Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or places I use in this story, they are all owned by DC comics.
Note: All characters are likely to be OOC but try and keep in mind that death and rejection tend to do that to people.
The Shadow of the Day
Robin opened his eyes, his throat already soar from his scream, the same one that had woken him. He stopped the scream quickly and looked around himself in disarray. The dark surroundings were a very welcome sight. His head slumped back against the medical bed he was currently lying on. A light chuckle escaped him, his ribs protesting only slightly at the movement. It was nice to see that at least one person he knew wasn't going to forget about him. With a sad smile he sat back up in the bed, not surprised in the least to find himself face-to-face with a concerned looking Bruce Wayne, a towel wrapped around his shoulders and a bath robe covering his scarred body. Robin laughed a little more, his ribs screaming at him in protest,
"Cover up some more Bruce! I'm not Selina you know…" he joked lightly, running a hand over his own torso, wincing as his fingers brushed against his left ribs. Bruce didn't smile at the joke, if anything his concerned frown deepened,
"Robin." He said firmly, gaining the total attention of his ward. Robin looked up at his mentor with a small frown,
"Yeah?" he asked, rather casually. Bruce shook his head,
"We need to talk about what happened Robin." He replied, in the same, firm, voice as before. Robin felt his mood change instantly from carefree to angry. He closed his eyes, his teeth gritted, as he fully remembered the events preceding his awakening in the Batcave.
The explosion, screaming himself hoarse for his friends, the fire and the never-ending fall.
Robin scowled as he remembered the screaming. He'd let his pride go in order to ask for their help and they'd ignored him, choosing instead to cower behind Raven's shield while he alone faced their enemy, while he alone took the pain, while he alone fought so that they could…!
With an effort Robin stopped that train of thought. It would only cause him even more anger and pain. He looked back up at Bruce, his face a hard mask of barely contained anger,
"What happened?" he asked quietly. Bruce's frowned deepened once again,
"What always happens, eventually, when you're in a team." He sighed, "Someone dropped the ball and someone else took the fall."
Robin couldn't stop the growl that built up from deep within his chest,
"But this wasn't someone, Bruce… ALL of them stood by and watched me do it! They didn't even try to catch me when I took that fall for them!" he cried out in despair and anger. With this outburst, however, his anger seemed to leave him. Leave him with only the sadness and overwhelming darkness. Bruce placed a comforting hand on his shoulder,
"You succeeded though Robin." He announced confidently. Robin relaxed slightly,
"The alien ship?" he asked, all business now with his emotions locked away for the time being. Bruce noticed his son's tone become more and more detached and continued in the same way. This was how the two great detectives cut out their controlling and clouding emotions,
"Completely destroyed." He reported briskly. Robin nodded curtly,
"And the city?" he asked as he slowly pulled himself off the bed and onto his feet. Bruce took his hand away from his shoulder,
"Safe. The debris from the ship was destroyed by…" he paused in his report, giving Robin an even look. Robin swallowed hard, he had a feeling what was coming next. He nodded at Bruce, his face set. Bruce nodded in response, "The Teen Titans."
Robin closed his eyes tight before covering them with his hand. His friends had chosen to protect the city from property damage rather than catch him as he fell from the sky. The anger threatened to return but he quickly clamped down on it, returning to his emotionless detective face. He took his hand away and looked over at his mentor, the picture of calm,
"Any additional information you believe is relevant?" he asked in the same detached voice as before. The older man nodded once,
"One Titan had to be restrained after the explosion. My guess is that she had to be restrained to keep her from going after you." He reasoned smoothly. Robin shook his head,
"Starfire." He deduced quickly, his anger returning in spades. Starfire would try and save anyone, regardless of her relationship with them. He could have been a stranger and she would have still thrown herself after him. And Cyborg, Beast Boy and Raven would have all stopped her with only a few words. He gritted his teeth again. Was that all that it took for his friendship to be forgotten? A few words?
"No, the dark haired one." Bruce corrected, breaking his son's focus. Robin's anger was replaced by confusion almost instantly,
"Raven tried to go after me?" he asked quietly. Seeing the change in his son, Bruce nodded slowly,
"Yes, this 'Raven' person appeared to be quite distraught. I believe she even managed to dismantled most of the cyborg's arm with just her hands when he held her back from you." He chuckled lightly, "You seem to have had a dark admirer Dick."
Robin smiled slightly at the nickname and the new information,
"Well at least one person from that city still wanted to help me." He mused sadly before returning his attention to his damaged ribs. A small cough caught his attention. He froze instantly. The cough was distorted, as if it had been passed through a robotic filter before reaching him. Suddenly thankful that the bottom half of his uniform was still in place, Robin leapt forwards, spinning round in the air as he pulled a birdarang from his utility belt. He growled as Red X slowly walked up to the medical bed, his arms folded across his chest. The thief held his hands out slowly, palms turned away from Robin to prevent a misunderstanding occurring because of his palm-mounted X'es,
"I'm not here to fight you Robin. I wouldn't have gone to all the trouble of saving you to try and beat you down." He explained, the usual taunting edge to his voice absent on this occasion. Robin cautiously lowered his weapon,
"You saved me?" he asked, his eyes darting to Bruce for confirmation. The older man nodded,
"He saved you Robin. After he did I picked the two of you up and brought you here." he explained patiently. Robin thought about it for a moment before replacing his birdarang and fixing X with a cold stare,
"And what do you want in return? You don't do things for free." He noted dryly. X chuckled a little,
"Not normally no." he straightened up, a movement that told Robin that his demeanour had changed to more serious, "But you've already done me two favours."
Robin frowned before he remembered the human cargo that the ship had been trying to escape with,
"You were one of the people on the ship." He concluded quickly. X nodded,
"I was indeed. But saving my life is something that is easily repaid, just like during the race." He shifted from one foot to the other, nervous if Robin had to guess, "But you also did something for me that I could never repay… you paid for my mother's operation."
Robin blinked before he lightly touched his face. No mask. Red X, one of his rivals if not an enemy, knew his secret identity. The thief seemed to read his mind however and shook his head,
"I'm not going to tell anyone Robin." He assured the hero. Robin frowned,
"How can I be sure you're telling the truth?" he pressed firmly. Red X reached up and removed his skull mask. Robin blinked as the pale skinned face was revealed. X's face was firmly set, with a strong jaw and high cheek bones. His eyes were a dull green colour that seemed to fit in with the light brown bangs of hair that hung over them. Robin looked squarely at him for a moment, trying to look past the honesty that seemed to be etched into the face and eyes. X held out a hand,
"Because even bad guys love their mothers." He replied with a small smile. Robin smirked suddenly and took the hand,
"You were never all bad X." he replied as they began the handshake. X grinned back,
"It's Jack. Jack Masters." He introduced himself warmly. Robin chuckled,
"Richard. Richard Grayson. It's a pleasure to meet you Jack."
The remaining Teen Titans were sat around the circular table in the Operations Room, all of them deathly quiet as they sat as far from each other as possible. Each of them looked different from their normal selves.
Beast Boy had not cracked a joke all day and he seemed to have developed deep, black, rings under his eyes that told of heavy sleep loss despite only one day having passed since the death of the Titans' leader. His green skin was paler than usual and his energetic personality seemed to have been totally replaced by the cup of coffee that he now held in his shaking hands.
Cyborg was completely unmoving, as if imitating a very distracted statue. His robotic parts were a very pale blue colour, indicating that he had gone without a power recharge since the battle and the loss of his friend.
Starfire's eyes were red and puffy, a clear sign that the absence of Robin had been met with tears from the alien princess. Her fiery hair was tussled and in total disarray, a state that was mirrored exactly by her clothes.
Raven was a different story entirely.
Where as the other Titans were a picture of sadness, Raven was looking dangerously angry. While she still had only two eyes, Raven could feel Hatred inside her, growing larger and larger within Nevermore. Unlike other cases of this occurrence, where all of Raven's other emotions would be holding Hatred back, only Intelligence stood against the monster. And her only argument was to let the other Titans try and explain their deplorable actions so that their deaths could be made even more painful. What was even more strange was that a single emotion, a Raven wearing a light red cloak, was being restrained by both Intelligence AND Hatred. She was showing enough anger to make even Hatred afraid of her. And her constant call of 'Burn them for what they did to him! Burn them!' was looking more and more attractive to Raven as the silence dragged on. Finally, she could take no more of the silence,
"You people sicken me!" she screamed, standing up so suddenly that he chair flew away from her. The other Titans didn't seem shocked, almost as if they had expected the outburst. Raven growled dangerously and some of the spare chairs were violently ripped apart by black energy, "You let him die! You made him go into the cargo bay on his own! You stopped me from going after him! You… you…!"
With the anger of her light red self spent, Raven fell to her knees, her head in her hands as she sobbed quietly. Cyborg stood up slowly,
"We know Raven. But I was not about to let the rest of the team die with him to save a few villains." He announced coldly. Raven's head flicked up to turn her four eyed glare at the metal man,
"You don't make the decisions Tinman! This is Robin's team!" she declared venomously. Cyborg shook his head,
"Not anymore it isn't, dead men make poor leaders." He replied, his voice becoming more and more robotic as he did so. Raven's powers began to claw at the walls of the room until Beast Boy stood up from his chair quietly. He took one look at Raven before slowly walking over to Cyborg's side of the table,
"I'm with Cyborg. I'm sorry Raven but I'd rather save the entire city than one friend and a ship full of enemies." He muttered darkly. Raven shook her head in disbelief, her eyes returning to normal,
"I don't believe this… you're saying that you'd abandon Robin again if you could do this again?" she demanded, her shock keeping Hatred from changing her completely into a demon. Starfire slowly edged her way over to Cyborg,
"I too am sad at the death of Friend Robin… but I made a promise to protect the city, as is Titan duty." She managed to whisper hoarsely. Raven stood up slowly, pulling her hood up as a way of accepting her defeat,
"Fine. I'm going to my room." She declared in a forced monotone. Beast Boy took a step forwards,
"Look… Raven-" he stopped when the door threw itself across the room and smashed into the wall, a few inches from his head. Raven began to glow with her powers,
"If you come into my room you will die. There is no exception to that rule now. And I will begin to enforce it." she promised before vanishing through a shadow. Cyborg rubbed his human eye absently,
"To the new business… we need to get our good reputation back. Believe it or not, the city is angry that we didn't try harder to save the villains." He commented in a robotic monotone before sitting back down. Starfire tilted her head to the side slightly,
"But does the city not congratulate us when we kick the butt of the villains?" she questioned, totally clueless as usual. Beast Boy shook his head and sat down as well, grabbing hold of his coffee once again,
"Even bad guys have mothers Star, and mother love you no matter what." He explained before taking a gulp of coffee. Cyborg nodded briskly,
"Exactly. We'll need to do a hell of a lot of PR to get us back into good books…" he muttered to himself. Starfire frowned,
"What has our popularity have to do with those letters?" she asked innocently. Beast Boy growled lightly in frustration,
"He means that we have to kiss ass in order to go back to kicking ass." He replied darkly. Cyborg nodded,
"I've already arranged the first PR stunt we're going to pull." He pulled out a pristine white letter, with black print writing all across it. He sighed, "We're paying for Robin to have a symbolic funeral. A big one."
Beast Boy frowned,
"Surely that will cost a lot of money." He pointed out before going back to his coffee. Cyborg scoffed,
"It was his money to begin with." He countered. Beast Boy waved his hand for Cyborg to continue, "And he also left a will to be read out in the event that he died without his body being found. We will have to read it after the funeral. After a few weeks, long enough for the city to mourn, we will sponsor a ball. It will serve as Robin's wake."
Beast Boy nodded once before going back to his coffee. Starfire quietly nodded as well. Cyborg looked at the broken doorway, there was no point in asking Raven's opinion on this matter. He nodded as well,
"Alright then, these actions have become part of being as Titan as of now, passed by a majority."