AN: *loud groan* Okay, so now that I'm done dealing with these feels, TAKE THEM. And if you want my head by the end of the chapter, then whatever. I'll be waiting at the guillotine.
Enjoy. .
xXx
"Everything I've done, everything I've worked for... It was all for nothing." Dick stared at his reflection, looked passed the bruises on his neck and his healing nose, finally seeing what he was for the first time; a failure. He was no better than the scum of the Earth, the evil that the Justice League fought so hard against. Because even though Dick knew that he was a danger to everyone he ever met, he never did a single thing to stop it, because he was selfish. He didn't want to lose anyone's trust or friendship, so he ignored the biggest threat in the League's security; himself.
"Who did you think you were downloading information for?" Deathstroke's words rang in his head, making it difficult to focus on anything but their last encounter. Frankly, Dick didn't have an answer to that. During the entire time he played the hero role, he always pushed his programming to the shadowy corner of his thoughts. Yes, a part of him was always aware of the danger he brought to his friends, but a bigger part of him didn't acknowledge it. And now that Deathstroke had said it out loud, all that Dick could focus on was the information he gathered on the Justice League.
Robin had been the mole. And now there was no going back to how things used to be.
The Team and Batman were in an overprotective frenzy when Robin first came to, and they had all demanded that he told them what occurred between him and Deathstroke before the Team arrived to save him. Dick refused to tell them what happened; there was absolutely no point in recalling the events. Dick already had his fate sealed, and he would have to return to Deathstroke eventually, no matter what the Team or the JLA did. The man had every bit of information Robin had ever recorded, and even more data on top of that. If Dick didn't obey Deathstroke the next time they met in battle, everyone Dick cared about would be in harms way.
So Dick accepted that he would become Deathstroke's apprentice, and decided that when the time came for him to switch sides, he would do so without any form of resistance.
Everything seemed like a meaningless blur to him now, so he didn't even hesitate to break his promise to Bruce when he returned to the Manor. Everything else that was on his mind became hazy as well; it didn't matter that M'gann, Artemis, and Connor were ignoring him. He didn't care that he technically had a date with his crush in a few weeks, because why would that mean anything if he would be under Deathstroke's command when the time came? His obsession with making Bruce proud of him? Meaningless. School work? Who cared? Even the failsafe seemed to fade away...
Dick looked away from his reflection, feeling an emptiness that he was unfamiliar with, but found that the numbness was a better alternative to the emotional pain he could be feeling. Anything would be a better alternative to what he was planning on doing...
Even death.
xXx (A Few Days Later; Wally) xXx
The Team gathered around the large television screen, watching the Justice League ceremony with a combination of emotions. On one hand, it was totally cool to watch the newest members officially join the roster, but on the other hand, the younger heroes felt as though they deserved to be out there, and not stuck watching from the sidelines. When would the League give them the treatment they deserved?
"The Justice League was formed for two reasons. First, as an acknowledgement that no single individual, no matter how powerful, can solve the world's problems on their own. And second, to uphold the values of truth, liberty and justice." Superman gave a small smile. "That, uh, last one's even in the name." Wally scoffed as the audience laughed at Superman's lame joke. Come on, seriously? Even Batman had better jokes than that! Not sensing the speedster's disappointment in him, Superman turned towards the heroes besides him. "These five heroes have sworn to uphold those values."
The news camera moved to film a blonde reporter. "You are watching live coverage of the Justice League's induction of its five newest members. Looks like the entire League showed up to welcome the new blood. Everyone, from Batman to Captain Marvel."
"I'm glad they didn't kick Billy out," Wally commented through a bite of apple. "And I love the fact that there's a ten year old in the League."
"There is?" A dark skinned girl, Rocket, asked from besides him. Wally almost forgot that she was even there; she had been almost silent the entire time she waited with the Team inside the Hall.
Irritated, Robin elbowed him in the side. "Way to keep a secret, genius," the dark haired boy growled out, jaw set in a dead serious expression.
"Hey, she's on the Team now right?" Wally retorted, taking an oversized bite out of his fruit. Ever since Robin came back from the circus mission, he became distant and quiet, but whenever he did speak, his tone always held a barbed edge to it. Wally was more concerned about his behavior than he was annoyed, unlike the majority of the Team. Robin refused to tell anyone what happened between him and Deathstroke, and Wally knew that the mercenary had to be the cause of Robin's change in personality. But there wasn't a way for the speedster to help him if he refused to let him in...
"Superman is now handing out official League membership cards, starting with Doctor Fate," Zatanna winced and turned away. Robin twitched as though he wanted to comfort her, but seemed to hold himself back from doing so. "The Atom, Plastic Man, and Icon."
Rocket put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. "You know I was the one who convinced Icon to become a hero in the first place? I should be outside celebrating with him, not hidden away back here."
"Welcome to our world," Kaldur told her softly.
"Well... I suppose there's an upside too," Rocket said with a small smirk, successfully averting Wally's attention from his best friend. Did she just...?
Huh. Go Kaldur.
The news reporter interrupted his thoughts. "Finally, Green Arrow welcomes his former protege Speedy, now known as Red Arrow, to this roster of heroes."
Wally felt a surge of excitement for his long term friend. "Way to go Roy!" He cheered, raising a fist in the air.
Kaldur smiled as well, sharing the sentiment. "At last, he has his wish."
"The first of us to make it." Wally beamed. "No one will call him a sidekick anymore."
"Wait." Rocket spun around to face the two of them, eyebrows raised in a mixture of confusion and irritation. "Since when is being a sidekick a bad thing? You sidekicks are my inspiration!"
Well, that was awkward. Wally never had to explain how insulting it was to be called a sidekick, not even to Robin and Superboy, who were both unfamiliar with the term at first. It was just a given that being a sidekick was a demeaning term. Maybe if he explained some things, she would understand. "Well, see, six months ago-" Robin's watch let out a warning tone before he could finish. And everyone watched as the Boy Wonder pulled up a small holo screen to see what the problem was.
"Looks like hacking the League's crime alerts worked..." The acrobat mumbled, and Wally caught a glimpse of Cheshire before he deactivated his glove. "We should regroup with the others and handle it."
Kaldur shook his head. "I must insist that you remain behind. Your injuries have not yet healed-"
"It doesn't matter. I'll live." Robin shrugged and moved towards the Zeta Tubes. Wally caught one more word before he disappeared in a beam of light, "...Unfortunately."
"Recognized: Robin, B02." The Zeta Tube announced, enveloping the downcast boy in eerie light.
Batman's words from a few days ago rang in Wally's ears: "Keep him away from sharp objects."
Wally gave Rocket and Kaldur a sideways glance before shooting towards the exit after his friend, not wanting to take any risks. Whatever Deathstroke did to him, it must have seriously affected him mentally and emotionally, and Wally would be damned if he let Robin be consumed by darkness.
xXx
"Are you sure it's her?" Artemis asked, for what felt like the millionth time. Wally mentally groaned and turned his attention to the mountains that the bioship sped through, enjoying the scenery before it was butt-kicking time. "I mean, are you absolutely positive?"
"See for yourself," Robin said in an emotionless voice, pressing a button on his glove that expanded his holo screen and fitted it just in front of the main window. A video appeared on the screen; a woman with long black hair and a baseball cap was boarding a plane of some sorts. "Both recognition software and my own databases confirmed that's Jade Nguyen." He rested his cheek on his hand, sighing. "But what do I know? I'm just the computer guy. You've seen her without her mask, you tell me." Robin's voice was devoid of any emotion, sounding as though he couldn't care less about Cheshire. That was odd... Dick always seemed to put the mission before anything else. For him to suddenly not care about their objective, that made Wally feel uneasy.
Deathstroke must have really done a number on him... And it looked like it was only a matter of time before Dick decided that the razors at home seemed friendly, if he didn't already do so. Wally would have to talk with him later, and see if he could get through his walls. They were best friends, right? Dick would talk to him.
"It's her," Artemis confirmed, gaze hardening as she studied the assassin's photo. "It's Jade- Cheshire."
"Agreed. But focus on what she carries." At Aqualad's command, Robin zoomed in on the image of the case she held in her hands. "Is that the case you saw in New Orleans? The one that got away?"
"...Yes," Artemis ground out, looking away from the screen with a slight blush of embarrassment. Wally mentally snorted at her. Yeah, she would definitely recognize the item that she failed to retrieve. Maybe they would have succeeded in their previous mission if she wasn't such a-
Rocket chimed in with, "Okay, I'm guessing from the mug shot that this Cheshire is the bad guy. But what's so important about that case?"
Robin let out an almost inaudible sigh, his face momentarily showing pure exhaustion before his emotionless facade was put up once again. "Remember the Injustice League?" He asked in a low voice, bringing up a picture of the villains to help her memory.
Rocket looked at the grinning face of the Joker, shivering slightly before nodding at the acrobat. "And their giant plants? Uh, yeah."
"The Team and the League put them in prison, but their allies still scheme," Aqualad explained. "Whatever is in that containment case seems to be important to their plans."
"We had a chance to grab it in New Orleans, but someone screwed up." Wally glared at Artemis pointedly, and the blonde simply grit her teeth in response.
"Approaching Cheshire's jet," Miss Martian announced before the archer could retaliate. The aircraft came into view at her word, and Wally let out an involuntary gasp of surprise when he caught sight of it. Instead of a plane, they were approaching a crash sight of one. Wally grimaced and turned away; even a villain didn't deserve this fate. "Looks like there are no survivors..."
"We must investigate," Aqualad murmured, sounding mournful over the loss of human lives. "Perhaps we can still find information on the Injustice League inside the remains of the jet."
Minutes later, the Team found themselves carefully rummaging through the wreckage of the plane, but there were no clues to be seen. "How come Homeland Security and the NTSP aren't all over this?" Wally wondered out loud, putting his hands on his hips as he searched for any sign of useful information hidden in the crash sight. He had a bad feeling about this situation, for some reason.
"Cheshire's ID was a League alert," Robin explained tonelessly, studying what appeared to be a yellow box. "Authorities didn't pick it up and her jet didn't follow it's flight plan. But the Watchtower audited the jet and recorded the crash."
"Then why isn't the League here?" Rocket questioned, turning away from the broken wing she was inspecting before.
Zatanna smirked, and pointed a thumb at Robin. "Because our Boy Wonder has some mighty hacking skills and arranged to get the alert first."
Robin stopped, and carefully set his box down. "...Don't call me that," he muttered, before pulling out his holo glove. "But yeah, I figured that we all have some unfinished business with the criminal organization, so I made sure we would be notified first if any of our adversaries did anything noteworthy."
Deathstroke was probably included on that list, now that he made things personal for Robin. How he did that was still unknown, but it was painfully obvious that there was some sort of score to be settled between them.
"Wait..." Superboy racked his eyes over the whole of the wreckage, eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "Where's all of the bodies?"
"Here's one!" An all too familiar voice called out, and Wally whipped around to see the familiar outline of Cheshire's mask. The woman was standing on top of a rock wall above them, the case in her hands being held in a taunting fashion. "And it is stunning," she said in a purr.
Aqualad opened his mouth to shout a command, but his words were pushed out of the spotlight when another voice joined the party. This one was cocky, but totally unfamiliar to Wally's ears, and he has heard plenty of cocky villains in his short lifetime. "I am floura, not fauna! I am foliage, not trees! What am I?" A man wearing a high collared green jacket smirked down at them from his position on a mountain top. Several men armed with spear like weapons surrounded him, and the familiar villain known as Mammoth stood nearby. The man in green snapped his fingers, and at that instant giant rods shot out of the ground and circled the teens, making a containment field to prevent their escape.
Well damn. That escalated quickly.
"Come on, you can get this," the man in green taunted, and Wally finally noticed the question mark printed on one of his shoulders. Right, there was a Gotham villain obsessed with puzzles. He was the Ridder, right? "I am shrubbery, not grass! I..." he looked at the gathered group expectantly, but Wally was lost to what he wanted them to say.
Behind him, Robin sighed. "Am-bush," he finished, and it suddenly clicked in Wally's head. Oh. That was actually a clever play on words...
Riddler clasped his hands together gleefully. "I was wondering when I was going to get my turn with the famous Boy Wonder." He grinned wickedly. "Renegade, was it?" Robin tensed, hands curling into fists by his sides while he grit his teeth. Riddler's smile only widened, and he turned his attention to the rest of the Team. "Did you really think that we wouldn't be tipped you were on Cheshire's tail? We're tired of your interference, kiddies! This is the endgame, ordered from above, and executed by their master strategist: moi."
"Miss Martian, is everyone linked?" Aqualad's voice suddenly said in his head.
"Yes," M'gann confirmed.
"Go!" Aqualad shouted, and Kid Flash immediately reacted, sliding his goggles over his eyes before charging towards the nearest enemy at full speed. He almost smiled at the familiar free feeling running usually gave him, and for a second, he marveled over how time seemed to slow down while he breezed through the snow. It used to baffle him when he was younger, and he once spent hours running around just to watch the passage of time slow down for him. Well, now he knew that he just moved fast enough to make everything else seem slower, so he had stopped caring about it a long time ago. Man, he missed the days when everything seemed so carefree.
But now that he thought about it... His teenage years were supposed to be full of carefree adventures. A frown developed on his face, and he did a fast sweep over his teammate's features with his eyes. They were all so young, and already put so much time out of their lives for fighting evil. They didn't have time for a childhood, and that made him feel kind of sad.
Being a hero put more weight on his shoulders than he realized.
His downwards slope of thoughts came to a sudden stop when he noticed that he was closer to one of the nameless men, and let out another burst of speed so that when his foot collided with the man's chest, it sent him flying. Kid also noticed that the dome they were in was filled with a heavy blizzard, one that did not seem to effect Kid's vision in the slightest, but he could see Riddler squinting through it. Huh, that must have been Zatanna's work. Nice!
"Go, Superboy. The pylons!" Aqualad mentally shouted, receiving a grunt in return.
"Working on it." There was a moment's pause, and then layers of rage enveloped Connor's part of the link. Wally was curious to what pissed him off, but found that he had no time to check. The guys with the pointy spears meant business.
Rocket suddenly let out a cry of pain.
Wally whipped around to face her, and to his absolute surprise, a strange otherworldly orb of sparking electricity was the cause of her anguish. The speedster was just about to run to her aid when Aqualad came to the rescue, grabbing the sphere in both hands and yanking it away from her. Well, since he had that one covered...
Kid Flash moved on to his next target, taking him out in a similar fashion he did with the others. This time, after the man had fallen, Wally caught a glimpse of the gun-like weapon he carried. That must have been the thing that shot out whatever it was that hurt Rocket. Huh. That kind of reminded him of the guns that Robin took out in Qurac.
Speaking of Robin. "SB, you're flying!" The acrobat mentally exclaimed, and Wally tilted his head up to see what he was talking about. Above them, Superboy was shooting towards the top of the dome with Mammoth in a death grip. Wally's eyes widened in awe and excitement. Connor finally learned how to fly!
It was hard to see what was going on with their distance, but Wally was aware that Mammoth was in the sky, and then he suddenly wasn't, and was a heap on the icy ground. Superboy didn't let up on his attack though, and roughly grabbed the giant man to shove him against the nearest cliff. More anger radiated from Superboy's side of the mental link, and Wally stopped in his tracks. For a second, when he heard Robin's voice, it felt like Connor's anger spiked. That was... weird.
Kid once again forced himself out of his puzzlement, noticing that the only criminals left were Riddler and Shimmer, but it looked like Robin had them covered. A giant smoke cloud surrounded the two villains, and when it cleared, Shimmer was on the ground, completely immobile due to the bolas wrapped around her limbs. Robin moved towards Riddler to give him the same treatment, but was beaten by Zatanna, who chanted, "Tekcajtiarts!"
Riddler shrieked as a straitjacket appeared around his torso. "No, no! I am not the straitjacket type! I am strictly Belle Reve, not Arkham!" He shouted, but the crazed look in his eyes said otherwise.
Zatanna rolled her eyes. "Gag mih," she said, and the Riddler was instantly silenced by a gag. Wally grinned and zoomed over to where they stood, the remaining Teammates following suit.
Rocket was the next to land besides them. "Is it always like this?" She asked, sounding impressed.
"Yeah, pretty much." Zatanna shared a smile with her before raising her arms to chant, "Hguone htiw eht ebolgwons!"
"A girl could get used to this," Rocket said gleefully, beaming at the gathered teens.
"You think that now..." Robin mumbled, eyeing Riddler warily. "Just wait until you experience the wrath of Batman for the first time."
Wally felt all of the warmth drain from his face as he paled. The Team broke several rules today- hacking into League files, leaving the Mountain without an official mission, conveniently forgetting their comms back at the Cave...
Oh, and Batman specifically told everyone to not let Robin out on the field until his injuries were fully healed. An overprotective Batman was not something to take lightly.
They were so screwed.
xXx
Or not, Wally decided as Batman gave the teens a small smile. A smile. From Batman. "Well done," he told them, and the Team shared startled looks. It wasn't everyday that the famously emotionless Dark Knight gave out compliments. It was an even rarer occurrence when the man smiled while in costume.
Everything was so weird today.
"And then there's this," Batman continued, turning his attention to the case they managed to snag. Inside of the container was tiny star-shaped objects. Robin's eyes had been glued to them ever since they opened the case, and a look of unease seemed to be permanently etched onto his face. "Bio-technology integrated with some form of nano-circuitry." He looked at his protege. "Do you sense anything important?"
"It's definitely not from Earth," Robin murmured, tearing his eyes away from the tech. He looked around the room, avoiding Batman's gaze. "It doesn't feel safe. Be careful with it," this was said in a much softer tone, and Batman nodded.
"I'll keep that in mind when I'm studying it at the Watchtower." He closed the case and grabbed the handle, giving Robin one last look before heading towards the Zeta Tubes. The Cave's systems announced his departure, and as soon as he was gone, Robin turned to Kaldur.
"You realize we were set up, right?"
Kaldur nodded grimly. "Yes, Cheshire and Riddler were tipped and ready for us." Oh boy, not this drama again.
"Not the mole thing again!" Artemis groaned, voicing Wally's thoughts.
"Mole thing?" Rocket echoed, voice laced with obvious confusion. "Again?"
Robin sighed. "We were informed that there was a traitor on the Team," he began to explain, but was interrupted when Superboy angrily shoved his way closer to the acrobat.
"Either Artemis, M'gann, or me," the clone snarled, glaring daggers at the now silent Boy Wonder. "Yet Robin here has been working for Deathstroke for years and no one once questioned it!"
Aqualad tried to put a hand on his shoulder. "It is more complicated-"
"What?!" Robin stood straighter, returning Superboy's look with a full on bat-glare. "You call being forced to do whatever he wanted 'working?!'" He snapped, and Kid Flash tensed. Oh boy, this was not going to end well, was it?
"You still slip up and call him 'Master' when you talk about him!" Superboy hollered, shaking fists clenched at his sides. Wally's eyes widened fractionally; was he going to hit Robin? "If you aren't loyal to him still, then explain that!"
"Enough!" Aqualad shouted, forcing himself between the two. "Superboy, I understand your frustration, but your behavior has been most concerning lately." The clone growled and backed away, stalking towards the nearest exit. "Connor, did you not agree that we were like siblings?" Kaldur called after him, voice soft. That certainly made Superboy stop. "You have acted against Robin in more ways than one, you nearly killed Artemis when you caused that avalanche..."
Connor groaned and suddenly grabbed his head. Wally inched his way to Robin's side, wondering if the clone would lash out again. But, as luck had it, Connor seemed to finally calm down, and turned to face his teammates again. "I have something to do... something to tell you." His gaze fell on Robin again, but this time his expression was apologetic, and... worried?
The clone took in a deep breath. "Last month on Thanksgiving, I went back to Cadmus. Found a few things out- when I was cloned, only half the DNA was Superman's. The other half was human."
Wally hummed in understanding. It made sense when he thought about it, Kryptonian DNA was probably difficult to work with, and it didn't come to much of a surprise that Cadmus elected to work with something they were more familiar with. But what was so important about that?
"That's why I don't have, have never had full Kryptonian powers," Connor finished.
Robin frowned. "Are you sure? You seemed to have them earlier today."
Superboy averted his eyes, and pulled up the sleeve of his shirt to reveal a black patch stuck to his skin. "I've been using these- Shields. They suppress my human DNA. I get the flight and the heat vision, but I think I also get angry. Well... angrier. Especially with you." His gaze fell on Robin again, who seemed taken aback by the new information. "I'm sorry," the clone said softly, lowering his head. "For everything."
"...Where did you get those?" It was Aqualad that asked the question lingering on everyone's minds.
Connor studied the ground for a minute longer, seeming to hesitate before sharing anything. "From my human father, Lex Luthor," he revealed, and the air immediately tensed at the name. But Superboy wasn't done yet. "And... Deathstroke." There was a sharp intake of breath from everyone present. "They want me at Santa Prisca."
"..." Robin was shocked into silence, staring at the clone like he had grown a second head. "You... I..." he shook his head, looking dazed. "...I don't understand..." his voice sounded like it belonged to someone much younger, like a child who just discovered that Santa Claus wasn't real. The sound of his voice made Wally want to hit something. That must have been a low blow to the acrobat, for one of his closest friends to reveal that he had been a total douche because of something Deathstroke gave him. While Superboy probably didn't mean any harm by it at first, this was still an act of betrayal that stung in more ways than one.
"...He isn't the only one with bad blood," Artemis suddenly said, walking towards the holo computer. Her hands shook as she typed in the command to bring up pictures of Sportsmaster, Cheshire, and a woman that Wally didn't recognize. "My mother is Huntress, an ex-con. Rest of my family aren't even "ex-". My Dad's Sportsmaster, and he's sending my sister, Cheshire, to fly me to Santa Prisca, too." Wally suddenly realized why she acted how she did when the Team last faced Sportsmaster and Cheshire, but Artemis continued speaking before he could voice his thoughts. "...Deathstroke came to me as well." Her eyes fell onto Robin, looking at him almost fearfully. "He told me that if I didn't help him isolate you from the Team, then he would use the electrical shock feature in your computer chip to kill you."
Robin had paled considerably in the amount of time that passed since she spoke, and Wally half feared that he was going to have a panic attack. God, this was so not good. Dick was already under plenty of stress, and now with the two Team members revealing that they were in cahoots with Deathstroke...
Miss Martian just had to make that number three. "I-I wasn't entirely loyal to this Team either. Queen Bee and D-Deathstroke were both black mailing me as well..." She wrapped her arms around herself. "They said they would reveal my true Martian form if I didn't do what they said, and part of that deal was that I was mean to Robin." She sniffed. "I-I wanted to back out, but I didn't want you to s-see what I looked like..."
"But we've already seen your true Martian form," Wally mumbled, trying to wrap his head around everything. Robin was still silent, just staring at the space in front of him.
"No, you haven't." She squeezed her eyes shut and began to transform. Wally let out a surprised gasp when instead of going bald, she became a white Martian. "I didn't want you to reject me like I was during my time in Mars... I couldn't stand the thought of losing you all because of how I look," she mentally told them, voice sad. She then slowly reversed the transformation, turning back into the M'gann they were more familiar with. "I didn't want to hurt Robin either, though. I-I thought that if I just ignored him, then I could be happy, and he wouldn't notice a thing. B-But it didn't work out like that." Tears welled up in her eyes. "I caused him more pain than I thought possible, and instead of backing out of the deal I made, I continued to bring him more pain..." The tears finally fell down her face, and she buried her head into her hands with a gasping sob. "Robin, I'm so, so sorry."
Everyone was silent again, all turning to the lost face of the youngest. Robin had his head tilted to the ground, his mouth set in a grim, straight line. Wally reached out to snap him out of his trance, give him comfort, something other than just standing there. Dick didn't acknowledge him, just stared out into space with the most lost expression anyone ever saw.
And then, Robin let out a sharp exhale. "...Huh. I can never get away from him, can I?" He murmured, digging his nails into his arms as he hugged himself. "Even my friends, the people I've sacrificed so much to protect... You betrayed me," he sighed dully. "Should have known."
Wally was more than a little wary of how Dick was acting. He seemed far too calm about finding out that three of his teammates were working with Deathstroke. "Dude, are you okay?" He asked quietly.
Robin put up the weakest smile the world has ever seen. "Of course I am. When am I not?" This was said with a broken chuckle, and Wally felt his hair stand on end. Why did it sound like Dick just hit his breaking point?
"Robin, we are so sorry about what we did," M'gann whispered, floating over to the short boy. She threw her arms around his shoulders desperately, but the hug was not reciprocated. "Please understand..."
Slowly, Robin lifted his arms to return the hug. "...I forgive you," Dick finally mumbled, to the Team's surprise.
"Y-You do?" Artemis asked in confusion. Wally joined her in the puzzlement. "But Robin, we betrayed you to your worst enemy. You're not mad, not at all?" Now that Wally really looked at her, he noticed the fresh tears swimming in her eyes as well. Next was Connor, whose wrinkled eyebrows and downturn of his mouth were the only indications that he was upset as well.
But the one who should have been upset seemed completely unaffected. "Mm." Robin looked at Kaldur. "We can talk about it later. Right now, I'm more interested in the group of villains that have all gathered in the same area, all unprepared for an attack. I say we take advantage of this situation and strike."
There was a brief moment of shocked silence before any response was made. "That does seem to be the next best coarse of action," Aqualad murmured in agreement, but even he was baffled by the bird's lack of response. "But is it wise to leave so soon after such a reveal?"
"They told us what was going on before any harm could be done," Robin said immediately, eyes narrowing. "But if you would rather sit here and discuss our feelings, then be my guest. I for one am dying to end this fight once and for all."
The Team could only share a confused look as Robin exited the room, no apparent change in mood. Aqualad eventually met everyone else's gazes before nodding in consent with Dick's plan. Wally immediately zipped over to his friend's side, matching his stride as he studied his expression. "Uh, so you just kinda ignored the biggest plot twist in history," he said as nonchalantly as possible.
"I said we can talk about it later," Dick said with an irritated sigh. And that's when Wally saw it, he saw the emotionless mask crumble like dried out clay. For a split second, he saw a mixture of pain, sadness, regret, anger, and... guilt?
That last one made him all the more uneasy. "Why do I have a feeling there won't be a later?" He breathed, but he was promptly ignored.
That bad feeling that Wally had earlier? It was back, and stronger than ever before.
xXx (GUYS I'M SORRY) xXx
Kid Flash could be described in a numerous amount of ways, and being impatient was definitely one of his more known adjectives. He was practically vibrating with anxiety as he and everyone who didn't make some sort of deal with a villain waited for those who did. Every single cell in his body buzzed with pent up nervousness; everything about this mission was setting off alarm bells in his head. Artemis, Miss Martian, and Superboy were all way too close to dangerous villains for comfort, and if they didn't pull off their act then this mission could end terribly.
"...Deathstroke is here." Miss Martian mentally informed them after she joined Superboy and Artemis at the meeting point. Her thoughts were spiked with hatred, something that Wally thought she was incapable of feeling. Deathstroke was a sore topic for all of them now.
"Then it would be best if Robin were to stay hidden while the rest of us deal with our enemies," Aqualad said, looking down at the acrobat kneeling down besides him. "We cannot risk your safety. Not after what he did to you at the circus." There was a bitter tone to his voice as well, and it was obvious he had taken Deathstroke's attack personally as well. That wasn't too surprising- didn't Kaldur once make a comment about being more protective over Robin than anyone else?
Robin frowned, and then to Wally's confusion, he looked up at the sky and studied it for a moment. Then, he shook his head. "I have to face him again." He lowered his head, face filled with regret. "Look guys, I decided that I'm leaving the Team after this mission."
"What?!" This was Zatanna, who was stationed at another spot to keep watch on their teammates. "What do you mean you're leaving?! Is this about them working with Deathstroke?"
"... No. It's not. Like I said before, I forgive them. I would do the same thing they did if I were in their position at the time. Deathstroke has a way of making people do things they don't want to." He sounded distant, but shook his head to clear it. "I'll explain my reasons later. But for now, let me fight with you guys once last time. Please."
"Robin, I must insist-"
He was interrupted by another voice in their heads. "Queen Bee is down!" M'gann suddenly declared. "Superboy, you're safe from her control." Wally was startled to find that he was so distracted that he didn't even notice that the battle already begun. And since there were so many troublesome villains in one area, it was a given that the rest of the Team would soon be called upon.
"Guys... Reinforcement time!"
Aqualad gave Robin another look over, grimacing at his hopeful expression. "...Fine. You may fight alongside us. Just be careful."
Robin smiled sadly. "Always am."
"Then let's go."
It was time. Wally gave Robin a weak smile before darting towards the battle field. He immediately had to twist out of the way of a flying dagger, courtesy of Deathstroke of course. "It's time to go!" Luthor shouted at the stoic mercenary, scooping up Queen Bee as he retreated to the stationed helicopter.
"Completely unnecessary," Deathstroke said calmly, and Wally grit his teeth at the sound of his voice. This man was going to face the wrath of everyone in the Team and the Justice League for all of the pain he caused them. He could expect double from Kid Flash, who has been dying to kick him where the sun didn't shine ever since the message he gave to Robin in Bialya.
Aqualad quickly darted in front of Luthor, teeth bared and katanas held out in warning. "Neither you or Queen Bee are going anywhere!" He shouted, but Luthor looked unconcerned.
"Young man, if you wish to detain me, contact my lawyer." He said smoothly, and his robotic assistant sprang forward to assist him.
Only to suddenly power down as Robin somersaulted in between her and Aqualad.
The acrobat made eye contact with her, and his face twitched before Mercy sparked and fell to the side, completely out of commission for the rest of the battle. Kid felt a flash of anger from Robin's side of the link as he turned around to glare at Luthor. "I'll do more than throw you in jail, Lex," he spat, and Wally was so surprised by his change in personality that he was left completely open to an attack from Bane. Shoot, he forgot about the rest of them. He looked over to where Artemis was fighting both her sister and her father, and grimaced. She was at a disadvantage, but then again, he couldn't let Bane run wild. Bane first, then-
"Will you actually do as you threaten, Renegade?" Wally ducked to avoid being punched again, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Deathstroke come closer to Robin and Aqualad.
"Stay back!" Kaldur shouted and lunged at him, but Wally forced himself to look away as Bane caught the side of his face with his fist. Okay, this was getting problematic. Time to say hasta la vista to this foe.
Wally jumped to the side to avoid another swing, and then skidded backwards when Bane tried to catch him by surprise with a kick aimed at his stomach. Kid Flash then ran straight towards him, falling onto his back to slide under him baseball game style. Before Bane could register what was happening, Wally spun himself around and jumped up to grab the glowing green cords that supplied Bane with Venom, and pulled them away with all of his might. Once his super strength was disabled, Bane easily crumpled when Kid dropped to the ground again to kick his feet from under him.
"No... Kaldur!" Wally's eyes widened at Miss Martian's exclamation, and he quickly picked himself off of the ground, praying to whatever deity was up there that his friend wasn't dead. But when he saw who was standing over his teammate's unconscious body, his entire world froze.
"Nicely done, Renegade." Deathstroke was at Robin's side, a hand resting on his shoulder. The acrobat was trembling, the escrima sticks in his hands nearly falling out of his grasp. No. Nonono. "I knew you would come to the right side eventually." The smirk the mercenary probably wore could be heard as he squeezed Robin's shoulder.
Instead of flinching away from Deathstroke's touch like Wally expected him to, Robin's shoulders slumped in defeat. His head bowed, a dark shadow crossing over the top half of his face as he continued to shake, obviously not wanting to be next to the assassin, but forcing himself to anyways. "Rob..." He suddenly remembered what he had said before about quitting the Team, and now understood the hidden meaning. Dick planned on joining Deathstroke. "Robin, how could you?!"
All of the other battles came to a halt, the villains realizing that they had the upper hand, and the heroes horrified by the sudden turn of tables. "This isn't like you, Robin. You're still completely terrified of him. I can feel it." M'gann floated closer to him. "He has something on you too, doesn't he?"
"...I belong to Deathstroke," Robin said softly, ignoring the mental link. "I accepted it, and so should you."
"Fuck that!" Wally shouted, waving his arms. "You belong to no one! You're your own person, you have your own life! Whatever he has on you, it's not worth all of this!" He never felt so desperate, seeing his best friend next to that monster and prepared to sell his soul to him for no apparent reason. It made his insides turn icy. "Rob... We can help you. Like we did with Artemis, Miss Martian, and Superboy. You don't have to do this."
"Touching." Deathstroke sounded amused. "But we don't have time for this. Renegade, help us round up these little heroes..." Robin flinched but obeyed, pulling out two birdarangs from his utility belt.
"Dude... Please, don't make us fight you."
"You don't understand," Dick finally responded mentally. "He knows who you are. He knows the identities of the entire League. If I don't do what he says, every criminal we've ever faced will know your names, where you live, your weaknesses..."
"It doesn't matter!" It was Connor who shouted this time. "If it comes between our identities and your safety, we'll of course choose you!" He sent a glare towards Deathstroke. "If you go with him, he'll hurt you. He'll hurt you like he did while you were in Cadmus."
"..."
"Robin... Even if our civilian selves are hunted down, at least we'll all still have each other," M'gann said in a grief ridden voice.
Artemis nodded. "We're a family, remember? You forgave us, and now we save you. We have to stick together."
"...!"
"Renegade, now!" Deathstroke barked out, irritated, and Robin flinched before taking a step forward. Wally tensed in preparation, feeling nauseous at the thought of fighting his best friend. Robin shakily took another step forward, but then his expression flickered, and Wally finally saw an emotion that he was more familiar with:
Determination.
Robin suddenly dropped to the ground and swept Deathstroke's feet out from under him. The move was so unexpected that the mercenary fell to the ground, and Robin lunged at him to aim a birdarang at his throat. "Sorry, Master," he spat, and Deathstroke narrowed his eye as he stared up at him. "This bird doesn't like being caged."
Wally felt a brilliant grin form on his face, which only widened as Kaldur stirred and slowly regained consciousness. They did it, didn't they? The villains capable of dealing out damage were now outnumbered with no more tricks up their sleeves, Robin managed to defeat Deathstroke of all people, and it would only be a matter of time before the Team officially claimed their victory.
If only it was that easy.
"I didn't want to do this," Deathstroke suddenly said, and the hairs on the back of Wally's neck stood on end at the sound of his dark tone. "But you've given me no choice. Falling Grayson."
Dick's entire body went absolutely rigid, and the birdarangs he held in hands fell out of his suddenly loose grasp. Almost mechanically, Robin backed away from Deathstroke, his face completely blank as he stood at attention. Shivers ran down Wally's spine; what the hell just happened?
"Guys... that sounded kind of like the code that Luthor used on me to knock me out," Superboy sounded distant, and fearful anticipation crept into the link. "I think he might be under Deathstroke's control."
"No..." Wally breathed as Deathstroke climbed back up to his feet. The mercenary was unconcerned by the heroes's horrified expressions as he turned to face Luthor.
"Take Queen Bee and the others out of here. Renegade and I will follow through other means." He said calmly, grabbing Robin by his forearm. "Have someone prepare for an extra person. I have an apprentice to punish when we return." His grip on his captive had to feel like absolute hell, but Robin didn't even twitch in response.
"Of course..." Luthor only sounded amused by Deathstroke's plans to probably torture a thirteen year old boy, and that made Wally grind his teeth together. Lex nodded to his associates and they all began to make their escape. A part of Wally knew that he should stop them from fleeing, but he was too focused on the empty shell of his best friend. Was he still in there, somewhere...?
"What do we do?" Artemis sounded distraught. "We can't attack Robin!"
"I..." Like everyone else, Kaldur's eyes were glued to Robin's still form. "I am not sure..."
"Miss Martian, can you contact him mentally?!" Wally asked, desperate for a solution. Because if there wasn't one, that meant Dick was stuck in that mindless state for the rest of his life, and a world without Richard Grayson was not a world Wally wanted to live in.
"I-I think he's there, kind of. I can faintly feel something in his head."
"Good enough for me." Without a second thought, Wally dashed over to where Robin stood and pulled him out of Deathstroke's grasp, bringing him to a much safer area. "Dick, I need you to snap out of it!" He said loudly, but nothing changed in that blank face. "Miss Martian, can't you do what you did with Superboy?!"
"I can't sense any kind of programming inside of him!" She shouted back, sounding just as frantic. "H-His programming must be coming from the computer chip and not his brain like Superboy's was."
It suddenly made sense. That's why Manhunter was never able to sense anything. How could they all be so stupid to overlook such a simple fact? "...Dude, if you're in there, I need you to fight this." Kid put both of his hands on his shoulders, wanting nothing more than to tear his mask away so that they could make eye contact. "Robin, don't let Deathstroke turn you into his mindless puppet."
Deathstroke sighed, annoyed with the theatrics. "Renegade, kill him."
Wally turned his head to look at him on instinct, and he instantly swerved back around once he realized his mistake. But for once, he was too slow.
"WALLY!"
"Kid Flash, no!"
Wally blinked rapidly as the very sharp birdarang was pulled out of his side forcefully. Huh. He had no idea how lethal those things... could be...
He crumpled to the ground at his best friend's feet, blood pouring out of his deep wound. He could taste the same red liquid seep through his mouth, and his pulse quickened as he realized that Robin must have punctured something. No. That was definitely not good. Even with his quick healing, there was no way that he would be able to survive-
That's when it hit him- he was dying.
"Apprentice, come. I've made my point..." Wally weakly protested as he watched his friend's feet retreat to his forced Master's side.
"He's taking Robin away!" Connor mentally shouted, and there was some scuffling before another grunt of pain.
"Connor!"
Wally's vision became hazy, but he saw Artemis appear by his side. "Hang in there Baywatch, or I swear..." her voice was choked.
He really was dying then, if Arty was crying about it. His heart pounded in his chest; he wasn't ready to die. He was barely sixteen for crying out loud! Not even out of high school! And all of this because his best friend was brainwashed to-
Wait... Dick. "You have to...save him..." he panted, screwing his eyes shut.
"Deathstroke already got away. Robin's gone," Artemis said regretfully, taking his hand. "But we'll get him back, all of us."
No, everyone except him. "When you get him... Tell him..."
Droplets of water fell onto his face from where Artemis had her head bowed over him. "T-Tell him what?"
"...It wasn't his fault..." he whispered, before letting his body fall limp.
"No! Wally, you have to stay with me! Wally!"
He felt a pair of lips brush against his own, and then nothing.
xXx
AN: ...
See you next chapter. ;-;