August 23rd, 3581
Aboard the Imperial Space Ship (ISS) Acheron
Later, she finds Robin up in the observatory, staring at the stars surrounding them. “I’m sorry,” is all she says as she sits down beside Robin, her eyes following their gaze out into space. She knows that Steve and Robin were close.
Robin just nods in return.
It isn’t the first mortal friend Robin had lost and it sure isn’t going to be the last.
Robin knows these next few months are going to be painful, watching Robin's crew starve to death while Robin survives. But they are mortals. They only do one thing best. They die. As Robin stares out into the void, wondering how they're going to get out of this one, her words surprise Robin.
“You’re the captain now.”
Robin looks at her, surprised. “What?”
“I said you’re the captain now. How do you plan on saving us all?”
There is a long hesitation before Robin replies, “I don’t know if I can.”
She rolls her eyes. She actually rolls her eyes, as if Robin's statement is as stupid as asking what two plus two is. “You will,” she says. “You always do.”
She turns her gaze back to the stars and Robin's left to stare at her in bewilderment. Since when did she believe in Robin? Since when did she have such unquestioning faith in their abilities? Robin studies her profile, looking for some kind of set up, some kind of trick in her features, but they see nothing but innocence and hope in her face.
“Hey, Nance?”
She doesn’t reply with words, just a small hum in acknowledgement of their question.
“I…I don’t want to do this alone.”
She looks at Robin and they swear they sees a ghost of a smile on her face (her smiles are so rare, Robin's learned to cherish them more than anything else in the universe). “I wouldn’t let you if you wanted to.”
Robin allows them self to actually smile, the same boyish grin they gave her when they first sat down in the chair next to her bed in the hospital at New York. “Good.”
Turning back to the stars, she lets silence fall between them again. Robin hears her soft breathing and feels every small movement she makes beside them.
“Oh, and Remington?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t worry. You’ll figure out a way to fix the engine.”
Robin does.
And when they wipe the sweat from their brow and lets the wrench in their hand fall to the ground, the entire crew’s cheers ring in their ears along with the sound of the humming mechanics and Robin doesn’t miss the smile she sends their way. It’s a smile Robin's waited thousands of years to see.
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...because I could not stop for death - ronance
FanfictionRobin meets her seven different times. Once when she was a child, twice on her deathbed and four times in between. Robin's immortal, they've had to watch everyone they love grow old and die. When one woman is reoccurring between life and death shoul...
