The Last One (young justice/robin)

32. reunion

    "Lot on my mind."

    "Like what?"

    "The team... You."

    "So, I'm the one keeping you up?"

    I laughed for a moment, before my smile disappeared again. "You're the only thing keeping me going."

    He stopped for a moment. "You keep me going, too."

Mount Justice
March 21, 17:41 EDT

    "Forget I asked," Jaime snapped me back to reality.

    "So why is this here?" Bart questioned. "I mean it's pretty and everything, but these people are heroes. In the line of duty and all that. They should have giant statues, big crashing memorials in the Hall of Justice or something."

    "Yeah, I asked that too," Jaime sighed. "Captain Atom said the League doesn't want or need a public shrine to its fallen."

    Tim and I still had our backs turned, looking up at Jason. "Or they just don't want to advertise that we're not immortal," I suggested.

    "I thought the same thing," Jaime agreed. "The handful of regular people who've seen me in action think I'm this guy in a new costume. The world will never know about Ted Kord's sacrifice."

    "But you know," Bart said. "And you're carrying on the grand Blue Beetle heroic tradition, right?"

    "I wish! It's such a total rip. Superboy has Superman. Wonder Girl has Iris and Wonder Woman. Robin has Batman, Nightwing, and Batgirl. You've been in this era, like what, five minutes? And already you have three Flash mentors, one who feeds you junk food. But me? I never even got the chance to meet the guy who should have been my mentor."

    "I didn't have a mentor until I came here," I reassured Jaime. "Most of what I've learned about my powers had to come naturally. Maybe it'll be the same for you."

    "Heh, I hear that beautiful. You know, we have more in common than you might think," he told Jaime. "Our love of Chicken Whizees for example. Let me buy you some to replace the bag I salvaged. We'll hang. It'll be totally crash."

    Bart dragged Jaime out with him. "Uh, sure."

    Tim and I stayed there for another minute, watching.

    "What was he like?" Tim broke our silence.

    "Angry. Stubborn," I listed. "But there was also a soft side of him that he hid away."

    "What about Nightwing? What was he like when he was still Robin?"

    "The exact opposite," I smiled to myself, thinking back to the boy I met six years ago. "Going on missions was like a game for him. He loved it. He was understanding and caring..."

    Tim had this look on his face.

    "What?"

    "Nothing," his head shook. "He still loves it now, though, right? Going on missions?"

    It's so much more complicated than that—in about a hundred ways I'm not allowed to share, "Of course he does."

Dakota City
March 21, 18:17 CDT

    "You look great," Z met me at the zeta entrance with a grin. "You have the gift?"

    I waved the bag around. "Bit of an awkward trip to the mall, you know."

    She laughed, but couldn't help faltering, "I-I wish she could attend."

    Guiltily, I pulled her into a hug; comforting her in the way I'd done since we were kids. "Me too."