Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.
They're fighting for their lives.
Blood slowly cascades down the back of his head, his hair already sleek with crimson. He knows he's in a bad position, but he forces himself to push harder, put more strength behind each blow, and move faster to avoid being further injured.
Gunshots echo and reverberate off steel walls like a room full of trumpets. The noise is never ending, and not even the shadows provide a sense of cover. Shadowed figures hold the advantage in every aspect possibly conceived, and it is all thanks to one mistake. Not a small one, and perhaps the worst mistake made by every member of the Young Justice team.
They thought the mole business was over. They thought Roy was the only mole. Their only traitor. And even as it were a traitor that had no idea of the truth. How wrong they were. And how wrong they were to trust them.
Robin has to duck his head to avoid having his brain blown out of his skull. The bullet ricochets off the wall and collides with the Kevlar padding on his thighs. That'll definitely bruise later. The sudden momentum and unexpected hit sent him staggering forward and two assassins pounce on the opportunity.
Robin growls and draws out two exploding disks, leaping in the air to avoid a leg sweep and twisting out of the way of a bulky looking fist. He throws out both feet and connects with the chests of his targets. They grunt and fall away. More bullets whiz in his direction.
Back on defensive, Robin drops into a crouch and rolls out of the way. A quick glance around reveals Aqualad being surrounded by a cluster of assassins. Letting the disks fly, he pauses to watch the men in black being thrown away from his friend. He runs forwards and vaults over a man, rolling to his feet while Aqualad engages.
"Well isn't this getting fun?"
Aqualad pants, setting Robin's hair on end. "I do not believe this would be considered fun, my friend."
Aqualad suddenly stumbles backwards after a kick to the stomach, and Robin is fighting a million people at once. Instinct takes over and his already exhausted body goes into overdrive. Leaping, twisting kicking, punching, and defending all at once while his friend recovers his breath.
When Kaldur does join back in the fight, taking some of the leeway off of the younger teenager, he slower and not as accurate as he should be.
"Do you know where the others are?"
A shout of rage somewhere on the other side of the room answers part of his question. The body of a man in black goes soaring over Robin's head and lands against the wall behind him with a sickening thud.
Kaldur however, does not appear to have heard. Pulling out his water maces and using them to momentarily provide a breather, he replies, "I have not seen anyone once the communicators went down."
Robin ducks to avoid a kick to the head, spinning down, coming up, and drawing his escrima sticks to strike a masked man in the face. He left leg flies out and lands a solid kick to the sweet spot of another person before his first hit even connects. Both assassins go down senseless.
Kicking off with his right leg, Robin lunches himself into the middle of another cluster of men, drawing out a smoke bomb and smashing it into the ground. A white cloud billows out and he aims an uppercut at a man. It's blocked and he's repaid with a fist to his face. Using that momentum, Robin summersaults backwards and rises, his head smashing into someone. Waves of pain shoot across his brain and everything blurs before coming back into focus.
He dodges a kick to the stomach but fails to see the person sneaking up behind him. A hit goes into his back, and he spins around, kicking up at a masked face. It lands, but as Robin turns to another man, a fist comes flying into his peripheral vision, heading for his head, and-
Wham!
The fist was blocked by a blur and the blur proceeds to remove the rest of the assassins.
"Where have I seen this before?" Wally smirks, but Robin sees right through the façade. A hurt and betrayed look haunts his once bright and happy eyes, and his entire body is tense. That's all Robin can digest before Wally turns so they're back to back. "Looks like I'll always save your butt."
"I had it handled," he growls, throwing a punch at a massive man.
Wally lets out a pained laugh and knocks someone to the ground with a leg sweep. "Yeah, right. But whatever you say, Rob."
And then they split up again after they are both swarmed. At some point Robin noticed the arrival of Conner and Kaldur, but both looked worse for wear and were moving very sluggishly. Along with this note, Robin realized that both had been shot. It wasn't hard to deduce what was going on.
Robin launches himself at the tallest person he could find, kicking off their shoulders in a flip and aiming for the rafters so he could call a retreat. Or at least, that's what he was planning on doing. A hand grabbed his right ankle the second it touched the other's shoulder and tugged hard, yanking him back into the fray with a jerk.
He cries out as he feels something in his knee twist the wrong way and something inside tear. He lands harshly on his side and is instantly bombarded with attacks. He tries to avoid the kicks and punches aimed for him, but someone's foot comes sailing down on his knee with brutal force. A loud shattering noise can be heard and he can't hold back a scream.
Wally, having witnessed the assaul, shrieks with him. "Rob!" and suddenly everyone but Conner, Kaldur, Wally, and Robin are still conscious. Blood streaks down Wally's nose like a river, and the most fearful face he's ever seen on his friend pales in comparison to the absolute look of dread on his face now.
Robin gasps and struggles to push himself to his feet. Wally catches him before his knee gives out with an agonizing shudder. "We- we have to retreat," he manages, lifting his eyes up to his friends. "The bullets… they're poisoned. It's what's slowing you down."
His masked eyes widen in realization. "It's the poison that let Vandal Savage escape the Justice League last month!" He feels stupid for not connecting the dots sooner. "It slows you down and then you gradually become paralyzed. It took Agent A and me hours to discover a cure to counteract its effects!"
Aqualad stars at him. "Are you sure?"
"Positive. We have to retreat now. If we wait much longer… KF and I won't be able to defend all four of us."
Robin hates how well-thought out this plan was. The fake sales of drugs, luring the team into a cave with seemingly infinite entrances but only one exit point, targeting the heavy hitters, waiting until they knew of everyone's weakness before attacking, and fooling Batman himself.
He hates how easily fooled he was. How he was too trusting. He should have known from the beginning that Artemis was not to be trusted, but he was so determined to believe that everyone deserves a second chance…
Of course Artemis was assigned to be behind all of them when going through the cave system, and him right in front of her. Of course there was a metal pole planted for her to grab and use to knock him down when the time came.
Artemis, their archer. Artemis Crock, his calculus partner. Tigress, their traitor.
With a growl, Robin turns his gaze to Conner and Aqualad, his mind already racing to plug numbers into an equation to figure out how much longer they have left. "When were each of you hit?"
"I never felt anything hit me," Conner admits, and Aqualad nods in agreement.
Wally opens his mouth but an explosion sounds behind them. Robin whips his head around. An entrance is blocked off.
"We have to leave. Now."
Wally supports half of Robin's weight against him and the four of them set out to retreat. Ragged gasping is the only sort of noise provided.
At some point, Aqualad stops. The others follow.
They're in a small clearing within the tunnel with dimensions of 10 feet by 10 feet. It's quiet enough for a pin drop to be heard. Robin catches on to why Kaldur stopped.
It's too quiet. They're being followed but it's too quiet.
"Wally," Robin hisses softly. "Get Aqualad and Superboy out of here-"
"Dude! I'm not leaving you behind!"
Pushing away from Wally so that he now rests against the cave wall, Robin grunts. "We don't know when they got shot. That means we don't know when the poison will kick in. I can barely walk as it is. When they drop, you won't be able to get all three of us to the bioship. That means I have to stay behind-"
Wally's green eyes flash with anger and pain. "No man gets left behind, Rob. That's what you told me the first mission we went on together."
Robin's vision swims for a moment. "And I won't be. I'll be right here when you can come back for me. At the very least I can hold back any Shadows that try to pursue us."
Kaldur intervenes. "Robin, if you stay here, the odds of you making it out alive…"
Robin beams proudly and smiles reassuringly at his leader. "Robin never dies, just like Batman, and Superman, and every hero. Heroes never die. We live forever on to fight evil. As long as we're still standing, we are still a threat. As long as we're still standing, we will always be there to stop them. Now go!"
Wally puts both hands on either sides of his face, his face resigned and filled with betrayal. "I hate that you have a point." He pulls his best friend into a tight hug. "I'll be back for you."
"I know you will."
And then Robin is left alone in the small cavern, leaning heavily against the rocky wall. The only reassuring sound is the ever diminishing patter of steps against freezing floor.
Robin is now leaning entirely on the wall with his shoulder. Blood covers half of his face and more is dripping off his chin and into a rapidly growing puddle on the floor. Both hands are shaking and coated in the sticky red liquid. One arm has gone completely limp. Masked eyes widen as he gasps for breath. He stares at the dark pool of blood on the ground.
His uninjured foot suddenly loses all sense of motor movement and he crashes to his knees with a strangled yelp. He hears soft footsteps enter the small room at the same moment his eyes catch sight of a bullet wound in his leg.
His shoulders slump in disbelief and he shakily raises his head to meet the smirking gaze of Vandal Savage.
"Hello Richard."
Panic sets in hard as his mind goes completely blank. Everything had been planned. All of it. The attack on Mars to draw away Martian Manhunter and M'gann. Leaving Wally partially unharmed so there'd be an excuse for Robin to stay behind to try and protect his team. Artemis must have told Vandal his fear of getting his friends killed. He knew that Robin would rather risk his own death over the death of his friends. The most he can do with a severely damaged leg and paralyzed one is hope that Wally is able to save him before he's killed.
Which means he has to try and stall for as long as he can. "Vandal Savage. I thought you wouldn't show your face again after your defeat at the Watchtower." He cackles at this, still as determined as ever to get some form of reaction from the ancient sack of muscle that is Vandal Savage.
Vandal paces around him slowly, taking pleasure in the way Robin has to twist to try and keep him in his sights. He's been preparing for this day for several years, ever since his loss to the heroes.
"I've been waiting for this day for years." With a small flick of his hand, the Shadows surround the young boy and begin pummeling him into the ground. Artemis, however stays back and watches, which causes Vandal to curl his lip into a snarl.
It goes on for what feels like forever. At some point he feels either a ligament or tendon in his already destroyed knee tear, and tears stream down his face. Whenever he feels like he's about to die, the Shadows stop beating his body. Once his breath is caught, it continues, and each time he wonders if this will be the time that he dies.
The horror only stops when Robin is beyond struggling and fighting back. When he's laying limp on his stomach and exhausted.
The masked figures step away and line up along the walls. Vandal grabs him by the back of his neck and drags him to the center of the room. His muscles scream in protest the entire way, and of course Artemis has to be in his line of sight. But something catches him off guard.
She doesn't look happy or pleased, but rather regretful, and is that distraught in her eyes?
Another flick of his wrist and two Shadows step forward to lift Robin to his knees, forcing his limp head up to meet the piercing gaze of his enemy.
His blood runs cold at what he hears. "You see, Richard, in the reality where I came from, you are the cause of my greatest downfall. You and that brain of yours, always concocting plans and contingencies, just like your father. How disappointing it must have been for you to stop me by having to become the very thing you swore to never be."
Robin smirks, red staining his teeth. "Nice try Vandy, but this attractive guy doesn't have a father and has no disappointments.
"Fascinating. My memory must be serving me incorrectly when Artemis informed me that you hated that you forced your grievances aside when your father was murdered during your little training simulation. Of course you would want to play the role of Batman when he no longer could. I must be mistaken in that you create the identity of Nightwing to escape from the Batman's shadow." Vandal Savage allows a small grin to grace his lips at the brief look of horror sent at Artemis, who refuses to meet his gaze.
Robin's breathing speeds up as reality sets in, unable to keep what little composure he still had. Time travel? Since when has that ever been possible?
"A young speedster, Bart Allen only needed a little… motivation… to reconstruct the machine he created from his own…"
But the next words Vandal said are lost to Robin, who tries to focus on why the word Allen and speedster sound so wrong to his agonized brain. Barry and Iris have a son in the future? It's too much for his mind to comprehend and oh, god, where's Wally? Why isn't he back yet?
A hand wrapping tightly around his throat pulls him back into reality. The hand effortlessly lifts him into the air, and small choking noises escape him as his air supply is cut off. He tries to fight back, but his whole body has gone limp. The poison had fully kicked in.
Vandal's piercing gaze seems to stare into his very soul. "Before I came back here, back to 2008 to prepare Artemis for her biggest mission yet, I must admit I contemplated just getting rid of Robin altogether. I almost prevented Tony Zucco from killing your parents. And then I was reminded that you were the mastermind behind my greatest failure. You do not deserve happiness, Richard. You deserved to suffer through their deaths."
Robin's eyes flicker down to Vandal's hand, which holds a particularly long and sharp looking dagger.
The dagger lines up with his epigastrium. While Vandal continues to speak, he begins to apply pressure and the dagger works its way into his body. "I needed you to suffer. The Justice League needed to get their nephew, and Batman his son. Your death symbolizes so many things, Richard. Did you know that? You are the most well-known sidekick, and with your death, all heroes fall-"
"Batman will never stoop to the level of a freak like you," Robin retorts through tightly clenched teeth. He groans as the blade moves another inch. He can feel his blood spilling from the wound even with the blade still embedded in him, piercing his lung and filling it with the red liquid. He coughs and takes a moment to relish the small victory of his blood landing on Vandal's face. "Heroes never die."
"That's where you are mistaken, boy. In the original timeline, Artemis was never a traitor to you and your band of children –" at this, Robin drags his gaze once more to the archer, and this time she meets his gaze. She looks like she wants to do something, but she never moves. "- Instead, you use her and your Atlantean friend to dupe me.
"All she needed when I arrived here was a little threat on her mother's life and she obeyed my every command. That left you and where you came into play in all of this. Without you, your band of friends will never have the leader they need to defeat me, and this world will fall."
The blade is pushed fully into his shaking body. He whimpers and tears stream relentlessly down his face. It's torture to form words, but he has to. He refuses to let Vandal have the last stand.
"Y-y-you say th-that, but you're w-wrong. Heroes will al-ways rise to fight y-you.."
Jerking the blade from his body in one swift movement, Vandal Savage releases his hold on the boy. Robin collapses to the ground in an unceremonious heap.
"I admire your faith, Richard. Your wit would have made a great addition to my ranks."
With that, Vandal Savage walks away. "Leave him. Let the speedster find his dead body." The Shadows follow until only Artemis remains.
Every breath that Robin draws is fire to his body, and each inhale produces a terrible rattling deep within his breath. Blood freely spills from all of his wounds into a massive pool beneath him.
Artemis crouches down in his line of vision. A tear streaks down her pale cheeks. "I'm sorry, Robin," she sobs. "I'm so sorry. I…"
Robin's mouth opens and crimson leaks from the corner of his mouth. "Artemis, go," he mouths, unable to speak anymore. "If you stay here, Wally will kill you. Go. It's okay."
Her jaw drops. "Why are you so willing to forgive me? You're going to die because of me!"
"It's…" he breaks off with a devastating cough that rocks his entire body. When it subsides after what feels like forever, his eyes are closed.
"Robin?" she whispers desperately. "Robin! Robin, no, please no. stay with me, okay? Wally will be back soon, I swear."
His tired blue eyes crack open at that, a ghost of a smile gracing his too-pale face. "You st'll lyin' t'me? … go, 'temis. Find… B'm'n… tell 'im the truth… it's never too late…"
Artemis brushes her thumb along his cheek, her entire body shaking and sobs racking her chest. "I'm so sorry, Robin," she repeats, and then she's gone.
He knows he's going to die. He accepted that long ago. But of all the ways he imagined himself dying, dying as a result of something his future self did was never one of them. And knowing that he became the very thing he swore to never become was…
Terrifying. It makes him want to know everything about that other reality. Why Kaldur would be able to dupe the Light, how Artemis went undercover, where Wally played a role, and who 'Bart Allen' was. When did he get pushed to be Batman?
It's getting harder to think, he can't tell when the actual darkness of the cave ends and where the black nothingness gradually consuming his vision begins. He can't tell if he can still feel the chill of the air or if his body has gone numb yet. He can't tell if he's still breathing or if it's just too quiet to be heard. He can't tell if he's still alive or if he's dead or if he's somewhere between the two.
Fear sets in his gut. He doesn't want to die. He promised Barbara that they could be partners on some stupid chemistry project. He and Wally have plans to play basketball over the weekend. He's going to miss his favorite meal. He's going to miss Alfred. And Bruce. And Uncle Clark. And… everyone.
His whole vision is black now. He doesn't know if his head is facing the ceiling or the wall or the floor. He can't feel anything anymore. He's forgetting something, but he doesn't know what. Something about a costume design with a blue bird on it. Something about a city… Blud… heaven? No, that doesn't sound right…
With a last desperate intake of breath, the black obscuring his vision somehow swirls out of focus. It feels like he's floating out into nothing.
… what's that yellow blob in the distance speeding toward him. There's a name to it, he knows, but he doesn't know what. It dawns on him just as the blob is the only thing he can see.
Wal-
Nothing.
"We lost him. He's cold to the touch."
"How is he just gone?"
"I wasn't fast enough."
"There was nothing you could do."
"Artemis is to blame."
"Rest well, Master Dick."
OoO
I'm not super happy with how I ended this, so a bonus chapter/ending may be uploaded soon.