A series of loud bangs jerked Robin from the comforting arms of darkness.

He shifted, but regretted it immediately; his head was pounding, his chest felt tight and he ached pretty much everywhere. He slowly opened his eyes and blinked several times to clear his vision, but it remained blurred; his eyeballs felt like they'd dried up in their sockets. What the-?

"Seriously, that's all you've got? My grandma could take you out! You're really gonna have to do better than that!"

Robin froze at the familiar voice. Wally? Wally was there? But- no- that- that was impossible! Wally was- Wally was dead! He'd watched him die; he'd seen his mutilated face…hadn't he? Robin carefully turned his head towards the sounds of battle, and had to squint a little to make out the dark blur that represented Wally's costume. There was no way Wally was alive- and yet…he was right there! And he was fighting some dude! But why wasn't he using his speed? Why was he-?

Oh. Right. Inhibitor collar.

Wally looked like he was holding his own for now, dodging his opponent's swings and kicks but not getting in many hits himself. The other guy – Knyazev, he remembered – was huge, easily twice as tall and muscular as Superboy-

Superboy. Oh God. He was- he was dead, too, wasn't he? Stabbed in the face with a Kryptonite knife. From the corner of his eye, he could see the older boy's corpse lying just a few feet away, already beginning to rot and decompose, and he quickly yanked his attention back to the battle that was taking place before him. He was just in time to watch Knyazev slam Wally into a wall. The Russian was clearly gaining the upper hand.

Get up, Grayson! You have to help Wally! Robin tested his aching limbs and found that he was able to move them without having to endure horrible stabs of pain. He shoved some of the rubble that covered him aside and slowly got to his feet. The world tilted sideways and he held one hand out to the wall to steady himself. Automatically reaching for his utility belt with his other hand, he was shocked to find it gone.

What the heck? Where was his utility belt? And- and where were his gloves? And- Jesus, his mask! A wave of panic washed over him, and for a moment, he stood rooted to the spot. What. The hell. Happened?! But then Wally cried out, and he shook himself. Focus, Grayson. Priorities! Help KF first, freak out later!

Deprived of his arsenal of batarangs and other gadgets, he knelt down on the uneven ground and felt around for something he could use as a weapon. His fingers closed around a sharp, fist-sized rock and he got to his feet quickly, ignoring the weak feeling in his knees, and melted into the shadows. It seemed that neither Wally nor Knyazev had noticed him yet. Good.

Keeping one eye on the fight, he ghosted onto the platform behind Knyazev, just as the man grabbed Wally by the throat and lifted him off his feet. No time to waste. Robin soundlessly crawled up behind them, tightened his hold on his makeshift weapon, and pounced. He slammed the rock down onto the back of Knyazev's head, who grunted and stumbled sideways, releasing his hold on Wally.

As the other boy slumped to the ground, Robin took advantage of Knyazev's momentary weakness and kicked him in the kneecap as hard as he could. In one fluid motion, he dropped and swept Knyazev's feet out from under him with his leg. The man went down like a ton of bricks, the ground shaking a little beneath Robin's feet. Knowing he probably only had a few seconds before Knyazev recovered, Robin flung himself down beside Wally, who was coughing and trying to get his feet under him.

"KF! C'mon, get up! You have to move!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than he felt a meaty hand wrap itself around his ankle. Before he could even process what was happening, the world blurred around him and his back was slammed into the ground. He gasped, blinking away stars.

"You little brat!" he heard Knyazev growl as he desperately tried to catch his breath. "I am squashing you like bug!"

Robin saw the boot come at him, but didn't have time to roll away before it was pressing down on his chest.

Really? He has to step on me? he thought vaguely. Seriously, why do they always have to step on me?

He heard Wally shout something, but was too busy trying to draw a breath to pay much attention. The pressure increased and it felt like his chest was collapsing inwards. As the pain became unbearable, he cried out, knowing he was wasting what little oxygen he had left but unable to stop himself. The sound of blood rushing in his ears drowned out all else and his hands pushed at Knyazev's boot as he desperately tried to suck air into his deprived lungs, his chest unable to expand to accommodate his lungs.

His breastbone, his ribs, his lungs, his entire body hurt and then the crushing weight became even worse and suddenly, something snapped inside his chest. It was pure agony as the pressure continued to increase, but he couldn't even find the strength or the breath anymore to scream. His already blurred vision was becoming even more fuzzy, and when blackness finally came for him, he welcomed it.

oOo

"Seriously, that's all you've got? My grandma could take you out! You're really gonna have to do better than that!" Not too much better though, Wally thought desperately. Because, really, if things had looked bad before, they looked pretty hopeless now. He risked a quick glance at Robin, who was lying flat on his back to Wally's right, half-buried underneath some rubble. He wasn't moving. The younger boy appeared to still be out cold after having been struck in the head with a piece of debris when Knyazev had blasted the wall beside their heads with that freakish arm canon of his.

Knyazev growled at the insult and unleashed a flurry of lightning fast kicks and blows, and it was all Wally could do to dodge them; the guy might've been big and brutish, but he was still ridiculously fast and without his superspeed, Wally was having trouble staying out of his reach while trying to keep him away from Robin.

"Wally!"

The mental voice that broke into his thoughts almost made his knees go weak with relief. They didn't, though, because he was a little too busy ducking a particularly vicious elbow strike.

"M'gann? Oh babe, could your timing be any better?"

"Wally, are you all right? Where's Robin? I can't reach him!"

"Rob's down, and we could use a little help! Like, right now!"

"Where are you?" Artemis demanded. "We're inside the warehouse you were staking out, but nobody's here!"

"The building right across from that warehouse. We're in a subway tunnel underneath somewhere!"

"Understood," Kaldur broke in. "We will find it. How many?"

"Just one," Wally replied, realizing Kaldur was asking about the number of opponents. "But he's freaking huge and I got stuck with an inhibitor collar."

"We will get there as quickly as possible."

"Hurry, we're not gonna last long!"

"We are on our way. Hang on, Kid. We are coming."

Wally let the link lapse as he needed to concentrate on the battle at hand. He supposed he was lucky Knyazev hadn't decided to just shoot him yet, because there was no way he could dodge bullets right now.

As hard as Wally fought though, it didn't take long for Knyazev to wear down his defenses; Wally could hold his own in a fight, but he wasn't the martial artist Robin was. Without his superspeed, he knew he wasn't going to last long against this guy.

When he twisted away to avoid getting hit by the brass knuckles on Knyazev's fist, he failed to parry the elbow that slammed him into the wall. Pain lanced up his back, but he managed to keep his feet and block the blow that was aimed at his head. Another blow, however, connected solidly with his ribs and he fell to the ground, crying out when Knyazev followed up with a kick to his side.

Gasping, Wally tried to push himself up on his hands and knees, when suddenly he found himself nose to nose with Knyazev's spandex-covered face.

"Problems getting up?" Knyazev intoned with his thick accent. "Allow me."

His throat was seized in a steel grip, just above the inhibitor collar. Wally's hands scrabbled at the fingers cutting off his air supply and he attempted to twist out of the man's grasp. The lack of oxygen was starting to narrow his field of vision, but a slight movement behind Knyazev caught his eye; a small, red, yellow and black figure was emerging from the shadows. If he hadn't been so desperate for air, Wally would have smiled.

Dude, I'm so never going to complain about you doing the ninja-thing again!

The next thing he knew, he was on the ground, wheezing and coughing. Then Robin was beside him, urging him to get up and move, and Wally wanted to tell him that he was trying, but his voice seemed to be stuck in his throat.

Without warning, Robin was gone and when Wally turned, his heart almost skipped a beat when he saw that Knyazev was in the process of crushing Robin with his foot. "Stop!" Wally shouted, his voice hoarse. Finally managing to get to his feet, he launched himself at the man, only to be swatted aside like a fly. He banged his knee against the metal tracks on his way down and clutched it with both hands as pain reverberated through the nerves in his leg.

Robin cried out and Wally gritted his teeth, forcing himself to get up and get moving, dammit! Rob needed him! But before he could take more than two steps, Robin went limp and Knyazev began to laugh - a rumbling, malicious laugh.

"It would seem that I broke the little bird! For good this time."

At the sight of his friend lying very still beneath that crazy man's massive boot, anger surged up in Wally. Kaldur, where the HELL are you?!

As if on cue, Knyazev suddenly turned sharply and plucked an arrow out of the air that had been sailing straight towards his chest.

"We are right here."

A furious growl heralded the arrival of Superboy, and Wally had never been so glad to see him as he watched his teammate sprint onto the scene and catapult himself at Knyazev. In seconds, the rest of the team had descended on the Russian, drawing him away from Robin, and giving Wally the opportunity to check on their youngest team mate. His heart pounding, he quickly crawled over to his friend's prone form.

"Rob?" Staring down at the still, pale face, Wally paused and swallowed hard. Please be alive! Please be alive! He held a trembling hand beneath the younger boy's nose, and sagged with relief when warm breath brushed his fingers. "Oh, thank God," he muttered.

His mask! Wally thought suddenly. Batman would kill him if he let the rest of the team see Rob without his mask! Crap, how the heck was he going to- ?

Wait! Of course! Wally reached up and yanked his goggles from his head. He quickly adjusted the strap and then carefully lifted Robin's head a little so he could slip it on; he took extra care placing the goggles over Robin's eyes as the skin there still looked inflamed from whatever chemical Scarecrow had sprayed his friend with.

He was just readjusting the strap a little when Robin groaned and his eyebrows twitched. "Rob?" Wally prompted.

The younger boy slowly blinked his eyes open and Wally was taken aback by how black they seemed, even through the tinted lenses of his goggles. He had never seen pupils so badly dilated before. "Rob?" he repeated, cautiously. "It's me, Wally. You okay, dude?"

For a moment, Robin looked up at him quietly, and Wally allowed himself a breath of hope that Robin was hanging in there, that he wasn't lost in some terrifying hallucination.

Then his friend threw his head back and screamed.

"Geez, Rob, calm down!" Wally exclaimed after he had recovered from his initial shock, struggling to keep Robin still as he thrashed about and continued to scream. "Rob, it's me, it's just me! Calm down, you're gonna hurt yourself!"

Robin didn't seem to be able to hear him; whatever terror was unfolding in his mind seemed to have completely consumed him.

Aqualad, obviously having heard Robin's scream, was beside them in a flash. "Robin! Kid, what ails him?"

"He was exposed to Scarecrow's fear gas," Wally told him grimly, trying to get a firmer grip on Robin's arms. "He needs the antidote. We have to get him to Mount Justice, now!"

Aqualad nodded. "Take Robin to the bio-ship; Miss Martian will accompany you. Superboy, Artemis and I will take care of this…behemoth…and take a zeta tube back to Mount Justice."

"Great plan! Just one problem-" Wally said, pointing at the device around his neck impatiently.

"I will remove it," Aqualad said. "Hold still."

Aqualad's tattoos flared blue and seconds later the collar crumbled and Wally was finally able to breathe more freely. It was a psychological effect, he knew, as the collar hadn't actually restricted his breathing at all, but being unable to use his superspeed had been a major pain in the butt and he was glad to be rid of the damn thing.

"Go," Aqualad said, looking down at Robin's struggling form with a grim expression.

"Going!" Wally responded, scooping Robin up and holding onto him firmly to keep his thrashing to a minimum.

"M'gann, you comin'?"

"Right behind you, Wally!"

"Where'd you park the ship?"

"I'll show you."

An image was gently pushed into his mind, and he was moving before he had even consciously realized where he needed to go.