"Hey! Get it off!" Kid Flash yelled as a small monkey jumped on his shoulder, climbed around on him for a moment, before leaping onto Garfield's shoulder. Except now, the monkey was clutching a prize: Kid Flash's protein bar.
Garfield laughed a painfully familiar laugh, "It's okay." He told them, "Meet Monkey." Monkey took a bite of the protein bar, causing Kid Flash to glare at him.
"Good name," Says the guy who named a wolf "Wolf", "but I hate monkeys." Superboy told him disapprovingly.
Monkey, sensing the insult, tossed the protein bar which hit the Boy of Steel in the forehead. Superboy glared and growled at the monkey, which screeched back at him.
"Looks like Monkey hates Superboys." Kid Flash commented, a smirk on his face, "But Dude - just be glad he only threw a protein bar."
"Hmph." Superboy simply crossed his arms and looked away in response. Garfield took that as a sign that the conversation was over and he continued to lead them into the house.
He glanced around the living room, and sat down on a chair closer to the door and farther away from Garfield. Kid Flash set next to him, while Superboy just stood in the middle of the room, facing the boy at the front.
"So," Garfield started conversationally, "pretty weird about Miss Martian and my mom, huh?"
"What do you mean?" Superboy asked, slightly confused. He noted how the clone immediately stopped pouting and perked up at the mention of the martian girl. Could he be anymore obvious?
"I mean she looks exactly like Marie." He pointed out, and he inwardly nodded, slightly surprised Garfield had noticed it before Kid Flash or Superboy. He always was observant. He thought, a small pain shooting through him. "You know, except greener."
"She does?" Kid Flash asked, his face lighting up in realization.
"Well duh, especially back when mom was a TV star on Hello, Megan! "
And the mystery continues.
"Wait, 'Hello Megan' is a TV show?" Kid Flash asked.
"I just thought it was something she said all the time." He remarked, the words coming out of his mouth of their own accord. With Garfield there, a reminder of a life that was never lived, he found it easier to open up, as if he was back in the simulation.
Maybe this won't be such a bad mission after all.
...I probably just jinxed it.
"Yeah, on the TV show. Way before we were born. Only one season. You can't even find it online ." Garfield informed him, saying that last fact with disbelief. The boy turned and began having a staring contest with the cabinet underneath the television. "I know mom has a tape somewhere." he mused quietly.
As the boy began digging through the old tapes, dust flying upward. He heard Kid Flash mutter to Superboy about something, but he ignored it. Instead, he watched his old (would it be old, if it never actually happened?) teammate deep in thought.
Didn't Beast Boy get his powers when he got sick of some deadly animal disease? And his mom injected him with animal DNA because the cure was fatal to humans, thus giving him his powers.
And here he is on an animal sanctuary...
"Hello, Megan!: The Pilot Episode." He heard Garfield read triumphantly, and he looked up to see Garfield blowing the thick layer of dust off of the tape before inserting it into the VHS player.
"Woah," Kid Flash looked at the piece of equipment, "You still have VHS. Where's your 8-Track?" He remarked jokingly.
Just as the copyright information began to play, Superboy turned suddenly. "Wait. Aircraft; headed this way."
Superboy ran towards the door, with Kid Flash behind him.
He stood, "Gar, stay put." He ordered, flinching inwardly when he used the boy's old nickname before moving to follow his teammates. He paused in the doorway, a thought occurring to him as he looked back at the eight year old.
Beast Boy never followed orders in the beginning.
He cursed underneath his breath as he rushed towards the younger boy just as he exclaimed, "The animals! We have to get them out."
"I'll do that." He assured the boy, knowing that if he didn't, the eight year old would. "Where are the animals?"
"Follow me." Garfield began running towards the back door, but he caught the boy's shoulder and gently turned him back around so they were facing each other once more.
" Tell me where." He expanded on his previous statement.
"The barn." Gunfire sounded from outside. He cursed inwardly once more.
"Okay." He said, thinking quickly before unclasping his cape, "If you stay here, you can keep this." He told Garfield, whose face lit up as he handed the cape over.
"I'll stay! Promise!" The boy nodded eagerly and he smirked slightly on the inside.
Bribery. Always works. He mused as he turned and opened the door.
He ran towards the barn, managing to open up the door to let all the animals run out without being shot.
Easy.
He began to run back towards the house.
That was when the barn exploded.
It was thankful that he was a fast runner, being the protégé of Batman (he would never get used to the sound of that. Batman was dead), so he managed to get a safe enough distance away that the actual blast only knocked the breath out of him. He hissed as a shard of wood embedded itself in his leg, and another in his back.
Taking a deep breath and blocking out the sounds of explosions, gunfire, and yelling, he concentrated on turning from his position in the dirt and examining the wound. The simple action made him let out another hiss of pain but he managed to accomplish the task.
The debris was lodged in his thigh, and he couldn't just take it without it splintering and causing more damage. Blood was beginning to leak out. He couldn't tell anything about the other wound, but he guessed that it was about the same.
He could feel that there were small pinpricks down the back of his arms and back, but they would just be small splinters - nothing to worry about yet.
He - carefully, so not to further aggravate his wounds - began to move back so that he was lying on his stomach. This way he would minimize blood loss because gravity would be working with him.
Plus, he doubted he would be able to get up.
Lying there in the ruins of the barn, a thought came to him.
Garfield.
The boy would have been caught in the explosion. He wasn't as fast, as focused as he was. He would have hesitated after releasing the animals, if he had even made it that far before the gas tank was hit.
I just almost condemned an eight year old boy to death.
I just almost killed another teammate.
But you didn't, a part of him whispered. You didn't make the same mistakes.
You didn't fail. Not this time. Not when it counted in real life.
"Robin!" In a blur of yellow, Kid Flash was beside him. "Dude - are - you - okay - we - saw - the - explosion - and - oh - my - God - are - you - okay?" Was asked so fast that he could barely make out what the speedster saying. "You're - bleeding!"
"I didn't know that." he mumbled sarcastically, a headache that wasn't there before began throbbing, making it hard to think clearly. "Gar-field?" he asked, stumbling slightly over the name.
"He's fine dude. We found him sitting in the room clutching your cape. What was that about?"
Kid Flash asked as he carefully picked him up. He knew he was trying to keep him talking - keep him awake.
"Bribery. Eight year olds...don't do...orders." He muttered sleepily. The wound on his back must have been worse than it seemed.
He never remembered closing his eyes.
He slowly became aware, but didn't open his eyes. He heard footsteps, voices - where was he? What had happened?
He did a mental check over his body and his memory came back in bits and pieces. when his shoulder began throbbing mercilessly.
Dent. Warehouse. Goon. Gun. Shoulder.
Ouch.
"Oh God."
"When will he wake up?" He heard Damian ask, his voice unusually quiet and timid.
"Don't worry Damian." He could hear Stephanie soothe the boy. Another unusual thing - Stephanie and Damian getting along. Well, Damian getting along with anyone besides him and Barbara. "He's strong. Before you know it, he'll be up and mother-henning us. Like always."
"You did not answer the question," Damian didn't snap, instead his voice had worry in it.
He heard a familiar sigh - Tim. Wait no. Tim was in Jump. Why would he be in Gotham? Had something else happen? Had Jason or Barbara been hurt? Or one of the Team or League? "That's cause she doesn't know, Damian."
"None of us do." Jason. Jason was also there. Why?
Before he could crack open his eyes and demand what crisis or imminent threat they were up against this time, he heard someone shift in a seat right next to him. "He's waking up." Barbara said softly, smothering what Damian might have said next. There was a tense silence in the room and he hesitantly opened his eyes.
"Robin?" A strange, yet familiar voice called, and he ignored it.
"Welcome back to the land of the living." Barbara said softly, a smile on her face and a hint of tears in her eyes. What had happened while he had been out?
"Dick!" Tim yelled, and in an instant Tim, Jason, Stephanie, and Damian were also crowding around him. They were all in civilian clothes, which made him more curious.they couldn't possibly all be here...for him?
He attempted to sit up, but Jason gently pushed him back down, careful not to touch his newly-bandaged stitches.
"Don't." The vigilante warned, "You might overexert yourself."
"Never stopped me before." He retorted, but didn't attempt to sit up again. He shifted carefully so he could see Barbara better. The question was silent, but Barbara could easily see it in his startlingly blue eyes.
"Thirty six hours." A day and a half. That was how long he had been out for.
He gave a nearly imperceptible nod, but they all - being highly trained in the art of perception - caught it. They also caught the flash of emotion that ran through his eyes briefly, but only Barbara and Jason were able to recognize the emotion, for they had known him the longest.
Realization.
He could faintly hear a small gasp and someone else saying...something. It sounded foreign to his ears. He mentally pushed it away; it didn't belong here.
"You guys came to Gotham from Jump and 'Haven...for me?" He asked disbelievingly. He was surely wrong. He was just being selfish. He couldn't possibly that important...
"Of course." Tim said, his tone suggesting that he was surprised that he was even thinking that they weren't there for him.
A warm feeling spread through him; they really came all this way for him? Jump City was all the way on the other side of the country, and he had barely held a conversation with Jason in what seemed like forever.
He gave a smile at his teammates, his friends, his family . "Thank you," he murmured, "for coming."
Jason gave him a grin, "Next time you want us to visit, just call."
He could feel himself waking up. He knew it was just a dream, just a memory of the way things used to be.
That didn't stop him from clinging tightly to it, trying to grasp that picture of the five of them standing over him.
No...don't leave me Jason. Don't go Tim! Steph! Please come back Damian!
They all slowly faded, until he was left looking at the red-haired girl beside him, who was smirking.
That was, until she was consumed by consciousness too.
No! Barbara! I love you! Babs! Barbara!
Barbara?