In This Fic: Robin Dies! (sorta)

by Genevieve

"Wondy! Steroidal goon, two o’clock!"

Wondergirl turned in time to see a hopped up thug dressed as a mime hurl himself towards her, a look of manic glee plastered on his face,

"Really," Sidestepping him, Wondergirl shook her head, clucking chidingly, "With all of that Venom in your system I’d have thought you could do better than that." She grinned as he spun, ready to charge her again. Before the mime got the chance, though, Wondergirl had him by the cuff of his jacket, raising her eyebrow, "Just," She began to spin, keeping her grip tight, "Pitiful." She let loose and the goon flew across the theater, hitting the opposite wall with a resounding thud.

Wondergirl rubbed her hands together, "Next!" Almost on cue another thug stepped out of the shadows, this one dressed as one of the three stooges. Joker may have a great deal of psychotic energy, she decided, but he certainly lacked creativity in the hired man area. She dispatched Mo as quickly as his mime pal and when no other clown popped up to take his place looked around for something else to do.

There wasn’t much left. Empress was tying up a few of the still-conscious bad guys, Superboy preened to a few teen girl former-hostages (someone had to help them through the trauma, he was heard to claim), Impulse and Secret were talking about, well, whatever Secret and Impulse could talk about and Robin was—waitaminute, where was Rob?

Wondergirl backtracked, Robin had called them in to help with the situation, with Batman out of town, the Joker with a good fifty hostages and a great deal of drugged men was a handful, even for the Boy Wonder. He’d met them at the theater, hung around long enough to give everyone their orders and had then taken off after the Big Clown himself.

Come to think of it, had she seen him at all since then?

"Hey, Imp!"

Impulse was standing to her right, head tilted, eyebrow raised, "Yeahwhatdoyouneed?"

"See if you can find Rob, willya?"

A blur, a brisk wind, and Impulse was standing on her left, looking pale and considerably less cheery. In fact, he almost looked sick. Wondergirl felt her stomach turn, "What is it?"

Impulse opened his mouth a few times, looking for the words.

"Spit it out, Impulse!"

The panic must have cracked her voice because Empress and Superboy were shooting her worried looks. Secret drifted over, "What is it?"

Impulse shook his head, for once in his life the words coming with reluctance, "Rob--in the back. He’s hurt real bad."

* * * * *

It was the understatement of a lifetime. Robin wasn’t just hurt real bad, he was lying on the ground, his limbs locked in rigor mortise, an insane grin warping his normally solemn face. He wasn’t breathing.

"My god."

The five stared at Robin in shock and amazement. Bart shook, Cassie fought the sudden urge to burst into tears, Anita had her hand over her mouth. Kon was the first to move to his friend’s side, checking his pulse, "Rob, hey Rob, don’t be dead man." His voice cracked.

"It’s too late." Secret’s voice was hollow, echoing throughout the theater with a strange resonance, "He’s gone."

"But, but," Impulse shook his head, "He can’t be dead! He can’t!"

"Someone should call an ambulance or something, take him to the hospital!"

"But what about his secret identity?!"

"Who cares about his stinking secret identity!" Wondergirl strode forward and ripped off Rob’s mask, shuddering as she looked into his blank blue eyes, "My god, our friend is dying!"

"Dead." That was Secret again, with a sort of forlorn certainty, "He’s already dead and gone. There’s nothing we can do."

Her pronouncement was met with a shocked silence as each tried to come to grips with what happened.

"No." Wondergirl shook her head, "No." Her voice became more definite, more assured, "I think there is." She looked up, pinning Secret with her gaze.

"Wondy," Superboy’s tone was soft, he moved over and put his arm on her shoulder, "If Secret says he’s dead, then he’s dead. There’s not much—"

"But that’s just it, isn’t it? Secret would know, wouldn’t she?" Wondergirl shrugged the arm off and moved away. Suddenly, everyone was looking at Secret, who shifted uncomfortably under their stares, "What do you mean?"

"We’ve seen what you do, Secret, I have at least. You show people the Abyss, whatever that is, you can make them go back!"

"So?"

"So, if you can push people into the Abyss, it only follows that you can take them out again!"

"I don’t know if I can … if I can do that. It might not be allowed."

"What do you mean ‘not allowed’? Since when has someone made any rules about this sort of thing? Come on, Suze, put it together, you’re a gate! Some rules were made to be broken and you might be able to do it, you’ve said it yourself enough times, you really don’t know what all of your powers are!"

"I don’t understand," Superboy broke in, "You want Secret to bring Rob back from the dead?"

"If she can. Can you Secret?"

Secret looked pensively at Robin, feeling her heart twist. Robin had been special to her. She had always admired him, a person who always seemed to know with certainty who he was and what he was going to do next, someone who, despite his urban legend status, was one hundred percent rooted in the real world. Her foil.

How can you know you can’t do something unless you try it? You’ve got to test your powers to find out what they are, he’d told her once, be brave.

"I’ve never actually been in the actual Abyss, or maybe I am the Abyss. But I’m afraid if I go back I’ll be swallowed back up, taken to wherever Rob is now, only I won’t be able to get out."

"But you might be able to bring him back." Impulse gave her a look of hope, "Right?"

"Not me," Secret hoped they couldn’t hear the waver in her voice, "But maybe you guys could."

"Should we do it, though?" Empress coughed, new to the group, she was still unsure of how she stood in the pecking order of things, "Is it really our only option?"

"Do you want to be the one to tell Batman his partner’s dead?" Superboy asked dryly, when no one answered he nodded curtly, "Then it’s settled."

"What’s settled?" Empress massaged her temple, Superboy snorted and shot her a look, "We just don’t take this sitting down. We do our best to-to-"

"Bring Rob back." Wondergirl supplied solemnly

Secret looked around anxiously, wondering how things had progressed so quickly. One second, they were doing every day beat the badguy stuff, the next they were talking about venturing into the afterlife, "Do you realize what this means?"

Impulse shook his head, "Not really. But if it means getting Rob back—"

"What she’s saying we’re going to have to go into the Abyss ourselves if we want him back. And once we’re there, even she’s not sure of what will happen, or if we’ll come out." Suzie nodded at Empress’s declaration, "Exactly. I may be a gate, but it’s possible it’s only one way. Do you want to do that?"

Superboy was the first to make up his mind, "I’ll go." Wondergirl muttered something to herself, "Well, seeing as how I was the one to suggest it, I’m in too."

"Me too." Bart chimed in, sounding nervous but certain. Secret nodded. The four original members looked at Empress, who stood silently. After a moment she sighed, "My mind tells me this is a bad idea, my instincts tell me, well, the same thing, but I’ll be damned if Robin wasn’t a cool guy, and I did make a pledge—"

"Your point?" Wondergirl could have kicked Superboy, didn’t he know a poetic statement when he heard it? Or an attempt at a poetic statement? Empress shrugged, "Where my team goeth, there goeth I."

"Fine." Secret began to dissipate, "The longer we wait, the deeper he sinks. Remember that, everyone, the longer you take, the harder it will be to return." Her voice became lower as her form disappeared, and all they could see was smoke, a dense smoke filling the room, "Here’s to hoping that this isn’t the last of us."

The world went black.

* * * * *

"Ok, now this is a gyp." Glowering to the world at large, Superboy faced his companions, "Is it just me, or does this look just like normal every day Gotham?"

The four blinked as they emerged from the dark theater into the bright sunlight. They looked around at a world nearly identical to the one they had just left. Superboy began to get the feeling that Secret had just conned them all, forcing them to pass out until daybreak. Yet both she and Robin’s body had been gone.

"But there’s something—different. I can feel it." As a man passed by, looking at them curiously, Wondergirl felt something inside of her recoil. She instinctively drew closer to the rest of the team and they stood like that for a moment, huddled together despite the warmth, unable to escape the heavy feeling of—what, exactly? It was almost as if they didn’t fit into this world, somehow, as if the whole being of the universe didn’t mesh with them, and wanted them out. Even Impulse was still, peering around with eyes like saucers.

"Guys," voice cracking, Empress took a step forward, "Time’s a wasting."

Her matter of fact words brought everyone to their senses. Superboy leapt away from the group, clearing his throat and trying to hide his embarrassment, "Right. We need to find Rob, pronto, and drag him back."

"’KI’llgethimnowguys!Seeyou—"

Before anyone had a chance to protest Impulse had left in a blur. Wondergirl sighed, "Great. What do we do now?"

"Idunno!" Impulse reappeared, eyes wide, nose wrinkled in bafflement, "Ilookedeverywherebuthe’snowhere!"

"Wait, slow down. You’re saying you couldn’t find Robin?"

Impulse nodded rapidly, "He’s gone!"

"So we came here for no reason!" Superboy said, landing with a thump, "If Rob’s not really here—"

"Hold on." Wondergirl interrupted, "Let’s look around a little."

"But this place is giving me the creeps"

"So you’re going to give up, just like that?"

"Well…sorry."

"She’s right. Maybe we should investigate a little before we leave, find out why this place is different. Maybe there’ll be a reason, which will give us a clue to where Robin is."

"Speaking of which," Superboy eyed Empress, "You’re sounding more like him every day. All right, let’s go."

For a good hour Young Justice toured the streets of Gotham (Impulse taking the liberty of searching the entire world) looking for their friend or at least a clue of him. They found little new, just the instinctive and increasing feeling of wrongness. The assurance that this was, actually, the Abyss Secret talked about came when Superboy recognized, to his horror, an old friend who had just happened to be dead for three years.

It took them five minutes to talk him back into sense, as he shook his head, "No way, no way!" It took them another twenty minutes to convince him not to go in search of Tana, "It’s been too long!" Wondergirl proclaimed, "You heard what Secret said! Besides, we don’t know how this works. What if she came back to life in her coffin, her body all yick and decomposing?"

Finally, with everyone a great deal more disturbed and Superboy in a sulky silence, they set off again. It was Impulse who first realized what was different, appearing to shake a newspaper at the others.

"Thisplaceisbunk!Whatkindofpaperdoesn’tfeaturetheFlash!ThenIlookedandthereisnoFlash!ThereshoudlbeaFlash!"

"But Imp, Flash is alive."

Impulse shook his head rapidly, his hair becoming a blur, "Not every Flash. Not my grandpa. He should BE here!"

Something clicked in Wondergirl’s head, "Impulse, may I see that paper?" Grudgingly, Impulse handed it over. Wondergirl flipped through the entire thing twice, "Any others?" Impulse sighed and a pile of papers was at her feet. Wondergirl quickly went through them all. Finally, she stood up, "Guys? Notice anything weird about these?"

The others knelt, rifling through the papers. Empress sat back, rubbing her chin, "Where are all the superheroes?"

Wondergirl snapped her fingers, "Exactly! None, no where! And if every dead person comes here, then it only stands to reason that superheroes do, too."

"So where are they? No Flash, no Robin, no Green Lantern."

"Yeah," Superboy said, pulling up a paper, "But look at this; today, Barry Allen assisted with the building of homes in the South Pacific that were destroyed in a recent storm. Due to his incredible abilities, Allen was able to have the homes built and ready for finish work in the matter of days. Locals were thankful for his assistance."

Impulse snatched the paper away, looking at the picture, "That’s my grandpa, all right!" Superboy frowned thoughtfully, "Imp, when you said you went looking for Robin, did you look for Robin, or for Robin?"

"Um… I don’t follow."

"Did you look for Robin, or Robin?"

"Hunh? ‘Course I looked for Robin."

Superboy groaned and Wondergirl took the moment to step in, "Did you look for costume hero Robin or normal person Robin?"

Impulse coughed, turning red, "Erm…"

"I guess that settles that, then." Empress said, "He’s here. He’s just not Robin. Did any of you guys know, well, his real name?"

Superboy, Wondergirl, and Impulse exchanged looks. Once more, Empress felt the sharp pang of exclusion. Quickly, she dismissed it. Superboy cleared his throat, "Well, he told us his name was Al."

"Yeah, but I never bought it. I think he was just trying to keep us quiet." Wondergirl frowned, "He was tired of us pestering him. I don’t think the Bat would ever let him tell us his real name."

"Which brings us back to square one, with time running out."

No one had to ask what Empress what she was talking about, even if Secret hadn’t warned them, they all felt it. A sort of ripping feeling, as if one part was being separated from another somehow, slowly but surely. And no one wanted to be around when it came all of the way undone.

"Not exactly," Superboy said, "We still have Impy here. And while we may not know wonder boy’s name, we did see his face. Imp?"

Imp was grinning, "Wayahead,ofyouSupes!Followme!"

And they were off.

* * * * *

Secret watched the bodies of her teammates with growing concern. It had taken nearly everything she had in order to keep them concealed from the police and detectives, and she worried that it would be in vain. She hovered, aware, but nothing else, gathering her strength and fretting anxiously. Not about them, she had great faith in her teammates, no; it wasn’t their failure she worried about, but her own.

Please, she prayed, please let them be right in trusting me.

* * * * *

The house was rather ordinary. Two stories, white picket fence, mailbox on a post, dog. Dead dog, Superboy corrected himself, probably buried in a flower patch somewhere in the real world.

"This is it guys." Impulse bent to pet the dog, which wagged his tail excitedly, "I haven’t said anything to him yet, but he’s in there."

Superboy led the way up the walkway, pausing to look at the mat beneath his feat, welcome. I sure hope so, he thought, reaching forward and knocking on the door.

"May I help you?" The woman who answered the door looked vaguely familiar, but he, like every other person they had met here, regarded them with hardly withheld curiosity, "You don’t belong here, do you?"

Deciding to take a shot in the dark, Empress took a step forward, clearing her throat, "Could we speak with your son, please?"

The woman’s eyes narrowed, "My son just arrived—"

"Please. It’s important." Inconspicuously, Empress wedged her foot in the door. The others tensed in case they had to force their way in.

Thankfully, they didn’t have to. Though she regarded them suspiciously, the woman stepped aside, holding the door open, "He’s in his room, at the top of the stairs."

And that’s where they found him, sitting on his bed reading a book. Robin/Al looked up with surprise as they entered, throwing the book down. Wondergirl read the title, Advanced Physics of Subatomic Particles, she snorted, "That’s Rob all right."

Robin stood up, "What are you guys doing here?"

Superboy grinned cockily, "What does it look like we’re doing?"

"Joker killed you too?"

"No!" Impulse paled, "We came to bring you back!"

Robin raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me? How?"

"Secret." Wondergirl offered as an explanation, "She’s a gate you know."

His brow furrowed, "Interesting. Very interesting."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know. Life and death, it’s all very spooky. Are you ready? This place is too—whacked—for me, I’m ready to ditch."

Robin regarded his friends levelly, wondering how he was going to tell them what he had to tell them. In their minds, he hadn’t been gone very long. Time, however, was relative, and to Robin, his time away from the real world seemed much longer. He shook his head, "No. You guys go back. I should stay here."

"WHAT?!" Robin’s teammates stared at him with shock.

"You can’t be serious." Superboy said, shaking his head, "Not after we’ve come all this way."

Robin sat down, "I am. Guys, do you know who that is downstairs?"

They looked at each other awkwardly, "Your mom?" Impulse supplied hopefully. Robin nodded slowly, "Yes, and...?" The room was quiet as they once more exchanged embarrassed looks. Superboy coughed. Empress smacked her head, suddenly realizing what he was trying to tell them, "She’s been dead, guys."

"Right." Robin said grimly, "And I haven’t seen her in a long time. I don’t know if I could say good bye again, she needs me."

Wondergirl could hardly believe what she was hearing, Robin sounded like he was giving up! Robin never gave up! She searched desperately for a way to convince him, "What about Batman? He needs you, doesn’t he? What will happen, now that he’s lost a second Robin? He’ll go off the deep end, Rob, and you know it!"

Robin frowned, "I can’t help that."

"And what about us? You’re our leader, you’re the detective!"

"You’ll manage without me. Come on, guys, it’s not like I had a superpower or anything. It won’t make that much of a difference."

"Listen to yourself, Rob! This isn’t like you."

"How would you know, Kon? You never really knew me! None of you did. I was the serious one, the one who gave orders. Young Batman. Did you ever stop to think that maybe I had a family? Hobbies? A girlfriend."

Shock sank slowly into the group. This was not the Robin they knew, this was someone different. Something had happened.

"You never said anything—"

"Because I couldn’t. It was all about the secret identity, keeping things safe. And for what?! So I could turn a corner and get a mouth full of Joker toxin? So I could die backstage in some third-rate comedy club. And who’ll know, anyway? Robin will disappear until some other idiot kid decides to give it a whirl, and me, the real me, will die, forgotten. No one will ever know what I did! Here, I might finally get back something I lost, something I never even knew I’d given up on, a normal life."

"You call this a life?!" Empress surprised even herself with the outburst. She’d planned to keep quiet, stay in her place, and let the original team members handle it. She’d planned wrong, "This isn’t life, this is an imitation of life! A mock-up! If you want to live this pseudo-happy garbage, though, fine, be my guest. But I’m risking my life here, so you can hear me out." Superboy and Wondergirl gave her startled looks, but said nothing, Empress went on, "I’ve always admired you guys. I loved Superboy’s confidence, Wondergirl’s realness, Impulse’s sense of humor, but then there was you, a living legend. But you’re more than a legend, Robin, you’re human. No metagene, no bolt of radioactive lightning, just you. Don’t you realize how that sets you apart? You’re living proof that a normal person, a normal kid can accomplish anything they want to. You’ve saved hundreds of lives, you’ve been a role model for millions, and you even inspired me. You say that people will never know who really did it, but who cares? Who says that your alter ego can’t make just as big of an impact as Robin? And what about those people you would have saved if you were alive? What about what they could have achieved? What about their families? If you don’t come back, all that work you’ve done, all of the progress you’ve achieved, but most importantly, everything you could have achieved, it’ll all be lost." Empress placed her hands on her hips, glaring, "And I don’t know about you, but a hero, a real hero, wouldn’t stand by and let that happen. Why do you think I cam to this godforsaken world in the first place?"

Robin was silent, staring at the floor. Empress turned to the others, "Come on guys. It’s obvious the costume wasn’t all he lost." She marched out the door. Casting dubious looks, the others followed her. Tim sighed and reached for the book. After a moment he put it back down, who had he been kidding anyway, a normal life? He was Robin, trying to deny that was like trying to deny the color of his eyes.

Besides, he grinned, it was one lucky guy who had friends that would venture into the Abyss itself to get him.

* * * * *

"So, I trust you have a plan?"

Young Justice, reunited, was once more standing back stage in the Gotham Lots O’ Laffs theater. Wondergirl cleared her throat, "Um, not really."

"That was always your territory, Rob." Superboy shrugged, "But we can improvise."

"Well, I’ve been thinking about it, and it seems to me that since you guys aren’t really dead, you should still have a link to the living world."

Though no one knew how long that would last, Superboy thought. Sensing his thoughts, Robin raised an eyebrow and went on, "I however, don’t. But if Secret is a gate…"

"Then maybe when she brings us back, she can bring you, too!" Impulse shot out excitedly, vibrating with his effort to stay in place.

Wondergirl raised an eyebrow, "It’s worth a try."

"As long as we don’t all have to hold hands and wish to go home!" Superboy chuckled. Met with blank stares he let out a groan, "Don’t tell me we have to hold hands and wish to go home."

"It just might work."

* * * * *

Secret, we’re ready

* * * * *

Superboy was the first to come too, finding himself blinking up at the rafters and lights of the real world, "Did it work?" She smiled and drifted away. He turned to see Wondergirl sitting up, "I’m alive? I’m alive!"

Impulse leapt to his feet, "ThatwasWEIRDman!IsRobalive?"

Empress sat up, holding her head, "Tell me about it." She looked over at the others, "What about our friend?"

Secret hovered over them all, wringing her hands, "You woke up! I can’t believe it! I’m so happy!"

Wondergirl cleared her throat, "What about Robin?

At that moment there was a loud gasp and a coughing noise, they turned to see Robin bring a shaky arm up to his face, "Good lord. Please, guys, don’t ever, ever, ever ask me to do that again."

Young Justice--with the exception of the recovering Robin—let out a ragged cheer. Impulse left and returned with a bouquet of balloons, Superboy sat Robin up and began clapping him on the back, Secret solidified to plant a feathery kiss on his cheek and Wondergirl and Empress sat back, grinning.

"I can’t believe," Wondergirl said, "that we did it!"

"Really?" Empress smiled smugly, "I can."

Robin laughed.