Hi again! It's the weekend, so yeah more chapters for you guys! I hope you're still enjoying the story.
I have one more chapter planned after this one, so the end is near you guys! After this story, I was thinking of doing a series of one-shots based on prompts that you guys send to me. Or I could do another YJ based story – probably Robin-centric again seeing how I love his character! So, I've put a poll up on my profile so that you guys can choose what story I write next. Don't forget to go and vote on the poll for what you want next!
Bit of comfort for Robin in this chapter!
whelmedwithaster: Thanks, hopefully the move will go well... Or as close to well as it can go... And I'm glad you like the characterisation of Robin, I wasn't too sure at first but I'm getting a bit happier with writing him like this. Bruce is a bit of an idiot, but only when it concerns Robin's safety I suppose. He's a complex character -_- Thanks for the review!
Onto the story!
There was no way. Batman couldn't possible have really been captured, could he? He was the most powerful man that Robin knew, the one that even League members looked up to for his abnormal strength and presence of mind. Of all people to be caught by as well! The same man who had killed his parents now had his adoptive father-figure, and probably intended to kill him too. After all, Batman was the one – partnered with Robin – who had put him in a cell five years ago. Even though they had been disagreeing a lot the previous day, this news still devastated Robin. How much more could Tony Zucco possibly take from him? What more did Robin even have? Apart from Bruce and his friends, Robin could think of nothing of any real value.
Even through the blurred out splodge that was Alfred, Robin could still see his concerned look as the young acrobat seemed frozen on the spot. The English butler hadn't heard Robin say a word, or even move, it was almost as though he had shut down. He thought it must have been pretty hard to 'stay whelmed' as the boy would put it when he had just heard news such as this. Alfred noticed that several teenagers flanked Robin's sides, rubbing at their eyes sleepily and yawning. For their benefit, Alfred reported his troubling news again. This time, his words were greeted with gasps and questions. For Robin, hearing it twice only made the news sink in further and he realised how worthless his feelings were right then – when Batman was missing and possibly in danger.
The Team had been asking constant questions at a suddenly flustered Alfred until Robin turned and slammed his fist down on the computer desk to grab their attention. The Young Justice team jumped, still slightly groggy with sleep. Superboy winced as the sound pierced his eardrums painfully. Robin turned back to Alfred and made his decision, he would not lose Batman. No matter how badly he had treated Robin recently, Batman was the closest thing Robin had to family now and he wouldn't lose another family to the same man.
"I want you to keep searching for Batman's location and keep trying to contact him. I'll contact the League and take it from there, keep me posted." Robin commanded clearly. Alfred had just enough time to give the young boy a short nod before Robin cut the communication. Alfred could only be glad, as he turned back to his computer and began to research, that Robin had enough sense about him to take control. The rest of the Team however just gawped at their youngest in amazement. Robin had been through so much in only a day, he had endured the anniversary of his parents' murders and they all knew perfectly well that he hadn't slept at all that night and now he had been told that his mentor had been captured by that same man that was haunting him. Yet still, Robin once again had done the extraordinary and taken extra weight on his shoulders, all to help the mentor who had neglected and dismissed him on the most terrible day out of the whole year for him. Robin was amazing, an inspiration in fact.
Robin in his mind, however, was annoyed; he couldn't help but think that if Batman had simply brought him along on the mission then he would never have been captured. But Batman hadn't brought him along, and Tony Zucco had captured him in all likelihood. Robin felt himself being slowly swallowed by his own anger, it was threatening to cloud his judgement so he had to make a special effort to be sure that he was thinking straight enough to make safe decisions. Contacting the League sounded like a definitively safe decision, so that was precisely what he was going to do.
"Rob?" Wally questioned as Robin walked over to the Bat-cave's supercomputer and started to type quickly on the keyboard before him. Robin's typing faltered briefly before he continued silently, only when he got the end of the line he was writing did Robin look up and meet Wally's eyes. Wally was stunned by the calm exterior he was somehow pulling off when the speedster knew very well that it was definitely not the case on the inside. But he knew that above anything else right now, Robin probably just wanted to get Batman back, so he asked only what he needed to and nothing more, "What are you doing? Can we do anything?"
Robin turned back to his typing with a shrug, his fingers dancing across the keyboard. He seemed to be thinking about Wally's second question for a while before he suddenly spoke during his typing, not missing a tap, "I'm contacting the League so that anyone who can get here, gets here quick. In the mean time, you guys can contact Agent A again on the other computer and see where he's at in his research so far. Ask him what you can do for now, and thanks."
As the others nodded and went to crowd around the other computer occupying the Bat-cave, Kaldur spared Robin a small smile. When he was put under serious pressure, the kid turned into a really great leader. It seemed that despite his young age, Robin was more ready than they had initially believed to take over the Team as leader. The thought filled Kaldur with odd warmth that he supposed was pride, that and perhaps a bit of relief since being a leader was such a heavy responsibility and to be honest he would be glad when he could pass it on to another more capable than him. Then, with another smile, Kaldur walked in the direction of the other computer just as Agent A's blurred face popped up on the screen and began to report his current findings: which seemed to sum to nothing.
In the mean time, Robin had managed to get in contact with three League members who were available to help. Three was better than he had dared to hope for; it was Flash, Green Arrow and Superman. Each of them had promised to arrive at the Bat-cave within the hour and robin breathed a sigh of relief before expressing his thanks to the three of them. Robin felt a sense of dread whenever he thought about what might have happened to Batman overnight and he was hard pressed to push the feelings aside and keep a clear head in order to rescue the dark knight if necessary. With League members on their way, Robin walked over to where his Team were helping Alfred in his search for Batman.
"Master Robin, all evidence of the last transmission I received from Batman points to his having been captured by Tony Zucco. However I have been unable to track his communicator, it seems to have been turned off or destroyed." Alfred explained. Robin nodded, so it was true, Zucco did mean to rid Robin of the last of his family. The protégé's stomach dropped in anxiety at the clarified news, but then Robin remembered something.
"You can track dead technology if you know the codes that the company who produced it used." Robin said as though thinking the idea through himself. Bruce owned Wayne Enterprises and so all of the gadgets he used came from that company. Being the owner of that company, Bruce and Dick had access to the codes for everything associated with the company. The others would simply think that it was Robin being a technology ninja as usual and would not suspect that there was actually a link between the technology's codes and his secret identity. Alfred however did not know these codes and so, instead of attempting to do it himself, he simply sent the necessary data to the computer Kaldur was sat at and told Robin that had better do it.
Kaldur moved aside and let Robin enter the codes, eyes widening when he saw the complexity that went into the whole process. Even Wally, a smart guy if he did say so himself, couldn't understand half of what was being written into the computer. After a while, Robin sat back and wiggled his fingers as they had become sore from typing so quickly for so long, and waited for something to happen. But then after a few minutes a screen popped up with a map on it and a spot that indicated where the technology was. That was either where Batman actually was, or it was a good place to start.
The three League members entered the cave just as Robin was pulling up information on where exactly that spot on a map was. Flash sped straight over to Robin and starting asking question at such a speed that no one but Wally could understand him. Wally chose this moment to slap a hand to his forehead in exasperation and call out to his uncle, "Dude, no one can hear you when you sound like a freaking humming bird."
With that Flash silenced himself and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly with a grin on his face that belonged on a child at least fifteen years his junior. Wally couldn't help but smile at his uncle, the man was always so cheerful and unknowingly funny. He provided the perfect contrast to Robin who didn't look impressed; in fact he looked the spitting image of Batman in his lack of emotions. Although the whole Team knew exactly how he was feeling on the inside, they wanted nothing more than to talk to him about it but whilst his mentor was in trouble, Robin would never be able to focus on anything but that.
Green Arrow could see through straight through Robin, much like he could often see straight through Batman when something was wrong. So, seeing that the kid needed a chance to let the tough news settle in he walked over to Robin and ordered him to move so that the senior heroes could take over. It had to be an order, otherwise Robin would never move. So with an angry glance in Oliver's direction, Robin got up from the chair and told them what he had gotten so far and then proceeded to walk back over to the comfy chairs where he had been sat all night long. The Young Justice team were quite happy to leave the research to the League members and followed Robin to the chairs. Green Arrow was satisfied that Robin would be well taken care of and then got to work seeing what the chances were the Batman may be contained where his communicator was.
"Are you okay, Robin?" M'Gann couldn't help but ask. She still had her barrier against Robin's emotions up, so she was no longer affected by his feelings, but she could still feel a dull indication of how Robin was feeling. It was clear that Robin was still thoroughly shaken and worried out of his mind. At the stupid question Wally rolled his eyes and sat down next to the young ninja, putting an arm over his shoulders. The others watched as Robin gave a small sigh and leaned into the speedster. The rest of the Team decided to distances themselves a little further away than Wally had, they didn't want Robin to feel cornered. They couldn't help but notice the shakes gently rocking their youngest member's body. Whether they were born of anger or fear they didn't know.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Kaldur asked Robin with sincerity. They would have at least fifteen minutes before the senior heroes got anything of worth, and even fifteen minutes would be a start. They all wanted to know what was going on in Robin's head so that they could better judge how to treat him or even better how to help him. Robin looked at Kaldur; his friends really were the most incredible people, even in a pressurised situation such as this one they were all willing to help Robin get some stress off of his chest.
"Actually, that would – that would be great." Robin said in a small voice. With that, the others settled in and waited for Robin to start talking. Robin sat up out of Wally's grip and nodded slowly as though thinking what he would say through before he actually said any of it. But after brief consideration, Robin began, "You don't have to say anything, just listening will help. So don't feel like you have to give me advice or anything like that."
"Okay." The word was unanimous and Robin gave a weak smile. As the others were watching him intently, Robin felt the need to break eye contact and look down at the ground so that he could just speak without seeing what people were thinking of him. Seeing the discomfort of the young acrobat, Artemis felt the need to coax him to speak again, "Go ahead, we're here to listen."
"Okay, well, I don't really know where to start. The last few days have been – horrible," Robin started, his voice was quiet but there was still an audible wobble in his voice. Superman could hear everything going on, but he was gladder than anything else that Robin was talking whatever was on his mind out with his team. Robin continued, feeling his cheeks redden in embarrassment, "I can't help but feel like everything I get too close to breaks. I loved my family more than anything else in the whole world, but when they were threatened I just stepped back and let it happen. It was my fault and nothing you could say would ever change my mind about that, it's something I have to live with. But now, I got close to Batman and I knew who he was after, but still I didn't force myself to go and help. Again I just let it happen. This is my fault too, and if anything happens to him I don't know if I could handle that kind of loss again."
The Young Justice team knew that a lot was going on and they knew that Robin was stressed, but the fact that he was blaming himself for all of it just broke their hearts. Wally felt slightly annoyed at Robin blaming himself when it was so blatantly not his fault, but he didn't voice anything because Robin wasn't done yet. Robin spent a moment or two fighting tears back before he felt ready to talk again, "So I have insomnia, I've gone three days on three hours sleep total, the past two nights I haven't slept at all. Then yesterday I couldn't control myself, anger, sadness, fear, it was all spinning around in my head and it needed to come out but I just – I didn't know where to put it. Batman was treating me like he didn't even care and that was making me crazy. He kept secrets from me, he kept a secret from me that he promised he never would and now he's probably hurt."
Robin then buried his head in his arms as his tears spilled over and he started to cry. Just as Wally put an arm around him and rubbed his shoulder in comfort, Robin picked up his head and gave his team a tiny smile, "You should probably run away because I'm getting too close to you as well. You'll end up just like everyone else I love." Robin's voice cracked on that last note and Wally pulled him closer into a proper hug. Suddenly, the Young Justice team felt that they had reached some sort of an understanding. If Robin had felt this way since they had met, that would explain why he seemed to distance himself from them so much, why he hid behind that cheeky exterior. Robin didn't want to get close to his team because he was afraid of losing them.
Everyone was at quite a loss for words, how exactly should they respond to Robin's thoughts. He clearly had a lot going on in his head, but what words could possibly sooth such thoughts? As it turned out, nobody needed to say anything because Wally had it covered, "Don't tell me what to do." Wally laughed. Robin seemed a little taken aback by the fact that Wally was laughing and wiped his eyes dry in bewilderment. He stared at Wally, as did the rest of the Team. How would laughing at Robin solve anything? Wally ruffled Robin's hair affectionately and smiled at him, "I'll stick around if I want to, and you know perfectly well how hard it is to get rid of me!"
"That's true. He's like a cockroach; he would probably survive an atomic bomb if it meant he didn't have to leave." Artemis said with a blunt bite to her words. Robin gave a giggle at the resuming war between Wally and Artemis. When would they just stop fighting and admit that they actually loved each other's company? Artemis smiled in triumph when she heard Robin's familiar laugh, even though she didn't realise that he was laughing at her rather than with her.
"That was so uncalled for! Here I am trying to cheer up Rob, and there you go again insulting me like I'm not even standing right here!" Wally complained with truth ringing in his words. Artemis felt slightly guilty for saying what she had, but she valued her own pride more than Wally's feelings so rather than apologising like any other person would have, she just continued the argument. This allowed a chance for Connor, M'Gann and Kaldur to move closer to Robin who was visibly cheering up. It was good to see a genuine smile gracing his face for the first time in a good many hours.
"Robin, although they put it in the most childish way that seems possible, I know Wally and Artemis were just trying to let you know that we are here and we aren't going anywhere." Kaldur summarised. As Robin looked at the three of them, Kaldur's face remained as sincere as it had been the whole time, Connor gave a short nod of confirmation and even attempted to soften his face a little bit, and M'Gann just smile with her hands clasped in front of her as though she was trying to hold back in giving Robin the biggest hug that he had ever recieved. Warmth filled the thirteen year old and he almost felt better, but then he remembered that Batman was still captured. But just as his thoughts took a more dark turn once again, Green Arrow announced that they had come to a conclusion.
The Team returned to the computers where the saw multiple files left open on the computer, probably so that they could show the Young Justice team the necessary files as they reported their new information. Robin sat the closest to the screens, a look of focus and hard determination on his face. Green Arrow reported, "We found evidence that Batman is in the same place as his communicator, namely, when we looked through the surveillance footage at the coordinates on the map, were found no 'debris' left behind after Batman was captured. He put up one hell of a fight."
"You mean you saw him?" Connor asked, looking to Superman for the answer although it was provided by Flash instead. Connor seethed at the clear rejection and almost felt like doing a Robin and punching him in the face. But, unlike Batman, Superman didn't even like Connor so it was likely that if he even managed to land a punch, the punishment would be far greater than a hurt look. Connor was just some clone, a version of Superman that nobody ever expected or, for that matter, wanted. Robin may have had a traumatic past, but at least he had a good-looking future. Connor's past was bleak and blurry and his future left a lot to be desired. So far, all he could see was crime-fighting. Maybe he wanted to do more, nobody ever thought of that though.
"Yes, we saw him," Flash answered, pulling Connor out of his thoughts. Flash winced and continued, "Which brings us to our next point. He was absolutely horrifically outnumbered, which makes perfect sense seeing how Zucco is a crime boss. But still, there were others, Clayface and the like." Several jaws dropped at this development. Robin however remained completely steeled; he had a strong sense of foreboding about him and knew on instinct that there was worse information. Flash continued, now keeping a constant eye on Robin, "We know where Batman is, and we know that there are a lot of opponents to fight before we can get to him. But the thing is Batman appears to have been injured quite severely. He will need to be taken to a hospital as soon as we rescue him," Flash paused and waited for Robin's scared eyes to meet his before he said, "And we will rescue him."
Robin's eyes narrowed and he frowned in fury. Flash was right, Robin would rescue Batman. But after that, when Robin found Zucco, there was going to be hell to pay for this.
Okaaaaay! Well then, that's that chapter gone and out of the way.
Let me know if you spot any mistakes so I can get rid of them, I'll read this chapter through at a later date, probably after the big move to England. Thanks in advance! :D
One more planned! The big finale! Do review and let me know how you think this chapter went, and don't forget to vote on the poll on my profile page!
More reviews please guys, I only got one on the last chapter and that didn't give me much to go on in terms of whether you were still enjoying it or not. I need you to let me know whether you liked it or not otherwise I can't know whether I should stop the story or change how I'm writing or what!
Anyways, thanks for reading because the amount of viewers has been fantastic and I'll see you next time for the final chapter in this story!
Thanks a lot, Varishi x