(A/N: Please read! So, this is the edited version of The Broken Ones which means that they might be some major changes from the old story and the new. For example the story name. I've reread the story the Broken Ones so many times and I just felt the need to clean it up, and plot bunnies came in and my editor *TheRoseThorn* gave me some suggestions which I am so grateful for.)
~ Special Thanks to TheRoseThorn you are truly the best with all that you do for me. :) and I would like to thank everyone who had reviewed Favorited and followed the broken ones. I am hoping you will like this edited and well new story much better.~
Notes: The story is written in: Third Person, and I often switch POV's so if you see a date/place/time or a ~OOO~ then that means either the POV has changed and/or a time has skipped.
(Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics, but the plot is mine thank you very much.)
~ Special Thanks to TheRoseThorn you are truly the best with all that you do for me. :) and I would like to thank everyone who had reviewed Favorited and followed the broken ones. I am hoping you will like this edited and well new story much better.~
~Another special thanks to RedRobinR for a re-look on this chapter. You're insights and changes made this chapter so much better thank you!~
Notes: The story is written in: Third Person, and I often switch POV's so if you see a date/place/time or a ~OOO~ then that means either the POV has changed and/or a time has skipped.
(Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics, but the plot is mine thank you very much.)
...
~OOO~
No Light, No Light
Chapter One
Failsafe
~OOO~
...
Robin the Boy Wonder can still remember the awful smell of the burning flesh that had melted off his own body. He can remember how it enveloped him. It had trapped him in a dreadful nightmare, the way it had filled his nostrils with such an ungodly sensation. The way the heat had gotten to his head, making him think things that weren't there.
Even today, the mere thought of this particular memory makes him feel so unbearably nauseous. He remembers, (though he would never admit it even to his most trusted friend), that he, Robin the partner of the goddamned Batman, was terribly frightened of dying. Though somewhere in the back of his mind, he was accepting of the fact that he would be reunited with his parents, and would have an impossible chance to see his relatives' beaming faces once, he wasn't ready to leave the world just yet. He still hadn't found out who he was exactly as an individual. He hadn't become the hero he always longed for. He hadn't even gotten his first kiss. Something he was determined to get sooner than later. He knew he was just inexperienced back then, and to die that easily would have been unsatisfying.
SMALLVILE, 4:36 PM
OCTOBER 16, 2010
"Twenty-five seconds and counting," Robin announces within his complex mind. Sweat drips down his face then rolls onto his neck. The feeling itself makes him cringe inwardly, it is just sickening to him.
"Manhunter, please take Miss Martian and go."
"No! We won't leave you!" Miss Martian screams within his mind through the telepathic link. Her Martian abilities are vast, and most of the time the young acrobat would get jealous of her abilities to telepathically communicate to the team and others around her.
The female Martian grips her uncle's arm tighter and a frightening look crosses her beautiful, unblemished face. If Martians can bruise Robin is sure that Martian Manhunter will wake up the next day to find his niece's finger marked around his forearm.
"That's an order! We'll follow as soon as we blow those doors!" Robin yells, scolding himself for thinking of pointless things. The drive he has to be strong like Batman is waning so terribly thin like a string unraveling with enough tension that he is sure it will break easily with one negative action or word.
Miss Martian is giving him a pleading look, not wanting to believe that this could be real, but it is, and the bird merely keeps quiet, this causes Miss Martian to hide her face in her uncle's chest. A sob is heard through her pale lips, and he knows if he had been in her place, he would feel the same, unwilling to believe that this is their fate, but unfortunately, it is. There is nothing that can be done to fix or save them. A sigh that passes through his lips is hitched slightly and Robin can feel the pressure behind his eyes start to increase.
He watches as his only way of escaping, phases through the floor, feeling the slight twinge that he felt when Miss Martian had the telepathic link up fade. That's when he starts to think about the older boy beside him.
I have to at least tell him. He'll never know if I don't…
"Rob? How much time do we have?" the bird hears the speedster say next to him, nudging him in the rib. It sends shivers up his spine and he is too busy trying to calm himself down to answer the impulsive speedster. The acrobat snaps out of it and presses the button on his holographic computer set up in his glove to show how much time they have left to fight with the extraterrestrials for taking their last moments of their time on this Earth.
I'm just happy that I can spend it with him though…
"Fifteen seconds," he mutters answering the speedster's question. He glances up at the older boy even though his face is blank with the luck they have been given his green eyes showed fear. Robin watches Kid Flash give him a slight nod with slight hesitation. Silently telling the bird without words passing his lips, that if they were to die, they should die fighting, for the greater good.
Robin has to bite the inside of his cheek for he is afraid he will go on a rant. He is sick of the greater good. He had kept a side of him hidden from Kid Flash for a long enough, and he needed to tell the truth. Now for he is sure there won't be another chance in the near future.
He'll never know this would be my only chance.
In that instant Robin finally makes up his mind in what action he needed to act. He takes a step closer to Kid Flash who is about to pull on his goggles when Robin quickly shoots his hand out to stop the speedster. Robin doesn't grasp too hard or too soft on Kid Flash's slender wrist. It is just a happy medium so the speedster wouldn't move his arm an inch.
The bird watches as Wally glances down to finally notice how close the two are. He can tell even though a mask mostly hides the older hero's face, it is turning red from sudden embarrassment. Through the temperature from the alien ship they are in is rising intensely, the acrobat can just imagine what the speedster is thinking.
"Rob…?" Kid Flash asks, in such a way that it takes almost every fiber of Robin's being not to tremble in the speedster's wake.
Robin lifts his other hand gingerly to his mask, never taking his eyes off Kid Flash's. Kid Flash looks like his eyes are about to pop out of his head. It seemed very comical to the acrobat, and he gives the speedster a tiny smile that fades just as he closes his eyes, taking a deep breath. He rips the mask off, breaking the first rule under the dark knight's apprenticeship.
It's now or never…
Despite however warm it is getting inside the ship. Robin's now bare face feels cool, and he randomly rubs at his face, just under his left eye.
"Robin…?"
"Eight seconds," Robin states, checking the time that is left, then looks up at Wally.
~OOO~
Wally stares dumbfounded at this now new kind of boy wonder, and he can't help it, but find himself absolutely mesmerized by the color of the boy's eyes. They are the bluest color he has ever seen. He is pretty sure it didn't exist in a crayon box he had back home.
"Wally…"
The younger boy whom Wally has been friends with for so long, the younger boy whom is like a little brother to him, is getting closer, those dusty rose-colored lips parted slightly.
He jumped a bit when he feels Robin's gloved hands on his clad shoulders. He knows what is coming, but he doesn't stop it.
He didn't want to…
They are a breath away, both boys' lips are quivering, longing. For both are waiting for the other to take that last forbidden step.
"You know Wally," the boy calls out, and Kid Flash cannot seem to have the strength to respond to the call of his name. This hadn't mattered because the bird has gone on, "I've never been kissed before."
Kid Flash doesn't hesitate. He doesn't think of the consequences of his actions. He knew at the end of the day he wouldn't be alive to take the punishment, and Dick's last request isn't one he would back down from.
He would do anything for his best friend.
The speedster leans in, barely touching those trembling lips with his own. He wraps his arms around the younger boy, liking the feel of the lithe body in his arms. The redheaded speedster suddenly pulls the ebony haired acrobat closer to close that small gap and his lips finally touch Robin's, hearing a small gasp from the other. The suddenly frightened speedster is abruptly surrounded by heat that he knows isn't just from the sudden inferno circulating around them, Robin's lips are intoxicating and his last thought before the speedster gets blown away with his little bird still tightly wound within his arms is;
I can't believe he never told me…
MOUNT JUSTICE, 5:16 PM
OCTOBER 16, 2010
A boy awakens with a harsh jolt, a strangled cry escaping his overly dry throat as he opens his eyes to a light that was so blinding it makes him close them again. He starts to breathe heavily, why? He isn't quite sure. He is lying on what felt like metal that has been left in a freezer for a long period and an icy shiver racks through his young body.
I'm not dead, am I in heaven? What's going on? Shouldn't I still be enduring a fiery death?
"Robin?"
He knew that voice. The voice of the man who gave him a family when his was lost. The one that held him when he was younger when he cried after he had a nightmare, the one that let him become Robin the Boy Wonder. The voice he is hearing now was only when Bruce had that damn cowl on.
Isn't this the afterlife? He thinks wearily, Shouldn't Bruce be calling me Dick?
Robin turns his head where that familiar voice is heard. Once again he opens his beauteous colored eyes, seeing a whirling view of the Dark Knight. He has to close his eyes again and breath in deeply for the nausea he is feeling.
"Sit up," the man in the dark cowl commands in a surprisingly gentle quiet tone.
Robin's body protests in every possible way, but he does what is asked of him. Even though it makes him gasp out in pain. He notices that Red Tornado is standing beside Batman, offering him a glass of what he assumed was water.
He takes it gingerly then puts the glass filled to the brim to his lips, beginning to down it, feeling how the ice-cold water trickles down his throat. It flows down his esophagus then into his stomach making him quenched.
Robin is about to open his mouth to say something but stops when he hears a high-pitched voice from his right call out to everyone.
"You're all alive!"
Robin turned his head to see M'gann's beaming face utterly grateful that he and his teammates were alive. His other teammates who each had a Justice League member by their side didn't look as overly happy as she does. He looks over at Wally who is clutching his head in pain as Captain Marvel helps him up.
"What happened?" Robin hears Batman's voice get darker. He then pries his gaze from Wally then looked towards his mentor.
"The exercise... It all went wrong." Manhunter says, weakly resting his head against his hands.
"Exercise… Wha?-" Robin starts then stops when Batman took his intense gaze off of the sickly looking Manhunter and on to him,
"Try to remember." He prods.
The boy does what he is told, but all he can think about is Wally, and those trembling lips, and honestly that didn't bring any memories back. For the exception of his cheeks turning rosy.
"What you experienced was a training exercise. Martian Manhunter psyched re-linked the six of you into an artificial reality; you all knew this going in. What you didn't know was that it was a trained-for-failure exercise. No matter what the team accomplished the scenario had been designed to grow worse. Still you were aware that nothing was real, including the deaths of the entire Justice League…"
It is true. It's all coming back now, oh man… Wally is going to kill me, the bird thinks, biting down on his bottom lip, snapping out his own musings as he hears Martian Manhunter speak up,
"That is why you hardly grieved, even when Wolf was disintegrated before your eyes. All that had changed when Artemis died…"
Robin looks over at Wally whose eyes trails toward Artemis. A look of concern etched in that freckled face makes something in Robin want to lash out at the teams' only archer. He holds his ground, he doesn't want to admit it, but he is jealous. Of course Wally doesn't have an interest in him. How did he compare to Artemis and Megan, or any girl for that matter? Wally is a huge flirt with the girls. He knew this, but in that moment he thought it was the last time he would ever see Wally, and hadn't Wally been the one to lean in and take the last step? Hadn't he been the one to kiss Robin?
That was your last request Richard, He tells himself and he huffed out, feeling rather annoyed, and totally not very asterous now.
"Though consciously Miss Martian knew it was not real, her subconscious mind could not make that distinction. She had forgotten that it was real, making the rest of you forget as well…"
The whole team looks over at M'gann at the same moment as if it had been planned. She looks about to cry and she speaks her voice cracking as she does so, "I'm… I'm so sorry."
"This isn't her fault!" Superboy yelled out, cutting across M'gann's attempted apology, looking over at Batman and Manhunter his rage so apparent that it wasn't a time for any of them to suggest him to calm down. Robin glanced down at his hands thinking as the rants had begun between the Justice Leaguers and the clone.
No, but she may have played a part in me losing my best friend.
"We tried but M'gann had a death grip on the false reality… I knew I had to go in and do something but when I arrived there was so much… noise I couldn't think. When Aqualad and Superboy died my mind became a bit clearer, but only when Kid Flash and Robin had been silenced was my mind clear and I remembered my purpose. I needed to shock M'gann out of the exercise before your comas became permanent… I fully apologize I had no idea a training exercise could be this dangerous. So damaging…"
Robin looks up to see that Wally has his face in his hands. He hasn't looked at me at all since we've woken up. The acrobat thought, ruffling his hair with his hand out of mere frustration.
Wally must have finally sensed someone's eyes on him because he looks up at Robin whose face turns a pinkish hue at the memory back in the mother-ship. Wally looks away, Robin's face grows hotter and he looks down at his hands once more.
I might not have died in the simulation, but I surely I will now of embarrassment… Wally is seriously going to hate me if he doesn't already…
"Robin?" he jumps at the sound of his name. Not knowing how long he had sat there. He just wants to wallow in his despair. He looks up a bit, seeing Batman tower over him, turning on the blank mask that his mentor taught him not so long ago.
"You alright?" The Dark Knight asks as the acrobat watches him kneel so he is the same eye level as him. The bird nods, not really trusting his voice at the moment.
"It's about time to go on patrol. Are you coming?"
Robin shakes his head no, then he looks down at his hands, finding them very interesting. He knows he would be too traumatized to do much tonight. He watches as Batman looks to the side (probably checking to see if anyone else was in the room). Then turns back saying in a small calming whisper, "We'll talk about this later, son," and just like that Batman is gone leaving Robin alone.
Or so he thought…
"Rob?"
Third time's the charm, Robin thinks as he jumps. It was said something close to a whisper and he feels a familiar warmth and a blissful scent. It wraps around him just like that artificial memory.
Was that it? Was it all artificial?
He looks up to see Wally sitting next to him. The redhead is looking at him, his face showing discomfort, about to say something it seems like he wasn't going to be able to voice out loud.
"I'm sorry…"
Just like that the speedster is gone, leaving a boy named Dick Grayson in a rather shocked state that not a lot of thirteen year olds could handle. There is one thing that Batman didn't prepare him for and that was rejection. He lets out a silent cry. The pressure behind his eyes is too much for him to bear; a single tear, sweeping through his beauteous eyes, runs down his cheek. Dropping down and hitting his inner palm of his hand.
The single droplet of water falling from his crystal blue eyes turns into a waterfall of tears. They spill from his eyes then down his porcelain like cheeks in such a crude manner that Robin knows that it will take a lot to have him stop his childish ways. He clasps his hand over his mouth then does something very uncharacteristic of himself.
The boy wonder flees, leaving tears to fall behind him on to the cave's well-polished floor.
Thank you so much for taking the time please review if any of you have any questions or anything like that or you really liked it. I am always eager to reply!
With love, and stay asterous my friends,
~Bodyinthegarden~