"Miss Raven."
The sorceress turned to Alfred as he approached her. "Are you sure about this?" He asked. "Surely, with your powers you could simply confront Zucco yourself and leave Robin here?"
She scoffed under her breath. "That would only piss him off, and he'd probably sneak out and track down Zucco on his own anyways." She said. "Honestly, the best way to keep him from doing something he'll regret is to keep him close." She turned to the butler and looked up at him. "I promise I'll keep my eye on him."
He looked at her with uncertainty, but nodded.
"Raven? You ready?"
The pair turned to Robin, who was sitting on his bike with his helmet on his lap. Raven's eyes narrowed slightly as she reached out to him empathically, but she blinked when she didn't feel anything.
No, that wasn't quite right. He was guarded. He was closing himself so he didn't have to feel anything. She swallowed hard, realizing that in all the time she'd known him, she'd never felt him like that before. "I'm ready." She answered him. "Let's go find Batman."
He nodded and the roar of his bike's engine echoed around the cave as he drove away, Raven in the air next to him.
"Bring him back, Miss Raven." Alfred called out to her on a murmur.
Robin parked his bike far from the waterfront, and then he and Raven ascended to the rooftops and began dashing across them, Raven often providing shadow ledges or platforms to assist her friend as they closed in on the shipment. The metal rooftops rang out as his boots collided heavily against them, but by the time anyone looked up to see him, Robin was already at the next building.
It didn't take very long before he and Raven were standing on the edge of a warehouse, looking down at the roughly twenty to thirty men who were unloading crates from cargo containers while a dozen other men stood guard armed with automatic weapons. The lateness of the hour meant that no normal citizen who worked at the waterfront for an honest living would be there, and that anyone with common sense wouldn't be there anyways.
"Where is he?" Robin muttered under his breath, but not so low that Raven didn't hear him. "Where is he?"
She swallowed as she forced herself to look back at the crowd below. They were looking for a leader, someone shouting orders or holding paperwork, or at least for someone to take the role of a leader when the work was done. "So- what's the plan?" She asked Robin as she turned to look at him fully.
He took a breath, putting a hand to his chin as he thought. It was a moment before he answered. "We need to find out what happened to Batman when he came here. So we need to take out the hired muscle and capture Zucco so we can get the truth out of him. I haven't seen Zucco yet- he might be coming later, or he might not show at all."
"We need to take them by surprise. Enough of them are already armed to make this a risk for both of us- if they start using the weapons they're bringing in, we might have to retreat and track down Zucco some other way." She pointed out, and he nodded.
"Right." He crouched down, and Raven knelt beside him. "Okay, this is the plan- when Zucco arrives..."
The henchmen had no idea what was happening.
To be perfectly fair, they weren't at all prepared to be attacked, not really. The ones that were armed were there to scare off anyone dumb enough to get close, and the only real fighting that they might have expected would be if a rival gang somehow caught wind of the weapons coming in and made a move to take them for themselves. The cops were bought off and knew not to come tonight, too. They were not prepared in the slightest for Robin to pick them off one by one, slowly and methodically ambushing the criminals as they walked around, and they certainly had no countermeasure for the half demon teleporting their unconscious partners in crime far away from the battle.
At first, they didn't even know they were under attack. The first two that disappeared hadn't been noticed as missing in action until almost twenty minutes later. Several more had gone missing since.
But as lucky as they had been taking out the first several thugs, when Robin grabbed one who had his finger on the trigger, all hell broke loose as he fired shots on reflex after he was grabbed from behind when he walked past Robin's shadowy hiding spot between two crates.
"Whoa!"
"What the hell!?"
"Yo, where are half the guys at man?"
There was a mad scramble as weapons were tossed to criminals and loaded. Robin threw a handful of smoke pellets into the crowd, then jumped over a crate and descended into the cloud they created, punching and kicking as more shots were let off.
Having levitated into the air above the battlefield as the fighting intensified, Raven shook her head. "Just our luck..." She muttered as she used her magic to lift crates and throw them at the criminals who were hiding behind cover and peeking out to take shots at Robin.
"Hey, up there!" One of them shouted. "It's the witch girl that works with Robin!"
She barely had enough time to erect a wall of shadow around herself as the criminals took aim at her. Flying onto a rooftop Raven deliberated what her next move should be as bullets struck the wall she was hiding behind.
"Hey, Zucco! We gotta go man!" One of the thugs shouted.
Robin broke the arm of the man he was wrestling and turned to the voice that had called out for Zucco. "He's here!" The edges of his vision turned red as he looked for his parents killer.
"Alright, make for the warehouses! Luckily we got some grenades on this shipment, so those costumed freaks are in for a bang!"
Robin yelled loud enough for Raven to hear him over the gunfire and ricocheting bullets, and she peaked over the edge of the roof to see Robin fighting like a demon as he closed in on a group of three men making a run for it.
Unfortunately, she was so focused on Robin as she realized who he was chasing after that she failed to notice a criminal pull the pin on a grenade and throw it up to the roof she was at. It clattered to the ground five feet from her, and it was only because she could fly that she managed to get away from it before it exploded. The force of it knocked her out of the air, where she fell back onto the roof with ringing ears and shortness of breath.
"ZUCCO! GET BACK HERE!"
Robin chased Zucco and his two lackeys into another warehouse, ducking and weaving behind various forms of cover as the criminal trio took turns shooting at him.
With an expert throw, he tossed an electric disc at one of the thugs as he leapt from cover to cover, where it stunned him and left him unconscious on the ground.
"Boss, up there!" The remaining thug pointed to a staircase that lead to an office overlooking the warehouse floor.
Zucco ran for it first, and only heard the scream of the man working for him as Robin leapt at him and began ruthlessly attacking.
Breathing heavy as he made his way up the stairs, Zucco reloaded his pistol with shaky hands. He pointed it at the doorway he'd come in from as he knelt behind a desk, trying to steady his breathing, and failed to notice the silhouette forming on the glass wall behind him.
Robin broke through it, letting go of the grapple hook that carried him as he rolled into a fighting stance on the floor. Zucco was too slow to turn and shoot, and in an instant Robin was upon him, ripping the gun out of his and striking him in the head with it.
He threw it away and with a yell, and brought his fists down to begin pummeling Zucco. The criminal tried to defend himself, tried to raise his fists and swing back, but Robin was too angry and too focused; all his blows against Zucco were precise and he easily pushed away Zucco's hands whenever he tried to swing at him.
Finally, Zucco realized that his best chance at winning was to run away and managed to push Robin off him, but he only managed to get a few steps away before Robin tackled him. With a sickening snap, his foot was twisted in the wrong direction as he fell to the ground.
"I... surrender!" Zucco cried out as Robin's hand came around his throat, choking him.
He clutched at Robin's hands, but he only let go slightly as he asked, "Where is Batman?"
"I... don't... know!" He choked out, eyes turning bloodshot.
"Don't lie to me!" Robin yelled, lifting Zucco up by the throat a few inches off the ground before slamming his head back into it. "He came here to stop you, and now he's gone!" Robin's grip got tighter, and Zucco's face got more and more red. "What did you do to him!?"
"Robin, enough!"
Zucco began gasping for air as Robin was physically pulled off him by Raven.
She kept her hands on his chest as he tried to get around him, but after he shouted, "Get out of my way!" She pushed him away with enough force to make him stumble backwards.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" She shouted, and Robin was immobilized in black shadows that started at his feet and went up to his neck.
Raven looked at Robin; then swallowed and looked at Zucco who was curling into a ball on the ground.
For a moment, as she felt Robin's anger rolling over her in nauseating waves, she almost considered letting Robin go. Letting him go so he could get his avenge his parents, let him go to inflict the suffering upon that criminal the same pain she felt from him. But with a sigh, she took a moment to compose herself and turned back to Zucco. "Where's Batman?" She asked.
"I... I don't know... Honest..."
"He came here over a month ago to stop you." She took a step toward him and he raised a hand in defense. "Tell me where he is, tell me what you did to him, or I'm letting Robin go and I'm gonna help him finish what he's started." She threatened. It was a hollow threat, there was no way she would cross that line, but Zucco didn't know that.
"I don't know, God please don't!" He cried, covering his face with his hand. Even so, the purple, swollen blotches could still be seen. "I haven't even seen Batman in person in years! He wasn't here, I didn't do anything to him!"
Raven grit her teeth; as much as she hated to accept it, as much as she knew Robin wouldn't accept it, she could feel that he was telling the truth underneath the fear.
"Where do the weapons go?" She asked.
"They, they go to a condemned building in the East End. 401 East 32nd street. It has a basement, that's where we store the guns when we ain't trying to sell them..." He groaned and whimpered. "We get paid to bring them there, that's all I know, I swear..."
Raven looked down on him, then with difficulty turned back to Robin. "He's telling the truth. He doesn't know what happened to Batman."
Robin stopped struggling against the shadows binding him and glared at her. "Then Batman must have followed them there. Either way, he's responsible. Let me go."
"Robin." She put a hand on his chest and gave him a pointed look. "It's over. The police are on their way. He's going to jail." When he glared at her, she narrowed her eyes at him. "Let's go home."
His glare softened as he tilted his head back, but she could still feel his anger. Hesitantly, she released him, ready to teleport him all the way to the cave if need be.
Robin looked over her shoulder at the beaten criminal behind her, then turned on his heel and walked away.
"Why did you save him?"
His voice was low, barely audible, but it echoed with anger around the empty cave.
It was in his voice, but she felt it infinitely more powerful in his heart. She couldn't believe it, that the Robin she knew was willing to go so far as to kill another. She took a breath to calm the shaking in her hands, swallowed so her words were clear so she could answer him without further agitating him. "Because you would have regretted it for the rest of your life." She stated as simply and truthfully as she could.
Robin scoffed. "Is that it?" He turned around, the intensity of his glare nearly making her take a step back on instinct as it was focused completely on her. He took two steps toward her, and she felt her chest tighten. "You were willing to let that murderer go because you thought I would've given him a second thought!?" His voice raised on the last word, bouncing off the stone walls.
She narrowed her eyes, stiffening as she forced herself not to look away. "Maybe you wouldn't have- not right away. But when we left here, when we got back to Jump City-" She stopped as he took another step closer to her. "You would've realized that it was the wrong thing to do. Because it wouldn't have changed anything. Not Batman missing, and not your parents deaths." She whispered as she the way his jaw clenched.
"You think that's what this is about?" He was close enough now that he was looking down on her, shoulders squared and hands clenched into fists. "It's not about me. It not about my parents, or Bruce- it's about the fact that he was given a second chance when he didn't deserve it! And then when he got out, he goes right back to a life of crime, getting more people hurt!" He yelled. "We give them a chance to change, to see the error of their ways, and they don't! And more people are going to get killed because of it." He exhaled in a huff, looking away for a brief moment to compose himself before he looked back at her and shook his head. "He deserved to die."
It was her turn to glare at him. "You don't mean that." She said sharply. "You can't. When he killed your parents, that's exactly what he thought- they got what they deserved because it would've made him feel better, to make someone else hurt more than him." He opened his mouth to argue but she cut him off by stepping closer to him. "And when would it have ended? With him? With the next lowlife who pulls a gun on someone unlucky enough to be nearby? Would you have gone back to the villains we froze and smashed them into pieces? If you started with him, how many more people would you end up killing just so you could sleep easier at night?"
She stepped back, crossing her arms over chest and forcing herself to calm down as she felt her heart beating rapidly in her chest.
"I wouldn't have." He said quietly. "I would never have killed again, Raven, because I lost everything because of him. I'm like this, because of him. Just him. He took away my family, my future, and I ended up down here, with nothing." He gestured to the cave with one arm. "And I could pretend that I was happy as Dick Grayson, that I was making a difference as Robin, but it doesn't matter- I lost everything I ever loved because of him." His voice was shaky, and beneath the anger Raven could feel that pain she had only felt once before, when she had joined her mind with his to save him from himself. It was so close to the surface, threatening to break through and consume him that her next words came to her without hesitation.
"You are loved. By Alfred, by the Titans- By me." She stepped closer to him, wishing to reach out and touch him but uncertain as to how, so she clenched her fists at her side and looked up at him with hopeful eyes. "I love you, and I couldn't lose you-" Her voice caught and she had to swallow back the sudden fear that threatened to creep into her voice as his eyes widened in surprise. She steeled her resolve, ignoring the voice in her head telling her that this was the wrong time to reveal her feelings to him, that she should wait, but the desire to help him, to heal him overwhelmed her and the barrier around her heart fell. "Even if you hate me for it, I had to save you, because I couldn't let the man I love destroy himself if I could have done something to prevent it." She finished resolutely, the silence between them overwhelming in its weight as she held her breath in trepidation of his next response.
Behind his mask, Robin's eyes looked over her as if he was seeing her for the first time. Suddenly, all the memories of recent experiences clicked into place for him- that look she'd been giving him, that one he couldn't describe, how suddenly she kept bringing up the fact that she wanted it to be just him and Raven, and of all things, something he should've noticed right away- just how physical she was with him lately, how willing she'd been to embrace him or sit close to him or reach out and take his hand when she might have otherwise been tempted to use her powers to get away from someone who was in her personal space.
All he could hear was his pulse pounding in his ears, and what he said next came as a response of years of locking himself away and pretending to be someone else until he could put his mask on at night. "I don't want your love, Raven." She didn't react- not in a way anyone could tell, but he saw the pain form in her eyes none the less. "I didn't invite you out here to be my girlfriend, I invited you out here to be my friend, because I was afraid to face Bruce alone." He stepped back and turned around. "And if you thought this was going to be a convenient way to get me alone so you could have me to yourself, then go back to Jump City- I don't want you here. I don't care if I have to face him alone or not."
It fell so silent that the water dropping from the stalactites deep in the cave could be heard.
Then, quiet footsteps echoed across its walls as Raven approached him.
Her arms slipped between the space between his arms and his waist, wrapping around him gently as her rested her forehead against his back. "You don't get to choose who loves you, Richard." He didn't react, not to her touch or her the whisper of her words, and Raven let go and stepped away from him. "Only whether you accept it or not."
Her voice waivered- barely, but in the silence of the cave her quiet voice was amplified many times over. He turned to look at her, not noticing the tears falling off his cape, only to see that she'd enveloped herself in an orb of shadows and disappeared.
He was alone.