A/N: Holy stinkin' crud! I post a single chapter, and it gets more attention than anything else I've ever written on a first try! Whoa! You guys are the best! Thank you so much to all ninety-something of you who faved/reviewed/alerted! T.T I'm so happy! I pray you continue enjoying this as much you do already!
"Me?" the Boy Wonder sputters incredulously, eyes wide. "Sure, he hates us for foiling his schemes time and again, but why would—?"
He stops short. Batman is giving him a look, one he knows well and dreads even better. It spells out exactly what he was feeling earlier. His face contorts into a slight scowl, showing only a minute fraction of his discomfort as his stomach churns and his heart drops.
Batman nods. Much as it kills them both, the boy's found the answer.
The Joker's taken the ultimate coward's way.
"He means to get to me through you, Robin," the man affirms grimly.
The insane jester-inspired villain has gone from despising their perfect dynamic to using it to his advantage. In taking out the weakest link—and even if Robin is anything but weak as far as his mentor and his friends are concerned, when compared with Batman things are what they are—the greatest threat to his Empire of Fun-Fear shall crumble.
"Is there a plan in place yet?" Aqualad poses. "Have you talked it over with the League?"
Batman shakes his head. "I've decided not to tell anyone else just yet. I thought Robin and the rest of you had first right. Besides, Gotham and its villains are under my jurisdiction. No one gets involved in anything there unless I say so."
"But isn't a situation like this the exception to that rule?" Miss Martian asks, brow furrowing in confusion. "My people have similar standings as far as territory goes, but even we make exceptions when things get out of hand."
"It's not out of hand!" Batman growls, reigning in his temper solely thanks to years of disciplined training. He softens and succeeds in striving to apologize to the startled girl through his noticeably softer next words. "Not yet. And as for a plan, I have one…" his eyes lock with the baby-blues of his young charge, "…although I don't think it'll go over well..."
And almost immediately Robin uncharacteristically explodes. "No!" he yells, making a diagonal slicing gesture across his body as his expression turns deadly. His teammates flinch; whatever this secret plan is, it must be bad to make their collected youngest lose his head like this. "You can't!"
"Can't what?" Superboy breaks in, bewilderment written over his face. "What aren't you saying?"
Batman sighs, closing his eyes tightly in immense frustration and inner pain. He knew something like this would happen…
"We leave two of you here with Robin while the rest of us take down the Joker."
This answer is not given without acute difficulty.
This is emotionally wracking for him as well. He knows exactly what his adoptive son is feeling—after all, he lost his parents when he was younger than Robin. He knows better than anyone else ever could what losing someone he loves feels like. He knows what it is to have nightmares of the night it happened. He knows what it's like to live with and be forced to repress the raging fear that it will happen again.
And he knows that this is what motivates the thirteen-year-old's sudden panic.
The poor boy can't stand to lose anyone else.
And for the life of him, Batman cannot bring himself to find fault in this angel-child.
"Robin," he pleads, timbre soothing and no-nonsense all at once, "this might be the only chance we have at killing two birds with one stone..." He lets the rest hang in the seconds of silence that follow. Even in his harried state, Robin gets the message.
But still the Boy Wonder refuses to back down. There is too much injured fire burning in his heart, too much queasiness bubbling within him. He remembers the deaths of his parents so very vividly; he cannot face that again!
"You know me, Batman," he presses, eyes narrowed fiercely at his mentor even as the smallest smirk comes and goes, "sometimes better than even I know myself."
Something is communicated silently between the two of them even as these words are said, and Batman's face scrunches. Don't you know why I'm doing this? the older entreats silently. Can't you see that everything you are is me?
"That's not fair!" Robin retorts, tone wavering on a level solely known to his mentor. "You know it's not! You've been both my savior and my Father since the day you saved me! Everything you are is me!" He sweeps his arm out in a wide arc to capture the rest of Young Justice. "My friends are a part of your inner circle now, just as yours are of mine! You know how I feel about them!" His voice audibly breaks now on the emphasized word, and his friends meet his glance as strongly as ever. "Why don't you understand that I can't live without you here? Without them here?"
The night personified can say nothing. All Robin has said is true. His own ties with the members of the Justice League are as strong as this, growing increasingly stronger with each passing day. By now, living without them seems…more like a living nightmare than a could-be reality.
But in of all of this, there is one sure-fire thing he knows without a shadow of a doubt: life without his beloved son would not be worth living.
And it is for this reason that he even partially concedes.
"I do see, Robin," he insists, and the sincerity in the low, tender tone his voice takes on washes over the Boy Wonder one hundred fold. "I've been where you are right now; I understand what you're feeling perhaps better than you do," his eyes plead for his charge to truly hear him, "which is why I need you to trust me." Robin turns his face away defiantly, fists clenched and shoulders tense. Batman reaches down with two fingers to gently tilt the child's face upward in order to look him in the eye. "I'll take care of them, Robin," he vows, in a voice so guarding and heartfelt that the teen's overhead-black cloud lets up for an instant. "I promise you I will."
Robin reaches up to take Batman's wrist in a tight, holding-him-to-it grasp. He squeezes lovingly all through, praying the gesture provides at least in part how grateful he is for everything this wonderful man is trying to do for him.
All the same, he cannot allow himself to quit this fight.
"Anywhere my team goes, I go." I'm sorry, he adds inwardly. So sorry. But at least you know my reasons. "There's no stopping me, and you know it."
A stretching moment here, and what seems to take no more than an instant for the Dynamic Duo is an eternity and then some.
Batman pulls back at last, discreetly caressing his adoptive son's cheek, while Robin leans in to the touch of the man who has always been his light in the darkness.
Believe it or not, something has been won today, indeed.
When the mission-dispatcher focuses his attention on the four patiently-waiting team members once more, he can't quite grasp the appropriate way to describe them. They are a peculiar mix of somber, protective, and born-ready.
"So what's the verdict?" Kid Flash questions anxiously. "Are we splitting up or not?"
Batman looks to Robin, who steps forward. He peers intently into each pair of eyes, his determined countenance leaving no room for argument.
"I'm coming with you."
A/N: I edited, but it's past midnight and I'm an hour late to bed...and with a big Trigonometry test in the morning and A.P. Physics shortly after...I gotta get to bed! If I missed anything, please tell me!
To those who noticed how the rest of YJ seemed to fade into the background once Batman and Robin started duking it out, it's because they understand that this is a private matter between the tw of them, something they need to work out themselves. Just to clear things up. XD
Thanks so much for reading, as always! You guys are absolutely amazing!
