So sorry for posting late. It was getting kind of harder to type as the story went on. Anyways, guess what? Yesterday was my birthday! Forgetting that random off topic fact, let us get to the story, but first...

This chapter is dedicated to Browniesarethebest, And her story 'I Need a Hero'. Her story inspired for this chapter so tell her thanks and all that. It is a cool story though so check it out.

Warning: For those who don't like gory stuff, then skip the parts in stars, okay. Unreal deaths happening in here, so if someone dies, it is NOT REAL!

I don't own YJ...

Dick woke up with a helmet attached to his head, no where near Alex and his room. Wait. Am I actually considering it my room? We have got to get out of here. His first thoughts were to find a way out, but the chair he was sitting in was keeping his arms and feet immobile. He looked around the room, though he knew he wouldn't find anything because it was full of inky darkness. Nothing could be seen, but that hasn't stopped him before. Although, his other senses didn't pick up any presence of a person. That meant a good thing and a bad; Koro wasn't here, but Alex wasn't here either. He suddenly felt drowsier and was starting to close his eyes. What? He tried fighting his sleepiness, but he shouldn't have bothered because he still fell into the grasps of unconsciousness.

"Robin, we need to talk." Batman said. They were both in the batcave, both in costume. Robin didn't know what happened to make Batman go all, well, Batman on him but he walked towards his mentor. "You have to turn in your mask."

"What?!"

"Turn in your mask. Now. You almost got everyone killed on the mission. It was highly reckless and cannot be caused again if it's endangering any other person near you."

"But it was an accident! Wally even does those." Robin didn't know what he was talking about, but his mind and his body seemed to have two different point of views on it.

"No, it wasn't. You knew it was going to happen yet went ahead and helped cause it, knowing your teammates health and lives were in jeopardy." He sighed and took off his cowl, his voice getting a softer tone to it. "Look, I made you Robin so you wouldn't become like me, but now you're actually willing to sacrifice your teammates on a mission? I'm sorry but you need to resign as Robin, Richard."

Robin stared at his mentor in disbelief but after a moment did what he asked and took off mask, putting it in the outstretched Kevlar covered hand. He sighed, turning around and was about to leave the room, his eyes watering a little. That was until he heard the unforgettable sound of a trigger being pulled and a bang. Dick immediately turned back around and regretted it. There Bruce sat limply in his chair, unmasked eyes widened. He laid there unmoving, a giant bullet hole in his chest leaking blood, staining his entire Batman uniform.

Tears flooded through his blue eyes as he ran to his fallen mentor. He knew there were no chance at saving him, so Dick just did the first thing that came to mind; he hugged Bruce's body and cried. His Robin uniform was getting soaked with blood but he didn't care. All that mattered was his now dead mentor. Somewhere in the back of his mind, something was saying that none of this was real, but he was so overwhelmed with emotion that none of his thoughts was making sense.

Suddenly Dick was at the mountain, still covered in Bruce's blood. He didn't know how he got there, but he somehow knew comfort from his friends weren't inside waiting for him. He walked around, heading for the common room where everyone usually hung out. A hand covered his mouth as he surveyed the scene. He terribly wished he hadn't.

M'Gann and Kaldur were stuck to the wall by ropes of fire, skin full of sweat, eyes closed permanently and Dick was pretty sure that the skin under the fire was blackened. Conner was also stuck to the wall but for a different reason. A sword made of kryptonite stuck through his chest and pinned him to the wall, his head limply falling to his chest. There was no way a kryptonian could survive that. Artemis bled to death seeing as one of her major arteries was cut. Roy had a bullet through his chest and Wally's was the worst; he was beheaded. Wally's head was right beside Artemis, his body near Roy.

They were all dead. Every single one of them was gone. He didn't know what to do now. His heart felt like it stopped and sank all the way to his toes. He felt like crying until he died, but he had no tears left to cry for an hour. Strangely enough, he didn't feel too depressed. He felt like he could get over it in a few days, and then move on. That's probably what bothered Dick the most. The fact that he could see everyone he cares about dead, and move on so quickly. It terrified him.

His surroundings changed again, and this time he was in a place that had happy memories, and the most horrifying memory. He was back in Haly's Circus, back where it all began. When he looked up, he saw something and gasped. There was a tightrope hanging above, and Phoenix was balancing on it. She was walking backwards, looking at some shadow on the platform. She was right in the middle of the line, not near close enough to any of the side platforms. Dick saw the rope on each end about to snap, and tried to warn her. Everything seemed to go in slow motion.

"Phoenix!" He called. She looked. The rope snapped. She fell.

Dick snapped awake quickly, sweat dripping all over, breathing unsteadily. He was being carried over the shoulder of a robot, and saw that a robot behind him was holding a weird metal helmet. He guessed that was what they put on his head to make him see all those stuff. Dick knew somewhere in the back of his head while he was seeing everything that it wasn't real, but for some reason he couldn't grasp that and the rest of his mind took over, making him truly believe what was happening. He shuddered. It was just like the training exercise with the alien invasion, except this was more bloody and intentional.

They dropped Dick off at the room, and the first thing he realized was that he was alone. He assumed that she was enduring the same punishment as him and it was going a little longer than intended. This worried him; she may not be able to differentiate reality from fantasy and actually believe what she saw. That could not end well.

Dick went to the section of the room that was closed off by the black curtains. He pushed away the fabric to show what he thought, a bathroom. It had a shower, toilet, sink, and mirror. He went to the sink, grabbed the edges, and looked at the mirror. Honestly, he had looked better.

His eyes had bags under them, despite having a comfortable amount of sleep. There were tears tracks and stains on his cheeks, his nose was red, as was his eyes. He presumed they were from crying during the mental torture. He also noticed he had some bruises, a cut on his lip (probably from the fight with the robots) and he had a black t-shirt which must have been put on him somewhere between sleeping and being emotionally abused. His hair was also a mess that he was sure Alfred would definitely disapprove of. He almost laughed at the thought of his foster father's butler's expression at his appearance. That was until he heard the door open.

Dick rushed to the door, catching Alex just in time as she was pushed through the door. She fell in his arms, and he could feel something wet which was most likely sweat and tears. She lifted her head slowly to look at the person who caught her. To say he was surprised at her next actions was an understatement.

Her eyes were full of fear and betrayal. Then, after a moment, she suddenly started giving hits repeatedly at his chest, mumbling some words as tears started falling down her face. Luckily the smacks were weak, like very weak, almost as if she didn't really want to hurt him anyway. He grabbed her forearms, stopping her, and she just fell into his chest, defeated and crying. He wrapped his arms around her, whispering comforting things in her ear.

"You promised! Why did I ever tell you the truth? I told you you were going to hate me, so why force it out? Then you have the decency to make a promise you were gonna break in only a few hours? Why?" Her voice became softer with every word spoken until it came to a soft whisper.

Dick moved them to the bed where they sat down. He turned Alex to face him. "Need to talk about it?" She took a deep breath and looked at him.

"The morning after I told you… your super squad friends helped break us out of this hell hole… but you turned me in… eyed me like some disgusting peace of trash! Right after you promised me last night…" She trailed off as a tear came running down her face. She wiped offendedly at it and shook her head. "Look at me, I'm a mess. Sorry for crying so much. I probably look so freaking weak and stupid…"

He grabbed her face in his hands, making their eyes look directly at each other. "Don't you dare be apologize or even be ashamed of your tears. When was the last time you even had a good cry before this? You know, crying can make you feel better in the worst of situations, and having someone comfort you while weeping won't make you weak, because it's one of the reasons we are human. A reason that we can heal."

She laughed a bit. "Thanks, a lot, but do you know how corny you sounded?" She laughed more. This caused him to smile and laugh along with her.

"You can't say nothing. Remember when you spent a whole day quoting movies?" He laughed, reminiscing in the memories. He suddenly sobered up, remembering something. "Why say you're not a hero. I know people who have done very terrible things in the past and have become who they are today, why can't you?"

"I just… I can't be hero. I tried, but something always go wrong. I guess I don't even know how to be one."