Robin groaned in pain as he rolled over onto his side, still trying to catch his breath from the force of the fall. The ground beneath him was black and hard like stone, and he lifted his head to look around at his other surroundings.
"What the-" he breathed as he took in the vista.
It was an endless landscape of flat, black ground marred by nothing but scraggly, twisted trees and jagged rocks. The sky was a deep crimson with rivers of white flowing through it, almost like clouds but sharper.
He rose to his feet, brushing off his suit as he assessed the situation. He knew that Raven was creating the monsters-which he had been about to tell the team before he was taken-so, logically, that would mean that he was…in Raven's mind?
It was possible. It certainly looked a lot like what Beast Boy and Cyborg had described, except, thankfully, bereft of demonic wildlife. Of course, it could always be something else. Raven was from another dimension, after all. The portal the creature pulled him through could have transported him there, or to a completely different dimension altogether.
Regardless, he saw nothing threatening around him as he surveyed the area. As soon as Raven accepted her fear and regained control of her powers, he would assumedly be returned home. Him and Beast Boy.
"Beast Boy?!" he called on the off chance that his friend had been transported to the same place.
Not a sound returned to his ears; not even so much as a breath of wind.
With a sigh, he wandered over to the nearest cluster of rocks, intending to sit down and wait it out. Just as he reached them, however, he heard a faint voice.
"Robin..." a female voice called, and he whipped around to find the source of his name. The voice sounded far away, but he was certain it had come from behind him.
"Hello?" he answered, staring out at the blank, desolate landscape. "Hello?!" he repeated louder when he did not receive a response.
"Robin…" he heard again, a little clearer this time.
He twisted slightly to the right, turning toward the voice, and saw a figure behind one of the grey, twisted trees some distance away.
"Who's there?" he shouted, taking a few, cautious steps toward the movement.
He did not see anything move again, and so, after a few moments, he approached the tree.
"Hello?" he asked again as he closed in on it. "You don't have to hide. I'm not going to-" he cut off as he grew level with the tree, peering around to find that whatever he had seen was now gone.
His eyebrows furrowing, he looked around, scanning the ground for footprints, but there were none. Looking out across the black plain, he still saw nothing but clusters of rocks and trees. Not exactly ideal hiding places.
"Robin…" the voice said again, and he shot around just in time to see a shadow dart behind a particularly large rock formation.
How they had gotten over there without him noticing, he didn't know, but he was kind of out of his element here. The laws of earthly physics probably didn't apply.
"Who are you?" he challenged as he approached, more confidently now. "How do you know my…name," he trailed off as he jumped around the rocks to find, once again, nothing but black ground.
"Where are you?" he called, scanning the empty, motionless expanse around him. "Why are you hiding?"
"Robin? Robin, where are you?"
He gasped as he heard the voice again, louder now. It sounded slightly frightened, and he remembered what Beast Boy and Cyborg had said about there being several different Ravens in Raven's mind. Was this one of them? Was Raven trapped in here too somehow?
"Who's there?" he called, wandering out from behind the rocks. "Raven?"
"Robin, where are you?!" the voice repeated, more frantic now, and he realized it didn't sound quite like Raven.
It was definitely female, but the tone was all wrong.
"What's going on? Who are you?" he asked again, taking a few steps forward.
A dark figure peeked out from behind a cluster of trees ahead, and he raced toward it, growing nervous in spite of himself. As he grew closer to the trees however, he saw someone dart out from behind them, racing away from him and toward another group of rocks. While he could tell the figure was female, with long hair flowing out behind her as she ran, he couldn't see any other distinguishing features.
"Hey, wait! WAIT!" he shouted, chasing after the woman. "Where are you going!?" he sputtered as he leapt over the rocks, skidding across the ground on the other side.
She was, of course, already gone, and he looked frantically back and forth. The only thing he noticed was that the rock formations were getting larger and more frequent, which was bad news when you were trying to tail someone.
"Robin!" the voice exclaimed, and he jumped.
It was so close, so afraid, and so…familiar.
"Where-Where are you?" he stammered, more worried now than afraid, and he couldn't quite understand why.
He saw a shadow move across one of the rocks to his right, and he ran toward it. As he approached, he heard a small, whimpering sound, as if someone were crying.
"Hello?" he asked softly as he approached, more slowly this time so as not to scare her away again.
He could still hear her faint sniffling as he drew near the rocks, and he suspected she was just on the other side.
"I'm not gonna hurt you," he soothed, his gloves wrapping around the edge of the rock. "I just wanna talk," he added, peering slowly around the stone.
There was a flurry of hair and a small gasp before she scampered away, her footfalls impossibly silent on the ground. She disappeared so quickly, he only had time to register the color of her hair. Red. A particularly unique shade of red.
"Star?" he breathed, bolting after her.
The rocks jutted up all around him, creating a jagged sort of maze as he progressed further, blindly following in the direction she had run.
"Starfire, it's me!" he yelled, his eyes scanning the diverging paths on either side as he ran.
How had she gotten here? Had the monsters gotten her too? But then why was she running from him, and how was she disappearing so quickly?
He paused momentarily as a thought occurred to him, his hand freezing on one of the rocks he was bracing against.
It wasn't real. None of this was real. Starfire wasn't real. And he could be walking right into some sort of trap.
"Robin!" she shrieked again, strangled, sharp, and frantic.
His head lifted, his eyes widening as his heart skipped a beat. He couldn't risk it. He had to go.
"Starfire!?" he shouted back, pushing faster through the jagged, black rocks.
"Robin, help!"
"Where are you!?" he bellowed, nearly stumbling in his haste.
"Robin," she whimpered, and he could hear the tears in her voice. "Robin, please!"
"Starfire, where are you!?" he railed, the rocks passing in blurs as he sped after her voice.
Then, there was just a scream. An ear-splitting, heart-stopping scream, and his blood ran cold in his veins.
"Starfire!?" he shouted, moving dangerously fast through the sharp, reaching rocks.
Suddenly, the rocks cleared, and he found himself staring once again at a vast expanse of black nothingness. Frantically, he scanned side-to-side, certain that her voice had come from in front of him, but there was nothing for her to hide behind, nowhere for her to go.
"ROBIN!"
He felt the blood drain from his face as the scream shattered the silence, sending icy shards through his heart.
"ROBIN, HELP!"
Then, he saw it.
Far away, silhouetted against the red sky, was a small, black figure. It tumbled through the air, twisting and spinning sporadically, with a tail of flaming red hair trailing behind it.
"STARFIRE!" he bellowed, his throat tearing as he took off toward her falling form, but she was so far away. So far away.
His feet pounded against the ground as he tried to convince himself it wasn't real, that it wasn't her. But, in spite of that, he couldn't stop the burning building behind his eyes.
He could almost see the tent, hear the gasping crowd, and smell the putrid mix of popcorn and animal waste. He was halfway here and halfway in a memory; the worst memory, the images that woke him shaking in the middle of the night.
He willed his legs to go faster as tears welled up in his eyes, but he wasn't getting any closer.
He wasn't going to make it. He wasn't going to catch her.
"STARFIRE!" he cried, a pointless hand stretched out toward her as she tumbled through the air.
He was helpless. He couldn't save her. He had failed. Again.
His foot caught on the terrain and he pitched forward, tears now unapologetically streaming down his cheeks.
"NO!" he screamed as he stumbled, watching the feet turn to inches between her and the ground.
Just as her green eyes turned toward him, the scene twisted to black.
He landed hard on all-fours, a small cry of shock and pain escaping him as he hit the floor. Looking down at the ground beneath his hands, he saw familiar, red carpet, and his heartbeat slowed ever-so-slightly. Panting heavily as he tried to calm himself, he lifted a gloved hand to wipe the tears from his cheeks.
"Robin!"
He had just enough time to register the owner of the strangled cry of relief before there were arms around his neck, pushing him up onto his knees.
"Oh, Robin," Starfire whimpered, and he slowly returned the embrace as they knelt on the ground.
"It-It's okay," he breathed, placing a hand on the back of her head as she trembled, sobbing into his shoulder. "It's okay now."
She stretched away from him and looked up into his face with sparkling green eyes, rivers of tears rushing down her cheeks.
He ran his fingers through the tears, and, as they knelt there, staring at one another in the silence, he knew in a wordless way he would never be able to explain that they were both holding onto the one thing they couldn't bear to lose.