Your gateway to endless inspiration
There was an explosion during the mission. Unexpected, three down. But surprisingly, those three hadn’t suffered the worst of it. Sure, Atrimus had a sprained ankle and slight concussion, Wally suffered a few broken ribs and injured arm while Kaldur endured a broken nose and deep gash on his chest, they weren’t the one’s everyone was worried about. After they all split up, Wally and Dick had found the bomb with only a few seconds to spare. Wally used his body to cover Dick as he ran, ran as fast as he could to get him away but the force of it blew them out the window. Dick’s eyes widened as They fell, Wally’s arms still protectively tucking him into his chest while moving them so that he’d cushion the fall with his own body. The ebony seemed to have been in a trance after they landed on the grass below, fire raging and the team staggering out, Artimus being carried on conner’s back While m’gann helped Kaldur as he limped. Dick remained unresponsive, even as a very alive Wally had tried snapping him back. Then he went to shake him but this gut wrenching scream escaped the ebonys lips as he gripped his hair in anguish and doubled over with sobs. Everyone watched in surprise and horror as the youngest cried and screamed words in a language they didn’t understand.
That was then. They were all in the cave now, silently sitting in the living room without even trying to speak of what happened. No one even knew how to explain it. M’gann may have been able to read his emotion but they all felt it like it was their own as his screams continued to ring in their ears. His cries echoed through the halls as he was escorted to his room with Black Canary and refused to leave since. No one seemed to move.
“Recognized A01” the computer announced and they barely raised their heads to acknowledge the mentors presence.
“Wallace. Come with me.” He said in a rush as he could distantly hear his proteges cries. The ginger nodded absently but looked more like a husk as he followed. This snapped Kaldur out of his trained thoughts as he stood abruptly.
“I— would like to come, too!” He said, almost pleadingly. “I want to know what happened to my friend.
“No.” Batman said, still walking off, a hand on Wally’s back as he led them on faster.
“No?” The Atlantean scoffed.
“Well I don’t care what he says.” Artimus stood with a glare, seemingly pointed to nothing in particular. “I’m going to check on him.”
“Me too.” M’gann spoke from Conner’s chest. The feelings Robin was feeling leaked to her. The suffering of love and loss hit her like a roller coaster she wasn’t strapped into, the turns just daring her to fall out. Conner stood with her, still holding her as she didn’t seem metally stable to walk on her own. They all made the silent decision to go to see him. The closer they came to the bedrooms, the louder the screaming became. The wretch in their hearts slowed them until it came to a halt in front of a cracked open door with the sound of pure nightmarish shrieks. They looked amongst themselves before creaking the door open.
Robin was held tightly to Batman’s chest and sat in his lap on the bed as the man shushed him and pet his hair soothingly. Wally was sitting beside them, tears of his own running down his face.
“Tati, nu se vor opri. Vocile nu se vor opri!” (Daddy, they won't stop. The voices won't stop!) Robin sobbed into the man's chest, holding grips of his costume for his sanity.
“Richard, I need you to look at me.” The bat whispered to him quietly. Blue eyes looked up and the man wiped his tears with his thumb. “Wally is right here, by your side. Alive.” To prove it so, Wally grabbed one of the younger hands, the grip on Batman’s emblem coming undone to hold it tightly. “No one died tonight because you were able to tell the team on time.” Batman kissed the side of Dick’s head, rocking them slowly.
“Bruce… Mama and Papa… they…” Dick sniffled, silent tears trekking down his face, covering the dried paths.
“They’re gone.” Bruce said quickly. “They’ve been gone for years. You need to remember you still have a family.” He added quietly. “Barbra. Alfred. Me.”
“And you have me.” Wally’s voice broke as he joined with a small kiss to the boys knuckles that were white from his grip.
“They died because of me—” Dick sniffled, voice hitching in his throat.
“No no. They died so that you could live. I’m sure they’d be happy to die if it meant you stayed living in their memory.” Bruce corrected. Dick buried his face back into Bruce’s chest, Wally being pulled into the embrace as well. The others that stood at the door, unknown of what to do, left. The words spoken softly between the three all fresh in their memory, replaying like broken records. They all had trouble sleeping that night, quite possibly even more than Dick did. Though he had the comfort of Wally carefully spooning him and whispering sweet nothings while he drifted into restless oblivion. Needless to say, the team never saw Robin as a frail child again.
“Let me entreat you, Dr. Seward, oh, let me implore you, to let me out of this house at once. Send me away how you will and where you will; send keepers with me with whips and chains; let them take me in a strait-waistcoat, manacled and leg-ironed, even to a gaol; but let me go out of this. You don’t know what you do by keeping me here. I am speaking from the depths of my heart—of my very soul. You don’t know whom you wrong, or how; and I may not tell. Woe is me! I may not tell. By all you hold sacred—by all you hold dear—by your love that is lost—by your hope that lives—for the sake of the Almighty, take me out of this and save my soul from guilt! Can’t you hear me, man? Can’t you understand? Will you never learn? Don’t you know that I am sane and earnest now; that I am no lunatic in a mad fit, but a sane man fighting for his soul? Oh, hear me! hear me! Let me go! let me go! let me go!” I thought that the longer this went on the wilder he would get, and so would bring on a fit; so I took him by the hand and raised him up. “Come,” I said sternly, “no more of this; we have had quite enough already. Get to your bed and try to behave more discreetly.”
I cannot understate how hard this scene fucks with me.
Renfield knows he needs to be let out, taken somewhere else. And he’s willing to be taken in any way possible, as long as he’s not here. And you can say that maybe he should have lead with that, and not tried to pin the argument on the basis of his sanity. But here’s the thing: He had to do that.
Because he knows they won’t listen to him any other way. He puts fucking effort into sucking up to these guys, appearing like a respectable gentleman, reminding them he used to be a high status rich guy who knew Arthur’s dad, showing he has knowledge of politics and scientific theories. Because that is the only way they will listen to him.
He sees how Seward treats him, he knows that in every interaction Seward sees him as an animal to be prodded at to get certain reactions. He knows he need to appear in a way that fits their narrow definition of “human” if he wants to get anywhere with them.
And it doesn’t work. He can’t make it work. To them he is still a madman in a cell, not truly human. Renfield can try, but he will never be able to fit their standards. And when the break comes, when he sees they still won’t listen and just starts screaming and begging at them, to take him away under any circumstances, Seward tells him to shut up an be more discreet.
And outside, when they wonder if that really was the right decision, they’re still talking about it in terms of if Renfield is sane or not.