Author's Note: This is my pride and joy. I love this story. The ending isn't my favorite, but it's still the best work that I've done so far, in my opinion. I hope you all enjoy it. I listened to "Far From Home" by Five Finger Death Punch while writing this (it took me a good two weeks to finish it, so just try and guess how many times I listened to that song...) so if you want to be in the same mindset, go and listen to that song. It's awesome anyways. :)
He was falling. Falling fast and hard and he was just reaching out for someone to catch him, but nobody really realized just how broken he really was. Maybe it was because he didn't want to seem even more like a little kid in their eyes. He was already the youngest, he didn't need anything else making him look weak. So he covered up the pain with his creepy cackle and the way he seemed to be able to joke about everything in even the most dire of situations, but underneath the well-faked carefree spirited Robin that everyone saw and knew was a broken bird.
He wished that he could be stronger. Batman didn't cry, so why should he? But as he let the tears fall past his black domino mask to snake down his face, he couldn't bring himself to care. Robin rarely ever let his guard down enough for him to break, but the memories that flooded behind his eyelids every time he closed his eyes were enough to make almost anyone crack under the pressure, let alone a thirteen year old boy who saw unspeakable horrors on a day to day basis.
The scene played over and over again in his mind as fresh as the day that it was burned there. The screams of terror that left their lips rang as clear in his ears today as they did back when he was nine years old. He could still hear the sickening crunch as their bodies hit the cruel unforgiving earth and watching the life drain out of their eyes as it took their lives. He remembered how he had tried to scream out their names, but no sound would tear its way from his lungs.
He had torn his way through the crowd, the brightly colored yellow cape his mother made him wear flapping behind him. The crowd was screaming in terror and began to panic and surge away from the scene. He broke free of the many people and there they were on the ground, their bodies crumbled and broken. He froze. In the next instant a pair of strong arms were wrapped around him and were pulling him away from the scene, not wanting him to see. He had kicked and screamed until he was finally set down and was able to look into the eyes of Bruce Wayne for the first time.
At first he had been resentful of Bruce for taking him in. He felt like the man was trying to replace his father, but over the years he had grown to love him as hard as that may be to believe. They did have a father-son relationship, but that had built up over time, very slowly. Dick was forever grateful of Bruce Wayne. He took him in and gave him something that nobody else could have done. Security. He made him feel safe. He molded him into Robin and made him what he was today, and that was something that he couldn't ever repay him for. Because of him, he didn't have to be scared anymore...But that didn't mean that even he didn't break every once in a while.
Robin hugged his knees to his chest and curled tightly into a ball, as if it could protect him. He choked back a sob that threatened to break free. He was thirteen now and the pain that had knocked the breath out of him then still hadn't lessened any. Four years had passed and he still swore up and down that he could smell his father's cheap cologne that he would put on before a show or the homemade cookies that his mother would bake him for a special treat. He would get homesick for that cramped trailer that held so many happy childhood memories. His family had little to nothing, but they were happy. Some days were worse than others and he would have to catch himself before he reverted back to speaking in Romanian around the team.
Robin's body was shaking with tremors from the force he was using to suppress the sobs when they finally found him. He was curled into a ball with his fists so tightly clenched that they looked like they might break. There was a slight trickle of blood dripping from his left hand where his nails were digging into his palm. This wouldn't have happened if he had just kept his gloves on, but at the moment they were laying half-way across the room on the floor.
He looked fragile. The team could hardly believe that what they were seeing was the strong, sharp-witted little bird that ran ahead on their missions on a regular basis. Even Artemis who had only been working with them for a short time felt something break inside of her at the sight of him. Right now, he wasn't Robin. No, right now he was a normal barely teenage boy that let his nightmares get the best of him.
"Rob?" Kid Flash was the first to gain his senses back, but being a speedster his thought process was faster. Robin jerked slightly at hearing the familiar nickname, but otherwise didn't acknowledge their presence.
"Robin, you've got to come back to us." Megan said soothingly. She reached out a hand to smooth a strand of the sweat-slickened hair out of his eyes but when her fingertips brushed his overly pale forehead he let out a scream and scrambled back away from her as if he had been burned.
The team looked at each other with expressions that varied from shock to horror. Wally felt the need to run over to his best friend and pull him into a hug, but from what they all just witnessed, he felt that it would cause more damage than good.
"I think we should call Batman..." Superboy said softly, which was extremely out of character for the clone. The normally blunt and straightforward boy was just showing how shaken up he really was, even if he didn't realize it.
It really hit close to home to see the youngest member of their team so broken. Till now they had viewed him as untouchable. With him being so close to Batman, it just seemed like nothing could hurt him. Now they saw things differently.
"I think that would be wise." Kaldur agreed.
"Well, we don't all need to go." Artemis said. They all looked at each other. None of them moved. Nobody wanted to leave Robin, even if they weren't really doing anything to help.
"I'll go." Wally finally said. "I'm his best friend." before anyone could complain about his bad pun of be back in a flash he was gone.
His finger hovered over the button that would connect The Cave's computer system with Batman's comm link. He didn't want to be the one to give the already frightening man bad news, but the image of Robin screaming and shaking played again behind his eyes and that was all the incentive he needed. His resolve strengthened, he pressed the green button and connected the call.
"Batman." The gruff voice said almost immediately, as if he had been expecting a call. With Batman, you never could tell though.
"Batman, this is Kid Flash." He tried not to let his voice betray how shaken up he was. "You're needed at The Cave, now."
In the true Batman fashion, he answered cryptically. "Before I come all the way out to Happy Harbor, I'll need to know exactly why it is that I'm needed."
Kid Flash winced slightly at the venom in the man's voice. His uncle was right about one thing: Batman did not like to be bothered.
"It's Robin." Wally decided to keep things simple. "We found him in his room-"
The call was disconnected with a click almost instantly. Not even three seconds later the Cave's computer system was announcing Batman's arrival through the zeta-beam teleporter. A black cape flew by him in a blur that was barely possible for humans. It took Wally a few seconds to realize that Batman was already here and by the time his brain caught up, the Dark Knight was already past him and heading towards the room Robin slept in when he stayed at The Cave.
Batman pushed the Young Justice team and didn't even hesitate to pull the trembling Robin into his arms, not caring the strange looks he earned from the five teenagers behind him. Robin stiffened and opened his mouth in a silent scream but then seemed to realize that the person who was holding him was familiar. He relaxed for one moment before the sobs finally wrenched their way from his throat. All the tears that he had forced himself to keep back earlier came flooding through and he allowed himself to break down.
His small frame shook with the force of the sobs heaving from his throat. He clung to Batman's cape like it was his anchor on life. Every time that he thought he could finally get his head above the drowning sensation of the anger and sorrow he was pulled under again. He was being dragged down into a place that he didn't want to be and there was no stopping it now.
One by one the members of the Team left the room. The force and strength of Robin's emotions were suffocating and they all felt that if they stayed much longer they too would break for no apparent reason. The feeling of helplessness set in when even after twenty minutes, they could still hear his sobs from down the hall.
"Bruce, I k-keep s-seeing their f-faces. I-it's like the J-Joker's got o-one of his v-videos on r-replay in m-my b-brain." The Boy Wonder managed to choke out through the sobs that had yet to slow down. "I miss them so much!"
"I know, Dick." Bruce replied, holding his ward close. At the moment the suit was just a formality. Batman had left the building the minute he saw the boy who he viewed his son. "It doesn't get any easier..."
"It's been four years and it still feels like it was only yesterday that they were murdered..." Dick sniffled. He pulled away from Bruce and hugged his knees to his chest. "Sometimes it's like they're still here."
"They are." Bruce said, giving his son a smile that was rarely seen while the cowl still covered his face. "Nobody is ever truly gone until they are forgotten, and as long as you keep your memories of them close, no matter how painful, they will always be with you. No one can take that away from you."
"Thanks, Bruce." Dick said quietly, not wanting to let his father-figure see just how affected he was by the older man's words. He wiped a few stray tears from his eyes. "I really needed that..."
Later in life when he would feel the pain threatening to pull him under again he would think back to that conversation. Even though it didn't help the feeling of immense sorrow in his chest, he held on to the memory of his parents for dear life. He was a broken bird, but even a broken bird can get up and fly again in time.
Author's Note: So, there you have it. Like I said, the ending isn't my favorite thing in the world, but I'm still happy with the way the story went. I hope you all got a good cry out of this, since that was what I was intending. ;)
Leave a smiley face if you liked it! (For those of you who haven't read my crappy Narnia fics from a couple years back, that was basically what I put at the end of every chapter. I just do it for giggles now. You don't really have to leave a smiley face, although it would be nice. :P)