The Anti-Villain | Robin Love Story

Titans Together!

(C/C) = Costume Color
~Pet

~~~

The massive room sits in complete darkness, save for a single spotlight. That light gives off no warmth as it shines down on my skin, but the rest of the Brotherhood don't even seem to notice it. Several large screens behind me throws colors onto my body as it plays and replays the footage of all the Titans being defeated. The four of us stand on a platform that allows us to stare down at all the other villains. Each of them stares up at us like we're gods among men.

It makes me want to puke and cheer all at the same time.

"Patiently we watched you all, waiting for our moment to strike," The Brain starts and the room settles into anticipatory silence. His robotic voice sounds extra grating today. "You forged your alliance. You trusted without pause. And finally when you thought your world was safe, it fell apart before your very eyes.

"You are merely pawns in a game and you played your part perfectly. There is nowhere you can hide and there is nothing you can do to stop us. Each small victory brings us closer to an even greater prize. The elimination of an entire generation of heroes. And we owe it all to you, Robin."

A second spotlight flicks on with a boom, revealing the Boy Wonder. His hands are cuffed in front of him and he's sitting on his knees on the floor. He looks so small from up here but the scowl on his face is no less fierce. Towering over him from behind is a freeze ray with a conveyor belt leading up to it. Aqualad stands in a glass tube on the conveyor belt which stops right under the nozzle of the machine.

He presses his hands against the glass in a last desperate attempt to beg for a way out. But he's pleading to a room full of villains. Professor Chang throws a lever and the machine fires into the container. I try not to visibly wince as it shoots steam in. Once that dissipates Aqualad's skin is blue and his hair looks so brittle that if you breathed on it the strands would break off.

The desperation and fear on the teenage superhero's face is now permanent. As I stare at his heart wrenching expression my limbs feel heavy, like I've been sitting in ice water for so long that they've gone numb. My heart feels so weighted in my chest that it feels like it's try to drop out of my rib cage. The Brain continues on with his monologuing and with every word I feel worse. I know he's not talking about me but everything hits too close to home. "Your network has been crushed.

"Your friends have no way to communicate or follow your command. Together you may be formidable, but apart you are lost, powerless, mine." Speedy in another tube moves under the machine and he too gets frozen. "You will fall one by one. Who among you can possibly stop me now?"

I see Robin furrow his brows and bare his teeth in rage as he watches all the captured heroes get frozen one by one.

Rouge turns to me and I force a smile on my face.

"If you want to say goodbye, do it now," the French woman says.

~~~Robin's POV~~~

The glass container holding me fogs slightly from my breath as it moves along the conveyer belt. Menos gets frozen before me, then he gets moved onto the wall-filling display-case.

"Victory is at hand," The Brain says as he stares down at all the other villains in the room. "And for your part, a gift. I give you, Robin." He turns to look at me as my container moves under the nozzle and all the villains cheer.

"This isn't over!" I shout as I slam my hands onto the glass. It doesn't even so much as crack.

"For you it most certainly is." A figure dressed in (c/c) steps in front of me and my scowl deepens. A vice grips my heart inside my chest and all I can hear is my blood pumping in my ears. Hypno brings a hand up and tauntingly waves goodbye with a little smile. Of course it's not the first time I've seen that smile, but I guess it might be the last.