Our Time in Reverse- What it Takes-

/

Chapter 68: Long Time Comin' – Word Up

/

Dick used his binoculars from his supplies to scope out Cy in a high speed chase with Johnny Rancid.

The rain was barely letting up. On a rooftop in the downtown sector, no one on a Thursday was ok to duck and cover while getting soaked. Salary men, school kids after school and night life loving adults all shouted as Johnny made their time a living terror.

Slade had said not to engage. To wait, see to the objective. That….was Raven. She was with Starfire as they flew with a tiny Robin-

Dick's eyebrow shot up. A…tiny…? What was that, wearing a Robin uniform with bright colors!?

Then, he saw the red cycle and glowered at it. Jason was back. Not at Jason who had come to rescue him, but because Slade was watching.

It was time to get ugly and go off script, as Dick moved like a cat onto the next ledge, shooting off a line as he tried to gather his footing among the panicked crowds.

/

Raven fell into Starfire as she teetered about in mid fight sequence. Starfire gasped and caught her; Johnny's noisy cackle had Gar leaping out of the T – Car as Larry did his best to use a magic finger to redirect Johnny's headlights. They set him to stall his vehicle as the Titans were in a stand off in the barren roads of Jump City. Jason was the last to rest his vehicle as it revved in impatience. His hands at the handles, the motor bike making Dick's eyes water, because…that was his. The one that Cy had helped him to build.

This was to go free, there was no way he'd…

Dick bit his lip, watching as the heroes circled Johnny, staring one another down. Dick felt as if he had to do something. Stir up the chaos to break this inertia. Raven wasn't unaware, though. He saw how her empathetic energies sensed something by her head, everywhere. Maybe, Trigon?

Or, him.

Dick stepped away from the light, in the dark if the ally where he listened instead. Slade's voice in his ears as the night before had him wondering if anyone was coming back to stop the mam from winning.

~ They're only your friends, up to the part where they find out what you've chosen to do with your time. You did everything to stay here, by my side. So? If you had left to go back, would they really say that you could be their Robin? You're too strong, any chance they'd consider it, you'd be Batman's problem. And what about Bruce? He'd never, ever let you go free, again.~

Bruce was afraid. Afraid that…Slade was the one he'd go back to, or Slade wouldn't give up on his pet project. Dick was like before; the adopted ward without a namesake to the Wayne family, just an outsider being fed, staying for a short time before he moved in with someone else.

Someone…

" That…is the dumbest thing that j ever saw!! Bug eyed freak…Get Offa me!!"

The imp??

Dick saw this little squirt using a strange ability with his index finger. The Titans saw as Johnny's spikey hair became a bed of posies. Raven felt weak, Dick dud see that as he realized what he had to do. With a breath, he slipped away from the current wall, the passerby still indoors as if this were a wild west revolver battle.

"I'm gonna cream you senseless, ya ugly turd!"

"Have you looked in a mirror, butt ugly?" Jason snickered, high fiving Larry as they both saw Johnny sending his new toys shooting off, before getting onto his bike and in the air with Trigon's new powers.

Dick only focused on Raven having her ear, telling her about the plan. That they could not stop trying. He…he still wasn't sure what he could do other than suffer. Slade wouldn't kill him, he'd hurt him. Push him psychologically, the most painful of the reasons why Dick had to tell Raven a-

~ Apprentice?~

Dick froze. He was…still watching.

"Sorry, sir. I'm trying to –

~ You shouldn't be on the ground. Why did you leave your post. Get back to that roof.~

"Sir, she's right –

~ Renegade. That's an order. Or need I remind you that Jason is not going to mind my taking you away from another fight? Don't do it.~ Slade huffed away, his voice a crackle of fire that Richard had every caution to.

~ Do not disobey again, and do not. Engage. Carry out the mission. Cone back after it's through.~

Dick ground his palm to the wall as he scaled a fire escape carefully, out of view, he saw Raven there, her eyes on the ground she was about to leap towards.

She stopped as the tap of feet were easy enough to tell that she was being spotted.

"Raven."

Dick didn't need to engage with her team. Sh –

Johnny laughed and shot off lasers as the two ducked down. Dick hid behind some part of the structure, while Kori landed to see to Raven's state. "Are you alright, friend Rachel??"

Rachel?

"Starfire…" She was doing it. Would she tell no one what she had heard. "I'm fine, sorry. Need to get back to the tower. My power is growing weak…"

"Oh, if you must, I shall alert Cyborg of your temporary ailments." Starfire nodded while Raven let herself breathe once the alien was gone.

"You're still here. Richard."

Rich…Dick cleared his throat. "Why did you cover for me, after what that Slade did?"

"He did that to a boy trying to find his one true home. You almost did, with us."

Dick…he went dry. She was really that…

"Jason knows. He, he's here to find me, I'm not that far off. He has plans and …Raven –

"I know about my father, about what Slade did to deceive us. Batman spoke to the Titans about the possibility of a prophecy. That I was the one Trigon needed to make that happen."

"What can we do? I can't get away. If I run –

"Trigon knows by now. But don't worry." Raven's eyes changed a bit, her smile a bit less likely fir her character. "Even if he does, he won't tell Slade. This is his amusement. It's what father always did."

Dick stepped back. Her cloak changed also to a blood red. "Raven??"

"I'm a child of Trigon, and due to the fact that he needs me to listen, I hear every word of this earth's imminent destruction!"

Johnny's laugh rung out as Raven's grin had the other teen sure that Slade had told the boy a flash story. Maybe he didn't know about this??

"Raven, I don't want to be on his team, I never did! You can't change. I …"

"Why not? You and I can be partners too." Raven let a hand to her hip as her skin changed a deep shade of red. The hair on her head was darker now. Like Trigon.

"No!"

"ROBIN!"

He gasped, the face now, wasn't the demon queen. It was, really Raven. Really the empath.

"I'm sorry, he's going to help Trigon! It's all my fault…" Dick curled up and gripped his hands to his skull as she cupped his face, his head on her legs as he'd fallen, that someone had to catch him. "Trigon tried to trick you, Richard. Starfire, she was-

"Don't. ..Jason does know. I went with Slade, to stop what I could."

"You're going to get yourself…" She stopped. "Let us try to do anything we can. You're never alone." She reassured her dear friend. "I know that it's scary. Trigon terrified me for a long time. Now, I am the only one that can stop him. That was what we always thought, due to the prophecy of my birth."

Richard sat up, Raven leaving him there as she let her cloak cover the rest of her frame. "It's ok." She said softly to the wind, it seemed. ~ I've recovered our bond. You can reach me now, Slade won't know. ~

Telepathy. Dick nodded. "Thank you…" He picked himself up in a crouch and soon, they were on their own. Woth Johnny at one end of the city limits, and one Renegade to the other, up in the forests just beyond the place bent to burn and turn to ash. Given the time, December. When the end would come to stop this time they had left to salvage.