The first time Robin turned the song off, M'gann hadn't really thought much of it.
They had the radio on in the training room while doing all of their stretches, but the song hadn't been playing more than 5 seconds before Robin casually changed the station.
She's sent him a questioning look, but his reply was simply, "Don't like Taylor Swift."
M'gann thought Safe and Sound was a very beautiful song, but she respected his opinion.
However, there were several times where the radio was playing other Taylor Swift music in the background and Robin hadn't batted an eye. It was a bit strange, wasn't it? Must be something do with that particular song…
The next week, M'gann arranged a playlist on her phone that included Safe and Sound, just to see what Robin's reaction would be. It would take about 10 minutes for the playlist to get to it. When the song finally played, Robin seemed non-chalant enough about it, but after about 10 seconds got his earbuds out.
And proceeded to turn his the volume up seriously loud.
What was it with Robin and this song?
I remember tears streaming down your face
When I said, "I'll never let you go"
When all those shadows almost killed your light
I remember you said, "Don't leave me here alone"
But all that's dead and gone and passed tonight…
Looking at the lyrics, it was a very sad, haunted type of song. Maybe it made him think of some sort of loss or tragedy in his past?
Just close your eyes
The sun is going down
You'll be alright
No one can hurt you now
Come morning light
You and I'll be safe and sound
Aaaand then came the guilt. She shouldn't be prying, it was obviously a…delicate matter to him. Which was odd; Robin had never shown any weaknesses before. But didn't he first start crime-fighting at 9 years old? There had to to be a major reason for that, some horrible circumstance most likely riddled with pain, tragedy, loss, heartbreak…only 9 years old…
Don't you dare look out your window, darling,
Everything's on fire
The war outside our door keeps raging on
Hold on to this lullaby
Even when the music's gone
Gone
Time to forget the entire matter altogether.
Its not like she didn't have secrets of her own.
During the entire trip back to the Cave, Robin seemed strangely quiet. Wally had thrown him a few sideways glances, but the thirteen year old just shook his head and started fiddling with a birdarang.
M'gann thought back to the incident, still fresh in her mind.
They'd been en route to the Cave, having successfully completed another covert mission when the bioship passed over Central City.
On one of the old buildings with ledges on it, there was a woman acting quite hysterical, looking as if she was going to jump to her death. Below her was a blur of police and firetruck lights, sirens, and noise from a crowd. Robin had ordered them to drop him off on the nearby building, but M'gann and Kid Flash had both insisted on coming with him.
M'gann hovered nearby on standby in case she had to telekinetically grab the woman.
Robin eased slowly out onto the ledge, about ten feet from the woman, who then started shouting at him. He calmly talked to her; M'gann understood that they couldn't just levitate her to safety and leave it at that. The woman would resort to pills, a gun, jumping in front of a car...they had to convince her it wasn't worth it.
Below them, the police started talking on the megaphones, news crews started showing up and added to the flashing lights, shouting and commotion; she started to feel overwhelmed - everything was too noisy, chaotic, everybody was thinking so loud! Closing her eyes, she tried to regain control.
Emotions were running rampant from everyone. M'gann couldn't help accidentally seeing flashes of memories, and feelings from those around her.
Grief so blinding her mind felt paralyzed -
A house in flames.
No, please no,
She couldn't form a thought, everything was a heated, smoking blur.
Screaming, desperate cries - hers- then hopelessness that engulfed her entire being
The roof collapsed - inside the house, her 1 year old child, and her husband.
Gone, all gone - so why hadn't the rest of the world ended in flames too?
M'gann tried to snap out of the woman's memories, only to see flashes of something just as horrifying.
A massive crowd all around her, blinding camera flaces, faces blurring together, deafening noise.
The cables, the cables were snapping over and over again, she couldn't stop hearing them snap.
This isn't happening, it isn't, it can't.
Body rigid from denial, disbelief, agonizing realization.
Falling, falling, falling...both of them, getting further and further away, why doesn't somebody do something?!
The sound of bones cracking on impact with the ground will not leave her ears, and suddenly she's beside the bodies.
Blood...so much blood...she's sobbing, grasping their hands, shouting at them to wake up, begging.
Always falling.
All the way back to the cave, M'gann had tried to not think about the memories she had seen. The first ones had been from the woman who was going to jump - luckily, Robin had talked to her - for 20 minutes they talked. In the end, she allowed him to help her off of the ledge and back onto solid ground.
Falling, blood, screams...M'gann shuddered. Don't think about it, don't think about it.
But she couldn't deny it any more.
She knew why Robin was so quiet now - he couldn't stand watching another person fall.
"We've got him." Superboy said in the pychic link.
"Well?! Is he okay?" Artemis practicaly yelled in all of their heads. M'gann was as worried sick as everyone else. Robin had been missing for 6 agonizingly long, stressful, worrisome days. The team had broken into an underground laboratory, which belonged to The Brain, and thank goodness they found him.
"He's unconscious, but alive." Aqualad reported.
Kid Flash had remained uncharacteristically quiet during the rescue. M'gann could feel his anxiety rolling over the mind link like waves in a storm.
Meeting up at the rendezvous point, the reunited team bolted for the bioship. Superboy was carrying Robin, fiercely protective of the small boy. Thankfully, they took off without any issues, the unconscious teen still held by Superboy.
Much to everyone alarm, Robin's entire body suddenly flinched as if struck; he tried to curl up as tight as he could, eyes squeezed tightly shut and wearing a pained grimace.
"What do we do? Is he hurt? Has anyone radioed Batman yet?!" the speedster yelled, panicked at his best friend's pained state. "Rob, can you hear me? It's Wally! Wake up!" he continued, in much softer but no less urgent tones.
"He's not physically hurt," M'gann spoke up, sounding distracted in her sudden realization, "He's been mentally tortured for information."
"How do you know for sure?" Aqualad asked, deeply concerned and unsure of what to do.
"B-because he's screaming."
Not a sound had left his mouth, but his mental cries were piercing.
Artemis buried her face in her hands while Kid Flash started shaking the acrobat's shoulder and spoke his name in an unsteady voice.
Closing her eyes and concentrating, M'gann mentally reached out to Robin, but was violently shunned. Shaking off the blow, she danced along the outskirts of his mind, trying to find a weakness. His shield was remarkably strong, but M'gann knew why she would be able to break through, when the madmen couldn't.
She picked the first memory she had of him, walking up to the 4 boys, becoming a member of the team. All of the giddiness in the room, smiles, welcomes, sense of accomplishment; she held onto the memory as she tried to get through his shield again.
Shunned.
Picking a new one, she tried again.
Again.
And again.
Memory after memory, all fond ones involving him and her.
...
"Wait, Vader is Luke's Father? But thats impossible, he's lying!"
"M'gann, hes not lying!"
...
"What are you doing?"
"Practicing my routine for the Bumblebees, game this Friday. Look alright?"
"Ya, looks great!"
"...You hesitated."
"No I didn't...fine you're kick isn't quite high enough and cartwheel landing was wobbly."
"Well, let's see YOU do it then."
"Pfft, I'm not waving a bunch of pom poms around."
"Mm hmm. You just can't do it. Looks like I've got one up on the Boy Wonder!"
"...Gimme the pom poms."
...
"You're alright!"
"Course I'm alright, but M'gann, you're crushing me!"
"Oh sorry! I didn't hurt you, did I?"
"Nah, I'm used to Wally glomping me like that, don't worry."
...
"We're not a couple! Just friends."
"Ya, just friends!"
"She's like decades older than me!...Crap wrong thing to say."
"We don't even like each other, I practically don't know his name."
"Touche. But seriously, just friends."
Cautiously, Robin started responding...by sending his own memories to her. She started linking both of their memories of each other together, eventually adding the rest of the team. M'gann engulfed him in a blanket of warm thoughts, memories, and feelings. Mentally hugging him, she told him it was alright.
He'd stopped screaming.
One by one, the team had taken turns talking to Black Canary. Sitting outside the 'counseling' room had been awkward...nobody talked, made eye contact...just shuffled around, not knowing what to do with their hands.
When Artemis had gone in for her turn to talk about the failed mental simulation and left Robin and M'gann alone, the martian girl felt 100 times more self conscious...literally, she wanted to disappear.
Noticing her extreme discomfort and guilt, Robin got up from his seat opposite of M'gann and went to wait right next to her. Of course he felt guilty, traumatized, distracted, worried...but by no means did he blame M'gann.
The two damaged teens sat together in silence until Robin showed M'gann his phone screen and told her, "You're on Youtube."
This was not the statement she had expected.
"What?"
"You're on Youtube, look."
He showed her a clip of the Bumblebees' last game; someone had zoomed in on the cheerleaders and posted their entire routine on Youtube.
"That's, um, cool."
"Ya. The girl on the left made a mistake that made the others stumble. See?"
"I remember, ya. Helen."
"But it doesn't look like anyone blamed her for it. Seems like they recovered as a team, nailed the finale, and moved on from there, ya know?"
"I suppose..."
"M'gann, accidents and mistakes happen. For example, accidentally letting lose 50 caged monkeys at the circus - I can tell you, anyone who had to round them up would have rather fought the aliens."
A small smile graced M'gann's face.
The door to the counseling room opened revealing a bad tempered Artemis.
"Your turn, Robin." she told him, and exited the room.
He gave M'gann's hand a squeeze, and she returned the gesture. Wordlessly, he passed through the door to see Black Canary, finding a bit of comfort in being able to talk to Canary instead of someone else.
M'gann folded her hands into her lap, finding a tiny bit of solace in Robin's words.
Accidents happen.
He didn't blame her, didn't hate her.
She wondered if Robin new how much his friendship meant to her.
I can't help but find what I did a bit funny. I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to, it just happened...
But really Chapter 1 was all Fluffy Cuteness and then BEHOLD: CHAPTER 2: angstAngstANGST
Lol. But who am I trying to kid, you guys like angst! Admit it!
And this shoutout goes to charmsnitch364 - I love it when potterheads get into Young Justice, haha
I'm so tired. And homesick. If you review, please send a *HUG* !
Alright - Redhead98 out.