For The Love of Robin

Failsafe: Part 3

        ~Time Skip~

       "He's gone." Megan cried at the loss of Connor. Her uncle had just came back. We assumed he had been density shifting when he was zapped and that's why his memory was foggy. Robin had taken over as leader as well.
"It's all right." Wally promised into mind link, "We'll find him with Artemis. I know it."  He grabbed her shoulders as she held her head with her hands.
"No. My mind is clearer now. The disintegration beam is exactly that," Wally let Megan fall to her knees and stood up, "There is no detention facility, no prisoners to rescue. Our mission holds no purpose." Manhunter said seriously with a deep voice. My heart shattered, but I was getting good at hiding my feelings.

      "No, you're wrong. The zeta radiation proves she's alive. She's-" Wally began to shout as he pulled Manhunter by the collar, I clutched my head- I could handle the mind link but shouting made it hard.
"Stop it, KF." I snarled as I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him off, he stumbled over to Robin who grabbed his shirt.
"I've been scanning for League and team signals since we got inside." Robin explained with narrowed eyes.
"They're not here. Artemis is gone." I said looking over to him, this was the first time I had said it myself- and that made it harder. I wiped away the water forming in my eyes.

      Robin let go of Wally, who looked shocked.
"But our mission still holds purpose-- to destroy this mothership." Robin assured. Megan stood up. I followed Robin as he walked away, followed by J'onn then Megan and Wally. A large door opened upward and the five of us ran into a orange room. We ran to take cover and Robin checked his wrist computer.

"This is the power core." Robin informed.

"Blow this and the whole mothership blows." I said knowingly as I checked the screen over his shoulder. We all began running (the two Martians were flying) over to the core.

        Upon landing the platform i felt a strong tug me closer to the center. I saw Robin fall over next to me and before i knew it, Wally and I were flying towards the middle. Robin grabbed my waist, pulling me towards him and shot a grappling at another platform. Now with one hand he held the grapple and with the other he held Wally's arm. All the while I was hugging his torso; feeling quite useless.

I let out a sigh of relief as Megan used her telekinesis to lower the three of us onto another platform. I quickly fell onto my knees and pulled the explosives I had packed earlier, off my body with Robin following my lead.

"Uhh! You two knew." Wally said with surprise and wide eyes, "You guys knew from the beginning why we were really here." I ignored his question as I set my timer for four minutes.

     "Let's go." Robin demanded as he set his own explosives. I jumped onto Wally's back and he super sped to a door just as it was closing. I climbed off his back, just as Robin, and the Martians joined us.
"Perfect." I rolled my eyes sarcastically as large robots came out from behind us.

"Manhunter, take Miss Martian and go." Robin ordered. Manhunter complied by taking his niece's wrist.
"No, we won't leave you!" She yelled.
"That's an order." I yelled, reassuring Robin's control.

"We'll follow as soon as we blow those doors." Rob promised. Manhunter flew away and the two density shifted through a wall to the outside.

        With a little under 30 seconds left we tried to blow the door open but were unsuccessful. I yanked Robin into a hug, nuzzling my nose into his neck.

"This is it. Isn't it?" I asked sadly. I felt his nod against me as he began stroking my hair.

"I love you." I told him.

"I love you, too." But I could tell by his tone he meant it as a friendly you're-my-partner-and-best-friend kind of way.

"No. I mean I like-like you. As in I wanted to date you and be your girlfriend." He pushed me backwards by my waist. To be honest I expected a good bye kiss. Not a "I like someone else."

"W-who?"

"Batman's daughter." He said just as the ship blew up and I was consumed in flames.

      October 16th 4:21p.m.

      I gasped as I opened my eyes, looking around to see the cave, noticing I was once again in my civvies (skinny jeans and a light green turtle neck since it was getting cooler out). I bolted up too quickly because I had to lay back down. Batman came to help me sit up as other heroes helped other  teammates.

I gave Batman a hug around the waist, still sitting. I could tell he didn't expect it because he just started patting my head awkwardly.

"You're all alive!" I heard a girly voice exclaim happily. I released Bats so I could go hug my sister. We began crying silently into each others shoulders.

"What happened in there?" Batman asked Manhunter as he approached him and Robin. I looked at Robin's sweat covered face and mentally slapped myself- I had just told him I loved him.

"The exercise, it all went wrong." Manhunter answered with his head in his hand.

"Exercise?" Robin said with offense and surprise. I wiped my eyes to see the verbal exchange without it being blurry.
 
       "Try to remember. What you experienced was a training exercise.
Manhunter psychically linked the six of you within an artificial reality. You all knew this going in. What you didn't know was that it was a train for failure exercise. No matter what the team accomplished, the scenario was designed to grow worse. Still, you were aware nothing was real, including the deaths of the entire Justice League." Batman explained with a deep voice.

      "That is why you hardly grieved even when wolf was disintegrated before your eyes." Manhunter added, "But all that changed when Artemis died. Though consciously Miss Martian knew it was not real, her subconscious mind could not make that distinction. She forgot it was only an exercise and her subconscious took control, making all of you forget, too." I felt Wally looking towards me, but I knew it wasn't at me; he was looking at Arty.

     We all looked at Megan.
"I-I'm so sorry." Megan gasped.
"This isn't her fault!" Superboy yelled angrily while continuing to pet Wolf but with much more intensity. "Why didn't you stop the exercise?"

"We tried. But M'Gann had a death grip on the scenario." Manhunter reasoned, "Even Artemis, who should have awakened upon her death, was so convinced she had passed she slipped into a coma. I realized I would have to rest control from Miss Martian's subconscious from within.
But upon entering the reality, I was overwhelmed by your collective emotion.

     "There was too much noise to think clearly, to remember why I was there.
The deaths of Aqualad and Superboy helped. But only when the mothership exploded and Robin, Blue Jay and Kid Flash were silenced did my mind clear enough to remember my true purpose-- to shock M'Gann out of the exercise before your comas became permanent. My apologies. I had no idea a training exercise could be so dangerous, so damaging."

    A/N: Ok. I think I can start updating a whole lot more often. Thanks to all my readers. Next one is coming soon. XOXO😘😘😘