Author's Note: Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to review! I really appreciate it and I'm so glad you're liking it so far! To those who read the first version on the contest website, about halfway through this chapter is where this story begins to change. The originally solution that I had to their problem was actually not medically possible, so I had them come up with a new solution. Please let me know what you think!

Chapter Two

The Team continued down the hallway in a tight formation, each on them on guard as they expected some kind of ambush with every step. As they reached the end of the hallway, they found a single metal door. At the questioning looks sent to her, M'Gann gave a curt nod to confirm that Robin was indeed behind that door. Wally was closest, so he reached out and tried the handle. It turned effortlessly… the room wasn't even locked. That was another red flag and everyone tensed as Wally pushed the door open.

It was not at all when any of them had expected to find.

While the rest of the warehouse had been dank, dark and practically falling apart, this room was clean and sleek. The walls were so white they seemed to glow and painfully bright fluorescent lighting lit the small room. It even had the sterile smell of an operating room, a stark contrast to the molded and rusted smell of the rest of the building. It took each of the team a moment to adjust to what they were looking at.

"Robin!" Wally shouted, turning to a blur as he shot into the room at top speed.

The rest were close behind, trickling into the room slowly, still weary of some kind of trap. Indeed, Robin was in the room, but the sight was a tough one to stomach.

He was up against the far wall, being held upright by some sort of machine. There was a large flat, metal circle behind him with a vertical metal piece that bisected the circle and ran between Robin's back and the wall behind him. His arms were pulled up at forty-five degree angles above his head, his wrists contained within two thick metal shackles that were attached to the top of the circle. His feet were together and similar metal shackles connected his ankles to the bottom of the circle, his feet hanging about six inches above the floor.

There was blood staining the side of his head, which hung limply on his shoulders. His cape, gloves, utility belt and shirt were all missing, though his domino mask was still thankfully in place, his identity still hidden. There was a strange device in front of his chest that sat at the top of a metal pedestal of sorts. The device was thick and round with a dull panel on the front of it, like what one would see on a digital clock that had been unplugged.

Strung up like that without his cape and shirt, it was suddenly painfully obvious that Robin was in fact the youngest member of their team by several years.

"Robin, can you hear me?" Wally asked, immediately at his friend's side.

"Can you get him down?" Kaldur asked, staring at the scene is front of him, his eyes wide with barely contained horror at what he was witnessing.

"I don't even know what this thing is," Wally said quizzically, looking the contraption up and down. "It's way too elaborate to just be restraints." He glanced back at the team. "Superboy, think you can break this thing apart?"

"It'd be my pleasure," Superboy said, crossing the room.

But just then, Robin began to stir. His eyes slowly blinked open and he groaned.

"Rob?" Wally questioned.

Robin made a pained noise in the back of his throat. "Get... out..." His voice was raspy and weak, but his message was clear.

Artemis, who had been the last one hovering in the doorway, stepped fully into the room in order to try to hear Robin better. The moment she did, there was a sudden deafening crash, shaking the entire room. They all whipped around to see that a panel had fallen from the ceiling, filling the doorway and blending it in with the rest of the stark white walls, trapping them in the room.

Superboy and Kaldur immediately rushed to the spot where the doorway had just been. But the others were drawn by the sudden sound of a loud and clear beeping noise that suddenly filled the room. They turned to find that the panel on the front of the circular device had lit up and was displaying the numbers 10:00 in bold red. It blinked one, twice, three times. Then it changed, showing 9:59. And a moment later it showed 9:58.

"It's counting down," Artemis said slowly.

"It's a bomb!" Wally exclaimed, taking an involuntary step backwards away from his friend.

"We can't get through," Conner shouted.

"The walls are lined with lead," Robin spoke up, his vision clearing as he seemed to become more aware of his surroundings. "There's -" He was cut off as he coughed. "There's a key inside the bomb. You gotta disable it to get it."

"I'm on it!" Wally said immediately, stepping back up. "Shouldn't be a problem, we got plenty of time..." But his voice trailed off as he got up close to the machine that held their teammate. He strained to get a good look at the back of the bomb, trying to see between the device and Robin.

Then he froze.

Wally's eyes were wide with shock and suddenly he was backing up. Robin was watching him with weary eyes, clearly not as surprised as the rest of the team by his reaction.

"What is it?" Kaldur asked.

"It… the bomb… it's attached to him," Wally stuttered, looking vaguely sickened by the idea. "I've never seen anything like it, but the wires actually go into his chest."

A heavy silence followed this revelation as the young heroes struggled to absorb this.

"Can we at least… get him down?" M'Gann said timidly, looking up at his restraints.

"Any movement, risks setting off the bomb," Wally said, approaching the device again, his eyes desperately searching the contraption. "There has to be a way to deactivate it."

"The bomb…" Robin took a deep breath and grimaced as if in pain. "The bomb is connected to my heart." He turned his head slightly, avoiding looking directly at them. "It'll only deactivate if my heart stops."

There was a ringing silence once more in the room. No one moved. No one spoke. It was as if time had simply stopped, even though it was painfully clear that was untrue as they all watched the countdown clock steadily ticking down the time they had left.

8:12… 8:11… 8:10… 8:09…

"So, what're our options?" Wally finally demanded, looking around at the rest of them.

"I know one," Robin spoke up, his voice hoarse as a strangely morbid smirk crossed his lips.

Wally glared at him. "I am deliberately not asking for your opinion."

"There are not many options available within the allotted time," Kaldursaid flatly as he eyed the countdown on the bomb.

7:55… 7:54… 7:53…

"What if we just rip it off of him?" Artemis said. "It won't detect his heartbeat anymore and it'll stop the countdown."

"Negative," Wally said, stepping closer and getting a better look at the small space between the bomb and Robin. "It's too well integrated into him. Ripping it out like that will cause too much damage; he'll bleed out before we can get him out of here."

"Can you remove it more carefully?" Kaldurquestioned. "A way that will cause less damage?"

"Sure I could," Wally said. Then he eyed the countdown, frowning. 7:21… 7:20… "You know, if I had more time that is. With the bomb live, one wrong wire disconnected and it's gonna detonate."

"I could crush it," Conner volunteered.

"If you crush it without disarming it, I'm willing to bet my life that there's a failsafe that will switch on and it'll trigger," Wally said, shaking his head firmly.

"Well, we gotta do something, or we're all gonna be dead," Artemis snapped, a note of panic just barely detectable in her tone.

6:59… 6:58…

"Not necessarily," Robin spoke up. He suddenly sounded breathless. Clearly this machine was putting some kind of strain on his body. "SB and Aqualad will be able to withstand the strength of the blast. They could protect the rest of you."

But Wally was already shaking his head even before he finished speaking. "Superboy and Aqualad might be able to withstand the force of this blast, but the rest of us won't this close to the detonation. Even if they try to shield us, we're still gonna get fried. Not to mention, that plan leaves the small problem of you getting the full force of the explosion."

"We don't have time to argue about this!" Conner suddenly spoke up. "We have to do something now!"

6:27… 6:26… 6:25… 6:24…

"What if we…. What if we stop his heart," M'Gann suddenly spoke up quietly.

They all turned to look at her with varying degrees of disbelief in their features.

"What are you crazy?" Wally demanded loudly. "You wanna kill him?"

"Sacrifice for the greater good," Robin murmured, almost as if he were talking to himself.

Wally whirled on him, anger radiating off of him. "No! This is your life we're talking about, Rob! You don't get to sacrifice that for us!"

"We don't have a lot of options here," Artemis pointed out quietly, a surprising amount of sympathy in her voice.

"We just have to stop his heart long enough to stop the bomb," M'Gann insisted desperately, clearly distraught that her suggestion had been taken the wrong way. "Then, after we disable the bomb, we start it back up again."

Kaldurturned to Wally, a calculating look in his eyes. "If we stop his heart, how long would we have to restart it?"

"It generally takes four to six minutes for brain cells to begin to die with no blood flow," Wally said, though he was clearly not happy with the way this conversation was going. He glanced up at Robin critically. "Possibly less time for him because he's small for his age."

"Hey," Robin said, one corner of his mouth twitching upward. "I take offense to that."

"His head wound is also a wild card," Wally went on as if he hadn't spoken, speaking quickly as his eyes went up to study the blood that stained the side of Robin's head. "If he has a bad concussion and he passes out, there's a chance he might not wake up again. And there's no way to know the extent of the concussion without medical equipment." He paused. "Then there's the chance that even if we do get his heart started up again, the timer might pick up right where it left off." He shook his head, frowning. "The whole thing is a big gamble."

"It's a gamble you guys have to take," Robin spoke up determinedly.

5:03… 5:02…

"Even if we did have to take that gamble, how do you propose we do that?" Wally demanded, glaring up at his friend before glancing around at the others. The room went quiet. No one wanted to answer that question. Wally sighed and then went on, speaking quickly. "Let me speed this up then. Suffocation isn't gonna work because that in itself will take at least three minutes and then there won't be enough time left to revive him before he starts losing brain function. We can't electrocute him without risking major damage to his heart. And we have nothing else to work with. There are no good options there."

"I'm hearing a lot of what we can't do, so why don't we talk about what we can do," Artemis pointed out. "We're running out of time!"

4:32…

"Is there some way to bypass the sensor?" Kaldur asked. He looked up at Robin when he posed the question, seeing as he was their best hacker despite his current predicament. "Some way to make it think that your heart has stopped even if it has not?"

"We can try," Robin said slowly, sounding a bit reluctant. "I won't know for sure unless I get a look at the inside of this thing. But that's using up time that you guys may not have."

"It is a risk that we are willing to take in order to get all of us out of here in one piece," Kaldur said evenly.

There were nods of agreement throughout the room. None of them were willing to sacrifice a team member for their own safety. It was at that moment that it was realized that they were all going to make it out of this room together or they would face the consequences of this ticking time bomb as a team.

"Less than four minutes left," Conner pointed out tensely in an attempt to hurry this plan along.

3:45… 3:44…

"Okay, so we gotta open this thing up, right?" Artemis said, determinedly walking forward and drawing an arrow from her quiver.

"Careful," Robin warned. "There could be a failsafe built in. Don't take it all the way apart; just enough to see if there are any wire that connect the two halves together."

"Gotcha," Artemis said as she used the tip of the arrow to carefully pry apart the bomb at the seam that ran around the edge of the device. With a click, the two pieces came apart, though she held them close together so that they didn't fall too far from each other, allowing her to check for the wire that Robin had described. "I don't see anything," she reported as she checked around the entire device.

"Pull it apart carefully," Wally said, reaching out to help.

Working together they pulled the bomb apart, exposing the wad of crisscrossing wires that were contained. Everyone held their breath, expecting some sort of failsafe. But the bomb continued counting down… a good sign at this point.

2:36… 2:35…

"Can you pull it out any further without messing with any of the wires?" Robin asked, straining to try and get a look at the bomb from such a severe angle.

"Not much, it's still attached to this thing," Wally said, and then glanced up at Robin. "And you." But even as he said it, he was able to shift the front part of the device out a little farther.

Robin eyed the device critically for several seconds.

"Okay, if nothing else, it looks like we can disconnect the countdown, give us some more time," Robin said, sounding a bit surprised by this revelation. He took a deep breath. "See the four wires plugged into the side of the display?"

"Yeah," Wally confirmed.

"Find which one is connected to some sort of power source," Robin instructed. "If that's the only wire going into the power source, you should be able to cut it without triggering a failsafe. The other three wires are probably decoys connected to a trigger or failsafe."

"Should? That sounds so reassuring," Wally said sarcastically as he tried to carefully sort out the mess of wires that filled the device. He swallowed then let out a frustrated sigh. "I can't tell left from right in this thing, there's too much going on."

"Take a deep breath, Kid," Kaldur instructed. "You can do this."

Several more long seconds passed by.

"Here, I think I found it!" Wally finally exclaimed. "Three of the wires go to the same place, but this one goes to a small cylinder that might be the power source. It's got no other wires going into it."

1:10… 1:09…

"Just over a minute left," Kaldur reported tensely, checking the countdown. "Can you cut the wire without disturbing any of the others?"

"Artemis, I need the tip of one of your arrows," Wally said quickly.

"My hands are a little full here," Artemis snapped, glancing down at the half of the bomb she still held. "Superboy, grab the one off the floor and snap it."

Superboy quickly did as he was told, snapping the arrow close to the metal tip before handing it over to Wally.

"Forty-five seconds," Kaldur said.

"That's not helping!" Wally practically snarled in annoyance. "In any case, we're either gonna be safe or dead in ten." He took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing." And with that, he threaded the tip of the arrow into the device and with a flick of his wrist, cleanly cut through the wire.

0:32…

For a moment, it seemed that nothing had changed. The electronic beeping noise that came from the bomb persisted.

"Well… we're not dead," Robin pointed out into the otherwise silent room.

Kaldur let out a sigh of relief as he looked at the display that had now gone dark again. "The countdown stopped."

"It's still monitoring his heartbeat though," Wally added. "That's what the beeping is."

"At least we have more time though," Artemis pointed out. "Think you get it off of him now?"

Wally looked him up and down. "Well, nothing else is attached to the power source." He leaned closer, getting a better look at the inside of the bomb. "I think… I think the rest of the bomb is being powered by his heartbeat." He paused, studying the device for a moment. "See these red wires? I don't think they're actually wires, I think they're tubes filled with Robin's blood. His heart is pumping his blood through the bomb, which the bomb is using to power itself. The idea is that once his heart stops, the blood stops and then the bomb will power off."

"Well, can't we just cut the tubes then?" Conner asked. "Then the blood will stop moving through it and it'll shut off."

"Too easy," Robin said.

"He's right," Wally agreed. "You cut those tubes, blood's gonna go everywhere and start frying all this circuitry. I'm willing to bet my life that that'll set off a failsafe and cause the bomb to detonate." He reached in and fingered one of the red wires. "This feels thick too. I bet there's sensors that will be able to tell if they are cut."

"Can we trick it?" Artemis asked. "Make it think that Robin's heart has stopped somehow?"

"Miss Martian," Robin suddenly spoke up. "Can you stop my blood before it goes into the tubes?"

M'Gann looked uncomfortable at this request. "I can try," she said. "But the human body is really complex and veins are very small. I… I might not be skilled enough for that kind of precision."

"And she can't just stop the blood in its tracks," Wally said. "That'll more or less be a blood clot, which could kill you." He looked over at the Martian. "You'll have to redirect the blood so that it keeps flowing through his veins."

M'Gann stepped closer and took a deep breath. "Okay," she said, sounding a bit steadier.

"There are four tubes going between his chest and the bomb," Wally said. "Two in and two out, I would guess. It's not draining his blood, just redirecting it through the bomb and then back into his body. You'll have to figure out which two are the 'out' tubes, don't mess with the ones sending blood back in. That'll simulate what would happen if his heart actually did stop."

M'Gann closed her eyes, concentrating. "Got it," she said quietly after a minute, able to feel the young hero's blood flow with her telekinesis. "Two out, just like you said." She looked up at Robin. "Ready?"

Robin nodded. "Do it."

M'Gann raised a hand as she focused her entire concentration on the blood running through Robin's veins. She reached forward with her telekinesis, but hesitated as Robin flinched and let out a small yelp at the sudden intrusion. M'Gann paused and then reached forward again, this time much more gently. It was such a small target that she was searching for, it made it very difficult to not disturb anything around the target.

She looked up and met Robin's eyes. It was an overwhelming feeling to have his life in her hands.

She swallowed and then refocused on the task at hand. She could feel the blood flowing through Robin's veins and could feel where the tubes entered those veins in order to disrupt that flow. As carefully as she could, M'Gann willed the blood to bypass the tubes and continue on their natural path through Robin's veins. It was a slow process, as she was afraid to go too quickly. Minutes ticked by and she was immensely grateful not to be doing this with the pressure of the countdown timer on the bomb hanging over her.

Finally, the red tubes were beginning to lighten as less blood flowed through them. Everyone was watching quietly and M'Gann tried her best to ignore all the eyes that were on her.

The beeping noise coming from the bomb was slowing down, clearing having sensed Robin's heartbeat through his blood flow, and not being able to sense it as well anymore. Encouraged by this, M'Gann pushed forward until she was directing all of Robin's blood passed the two tubes in his chest, putting up small barriers within him to keep the blood from leaving his body. It was extremely delicate work and once M'Gann found the right spot, she froze in place, closing her eyes.

"I… I got it," she whispered, afraid to move even a muscle.

There were several long seconds of silence in which they were able to confirm that the bomb was no longer beeping incessantly. It had been disable.

"Keep holding it," Wally said carefully. "I'm going to get these tubes out of him."

He stepped up to his friend and began carefully threading the tubes out of his chest. Robin gasped and grimaced at the strange sensation that this sent through him. There was no time for hesitation though; it was clear that M'Gann's concentration was waning. Working as quickly as he dared, Wally continued threading the tubes out of Robin's skin.

"Almost there," Wally said after several long, quiet minutes as he worked on the last one. "And… got it!" He straightened up and grinned before letting out a celebratory whoop of joy. "Take that, Mister Criminal Mastermind! Outsmarted!"

M'Gann released her hold, stumbling slightly only to be caught and steadied by Conner. Four lines of blood streaked down Robin's chest from where the tubes had been placed, but thankfully it wasn't at an alarming pace. Everyone was smiling, even Robin gave a tired smile, relief radiating around the room.

"We still need to get out of here," Kaldur pointed out. He moved forward. "We need to get the key out of the bomb and we need to get Robin down."

"That would be appreciated," Robin quipped, his voice strained. "My shoulders are killing me."

"Here," Artemis said, pulling the disabled bomb off of its perch and handing it over to Wally.

"I'll get him down," Conner said, striding forward after he was sure M'Gann could stand on her own.

"This still seems like an overly elaborate restraint system, doesn't it?" Artemis said, stepping closer to look at the restraints that still held Robin. "I mean, clearly he wasn't going anywhere with that bomb connected to him, right?"

"Maybe they just wanted to be really sure he wouldn't get out?" M'Gann suggested. "Or they didn't know which one of us they were going to capture?"

"Hm," Artemis hummed, clearly not convinced. She reached up one hand toward one of the shackles to brace herself as she leaned around to see the part of the machine that was hidden behind Robin.

"This wouldn't have held me," Conner pointed out, a slightly cocky note in his voice, as he approached the other side of the contraption and reached up for one of the shackles.

"Wait!" Artemis suddenly shouted whipping her head back around and starting to move away.

But it was too late.

Conner was already tearing the shackle off of Robin's left hand. There was the expected crunch of metal, but also a strange buzzing noise. Before any of them could react, there was suddenly a blinding light and several screams, both in surprise and in pain. Conner and Artemis were both thrown backwards with such force that they struck the opposite wall before collapsing to the ground.

"Artemis!" Wally shouted just as M'Gann yelled, "Superboy!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Conner said, brushing off M'Gann's attempts to help him to his feet. There was a strange buzzing noise in his ears, but ultimately it seemed he was unharmed by whatever had just happened.

"Artemis, your hand," Wally gasped, kneeling next to the archer.

"It's nothing, just a burn," Artemis said as she blinked rapidly, cupping her hand to her chest, her palm suddenly covered with angry, red blisters.

But as soon as she said it, realization seemed to dawn on the team. Conner and Artemis' sudden projectile across the room had distracted them. Now they turned back to where Robin was still trapped. His left arm hung limply at his side, his right still securely shackled to the wall. His head hung on his shoulders like dead weight and he was completely still

Wally rushed to Robin's side, reaching up to place two fingers on his neck, looking for a pulse. But even before he said anything, Conner knew what he would find. His super hearing told him the horrible truth in the silence that radiated from the young hero.

No air moved through his lungs.

No heart beat in his chest.

Even the blood in his veins was still.

He was dead.

"What happened?" Kaldur demanded as he quickly joined Wally.

"There was another failsafe," Artemis said. "An electrode that was up against his back. It must have triggered when the shackles were broken, electrocuting him. And anyone else who was touching the metal." She looked down at her own badly burned hand.

"There's no pulse." Wally's revelation echoed through the room as everyone else went silent.

"We need to get him down," Kaldur commanded loudly. "Superboy."

But Conner was frozen in place. He had done this. He had killed his teammate. He had killed Robin.

M'Gann flew forward when Conner didn't move. "What do we do?" she asked.

Kaldur reached behind Robin with one hand. "Break the other shackle with your telekinesis. I will absorb any electricity that is triggered."

M'Gann immediately did as she was told, pulling the remaining shackle apart with her telekinesis. There was a small discharge from the electrode, but it wasn't on the scale of the first one and Kaldur was easily able to absorb the charge.

"Get him down and lay him flat," Wally said in a surprisingly commanding tone. "We've got four to six minutes until brain cells to begin to die with no blood flow."

"His wrist," M'Gann said quietly. The wrist that had still been contained in metal during the initial shock had been badly burned, his skin not only an unnatural red, but the middle of the burn appeared sickening black.

"We'll deal with that later," Wally said. "Get him down."

Quickly repeating the process, M'Gann broke the shackles around his ankles – revealing similar burns – while Kaldur absorbed the excess electricity. Then, she levitated him down off of the wall and laid him out flat on the floor.

"Can we use Kaldur's electricity to shock him?" M'Gann asked quickly. "Like a defibrillator?"

"That only works on TV," Wally snapped uncharacteristically. He was already checking Robin's airway. "We have to do CPR first to get his heart moving. Then we can use Kaldur's electricity to jump start it."

Artemis had joined them, kneeling down at Robin's head. "I can do rescue breaths if you can do chest compressions. It'll be five compressions for every breath."

Wally glanced over at her, a bit surprised at Artemis' knowledge of CPR. "Alright. Go."

Ignoring her own injury, Artemis tilted Robin's head back to check his airway. Then she pinched his nose – using her uninjured left hand – and leaned down, blowing air into his mouth, causing his chest to rise. Wally placed the heel of one hand on Robin's sternum while covering that hand with his other hand, locking his elbows before pushing down solidly at a measured pace.

"One-one thousand; two-one thousand; three-one thousand," he counted aloud in order to keep himself steady. As he reached the fifth compression, Artemis leaned down to administer another rescue breath.

"Work on getting the key out of that thing," Kaldur said tensely as he handed the abandoned disabled bomb back to M'Gann. No matter how this turned out, they would need to get out of this room.

The room grew quiet, the only sounds Wally's counting followed by Artemis' deep breaths before exhaling into her rescue breath. After several rounds of this, Kaldur glanced back at Superboy, who was staring down at the scene with a glazed expression.

"Listen for his heartbeat," Kaldur instructed.

"What have I done..." Conner murmured, as if he hadn't heard Kaldur speak. His eyes were glued to Robin's face. "I... I killed him... " The words seemed to burn his throat as he choked them out.

"You did not know about the final failsafe," Kaldur snapped. They didn't have time for any of them to freeze up. They had precious few minutes before Robin started losing brain function. "None of us knew."

"But Artemis..." Conner started.

"Do not think about that now," Kaldur commanded. "He is not gone for good yet. Help us bring him back, listen for his heartbeat. "

Conner took a deep breath, doing his best to focus despite the lump of guilt in his throat that threatened to strangle him. He had to do something, anything, to fix what he had done. He blocked out any other noise in the room and focused on the silence that came from their fallen teammate.

"I hear it!" Conner finally exclaimed, hearing the faint thump accompanied by the swish of blood beginning to move in Robin's veins.

"Kaldur, electricity should enter here," Wally pointed at Robin's right collar bone, "and exit here," he pointed at Robin's lower left side. "Use a low voltage and a short burst."

"Everyone stay clear," Kaldur said as he put one hand at each spot Wally had indicated. A bolt of electricity shot up his arm and into Robin and then was absorbed up into his other arm. Robin's body jerked up before falling limp once again. "Superboy?"

Conner shook his head silently as Robin's body became still once again. He felt the guilt working its way into his brain again, threatening to overwhelm him and shut him down, but he fought against it. This couldn't be it; this couldn't be the end.

"Start CPR again," Wally ordered, his eyes trained on his friend with an intensity that no one had ever seen from him before.

Without question, Artemis tilted Robin's chin up again and checked his airway. Then she leaned down and breathed into her young teammate again. Wally immediately began his compressions as soon as she had administered the rescue breath, counting out loud in order to help himself stay on pace. The two fell into rhythm as they desperately tried to bring Robin back from the dead.

Several minutes passed and Conner still couldn't hear a heartbeat.

"I… I don't hear anything…" Conner murmured, backing up as a look of shock overtook his features. They had to be approaching their six-minute deadline by now.

Kaldur glared over his shoulder at him. "He is going to make it!" he declared.

"There!" Conner gasped before Kaldur had even finished speaking, finally hearing the dull pump of Robin's heart.

"Move!" Kaldur commanded, reaching forward so quickly that Artemis and Wally had to scramble away in order to avoid getting an electric shock.

He sent another jolt through the young hero, this one a bit stronger than the first, causing his body to jerk upwards once more. The entire team seemed to forget to breathe as they watched with wide eyes, searching desperately for some sign of life.

Suddenly, Robin was coughing and gasping desperately for breath, as if he had just surfaced from underwater. The relief in the room was palpable with several audible sighs releasing all the pent up tension from the young heroes. Kaldur fell back on his heels, feeling like he might pass out with the amount of relief that he felt.

Slowly, Robin's eyes opened briefly before sliding shut again. "W-wha' happen…?" he wheezed weakly.

"Oh, you know, just you scaring the crap out of us," Artemis laughed with nervous energy as she hastily wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

A smirk graced Robin's lips as he gave a noise like a breathless laugh. His eyes opened again as he gazed around at them blearily. "S'rry... missed that."

"Wally?" Artemis said softly as she looked over at the speedster critically, noticing that he was suddenly trembling quite severely.

"Just… just give me a minute," Wally stammered and suddenly he was on his feet and backing up away from the scene.

Despite how Wally had taken control of the situation, it seemed that even he had a breaking point. And watching his best friend die and then desperately trying to bring him back from the dead was it. Now that the danger had passed, it seemed that he was finally processing what just happened. He backed up against the wall and took several unsteady breaths, sounding like he was on the verge of hyperventilating.

"We need to get out of here," Kaldur said, glancing around at his team. "Robin still needs medical attention."

"Who, me?" Robin wheezed, his eyes blinking sleepily. "'M fine. 'M just gonna rest... my eyes jus' for a... a minute."

"No, no, no," Wally said quickly, looking over at him from where he stood, still trembling. "He's gotta stay awake, someone keep him awake."

"You gotta keep your eyes open, Robin," Artemis said, tapping the young hero firmly on the cheek. But she kept on glancing over at Wally, concern in her features at his clearly deteriorating state. But quickly she focused back on Robin as his eyes began to slide shut again. She tapped his cheek a little harder in an attempt to keep him awake. "After all that, you better stay with us, okay? Keep your eyes open."

"Have you found the key yet?" Kaldur asked tensely, turning to M'Gann, who was working on the now inactive bomb.

"No, I can't find anything that looks like a key," M'Gann answered, sounding distressed.

Artemis leaned over to look at the mess of wires that M'Gann was trying to work through. "It's not your fault," she commented. "It's like a R2D2 threw up in there."

"It might not be a key in the traditional sense," Kaldur pointed out. "Are there any markings in the panel where the door was?" His eyes went back and forth between Conner and Wally, the two who seemed to be in the most shock with the situation. Finally, he rested his gaze on Conner, the one who seemed to be dealing with it the best at the moment. Which wasn't really saying much. "Superboy, go check." Conner looked at him with a slightly vacant expression. "Superboy!"

That seemed to wake him out of his fog. He turned and went over to where the door had been, running his hands over it as he looked for anything out of the ordinary.

"There's an indentation," he said after a moment. "It's shallow, maybe a quarter of an inch deep and maybe three or four inches wide. It's in the shape of an octagon."

"Hang on," M'Gann said, searching more determinedly now that she knew what she was looking for. "Got it!"

"Miss Martian, you take the key," Kaldur said, immediately taking his team leader role as he quickly analyzed what needed to be done in order to get them out of there. "Artemis, do you have your backup crossbow?"

"Never leave home without it," Artemis said, pulling the small weapon from where it was stashed in her quiver with her good hand.

"Good, you can help Kid Flash with Robin, but keep your crossbow ready," Kaldur said. "I will not be surprised if we run into trouble out there when the people who took him realize there was no detonation. If we run into any resistance, our priority is getting past them and outside where we can get to the Bioship. Our goal is escape, not combat." He paused, looking over to where Wally still stood, unmoving. "Kid?"

"Yeah, yeah," Wally said, sucking in an unsteady breath. He was shaking less as he walked forward, but there was still a haunted look in his eyes.

"Ready?" M'Gann asked, poised at the door with the key in hand.

Robin let out a weak groan as Wally and Artemis hoisted him up between them. More blood trickled down his chest from where the tubes of the bomb had pierced his flesh.

"Ready," Kaldur confirmed after scanning the room and taking stock of each of his teammates.

"You okay over there, Baywatch?" Artemis asked quietly, glancing over at Wally who still appeared shaken by the whole ordeal. She blinked and wished she had a free hand to wipe at her eyes again, also starting to notice a dull ache just behind her eyes like a migraine.

Wally's eyes strayed to Robin, who was still struggling for consciousness. His best friend was clearly not out of the woods yet.

"I will be," Wally answered softly. "Let's just get him outta here."

"Sounds like a plan," Artemis agreed as she adjusted her hold on Robin to be more secure, despite the pain radiating from her burned hand. "Let's do this."

Author's Note: Credit where credit is due. Inspiration for the machine that Robin was held in that had the bomb connected to his heart was taken from the graphic novel Forever Evil. (A fantastic read for anyone who has not yet read it)

Also, for those interested in the medical aspect of this, in the previous version of this story, the way that they got Robin out of the machine was Superboy suffocated Robin by covering his nose and mouth in order to stop his heart and then Kaldur used his electricity to shock him like a defibrillator. Well, after a chat with Alexandria-likethecityinEgypt, it turns out that wouldn't actually work because the three minutes it would take to suffocate him would take away from their four to six minutes they would have to resuscitate him. And the defibrillator alone wouldn't work, the heart needs to be fibrillating (or moving) in order for that to be effective so CPR would need to be done first. Now you've learned something just like I have! Again, thanks to Alexandria-likethecityinEgypt for helping work all that out!

Anyway, please review and let me know what you think!