I'm sorta big on history stories, and Robin always seems so, I don't know, not scared of anything. I wanted him to have a deeper, darker secret.
I don't own any of this, man that sucks.
His greatest fear
The sun had just set behind the massive T in the harbor. Somewhere in the darkness, a car alarm went off, a cat mewed at a passing dog, and a man who looked like a clown grinned wickedly at a large red a white tent being erected and circus trucks pulling in. The clown man cackled to the dark sky.
"Alright!" came and excited yell from the doorway. Beast boy had just entered, brandishing a brightly colored flyer. "Circus is in town!"
The other titans turned in their seats on the couch to face him. All but one anyway.
"Awesome." Said Cyborg, punching his fist into the air. Starfire flew over to examine the poster.
"Oh wondrous!" she squealed in delight. "Look at the animals!"
Raven grimaced. "Overpriced, undercooked food, board, un-amusing old animals, and –"
BB cut her off. "Clowns!" Raven looked agitated, but realized that she would be dragged along anyway, so returned to her book. Robin, who had been listening closely, turned at the mention of clowns and frowned.
'Well' he thought, 'At least there aren't-' but his thought was cut off as Starfire chose this exact moment to squeal in delight, "OOO! There are people flying. Perhaps they too are not of this Earth."
Robin froze, but no one noticed, they were all still excitedly examining the poster. Soon however Cyborg's face fell.
"Looks like Rae was right about the overpriced. Look at how much a ticket costs!" Robin looked up again, slightly more hopeful. But it was quickly squashed when BB grinned broadly and pulled 5 neon orange tickets from behind his back and waved them around.
"Free tickets outside the door!" he said. "We're famous."
Robin was lost to the world, absorbed in his own thoughts. It was, as usual, Starfire who snapped him back to reality.
"Oh, won't it be glorious?" she chided. His frown deepened.
'Why didn't I ever tell them? Then I wouldn't have this problem!'
He knew he couldn't bring himself to say yes, so he said nothing, stood up, and stalked off. Cyborg and BB watched Robin pass between them, followed his back to the door, and the slide shut. They looked at each other questioningly, and Cyborg shrugged his shoulders. Star floated, dumbfounded, a few feet away.
"Did I say something wrong?" she asked in amazement.
Later that night, the titans were waiting in a long line at the circus gate. Raven, as expected, was looking board and occasionally scowling at Cyborg and Beast boy, bouncing around. More unexpectedly however, Robin had the same agitated air about him.
"Robin, what is wrong?" asked Starfire. "Was it something I said?"
They were at the back of the group and after looking around to be sure that no one was listening he muttered,
"I just don't like the circus."
"But why not?" she asked, confused.
Robin put up a hand and began to make up some answer about smelly elephants when the line moved and they were inside the gates.
As they walked, Star, Cy, and BB stared wildly around. Raven trudged along behind, noticing every straggly haired, snaggle toothed animal keeper putting screaming kids onto smelly animals. Robin was staring around at various posters reading; 'See the amazing flying Andersen family. Tonight, 7 p.m.'
A horrible feeling gripped him and his stomach turned. He heard far distant shouts and screaming, and felt a hand grip on his shoulder. Then Raven was in front of him.
"Robin? Robin!" she was snapping her fingers in front of his face.
"What's up with you?" she said once he shook his head.
"I don't like the circus." He said dryly.
"That makes two of us, but we're still outnumbered." She said.
They had arrived outside of the big top, and stopped. The other three had already gone inside, not realizing. Soon enough though three sets of hands reached out and pulled the stragglers into the tent.
They found seats in an empty row that soon filled up around them. After a few minutes the lights went out and a man appeared in a spotlight in the ring below.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, welcome to the Darkling Brothers circus!" This was followed by applause and shouts.
"And here at Darkling Brothers we like to start things off; with a bang!" from behind him there was a loud bang and a smiling girl went flying through the air. Another spot light flicked on to reveal a boy, about 16 by the looks of him, swinging through the air on a trapeze.
As he caught the girl there were many ooo's and ahh's and loud applause, but the two girls on either side of Robin felt him tense up. They both looked at him as he stared out at the people, now flipping around to more applause, transfixed. Starfire was distracted by a particularly amazing stunt, but Raven kept watching Robin.
"Are you sure you're ok?" she asked. When he didn't answer, it hit her like a train. She knew what the matter was; she had seen it in his mind.
"Robin!" she said urgently. Her concern had aroused the attention of the others, Robin still unmoving.
"What's wrong with him?" Asked Cyborg hurriedly.
"His-" but Raven didn't finish her sentence, as there was a loud chorus of screams and yells and 4 of the 5 acrobats plummeted to the ground. One boy, about 13, stood alone at the top of a platform, horrified at the scene below him.
"NO!" Robin yelled trying to jump up. Raven and Starfire held him back. A loud, arrogant, voice rang through the tent.
"Seem familiar, birdie?" The voice cackled and all the "people" around the titans vanished in a shimmer.
"Holograms?" Cyborg breathed. The acrobats that had just plunged to their deaths were getting up, disconnecting wires from their waists and heading toward them.
"Now," came the voice. "I don't think you'll need any friends." Arms surrounded the titans so quickly that they were taken by surprise and dragged into the darkness.
"And finally, it's time to face your fears little birdie, and mend those broken wings, OR." The spotlight came back on to reveal the titans dangling from the top of the tent in a bubble and bound by some strange material, Starfire in the same arrangement in her own bubble. The man below that had been speaking looked up, his purple suit, green hair, and white face belonged unmistakably to the Joker, who was grinning his oh so evil grin up at the still stunned boy wonder.
This was really gonna be a one shot, but it got a lot longer than I thought I would, so I'm gonna split it up into 2 chaps. Hope you enjoyed it and please review!