Bring The Heat

90. No Way In Pt 1

-(7 MONTHS EARLIER)-

Grey clouds hung in the white skies, peering down as an uncaring audience to the desperate scene below.

"C'mon, don't do this!"

The plea barely broke the silence brought about by the oppressively deafening, thick wind, entirely ignored as Robin continued loading her bags and stray items she wasn't sure how to pack into the car.

"Robin... stop..." Rebound begged, falling to his knees as the wind beat him raw. He exploded with emotion and passionate tears of pain and the indescribable despair of losing someone by any means, and yet behind him stood Cece, and in front of him BM and Robin, all holding blank and ambiguous faces and minds in a way that seemed suppressive.

Staggering forward, he grabbed her hand, but she just smacked his away, not even looking as she got in the car. "Please..."

Robin spun the crank on the door, rolling up the window, but Rebound jammed his hand through the gap and gripped it tightly.

"How is this gonna help?"

Finally, she looked at him. Instantly he saw that behind her blank face, behind those empty eyes, was an immense... weariness. She was tired...

"I don't know..." she said, "but I have to do something."

"You need change? I can change. ME. We can make this better! Let us do this for you!"

"Who's 'us'?"

Rebound lowered his head, and peered back at Cece. With a little more clarity now, he could see that she wasn't emotionless either - her face held a subtle vindictiveness, hidden by a much more overpowering desire to feel nothing at all. But BM... he just stared on ahead.

"By 'us' you mean you, right?" Robin continued. "Because nobody else is gonna change, because they can't and because they shouldn't. And fuck me, neither should you! This... this is why I need to leave. You keep trying to be the good guy, and it's hurting you, and it's- it's smothering me!"

Robin finally pried his hand off of the crank, and began to turn it speedily. Rebound barely slipped his hand back out before it was caught in the window.

"BM!" he exclaimed, leaning through the front window now, "You seriously think this is what's right for her?"

BM turned slowly to him. Even with all of this clarity, his blankness remained, and was carried in his soul-crushing response.

"It was my idea."

In stunned silence, Rebound felt a mixture of betrayal, and horror at the realization that what was happening wasn't some freak accident, spur of the moment choice - it was a decision that everyone had made. In this loss, this betrayal... he felt so vulnerable and alone. And like an animal would under the same conditions, he lashed out.

"This is because you blame yourself for what she did, isn't it?"

BM turned back to stare straight at the road ahead, and Robin bit her quivering lip in the back seat.

"You fucking- are you kidding me? She needs our help! But no, that's too much, huh? Big old BM, so sad, tormented, locked in his big smart brain, hurting all the time! All you can do is hurt people? That's the idea rolling around up there right now, huh? So you just give up. You don't even TRY to help us! You keep us, look after us, save our fucking lives- and the second you make one mistake, oh, too bad, another person who's life you've RUINED! Let's box them up and ship them off to somewhere you'll never hurt them again! Throw them back to the wolves because you convinced yourself that you weren't doing any better because lately all you've been tunnel visioning is the fuck ups! The mistakes! Cut and run, is that who you are?"