Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to DC comics!
Note: I am so nervous yet excited for this chapter! Okay, so as you all know this is Robin's chapter! It way longer than any of my other chapters, and I hope you won't mind the longer read. I wanted this chapter to be surreal and dream-like. Since Robin has so many issues, I wanted to mesh the all together and the only way I could really think of doing was the way I wrote it. Please don't hate me if it turns out bad! Oh, and sorry for the late update...I've been really really busy.
I now present to you....
Chapter 7: Forever Haunted
Phobia snapped her eyes open, sliding her mind away from the pretty girl's.
She cackled lightly, feeling the fear-based emotions pulsating from her terrified mind and into her own mind. She felt the warmth of a strength she hadn't felt in years.
Feeding off the fears of the Titans made her stronger.
"This is just too much fun." she spoke to the silent foggy air, stretching out her arms as if caressing the mist itself as she felt the fears of the four still flowing continuously through her. She smiled viciously, and looked down at the tear-streaked face of her last victim, who was still suffering the living nightmare that Phobia had created for her.
She let a satisfied sigh escape her lungs as she looked over the four unconscious heroes, "And they told me that this would be a difficult mission."
"H-hey! Y-You!" a trembling voice spoke out from the fog.
Phobia turned her head slowly to the unfamiliar voice, her expression dark and dangerous. How dare someone interrupt her work!
A mere citizen, dressed in a formal tuxedo emerged from the thick grey clouds that hovered over the street. He was pointing at her, his expression courageous, but fear displayed in his eyes.
"Stop it! They're just kids trying to protect the city! Why don't you just leave them alone?" He spoke, his strong voice faulting a bit as he tied to act like he did not fear the villain before him. But she cloud see right through the act. She could feel the fear flooding his being.
A wicked smile spread across her lips, as she locked eyes with the citizen. He stood perfectly still, somewhat entranced by her black, soulless eyes. Without a word, she took slow steps closer to the man. The heels on her boots clicked ever so slightly against the concrete as she walked, her cape swaying gently behind her. She kept her eyes trained to his, never letting her gaze wonder anywhere else.
"What-what are to doing-?" his voice trembled in fright,"No, stop- get away!" He stepped backwards, away from her, "I'm warning you!"
She stopped then, a twisted smile still perfectly placed onto her black lips. The whites of her eyes turned black, and the man gasped in terror. Hysteria controlling his actions, the citizen ran away from Phobia, and into the grey fog, disappearing from her view.
"Fool." she giggled to herself when the man had gone. She had to admit, it was so much fun to play around with the humans, they are practically driven by fear. There was always one stupid human to try and ruin her fun, some idiotic citizen who would suddenly be courageous enough to try and save the heroes that protect them.
"Time to get back to work." Pushing the citizen to the back of her mind, Phobia turned to the five teens that lay in the middle of the road.
Her eyes immediately were drawn to the boy who lay in the middle of them all.
The shudder of pleasure returned and ran down her spine as she watched the leader of the Titans. The craving to be inside his mind, to feel the terror seize him was just to strong to restrain. The desire to search every dark corner of his mind, to unleash all of the brilliant terrors that lurked within him were becoming a need.
The whites of her eyes turned black, preparing to enter his mind.
"Save the best for last." She whispered to herself, as tingles of excitement consumed her senses.
Phobia was too distracted by the boy's mind to notice the faint outlines of citizens marching towards her, through the thick fog.
His senses came to him, his mind vainly tried to process what had happened. He remembered a car crashing to the ground, he remembered staring into emerald eyes, and screams of terror....and that horrid laugh.
He remembered this, but his mind could not make any sense of it.
He felt as if he was held between the worlds of reality and dream. Darkness surrounded him, taking over his entire being. His body felt light, as if nothing weighed him down to the ground...seemingly floating through the strange state of mind he was trapped in.
A pain suddenly ripped through him, agonizing and unrelenting. He opened his mouth to scream, but found that he could not control his lips, or feel them for that matter.
Abruptly, a dark figure flashed appeared before him, an expression of loathing under it's cowled face. Then, a mask's eye glowing red a bright red, boring into him, tormenting his very soul. His mind flashed to a rope snapping, and two blinding lights passing over his eyes. Abruptly, everything turned black, his mind left in a state of misery and fear. A girls scream split the air, searing through his head.
The scream echoed in the depths of his mind, ringing in his ears continuously as he felt himself falling into nothing, into the dark oblivion, where there was no end to the agony that haunted his mind.
Robin's masked eyes snapped open.
All of his muscles were tensed, prepared for any danger that might present itself while he was in a venerable state. Automatically, he immediately began to take note of his current surroundings, looking for even the slightest hint of a threat.
A dark sky stretched out above him, with wisps of wash-grey clouds scattered in it's depths. A cold, hard concrete floor was under him, and a brisk gust of wind bit at his bare skin. His nose stung as he drew in a breath of familiar night air stained by pollution.
There was something strange about how the air smelt, about how the sky looked...but yet, it seemed faintly recognizable to Robin.
Feeling somewhat reassured, he released the breath of tension he had been holding in anticipation. Remaining laying on the floor, he propped himself up off the ground, rubbing his sore scalp. His entire body ached, though he tried to ignore it and focus on the situation at hand.
Trying to shake off the strange dream he woke up from, Robin scanned the area from his new point of view, frowning as he couldn't tell what part of Jump he was in. Confused, he kept looking, his eyes searching the faintly familiar buildings that surrounded him.
Almost immediately, he knew he wasn't in Jump City.
"Sleeping on the job again Robin?" a husky voice rang out into the cold air.
Robin's heart iced over, and plunged down to his stomach when he heard the voice speak to him. He slowly turned, already knowing who was standing behind him, yet hoping that he had somehow misinterpreted the familiar tone of voice.
Two narrow slits of masked eyes met his, and a tall, dark figure stood before him. The figure looked down on him, disapproval etched into his stone-cold expression.
"Batman?" Robin asked slowly, extremely confused.
"Were you expecting someone else?" He asked, a harsh tone to his voice.
"Well, no, but I--I mean--," Robin spluttered helplessly, suddenly feeling like a reprimanded child, "I--I wasn't--I was-"
"Messing around."
"No--no, I was just-"
"Not doing your duty and taking a nap while criminals run loose in the city." He glowered.
Robin hung his head, looking down at the floor, feeling shameful and guilty. He stood under the boring gaze and let the disappointment from his mentor tear at his heart.
"I'm sorry, Batman," he spoke weakly, "It won't happen again."
Suppressing the sudden tears from gathering in his eyes, he struggled to not show how he felt. Feelings were weakness to Batman, and he was determined not to show any weakness in front of the man. He desperately wanted him to be proud of him, to show him that he was not just a kid and he could handle the job.
He wanted to prove that he could be everything Bruce expected of him.
He wanted to prove that he could be his son.
Batman only glowered at his protege, "Why should I believe you?"
Robin did not reply, standing perfectly still under his mentor's looming eyes, fighting to keep his expression emotionless.
"When will you ever learn? You can't do anything right, Robin. Everything you do, all the good you try to try to accomplish only leads to destruction! You'll never be able to do anything right" He looked down at him in disgust, "you're a complete disappointment, Richard."
Robin visibly winced as those words tore through his heart, feeling the pain throb through his chest. Trembling slightly, he made an effort to compose himself, hiding the emotions he felt behind the mask he wore.
"You've failed me." Bruce snarled, his voice slicing through the night air.
Those words hit him like a load of bricks, the air was stolen from his lungs. His throat burned, and his chest tightened, constricting around his heart and lacing through his body. The hot tears that were gathered in his eyes were close to overflowing, but he would not let them fall. He could not let them fall.
Despite his efforts a single tear escaped, and traced his cheek, leaving a burning, wet trail down his face.
"You have always failed me, and you always will." The dark figure scoffed in disdain under his cowl as he saw a tear streak the young boy's face.
Robin squeezed his eyes hard, and forced himself to peer into the eyes of the mentor he had failed. When he looked up, his chest contracted. The Dark Knight's left eye blazed in an orange-red flame, and the other half of his face smoothly turned to darkness.
Fear struck Robin's emotions as he looked deeper into his cowled face, the blazing eye stirring the remnants of a horrid memory. Everything around him and the eye faded to black, leaving only the two in complete darkness. His mentor and the sadness he had felt seemed to recede from his memory as the darkness ascended, and he found himself loosing all thought of what happened just a few moments ago. The eye took control of all his thoughts, and made him forget everything.
Robin could not find himself to tear his gaze away from the boring glare of the fiery eye. Hypnotized by the glowing eye, he was soon lost in the blazing eye that was apparently fixated on him as well. The eye scorched his very soul, as if lighting his heart aflame. His blood ran thickly through his veins, boiling under his very skin. Icy claws gripped at his chest, contradicting with the heat that also consumed his body.
It was as if a war was raging on inside of him, a war between the fire and the ice. Both captivated his mind and body, dousing his soul in the perilous battle that would never rest and last forever.
Interrupting the war, the darkness around him was suddenly lifted by a single bright light that shown down on him from above. The light drew a perfect circle around him, as if isolating him the the corrupting darkness that had overcome him before.
Tearing his gaze away from the blazing eye's hypnotizing eye, he snapped his eyes up to the light above him, fearful that it might mean an unexpected attack. When he saw nothing, he quickly whipped his head back to meet the glowing red eye gain, but gasped at what he saw there instead.
A mask hovered in the darkness, replacing the glowing eye. The mask was split by two colors; one half was black and the other was orange, with one eye to enable the person wearing it to see.
Robin's masked eyes widened in the slight sense of a familiar fear. Breathing heavily, he tried to expel the fear he felt. A flood of terrifying memories overtook him as he remembered the mask origins and what became of that experience. A shudder passed through his body as the memories raced through his mind, reminding him of all the horrible things he had done in his past, all the situations that he failed at as a hero. He tried to face them, but the thoughts was just too much to conceive in this moment of weakness he felt.
No, Robin thought to himself, this can't be real...he's gone. This is a nightmare.
But despite his thoughts to reassure himself, he still felt extremely uneasy, and shot the mask a weary look. He felt an urge to reach out and touch it, to verify its existence...to be sure that it was real. Without second thought, Robin reached out two slow, hesitant fingers out to the mask. Each breath he took burned his lungs, and his hands felt weak and shaky. His entire body trembled as he stretched his arm out further to the floating mask.
As he kept reaching steadily forward Robin's thoughts disagreed with what his actions were doing. He shouldn't be doing this, it was only provoking the past memories that he has tried to hard to suppress. Yet his urge overcame his thoughts, and he continued to reach his hand out to grasp the finger finally touched the side of the mask, hesitantly brushing his finger ever so softly on the orange side, testing it. His breath was caught in his throat as he did, waiting for something to happen.
When nothing did, Robin then gripped the entire side of the mask with his hand.
As soon as he took the mask into his hand, he felt something constrict tightly around his wrist.
Alarmed, he shot his eyes to his wrist, but saw nothing there, though he could still feel the grasp closed on his hand and wrist. Panic burst through him, as he tried to pull his hand away, but found that the grasp would not loosen. He struggled and thrashed against the invisible hold, trying to free his hand from the force holding him there.
"You'll find that quite impossible, Robin." A frighteningly familiar voice echoed out from the darkness.
Whipping back around to the mask, his eyes widened in complete fear.
The mask's eye was staring back at him, alive. The icy blue eye stared at him and narrowed sinisterly. Robin's breath quickened, his heart plunging down to his stomach. A chill shot down his spine.
A laugh sounded from the mask, slow and malicious. That laugh was etched into his mind, forever imprinted into his memory, and struck him to his core. The ice blue eyes shone in wicked amusement, fixed on Robin. The laugh pierced through his heart, which skipped a beat in absolute fear.
"Slade?"
WHAM!
Suddenly, pain a searing pain burst under his chin, and forced his head to be thrown backward. He stumbled back from the blow, but was then pulled forward by his captive wrist and into another punch. Pain exploded on the side of his face, throwing him to the side. Struggling to keep his balance, Robin's boots fumbled on a grey hard ground.
He turned his head from side to side, trying to see his attacker through the shadows before him. His eyes passed over four incandescent screens, illuminating the gloom of the lair. Being as quiet as possible, he held perfectly still, trying to zero in on the any sound that might indicate his attacker approaching. Instead of footsteps, Robin heard the soft ticking of clockwork, and the familiar haunting sound of gears grinding together. Robin turned his eyes to the blinding white series of screens in front of him, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.
Regaining his courage, Robin turned his back to the haunting screens and readied himself to fight his long-time enemy once and for all.
"Show yourself Slade!" He shouted angrily into the darkness that was not reached by the glow of the screens.
WHABAM!
Another blow was delivered strait into his abdomen. As the punch plunged into his gut, Robin momentarily lost feeling of his entire body. His lungs were crushed together, his heart seemed to cease beating, his throat closed off all air supply, and his eyes watered. The numb feeling quickly faded from him, and a sharp, unbearable pain throbbed throughout his entire body. Unable to scream, Robin silently fell to his hands and knees, his face contorted in torture.
Finally regaining control of his breathing process, he gasped desperately the air his burning lungs demanded. Robin coughed uncontrollably, and gaged a few times, feeling the shooting pain still stabbing at his body. Calming his body down, he unsteadily tried to get onto his feet before Slade could gain the advantage over Robin in this weak state.
Just as he shifted all his weight to his knees, Robin felt a hard hand grip the back of his head, and throw him roughly back to the position the punch left him in. Slade's hand remained on the back of Robin's head, and slowly pulled him backward, squeezing tightly on his ivory hair. Robin had no choice but to allow Slade to control movement over his head, too weak from the overwhelming punch. He strained his eyes to try and look into the face of his aggressor, but found that he could see no one there. Then, Slade twisted Robin's head violently to the side.
Robin felt himself go limp in Slade's hold as he saw his friends. Cyborg, Starfire, Beast Boy and Raven were all on the floor, clutching their stomachs in pain. The four heroes were consumed by and orange-red glow, all groaning in the familiar sound of death. Starfire looked up to him, her eyes were hidden behind the glow of the probes reaction. But still he could see the pain in her face, the betrayal blazing in her eyes and staining her tears.
"Starfire...No..."
"Yes Robin, I told you I would destroy them..." Slade's voice whispered in his ear, "And I'm making you watch."
"NOO!" Robin screamed and thrashed violently against Slade's hold, struggling to to be free and help his friends. Acting out of pure hysteria, Robin resorted to any method of escape, but Slade's grip would not loosen, no matter how hard he wrestled against him.
Unable to watch his friends die because of his failure, Robin shut his eyes tight, and tears began to flow freely from them, rolling down his face and onto the floor. But Slade wrenched his head around, yanking mercilessly at his hair. He forced Robin to his knees, and thrust his head in the direction of his dieing friends.
"You will watch this." Slade said vilely.
"Slade...please..." Robin whimpered as he continued to watch his friends be slowly ripped apart from the inside out. He trembled weakly, and swayed slightly in his hold, watching his friends in silent anguish. Slade kept his grip on him, forcing him to watch their destruction as he promised. With a disturbing sense of pleasure, Slade bent down, his head leveling with Robin's, and whispered to him.
"All you care about, you destroy..."
Abruptly, his surroundings became invisible, and his eyes were shot with a flash of blazing ray of light. the darkness was drowned out, and everything that had been before him seemed to have disappeared.
Robin looked up into the searing bright spotlight that switched on above him. It surrounded him, separating him from the black emptiness that stained him with eternal agony, as if shielding him from the shadows that had taken over. With the light's sudden appearance, his friends and Slade had also disappeared with the darkness that was now illuminated around him.
As he looked up into his savior's blinding depths, he began to deny everything he had seen only moments ago. It couldn't possibly be real if it had disappeared so quickly...how could it? And how could Slade be back, and the probes still in his friends bodies? But it was all a dream, why did the sting of despair still tug at his heart? And why...why...Dropping his head into his hands, he clutched his ivory hair within trembling fingers. Silent, slow tears rolled from his eyes and onto the floor.
"Why? Why couldn't I save them?" he whispered to himself in a small defeated voice.
Suddenly, a faint clapping from an audience sounded all around his, seemingly growing louder and louder in volume as the seconds ticked by. The beats hands snapping together mixed and meshed together, all synchronizing to the beating of his racing heart. Hearing the burst of applause, Robin squeezed his eyes shut and threw his palms up against his ears.
"Stop it." he commanded weakly, "Stop...stop...STOP!" he screamed, the joyful laughter and gleeful applause tormented his very mind.
"You're not real...it's all in my mind...I'm not hearing it...its not REAL!"
"Dick?" A sweet melodic voice sang.
Robin's entire body froze.
"Dick?" the voice chimed again. The soft, sweet, familiar tone of it flooded his ears.
Slowly, Robin released his ears from his hands, and raised his head uncertainly to the speaker. But when he looked up, there was no one there. All that was too be seen was the empty space between him and the abyss. An eerie feeling spread through his body when he found that no one had spoken to him. Or at least, no one who could be seen by the human eye.
Calming himself, Robin breathed steadily and deeply, as he gradually cured himself out of his crumpled ball, and lifted himself off the floor and onto his feet. As he did he noticed that his clothes were different. He wore no cape, no steel-rimmed boots, and most importantly...he wore no mask.
"Ladies and Gentlemen! I know present to you...THE FLYING GRAYSONS!" a voice thundered through the air, pounding in his ears.
Robin shot his head forward immediately, shock and a familiar harrowing pain swallowing his senses entirely. Before him, a colossal audience sat eagerly in the shadows, roaring in response to the announcement made. Looking around, Robin whipped his head from side to side in utter panic. He found himself on a platform that was stretched high above the ground, with spotlights beaming down on him with torrid intensity. The light blotted out the audience, and turned them into mere shadows.
Suddenly, Robin felt a gentle hand slide onto his shoulder.
He jumped and turned to his side to face whomever it was, ready for another attack.
But when he looked up, he found himself staring into a pair of brilliant blue eyes, and the pale yet beautiful face of an angel.
Mary Grayson. His mother.
"Dick, honey we're on." She said to his in a honey-warm voice which froze his heart.
Awe seized his heart, and his breath was caught in his throat as he gaped at her, unable to speak.
How could she really be there? She was...dead. He thought that he would never be able to see her again, to speak to her again, to touch her again. He had thought that she was gone for good, only to live on in his memory and in his happiness lifted his soul as he looked upon her, and a smile crept onto his expression.
'This must be a miracle' he thought to himself, 'She's really here, she's alive.'
His mother smiled back at him and threaded a soft hand into his hair, "It's showtime, honey."
She turned away from him and walked to the edge of the platform in front of them. Robin followed her, and was dumbstruck at what he saw.
John Grayson. His father.
Another pang of exhilaration struck his entire body as he saw his father standing right there before him, preparing himself to climb onto the trapeze. Robin was completely memorized by joy at the sight of his father, and felt himself be overcome with a sense of wholeness that he hadn't felt in years.
He watched, lost in his moment of rapture as his father gripped the trapeze and swung off the platform. His father glided gracefully through the air, as if he was a bird in the sky. Admiration overwhelmed Robin as he followed his father's movements.
His mother turned back and looked at him, her smile warming his soul as she quickly wrapped her arms around her son and kissed his ivory head of hair. He closed his eyes and savored the moment, letting an enormous smile overcome his facial features. It felt so good to just be able to feel safe in her arms, to feel her holding him.
She released him and turned to the platform's edge. She stepped to the very edge, and caught a trapeze that swung perfectly into her open and ready hands. As soon as she gripped the bar in between her palms, she leaned forward, and let her feet fall away from the safety of the platform.
Reality snapped back to Robin the moment his mother's feet left the platform.
This was all too familiar...horribly familiar.
Frantically, Robin leapt to the edge of the platform, his hands harshly gripping the rails that bordered the edges and kept him from plummeting off the safety of the high structure. With wild eyes, he searched out the lines of rope that hung down from the ceiling. The pairs of ropes swayed as his parents soared from them, preforming their routine act dangerously high above the ground...with no net to save them.
Robin continued to search out among the lines of rope, hysteria setting in as he did. He hoped that he would not be able to find anything wrong, but in some sense he knew that it was there, somewhere, just waiting to snap.
Then, he found it.
The rope that was supporting his parents, was slowly breaking under the weight. The ends were fraying, steadily ripping as the two trapeze artists swung from it's seemingly secure hold.
"NO!" He screamed.
Whipping his head back to look at his parents, he saw them soaring through the air towards him, his father hanging upside-down by his knees on the trapeze bar, grasping his mother's ankles. His mother's body was suspended momentarily through the air, her hands stretches out to him, her face smiling as she looked out at him, waiting for him to jump into her arms.
Robin glanced at his parents, then swiftly turned his eyes to the rope.
The instant his eyes met the rope, it snapped, breaking into two pieces and falling through the air.
Robin then whirled around to see his parents falling.
"MOM! DAD!"
He threw himself to the platform ground, falling to his knees, his arms hanging over the edge, desperately reaching out to his parents as they fell out of the sky and plummeted to the ground.
The spot light followed the two as they rapidly sped to the perilous floor, turning their bodies into lifeless shadows that blurred into the darkness that was overcoming him.
Sorrow engulfed his soul, embodying his very mind as the darkness surrounded him, burning all the happiness he had felt only moments ago with an unbearable misery. Tears gushed out from his eyes, flowing out from his eyes and pouring to the floor below him. Sobs convulsed through his body, constricting and tearing at his insides. He tried to catch his breath, but as he did, he choked on his own tears. His head began to ache and his body gave off violent shudders.
The surrounding area faded away from his view, quickly being swallowed whole by a black emptiness that consumed not only him, but his entire sense of reality. Robin lay there, on his hands and knees, suffering in silence, his eyes closed tight in attempt to rid his mind of the horror he was living.
Everything he knew; his past his present, and his future were all coming together...his life was seeming to fade away, drifting further and further away from him. He was lost within himself, and there was no way to set himself free. The emptiness he felt was filling him to the point of agony. Only he could save himself, but it was already too late. He had given up hope, he didn't think why he should even try.
No matter what he did, he would never be able to escape it...No matter how far he ran, no matter how hard he tried to hide his past, it all haunted him in the end.
And it would continue to haunt him. Forever.
Suddenly, as he bent was over crying on the floor, he felt a pulling sensation grasp his entire body. It was as if he were being tugged outward, away from the nightmare that consumed him. He felt himself being dragged out of the world itself, out of the state of fear, escaping his agony of his life...
The darkness took him then.
Reality gradually returned to the Boy Wonder, and his mind was abruptly clear. It was as if a long, deep sleep was lifted from his body, and he could clearly define the borders of the real world, and the dream world. His mind was no longer in the state of a nightmare, and instead was brought back to the world he knew best.
Almost immediately, Robin knew he was back in Jump City.
"How can you save a city, Robin, if you can't save yourself?" -Slade; "Haunted"
Note: So...was it good? Oh, well at least I tried right? Maybe I'll redo this chapter someday, but for now this is all I got. And I hoped you got the changing between different experiences of his life in the nightmare Phobia created for him. I wanted to use all the fears he's felt and endured in his life time and combine them all together somehow. So, I hope it turned out to be on okay read, I'm still trying to figure out which character I'm strongest at writing.
I don't think I really have to explain in further detail about Robin's past(hopefully you all know it). The comic Robin/Dick Grayson and the TV series Robin were really well matched, therefore I did not feel the need to deviate from the background storyline.
