Well, I decided to write another chapter. This is now a two-shot.
I still do not own Young Justice.
"Do you really need all that bacon, Wally?"
The red-head speedster was once again driving Artemis insane the next morning. They had all ended up falling asleep on the couch after watching their fifth movie. When she woke up, she saw Wally with a piling plate of bacon in front of him. He was already eating the meat when she came over.
"Well, Arty, I need all the food I can get to keep me energized to run. So, yes, I need all this bacon, thank you very much."
With that, the boy continued eating his food.
Artemis rolled her eyes, annoyed. Sitting down next to Wally, she realized that Robin had never come the night before. She had been sure the Boy Wonder would come eventually and join Wally in annoying her, like usual.
The little troll never showed up, though. She remembered Wally saying that Robin had probably gotten caught up with work in Gotham, and she saw this as a reasonable reason. Living in the city, she knew that the Joker had broken out recently, so Robin and Batman could easily be too busy to see anyone in the league for awhile.
However, this theory was shattered when the zeta beams announced Batman's arrival. She waited a moment for the beams to announce Robin as well, thinking that the boy would be with his mentor.
Robin was not announced, oddly enough.
As the Dark Knight swept into the room, the rest of the team started to wake up. A moment later, they were all gathered, waiting for Batman to give them what they assumed was a mission.
What they first noticed was the depression that was obvious on the hero, even with his mask. It was obvious that something absolutely awful had happened.
Wally was pondering what this incident could have been while chewing on a piece of bacon. It was then that it hit him, making him stop eating instantly, and look up at the Dark Knight fearfully.
"Batman… Where is Robin?"
The rest of the team gasped in realization at Wally's words. Kaldur, now remembering his thoughts from the night before, stepped forward nervously.
"Yes, where is Robin? Why is he not here with you?"
The Dark Knight looked down slightly at the leader's words. After a moment, the elder hero raised his head and spoke in a steely voice.
"Robin is gone."
They all heard the words, but they all refused to believe it. Wally spoke again in desperate tones.
"By gone, you mean like he's on a trip, and he'll come back tomorrow and laugh at me because he hacked the security cameras from wherever he was and saw Artemis beat me up when she got back her arrows, right?"
The boy's voice sounded so pleading, so desperate, that the crushing words that came next seemed all the more real.
"No. He's gone. Last night, the Joker captured him, and when I found where the madman had been hiding him…"
Megan now looked particularly horrified.
"No…" She whispered, afraid for the boy she had come to see as a little brother.
The Dark Knight looked at the team seriously.
"When I found him, it was too late. That monster had already done his damage."
The teenagers were frozen, all except for Wally. The speedster, instead of standing still in horror, found yelling a much better way to express his despair.
"No… NO! You're the Batman! You could have saved him! You face the Joker all the time, why was this time different?"
The red head would have continued if he was not suddenly interrupted by the elder hero.
"Mr. West, you may have lost a best friend, but I lost my son. I tried as hard as I could. I know it was my fault. There is no reason for you to remind me of that."
As Batman started to sweep away, he turned slightly, giving one last message before his departure.
"You will receive the date for the funeral later. You are all expected to be present."
With that, the hero left, his long black cape billowing behind him.
The happy mood that filled the cave only minutes before had dispersed, leaving the team feeling cold and empty. They would have felt that way either way, though.
None of them could understand what would possibly take their youngest from them. He was small, but had been so strong. They had forgotten sometimes that he was merely human sometimes.
After a few minutes, the team shuffled back to the couches, and practically collapsed on top of them.
Kaldur was holding his head in his hands. Guilt was overcoming his being. He was the leader; it was his job to protect his team mates. Last night, he had noticed the little bird's absence. He could have done something, anything. Perhaps if the League had known that Robin was not there, they could have contacted Batman, and assisted him in the search.
Perhaps if Kaldur had done anything, Robin would still be there.
Conner was not much better off. The Boy of Steel had not even noticed that Robin was absent the night before, and if he had, he would have just written it off as the Boy Wonder being busy. Conner had only been alive for about half a year, he had never lost anyone important to him before. The loss of his little brother had caught him completely off guard. The boy had seemed so untouchable; no one would have ever considered the chance of losing him.
Conner certainly didn't. Regret about anytime he could have possibly hurt Robin filled him. Why had he ignored the younger boy when he tried to show him his latest hacking last week? He hadn't known that was to be one of the last times he would see Robin, but he still should have at least made an effort to interact with the boy more…
No one said anything when Conner yelled in frustration and hit the armrest next to him, making it fall to the floor. They were all too caught up in their own misery.
Megan was quietly weeping. The adorable, lovable young boy who could do such amazing feats was just… gone. Ever since the training simulation gone wrong, she had been terrified of the slight possibility of losing a member of the team. After a few weeks, she had been assured of the unlikelihood of a death that the fear had mostly dissolved. Now it brought back full force by the worst tragedy she had ever seen. She had never even learned the boy's name, and now she would never see him alive again.
A sob rattled her chest. This just could not be happening.
Artemis seemed to just be staring into space. Inside her mind, though, she was a wreck. She had seen what Robin could do. She just could not believe that he could be taken out, just like that. She knew he was just human, like her, but after the incident with the Reds, she had seen him as more powerful. That power, the strength that lay inside the young boy, was gone, along with the boy that held them.
The archer was hurting; she just didn't show it like the others. Artemis could not show how scared this made her.
This fear was deprived from one thought; if the Boy Wonder couldn't survive the hero run, what chance did the rest of them have?
Wally was the worst off. He just sat there, completely unmoving. This was never seen from the boy before. As Kid Flash, Wally was always moving. The loss of the best friend he had ever had drove him to just sitting there, completely still. It was rather unnerving.
Inside, a battle was warring it out in his mind. He was a speedster; he could have run to check if Robin was indeed just caught up in business. He hadn't needed to just write it off as the boy being busy. He should have known Rob always calls if he's even a couple minutes late. It was because of his stupid mistake that his best friend was gone forever.
That was what scared him most. He despised thought of his midget of a best friend just being… gone. He had hated it when Batman had used that word. Just imagining that word with Robin made him see the younger boy's laughing face just fading away into nothing.
He wasn't nothing, though. Robin was a bright, cheerful, little troll.
At least, he had been. Robin would never be around to hack another unfortunate victim (often times Wally himself) again.
Wally wished he was, though. No matter how much embarrassment would occur, he would do anything to get his best friend back.
The funeral was scheduled for the next week. That week passed slowly without the little bird around to laugh and butcher the English language. When the day finally came, the team dressed nicely and waited at the cave to be picked up by the league. Black Canary, Green Arrow, and Roy showed up shortly. They drove the team to the funeral home, but when they were about to pull into the parking lot, Roy turned to the team.
"You kids should know that this is not a funeral for Robin, but his secret identity. So, that means you guys were not friends of Robin, but Dick Grayson. Got it?"
The team gaped at him, except for Wally, who just nodded sadly.
Artemis looked particularly horrified at the news of who Robin in fact was.
"Robin was Dick Grayson? He went to my school…"
Roy nodded solemnly, and then stepped out of the parked car. The rest of the team followed suit. They entered the building, shocked to see a very large amount of people there. It appeared that the entire league had come, and many others that were not recognizable. Of course, these could be league members as well, for they were all in their secret identities, so completely unrecognizable. It was only the sheer amount of people who was there that gave the idea that the league was there.
They soon moved to the front of the room, where the coffin sat open. They slowly walked towards the coffin, Conner stepping up to it first.
Looking down at the small, lifeless body of the boy he knew as Robin, the Boy of Steel felt tears welling up in his eyes. He was not used to this, but ignored the sensation as he whispered a few words to the body.
"I'm so sorry …Dick."
Conner then quickly walked away to hide the liquid leaking for his eyes. Megan took his spot next to the coffin. She also started crying when she saw the usually bright, happy Robin lifeless. The Martian could only handle looking at the body for a few seconds before she ran off.
Kaldur followed up to the coffin, looking down on to the boy who had been lost. How had he been killed? Batman had never explained. Kaldur was actually rather glad about this. He completely blamed himself for the incident. He knew something was wrong, but did nothing. Looking down, he whispered his own words to the departed boy.
"This is all my fault… I'm so sorry."
The leader than walked off to sit in a chair off to the sidelines. Artemis hesitantly took his spot, studying the body. After a moment, she spoke softly.
"So... That is why I would laugh about that photo someday. Well played, Dick. Well played."
Taking a glance behind her at the final member of the team, she stalked off to sit down.
Wally could not get his feet to move towards the coffin. He had never had a problem with walking before, except for when he wanted to run. Now, knowing that his best friend lay in that symbol of death, he was frozen. He couldn't get himself to move towards the body. Robin was in there…. Dick was in there.
It was then, when he was completely frozen, that Wally felt a hand fall on his shoulder and propel him toward the front. Looking behind him, Wally saw Roy was the one helping him to Dick.
When the two made it to the body, Wally was horrified looking at the body. Dick was supposed to be alive and be annoying him with his obnoxious statements that they both laughed at… Not dead and still.
Somehow, the speedster found his voice to speak to the older boy behind him.
"Roy… How could this happen to Dick? Why did he of all people have to die?"
"I don't know, Wally. I don't know."
Robin, the Boy Wonder, was dead. This was not an aster as the young hero would put it. This was a tragic, awful disaster. Heavy on the dis.
There you go. I wrote another, much longer chapter. Enjoy.
Please review!