Chapter Three

Ivy left him for a little while. Robin curled up on the flower and sniffled into his lace-covered arm. He was careful to not smudge the make-up too much. The thought of Ivy having to redo anything...

Ivy came and went, watering her flowers, stroking and cooing her mean plant, or petting Robin's head as if nothing was wrong. Robin kept his face in his sleeve. He didn't even want to look at her.

Batman has to be coming soon, Robin thought. He has to be coming.

Robin just was afraid of Batman seeing him like this. He knew he looked awful. The thought of Batman seeing him looking this way, like a girl, like a failure, made him afraid of when Batman was going to come, even as he prayed for the man to suddenly burst into Ivy's hideout to rescue him.

After feeding her carnivorous plants small chunks of meat out of a bowl, Ivy walked around the place, talking amicably on a small cell phone.

“Dr. Page? Hello, dear, it's Ivy. Yes. It has been a while... No, no, I'm not calling for that... I was wondering if you still practiced in your...special field? No, not for me, I need you to come to attend to a...little friend of mine. He's young, but you can handle that, right? Now, now, you know better than to ask questions...”

Robin gazed up at the woman, his eyebrows wilting in fear over his painted eyes. What was she going to do to him now?

“Yes, dear...yes, I'll cover all the costs—after the completion of the operation,” Ivy added, fluffing one hand through her red hair. “You'll need to bring everything...especially the anesthesia...the kind you used on Harvey that one time, yes... It's a crucial operation. I need you to remove something for me. No, no, nothing else needed. Just be sure to bring everything. I”ll fill you in when you land. I appreciate it, darling. See you in a few hours.” Ivy closed the cell phone and glanced over at Robin. She saw his horrified expression and smiled slowly at him.

“Wh-who was that?” Robin asked her.

“An old friend. A doctor we...naughty people can call when we need a favor.” Ivy sauntered over to Robin, taking his chin her hand. “She's going to fix a little condition you have, baby.”

“I don't have a condition.” Robin tried not to think about what Ivy could mean...but he couldn't help but imagine exactly what she was talking about.

“Yes, you do,” Ivy told him, and turned him over on his back. “We're just going to...remove it...and then...you'll be all better.”

NO. Robin pushed her arms away from him, scrambling onto his knees. “You're not doing anything to me!” he screamed at her, and tumbled off the flower onto the grass. He didn't care if Ivy's monsters were everywhere. And he didn't care if he promised her that he'd behave. She was not going to do that to him. He was a boy. He wasn't a girl, he was a boy, and he'd rather get eaten by her mean plants or lose his mask before she took his manhood away.

Robin didn't expect her to fall on top of him, flattening him against the ground. Robin shouted as best he could, kicking and fighting and trying to squirm out from beneath her weight. But Ivy wrapped her arms around him tightly until he was grimacing in pain. She hauled him onto the flower, delivering a fierce slap to his face that cut his lip with one of her nails. Before Robin could recover vines tightened around his wrists and ankles, spreading his arms and legs out tightly.

“I won't let you!” Robin screamed at her. “You can't do this! Please don't do this!”

“You don't need it,” Ivy said, checking his ankles to make sure he was secure. “And you won't even feel a thing. Trust me, darling, you'll feel much better after it's all over.”

“LET ME GO! NOW!” Ivy hit him again, harder this time. Robin could feel a line of blood dribbling down his lip.

That was when it happened. A low boom that seemed the shake everything, the noise muffled only by how far away it seemed. It had to be in Ivy's complex though—or at least directly outside. There was another one, stronger than the first that shook everything Ivy's twisted garden.

“What—what the—” Ivy didn't finish. Robin saw bright worry glaze over her eyes, her mouth slowly falling open in worry. “Oh, no. No. That's not possible.”

Robin felt hope and relief flutter to life for the first time in hours. He was here.

“Not possible,” Ivy continued as a swarm of her vines and vicious flowers headed for the exit to investigate the noise. “He—”

He's here! Robin thought. And from the sound of it, Batman was using one of the exploding disks he used for breaking into hard-to-enter places.

“Go!” Ivy shouted at her mean plant. “Go get him! And don't stop until Batman's dead, do you hear? Or I'll use you to line my garden!”

The mean plant lunged and slithered out of the large room. Robin heard a few more explosions after a few minutes, each one getting closer to them, Ivy paced nervously and yelled at her other plants to cut Batman off. Robin hear random noises for another few minutes, and he twisted anxiously in the vines that held him. Ivy must have been anxious too, because she suddenly marched towards the door, fists clenched an legs rigid.

That was when he came in. Ivy backed away from the door, a shrill scream catching in her throat. Batman seemed to move on her like the mean plant had descended on Robin. His whole body was taught with rage, and he looked even more horrifying with his shredder cape and the flecks of blood on the lower half of his face and staining his costume. Ivy staggered back but in one fluid motion Batman had caught her forearm, his fingers tightening around. She protested wordlessly as his hold tightened, until she was mewling and whimpering like a child. He jerked her toward him, and her legs shook as he shoved his face into her own, walking into the room and pushing her along with him.

“Where is he?” Batman demanded. His voice was low and almost sinister, compacted with rage that made even Robin want to shrink away. “If you've hurt him I'll—” Ivy tried to shirk away as Batman scanned the dark room. It took only a few moments for his hellfire eyes to locate Robin, tied down spread-eagle on the flower. Batman's gaze froze. As he stared his hand weakened its grip on Ivy, and she stumbled to the floor, voice grating. Batman continued to stare at Robin. The disbelief in his eyes made Robin burn with humiliation. He could imagine how he looked; pathetic and clownish, almost unrecognizable. He shifted his eyes away from Batman, unable to look at the man's numb expression anymore.

Robin's break of contact brought Batman back to his senses.

“You...bitch...”

Ivy staggered to her feet to run, but received a blow to the side of her face that spun her body and dropped her to back the ground. She shrank against the ground as Batman's hands feel on her, the gloved fingers digging into her arms.

“I didn't hurt him!” she yelled. “I just—I was only—” Batman squeezed harder, and she squirmed and twisted franticly.

“What did you do to him?” Batman hissed.

“I—he—”

“What did you do to him!”

“...please...”

Batman stood hunched over her, his massive shoulders rising and falling heavily as Ivy moaned pitifully in his grasp. After a few moments, Batman seemed to remember Robin was there. He looked over his shoulder, and Robin saw the terrifying rage in his eyes lift.

“I have more important things to take care of than you right now,” Batman said, turning back to Ivy. “Consider yourself lucky. But if you ever...” His voice pitched low, so low that Robin couldn't hear what he said next. But a shadow of sick fear passed over Ivy's face. Batman threw her to the ground and marched toward Robin.

Robin could stand to look at Batman as he felt the man cutting away at his restraints. He closed his eyes behind his mask, turning away his head. Batman picked him up quickly, fingers almost twitchy and uncertain, and Robin was held tightly against his chest. Robin numbly grabbed him. Over Batman's shoulder he could see Poison Ivy, still on the ground on her hands and knees. A strange, vindictive surge of hatred surged through him as he saw her lying there. She didn't move, or even look at them, as Batman carried him away from the flower, through the garden and towards the door. Robin buried his face in Batman's shoulder, and tried to squeeze out the last few hours. He choked out a sob, but he forced the rest down.

In the Batmobile Batman laid him out on the passenger seat. Robin almost started crying again as he saw the familiar lights blinking out from the almost comforting gloom.

Batman's masked face was frantic and almost uncertain as he took off his cape and started rubbing at Robin's face, then stopped halfway through and almost roughly pulled the dress over his head and flung it to the ground. He was spitting on the cape to wet it and make the make-up come off faster, but some of it wouldn't and he had to rub harder. It hurt, dragging across his skin. Eventually Batman just took off what he could, wrapped his now-stained cape around Robin's mostly-naked body, and closed the door a little too loudly before hurrying around the car and getting in on the other side. He revved it up and Robin tried to free his shaking arms to put on his seatbelt.

“Forget it,” Batman said. “I...just stop, I know what I'm doing.”

The words almost didn't make any sense. They kind of scared him. Robin let go of the seatbelt and lay back against the seat, concentrating a little too much on the weight of his head against the leather.

“W-what about Ivy?” he asked as the car drove off.

Batman's next words were even more scary, cold and stone-like and filled with a void of hatred. “She's not going anywhere.”

Robin looked down at his lap. Slowly, he reached up to his face, to see how much of the paint was left.

Batman swore suddenly. The loud, course word startled Robin. Bruce didn't say words like that. The criminals they fought did, but not Bruce.“I left the...it's still on the ground. We need that for evidence.” He almost looked like he was going to stop, but he didn't.

The ride was long and quiet, except for the sound of the wheels going too fast under them. Robin couldn't take the silence. It was like all of their thoughts were filling the air, and they both knew what they were thinking, and it was unbearable—

“I—I'm sorry—” Robin said. “I didn't—”

“You didn't do anything wrong,” Batman told his fiercely. “DO you understand me, Robin? Richard...you understand me? That wasn't your fault.”

“She said she was going to take off my mask...”

“It's alright. You did the right thing. You kept your identity just like you were supposed to. You were the perfect hero back there.”

“She...” Robin forced the trembling words out, throat clogging thickly. “She made me into a—she said I was a—”

“Don't. You're not. She was just messing with you, Richard. She was using you to hurt me. She wanted this to happen. She was trying to hurt you. They were lies. DO you understand that? She was trying to make you believe that she could.”

“But...she—”

“You're not a girl, Robin. You can't make someone into something they're not. This is biology. Remember? Science? It was a trick. That's all.”

Robin couldn't help but be comforted by his words. Biology. Science. Science didn't lie. It always told the truth...always. It was one of the things he liked about it. How reliable and simple it was.

Bruce didn't even explain what happened when Alfred greeted them in the cave. Alfred knew something was wrong, saw the remaining streaks on Robin's face, and he trailed after Batman, asking what had happened, what he needed. Eventually Bruce seemed to realize what Alfred was saying and ordered curtly, “Bath. Get it running. Now.”

It took Alfred a few minutes to get the bath running, and Bruce held him the entire time, only letting go with one arm to remove his cowl. He set Richard into the hot water, underwear and all, and helped him wash the rest of the make-up off.

It was humiliating, but Richard was too relieved to feel it all wash away in the hot water to care, relieved to feel clean and normal. Alfred kept asking Bruce to talk with him, what else he could do, and Bruce told him to get some clean bed clothes and a pill—Richard didn't know what that meant, “pill,” but Alfred left.

Bruce seemed to almost be on some sort of grim assembly line. Richard was lifted out of the bath almost suddenly with a terse “come on,” and wrapped in a towel. Soon after Alfred returned with clothes thrown over one arm, a pill and carefully balanced glass of water in the opposite hand. and they took him to his room to dress him. Alfred still didn't know what was going on, but Richard knew Bruce was going to tell him as soon as they were alone. He wanted to plead with him now not to, but Alfred was right there in the room, and saying anything would be almost just as bad.

“Okay,” Bruce said when Robin was in warm bed clothes, warm BOY bed clothes. Blue and solid and simple and just right somehow. Reaffirming. Comforting.

“Richard, Alfred is going to give you a pill that will help you sleep,” Bruce told him. “Something to help you relax, alright?”

“Will...will it help me forget?”

The look of pain that crossed Bruce's face made his eyes close, the skin between them wrinkle. “No. But we'll get through this. It's alright. Just go to sleep. We're going to fix all of this.”

The pill was small, pink—god—and Robin didn't even pass down his throat as he swallowed it with the glass of water.

Bruce sat on his bed next to him as he lay down, head buried against his pillow. The man's larger fingers stoked his shoulder, and Richard realized this was the first time Bruce had ever sat on his bed and just touched him, like...like his real father had. It felt good, and he was happy that Bruce wasn't going to leave, at least not until he fell asleep.

After about ten minutes, he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore.

(To Be Continued)