Salutations peeps of the internet! First of; this is not a promise! This is a peace offering!
Just wow, the times… 4 years… yikes! This fic has been stinking up the "Unfinished section" of my life and I'm not proud. As I said, it's not a promise to finish the story but I would love to have an end for you guys. This chapter has blocking me for years *insert hysterical laughter that changes into crying* I don't know why, I don't know how, but tonight I forced something out because FUCK it needs to be done. It's short. But it's something. It's been 7 years since I planned this story and honestly I lost a few plots points throughout the years so I'm changing directions a bit. Oh and that promise I made to fix the first part of this story ( Because oh boy 18 year old be could not write for the life of her) that promise is officially broken. I'm not a writer, that I know now. I do enjoy it but grammar, I hate it, with a passion and that's something you guys will have to deal with. Sowwy!
Ruptures, which was the only word that came to him as he stood eye in eye with his son's inner mind. A red and white striped tent, a bat-cave and dirty streets. Three totally different landscapes presenting three totally different versions of his son. Three very separate sons.
"Why," his words echoed through the large world around them. "Are there three of my son?"
"This my friend, is what a broken heart does if it's not healed in time or broken too far," the rumbling voice of Martian Man-Hunter sounded like a rolling thunder in the eerie quiet place.
The lack of noise made the world seem even larger than it looked. Like there was more hidden behind the obvious places presented? But that was not what bothered Batman the most. No, what was truly off setting to him was the poses the three boys where in that made him dread the coming task.
The first and youngest Richard was clearly the nine year old he found that day in the circus, surrounded by red and white stripes and a spot light ever so bright and warm. What was making Batman sick to his stomach was fact he was hanging in the middle of the tent, in his Flying Grayson outfit, spotlight on him, a noose firmly around a bruised looking neck.
Bruce couldn't help but collapse at the clear display of raw depression painting a picture of life destroying grief. This was Dick on his darkest day. This was Dick when all the hurt was breaking his heart. This was the first piece of broken heart. His son hung out of desperation.
Bruce had to tear his eyes away from the ever so slightly rocking body. Close his mind for the cracking sound of robe being stained by a body's weight.
He fixed his eyes on the boy on the middle instead. That was the most comfortable one to look at. It was his son standing tall and strong. Proudly dressed in his Robin uniform, a foot placed firmly on top of an obvious generic bad guy. He looked wounded but he didn't seem to care much about it. The blood flowed freely from his arm and his leg holding the bad guy down, as his eyes where focused on his hands. In his hands he was holding what seemed like one half of the scowl of Batman. His eyes spoke of determination and his jaw was clenched into a firm and well trained poker face. But Bruce could see that in his forced figures, was a hidden fear of failure. As straight as his back stood in that pose the clear the invisible burden was on the boy. He was only 14 after all.
The other preventative of his son was Alex and enlightened the two Leaguers about this boy's state. The boy was sitting on a throne that seemed to be made of naked men. A multitude of men sat on his feet, kissing and some even licking his feet. The boy himself wore the longer and blonde hairdo and had his chin risen high. His face filled with pride as two man where tending his hands. A smile tugged at the sides of his mouth, making him rather look smug. His 'throne' was set in the streets and it was raining on the background. Without coming closer to it Bruce somehow new the rain was salty, because the rain was his tears. Fear and security seemed to pore out of the empty allies and the shadows tried to reach the boy from behind, almost reaching but not completely.
"Where do we start?" Bryce turned to his team mate.
"Well, we're working with a broken heart, what means that parts of Dick are separated from his main heart. It is clear that he meant to kill this part," J'onn gestured to the hanged Dick. "This means he seemed to have at least some sort of recognition of this part of his heart. See how the tear between Dick and Robin is different from the tear between Robin and Alex?"
"So Dick has to know about his broken heart before we can start healing him?" The green man nodded. "So we get him here?"
"No, that would be to shocking for him and might cause him to close up completely, or even worse, lose his mind. We could easily break his psyche if we push him too far," The Martian turned to the Dark Knight. "We can start at two places. We could start at the death of his heart or his split heart."
Bruce was quiet for a bit, clearly thinking about it. "Alex seems to be the one giving Dick the most trouble at the moment so let's focus on him first."
"So be it," the man turned to the blonde version of Dick, eyes glowing white. "We'll start at the split personality."
-\/-
Dick woke up with a gasp, eyes snapping open as if he broke free from a nightmare. The only thing was that he hadn't dreamed at all. He had been in blissful nothingness. His eyes got used to the bright surrounding, finding his mentor and the Martian Manhunter before him, seeming to have awaken just now.
"Wait, why are you stopping?" Robin asked, as he remembered again why he was unconscious. "You haven't done anything yet."
"You have been under for more than three hours, Dick," Black Canary said, who had kept an eye on the situation from outside.
"We're sorting Alex out first before we can even start healing you," J'onn says as he rose from his sitting position.
"Wait, Alex?" the boy rose together with his father. "But I'm Alex, how do I not know of this?"
"Because you're not," Bruce was the one to speak up this time. "Alex is a split personality created inside you. You are two separate beings inside your head. Next time we'll start getting you two together."
"I- I don't understand." The boy's eyes flew down to the ground.
"It means that it was not you, Dick. It was Alex who did everything." The sudden warm voice of Bruce, not Batman, surprised the teen hero. "But that also means it won't be an easy fix. You have to understand that."
The boy nodded and followed the adult hero's towards the kitchen. It was only on the way there that he realized that he was hungry.
-\/-
"Team," Artemis and Wally jumped as they were bickering over which snacks should be bought for the movie night. They both turned to watch Batman enter the kitchen, rest of the team watching him wearily. "I'm here to give you some information and for a request."
Kaldur nodded. "Of course, what would you like to share with us?"
"It's about Robin."
At this the speedster perked up and appeared in front of Bruce who was still fully clad as Batman. They had never really seen Batman in anything less than his full suit. "What about Robin?" Ever since his talk with Superboy his attitude had changed from full blown hostility towards the Dark Knight to just curious and worried.
"Please take a seat first," the team did so and the man sat down too. "The last view days we've been working on Robin's psyche and we made tremendous steps forward. I think it's about time you all know what is going on exactly."
The team stared, being somewhat taken aback from the fact Batman was casually sharing about his protégé.
"Robin has created a split personality in his time down under. This was something that happened to protect his sanity. Alex, as Kid Flash knows him was not Robin," the man explained but seemed to hesitate a moment. Megan could practically feel an invisible wall being forcefully shoved aside by Batman. He pulled back his cowl, revealing the steeled face of the one and only Bruce Wayne. But not the Bruce Wayne they've seen on the news. He looked tired, he looked like a worried dad more than their fearless leader. Batman never showed emotions but now, cowl down he looked more human than ever. "I should be telling this as his father, not your leader."
Artemis nodded, understanding the dual rolls Bruce plays within Dick's life.
"Dick had a pretty torn up past and this was the reason for him being able to make a split personality. Dick, Robin and Alex. They are three masks he has been juggling."
Kaldur spoke up this time. "Your saying Dick is a split personality too?"
"No, not completely. The Robin you guys are friends with is the boy has been the same person throughout the time I knew him. But he has been damaged when his original parents died. Dick pushed his childhood away to work through his grief and time before I got to adopt him. this caused him to stay rather playful when he feels at ease. He never had the change to just be a kid. I'm in part to blame for that. But I fear Dick would have come out worse if not for his superhero work."
"This is quite a lot to take in," Artemis said. "KF?" she turned towards Wally, who had been awfully quiet.
That was when the team realized that the boy had his face hidden in the palms of his hands. "Wally?" Kaldur's voice seemed to startle the boy.
"It's just that," the speedsters body shook from sobs. "The things I said to him," he wiped away the overflowing tears. "The things I thought about him," the wiping became more furious. "I'm the worst friend ever!"
"Oh no, Wally," Megan flew over to the redhead. "You didn't know."
"Robin would understand," Kaldur added. "We were all confused by the circumstances."
"For now," Bruce started. "Robin is almost completely better, or at least as much is doable in this short amount of time. Of course he'll need continuing help the coming year, but for now the request."
Wally, Artemis who was sitting next to the speedster and Megan looked up to the Billionaire.
"Robin would like to join your movie night, if you guys are okay with that."
At that Wally started to beam. "Of course!" he rose with his superspeed. "I'll get extra snacks!"
"Of course we would like to have him with us. We've missed him much," the leader of the team answered.
"Sure," Superbow shrugged, eyes meeting Megan who smiled widely.
"Sounds good," Artemis said, getting up as well. "But how do we act around him? Is he alright with us?"
"He's a bit quiet still but I think he'll be happy if things are as they were."
Okay! So here's the part where I say; stay tuned for next week! But I won't. As I said, no promises. I just hope that putting this out there is enough to kick me back to work. You could see this as the end (it's not but you could). And yeah I skipped over the "Fixing Robin" part because I had this whole thing planned out about broken hearts that I had learned like 5 years ago about how youth drama does things to a person and I was into it and I was like YES ROBIN and now I'm like I DON"T KNOW PSYCHOLOGY. What was I thinking!? Hopefully more follows…
*Yeah this is a reupload because four years made me forget my terrible first chapter apparently (⊃_⊂)