happened in the Cave stayed in the Cave; that's why he never spoke to Batman about the smothering he received. Dick Grayson's three worlds were kept apart- and Dick Grayson was kept numb.
And then everything got worse.
He had saved the civilians. He had stopped the Joker. He had saved the Batman's life.
And he was stripped of his title- his identity- for getting shot in the chest.
Batman had taken the last thing that Dick had from his parents and torn it away; Robin was taken away from Dick the way a father would take candy from the child. But no, Bruce wasn't his father, Bruce would never be his father; he hadn't earned the right.
So then how did Bruce have the right to take Robin away from Dick?
Then the Teen Titans, the straw that broke the camel's back.
He wasn't going to start a team; he had been at Jump City to end the vicious cycle of life. But after meeting the others, he felt needed for once, and let those feelings lead him blindly.
When Slade took him, he thought that was it; the Teen Titans would never forgive him. And yet somehow they had, even though they had taken him away from the one place where Robin felt… happy.
But after the Titans defeated the brotherhood, Batman came back. Batman took away the Titans; Batman took away Robin's last hope. And they let Batman break them up; they also mumbled about Robin's secrets; they all left without a fight, blaming Robin about what he never did.
That was it.
Now, two years after the Team defeated the Light, a year after the Teen Titans formed, a day after Batman chased Robin away again, on Dick's sixteenth birthday, eight years to the day his parents died, Dick has decided to take away the numbness. He's tried before, and he now takes off his gloves, letting them drop down to the bridge below him, and looks at his attempts. Attempts that have never been noticed, just like his feelings, always hidden behind a mask-be it a physical mask or not. But no matter how hard or how deep the attempt, he was still numb as soon as the pain stopped. He wanted that pain, begged for it, yet it always left him, just like the people in his life- no, not his life, in their lives that he butted into.
A quick thought passes through his head; will anyone miss him?
No, if course not. He isn't wanted now, he never will be. No one needs a liability, no one needs Robin.
From his utility belt he pulls out the one weapon that Batman has no idea he has, the silver knife that Zucco almost killed him with. He now wishes that Zucco did. But if that criminal can't do it himself…
Dick will help him out.
The yellow belt on Robin's slender, too-skinny waist is pulled off with one tug, falling down to Robin's gloves. Next the cape is cut off, the knife running through the thin skin on Dick's neck, as he relishes in the pain, and a jagged red line is now permanently on the Robin's throat, never to go away. The figure on the highest suspension beam of the old bridge now takes the knife to his wrists, to the important arteries there, swiftly cutting through them, letting the life-granting blood flow out of his body. The knife is then taken to the "R" symbol and in one motion the famous symbol is flying down to the pile, blood soaking it, a completely blood-covered knife stabbing it into the top of the pile. One last thing… the mask slowly floats down, lost to the pile forever.
Dick, because he is Dick now, even in the remains of the Robin uniform, is now smiling. He tips over, and flies, flies down to the water below. He'll now be free, he'll now be released, and he now will no longer be numb.
And the smile never leaves, not as he hits the water, feeling bones break, breathing in the water, feeling his own body shutting down. For the first true time in over two years, he feels at peace, he feels happy, and he doesn't feel numb.
Goodbye.
Hope that it was sad enough for you!
Please review and tell me if you liked it or not. I welcome constructive criticism as well as praise ;)
