I own nothing.
Warnings: very brief suggestion of rape (VERY BRIEF), mentions of past self-harm
Barry Allen was running.
He was always running… just not usually in Gotham chasing Batman's ex-girlfriend assassin-ninja.
And that's what he was doing.
And how she was outrunning the fastest person alive, he had no idea. Well, she was no person. She was a demon. And he was carrying a certain red-head.
Strangely, he wasn't carrying the usual certain red-head, this one had big chocolate eyes and bat-ears. Wally was carrying Helena, and Barry was surprised that his sidekick- sorry, partner- had only screamed in pain a couple times. To give you an idea of why he was in pain, here's what he currently was saying:
"Roses are red and violets are blue, lava is hot and so are you!"
His answer came as: "Robin is red and Nightwing is blue, I beat the crap out of villains and will do the same to you!" coupled with a whack to the head.
They'd been on a treasure hunt almost all night. After Bruce got the letter, he'd read about a bajillion times before understanding what the last statement meant. Then he called the Speedsters. The two had come running (literally) and Bruce sent them to the fairground in which Dick's parents had been killed.
Bruce himself was staying behind with Terry and Selina to be base of operations whereas Barbara and Helena were, as said, piggybacking with the speedsters.
After arriving at the fairground, they'd found an envelope at the exact spot Dick's parents had crashed to the ground. Opening the envelope, the four had found the next note:
Sticks and Stones did break his Bones
And Words did Ever Hurt him.
The girls, along with Bruce crackling over the com, had quickly surmised the Juvenile Detention Center in which Dick had been placed after his parents had been murdered. After all, sticks and stones had been thrown at him and poked him, and he had come to the Manor with more than a few broken bones. Not to mention the fact that it had taken years to stop the belief that he was worthless because of what people had told him. What really stopped him was when Jason came along, Jason who didn't care what people said, Jason who literally beat everyone up who crossed him or especially his brother.
They found in Dick's old cell in his mattress another note that said:
In a Place so Big, with a Face so New
All alone, except for You
The first part had been easy enough to piece together: Wayne Manor. Second part took a little thought before Alfred wacked everyone upside the head (after hearing their dilemma) and had thrust them into the oldest's room, jabbing his finger at a very worn stuffed elephant, the only thing Dick had somehow been able to keep after being taken to Juvie. Bruce, Talia, and Alfred had all found him talking to the toy at some point when he was new.
The found inside the elephant's hat a roll of paper, which Bruce read aloud.
I've Never Here Before,
"Charity Case," "Circus Freak," "Gyp," They say and so much more…
What does it mean? Why does it hurt?
Why do they treat me as well as the dirt?
They'd rushed to Gotham Prep, searching all over before finding a note underneath the playground, taped in a hidden way. Batgirl read this one shakily.
It hurt. It whirled. It was a chasm. It twirled.
It darkened, I couldn't see. How could I stop this turmoil in me?
I want it to stop. I want to cease.
Only this blood, the lines that are straight, have chased away hate,
And brought me this peace
Barbara was crying, remembering the bandages around her little brother's/best friends wrists, sometimes red with blood. She looked up, remembering that fateful day in which they buried the knives, and Dick vowed never to do it again.
"I know where to go." she said simply.
She had almost reverently guided them into the forest behind Wayne Manor on her own two feet, slipping through the trees quietly. She led them to a teeny tiny waterfall, bubbling into a brook serenely. She knelt at the base of a tree, sweeping away the leaves and avoiding the spiky bramble.
She looked to the speedsters, whom where gone and back in seconds, delving into the earth with shovels. After a few minutes, they sat back with a sigh, Helena reaching into the hole and pulling out the box.
She brushed dirt off the clasps, opening the hickory case to reveal three beautiful daggers, still encrusted with blood. She bit back tears, reminding herself it was all in the past as her shaky fingers picked up the note. How they'd gotten it in was a mystery, but right now it didn't really matter.
She read the next note quietly, her lips moving in a mumble.
He was never there. Whenever I looked, I found thin air.
Spiral steps explained to me why, despite revealing his blank-faced lie
"The Batcave." Helena closed the box, placing it in the hole where she carefully covered it up, patting dirt over the top. She jumped onto Wally's back, and he ran to the house and down to the Batcave where they found Bruce, Terry, and Selina. Barry and Barbara skidded to a stop beside them.
"It's in here somewhere." Helena handed Bruce the note. The searching went on quite some time, but they found it on a niche on the stairs that Dick used to hide in when he still fit. Bruce read the note this time.
I knew what he was doing. I knew I had to do it myself.
So a cape I made from his I found upon the highest shelf,
I ran to inflict revenge but justice I served instead
And thus I was born again, a hero in black, yellow and red.
They first searched the display case with his Robin costume. No dust had gathered despite being unused for quite some time thanks to the vacuum-sealed display case. When nothing was there, Bruce sent them back to the circus grounds where the Robin legacy had been born.
And that leads to what Barry was doing now, running back to where he was started to find in aggravation that someone had placed a new note in a box where they started.
Watching from the shadows, a teen in a black cloak with an electric blue symbol on it watched.
His masked eyes clenched. Tears leaked out, crystals snaking down his cheeks and leaving little round rings on the ground at his feet. He fell down to his knees as thunder crackled in the sky.
He'd always loved the rain. He faintly remembered so long ago, his mother holding him out in the falling waves, swinging him around as she danced across the top of a very tall fence, twisting, flipping, smiling, her lashes laced with the heavenly crystals. It had been two days before her death.
She'd fallen into a one-handed handstand, the other caressing his face. "Why?" she whispered, the skyward tears blurring the world.
He'd whispered back in absolute certainty. "The sky cries when angel tears are flowing, when God is sad, when one of His children has given up, given in."
"And," she bent into an arch, her thin frame angelic in itself. "When we realize the world is so much bigger than us. And the rainbow-"
"-Promisiuni, el este real, o mai bună atunci când există Mâine este atât de mult mai mult decât noi." He finished. Promises, He is real, a better tommorrow when there is so much more than just us.
She smiled, nodding. She then twisted to a perfect spin. "Try it, my little Robin, my bird. My rainbow."
He had giggled, twirling into a double aerial and then a front flip. They twisted and flew, a Robin and an Angel, across the fence, not noticing and not caring that the rain grew so hard that even the criminals had run.
The two ran barefoot along the streets of the city, oblivious to the horror and decay that surrounded them in the city of Gotham, oblivious to the grounding sensation everyone else felt.
They stopped in front of a sobbing woman, holding her knees to her chest in the scant cover of the alley. Mary, a fitting name for the woman to be named after the mother of Christ, knelt in front of the woman, unwrapping her dirty arms from her torso, ripped clothing painfully apparent, and took off her jacket, handing it to the homeless girl, who looked surprised as Mary held her close.
She relaxed, sobbing into the chest of a perfect stranger… who didn't feel like a stranger. He moved forward, smiling lightly as he placed a tiny hand on her shoulder. She looked into the eyes of the boy, his blue irises pulling her into a state of wonder. "Who are you?" she whispered.
"I'm Robin." He'd answered.
"Are you an angel?"
He'd giggled with his mother. "I guess we are. Why are you hiding?" He asked innocently.
"It's raining." She whispered.
"I know." Robin had answered, pulling her to her feet.
"Will you dance for me?"
"You don't need to hide." The angel added.
"But its Gotham…" the woman sobbed, touching her chest where her clothes underneath her jacket were mutilated.
"I know. But there is good everywhere." Mary answered.
"No… there isn't."
"We're here."
"Come dance with us!" Robin cried, falling into a backflip. His bare feet splashed in the puddles of the street, his black hair sopping and glistening. Mary's own strawberry red hair flowed and flickered like fire as she joined her son in the dance.
The woman broke down, crying, her own tear's interlaced with the angels'. That's when she realized. The tears don't have to be for a broken, un-savable world. She let her tears go as she joined the duo in the dance, twisting and sliding, turning and bending. Merging with the angel tears, the heavenly tears.
Two days later Mary, the Angel to the Robin, had stopped flying. For once in the bird's life, the tears of the sky weren't dreams, but of falling. His Angel had lost her wings.
He heard every drop hit the ground, felt every cold, knife-like prick of the water. These weren't angel tears… this was cold wetness. Cold, useless wetness.
He had run, run to the farthest edge he could reach, where he fell, his tears mixing and blending. Suddenly, a warmth had surrounded the boy, two arms. He opened eyes, looking up to see long, black hair, silver eyes, and his mother's jacket.
"It's my turn to be your angel." The young woman had said.
The boy sniffed, cuddling closer, pain squeezing in his shut eyes. "Remember," she whispered, "It's bigger than just us. Tomorrow's a new day. There's always hope."
He'd never seen her again. Not in all his years. But now, as he straightened, he remembered. The sky was crying. Life is just a perspective, no one's ever really gone. He felt like he was suddenly crowded with friends and loved ones as he looked at the speedsters, Batgirl and Huntress.
Then, for the first time in years since Bruce had taken him in, he fell into a dirt-humble position, and plead. He prayed.
He needed to make this right.
There we go. I hope you guys enjoyed. Please review.
And remember, there's always good, always hope.
~Universe