Teen Titans – Presents; Haunted; An Analysis in Red and Orange – Chapter 2: Enter the Sandman
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Waking to a sound as fully loaded as the cock of a gun.
Not bullets, no.
A trigger.
And so, he rose.
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Our protagonist rose; coated in sweat and still wearing his uniform during the night, resting…he was resting, and then...
Sleep came on. Ah, they'd just beaten X days ago. And the other villains. Any other, and any but –
"Robin?" There came a voice from beyond his bedroom door. Behind it, the empath known as Raven, must have felt something was amiss.
Something that scared her to rise and come to his door.
Robin sighed, trying to mop his brow as he called back out, "Hold on..."
The teen hero nearly sstumbled into the bathroom, in his attached quarters to freshen up were what he needed right now. He needed more time to compose…no! It could be urgent, knowing Raven...He bit his lip and seethed.
Robin quickly tried to clean up his face and hair, to hide the worst parts of himself and what night terrors had him leaping out of his skin tonight. Over, what had alerted...
Dark corners…it was getting worse…
Allowing a crack of light to flood past the fllor and onto his pale face, into his dreary dwelling place, Raven's room could not compare it seemed tonight as the door swung back to reveal her concerned violet eyes staring up at her leader's masked expression.
Something was itching at Raven 's mind as well. She'd felt it creeping up on her; that mind's eye, lurking from behind closed spaces.
Her leader felt it too. They were in a way similar to one another, even if he did not realize this yet.
"I thought I heard a scream." She let the words exit her mouth, thoughts and all suspicions she was forced to relent tumbled across as vague to him. Her hidden doubts made the teen leader on the other side frown back as well. "I didn't…. hear anything. I was just taking a short break –
"You are lying." Raven lowered her gaze to him. "Robin. Your mind. It is –
"I'm just overworking myself…It's normal for crime fighters to –
"You'll lose focus eventually." She interrupted the ebony teen, cryptically and while being firm with her warning as well. "Your mind is trying to catch up with your body's needs. You forget; I can feel emotions, and your mind is –
"I, have to get back to work –
"Wait." Raven put one foot in the door. "Tell me about them." Robin lifted a brow, "Tell you about what, exactly?"
As she gazed back, her instinct was to keep back a step. Robin's mind was a steel trap. It only opened with the right words.
Not as horrible as Terra's bonding hour had been.
Around the corner, Starfire had been ready with a message on her lips, as the other two team members by Robin's bedroom door were temporarily pulled apart a moment.
"Trouble! Cyborg requests that we join him in the main room for an emergency meeting."
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The feeling was off. A dangerous array of scents in the main room of the tower, made Beastboy's nostrils tickle. Raven came in with Robin tagging along behind her, and through the sliding doors to the meeting room they went.
"What's the status report? Cyborg –
"I got a hunch that you've all been cooped up in your rooms, so sit your butts down. We're gonna get down to business."
Raven turned her head as Robin gave the empath a peculiar loo and shrugged his shoulders. All news to him.
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"A…. threat? But…wait, wait." Cy rubbed his temples. "You aren't makin' any sense, dog."
Robin rolled his eyes and let out a sigh, "I mean it, something about Slade being able to evade capture…. I just can't let it go. I think we should reopen the case –
"What shall we accomplish from looking into such terrible past events?" Starfire rebuked at the question. If Robin gained back his older habits like before, he'd surely not escape the lure of his obsession a second time. The one involving a dangerous criminal mind, the one who had left so many riddled bruises... "Beastboy is as we all are…Still damaged by not only Terra's betrayal, yet of the fact that –
"That we don't wanna remember the jerk who made her lose it…. you think that we WANNA remember what he did to Terra??" Beastboy tried to push the past away. That would be what Terra might have wanted. She didn't like Robin's attitude then, and neither did the changeling Titan, as he growled back into the masked eyes of this coward.
"I don't want to dig up old wounds either, but it won't help if -
"Dude, let it go! Let Terra get her justice an' let us be at peace for once –
" No one is safe in this city!" Robin landed a fist firmly onto the kitchen island's counter, while Bb was on the other side of it, glaring back with tears already close to forming in his eyes. He sneered cruelly to his leader. "You didn't know her like I did... but you only wanted to be buddies with…. that creep!? You're letting him win, then! He's got a real hold on you, ya' moron! You should let him die already! –
"What if he's not dead! Hah? Do you think that the responsibility of making sure he doesn't hurt anyone else falls on me? You are all, completely oblivious!"
Starfire gasped, being hit hardest by the rude comment.
" I've dealt with Joker, Riddler, Ra's Al Ghul. They never find a way to STAY dead! They always find a way back, and then they don't quit. They just do what they can to ruin you and strip away everything you care about…" Robin was far too sleep deprived, riled up and ready to push even more limits than he was permitted. His bags had bags, he wasn't Batman...
Raven realized it. He wasn't being himself.
"Break it up! I didn't call y'all down here to sell tickets. Bb, Rob is still thinking about his team, but Slade's not why I pulled a fast one on my teammates."
"We, did." Raven saw as Starfire and then she too, came up to stand beside one another.
Cy rubbed his neck, knowing this would sting a little.
"We did some thinkin' an Raven wants to try a lil' experiment on us –
" No ." Both men at the kitchen island glared back at the eldest hero.
"Please…" Starfire reached out to grab both of the heroes' hands to join hers. "We have devised a "session that is therapeutic" to talk about our, feelings."
Immediately, Robin wrenched his arm out of Starfire's grip. "I'm not going to waste anymore time with this. Slade may not be dead, and I know that we should be ready. Thing is, do any of you think so too?" The hero swished his cape with a wave to leave dramatically, then the doors slid shut in their faces upon that merry leave. Before long, Robin was long gone and the experiment had been, a total flop.
Raven felt a chill go up her spine and looked at the reflection of the main window's glass at the front of the tower. Somehow, this wasn't the last they'd see of their noble leader.
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Back in the realm of sleep and repressed memories, Robin was busy having another nightmare.
This time, upon waking he found that a powerful wave of nausea soon followed his usual cold sweats.
Dragging himself to the sink, he made sure to dig through the cabinets for something to calm his spasm. He didn't need this. He'd fought monsters, warlords. Demons and jesters with chainsaws! Why was this demon of his so hard to cage up??
He found a low dose pill for headaches and nausea. Thankfully, it hadn't expired yet, so one capsule did the trick.
He'd just been read to head back to his bed at that moment, when a soft voice had the hero drop his gaze to the floor.
~ Not her…. ~ He begged himself. ~ Pull yourself together. She's your friend….Just, act natural. ~
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A knock at his door was unmistakable; Starfire would not give up. She'd wanted him to be there, just to show his part.
"Sorry, going to bed now…" Dick called through the door.
"Oh, very good then I shall, leave you to your "gnorp norp." Starfire was still there...she felt like she could and should be the one to get through to her leader's heart. The only one who could do this however, was not her. Not any of them. He…was drifting away, and this terror in her eyes from before, worried the poor princess.
"Good night…." She finally left his door alone and hoped her friend would try to rest as he had promised.
Sleep could heal, yet inside a nightmare like Robin's?
It could only be to warn of more danger to come from clinging unconditionally to the past.
As Beastboy had said "he should have let Slade die already."
Why then, did he want to keep that fear alive in them all? To keep his teammates safe, or was it something deeper that Robin could not relinquish to the stars and beyond?
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