Death Wish

Restart

"Rachelle," I drowsily roused from my sleep, but allowed myself to drift off again. "You need to wake up." My eyes snapped open as adrenaline coursed through my veins. 

"What's wrong?" I yelped frantically, still half asleep while I rolled myself out of bed and into a fighting stance. My hair, untamed and tangled, fell in front of my eyes, sticking to my face.

"Oh," I realized, brushing my hair out of my eyes, before looking up to see Bruce and Alfred waiting for me at the door.

"We need to talk," Came the dreaded words from Bruce before he walked away from the doorway, probably heading to the Batcave. I looked to Alfred for answers, but he only looked at me apologetically before he too, walked away.

Maybe ten minutes later, once I was in my Robin attire, I found Bruce in the Batcave, like I had assumed. Standing in front of the supercomputer, his gazed was fixed on a file he had pulled up. From what I could read, it seemed like  the results from some sort of  test. 

"You wanted to talk?" I inquired my mentor, while I approached computer. His narrow eyes and brooding manner warned me to act predictably around him. It was clear that he didn't like the contents of the file. One wrong move and I would have to hope for my life.  

"What do you remember from yesterday, after you left the house?" He questioned, he gaze was still completely transfixed on the screen. Honestly, I had to think about an answer, I didn't even remember leaving the previous day until he brought it up.

"I- I had Alfred bring me to a secluded cafe and I got a coffee," I recalled after a moment of thought. "After, I went for a walk, then- then nothing. I can't remember."

His stare at the computer intensified, and he pulled up another file from the computer's database. His actions actually made me slightly worried. There was definately something wrong with the fact that I couldn't remember anything.

Tentatively, I dared to ask. "Is that bad?"

His response crushed my hope of things turning out alright. "Yes, Robin, it is."

"And this is because-"

"You let your guard down and now some telepathic criminal has access to your thought patterns and what you perceive as reality," his response was quick and sharp and the severity of the situation swelled in my chest. 

"Wha-what?" I stammered. "When would I let my guard down around a villain? I'm always careful to put up mental barriers."

"That's why I wanted to talk. Robin, the culprit would have to be a telepath, and you ran into one a few days ago at Mount Justice." He pointed out and I knew where this conversation was headed.

"And when I was fighting him, he managed to get inside my head and implant ideas, right?" I looked up at my mentor. The recollection of memories was fuzzy, but I recalled enough of the previous day to know what had happened for the most part. 

"Yes," he answered. He still hadn't turned to face me rather than the screen, but it was blatantly obvious that the several files he had pulled up held information on my situation. Deciding that I needed to know more, I pressed him for more answers.  

"So the whole thing yesterday was just a guy with telepathic abilities manipulating what I my brain was seeing and processing as reality?"

He nodded slightly. "But you did have a moment of clarity, in which you contacted me via one of the safe houses."

"How did I—"

"I'm working on it," he cut me off. "but it occurred after the team rescued you from the museum."