Chapter three: Robin Cray cray (Part one)

(A/N: So this "Robin cray cray" arc is sometime in the actual present a couple of years after the events of chapter one and two. I'll be going back and forth in time with the story but I promise to indicate which is before "Robin cray cray" . Sorry for the inconvenience)

Enjoy!)

Crystal yawned and stretched out. She saw a bird by her window, a Robin to be exact and she chuckled to herself. She used her magic to open a space in the wall in order to breathe in the fresh air from outside.

She closed it after a few minutes and went to have her bath. She was glad for the secret bathroom she had cause it would have been very hard for her to use the same bathroom with the other Titans.

Robin was smart but obviously not intelligent enough to give all of them their separate bathrooms... After the first two days of holding in pee, having to deal with Beast Boy always forgetting to flush the toilet and Starfire leaving used pads in the bathroom...

Crystal shuddered when she remembered that. Tamerenean period blood was an ungodly shade of green and smelled awful. Starfire had said it was normal but she remembered how she'd screamed and nearly retched out her lungs.

The others had rushed in, Starfire quickly incinerated the pad and apologized. After a shaken bath, Crystal had packed her stuff and told them she was leaving. She would've left too if Robin hadn't gone on his knees and begged her with tears in his eyes to stay which shocked her and the other Titans alike.

When she got back to her room that day, she'd created the bathroom and increased the sound proof barrier on her walls so she wouldn't hear their outside banter and they wouldn't hear her music or singing and whatever.

After her bath she sat on the bed and decided to meditate. She had finally reached her zen state when she heard a lamp break. She was startled and looked around. First of all, there was no lamp in her bedroom so it had to be coming from outside.

But her soundproof barriers were still intact. She knew then that something was wrong. She sat up from her bed and teleported into the hallway.

When she entered the living room she saw Robin acting crazy. Yes, Robin acting crazy wasn't a strange occurrence but he was breaking stuff and beating Beast Boy obviously pissed at the other Titans for something.

"What the fuck?" she burst out before she could check herself. The others had begged her not to curse around Starfire because the alien princess was like a child and would copy whatever she heard.

Cyborg said they'd been through cursing Starfire before and they didn't wish to do it again.

"What's up with Robin?" she asked the other Titans.

"Well before you came, he used to be crazy all the time and not care about the consequences. But when you came along, he promised to change," Cyborg said.

"Yeah, but the thing is craziness is a part of him. He's been trying to be normal for so long now the craziness needs a moment to be in the spotlight," Raven added.

"Is no one gonna stop Robin from killing Beast Boy then?" Crystal asked.

"Yeah, we rather not be beaten up by Robin as well. He's bested all of us in combat before," Cyborg replied.

She chuckled to herself as she remembered the day the rest of the Titans sans her had ganged up against him to teach him a lesson and he'd beaten them all.

She stared at Robin who was a mess at the moment. She couldn't help but appreciate him for trying to hide it from her. She wouldn't have been able to take psychiatric patient Robin everyday. At the same time she felt sad that he couldn't be himself around her.

He could be crazy yeah but she couldn't stand Beast Boy's cries for help. She walked over to both of them ignoring the other Titans warnings for her to stop and "stay out of it."

"ROBIN!" she yelled when she got close enough. He paused his assault on the poor shapeshifter and turned to her. "LET BEAST BOY GO, NOW!" she ordered. He shoved Beast Boy aside like he was nothing, the shapeshifter let out a loud yelp as he hit the floor.

Robin jumped to attack her. She raised a finger and froze him in mid air. Then she went over to poor Beast Boy and cradled him in her arms, trying to heal him.

Suddenly, there was a loud crackle. Her head snapped up to the direction of the noise. Her jaw dropped.

Robin had broken free from his ice prison and the other Titans were mirror images of each other. Before she could recover from the shock, he punched her and sent her flying through the glass window into the sea.

He turned around and faced the other Titans. Even Raven was shivering in fear. Starfire was sobbing in fright in a crying Cyborg's arms. Beast Boy had passed out on the floor.

Crystal then burst through the window, the force of her landing shook the entire tower. Robin was growling at her but she wasn't flinching. She was, however, thinking of a way to solve the problem without hurting Robin.

Since freezing him didn't work, she sourced through her limited angelic powers for help while dodging the savage Robin. The only way open to him was using her telepathy which was hard cause she'd need to create some physical contact with him to do so.

She teleported to his room and collected one of his low quality canisters. She teleported back and dropped it directly in front of him, he was stunned and coughed. She seized her chance and placed her forehead against his, noses touching.

She reached in to his mind and was stunned. She had heard the rumors that he'd had a terrible childhood but she hadn't expected it to be this horrifying.

She was seeing through his eyes. The circuses where he'd been literally stretched beyond his limit. She gasped as she arrived at the memory of him watching his parents die. She felt his pain on a deeper level.

She saw him being picked up by batman after the superhero had killed the murderers. She watched the vigorous training the Dark Knight had put him through both physically and emotionally. How he'd felt "less than" his entire life.

She was startled to see the time he'd been captured and tortured by Slade prior to him forming the Teen Titans. She shook in pain seeing the torture- Physical, sexual, emotional, mental and psychological. How he'd been brainwashed to becoming his side kick and becoming Red X for a while.

How when he finally broke free and went back to batman, the Dark Knight told him that he knew Slade had kidnapped him and he'd been with Slade the whole time.

When Richard Grayson, as she now knew his name to be, asked Bruce why he'd not come to rescue him, Batman said he'd wanted him to understand true pain and suffering that Robin had life too easy.

She staggered has she felt Robin's heart break. He couldn't even retort or yell at Batman. She saw him go into his room and cry.

She couldn't go any further. She retreated from his mind to see him physically crying in front of her. He dropped to the floor crying hard. She sat down beside him and held him.

She realized then that none of the other Titans were there, neither was Beast Boy. 'How long was I in his mind?' she thought. Robin's shaking brought her back to him as he sobbed into her neck.

She held him closer and shushed him like a baby. He was much taller than she was but right now he seemed so small. She kissed his forehead and she felt him stop shaking.

He pulled from her and wiped his eyes. "Sorry about that," he said weakly. "It's ok," she said, "but I think it's Beast Boy you should say sorry to." He looked sad and remorseful.

She leaned closer to him and held his hand. "It's not your fault, nothing is. It's not your fault you couldn't save them, it's not your fault you couldn't please Batman and it's not your fault we don't always listen to you or obey you. It's not your fault you're not perfect, none of us are. We've all gone through shit, been abused one way or the other. I know it's hard not to slip into the darkness of our twisted minds but we can't let it win, we just can't," she said looking him directly in the eyes.

She wiped a stray tear from his eyes and kissed his forehead again. She stood up then. "If you ever need anything, I'm always here for you," she said soothingly.

"Likewise," he said and she smiled at him. She saw him blush as she turned to leave.

"Uh... Cryssie?" he called as she was about to exit the living room. "Yes," she answered. "I'd really appreciate if you don't tell the others about..."

"I get it Robin, your secret's safe with me," she said and left.

Later on, Beast Boy was on one of the tower's sick bay beds relaxing while Crystal and Raven were passed out on floor after doing a lot of healing on him.

Robin entered just then and Beast Boy flinched. "What do you want fool?" he asked, half afraid, half annoyed. "I just wanted to make sure you were alright," Robin stated, his guilt seeping out.

"Well I was fines before you gots here. I's been beaten my whole life. I thoughts if I joined your group, I's never gonna be beaten again but each times you panics or lose it, I is always at the receiving end of your crazy and I is sick of it. I always used to say it's just Robin and he can'ts helps himself, he got them issues bro. But all of us here have them issues too bro but we ain'ts going around hurting each other all the time for no reason," Beast Boy explained.

For the first time, he'd expressed how he truly felt, rather than pretend to be fine and hope the others don't bug him any further.

"Just imagines what would've happened if Crystal wasn't here cause alls Raven's magic wasn't enough to heal me. We'd haves hads to go to a real hospital and we'ves has hads to explains what happened," Beast Boy said then sighed.

Crystal stirred and opened her eyes. She looked at Robin and Beast Boy. "Glad to see you're fine," she said, stretched and yawned.

"You needs to goes relax in your room Mama, I'll be fine," Beast Boy said to her as she reached for Robin to help her up. She staggered as she got back and nearly fell. He held her tight.

"I can't feel my legs," she said weakly. Robin carried her over to a sick bay bed and attached an IV bag to her. He felt her neck, "she's burning up."

Beast Boy got up and went over to Raven, "she's burning up too." He picked her up, placed her on another of the beds and attached an IV bag to her as well.

Cyborg came in just then and was startled, "What's wrong with them?" "They're burning up real bad, I think they took on more healing than their bodies could take," Robin answered.

The crime alert went off. "Madame Rouge is robbing the Jump City Diamond mine," Robin said.

"Beastie..."

"Don'ts worry bros, I'll take care of them"

"I guess it's just the the two of us and Starfire then," Robin said before leaving.

About an hour later, Crystal woke up with a start. "Where's Robin?" she asked. "Whoa mama, chillax. There was a crime alert, Cy, Rob and Star wents to handle it," Beast boy answered.

"How long ago was that?"

"About an hour"

"An hour? To fight Madame Rouge?"

"Nows thats you mention it, it has beens too long"

"Something's wrong"

Cyborg and Starfire came in just then, injured.

"What happened?" Beast Boy asked.

"We were the overwhelmed," Starfire answered.

"By Madame Rouge?" Crystal queried.

"Uh it was not just the Madame Rouge"

"It's the entire hive, Madame Rouge and Brother blood"

"They captured the friend Robin"

"We barely escaped with our lives"

Crystal stood up from her bed just then and nearly fell to her feet.

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