Robins True Allegiance 3

The End Part 3

"Who... Who are you?"
It took all my self control to keep my face from showing any of my shock, any of my despair as our plan seemed to be falling apart, as I looked at Raven and yet knew that she was not our Raven, that we will never see our Raven again.
But this little girl, this version of her. She was still worth saving.
"It's okay, I'm here to take you back," I said and she bolted, "Raven!"
I never have been good with kids.
I instantly moved after her, picking up her cloak again from where I had dropped it. I followed her out the back of the church over what I'm assuming was once the back wall and into an almost vertical run down the side of the hill it was stood on.
I don't even know where I was pulling up these dregs of energy at this point as I pulled up alongside her and moved to a gentle jog, but I'm glad I could cause I still needed to get us out of here.
"Wait, I'm not going to hurt you," But she didn't slow as I was forced to throw my weight back and slide down, controlling the descent with my hand before I reached the edge of the cliff.
She didn't hesitate as she continued down the stairs and I was forced to stop for a moment to regain my balance as she continued running across a bridge and into a tunnel system which did not look at all inviting.
For a moment she was lost from my sight, but that was all she needed to disappear as I came through the tunnel and she was gone. 
The solid ground lasted a few more steps before it looks like it had begun to crumble away, leaving pedestals which I could leap over had I been feeling brave. But I also doubt she'd be that way, not enough time for her to vanish from my sight completely, she was hiding in this cavern somewhere.
And I was right as I saw a flash of her white boots crawling into a gap in the wall that even I wouldn't be able to make myself fit in. I headed over and looked in to see her sat against the back, she was cornered in and she was scared.
"Please, I just want-" But she didn't want to know what I wanted as she kicked out and hit me solid in the knee.
She seemed even stronger than before with the hit and it sent me to the floor as she climbed out and snatched up her cloak from where I had dropped it and continued running towards the pedestals leaping across as I got back up and gave chase again.
But she wasn't as nimble as she had been before as her footing slipped and she fell. Absolute fear gripped me as I dove down after her, reaching for my grapple but there was floor, it wasn't an endless pit as I had thought. 
I adjusted my fall as I came down, landing almost silently on my pained and blistered feet in front of her again as she backed up once more.
"Raven, it's me. Robin, remember?" I tried, this time approaching slowly with my hands up. 
I did not have the energy for another chase and my knee was now throbbing after that kick and the pressure I put on it with that landing. Not to mention the pain with every step on the soles of my feet. I'd be lucky if I managed to walk us back out.
"I'm lost," Her first words, a good sign, she was talking.
"I know," I said as I knelt down to her level and she scooted back a little more, "But I found you, you don't have to be afraid anymore. I can help you, but you have to let me," I held out a hand to her, let her make the move, it was the only way I was going to make progress.
For a moment she just looked at me with those scared eyes and I thought she was going to run again, but she didn't. A small smile came across her face as she took my hand and I helped her to her feet, unable to stop the smile that spread across mine.

The walk back was hell. Raven needed me to be strong despite the fact that I felt I was about to pass out with every step, despite the fact I was terrified about what this development meant, despite the fact that whenever she requested a break I gladly obliged and sat cause I was near certain at this point my leg's were going to give out.  We barley spoke, I would have tried for more conversation had my mouth not felt like sandpaper, had all my energy not been focused on just staying upright and getting Raven out of here before something terrible happened to my friends up top.
I would have cried with happiness when I saw the boat had I not been so dehydrated. I hadn't seen Slade the entire journey back, but we had made a promise and he'd find a way without a boat. Who knows, maybe one would magically appear for him too.
I put Raven on the rudder as I picked up the oar and began to row us back.
"Robin, I don't think I can walk anymore, my feet hurt," How did Bruce put up with me when I was this young?
But I held in my sigh as I turned to her, "I'll carry you the rest of the way, don't you worry."
She beamed in a way I had rarely seen her smile before, but no power came with her emotions, as if it was gone, the only remnants what was left in me, in the team.
And that remnant is what is getting me through this alive I swear.
We stopped against the ledge where Slade and I first entered the place with no trouble and as I got off Raven climbed onto my back, my body groaning in protest but we were so almost there, it was only ten thousand stairs once I climbed this bit. Just ten thousand. 
Lord give me strength.
"How about a story to pass this time?" I asked, though it was mostly to distract me from the pain, exhaustion and thinking of the ten thousand steps. I felt her nod behind me, and tried to swallow before I began but my mouth was too dry for even that, "This is the story of Raven," I began, hoping my voice didn't sound as scratchy as it felt, "She was my very good friend. She was very brave. Together we fought evil, we beat monsters and villains and we kept our city safe," Hopefully my panting didn't sound as bad as it was as I begun to climb the cliff face, "But even though she was doing good, Raven was always afraid that deep down inside, she was bad. See, from the day she was born people told her that someday, something terrible was going to ha-" I broke off as the whole place began to shake.
I spared a glance down to see the lava splitting and an army of those fire creatures come swarming out, but they went straight up past us as a crevice opened above us and the rock started to brake apart.
One step forward at least. And then the grip I was holding broke off. Two steps back. I dug my fingers into the rock, this time my glove started fraying under the pressure as I tried to regain a hold and I felt the stone ripping at my skin and blood begin to flow. I wasn't going to stop our descent with one hand though.
I removed my other from supporting Raven, she was gripping tight as death anyway, as I dug it into the rock, the glove quickly fraying and my blood quickly flowing. 
It was luck that I caught onto an outcropping and my body just suddenly lost all momentum, and a ton of weight from my back as Raven let out a scream. I turned my head to see her plummeting towards the lava.
"Raven!"
There was no time to think, I pushed myself off the rock and began to fall after her, streamlining myself as much as possible as I easily caught up to her, wrapping her in my one of my arms as I reached for my grapple, just praying for somewhere to connect and swing as death got closer. 
I pulled it from my belt and fired at one of the rocks jutting out of the newly added lava-fall the split had created, not realising my grip on Raven as we swung across, my tip of my boot connecting with the lava but I ignored the new blisters as they instantly formed from the heat and we landed on a rock outcropping and now I could feel the rock under one foot, knew that I had burnt away the bottom of my left boot
I didn't even bother to take the time to reel my line back in as I just let it go and continued running towards more solid ground, the rock splitting behind me, my breath coming in much more laboured pants then it should have been. I was forced to leap from rubble to rubble as it finally cracked beneath me, and I thanked all my focus training as black dots began to appear in my vision but with a final leap I tucked Raven close into my body, one hand supporting her head, and we rolled onto solid ground.
"You okay?" I quickly knelt as she stepped away, her expression changed from frightened to despair, "You didn't get hurt?"
"Robin, why are you doing this?" Her voice no longer sounded young, it sounded like her again. Like the weight of the world was back on her shoulders, like she was full of guilt and regret.
"You do  remember don't you?"
She nodded and turned away as I forced myself back to my feet, ignoring the pain and bloody footprint trail I could now see behind me.
"The story you were telling, I can see it," She explained, "Bits and pieces. You, our friends, my father. Like it was a dream, a nightmare. Whatever it was, it's over."
"Raven, there may still be a way to-"
"Nobody can stop him," There was no room in her voice for argument, just resigned fact, "I remember that. You came down here for nothing."
"I came down here for you," I said as I limped over to her.
"Why? I can't help," It hurt to see tears in her eyes, to hear the defeat in her voice, "My powers came from him. And now that he's done with me, I don't have them anymore. There was a prophecy, Robin, and it came true. It's all over now."
I knelt down next to her as she fell to her knees, me trying to ignoring the pain in my knees, her trying to hold back tears, "Yeah, it's the end of the world. But so what? We're still here, still fighting. Still friends."
"Look at me Robin, there's nothing I can do," She burst out, "There isn't any hope."
"Then I guess I'll just have to have enough hope for the both of us."
She didn't fight back as I lifted her back onto my back and began to walk, the steps were in front of us, all ten thousand of them. But I don't care if I'm sick halfway up, we have to make it to the top, we have to beat Trigon. I have to see Slade one more time.