A/N: True to Echoes form, I don't know what the hell's going on in this one. I don't know what's happening, or why they need Robin, or what happened five years ago beyond what I mention in the fic. Here's another "make up your own ideas" opportunity for you, kiddies. I hope you enjoy!

Not Beta'd.

Warning: I don't know that I think either character in this is exactly "in character". (shrug). It's just the way that it came, and as you know if you've been following these "Echoes" I don't question them. (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.)

Hate
(17: Revenge)
by Em

"We can watch the world devoured in its hate..."
- The End Is The Beginning, Smashing Pumkins

Richard waited for the older man to say what he intended to say because he knew he couldn't stop him. He couldn't even really avoid him, so he sat quietly through the man's monologue, only half-listening. And when he seemed he had finished and was waiting for Richard to speak, Richard only had one thing to say. "So?"

The tall man had expected resistance, anger even, but this apathy was unanticipated. "We need you."

"I don't do this kind of work anymore," he stated blandly. "or didn't you get the memo?"

"This is more than any of can handle alone, Richard -- we need everyone we can get."

He looked up at him. "Maybe you hadn't noticed, but we no longer hold the same ideology." The mocking undertone to his words couldn't have been mistaken as proof of anything but the cold derision they were. "I won't fight for your cause. I'm done," he emphasized.

"Does the world have to suffer because of our difference of opinion?" the other man asked in an all too sensible voice.

It was that voice, that tone, those words that ripped through whatever restraint he had left and he laughed. "Difference of opinion?" he asked, half under his breath. "You really have developed quite a sense of humor, Superman," he said, turning his back on the alien. He would've walked away, but the was stopped by the man of steel's hand on his forearm.

"I am serious, Richard."

He whirled on him, fury shining from his eyes. "So am I," he bit out. "Dead serious," he assured him. "And from where I stand, you brought this on yourselves," and the hatred in his eyes was unmistakeable. He waited for Superman to see it, recognize it before speaking again. "The world can burn for all I care."

"I know you still haven't forgiven us for what happened five years ago--"

"You can't even say it, can you?" Richard asked. "You allude to it in general terms, call it a 'difference of opinion,' but you can't call it by its name..." his eyes hardened into blue fire, "I'll say it, Superman," he assured him. "Five years ago, Raven died in your service and you made her out to be the villain, you let the world betray her and cheered them on when they turned their backs on her, all because it suited your purposes." With a quick twist, he wrenched his arm out of the grip Superman never held too tightly and once again turned his back on the world's savior to walk away.

"Richard."

"You could've saved her, Superman," Richard said quietly, knowing Superman didn't need him to speak any louder than a whisper. "You could have," he turned to watch the complete lack of expression on the older man's chiseled features. "But you didn't even try -- " he continued. "You never trusted her, did you?" he asked and then, because he didn't need a reply, he continued, "None of you did." When the older man remained silent, Richard spoke again. "She never could've done enough to prove herself to you, could she?" he asked, but he didn't expect to get a reply to that question either. He scoffed, turning away. "Not even die it seems."

When Superman spoke, Richard wasn't really surprised with the words he had chosen.

"And do you have to punish the whole world for our sins?" Superman asked, his voice deep and quiet.

There was silence for a long while as Richard looked at the city, teeming with life beneath them. "If I wanted to punish anyone, there are more satisfying ways to do it."

And his voice said exactly how many of those ways he had considered and Superman realized just how close they had come to having Batman's apprentice as an enemy.

xxxxxxx

A/N: See what I mean? I don't know. I can tell you that the initial idea for this was thought up after I saw the initial trailer for "The Watchmen" (which, I still haven't seen the movie itself), but I was mesmerized by the music, and then I saw it again to try and figure out what the song was ("The End Is The Beginning" by Smashing Pumpkins, a new mix, it sounds like) and my imagination was caught by a line said as an voice over, I don't know who says it, but it's this line: "The world will look up and shout, 'save us' and I'll whisper, 'No.'"

And I kicked around the idea of this for a long while, then I forgot it, then I heard the song again as I was doing something else, and a bit of dialogue took over my head, and I wrote it down. And then, as always happens, I "finished" it, and I thought...hm...this kind of reads like it might work for "Echoes". And I think it does.

What do you guys think?