Thirteen

Chapter Five - Trust

Chapter 5

October, 19 2012

{14:06 EST}

"Your mission this evening is taking place at the Burke Power Plant located in Rhode Island. Reports have been flooding in of thievery without any trace evidence left behind. Your assignment is to observe but not engage unless necessary. Make sure no one gets in or out."

Batman reached up towards a screen and pulled up twelve different profiles of workers, "These are the twelve men and women that will be on duty tonight. I expect you to know all of them by name before your mission."

Over his shoulder, the six teenagers hastily nodded, their heads bobbing in a similar fashion with one another. Artemis stood furthest away from Robin with a blank look in her eyes. They fixed themselves to the side as though she was guilty of something; however, her expression remained neutral.

On the other side of the room, Robin held himself in a similar way. His masked eyes looked past the screen and he kept one arm to his side whilst the other grasped his elbow. The boy hardly heard what Batman was saying; instead, he kept glancing occasionally at Artemis, thinking of something to say to her once the debriefing was over.

Should he apologize? He hardly did anything wrong- Robin's eyes landed on her bandaged arm and guilt quickly accepted Robin into its arms.

He made a huge mistake. He just felt so angry at the time, and the way Artemis simply belittled his encounter pushed him over the edge. Had he been alone at this moment, he would have hit himself; just what had he been thinking? He attacked Artemis because of a few harsh words- was he really growing soft? Before the Rockies Mission, before the... failed training exercise, he would have never done something as stupid as that. Batman taught Robin how to control his emotions, so it didn't cloud his judgement or fighting. He hadn't lost it like that in years.

If the simulation hadn't gone downhill, would he even be in this mess now? His emotions were going haywire, too much was going on. Batman hardly set foot in the Manor the past few days, let alone bother to ask Robin how things were affecting him. He never felt so shaken from something that wasn't even real, he never felt so alone before.

He never felt so broken.

"Robin."

Robin whipped his head in Batman's direction to face the familiar scowl and feeling of a hundred pairs of eyes on him. Instantly, Robin knew he spaced out again, even during a mission debriefing. He took notice of the new screen just past Batman's head. A blueprint of the schematics of the Power Plant came up. There were three highlighted routes on the map, one red, another yellow, and a third one was green.

"Are you ready to pay attention now?" Batman gruffly asked, leaving room for only one straight answer. Robin quickly took notice of the lack of expression in his face and tone of voice. His mentor didn't look or even sound the slightest concerned about the reason he'd spaced out. Instead, Robin stared back into Batman's hard, blank face and swallowed once.

"Yes, sorry. It won't happen again."

Without even nodding, Batman resumed speaking, "As I was saying, tonight you will be working in pairs. Artemis, you are with Superboy, Kid Flash with Miss Martian, and finally, Aqualad, you're with Robin."

Something right there compelled Robin to believe Batman was losing trust in him. He typically partnered with Kid Flash because the speedster was prone to goofing off and messing up the mission; however, he paired with Aqualad, the leader of the team and most responsible of the teenagers. Was Batman really that disappointed in him?