It took three hours of Alfred's homemade remedies, sitting in silence, listening to the gramophone, watching little kid shows, and playing a few board games until I finally managed to fall asleep.
I had eventually crashed lying sideways in the armchair. It was the one beside the fire, right in front of the grandfather clock. Dick had decided to occupy the couch and Ace was lying on top of my chest, his cold nose snuggled in the crook of my neck.
Every thirty minutes, I would wake up. Each time, I would go through the quiet Wayne Manor to see if Dick and Alfred were still there. A few times I even walked down into the Batcave to check on Bruce, who was, as always, fully fixated on his work.
The good thing about waking practically every thirty minutes was that it reduced the risk of having any nightmares. The average human dream lasted for about that long.
Unfortunately, that still didn't stop them from plaguing my mind.
I was back aboard the mother-ship. Beside me were Kid Flash and Robin. In front of me, the aliens that had killed everyone. This was just a dream, I knew that, but that didn't stop it from terrifying me.
Soon, Kid Flash was gone in the yellow beam.
"No!" my dream-self yelled. "This is all fake!"
"Sparrow!" I heard Robin's voice yell before I was knocked aside.
I knew what to expect. Now comes the part where the aliens beamed Robin and he disappeared. After that comes the part where the mother-ship explodes with me inside.
But a familiar cackle ruined that all.
The Joker was there. As was Ra's Al Ghul, Clayface, Riddler, Penguin, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, and nearly every Gotham villain I've ever faced.
Before I could more a single muscle, Batman suddenly burst through walls of the mother-ship. But the villains had been expecting him, and in a blur of movement that my mind couldn't even process, Batman and Robin were all of a sudden tied up, the villains surrounding them.
The Joker, who seemed like the leader, cackled and reached for Batman's cowl. "Let's unmask this vigilante, eh?"
Then it was Bruce and Dick who were tied up.
"Bye, bye, Batsie," Joker cackled, pulling out a gun and pressing it against his forehead.
There was the sound of gunshot and I screamed. "Bruce!"
His blood covered body collapsed to the ground.
"Now for the bird," the Joker grinned, moving the gun to Dick's forehead.
Another gunshot and then Dick's body slumped to the ground.
"Dick!" I yelled at the top of lungs, running up to his body.
Tears were pouring down my face, as I kneeled beside Bruce and Dick. "No," I sobbed, falling over their lifeless bodies and hugging them in a vain attempt to wake them up.
"Kairi."
"Kairi."
"Kairi!"
I sat bolt upright, nearly knocking into Dick. Without a second thought, I launched myself into a hug with the dark-haired boy. We fell to the floor.
"You were screaming," Dick mumbled, sitting up and returning my hug.
"Sorry," I whispered. A mixture of tears and cold sweat coated my face.
"It's okay."
Ace came over and curled up beside the two of us, whimpering slightly.
Glancing over at the clock, I realized that it was about 6:30 a.m. "Might as well get ready for school," I shrugged, standing up and heading off to my room.
Heading up to my room, I slowly took a shower, got dressed, and headed back downstairs to push some food around my plate. I was so not in the mood for eating.
Today was not going to be good. I wouldn't even get the chance to talk with my big sister, Missy (which she let me call her nowadays).
****YOUNG JUSTICE****
I had been right. School had been an absolute nightmare. Aside from the normal pestering courtesy of Chad and his jocks, there was the concerned worrying from Susie, and the hectic happening of three pop quizzes and nine tests, all in a course of five days. I was unarguably not in a good mood.
At the moment, I was with the entire team in Mount Justice. I don't think I've ever heard everyone this quiet before. It was positively unnerving.
M'gann was slowly stirring something in a bowl, Kaldur leaning against the counter while Wally was slumped over it. I was sitting cross-legged next to Robin on the green couch with Artemis leaning against the back of it. Connor was currently in the room with Black Canary, having his therapy session.
Everyone was silently contemplating things and I was completely bored with just staring into space. So maybe I wasn't feeling a hundred percent, but moping about definitely wasn't going to make any of us any better.
I remembered what Batman had told me, that this shouldn't stop me from being Sparrow, from being his partner. But the deaths of everyone in the virtual reality kept playing about in my head. Again, and again. Like a repeating record, over and over, with no hope of ever stopping.
Black Canary would help though, I knew, because I've been through her sessions several times before. Nearly getting killed when you're only seven is a bit more traumatic than you may expect. But afterwards I was completely fine.
Connor ended up leaving his session, opting instead to go out with Sphere and Krypto. Big surprise there.
One by one, everyone went to go talk with Black Canary. First Artemis, then Kaldur, next was Wally, after him was Robin, and eventually even M'gann. Looks like I'd be going last.
When M'gann rejoined us in the quiet kitchen/family room area, I sullenly got up and made my way into Canary's presence.
The quiet waterfall did help to sooth my nerves, but I felt as if I was about to be scraped raw. I've lived with Batman my entire life. Talking things out and trying to understand feelings didn't take priority in my lifestyle.
I sat in the green chair cross-legged, my hands resting lightly on my knees. Looking around, I made a mental note to ask the League what was with their obsession with the color green.
"Sparrow," Black Canary called to get my attention, causing me to stop looking around and instead look to her.
"Dinah," I replied evenly.
Her face softened. She knew how I would use heroes' real names whenever I was hurting. "How are you feeling?"
I shrugged slightly.
"You know you don't have to keep dancing around your feelings like this," she explained softly.
"I know," I sighed. "I just…don't know how I feel."
She nodded. "I understand."
"No. You don't. Not really," I shook my head. "You have no idea what it feels like. Being a thirteen-year-old kid…playing hero," I sneered at myself. "It's not like a bunch of kids could ever save the world anyway. I couldn't even save my own teammates. Let alone save the lives of other people," I mumbled, bringing my knees to my chest.
"You may be only a kid, but you've saved plenty of people. That training session was designed to be a failure from the beginning. It's not your fault you couldn't save any of them, including Robin."
I sighed again. There was one more thing I wanted to get off my chest. "Is…is it wrong-" I couldn't force myself to finish, instead looking down.
"Is what wrong?"
"Is it wrong that I like Robin…differently?" I could hardly get it out. "I mean, Batman's raised us like brother and sister. But our relationship has changed so much in the past four years," I explained.
"Love takes many forms, Sparrow. It is never wrong, but it can be misunderstood," Black Canary leaned forward so her elbows were resting on her knees.
"What if it affects my fighting?" I whispered.
"You're incredibly strong, Sparrow," Black Canary assured me. "But I cannot tell you how to handle everything. If that does affect your fighting, it must be up to you to right yourself."
"You can only be helped if you help yourself," I nodded to myself. "Thanks, Dinah."
****YOUNG JUSTICE****
Too much angst these past chappies! And the next one's planned on having little humor as well! TOO MUCH SERIOUSNESS! As the Joker would say, 'Why so serious?'…little creep…
MapoTofu21: I LOVE DaddyBats! And I love to write him too! I agree, I think even though he's perceived as harsh and at times callous, he's still a human being with the ability to show compassion! Just the other day, I was reading an Avengers/Batman crossover, in it, the author (who was a Marvel fan) claimed that there was no relationship between Batman and Robin, and that Batman treated him as dirt beneath his boot. It's easy to say that I exploded on that person. They had never even read a Batman comic, watched any of the shows, or what not in his life! And there were people commenting that agreed on his behavior! Anyway, sorry about the schpeal! Thank you for reviewing!
KilalaInara: Yay! I like getting strong reactions! I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for reviewing!
angel2u: I'm glad you like my story! Thanks a bunch for reviewing!
Synk: That would be very awkward indeed! But I think that M'gann would feel worse…even though I found Robin's session with Black Canary to be the deepest (and the one that made me cry)! Thank you for reviewing!
missmusiclover: Gotta love those DaddyBat moments! I'm going to get as many of those moments in there as possible! Yay! Thank you for reviewing!
dsi user: Glad you came back! Thanks for reviewing!
Shout to Tenshi no Yami Honoo for adding the Sparrow Chronicles to their story alerts and favorites!
G'Day,
~AvenJackel
