Chapter Text
If it was Superboy, Kid Flash, or Aqualad, it would probably be fine.
But it was Robin. He did not have super strength or super speed, he was also light-weighted. So he could not simply take it or step aside, and even if he managed to block the attack, he was still sent flying by the brutal force.
And that was what's happening right now.
Robin had been expecting this, he had calculated his fall and had already regained his pose in the midair. It would still be fine if there wasn't another assassin. The assassin was previously engaged with Miss Martian. But when he noticed Boy Wonder was in trouble, he did not hesitate to try to take down Batman's protégé.
Robin managed to avoid the deadly strike once again. But this time, he could not control where he was going to land.
He only had time to hear KF's terrified shouting before the green consumed him.
***
Artemis immediately knew something was terribly wrong when a strong wave of panic ran through their mental link. She hurried to kick another damn ninja to unconsciousness before ran back to the team, just on time to hear and see the big neon green splash in the Lazarus Pit.
It took her another moment to understand what just happened, and at that moment Wally was already screaming at M'gann in an absolutely frightened voice asking her to lift Robin out of the Pit now.
No, no, this is not happening. She thought with a chill that resonated with the others' in her mind when everyone realized what the hell just happened.
She had heard about the Pits from time to time when she was still controlled by her father. Her father taught her all the miracles and disasters the Pits could do to a human being. And that old knowledge just dumped another bucket of ice to her heart.
No, not Robin, not the youngest of us.
Robin was almost plugged out of the green water. She could tell M'gann wanted to do it as quick as possible and the gentle Martian could not afford to be gentle at the moment.
As the responsible leader, Kaldur blocked the rest of the enemies with Conner while the other members rushed to their fallen teammate. Robin did not respond to Wally's touch or M'gann's worried voice both from outside and inside. There was stiffness in his body, but it was hard to tell whether Robin was conscious or not with the mask shielding his eyes.
Wally was now ready to give a hard strike to wake up the bird. But before he could act, Robin moved.
* * *
Someone was calling him.
But it was different from the way master used to call him, nevertheless, it was not calling him. There was no rhyme, and he did not recognize either the name or the pattern, so he did not respond to it at first.
But the callings did not stop and instead of getting more and more intense, and for some reasons, he could not block them out. He was taught to ignore anyone's words besides his master's, but that function inside him was not working properly right now and he did not know why.
His master always reminded him in all kinds of ways that when you could not function properly you became useless to the Court and needed to be disposed of. Part of him felt afraid. This proved again that he was malfunctioning since a Talon shouldn't feel anything at all, let alone been afraid.
"-come on Rob. Don't do this to me-"
"-I- I can't connect with his mind!"
"-League is coming-"
Everything was wrong. First, he shouldn't have been woken up by anyone other than his master, then he should have been able to dismiss everything unrelated to his master and his duty, and most importantly he shouldn't be feeling anything. None of these was included in his prototype.
He had to check it. So he opened his eyes.
He only had a moment to take in the surroundings and people hovered over him before everything hit him unprepared.
There were so many knowledge and memories and emotions. Everything rushed to his head like a flood of concretes and stones. And it hurt, it hurt so much. He was trained to endure all kinds of physical pain, but whatever he was experiencing right now was coming from inside.
He couldn't help it. He violated his master's rules once again: he screamed.
Someone above was trying to hold him down. Wally West, Kid Flash, my friend, my teammate- There were people shouting and crying beside him. M'gann's cookies- Artemis Crock, I wish she can open up more- There were hands started touching him and dragging him. Why them couldn't just leave him alone. This is not aster at all-
This- this was too much. He had to get away before he fully lost his functions.
This time, he managed to force himself into slumber without the master's order.
* * *
It had been a long time since the last time Dick dreamed about the circus.
He usually only dreamed about his parents, and Zitka sometimes. He had dreams about others from his previous performing days too, but his parents were the only ones would always be in his dreams.
So he was a bit confused when he dreamed of Mr. Jackson this time, without his parents. Okay, he was not just a bit confused, he was baffled since he certainly did not interact with Mr. Jackson that much to dream about him years after.
His mom was not … let's just say she was not Mr. Jackson's biggest fan, for some reasons unknown. She never really voiced her dislike, but the way she acted whenever the knife thrower was near already spoke for itself.
And she was not the only one. For example, Candy (whose real name was Charlotte, but somehow everyone called her Candy) used to be the human target for the knife thrower. She rarely associated with her partner outside of the show. Dick once overheard her conversation with Mary Grayson, he remembered how she described the chilling she felt every time the man threw a knife at her like the man really wanted to impale her instead of hitting the broad she was tied to.
It might be a good thing that Mr. Jackson himself seemed to avoid the youngest Grayson whenever possible. Dick sometimes suspected his parents had something to do with it. A shame really, since Dick secretly wanted to know firsthand why people disliked the man. And the man definitely mastered his impalement arts to a professional level, picking up some tricks wouldn't have hurt either.
All in all, he didn't really know the man. So… why he was dreaming about throwing knives with Mr. Jackson after all these years?
He guessed the dreams worked in a weird way.