A/N: Thanks for the reviews Blas, Batman Dude and Carl!

Carl - thanks for your support and that huge compliment! :-)

Chapter 11:

"There is always a way! Figure it out, idiot!" Robin was yelling at himself in frustration. Remembering that he had stopped his climbing idea because Kirik had entered the room, the Boy Wonder grabbed the rope and started pulling himself up again. Hand over hand, inch by inch. Three inches later a door opened and Robin immediately dropped and shut down his expression. He had made a mistake, assuming that the man was leaving him to die.

"Leave," the young hero almost growled but was able to switch the tone to pleading at the last second.

"I'm about to, kid," Kirik laughed. He walked to the television but then turned to face Robin. The boy was bloody, his face was swollen and his eyes were still lost. The breathing was ragged and sounded painful but the boy probably didn't even notice that now.

"Time to say goodbye, for real this time," Kirik grinned as he turned back to the TV. Flipping the switch to 'on', he made sure the volume was muted then walked around the rolling cart. Carefully, he pushed it toward Robin as far as it could go while still keeping the cord plugged into the socket.

His eyes widened and Robin couldn't stop the rush of hope that flooded into them. He had been right; Batman was still alive! A glimmer of a smirk made his mouth twitch but he refused to let it come out. He was supposed to be completely broken and that sort of expression would cause something bad to happen.

Kirik was waiting for a reaction and laughed when the emotion filled the wide blue eyes. It was perfect; the kid was full of hope again!

"I want you to carefully study Batman's situation," the villain stated softly. "Is there anything you recognize?"

The Boy Wonder had already been searching for clues and was disappointed when Kirik pointed it out. The trap that the Dynamic Duo had only escaped from because of two helpful guys who had decided to change sides. Batman didn't have a mini Bat-blaster, he wouldn't have been able to reach it anyway, and nobody was in the room with him. It was, Robin had to admit, inescapable. So, it was up to him to get free and rescue Batman. The young hero's utility belt was gone but the older hero would have a Bat-laser in his belt. All Robin had to do was escape. There was always a way out.

"Okay, well, I see that you have noticed that it's impossible for Batman to escape. Just like it's impossible for you to escape. This time he really is going to die because I'm leaving and not coming back. You get to watch him slowly waste away. It's your fault, you know. You failed him, just like he knows he failed you. So much for the 'Dynamic Duo'. Poor Gotham City; the citizens are on their own now. Goodbye, teenage idiot!"

Kirik smirked at the boy one last time then strode out the door, slamming it shut behind him. Robin ignored the noise and focused his attention on the television. Batman's mouth was slowly moving but it was difficult to make out what he was attempting to say.

"I come for give up?" Robin questioned his translation. Batman wouldn't tell him to give up! Shaking his head, he was grateful that his partner had decided to repeat the words.

"I definitely see 'I come for' but…come for what?" Shaking his head again, he narrowed his eyes and concentrated. "I come for…never give up. Never give up!" Robin shouted. "Whatever you're coming for, don't worry about it!" he yelled. "I'm not giving up, I'll get you out! You better not give up, either!" Robin knew Batman couldn't hear him but he didn't care.

Grabbing the rope again, the Boy Wonder started climbing. Kirik had said he wasn't coming back and Robin knew this was going to work. He grinned; there was always a way out.

Sixteen minutes later he was touching the beam and looking down at the floor that was approximately ten feet away. Would it be enough power or would it just be pain – agonizing, might-not-recover-from, pain? He looked up; too many tight knots. This was his very last idea and he knew it was going to work. Well, he really, really hoped it was going to work. Nothing left to do but fly.

He took a deep breath, pulled himself up as close to the beam as possible and shoved away. His hands slid down the rope and Robin quickly realized the stupidity of that part of the plan. There was now more skin on the rope than on his hands but it was too late to fix that. After falling nine feet toward the ground, the Boy Wonder yanked on the rope as hard as he could. It really was agonizing pain – his shoulders tore themselves away from their sockets, his head whipped back to crunch his spine and his ribs shoved themselves into his abs.

Screaming in agony, Robin allowed the pain to overwhelm him. Just before slipping into the darkness, he thought he heard a loud tearing sound. But then he crashed to the ground, dove into a sea of black and went limp.

Batman really hoped Robin was watching and able to understand his words. There was no way he was going to fail his young partner. He had promised Robin that he would always come for him and the Boy Wonder trusted him. Escape was going to be nearly impossible. Nearly. But Robin was waiting for him, and Batman was going to find a way.

Several hours later:

In warehouse number seven eighty-two, Batman was exhausted. He had been pulling and struggling and wracking his brain for what seemed like a hundred days and nothing was happening. His black and blue back was on fire from all the strain being put on it but Batman didn't stop. The hero felt like an idiot again; Robin needed him and he couldn't escape from a quartet of u-bolts!

Across the black strip of asphalt, in warehouse number seven eighty-three, Robin was crumpled in a heap on his right side, groaning in pain as his senses returned. He opened his eyes but everything felt broken and he didn't want to move. Confusion was the predominant feeling. Why was he lying on a cement floor wishing he was dead so that he wouldn't have to deal with the pain? The Boy Wonder wanted to close his eyes again and float away but there was a thought kicking him in the back of his head. He attempted to ignore it because there was pain everywhere. A pounding headache was actually the easiest ache to deal with right now. But the stupid hint of…something…wouldn't leave him alone.

Robin unexpectedly realized that he had forgotten how to breathe. He knew he was supposed to be feeling air enter and exit his body but he wasn't quite sure how to make that happen. What felt like a rolling pin was being shoved side to side across his torso and the crushing feeling wasn't allowing anything else to happen. Holes of blackness filled with dots of swirling colors were crowding into his mind and Robin decided that trying to push them away wasn't worth the pain.

Batman. The thought reasserted itself and the Boy Wonder's lungs were suddenly pulling in air. Batman was somewhere doing something and Robin was supposed to be doing something that had to do with whatever Batman was doing. Fuzzy-edged images, nearly hidden behind wispy clouds, began drifting lazily around in his mind. A rope, a bullet, a bomb, a long fall, a rope again, Kirik….

Kirik! Hanging from the ceiling! No, Robin was hanging from the ceiling. Was he hanging from the ceiling? Robin stared at the long beam high above him and wondered why there was only a short rope dangling from the object. If he was hanging from the ceiling, shouldn't the rope be long enough to reach his body? And why was he on cold cement and staring up? He should be looking down. Maybe he was hanging upside down. But that still didn't explain the obviously torn rope above him.

A television, an axe, Batman was dead, an evil smirk, a broken cheek. How could a cheek break? Only bones could break; did his cheek have a bone? Maybe he was dead. But would he really be feeling all of this pain if he was dead? No, probably not. Therefore, Robin decided, he wasn't dead…yet.

Batman, a trap, a feeling of hope, a feeling of despair, a feeling of needing to help someone. Was he supposed to help Batman, a man who almost never needed help? Almost never. Seven eighty-two, Joker, Kirik had a sister, Batman was too dead to save, a feeling of failure, Gotham City on its own, Alfred crying. Why would Alfred be crying?

Robin was so confused and every single bone and muscle in his body was screaming at him to go to sleep. The Boy Wonder was leaning towards giving in when he saw a square box on top of some kind of cart with wheels. No, not just a square box, a television. Something on that screen would give him a clue, he was absolutely sure about that. But how was he going to push himself up to see it? He was barely breathing!

Kirik smirking at him, Batman staring at him. I come for never give up. Sighing, he whispered, "I won't give up, Batman. But it might take me a while to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing."

The young hero decided that it was time to test his body. His head didn't want to cooperate but Robin forced his neck to lift the heavy thing off the ground. That made him discover that his shoulders were on fire. The flames weren't traveling anywhere else, though, and that was weird. Laying his head on the ground again, the Boy Wonder tried rolling his wrists. It worked, but they could only roll at the same time. That was also weird. An acrobatic crime-fighter, because he knew that's what he was, had to have wrists that could separate from each other.

Everyone had ribs, why didn't he have them? Maybe ribs weren't necessary to live. Robin didn't realize that his torso had gone completely numb; the pain was overwhelming and that part of his body refused to accept it. He bent his knees and felt a twinge of pain in the right one. Well, he had landed on his right side so that made sense.

Wait. Landed…he had landed. Suddenly the fuzzy images and tiny memories combined to make clear pictures and Robin remembered everything. He grinned slightly, although it really hurt his entire face. It had worked; there was always a way. This particular way had ended worse than he thought it would but at least it had worked.

Batman was stuck in an inescapable trap, waiting for Robin to rescue him. This was going to be one of the most physically agonizing moments of his young life but it had to be done. The torso had decided to jump into the pool of pain that was the Boy Wonder's body and Robin was able to contract his abs long enough to sit up. That almost made him drop back to the floor, and into unconsciousness, but he forced himself to stay awake by biting the inside of his left cheek.

That had been a stupid idea – the left was the cheek with the broken bone. Tears of pain shot out of his eyes and he thought again about going back to sleep. But Batman had never left Robin to die and the Boy Wonder was determined to return the favor. At least his legs worked. But how was he going to get the cuffs off his ankles? There was no way he would be able to hop anywhere with both of his shoulders dislocated and several broken ribs.

By now Robin had pushed himself up to his knees. The small bursts of sparks in his right knee were manageable and the young hero pushed that specific pain to the back of his mind. However, he still didn't know how to get the stupid cuffs off his ankles. Unless that tiny thing glinting in the fading sunlight about ten yards away was something useful. A key would be helpful but Kirik was too smart to leave anything to help his nemesis escape.

His attention was drawn to the television a few feet above him. Batman was obviously exhausted. His body was limp, his head was down and his struggles were feeble. I'm coming, hang on.

The sunlight was nearly gone and the formerly shiny object was about to disappear. Shuffling on his knees as fast as he could, Robin sighed in relief when he was able to sit down right next to it. A black hole, darker than the now-inky blackness of the warehouse itself, surrounded him when he forced the fingers on his right hand to pick it up. Dizziness was his best friend right now and he almost fell backwards. However, he had just picked up a key and he laughed out loud. The laugh was more like an agonized croak but he was too focused to notice.

The only light he had was coming from the television behind him and he needed light. The sigh was out of frustration this time and he pushed up to his knees again. A lightning strike of pain shot up the right side of his body, wrapped itself around his torso, burst through his left cheekbone and flew out of his swollen left eye. He couldn't push the murky clouds away this time; his small body tipped to the side, the key dropped from his hand and the blue circles disappeared behind a set of fluttering eyelids.

"COME ON!" Batman was yelling at himself in frustration. Sweat was running down his entire body and the fabric on his wrists and ankles was slowly being rubbed away. His muscles were begging for a break and Batman really wanted to give in to their pleas. There was only one thing keeping him from doing just that: Kirik's description of Robin's condition. Batman had never seen a completely hopeless Boy Wonder, although it had been a close call fourteen months ago.

If Kirik had been telling the truth, then Robin was watching Batman's fruitless struggle. His young partner was observing the lack of progress and might be able to see that exhaustion was threatening to overwhelm Batman. He had been in this exact trap a little over a year ago and he hadn't even bothered to figure out a way to escape from it after he and Robin had been set free.

The Caped Crusader's chin was resting on his chest and his body was limp. He had no other ideas but refused to resign himself to giving up. Carefully lifting his head, Batman looked straight into the camera and began slowly repeating another two sentences:

"I will figure this out. Stay strong."

The next morning:

Bright light forced him to squint his eyes and Robin tried to roll away from the brilliance that was the morning sun. His body was stiff and it fought against the movement. The attempted roll turned out to be just a shudder and that wasn't helpful. At least he had light now. Light but not the key and the latter was more important than the former.

This is ridiculous! You're the Boy Wonder so prove it!

The reply from his entire body was a resounding "no" but he ignored it and sat up. Pain began wracking every inch of his small frame and the only things he could see were flashing stars. Without realizing how he had done it, Robin discovered that he was now on his knees. A quiet sigh slid out of his mouth; how could the cuffs come off if his ankles were under his body? The Boy Wonder still couldn't see anything and was thinking about panicking. He wouldn't be able to find the key, free himself and rescue Batman if he was working blind. Again not knowing how it had happened, Robin found himself sitting on his left hip with both hands on the ground. He was virtually sightless but it calmed him slightly to know that his instincts were still in good condition.

There was a crooked and slightly pointy tiny bump under his left index finger. It was an object that Robin couldn't immediately identify but, when he did, another painful grin lit up his face. He had the key.

How helpful. No time to celebrate. Batman's waiting.

The stars had settled into soft beams that splashed through the miniature waves in his vision at random times. That was much easier to deal with; he could see the wiggling silver key well enough to pick it up. His shoulders were now screaming in his ears every time he moved and he knew they had begun to hate him. But there was nothing he could do about it; they would just have to deal with the fire that was consuming every part of the joints.

Pulling his knees up to his chest, Robin began mumbling to himself, "I'm going to find you, then I'm going to beat you up, then I'm going to throw you into Arkham with the worst villains, then I'm going to beat you up again..." The phrases shifted his focus slightly and he could concentrate more on the key and less on the pain.

His vision had cleared but Robin still had a problem: his right arm. The key was in front of the lock but his arm was trembling so violently that he couldn't slip it inside the hole. Switching hands didn't matter because then his left arm became the problem. He almost gave up and tossed the key into the shadows but quickly remembered that he was the one doing the rescuing. Batman, no matter what he did or how hard he tried, wouldn't be able to escape from Kirik's brilliant trap.

So, Robin began shoving the key toward the cuffs then pulling it back. Going slowly hadn't been successful; maybe he would get lucky and catch the hole by going faster. That, however, wasn't working very well, either. The metal key would hit the metal cuffs once in a while but there was never the 'click' of a key being inserted into a lock.

CLICK.

A smirk swept across his throbbing face. One twist of the key and the left side fell off his ankle. It was good enough; he could walk freely and that's all he needed. Now, how was he going to get up?

Two rough hands were suddenly squeezing his dislocated shoulders and he cried out in shock and agony. Robin was jerked to his feet, spun around and shoved backwards. He stumbled and would have crashed to the floor if he hadn't hit a wall.

"I spent the night in peaceful slumber and was enjoying a comfortable ride in my car when I suddenly realized something," Kirik's familiar voice growled and Robin watched the villain advance toward him. "I inadvertently dropped the key and, obviously, you found it. I'm not even going to ask how you got down but from the way your body is shaking it must have really hurt. Unfortunately, I have to admit that you are exceptionally good at dealing with physical pain. But, I can't have you rushing off to save Batman so I'll just have to cross a line that I have always refused to cross. You know," the villain taunted with another smirk, "the one you immediately decided to cross when you watched Batman's body get blown to pieces. The one that, had you been able to do it, would have caused you to change sides."

The man had a long, metal crowbar in his hand and Robin knew what was coming. Kirik was going to try to kill him. The Boy Wonder ignored the taunt and narrowed his right eye in anger - the left was too swollen to do anything. Shifting his weight onto his uninjured left leg, Robin tensed his back against the wall and waited. He was going to rescue Batman but would have to fight his way through the villain to get there.

An evil, twisted grin made its way onto Kirik's face. The boy was defenseless with his wrists tied tightly together and the rest of his body trembling in pain. Holding the crowbar over his right shoulder like a bat, the villain took one last step toward the former sidekick and swung as hard as he could.

He had nothing left. Batman had promised Robin that he would always come for him but the hero couldn't even lift his head anymore. Every muscle was exhausted and shaking. Kirik had won; the Dynamic Duo was about to die. Batman really didn't want to give up but he also really didn't have a choice. Nothing had worked and, now, not a single part of his body could obey his command to struggle against the restraints. He, Batman, the Caped Crusader, the Protector of Gotham City, the older half of the Dynamic Duo, the partner of Robin the Boy Wonder and the guardian of an amazing teenager, had failed.

Lifting his head one last time, he stared into the camera and slowly mouthed two words:

"I'm sorry."

A/N: A thick rope probably wouldn't be torn apart just because someone jerked on it after falling from a significant height. However...Robin is much more than just someone. ;-)