Forced Bonds

Chapter 28

Gotham City
May 11, (2011) 23:55 EDT

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Raven looks around as she and Batman stand outside of a large tent. A racket is going on inside and several holes spill yellow light from inside the canvas. It takes Raven only a second to realize that they are at a fair ground.

"This must be Gotham."

"Correct," Batman nods. He reaches forward to grab the fold for the tent before pausing. A conflicted look crosses under his mask before he pushes it aside and opens the flap. Or at least, he tries to. His hand goes right through the material and his gauntlet  adopts a sort of transparent look. He quickly understands and doesn't need to ask why he isn't able to touch anything. It would've been beyond embarrassing if Batman had to ask such a question. Instead, he starts to explain: "This is where Robin's- Richard's parents fell. I took him as my ward and he eventually became Robin."

Raven nods, already knowing the basics of Robin's past. "So why are we here?"

"Two years ago, Robin was kidnapped by the Joker's goons and- Follow me," Batman fades through the partial opening of the tent and Raven follows. She raises a brow at the mass of villains in the stands. Who in their right minds would ever congregate this amount of baddies somewhere so public? It doesn't take long for her to remember that Joker is no where near his right mind. Bodies lay in bloody heaps in the dirt circus ring, but that doesn't deter the audience from screaming in approval.

"And for our next performance~"

Joker's voice rings through the tent and Raven looks up to see the clown standing on an elevated platform. "We have the Bat's favorite toy~" He pulls something up from the ground and hooks the chain to a stabilized trapeze bar. Though it was being held in place, one touch would send whatever was attached to it hurdling to the other side. Joker continues to talk, and at some point he rips the covering off the item of interest.

Robin.

Words catch in Raven's throat as she stares up at the boy's mutilated form. She feels her stomach churn violently with anger, surprise, and disgust until she finally just pukes. The vomit fades into the ground, as it is not part of the memory. Batman just clenches his jaw and stares.

"So on with the show."

BOOM.

Green Arrow enters and shoots at the clown who laughs and taunts him: "Well that wasn't very nice, now was it Greenie?"

In a matter of moments Joker is sent over the edge, taking Robin with him, and the tent floods with heroes.

"Noo!" A younger version of Artemis screams as her team mate fell a hair short of her grasp. Both the Joker and his prey fall. Raven wants to jump in and catch her comrade, but Batman had gripped her shoulder painfully. She knew he wasn't trying to hurt her, and she's not a stranger to the pain, but he needs someone by his side as he relives these memories. Besides, it's not like she could have changed anything anyway.

Raven is about to close her eyes when Robin nears the ground, but a blur of yellow catches him inches from certain death. "Robin!" Wally shouts. "Robin, oh man. Batman, I got him!"

"Get him to the Cave, we'll finish things here," Batman orders before delivering another series of attacks towards his oncoming opponents.

In the end, they make rescuing Robin a priority and he is out in a matter of moments after the initial ambush. Not bad, Raven thinks as she follows the speedster. It doesn't take them any effort at all. A wave of her hand and they are in the next part of the memory.

The Batcave.

To say the least- it was horrendous. Seeing her leader up close, this young and beaten, Raven is close to tears. Of course, she has to calm herself otherwise her powers would consume her and they would be stuck in Batman's memories forever in an unending cycle... Raven takes a deep breath and lets her emotions go.

Batman seems to be having a similar problem because his crushing hold only gets worse. Eventually they make it to Dick's room.

He is lain down, bandaged and several light drugs being pumped into his system to flush anything out. The old man was right about being careful of an overdose. The teen was uncharacteristically still.

"Something tells me that there is more to the story," Raven sighs. Batman gives his customary silence of approval. If he wasn't reliving this particular moment, he would be discussing marriage options with her. Do you like paranoid pains or caffeine addicts more?

"Robin has been captured and tortured several times over. He's been a vigilante since he was nine and the consequences are unavoidable. He handled it well- inspiring so. Even if he was hurt, even if the pain left him in shambles, he always smiled. Not once did he complain about the pain. The hardships. Robin was incredibly mature in that way.

"But something was different this time," Batman breaths, a pained look crosses his face. The other Batman hurriedly escapes the room, leaving the silently breathing Dick and two specters alone.

"What?"

The father bares his teeth and hisses, "We found evidence of sexual assault."

Raven freezes and stares at the Bat. Her face grows dark and the shadow of her hood covers her now glowing eyes. There is a long silence before Raven speaks up, but she just had to know:

"...Was it his first time?..."

Batman doesn't say anything right away, but the answer was obvious. Yes. "It broke his mental stability. It only took a week to tear down every defense he had against psychological attacks. He was religiously suicidal after his rescue, if only for a few hours. It was enough to make up my mind."

"Your mind? What did you decide?"

Batman doesn't look away from the boy on the bed. The muscles in his jaw tighten even more that any python would be proud.

"Robin wasn't going to fight anymore."

"And that's why he left?"

"No," Batman answers solemnly. "It's only one of the reasons he left. The whole is actually much worse."

Raven's blank expression twitches, but Batman doesn't notice. How could it be much worse? Getting beat up your entire life and then raped at the age of fifteen? It didn't seem like it could get much worse from there. But Raven knew full well that it could. Her father is Trigon for Pete's sake!

Yet, Raven knows that everything that's happened up till now can explain Robin's paranoia and trauma. But it doesn't explain why he wouldn't get any help for it. Raven remembers that somewhere in all of this, those wretched Young Justice members came into play. The cold feeling that Robin emitted when the bio ship landed on their roof.

Raven had said they would talk about it later. Her fists clenched.

"How much worse," Raven finally spits.

"Just wait and watch. You'll see..."