You all must hate me for taking so long to update. And what makes it worse is I ended the previous chapter with a cliffhanger! Please forgive me! Read on...
Chapter 10: Emotions, emotions, emotions
Miss Martian's P.O.V
Fear walked slower and slower as we neared Dick's worse nightmare. I felt like I was about to collapse. Fear was becoming more and more and more pure... his fear was overwhelming.
"What's Dick's worse nightmare?" I asked.
Fear trembled as he got closer.
"He fears... the Dominant fears-" he stammered.
We walked round the corner and came face to face with the Boy Wonder's greatest fear...
"The Dominant fears losing everything he knows and loves," said Fear.
Several super-villains were holding half-invisible figures of Young Justice and Justice League. Fear walked forward and collapsed to his knees. The super-villains dropped the super-heroes, the super-heroes dropped like a bag of rocks. Fear started radiating a red haze with black tinges. The super-heroes disappeared into dust. Fear was on his hands and knees, trembling. I wished I could enter his mind and calm him but Fear didn't have a mind. We looked to Bravery but he had started to turn invisible.
"Bravery! Get outta here!" I shouted.
The entire mindscape shook. Then I realized. The purer Fear became the more fear Dick was feeling and he got less brave.
Robin's P.O.V
I started rocking where I sat. My gloom had been replaced with a tremendous amount of fear so Gloom had disappeared.
"Why am I scared?" I asked Cheer.
"Well..." Cheer began "You know I told you about Fear? Well, he lives where you lock away your worse nightmares. If you're feeling scared he must have ran into one of them,"
"Oh," I said "What can I do to stop it?"
"Nothing," said Cheer "Don't worry about it or Fear's lesser twin, Worry, will turn up,"
"Never tell someone not to worry because that makes us worry more!" I said.
Sure enough, another me turned up. He was around 13-years-old but was slightly shorter than me. He wore the Robin-uniform but the black was replaced with dark blue and the red was replaced with light blue, the yellow was replaced with a dark green. He, like his name, had a worried expression.
"Hi Worry," said Cheer "How are you?"
"Worried," Worry replied.
"Why?" I asked.
"I'm worried I'll let down Batman and the Team just because I'm the youngest," Worry said "That's why my representation is 13... because that's how old you were when Psycho-Pirate used his Medusa Mask on you and your greatest worries made themselves known,"
"Who's Psycho-Pirate?" I asked.
Worry kept his mouth shut and sat down, shivering. There was silence until I heard a large boom! come from behind the door.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Fear's in trouble," Worry whispered "But other consciousnesses are intervening,"
"Consciousnesses?" I questioned, then I realized "My friends!" Cheer and Worry looked at me "My friends! I have to go help them,"
"No!" Worry croaked "I'm worried your mind will be destroyed which equals the end of us,"
"I have to help them!" I demanded, standing up.
"Where did this courage come from? You don't remember being the Boy Wonder, so how come you're acting as brave as him?" Cheer asked.
I stepped back. Where hadthis sudden courage come from?
"I don't know!" I exclaimed "Even though I don't remember being Robin and being a member of the Team, they're still my friends!"
"So... what are you going to do?" Cheer asked, smiling with satisfaction.
Artemis's P.O.V
"How'd you do that?" Wally asked.
We were all shocked about what Dick just pulled off.
"I dunno," said Dick.
"What now?" I asked.
"We go to the root of his emotions, we treat the trauma, fix his memory and ta-da! We have the Boy Wonder back!" M'gann said, cheerfully.
Fear was curled up on the pavement. Bravery had disappeared to whatever part of Dick's mind he resided. M'gann knelt down beside Fear and put her hand on his shoulder.
"Fear... where are Dick's root-emotions?" she asked.
Fear didn't look up but he pointed down a street.
"Thanks Fear," said M'gann and she stood up "Let's go,"
We followed her down the street. I looked over my shoulder at Fear. A 13-year-old emotion in pale, cream, coloured versions of Dick's civvies appeared (Comfort) and wrapped his arms around Fear.
The street led to a dead end. M'gann, somehow, knew what to do. She walked through the wall, like D.J had done, and we followed. We were in an arched hallway that was covered in mirrors. In the reflection of each mirror a scene was playing out. In each one Dick was showing different pure emotions.
"We're in the root of all the crazy people we've met while in Rob's mind," I breathed "Holy crap... this is overwhelming!"
The end of the corridor was dark.
"What's that?" Wally asked.
"Dick's trauma," said M'gann "C'mon. We need to ease it,"
We cautiously followed her as she headed towards the darkness. I turned around and saw D.J at the end of the corridor. When he saw me looking he walked through the back wall. When we walked into the darkness M'gann spoke...
"We need to get to the start of the trauma," she said.
I looked to Dick, only to see him completely stoic. He hugged his arms and his eyes were half-lidded.
"You ok?" I asked, quietly, nudging him with my elbow.
"I dunno," he whispered.
Robin's P.O.V
We went down, down, down into the trauma. Muffled screams bounced off the walls and into our ears. It got harder and harder to walk through the darkness as it enveloped our legs, like trudging through sewage. I started glowing red again, Wally started glowing yellow, Artemis glowed light green and M'gann glowed white with a pink tinge.
"Now I'm freaking-out," I confessed.
The entire darkness shook.
"You're not ment to be here," an echo said.
The echo bounced around us, sending a shiver up our spines.
"We're here to help!" M'gann shouted.
"I don't need help!" said the echo and something passed past me "Leave! While you still can..."
What part of my personality was this?! I was racking my brain for an answer.
"Who are you?!" I shouted.
"Wally believes because you know... D.J... that you get a free pass," said the echo "IT DOESN'T!" it shouted and a gust of wind blew at us from bellow"D.J'S A FRAUD! A FAKE! HE ISN'T PART OF THE DOMINANT'S PERSONALITY! HE'S SEPPORATE!"
"I can see you're upset about D.J, but what are you?" M'gann persisted.
"I..." the echo did a dramatic pause...
Suddenly a bright light was shining in the distance. It reached out in sparks. We got closer to see...
"...am Trauma," the echo continued.
Trauma was an undeterminable age. His entire being glowed yellow with sparks flying around him. His eyes completely glowed an icy, barren, terrifying, light blue that lightened to pure white in the center. And he was covered in orange scars (the result of emotional scarring).
"Get out!" he shouted "I'm the only one to know the truth!"
Trauma's lips were parted to show his clenched teeth as his voice echoed around us but he never actually moved his mouth to talk, but blackness seeped out between his teeth like ink in water.
"Know what truth?" I asked.
"I'm the only one to know!" Trauma screeched, opening his mouth.
The blackness seeped out around the edges of his mouth. Yellow lightning shot out at us.
"We need to leave!" M'gann shouted.
A strong wind blew around us, forming a sorta tornado around Trauma. Trauma's yellow, short-sleeved, t-shirt and yellow jeans whipped around him.
"If we don't leave now..." M'gann took in a sharp intake of breath as air started disappearing "If we don't leave now..." tears spilled out and they were blown away in the wind "If we don't leave... TRAUMA WILL DEVELOP INTO INCURABLE INSANITY!"
"GET US OUTTA HERE!" Artemis shouted as the wind began to lift us off the floor.
The last thing I saw... we're crystal clear tears pouring down Trauma's cheeks...
"DICK!" I heard a desperate shout of my name.
I sat up and looked around. There were people I recognized but couldn't place. Wally was sitting next to a blonde man who openly comforted him. Artemis was with 3 people, a blonde man and a blonde woman and a Vietnamese women in a wheelchair. Artemis was hugging the one in the wheelchair while the other 2 rubbed her back. I looked to M'gann to see her silently crying her eyes out with her uncle's arms wrapped around her (he was green and I recognized him from the News we watched yesterday). I looked above me to see the person who had shouted my name was Bruce and besides me knelt Zatanna.
"W-what h-ha-ppen-ed?" I shakily asked.
"After being in your head for 3 hours you and the others started breathing heavier," said Zatanna "Then, after another 2 hours, you all collapsed onto your backs and you started to have seizures,"
At this, the blonde man with Artemis and the one with Wally went up to Bruce and pushed him against the wall.
"What the heck happened!?" the one with Artemis demanded "Jogging your son's memories shouldn't have done this!"
"I don't know what happened, Oliver," said Bruce, pushing off the wall "Why don't you ask them!"
Oliver turned to face the room.
"What happened?" he asked.
It took a while to explain because we were still shaken up by it all. In the end there was no rage about what happened. Oliver and Dinah (Dinah being the blonde woman with Artemis) comforted Artemis while Artemis's mother (the lady in the wheelchair) came to grips with what she 'allowed her daughter to go through' (it sounded like she blamed herself). Barry (the blonde man with Wally) comforted his nephew. I was pretty shaken up by the encounter with Trauma myself. Bruce watched over me while Zatanna hugged my close and comforted me about it all.
After 20 minutes of Zatanna comforting me, she lent back to look at me. With a pale blush on her cheeks, she lent forward and gently placed her lips on mine and I carefully kissed back (but my eyes remained open). When Zatanna pulled back and looked at me I gave her a small smile, which she took as success.
...LATER THAT NIGHT...
I sat in bed that night, wide awake. There was something I hadn't told anyone. Before re-entering my the physical world, D.J had gotten to me...
"I need to show you this, Dick," D.J said, pulling my wrist.
We were in darkness but there was a tent. It glowed from the inside. Past the outta layer of the tent were hung cloth so you couldn't see whoever was inside.
"What is that, D.J?" I asked.
"The one emotion that isn't represented as you is the emotion of love," said my counterpart "Your love is represented as whatever you love most on this world," he pointed into the tent "Your love is in there,"
I walked in, dodging around the hung cloth as if it was a maze. Then a silhouette appeared. It was the silhouette of a girl with long hair. The silhouette opened its eyes as if the light was shining through its head and the whites of its eyes. I peaked around one of the hung cloth to see a memory playing out. The center of the tent was my bedroom in Wayne Manor, but if I looked up I could see the ceiling of the tent. I looked at the bed, at the memory...
(R)(R)(R)
I was sat on my bed... with Zatanna. I was sat cross-legged with Zatanna next to me, both of us reading. We smiled at each other and closed our books.
"I got you something," she said.
"What?" I asked.
Zatanna lent over the side of the bed and grabbed her purse. She pulled a black box from inside. Zatanna looked at me and held the box between us. I lent back on my arms. Zatanna opened it and took out a round, silver, dependent attached to a braided piece of leather.
"Look what the charm says," she said, seeing the look on my face.
I took the charm and looked at it. The edge of the charm had a thicker piece of metal wrapped around it so it had an edge. The inside of the charm was painted black but the engraving was silver.Property of Zee; it read. As a response I kissed her...
(R)(R)(R)
After watching the memory play out 2 more times, I turned around and started heading out of the tent. I had figured it out. My love was represented as Zatanna because... I was in love Zatanna...
...I shook my head. I couldn't even remember the first time I met Zatanna, how could I be in love with her? It was obvious if I never remembered Zatanna wanted to re-start our relationship from scratch. I absentmindedly reached under my pillow. To my surprise, I found the charm that said; Property of Zee, under it.
Did their encounter with Trauma creep you out? I hope it did! I know Trauma isn't an emotion but there's more to someone's personality than just their emotions.
Also, none of you guessed what D.J is! They were all REALLY good guesses but none of them are correct (some were close-ish).
This will be the last of telepathy being used in this fic, except for mind-links that may or may not happen.
The next chapter is gonna be the beginning of the climax (unless I forget). Hope it doesn't disappoint! ;)
Please read my other stories, particularly Time Passing and 6 Robins: The story of The Huntress!
Anyways, please review if you want another chapter!
Rocky out, peace!