Aqualad woke up to the sound of Artemis's voice spitting out as many cuss words as he knew and a great many he didn't. He could see Kid Flash's eyes widening in half admiration and half disgust.
"No idea someone could be all those things at once." The speedster murmured. Thankfully Artemis couldn't hear him since her cage and Wally's cage were separated by a kryptonite cage, incasing Superboy.
"You're awake." Mrs. Martian observed, letting relief show in her voice. She was kneeling next to the bars that were the barrier between her and the Atlantian. Both their cages had fiery torches blazing in the corners. Not enough to hurt them too badly, but enough to weaken them.
"Yes. Is anyone hurt?" Aqualad asked, nodding to the Martian.
"Kid Flash had a broken leg but I managed to set it right so he should be healed by now. Other than that everyone is fine." Everyone except Robin Aqualad added silently. He sighed and let himself lean into the bars of his cage. I failed him. I failed Robin. I failed the team.
"It isn't your fault, Kaldur. It's no ones. You couldn't have stopped The Chuckler single handedly."
"You are not supposed to read our minds without permission." He reminded her
"I don't need to read your mind to know that you were thinking that."
"I was right there M'gann. Robin was so injured and weak, he couldn't fight. But I could and as soon as I felt pain I went down. Robin wouldn't have done that. He would have fought. If it had been me that was injured-"
"Then he would be next to me saying exactly the same thing as you or in full health and brainwashed." M'gann finished, crossing her arms. "You couldn't have done anything."
"I could have done everything. I am the leader, yet I failed to protect our youngest teammate." Aqualad shook his head. "I saw him when he was not in hero form. Unlike the others, he stays Robin even without his mask and cape. He pretends for us. We- I, never saw him as anyone but Robin until a few days ago." Aqualad shook his head. He knew he shouldn't be telling anyone this but for some reason he felt he should express this to M'gann. "He was so human, so young, so lost, so hurt. So broken." Mrs. Martian had no answer for that. So the whole team (Artemis had stopped cussing) sat in silence and waited.
25 hours had gone by. 25 hours filled with guilty silence, wasted self-pity, and telepathic encouragement. A few chosen words were exchanged out loud but the way they echoed around the dim room felt wrong. It was like someone was hiding in the darkness and mocking them to the brink of insanity. So instead they stuck with telepathy on the rare moments they wanted to talk. But mostly no one ever did. So when the silence was finally broken the noise hurt their heads and almost burst their eardrums. It bounced around the room and copied every syllable. It was made 100 times worse when the speaker's identity became acknowledged.
"Hello Kiddies! Miss me? Sorry I couldn't come to play but I was giving Boy Blunder a little quality time. But Uncle Jay is here now." And Aqualad thought Artemis's cussing had been bad before. "Now, now little Blondie watch your mouth. I know you had to wait a while but really there's no excuse to be rude. Maybe I should teach you some manners….nah I'm just going to make you watch your little birdie die."
A gasp of horror broke into the air followed by Kid Flash's yell of "What?!"
"Oh right I forgot I was going to spend some time with you all first. Thanks for reminding me Flash Boy." As they talked Robin and The Chuckler had come in. Robin was covered in cuts and bruises. He was still limping but it was more pronounced and more ribs had definitely been broken. The worse though was actually not an injury at all. It was his blue eyes with dilated pupils. They shone through the darkness and seemed to belong to a dead man. No one could look away from these new eyes on their little brother. Recognition tugged in the back of Artemis's mind, but she ignored it for now.
"Kid Flash" Wally corrected, growling. M'gann let Joker's voice fade to the background as she instructed Robin and The Chuckler to get his toys. A few strings of words reached her ears, telling her that the Joker was going to keep us alive and conscious so that they could tell Batman that Robin (Or The Cackler, as Joker as had renamed him.) was dead. It seemed a little farfetched to the Mrs. Martian. How could they tell Batman if they were too injured to escape? And she was sure that Batman could figure out Robin was dead without being told by the team. But that didn't matter right now. What mattered was getting into Robin's mind. She snaked forward, glad that the torches weren't too bad. She was strong enough to make contact with him for a few minutes if she wasn't thrown out like last time. Just as before his mind felt strange, more open yet surrounded by a wall. She didn't let it distract her this time. Instead she pushed against the wall. But it was so solid and so hot. Gosh was his mind on fire or something? The head was intense. It blazed and shot at her, two times worse than the candles around her cage. She let out a silent scream and pulled away from his mind. As she did her mind half fell and half flew into The Chuckler's mind. And to her amazement, his mind was almost the same as Robins. It felt open but not in the same way as a bird. His mind was more content and comfortable. It was stable and grounded. A huge barrier surrounded it, blazing and spitting fire. Again she was thrown out of the mind she was invading but this time she had new information.
"The Chuckler has been brainwashed, the same as Robin!" she told the team with her telepathy. After a time of mental eye raisings, some "Are you sure?" and a sarcastic sigh of "Of course he is!"Aqualad finally got the team to settle down and start to formulate a plan as they watched the Joker and his two zombies set up some toys.
