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As Robin left the med room, Raven couldn’t help but stare after him. Even the interruption of Beast Boy’s sneezes couldn’t fully distract her. Slade was one thing, but she had gone inside Robin’s mind. She saw memories and felt his hurts. Robin had more than Slade weighing him down, and she was worried about him.
She excused herself to her room to meditate to try to clear up her own confusion. The others didn’t stop her. The past few days were trying for everyone. She hovered above her bed, letting her mind peacefully drift. She found herself walking toward a giant ladder with a woman holding her hand. The woman was pretty by usual standards with honey blonde hair and deep blue eyes. Her smile was sweet and genuine as she hoisted Raven up onto the ladder and started climbing behind her. Once at the top, another person held out his hand to help Raven up to the platform. The man had dark ebony hair and light blue eyes. He looked familiar. A lot like someone she called friend.
Once they were all on the platform both the people beside her looked down to her. Either they were very tall, she was very short, or she was much younger than them. Raven just noticed the crowd of people watching them and a bolt of nervous energy went straight through her. Nervous– and excited. Raven suddenly felt joy at being in the spotlight. Even though she knew logically that she didn’t like crowds or having people stare at her, this version of her loved every second of the crowd cheering for her and her family.
Family– Even though it had not been stated, Raven instinctively knew this woman beside her in her vision was her mother, and the man was her father. A regular human. That’s wrong. Her father is a demon, but even as that thought registered, it flitted away as she mimicked her parents and waved to the crowd.
“Don’t be scared,” her mother said as she stooped down to her level. The woman spoke with an accent that Raven didn’t immediately recognize. “I know that this is the largest crowd we have ever performed for, but Mr. Wayne’s fundraiser brings out people from all around. This is big for Mr. Haley, so we will put on a show they won’t soon forget, hmm?”
Raven responded, but the voice didn’t sound like her. The voice was small, that of a young child. The words she spoke were not English, and Raven pulled from her knowledge of different languages and seemed to stick with Romani. Raven was unsure what she said in response to her mother, but the woman smiled, stood, and said, “Tonight we soar, my little robin.” Then her father grabbed a trapeze above him before jumping off the platform.
He swung, somersaulted and landed with one hand. The crowd oohed and ahed as he hooked his knees on the swing and swung forward. Then it was Raven’s turn. She should have been scared. She should have screamed, but instead the feeling of the air whooshing past her exhilarated her. She soared down to meet her father. She let go and flipped three times before he grabbed her arms, and Raven felt herself laugh at the pure joy flying gave her. Then her dad swung her back up and she grabbed the original trapeze to swing back to the platform while putting as much flourish as she could into her flips and turns before landing again.
Then it was her mother’s turn. No sooner had she jumped off than Raven noticed the frayed rope of the trapeze her father was on. “No!” Raven called out as her mother grabbed her father’s forearms. Just as they were about to swing up again, the rope snapped. The faces of the people as they fell. Her mother was calling her name, but the ringing in her ears was too loud to hear it.
“No!” Raven called out again, coming out of her meditation and crashing onto her mattress. She had seen that place before. She had seen those people fall before when she was in Robin’s head.
Raven jumped off her bed and ran to Robin’s room, but once there, she was nervous. What could she say? “I saw your parents die so I came here to see you.” That was beyond weird. “I entered your head while you were fighting fake Slade and now can’t stop thinking about your dead parents.” That was weirder.
Raven almost left, but the intense devastation she had felt when she saw the people fall had her knocking before she changed her mind.
Robin came to the door. His domino still in place but his Robin uniform now missing. Instead, he wore some sweatpants and no shirt. For the first time, Raven saw the extent of the damage the fake Slade had inflicted on Robin, and there’s no way Robin would have been able to inflict those wounds on himself. Slade may have been in Robin’s head, but the injuries were not.
“Something wrong, Raven?” Robin asked as he looked past her.
“We need to talk,” Raven said abruptly.
Robin still had one eye swollen, but she could see the curiosity in his other eye, even through the mask. “OK, well, do you want to come in here or somewhere else?”
Raven realized at that moment that she had never actually seen Robin’s room. The thought of invading his private space seemed too personal, but since she had just invaded his mind, his personal space seemed less private. Still, it should be his decision. “Whatever is most comfortable for you,” Raven responded.
“Just a minute,” Robin said before shutting the door. Raven waited, and just when she thought he wasn’t coming back, he opened the door. “Come on in,” he said. Raven noticed he was now wearing a superman t-shirt. It was almost comical seeing him wear normal clothes, especially a Superman shirt.
Raven floated past him into his room. She wasn’t sure what she expected, but it was a normal room. Some clothes were strewn about, but it wasn’t nearly as messy as Beast Boy’s. There were a few gadgets laying about and tools that Robin was using to tinker on them, but there was nothing close to Cyborg’s room. Raven noticed a few pictures were laying down as if Robin had pushed them over to prevent her from seeing them. Robin, the most secretive of their group, and she knew something about him. Would he feel betrayed when she told him?
“I can help you heal some of those,” Raven said as she turned back to him and pointed at his scrapes and bruises. “I can’t get rid of all of them, but it should help.”
“Yeah, I was going to ask later, but I hadn’t slept much lately so I was going to get some shut-eye first.”
“Oh,” Raven said, suddenly nervous. Of course he had come back to his room to rest. He had just been through an ordeal. They had told him to go back to his room. She had one meditation, and she had to go running to him when it could have waited. “Sorry, I forgot. I’ll let you get some rest and we can talk later.”
“No, Raven,” Robin stopped her before she made it to the door. “I haven’t been able to sleep much anyway. I’m tired, it’s just–”
Raven then noticed all the lamps he had on in his room. “You’re afraid if you go to sleep, he’ll come back.” It wasn’t a question.
“I know it’s stupid, but he was inside my head. How can I be sure he really is gone?”
Raven bit her lip before saying, “He wasn’t the only one in your head. I was there, too.”
Robin looked quizzically at Raven. “You were there, too? I wasn’t sure if I was remembering that right.”
“Yes, Robin. I was trying to help you. I was trying to calm you.”
“Yeah, thanks, Raven.” Robin ran a hand through his mussed hair.
“I saw something else there besides Slade though,” Raven continued.
Robin sat on the edge of his bed as he continued to stare at her. “Like what?” Robin asked.
“Like, a cave. It was cold and dark. It felt, I don’t know. Heavy. It felt heavy.”
Robin breathed out deeply. “That was undoubtedly where I lived before coming here. Is that all?”
“No, there were two people.” Raven took a breath. “They were falling.”
Robin’s breath hitched. “Ok,” Robin replied, unsure what else to say.
“Then I just meditated, but it wasn’t my normal meditation. Instead, I saw the two people again. I saw more than I did before. I know who they were. I saw them fall from your eyes.”
Robin took another deep breath. “So you know about my parents?”
“Yes, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to see it, it just happened.”
Robin gave her a soft smile. “I know, Raven. You wouldn’t pry like that. I guess I have been thinking about them with this Slade stuff.”
“Do you want to, I don’t know, talk about it? I’m not great with the whole emotions stuff, but I can still listen.”
Robin chuckled. “Not much to say. My parents died. I was adopted by someone who was overbearing but well-meaning most of the time. Then I came here. It’s just when Slade was keeping me under his control, he made a statement about how he would be my father, and I’ve already had two dads. One of which is still very much alive. So when I see Slade, I think about that.”
Robin shrugged as an alarm sounded from beside his bed. It sounded like a communicator, but the tone was different from a Titan com unit. “I should get that,” Robin said as he leaned over and grabbed a round, black com unit.
“Robin?” a British voice sounded over the line.
“Not alone right now, Agent A.”
“Understood. The master was worried. Your heart rate and adrenaline spiked to dangerous levels. He wanted to call himself, but was afraid you would not accept his call.”
“I wouldn’t have answered. I really don’t feel like arguing right now, and I see he still has a tracker on me.”
“Yes, Master Robin. Should I tell him that you are well now?”
“Tell him what you want.”
“Very well. And young sir, I was concerned as well.”
Raven noticed the small smile on Robin’s face. “Sorry, A. I am fine now.”
“That is good to hear. I say he was getting close to calling Leslie and flying her out to you.”
Robin laughed. “No need. I’m good.”
“Good to hear. Next check in in two weeks. Sooner if needed. Agreed?”
Robin sighed. “Sure. You, not him though.”
“Of course. I wish you would come back to visit. I would make chocolate chip cookies for you.”
“He doesn’t want me there, but you can send the cookies. I’m sure Beast Boy and Cyborg would enjoy them too.”
“Of course, Master Robin.”
Then the com disengaged and Robin put it back on his bedside table. “So, who was that?” Raven asked anxiously. About halfway through the conversation, she thought about leaving, but curiosity kept her rooted.
“My old boss’s butler.” Raven thought there was more to it than that, but she wasn’t going to press. “So, now you know about my parents and have heard me talking to Agent A. What’s next? Remove my mask?”
“Well, it would be easier to heal your eye without it,” Robin looked shocked at the suggestion, “but I can still do it with the mask there. Don’t worry, Robin. I’ve invaded your privacy enough.”
Robin nodded. “Thanks, Raven.” Raven moved to heal him and as the energy pulsed through her hands, targeting the scrapes and bruises as well as a few cracked ribs, Robin said, “Don’t worry about me, okay. My parents, yeah, it hurts, but that was a long time ago. And as for the cave, I have some good memories there. Bad ones too, but that can be said for anywhere if you’re there long enough. Believe it or not, talking to Agent A is a good thing. I hadn’t heard from him in so long, but when Slade had me fight you at,” Robin’s voice hitched slightly, but Raven wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t been paying careful attention while healing him, “Wayne Enterprises, my old boss got in touch. That was not a fun conversation, but Agent A intervened, and since then I’ve been checking in periodically.”
“Your old boss is Batman, correct?” Raven asked as she stood back and looked. Most of the scrapes had healed up and a lot of the bruising was gone. The ribs would still be sore, but the fractures were mended.
Robin smirked. “Yeah, good old Bats.”
Raven nodded. “So he keeps a tracker on you?”
“It’s probably in all of my suits, though with him I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t implant one inside me somewhere.”
“Sounds caring and paranoid.”
“I did say overbearing but well-meaning.”
Raven raised an eyebrow. “You said that about your adoptive father. Are you saying Batman adopted you?”
Robin put his hands over his face. “Well, damn. You’ve gotten something else out of me. Don’t go tell the others.”
Raven almost smiled. “I won’t. After all, now that I’ve been inside your mind, we have a special bond.”
Robin put his hands down and smiled at Raven. “A special bond. Sure. Thanks again, Raven. You know, I think I’m finally ready to sleep.”
Raven nodded as she glided toward the door. “One more thing, how did you get rid of your accent?”
Robin laughed. “If people heard me speak with the same accent as a civilian and as a hero, I would be pretty easy to pick out, especially in Gotham. Part of my training was losing anything that made me identifiable, including my accent. So now, general American it is.”
Raven nodded again. “I’ll be sure to keep the lights on in the hallway and the bathroom. No dark tonight.”
Robin’s grateful grin was all Raven needed before leaving.