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The mission had been simple. Sneak into the building at the given coordinates, download a copy of their files, destroy the originals, leave without being seen, and then report back to the League. And so far, it was going just fine. They’d managed to sneak into the building without being seen. The building seemed to be empty, which was a bit odd, but they weren’t there to ask questions, they were there to get answers.
Miss Martian had established a mind link about arriving at the coordinates and Robin is reminded of the fact as Kaldur’s voice speaks in his head, ’Robin, how are those files coming along?’ The boy furrows his eyebrows, staring at the his holographic computer and the one he’d plugged it to that had been here when they’d arrived. ’I’m working on it. These files are double encrpyted so it’s taking a bit longer than usual. Should be done in a couple minutes.’ ’Good.’ He can almost see Kaldur’s confirmatory nod in his head before he talks again, just not to Robin this time. ’Artemis how’s it looking up there?’ Artemis was stationed on the roof along with Miss Martian and Superboy, their eyes watching for any action on the outside. ’Nothing’s happened. Doesn’t it seem a little odd that there’s no one coming after us? Or the fact that there isn’t anyone in the building at all?’ Wally cuts in then just as Robin hears the boy crunch into a candy bar right beside him, ’Why are you complaining? Make’s things a lot easier on us.’ ’No, Artemis is right.’ Kaldur replies, ’Something does seem off. Just keep your eyes open.’
Finally breaking the verbal silence between them, Robin says out loud, “Files are copied. Erasing the originals now.” The boy says, fingers going to work on the keyboard as Kaldur appears over his shoulder. “Good.” ’Kid Flash, go ahead and do one last sweep of the building and make sure there’s no one around. Miss Martian please prepare the bioship to head back to the base.’ Their leader directs, though Robin isn’t paying much attention, eyes narrowing at the screen in front of him, something was really off about this coding…
The boy continues working at the keyboard before his eyes widen, ’Everyone get out of the buil-’ his command is cut short as there’s a loud explosion from one of the floors below building starts shaking. ’Robin what’s going on!’ Kaldur asks, grabbing the table the computer was on to keep his balance. ’They knew we were coming!’ He replies, yanking his cord out of the computer and grabbing Kaldur’s arm and yanking him over to the window. ’This was all a trap! They knew we were coming! That was just the first explosion! We have about thirty seconds to get out of here!’ Kaldur nods and the pair jump out the window, Aqualad summoning up water from his pack and creating a flat circle under their feet, lowering them to the ground before they take off towards the bioship.
’Everyone report!’
’Artemis, Superboy, and I are already in the ship and we’re coming around for you!’ Miss Martian replies before Robin looks around, eyes widening. Wally is missing.
’KF! Where are you?’ He shouts in his head, worry gripping the boy wonder. Something was wrong.
’I’m stuck! I was on the first floor when the explosion went off! There’s a beam-’
Robin tunes the rest out, taking off in a run towards the building before he’s yanked back by the cape, Kaldur shouting out loud this time, “Robin there’s no-”
That’s when it happens. A huge explosion sounds through the air, making the ground shake so hard the Atlantean and the boy wonder fall to the ground. He looks up as a plume of smoke erupts from the building and only seconds later there’s a loud crack and the building starts coming down.
“WALLY!” The boy screams, jumping to his feet. Kaldur had anticipated it and grabs his cape again, yanking him back and wrapping arms around the struggling boy who’s throwing hits at him in a last effort to break away.
Kaldur has a pained expression on his face and everyone’s quiet in their heads as he finally speaks up through the mind-link. ’Kid Flash, are you alright?’
There’s no answer, only silence. Robin screams again and pain shoots through Kaldur’s arm, making him let go, which was all the boy wonder needed to get out of his grip, immediately shedding his cape as he ran so he wouldn’t get grabbed again. He’d have to apologize for stabbing Aqualad with a batarang later.
He gets stopped again though, his feet lifting out from under him as he’s wrapped in an invisible bubble and Miss Martian appears in front of him, floating, her cheeks already stained with tears.
Robin watches, chest aching and unable to breathe as Aqualad puts out the fire and he, Superboy, and Miss Martian start moving the rubble out of the way, digging through it for Kid Flash. For his best friend. ’Let Robin down, Miss Martian, I think he’s calmed down some.’ Aqualad says, though he’s wrong, he’s really really wrong.
The boy rushes to the rubble, helping them dig, feeling like he can’t breathe. He’s cutting his hands on metal and getting splinters from wood but he doesn’t care. They need to get Wally out.
It’s thirty minutes later that Superboy shouts he see’s Wally and they all move to start helping him. Dick’s stomach twists in sick knots as he catches sight of part of the yellow costume and it’s covered in blood. Once his body is uncovered, the boy nearly gets sick. He’s dead, there’s no doubt about it. The girl’s are squalling and Superboy had to look away. Kaldur quietly inches over to the boy, checking for a pulse even though it was useless.
Robin stood there, unable to move. He felt cold. He felt dead. This wasn’t real, it couldn’t be real, it just couldn’t be. It was all a dream and he’d wake up and Wally would be looking down at him with that goofy grin on his face and he’d wrap his arms around him and tell him everything’s okay and everything would be fine.
Nothing would ever be fine again.