Young Justice -:- Roots

So it's been a loooooong day. Actually, it's been a loooooooooonggg week, hence the comparative delay to my previous posting habits; but here it is at last! Chapter 25!

Thank you's all around to everyone who has read/reviewed/favourited/alerted or otherwise! Your patience with me is greatly appreciated and I love you all! I've got a couple of replies at the end of the chappy; until then:

Enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-Five

"I want proof of life," Zucco demanded.

Well, crap on a cracker, I hadn't thought of that. My master plan to leverage a ransom out of Zucco for his supposedly abducted daughter was getting off to a flying start. But then again, at this point in my life, I had yet to be kidnapped on multiple occasions, so my experience of hostage taking was pretty much nil. I was essentially just making this up based on what I had seen on old TV shows and movies.

(Okay, so maybe my brilliantly thought out plan wasn't as brilliantly thought out as I had implied...)

But I couldn't break character. "In one hour you will have your proof," I lied on the spot, still trying to figure out just how exactly I was going to pull that off. "Until then, you should worry about getting me my money. Goodbye, Mr Zucco."

I hung up the phone and released the panicked breath that I hadn't realised I was holding. My hands were shaking so bad that I could hardly get the phone in my jeans pocket. I hadn't really realised just how hard it was going to be simply talking to Zucco; the rage and the anger and, admittedly, the fear, hitting me all at once. But I had to focus. Phase Two was complete. There was no backing out now.

It sounded like Zucco was buying my Russian mobster routine, and I was pretty sure that I had heard genuine concern for his daughter's well-being under the thick layer of animosity; so I was still calling the plan a success. But now I needed proof of life.

What even counted as proof of life? I could vaguely recall a couple of old movies where the kidnappers sent severed body parts; but I didn't think that Sonia would be up for losing a finger or an ear for the sake of a lie that she wasn't even aware of. That would be a weird conversation to have.

And then I heard an odd whirring and clicking, and glanced to my left to see a family taking a photo by the railing with one of those old disposable cameras. There came the snap of the flash, and then the clicking again as the photographer readied the next shot.

"[A photo]," I muttered out loud in Russian; accidentally slipping into the language that was more natural for me than English. A photo would count as proof, right? But obviously not with a disposable camera, I didn't have anywhere near enough time for that. No, I needed a camera phone; the old Nokia that I had stolen wasn't up to task, and then I'd...

I checked my watch and swore, realising that I had about two minutes to get to the Helter Skelter to meet up with Sonia.

No one looks twice at a kid running through a funfair, so I wasn't overly worried about causing a scene as I sprinted down the crowded paths. I vaulted a few items that were in my way and cut behind ride machinery in order to get to the opposite side of the park in record time. As I staggered to a stop at the railing for the Helter Skelter, Sonia was just reaching the bottom of the slide with a squeal of delight. She waved when she saw me and then ran round to meet up with me. "[Sorry,]" I apologised as I caught my breath. "[I was just...]"

"What?" Sonia interrupted, looking at me in utter confusion. Which is when I realised that I was still speaking Russian.

"Sorry," I tried again, clearing my throat in an attempt to get rid of the accent while trying to slip back into the Americanisms that I had picked up since living in Gotham.

"Are you okay?" Sonia asked. I was practically relying on the railings to keep me upright and, as far as she could tell, I was also speaking in tongues, so I guess that her concern for me was valid. But it wasn't as if I could tell her that it was the adrenaline bleeding off from having just had a potentially dangerous phone call with the man responsible for killing my entire family. "Robin?"

I nodded as convincingly as possible. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," I lied, while simultaneously trying to force the shakes to stop and my breathing to even out. I pushed away from the railing and smiled. "Just, uh, the security guard caught up with me. I had to run."

Sonia looked around, trying to spot the guard that in reality was probably already back at the ticket booths, watching out for the next juvenile gate jumpers. "He's still chasing us?" she asked, her tone somewhere between worry and disbelief. "That's commitment."

"Yeah," I agreed. "I think I lost him, though. We'll just have to be careful."

"Okay," Sonia nodded, still trusting me completely, which actually hurt a lot more than I thought it would. And then she grinned and pointed at a ride that was eliciting a lot of screams from its occupants. "Wanna go on the Tilt-a-Whirl?"

"Sure." I said. It couldn't be that bad.

Finding a camera phone was not easy in 2006. Finding a camera phone, stealing it and then taking a picture against a background that wouldn't give away where we were without Sonia getting suspicious all within the one hour deadline that I had set myself? Now that was a challenge.

But somehow I managed to pull it off, and the exchange was set for four 'o' clock. Which gave Sonia five whole hours to force me onto every single ride after consuming ridiculous amounts of cotton candy and corn dogs.

That ended about as well as you'd think.

"Best. Day. EVER!" Sonia shouted from the top of the Ferris Wheel, arms in the air as if she were actually riding the rollercoaster. A pang of nausea that had nothing to do with ill-advised junk food consumption made me sink lower in the seat, trying to look at anything other than Sonia's grinning face. It was getting closer and closer to the deadline, and with every minute that passed, the guilt multiplied tenfold. Sonia noticed my grim expression. "You still not feeling well, Robin?"

The Ferris Wheel shuddered to a stop as the process of unloading and reloading passengers began, leaving our car swaying listlessly right at the top. The height didn't bother me, but as Sonia fidgeted in her seat the car rocked violently, which didn't exactly help to settle my stomach. "I'm okay," I lied.

I was getting good at that.

The wheel moved again, lowering us down a notch, but still high enough to see pretty much all of Amusement Mile and the rest of the city beyond. "Thanks," Sonia muttered after a moment, that same oddly happy/sad expression from earlier on the train marring her smile slightly. "For today. It's been real fun."

The guilt twisted a little tighter like a knife to the stomach. I just nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

"I haven't been here since..." she trailed off and chewed her lip, silent as the wheel turned again. "My mom, she used to bring me here all the time before she... before she died."

My head whipped round so fast that I swear I got whiplash. Yeah, I had read Zucco's file. I knew that he had lost his wife. But that wasn't what made my eyes go wide as the guilt moved on from stabbing me and went straight to bludgeoning me in the chest. Of all the places in Gotham that I could have chosen for this plan to go down; I managed to choose the one place with huge sentimental value. I was using her to get to her father in a place where her dead mother used to take her.

I'm a terrible human being.

"Don't worry about it," Sonia shrugged, taking my expression for sympathy. "It was a long time ago, like, a year, I guess. We used to come here every weekend each summer, but I's hasn't come back since she got sick. And Daddy won't take me so... anyway. Yeah, I'm just, really glad we're here. So thanks."

The ride moved again, the creaking and grinding of half rusted metal accompanying us as we got a little bit closer to the ground. "Uh, I'm really sorry," I said hesitantly, halfway between wanting to confess what the whole day trip was a front for and genuinely empathising with her loss. "About your mom."

"It's okay. I miss her, but it's okay," Sonia said with a sad smile. "I remember the last time we came here, before I knew she was sick, we spent almost the whole day playing the games so that we could win us a stuffed toy. But Daddy says they're rigged and we was stupid for trying, so my mom said that we weren't leaving until we proved him wrong. It was five minutes to closing and they were trying to hurry us out when my mom finally won at that game there." Sonia pointed at a stall set up near the front gates, just visible before the wheel turned again. "She picked out this blue stuffed elephant and called it Peanuts, because that's how much money we had left after playing all those games."

I had to look away as my mind flashed back to Zucco's McMansion, and the cuddly toy that I had liberated before letting Burns and his friends loose. It was still sitting in my locker at Gotham Central, almost completely forgotten about. I still didn't even know why I had taken it; and now it was just one more nail in my coffin as the guilt buried me alive.

Sonia looked close to tears, but instead of crying she simply wiped her nose on her sleeve and pasted on a smile. "I've missed this place," she said as she took my hand. "And I'm really glad that it was you who brought me here, Robin. It's not so sad anymore."

Finally we reached the bottom of the Ferris Wheel; the attendant stepping forward to lift the bar and let us out of the car. Immediately, Sonia was leading us onto the next ride, feeling lighter than she had before; while I trudged along under the weight of her falsely earned trust, dreading the moment when she would inevitably find out the truth.

Four 'o' clock came around both too fast and too slow. Funny how time messes with you when you're anxious.

I left Sonia queuing for the Tilt-a-Whirl (for the twelfth time) with the excuse that just looking at the ride was making me nauseous. That bought me maybe ten minutes to make the drop and get back. I just had to hope that Zucco was keeping to my schedule.

The strong breeze coming in from the coast meant that I didn't look too weird tugging on a red hoodie in the middle of summer as I made my way through the crowd, though I left the hood down so that people wouldn't suspect me of being a juvenile delinquent or something. It was still busy, even that late in the day; but now there were more teens about than families. Which meant that being 3ft tall was a major disadvantage when it came to line of sight.

On the plus side, though, it meant that the men in Armani suits stuck right out.

There were four of them coming through the booths just as I came around the side of the Sidewinder. All of them were armed if the subtle touches to concealed holsters was anything to go by, and the one to the middle-right was carrying a plain black duffel bag. But Zucco himself was nowhere in sight.

Taking the phone that I had pick-pocketed earlier (the camera phone had been handed in to the Lost and Found) I dialled the mob boss's number. He picked up on the second ring. "Didn't feel like showing up in person, comrade?"

Almost instantly, the four men in suits were looking around, clocking anyone on a cellphone. Well, anyone other than the nine-year-old sitting on a bench almost directly in front of them, of course. Judging by the silence on the phone I was guessing that Zucco was talking to the men through an ear piece or something, telling them that the kidnapper was right there. "I have better things to do than deal with the likes of you," Zucco retorted snidely. "Where's my daughter?"

"Soon, Mr Zucco," I answered. My hands were shaking again, and all I could picture in my mind's eye was Sonia's betrayed and disappointed face, but I forced myself to stay in character. With the deep tone and the Red Hood persona, it was easier to hide behind the mask and pretend that this wasn't personal. "But first, tell your men to take the path to their right."

I slipped off the bench as the four men moved as directed, and then tagged on to the end of a group of teenagers so that I could pass as someone's kid brother if I was spotted. The men in suits moved slowly, studying every face that passed, giving me the time that I needed to pick a perfect drop spot. "Tell your men to put the money under the bench on their right," I instructed.

There was a pause as the directions were relayed, and then the man with the duffel bag broke off from the group and took a seat on the bench, kicking the bag underneath it. He then proceeded to sit there, motionless, like a guard dog. "Tell your man to move."

"Tell me where my daughter is," Zucco demanded.

I huffed impatiently, checking my watch and knowing that soon Sonia was going to start looking for me. And if the men in suits spotted her... well, it wouldn't be the happy ending that I was hoping for. For anyone. "She will be returned home once I have received my money, Mr Zucco."

"And I'm supposed to just take that on what? Faith?" the mob boss asked incredulously. I had thought that Zucco would be more co-operative than this, that the threat to his daughter would make him less likely to play games, for her sake. But now he believed that he held the power by giving me an ultimatum – I would have to reveal myself if I wanted the ransom – and he was just being difficult.

I had literally two minutes to get the money and get back to Sonia.

The man in the suit sitting on the bench was glaring at anyone that dared to pass too close to him, while the other three had spread out a little in order to watch everyone else. There was no way to get close to the duffel bag without being seen.

Unless of course you were a tiny kid. And a member of Amusement Mile's maintenance crew just happened to be wheeling one of those street sweeper carts down the path. Right towards the bench in question.

If Zucco believed that he held all the power; well, I was just going to have to prove him wrong.

"Goodbye, Mr Zucco," I said ominously, and then hung up the phone.

I had a moment to imagine the look of fear and uncertainty on Zucco's face, and then I was ducking down beside the cart as it passed, earning a confused look from the janitor. "Playing hide-and-seek," I explained, which made the janitor chuff a laugh and thankfully, play along. We rolled right up to the bench completely unnoticed. And then as the janitor became preoccupied with emptying the trash can, I crouched down behind the bench and tugged open the zip on the duffel bag.

Optimistically, I had asked for $10,000; which I had thought was going to be a lot but, to be honest, was probably only pocket change for a man like Zucco. Seeing it in person was even less impressive. The ransom had been paid in a few wads of $100 bills, which just made the huge black duffel seem totally unnecessary. It only took me a couple of seconds to transfer the cash over to my backpack, and then I was up and moving again; blending into the crowd.

I didn't get to see the the men in suits' reaction to the stolen money, but I can imagine that Zucco wasn't very happy about it. His little pincer movement to trap me had failed. He was $10,000 poorer. And, as far as he knew, his daughter was still kidnapped.

It was impossible to predict what would happen next. Would the scare keep Zucco quiet for a while, compliant to wait now that I had proven smarter? Or more likely, would he find some other way to retaliate – maybe send some more men to the park to search for Sonia (and ultimately discover the ploy)? Either way, I needed to wrap this up fast before things could escalate any further.

I trashed the cellphone as I sprinted back to where I had left Sonia, (sending a silent apology to whoever it was that I had stolen it from) and ran through some English phrases in my head so that I wouldn't start randomly speaking Russian again when I saw her. When I reached the railing around the Tilt-a-Whirl, I even remembered to catch my breath so that it wasn't totally obvious that I had just run from one side of the park to the other and back.

"Hey Robin!" Sonia called as she spotted me, giggling as she struggled to walk in a straight line having just been spun about like crazy. Her brow furrowed as she got closer though. "Are you cold?"

Confused by the random question, I glanced down. And mentally slapped myself.

I had forgotten to take off the red hoodie.

It was too suspicious to take it off right then, so I just shrugged like it was no big deal and hoped that Sonia didn't make the connection. "A little," I said, my accent thankfully sounding relatively normal. I made a show of checking my watch. "We should get going. Your dad will be worried."

A flicker of fear crossed Sonia's features, but it was gone in a blink. She smiled a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Sure. Let's go."

The train ride back from Amusement Mile was a lot quieter than the journey there, the apprehension growing in both of us the closer that we got to Gotham Central. It had been a great day; and I was glad that I had done it, if only because I knew that Sonia had had fun too.

But we had yet to see just what the consequences of my brilliant plan would be.

I knew that my idea was incredibly selfish, leveraging money out of Zucco as a kind of poetic justice – I'm not going to deny that – but there was also another reason where I believed that maybe this could help Sonia. I hoped that this experience would serve as a lesson for Zucco. He was cruel and distant to his daughter; but now having felt the fear of possibly losing her, I hoped that he would have learned to appreciate her more.

With every step closer to Robinson Park, however, I was beginning to think that that was just a lie I had told myself to justify what I had done.

The backpack grew heavier on my shoulders as we walked, the $100 bills seemingly turning to lead as the final reckoning grew near. Sonia was moving slower as well, gripping my hand white-knuckle tight as we turned the corner onto her street.

All I could think was that she knew her father better than I did. And she was terrified. She knew just how mad he was going to be. She could already imagine the punishments that Zucco had in store for her. How selfish and stupid could I possibly have been to convince myself that this had been a good idea? What the hell was wrong with me? I was supposed to be trying to be a hero.

Hero's didn't use people and abuse their trust.

"Sonia, wait," I said, breaking the near-total silence that had enveloped us since leaving the park. We came to a stop near the main gate of Robinson Park; across the street and a few doors down from Zucco's safe house. "There's something I should tell you..."

"It's okay," Sonia stopped me with a wry smile. She glanced at her home and then purposely looked away and focused on me. "I knows you're worried, about my Daddy and what he'll do. And I guess, well, I'm a little scared too. But today has been the best day I've had for a really long time, Robin, and no matter what he does, it was totally worth it. I wouldn't change a thing."

She smiled warmly at me; her eyes so sincere and trusting that I thought that I might spontaneously combust under their stare. And then she was making to walk on again, so I grabbed her hand to keep her still. "Look, Son," I blurted, the truth sitting expectantly on the tip of my tongue, but not able to make it past my lips. "If... if your dad asks where you've been... Just, just say that it wasn't your choice, okay? That you were... kidnapped, or something."

Sonia chuckled, and then grinned. "Kidnapped by my best friend? I can think of worse things."

And with that she left, running up the drive way of her house as if she were fearless. Holding my breath in anticipation, I stood and watched from the other side of the street as the front door flew open before Sonia had even reached the porch steps; Zucco's unmistakable silhouette filling the frame. I couldn't hear what he said exactly, but his voice that carried sounded relieved and happy as he dropped to one knee and welcomed his daughter home with a hug.

It was weird seeing the mob boss act so human. I mean, this is what I had been hoping for, that he would finally see Sonia and give her the attention that she deserved. But actually seeing it... Well, he was still the villain in my eyes. And villains didn't hug people.

The door closed, and I sagged back against the park railings as I realised that I had pulled it off. Zucco believed that his daughter had been kidnapped and returned to him unharmed. Sonia had had her day of freedom. I had successfully robbed my family's killer and made a father realise that his daughter existed.

"I can't tell if that was skill or just dumb luck," Selina's voice announced before she seemingly melted out of the shadows beside me. I would like to say that I was totally used to her random appearing acts by now, but no. I jumped out of my skin before trying in vain to hide the fact with an eye-roll as she placed a hand on my shoulder. "Nice job, kitten."

"You've been watching me?" I asked. I hadn't seen Sneaker for a while, the battered tabby that usually tattled on me to Catwoman, but I had learned to be suspicious of every feline in Gotham. I didn't actually believe that they talked to her or anything, but I couldn't think of any other explanation as to how Selina always knew what I was up to.

"Not today," Selina shrugged. "But I've been in the neighbourhood. Heard a few whispers. People are saying that Zucco had his daughter taken by someone in the Russian mob." She raised an appreciative eyebrow at me. "Creative. Dangerous, but creative."

I shrugged. I was feeling pretty good about myself right then, now that the potentially disastrous repercussions had been averted. In fact; I was beginning to form a tally in my head of all my strikes against Zucco – first the McMansion, then the car, then the watch... and now both his money and his daughter... Admittedly, I was feeling a little smug.

But that money still felt heavy on my shoulders.

Selina watched as I unzipped my backpack and dug out a wad of notes and held them out for her to take. Her eyes widened as she counted the amount that I had randomly picked up, and then crinkled curiously. "What's this for?"

"To say thank you," I replied. "For looking out for me."

"Huh," Selina murmured thoughtfully as she tucked the money away (probably already thinking about which cat shelter she was going to donate it to) and then ruffled my hair. "You really are one of a kind, aren't you?"

I made a non-committal gesture and shifted awkwardly. "It's just money."

Selina shook her head as if I had completely missed the point, and then her gaze drifted over to Zucco's ominous safe house lurking across the street. She frowned, and then glanced down at me, her hand tightening on my shoulder. "Are you sure that he doesn't suspect anything? That the girl won't talk?"

"Sonia won't say anything," I said without a doubt. Even though she was probably very confused at to why her father was suddenly so happy to see her, I knew that she was smart enough to play along. I planned to swing by the treehouse and explain... once I had come up with a story somewhat plausible of course. "And Zucco totally bought it."

I was grinning confidently, but Selina still looked apprehensive as she watched the house opposite. "You still need to be careful," she warned.

I should have listened.

Yes Dickie, you really should listen to Selina. Mwahaha...

So yeah, those replies:

DeaththeChick3: There will be Bat-Butler. Alfred is awesome and the only voice of reason that Bruce currently listens to, so yesh, he will return! Thanks for the comment!

And to both theBlondeBullet and VoicesoffCamera who both pulled me on the fear of crowds thing. That was kind of a personal thing because I get anxious when surrounded by lots of people (though not all the time; like I can be totally fine in a packed restaurant and then have a total breakdown walking down a busy street – it's so inconsistent that I have no right calling it a phobia lol) But anyway, I wanted Dick to have a moment of weakness, and as that anxiety is something I have experience with, that's what I went with *shrugs*

I figured that it does fit though; even for a circus boy. Dick's led a pretty sheltered life tbh. Yeah, he's been all over the world, but he's mostly stayed within a small community; his experience with people outside of that mostly at a distance. Sure, there's the audience, but he's not exactly in the middle of the crowd, and circuses don't really draw out the big numbers that they used to. So yeah, a big city during rush hour could plausible be pretty overwhelming; and then there's the awareness training and the wariness that comes with living on the streets and yeah... that's my reasoning anyway.

MASSIVE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE READING THIS FIC! If you have any questions/theories/suggestions, PLEASE just go ahead and ask! I always love a good debate about characters or whatever!

Only FOUR more chapters to go!