24

MereImage

'Robin'

He didn't have the strength to open his eyes. The force to move on was gone; the will to rise had only caused him to fall.

"Star….?"

"………"

"Is-s…..is that you?" His breathing deepened when there was no answer. Where was he? Why couldn't he move? There was no feeling of a hard floor, no pain. Pain….he had forgotten what it felt like. What was the feeling?

He was shaking now, letting dry sobs fall from dead lips.

Oh, right, it was this.

"Starfire!...Bruce!" The masked man was trying to move, to kick, to give him reason that he was indeed still alive. The darkness remained, and it crushed the lungs that no longer held any air.

Then, quicker than he could have anticipated, two hands were clutching either side of his face. There was no tenderness to the movement, only a brash reluctance to let go. The masked boy lay still for the first time in minutes, surrendering to the force he could not feel or see.

But for some reason, he knew what he was facing.

A skull. The very presence…

-There was a chuckling in the background. It wouldn't have bothered him normally. If it had sounded anything but his own.-

……of death.

"Who…." His body shivered. The hands refused to move an inch. It sucked his courage, his hope, his perseverance, his life…"Who are you….."

"Kid, I'm who you want me to be."

The masked boy couldn't help it as his eyebrows scrunched together. His voice held an uncertainty to it he tried to hide.

"X." He could feel the other presence smiling. It made his own lips stretch into one of its own miming the action, "But that doesn't answer my question."

"Who else could I be?"

That was a good question.

"There has to be someone behind the mask. There has to be a second name. There has to be some soul who lives by only his rules. That's what you told me."

"….a soul, huh?" The grip was tightening, almost as if it was trying to leave an impression, trying to tear apart something deeper beneath the skin. The hands bore deeper, reaching something just on the brink of his insanity.

"……."

"Or am I simply a mistake?"

"Both." The boy could barley piece together the words now.

"Hehe, that's what you don't understand Robin. I'm a character. I am only half of the whole. I am something that can not be identified with a name, for I have no person which to call it. Even Slade had a name, Hell has a name, but Robin, I have nothing which to call me. I am called X because I am the unknown and nothing more."

"You're wrong, I named you, X."

"My point exactly."

"………"

"Hehehehehe, you still don't get it little bird. Who do you think I am?"

"I know…..I know you're nothing like me. I know you're a thing of the past."

"Is that so….."

"……"

"Tell me boy wonder, who's behind your mask? Who's behind the hero?"

Something was fading within him.

Pain……Pain……what is pain? What is regret? What was emotion?

He could feel the darkness. Everything human seemed lost.

"I don't know."

Robin…

Robin………

Robin……………


No…not Robin…

"I don't know……"

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……"My name lives by one number, one determining digit that controls the balance of my life. X: the unknown, know as the 24th letter, similarly to the 24 hours each day we live throughout our lifetime…. It's repetition. X is the connection that ties together the loose ends till the end of our days. The number brings us to acceptance; it defines ourselves and the outside world. Such a number only brings us to a lose-lose situation, but at the same time, it show us who we were truly meant to be."

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…. "It is a mark inscribed to represent the signature of one who is unable to sign one's name."

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…. "It is a roman numeral."

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….It is 'X'; nameless in its entirety.

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"Robin!" The moment her eyes fell upon him, she feared she was too late.

Raven was kneeling besides her leader on the street, gripping his shoulders. The first thing she noticed was not the fact that she had never seen him looking so…..vulnerable…... but it was his chest.

And no, it was not in that way. Don't be getting any ideas.

It was an x. Sliced through the fabric of his uniform, blood poured from the mark on his chest that contrasted the fading pale color of his skin. Even when she tried to heal it, the flow ceased to stop. It didn't make sense. Only once had this happened before, and that had been a cursed mark. Well, that and….

…..Oh no…..he's not…..he's not…he can't be…

…..dead?

Raven's heartbeat increased by a tenfold. She didn't let another wasted second pass as her hand placed gently across his forehead.

She breathed a sigh of relief. He was alive. She could feel his pulse beneath her fingers; everything was going to be alright again.

Robin will scold the team, he will laugh at Beast Boy's jokes, he will shamelessly flirt with Starfire without even realizing it, he will work on the T-car with Cyborg, and he will give her support when she has nothing to lean on. Robin will continue on being a Titan, a symbol that rises beyond even legend.

How stupid of her, of course Robin wouldn't die! He's Robin.

She wanted to laugh, she wanted to smile.

She sat there for a moment doing just that.

Then, something seemed to tug at the corner of her lip, turning it into a frown.

Her hand moved, paused, and then resettled onto his heart. She was uncertain. Raven's eyes glazed over as she starred down at his form, letting her bangs fall forward to hide which she could not conceal.

She couldn't feel Robin. Why couldn't she feel him? When she searched his body, she found only an empty shell. Her arms began shaking as she slowly pulled the communicator from her pocket.

She tried to pull the mask from his face, hoping that some way, in some distant act of desperation, that if she could just get that mask off she could find him. For whatever reason, no matter what she tried and willed, it wouldn't come off.

She wanted to smack him for mocking her, for making her believe such things.

"Titans……come to the plaza immediately," she tried to say it with a steady voice. She tried to show no emotion. She tried to save him. She tried to not look at the bloody 'x' on his chest, but her eyes couldn't leave it. "I think Robin's dead."

And all the while,

His pulse beat on.

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End.