Whelp, second to last chapter! Sadness... BUT! I'll satisfy! hopefully... heh! Kidding!
I hope that you guys all like what I do in the story! Please keep on reviewing it's great to hear from you guys! Let us commence with story then!
I don't own Young Justice.
Red Hood's hand grazed the red metal mask that concealed his face. Robin's breath caught in his throat, and the mask clattered to the floor.
The face that was revealed, however, was not one to be expected.
"Jason?" Robin said as the person who stood before him was revealed to be the small street boy that lives near the orphanage in Gotham. Robin had interacted with him on occasion, and he knew that he was supposed to be living in the Gotham orphanage, but he prefered to be out on the streets. Robin had tried to get him to go back once, but found that it was useless.
"Hi Dick," the now smaller Jason Todd said. He was still in Red Hood's outfit, he was just now in his usual state as a smaller child. J'onn was having trouble keeping his shock hidden as he watched the interaction.
"You're Red Hood?" Dick asked, still in shock about not only this being a dream, but his mind making little Jason someone like Red Hood.
"Not yet. But, that's something we'll have to discuss when we're both older." Jason smirked, and began to fade along with everything else around him.
"What? What's that supposed to mean?" Robin asked as he watched the world around him crumble.
"Just that some of what you've seen here is the future," Jason said cryptically. The walls were disappearing, and the floor was cracking beneath their feet.
"What parts?" Dick asked, fear creeping into his voice. J'onn was trying to hold some of the ceiling together so they weren't crushed.
"Everything I've ever talked to you about, or everything I've ever been in this dream," Jason chuckled out. Dick nodded, then looked to J'onn whose eyes were filled with fear of the crumbling nightmare. But once Dick looked back to Jason, he was already gone.
"Robin! You need to wake up, now!" J'onn shouted at him. Dick looked back around.
"How?" he yelled back.
"Think about the real world that lies beyond! Beyond your mind!" Dick nodded frantically, and began picturing waking up in a hospital bed, with Bruce by his side.
The dream continued to crumble, and J'onn grabbed Dick's arm in attempt to help him wake himself. J'onn's eyes glowed a bright white, and Dick concentrated on waking up with J'onn amplifying his thoughts.
"Concentrate!" J'onn shouted in desperation. They needed to get out of there as fast as possible now that not only the ceiling and walls were gone, but the floor was almost completely destroyed too.
"I am!" Dick shouted back. He was picturing waking up, picturing Bruce sitting next to him, picturing the team all around him, anything to wake up.
Then, he thought about what Bruce would say. How he would respond to not only Dick waking up, but to the fact that Robin couldn't save himself from Scarecrow. Would he respond like how he did in here? But, he couldn't. Robin knew that, Dick knew that too. Bruce and Batman alike love him. Bruce is Dick's dad. Batman is Robin's mentor and partner.
And nothing can ever change that.
He felt like he had just been struck by lightning.
Robin awoke with a jolt. His masked eyes flashed open, and his lungs took in a gasp of air. It was almost like something out of a dramatic movie scene.
He tilted his head a bit to the right and was face with J'onn who was getting up from his bedside, rubbing his temples. Robin took a few deep breaths and looked over in the other direction, finding himself face to face with Batman. Before Robin could even think about what he was doing, he spoke.
"D-dad?" Robin stuttered out. He heard the faint gasps of his team mates, and Batman sighed. But it wasn't a disappointed sigh as expected, it was an overjoyed sigh mixed with a laugh of relief.
"Yeah, it's me," Batman said softly, he then removed his cowl turning into Bruce. Gaining another, slightly louder, gasp from Artemis.
Robin found a smile creeping onto his lips as he saw his mentor and father's eyes lighten up. Then, without warning, Bruce lifted Robin into a hug, and Robin hugged him right back.
"Dad?" M'gann said, shocked. Robin and Bruce broke their hug, and Robin peeled off his mask after getting a confirming look from Bruce. His blue eyes shined bright with relief, like many heavy burdens had been lifted from his shoulders.
"Yeah, dad," Dick said smiling like everything would be fine, he looked over at Bruce. He was smiling too.
"But I- but we thought-..." M'gann stuttered, trying to piece together these events. Dick sighed, and so did Bruce. Dick looked to Bruce, and he flashed a look that told him he would explain everything.
"I'll explain," Bruce said, "so I'll be telling everyone what we've been hiding for irrational reasons for so long." Dick shot Bruce a look. "Okay, what I've been hiding for irrational reasons." Dick chuckled.
"So..." Artemis spoke up, "we'll laugh about this someday?" she said with a cocked eyebrow and a smirk gracing her lips. Dick just cackled lightly, then the moment faded and he found himself remembering. He looked down at his hands in his lap, and his smile faltered into a frown.
"Dick?" Bruce said as he tried to get a clearer view of the boy's face. Dick sighed.
"What happened with Scarecrow... and the toxin dream," Dick began, and none of them liked where this was going. They dreaded hearing about this from him, they thought they knew enough from what they've found.
"I know they weren't, aren't, real," he stated simply. They all found themselves hoping it was as simple as that. It wasn't. "But, they felt real. They still feel real..." Dick murmured. They looked at him with sad eyes, and Bruce felt a stab of parental instinct hit him. He couldn't deny the instinct, so Bruce pulled Dick into another hug.
"No matter how real they felt or feel, what's happening right now; that's real," Bruce said sternly as he held his son to his chest.
Wally felt an even bigger smile splay upon his face. Artemis couldn't help but sigh in relief that this may just be over for the most part. M'gann felt her eyes prickle with tears from the overwhelming emotion in the room. Kaldur felt like this was the perfect way they ever could prove to Robin that they really do love him, whether as a brother or a teammate. Superboy wished that he could have a father like Robin. Yet he did not wish this out of jealousy, but out of contentment.
Bruce let Dick slip from his grasp, and Dick smiled up at Bruce.
Bruce Wayne; the person that had grown to be a father to Richard Grayson despite what others may think. Even the league knows that Robin is the reason the Batman didn't take the darker path, leading to self destruction, even though they don't know at the moment of the nature of their relationship. But they will soon enough.
"Oh, wait," Dick looked over at J'onn, "about what happened in the dream, about what Jason said, was any of that true?" Dick asked the martian. J'onn looked thoughtfully at Dick, and everyone else seemed confused. So, Dick clarified.
"In the dream world, I met someone named Red Hood. He always wore a red metal mask, and I never saw his face. He helped me out with.. stuff... and I helped him. I guess we were kind of friends you could say." They nodded and Dick continued. "When J'onn came in a told me the truth, Red Hood said he was right and he took off his mask." Dick searched his mind for the words to explain this.
"He turned into a person I know," Dick continued, "a little kid that lives on the streets in Gotham. He's an orphan, and he's supposed to be in the orphanage but he hates it there so he left." Bruce nodded, he could understand why this kid would want to leave that horrid orphanage.
"His name's Jason, and he's about 10 or 11 from what I gather. I can't really tell though 'cause he won't tell me no matter how much I ask. I guess he just doesn't want to be defined by his age. I know how that feels." The team felt a stab of guilt at this because of one of the reasons Robin left the mountain that day. Never define someone by their age, that's the greatest lesson they can gather from this.
"So, I was surprised to see that Red Hood was him in my mind. Because we don't get to talk on the most frequent basis, so I don't understand why Red Hood was him." Bruce felt the strangeness of the situation creeping in. "Then he said that what he told me in the dream world was true, and that he was the future..." Confusion filled the air.
"You heard him J'onn," Dick looked over at J'onn, "what did he mean? Really." J'onn's eyes shifted, and he looked Dick deep in the eyes.
"Sometimes," J'onn started, "people can pick up on psychic waves, even if they never pick up on these things usually or ever again after one incident." Dick nodded. "The most common thing to occur when picking up on these waves is the person having future dreams. Many people have had these dreams before even without realizing it. Because sometimes you can't remember a dream, and so when the future event you dreamed about occurs; you feel a sense of deja vu."
"I've had that before, a lot actually. So does that mean I've had future dreams without even knowing it?" Artemis asked. J'onn nodded.
"Yes, and sometimes people have even more vivid memorable dreams of the future as well. Those people tend to have a stronger psychic abilities. Such as the story of the girl who has a dream about the Titanic sinking the day before her family went to go aboard, and she convinced her family not to go on the trip." Artemis' eyebrows furrowed in interest and understanding.
"So, I believe that Scarecrow's toxin must have amplified your psychic abilities," J'onn said to Dick, and he nodded. "This leading to your brain integrating people who are not yet to be into your dream world." Dick nodded again.
"So, you think that Jason will turn into Red Hood in the future?" Dick asked.
J'onn took a moment to consider and said, "It is possible. I would not be surprised if it happened, but I also would not be surprised if it didn't." Dick nodded again, excepting the cryptic information.
"We shouldn't worry about that right now," Bruce said, filing away this information for later inspection. He would have to ask for this Jason's full name as well. Changing the subject as Bruce did, Dick went along with it seeing the gears in Bruce's head turning trying to process this whole "future dream" thing.
"You're right. We still have to think about explaining the Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne dynamic to everyone too. So, how are we going to explain everything to everyone?" Dick asked Bruce as he ran through scenarios of how they would all react to the Boy Wonder's depressing past.
"Like I said earlier, I'll handle it," Bruce said, letting a small smile slip. Dick nodded.
"Okay. Oh, and can I have something to eat? I'm starving." This caused laughter to ring through the medical bay.
"Of course!" Wally shouted, and he sped off to who knows where to get who knows what for Dick to eat. More laughter erupted in the room.
Dick realized then and there that no matter what everyone thought about his past, or his situation, they would not treat him differently. He had nothing to worry about, even in this crazy business.
YAY! Robin's awake and Batman's not being an asshole like in Dick's dream world! Whoop!
Well, like I said there's only one more chapter after this. :( AW! But no worrying! I'll make the ending as great as possible. So, keep on reviewing if you like!
PLEASE REVIEW! W! REALLY REVIEW! :P :)