Dick’s POV: 

The wind whipped itself at my body as I sped down the streets of Gotham. I needed to clear my head. I didn’t mean to snap at Bruce, but I knew he would get over it. I gripped the handlebars of my bike so tightly that I gave myself blisters.  It was nearly dark.  I had been driving around aimlessly for about three hours, unsuccessfully looking for someone to take my anger out on.

I drove faster and faster; it seemed that the faster I drove, the more it kept horrible thoughts out of my head. They would always creep back into my mind though. My inner demons would mock me. 

You know it’s your fault. She’s going to die, she’s going to die just because you didn’t want to be lonely anymore. Her blood is on your hands.

Anger and worry pumped through my veins. I became aware that I was driving way over the speed limit. I didn’t care. I tried to think of happy things to calm down.

Alfred’s cookies, my bike, the way the moonlight illuminated my bedroom at night, memories of my parents, my favorite movie, flipping through the air, Annie…the way I felt when I was with her; the feeling of not having to be alone anymore.

The good thoughts evaporated from my brain, and that’s when I saw Bane.

He was standing on the end of one of the docks, holding someone up by the throat. The person looked like a dock worker, or one of the boat’s crew members. Even from far away, Bane’s muscles bulged. He was one massive dude.

I should have called Batman; Bane was one of those criminals who was nearly impossible to handle alone, but I didn’t care. Rage was consuming me and I needed someone to take it out on.

I sped forward, watching as Bane threw the dock worker into the dark water. Bane then became aware of me approaching him but by then it was too late. I slammed on my brakes and drifted my bike so the back tire crashed into him with immense velocity. To a normal person, it would have hurt severely but this was Bane.

He rocketed backwards, surprisingly enough. An evil smirk spread across my face, it felt good to take my anger out on someone who deserved it. Bane cracked his neck and stood up, like he didn’t even feel a scratch.

“Boy Wonder” he said through his respirator mask. His muscles twitched and appeared to get larger.

“It appears you have a death wish” he grimaced; I could tell from the way his eyes bulged that he was absolutely irate. Whatever I had interrupted him from doing was clearly important. Without any warning, he charged at me.

The reason I had decided to take Bane on was because I was angry, not stupid. I knew I would get crèmed in regular hand to hand combat against him. I would have to rely on my acrobatic skills.

 As he came close enough to grab me, I jumped up into a flip. I flipped over Bane, and then attacked him from behind. Slight panic took over my body as I realized that even though I was using all my might, my attack barely fazed him.

He whirled around with blood shot eyes; I barely dodged his massive hands as they reached for my neck. By doing a back handspring, I gave myself enough time to reach in my utility belt and pull out an ice bomb, just like the one I had used on Ivy. I threw the bomb and it encompassed Bane in ice.

I took a moment to regain my breath. Then I smiled, I had taken out Bane singlehandedly. Perhaps I was better than Batman thought I was. My confidence increased as I realized that I had taken out two super criminals, Poison Ivy and Bane, all by myself. I walked back to my bike and reached for my communicator.

That’s when Bane broke free of the ice. I was stupid to believe that a mere ice bomb, barely capable of holding Poison Ivy, would hold Bane.

I didn’t have time to react before his massive fist came down on my head; it felt like have a led weight dropped on top of my head. I crumpled to the hard ground, barely conscious.

Bane wasn’t through yet though, he gripped me by the throat and hoisted me into the air. All the oxygen was sucked out of my lungs and I struggled to breath. I squeezed both of my hands around Bane’s, hoping for him to release but I was unsuccessful. He threw me backwards and I landed in a heap on the ground.

He still wasn’t done, at this point I severely regretted pissing him off. He knelt down next to me and said “You’re nothing but a stain on the bottom of my shoe.”

He landed a serious of deathly blows to my rib cage and then a few to my face. I heard a snap and felt excruciating pain, he had broken one, if not more, of my ribs. I let out a howl of pain.

“You’re weak, you deserve to die” Bane said as he placed his hands on either side of my head, in preparation to snap my neck. I let my life flash before my eyes.

“He’s not the target for this mission” a voice said.

My eyes were too swollen to see and my mind was barely conscious.

“We need to accomplish the task at hand, he’ll get what’s coming to him” The disembodied voice stated.

I didn’t like the sound of that. The voice sounded familiar, I knew I had heard it before but I could not figure out where.

Bane grunted and wailed me with his fist one more time. I watched him stand up and walk away, then I fell unconscious.

HOURS LATER

An incessant beeping noise roused me from my incapacitated state. I forced my eyes to open. The sky was now pitch black, I had no clue how long I had been lying unconscious on the ground.  For some reason I had trouble breathing and then I remembered my miserable defeat by the hands of Bane.

I pushed myself off the ground with all my might and hobbled over to my bike. I picked up my communicator which was blaring the emergency signal. I pushed it off and checked my messages. All of them were from Batman, wondering where I was. I could tell from the tone of the messages that he was pissed.

Then I read the last message, also from Batman, it said that Commissioner Gordon wanted to see us at his office ASAP.

I carefully slid onto my bike, trying to ignore the immense pain I was in, and rode to the Gotham City Police Department.

I painfully made my way up the three flights of stairs and reached Jim Gordon’s office. I pushed open the door and saw Batman and Jim Gordon standing by his desk, they both had strange looks on their faces. I recognized the look. It was the same look that Jim Gordon had when he approached me after my parents died.

“Come in, Robin” Gordon said as he motioned for me to sit down.

“What happened to you?” Batman asked with a sense of worry. At first I didn’t realize what he was talking about but then I looked at my reflection in the window. My face was completely cut up, I had a nasty black eye and my lip was split in three different places.

“Bane” I replied, there was no sense in trying to hide it. I prepared myself for Batman’s fury but none came. Whatever he and Commissioner Gordon were going to tell must have been pretty bad.

“We received a body, on the front steps of the GCPD an hour ago. It appears the Joker sent it for you.” Jim Gordon said, after clearing his throat.

My heart seemed to stop pounding. My hands started shaking uncontrollably, my eyesight became foggy and a lump formed in my throat. It’s Annie, You got her killed.

“I want to see the body” I said steadily, and Jim Gordon nodded in compliance.

As we reached the morgue in the basement, my head began to pound furiously. Commissioner Gordon pulled open one of the body bays and I held my breath, not prepared to see her body.

But it wasn’t hers. It wasn’t Annie. It was her brother.

I wanted to crumple to the floor in a mix of feelings but I kept my composure. Batman and I approached the body. His eyes were a foggy gray color, his skin was pale, his face was covered in makeup to make it look identical to the Joker and there was a message written on his chest in blood.

“What happens when you take away Birdie’s favorite toy?”