Our Time in Reverse – What it Takes

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Chapter 19: Can He Fix it; Yes, He Thinks He Can?

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Richard hopped along rooftops in his cape and tights as Robin, he mental let himself realize. The implications were that if Slade found him slacking on the job, no more father son picnics to plan. No more close-knit family.

Robin leaped as his unit went off on his waist. He groaned and pulled it out to see Raven staring at him through the screen. Robin's mask face resumed that of a hero in crisis- Cy had gone missing and this had all occurred no more than less than an hour ago…

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Mumbo was proving to be a slippery fish to catch as Raven abd Robin both found their level of stealth tactics go be borderline…. useless.

"HAHAHAAA!! MUMBO JUMBO!" The spook that now inhabited the wand no longer – the one that had turned this seemingly harmless street performer into a common thief in only minutes, was doing a jig and seeing no shame in showing off his flashy actions around a group of overwhelmed heroes.

Cy was unable to shoot as the shot hit him instead. He flew back off the last roof and Starfire failed to find his body. Oddest yet, he was supposed to have fallen right into the closest dumpster. He also had said he'd forgotten to charge up his pack; a large battery that kept the leader on a chronic life support. Slade had never gone into detail, yet the accident had turned Victor Stone into a former self he'd never cared to want to deal with. Despite his quips and claims to greatness, he missed being what he was.

"Your tin friend has met his end – yet the curtain for you hasn't closed just yet….to the grand finale!!" Mumbo bounded about and even startled Robin to put up his defenses.

"Stop him! He's getting –

"Robin." Starfire put a hand to Robin's wrist. He looked into her sad eyes. Well, as thoughtful as they were, and as his begged her mentally not to tell him to stop trying his hardest. He didn't want to break character. Slade would-

"We should locate Cyborg first. If we go after –

"Mumbo is gonna make everyone his assistant!" Bb yelled. "I should a never asked to see the stupid trick. It's all my fault. Cy is gonna…" He bit his nails, frustrated and scrunched himself into a disgraced mound as he pulled away from the others. "I'll go find Cy –

"No, let me help." Robin put out a hand to the green teenager. "He and I, I don't want to take the role even if you ask. We are a team. We all lead this mission. Together. Bb and I can look for Cyborg. Star? Raven?"

Bb nodded, the other two teens agreeing as well. "The splitting apart does seem to do much for the risk, yet there is not much for us to accomplish if Cyborg is not found –

"Or Mumbo is not stopped from terrorizing the city." Raven added in bluntly. "Fine. Starfire, we'll search uptown. Robin, Beastboy?" Her violet stare even brought goosebumps to Robin's skin. "Be careful. Call if you need us. We won't lose anyone in this fight today."

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So, Raven could be serious when she wanted to. Robin had expected her role as second in command to be as a place holder, but no. If he won over Bb's trust, he was on. No one would say he couldn't.

He smiled at her for the first time. Lines on his face smoothed out as Raven relaxed just a little. "We're going to find Cy, don't worry. Beastboy –

"I got a scent!"

The teen smiled and Raven nodded back, relieved that they were getting along on her other end. ~ If you find anything, report. We'll have Mumbo in cuffs by this afternoon. ~

"Good plan. Robin, over."

The link left them as Bb wagged his Sheppard tail to morph back into himself. "So, one thing though…" Bb rubbed his arm and seethed, the other pointing a finger…down.

"They're down there. In the sewers and, it looks like we have to dig pretty deep to find where Cy's been taken or fell to."

"There's enough time to plan as we go." Robin moved quickly as Bb trailed next to him without a bite or a growl yet. "You got a rebreather? For scuba work? Cause the sewer is like the worst thing ever. We had to face off against Plasmas and this is probably tame…you sure you-

Robin stopped. "You don't want me to…. Beastboy. we told Raven –

"Yeah, but. If Cy knew I put you at risk with everything so far, this is my fault. Getting eaten by mutant rats and passing off sewer cross is my thing –

"Why are you punishing yourself, when your best friend is in trouble? F.Y.I. My step dad was ex- military and made me crawl through far worse than a little bad water. He made me drink fucking piss and crawl in the mud to earn his approval. I think I can handle your little wade through mountains of wet, human feces. I have a suit and my face is not afraid of scrubbing off some bacteria in this age – where SCIENCE made it so we can save Cy and get home. You are self-righteous? More like a coward. Also, I don't care if I'm appointed as anything – I just want Cy to…" Robin snapped, then pulled himself back.

Shit…

Shit!

Shit…

He knew it was wrong, of course. Yet, why was he so invested? Cy cared, that was why and Bb was putting them all at risk in losing the only guy who gave a clear damn about the team. As whiny as he was, Cy was...

Robin put a hand over his mouth. "I…I'm, sorry…. Beast –

"YOU go your way into the sewers, and I'll do my own thing. We are not working together – EVER." With a morph back, Bb made himself a spider and crawled down the side of the building to prove a point. He was not going to accept Robin now. Not even if he begged the kid to call him big brother from now until the year was over.

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Robin took the route Slade said was safest to reach the main lines. Cy could be in a bunch of parts, or underwater…dread ate at the teen as Bb bounded on ahead from an angle and Robin ran without rest to cat h the little rodent. "Beastboy! I'm not –

~Go away! You're going to make me screw this up! I got it! ~

"No, you're running into the wrong –

Before either could hiss and spit some expletives at the other, the turning wave of high rising water broke the tension.

"Watch!"

" Gah!"

Robin was so close to Bb but it didn't last. The sickly puke - acid taste of bile rose as he coughed, the tech he'd meant to use was at the bottom of the tunnels ravenous waves. Swallowed up in the excrement and muck of yesteryear. Maybe lost... He felt himself being tugged upwards. Scales and…. words. words he dared to understand.

"Hey! Hey! Cut it…. you had better just be… idiot!" Bb. He was saving him…Robin's eyes shut just before their breach to the surface as wet stone was laid beneath the nearly drowned mole. Robin sputtered out water as Bb used his octopi's arms, pushing down on the other boy's chest. The rest, was a single line of water in Bb's vision as he flicked the other hero's saliva from his cheek. "Dude! You are so gross…but, alive…." He panted and sat down with his weary back to the wall of the tunnel. "We gotta keep moving. This isn't… pant…. safe."

"Why…?" Robin rasped as he attempted to sit up beside the green goofball.

"Call it even, fer saving me before." Bb morphed slowly into a rat and sneezed. Great…

Bb was, he had risked his life for a traitor. Robin's mouth recovered a bit better as they kept up on the scent. There was no way in their state that they could go through that freak out again. Slade had warned Robin on how to avoid it. Being about to kick, to float and to let the current bring him up enough to find somewhere to aim himself. Like a ledge. To cling for life but to never panic. He'd shown weakness, as this could be a good thing though. Bb wasn't running away. He had –

Robin blinked. Slade…that water had been because-

"Door?"

Bb cocked his head on two rat sized legs and twitched his whiskers at the locked passage. Iron door.

Robin froze. No. No! That was the wrong door. Wasn't it? It had to be.

"I'll check it out –

"Wait. It could be dangerous."

"Are you seriously gonna chicken out when I just got blasted about being a coward?" Snickered the sneering green imp. "You are the hypocrite then, not me. I'm keeping that promise for Cy. Not you."

Robin watched as his fingers ached. While Bb did some look over of the locks and panel, a message flew right over to Robin's comm link.

Robin pulled it out, hidden as his mask went narrowed at the odd order.

~ Open it. ~

Slade was watching. He had intervened and this, this was the place where Cy was as Bb let the locks pull apart without much effort.

The next scare that brought the boys to put up their fists, were that they had never been alone to begin with.

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A hermit living underground with a bunch of battered qind up toys as his company? Did sound a light relatable. Slade was no hermit. He had plenty of interactions that Robin didn't know about. Including the day he'd been at the Pizzaria. The hours in before, Slade had sat down to survey the spot for cameras he could have placed. That was actually the day before in the evening. Too busy and by the new day, Robin had come to him with questions. Of trust, of that single promise he wanted to believe was real. Slade smiled as he moved a while to get his dolls wound up and ready for a spar. "Head held high, hero. This hermit you're after doesn't like visitors with a pulse." He swung out at his robit as it topple abd quite literally, lost its head. Wintergreen moved along and cleared his friend's cup to replace it and dragged out some towels in case the man would be much longer in his afternoon sets. "The gym, sir?"

"Perhaps. I'd rather have a front row seat for now." The man's mark had a second bot crumple. Best part of all? No blood left over to clean up. A clean kill for the most expensive mercenary on the planet.

"Robin is not acting."

Will raised his brow to that sentence. "Sir? Robin is the one being played as the boy Richard. HE is not carrying any more other aliases to blow his cover –

"He believes he isn't Robin. That is an issue for us , Wintergreen. Very soon, we have to push him beyond his limits. Break the cord. That boy can't suckle on his mother's teat anymore, and he sure as shit won't take his role as MY apprentice!" The man had the boy flying back to spark and sizzle out. "As a joke. We'll consider the plan. The boy needs a nemesis, and I have the perfect background to make that happen. I told him before. He's going to learn to hate."

The man took our a bot in the knee caps.

Down it fell.

"My."

The next flung in with a staff as Slade evaded and tossed a towel at it to distract before slamming a fist to its disoriented neck and snapping the sad doll's joints loose.

"GUTS." With a ring of his own neck, Slade came back to stand erect in front of the sane screens where Robin was going to show his teammates just how serious he WAS about that post.

That only someday, they'd be hoping for him to take the full lead. He'd make damn sure that came to pass, and that Robin never took off his mask again. Not even to confess how devoted he was to his master. Especially, what he had in store for that boy come the next week.

"Head held high now, kid. You're putting on a show that shouldn't have any critics."

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Slade is expecting Robin to overcome his own tribulations in working away with others. He is acting in that way, but the real him is not a fun person. He just got teste, but what about Cy? That is why his independent self is flunking. He's starting to think he can fill the role, but what happens when it's too filled with memories of the heroes he's hoodwinked? Find out!