This time in his dream he stood in a giant circular room. There were large wooden doors all along every inch of the wall space. Each door had beautiful carvings, paintings, and or emblems that spanned the entire length of each door; roughly nine feet high each. The floor was a beautiful stone granite, while the ceiling was made of interwoven white branches. Some of the branches hung lower and were packed with little white candles. But Robin was more interested in the figure who sat in the center of the room. He smiled at the girl from his previous dream.
"You look like your day was as tiring as mine," she informed him. The girl was sitting on a small, but thick navy blue shag rug. Her back was propped up against a small crystal obelisk, the same one from his previous dream. She was also dressed the same way he had seen her in the last dream. Like then he still couldn't see any of her facial features.
"Where are we?"
The girl glanced around at some of the doors then stood up using the obelisk support her weight. Her legs wobbled before she locked her knees back and she stood up straight. The action; Robin suspected, took a lot of effort on her part.
"We are in my mind, well, the sub conscious part of it anyway." She leaned against the crystal for support when her body started to tremble from the strain of standing on her own.
"So what are all the doors for?" Robin noted there was close to fifty doors, each with its own unique decorations on it. Detailed cravings were etched around the edges of each door. All of them told a different story.
"They are me, and yet not."
Robin raised his eyebrows at her.
"You know that doesn't answer my question."
She smiled, he couldn't see it, but he knew it was there. Somehow.
"Yes it does, maybe not the answer you wanted, but maybe I can explain it better." There was teasing laughter in her voice. Robin couldn't help but gravitate a few steps closer towards her even despite her poking fun of him. "Just like you are Robin, Dick Greyson, and Dick Danger. These," she said gesturing at all the doors. "Are all me at their core. Yet each is a different person."
"Do you become different if you become them?"
"Again yes and no." she answered his question before he could even open his mouth, "Hold on, let me collect my thoughts and figure out how to properly describe them." She thought for only a few moments before starting again. "My outer shell or my body does change from each one, though it may still bare a resembles to me. As for my mind it would almost be like having another mind surrounding my mind. I am controlled by that person's fears, desires, and other strong character traits. I can then use their gifts, abilities, or talents each individual has. All the while I am still aware of me as I am while being inside one of them and directing them. Though admittedly some can take full control if I don't pay attention."
"What about weaknesses?"
The girl nodded solemnly.
"With each person I become I also take on their weaknesses. Sometimes for the better, sometimes not."
"What happens if you die as one of these-." Robin stopped when he noticed the door directly behind the girl. The door itself was gone, the doorframe was scorched like a fire had raged there once. The door hinges resembled blackened teeth. He walked over to the door and nearly threw up when he looked past the door. It looked like a giant wall of scarred and burnt flesh. Something in him urged him to touch the door. Something that came from the memories he couldn't remember. Sorrow and grief were a weight in his chest as he reached hesitantly forward and touched the doorframe.
Pain exploded through his body. A burning sensation rippled over his skin. Robin tried to scream, but no sound came out of his mouth. A young girl's voice screamed,
"No! Stop it!" Greif and sorrow were in every syllable of her voice. He wanted nothing more than to comfort the woman. Robin's breath hitched as the pain stopped. He could hear the girl sobbing. "Please, I'll give you anything, just no more." Robin wanted to scream, No, don't do it, but the words were caught in his throat. A hand spread coolness into his burned flesh and Robin realized he was back in the circular room. The girl had pulled him away from the door. Robin coughed when he let out the pent up breath he had been holding. His throated felt parched and sore.
"What was that," he coughed when he was able to.
"That was a memory. You are in my mind. You asked what would happen if I died as one of these characters. Well, I would survive and so would all the others, but I would feel everything. You were able to feel it because you made contact with the memory and then you shared it."
Robin heaved a deep breath and asked, "Who are you?"
"I am your-."
"Friend! Yes, I know that! Who are you, what are you called, are you even real?"
The girl drew back as if he had physically slapped her. She tried to stand up straighter even though her body was trembling with effort to stand unaided, and she answered his last question first.
"I am real. Even dreams are real; the question would be better phrased, 'Am I alive?' But I am not sure as to the answer of that."
The thought made Robin's heart almost stop. More than anything he wanted to comfort her, but had no idea how to do so. Her legs wobbled and finally gave out from underneath her. Robin managed to catch her and helped guide her back to the rug. Where she sank gratefully down.
"What do you mean you don't know if you're alive?"
The girl sighed. "That is something that would take too long to explain properly at the moment." There was weariness in her voice that made him ache.
"What should I call you? Or will you tell me your name."
She laughed breathlessly then said, "How about the name you gave me, Bard."
Robin blinked as if a spell had suddenly been broken. His heart soared, because he knew that name meant something to him, but he still couldn't identify a face or any memories to connect with the name. He knew this was something that he shouldn't and wouldn't have forgotten on his own.
"How do I know you?" Again he couldn't see her smile, but he knew it was there.
"That is something you will have to work out on your own."
Robin rolled his eyes.
"That's absurd, why not just tell me?"
"Because, it's the only way to be sure that you are ready for the answers. If I just hand them to you now they could very easily do more harm than good. I made that mistake once, but not again."
Robin ran a hand through his hair. More clues, more questions, yet no real answers.
"So I have to work it for myself who you are?"
Bard nodded slowly as if not quite sure where this question was going.
"What are you to me?"
Bard cocked her head to the side.
"How should I know what my standing in your life is?" There was amusement in her voice, a teasing that spoke of familiarity and something else. No matter how hard Robin triedto open it, the door to those memories remained firmly closed.
"Why are you so difficult?" Robin muttered exasperated with getting the run around, but enjoying the easy banter.
Bard chuckled weakly leaning back against the crystal. "Because it's fun and a good distraction. But enough about me, tell me about you. How are your friends doing?"
Robin felt the temptation to push for more information, but discarded that idea. She would simply give him the run around or leave; neither of which he wanted.
"My friends are fine. Artemis has a fractured nose, but she will be alright. Wally actually got poisoned-," he stopped mid-sentence. Could it really be so simple? "Someone with a telepathic link to me healed him. That was you, wasn't it?"
"What do you think I can do from here," she countered gesturing to the room around them and herself. Robin rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Heck she couldn't even remain standing, maybe she wasn't the one.
"I'm not sure." Robin was pondered this when a slight buzzing noise started steadily growing louder as the room became fuzzier.
"Looks like our time is up for now. Good bye, Robin," was the last thing she said before he opened his eyes back in his room. Robin could have sworn he saw a door shut before he woke.