Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jump City burned.

Thick plumes of smoke rose up all across the city. The scorching summer sun beat down on the streets crowded with frightened people screaming for loved one or proclaiming it was the end of the world.

And the skull-shaped flying ships over their heads seemed to agree with that sentiment. The end had come.

“Man, what is Brainiac doing in our turf?!” Cyborg yelled as he thundered down one of the halls in the Brainiac mothership. His arm cannon pulsed blue beams of energy at the smaller spider-like skulls crawling along the walls and the ceilings on tiny metal legs. Their sharply tipped legs clinked against the metal surfaces as they skittered forward, trying to overtake the heroes with numbers along. Cyborg’s sonic cannon cut swathes through them but there were thousands of them. “Does this look like Metropolis?!”

Beast Boy charged through the swarming robots as a triceratops, destroying them with his horns and spiked tail. He chomped on a few as he ran back the way he had come, taking out even more of the smaller Brainiac bots. Mouth full of robot parts, he quickly transformed into his regular gangly green shape, spitting out cogs and screws and wiping at his oil-stained tongue as he did so. “Yeah, I’m flattered he thinks were big time heroes and all but this is way out of our league!”

Cyborg blasted another flying skull-bot. Shreds of molten hot alien metal rained down overhead. “Yeah and speaking of League isn’t this there –”

“Cyborg watch out!” Robin yelled as he jumped over his friend. Bo staff in hand he slammed it into a large skull bot equipped with a blaster. The metal bo staff cracked the robot in two, leaving it sparking and frizzing as the blaster on its face darkened.

Raven flew overhead grabbing more bots in large black orbs of magic and pulling them apart piece by piece leaving the metal scattered in heaps on the floor. She collected the parts, pushing them through the apertures where the bots were skittering from, clogging them and finally granting the heroes a much-needed reprieve.

Robin collapsed his bo staff and turned to face Cyborg and Beast Boy. “Me and Raven have taken care of the large bots flying around outside and directed most of the people to evacuate. Status up here?”

“Man I don’t know what to tell you. We’ve been kicking these cans every step of the way but no real resistance.” Cyborg picked up one of the crunched up bots by a leg then flung it away with a clatter. “If I didn’t know any better I’d say the thing was on auto pilot.”

Robin frowned grimly. “That’s because it is. I saw a TV report during the fight on the ground, another one of these ships showed up in Metropolis. Took them by complete surprise.”

Beast Boy didn’t try to hide a look of relief and wiped his brow. “Shew! Well that makes me feel a whole lot better.” He puffed his scrawny chest. “Even though we could’ve taken him!”

“No,” Robin said flatly, grimly. “We couldn’t. The League was probably on their way when Brainiac started his real plan. We were bait.”

Beast Boy sagged but Cyborg wrapped an arm around his shoulder, supporting his friend. “Bait or not we still infiltrated a Brainiac Mothership.” He grinned at Robin. “You think the League will let us keep this baby I could turn it into a flying base for us?”

“Maybe,” Robin said neutrally. “Can you get into the system?”

Cyborg’s smile widened. “Only one way to find out.”

The quartet began to run towards the hub of the ship and as they did Robin took out his communicator to get in touch with the final member of their team. He flicked it open and it beeped, connecting to Starfire’s. “Starfire, status on the evacuees?” he asked as he ran on.

“We are safe and I watch over them!” Starfire said joyously. Her face appeared on the small screen of the comm, smiling, and despite their peril his heart tripped over itself. It had been only a few months since their Tokyo trip but every time he saw her he couldn’t help but think about the leap their relationship had taken. Now they weren’t just friends, they were boyfriend and girlfriend.

That, however, did not get in the way of their hero work. They didn’t hover over one another or become over protective. They had their duties and Robin was still the leader, making the most effective choices and though he always wanted her by his side he knew where she would be suited to help.

“Good. Stick with them for now. Cyborg is going to see if he can take control of the empty ship. Robin out.”

He had nearly closed the comm when Starfire cleared her throat. “Ahem, aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Huh? Oh.” Heat spread across Robin’s cheeks and he fought hard not to grin like a love-struck idiot. “Love you.”

“I love you too,” She replied tenderly and the comm clicked shut on her end.

Cyborg laughed thunderously as they drew closer to the heart of the mothership. “Man that just doesn’t get old!”

“Robin showing affection?” Raven smirked. “Sure doesn’t.”

Robin huffed. “Guys –”

“Uh uh.” Cyborg shook his head. “Don’t ‘guys’ us. We’re with Star on this one. If there’s one person that’ll make you loosen up a little it’ll be her. Now let’s get this show on the road so you can get back to your girlfriend.”

They turned a sharp corner and a huge gray metal door at the end of another long hall stood in their way. Beast Boy ran ahead, turning into a rhino and charged at full speed. He bashed into the door, denting the metal and ripping it clean away.  

Cyborg, Robin, and Raven swiftly entered behind him, magic and weapons ready but the bridge was empty. A singular sleek metal chair with thick, tube-like wires dangling overhead sat in the center of the room. Around the circumferences of the bridge was one long console with hundreds of monitors, buttons, and switches. The walls were all monitors, showings a clear 360 view of the world around them.

Cyborg whistled, impressed, and raced to the nearest bank of buttons and ports. He lifted his right hand and the index finger became an input socket which he thrust into a port. Slowly a few of the buttons turned blue as his systems began to meld with the ship. “Man, this thing is old but still thousands of years ahead of whatever we have. If Brainiac made a better ship than this I feel sorry for the League right now.”

“Can you control it?” Robin asked, looking around the left of Cyborg.

Beast Boy slunk over to another row of buttons. “Do you even know what half of this stuff does?”

Cyborg shrugged and looked casually over at Beast Boy. “I’ll have to – ” His eyes went wide as Beast Boy’s finger neared a big red button. “DON’T TOUCH THAT!” He screamed just as Beast Boy pressed the button.

Instantly everything seemed to vibrate and the floor sudden slid away.

The quartet began to fall, plummeting to the city. Beast Boy turned into a pterodactyl, his talons snatching Cyborg by the shoulders while Raven created a disk of magic for Robin. They landed safely on an empty street but the entire world seemed to be quaking.  

Watermains burst and glass exploded out of windows in a million twinkling shards. Car alarms blared but the sounds were almost muted by the sharp hum coming from the mothership.

“Beast Boy what did you do?!” Raven yelled as she released the magic disk Robin rode. The black disk shred away and Robin staggered as the ground heaved beneath his feet.

Beast Boy scrambled to stay upright, he swayed back and forth, his face going even greener as if sea sick. “It wasn’t me! I swear!”

“It really wasn’t,” Cyborg said, his cybernetics glowing a brighter blue. He tapped a few buttons on the computer imbedded into his cybernetic arm. “That button just let the floor slide away. That’s it.”

Robin pulled out his bo staff again, using it to steady himself. “If it wasn’t Beast Boy then what was it?!”

As if in response to the question, banded metal tentacles of gray suddenly burst from the base of the mothership and stretched out over the city. A clear blue field began to stretch between the tentacles, cordoning off the city from the rest of the ground, the world.  

“I think we’re getting bottled over here!” Cyborg shouted, surprise and distress plain on his face as he tapped the arm computer faster

Beast Boy began to pace in panicked confusion. He fisted his spikey hair with both hands, on the verge of yanking out fistfuls in a panic. “Dude can you stop it?”

“I’m dealing with a twelfth level intellects alien tech,” Cyborg yelled as he furiously tapped keys on his arm console. “IT’S GONNA TAKE A MINUTE!”

“We don’t have that.” Robin began to run for the outskirts of the city. “We won’t be able to do much if we’re stuck inside the forcefield. From what I know you have to be on the outside if you want a chance of disabling it. We’ll have to figure out how to take it down after its up. Titans, retreat!”

The three obeyed without question and they headed towards the edge of the city. Feet pounded over churned up asphalt as they leapt over rubble, flipped cars, and destroyed robots. Beast Boy turned into a wooly mammoth, stampeding through the biggest blockages that impeded them and in little order the edge of the city came into view.

Overhead the translucent blue field was coming down faster. It rippled in the failing sunlight, turning everything inside a strange azure.

“Raven can you fly us to the edge?” Robin asked.

Raven lifted her hands, her eyes glowing then she swayed, stumbling lightly. “Can’t… something about this technology it’s… interfering with my concentration.”

“Same with my tech.” Cyborg continued to tap at the console on his arm. “I can’t even call the T-car.”

Robin frowned grimly. Even if they were all riding beast boy in T-rex form they still wouldn’t be able to make it.

The force field was almost down now but they were close! One and all picked up the pace, panting haggardly as they came to the edge of the city—

Just as the force field slammed into the ground.

Beast Boy ran into it at full speed and staggered back, groaning. “Dude what hit me…?”

Robin skidded to a stop and pounded his fist helplessly against the force field. “No!”

“Starfire’s still out there.” Cyborg pulled up his comm interface, trying desperately to reach her but it was no use. “Comms are down too but maybe she can still help us.”

“There she is.” Raven pointed up to a red-haired figure in the sky quickly flying towards the force field.

The four looked up, waving and trying to catch her attention.

“She probably can’t see us from that high up,” Cyborg said as he waved is arms.

Beast Boy rolled up his sleeves determinedly. “Leave it to me then!” At once he began to transform into big animals, staring with a gorilla, then rhino, elephant, mammoth, t-rex, roaring up at her.

“Let’s see if she sees this.” Robin took a red flare from his belt and pulled the cap. Bright sparks erupted instantly, cascading down the tube. He flung it up as high as he could and it exploded into an array of red and yellow bursts.

Spots danced in Robin’s vision as the flare’s bursts faded. He blinked several times and when his eyes finally readjusted he saw Starfire gliding down to their location….

And a familiar bat-shaped plane flying far higher overhead.

Ice dropped into Robin’s stomach like a lead weight. Blood drained from his face. “Oh no….” He whispered.

Raven looked up with just a faint wide-eyed expression, Beast Boy gaped, his mouth hanging open, and Cyborg simply stared.

“Is that… who I think it is?” Cyborg asked, stunned.

“Duuuuuude…,” drawled Beast Boy.

“Wow.” Was all Raven said, her voice filled with an edge of impressment.

Forcing what little calm he had left to his name, Robin forced his eyes away from the bat-plane and watched as Starfire landed on the other side of the force field. This couldn’t be happening. His luck couldn’t be THIS bad. “Starfire, please you have to get out of here,” Robin said, his nerves on a knife’s edge.

Starfire merely blinked at him, shaking her head. She opened her mouth to ask what he was saying but he couldn’t hear her.

Panicked now, the mien of stoic leader began to fray. He pointed in the direction of the bat-plane. “DO NOT GO TO THAT PLANE!” He practically jumped, trying to mime what she shouldn’t do. “GO BACK TO THE TOWER. GO TO BERMUDA. TAMARAN. ANYWHERE!”

Starfire still didn’t understand him. She watched intently as he freaked out, gesturing to the direction of the plane and it was only then he realized that she probably was getting the wrong idea. Hastily he tried to pat his utility belt for a pen, paper, spray-paint, anything! “Please don’t go to that plane! Please whatever you do!”

Starfire nodded eagerly, mistaking what he wanted and lifted back to the sky, heading, to his dismay, for the plane.

“And there she goes,” Raven said flatly.

Robin’s knees felt like jelly. His heart thudded like a racing hare in his chest. “This is bad.”

“Is it?” Cyborg asked incredulously. “Because it looks to me like….” He paused to look at Beast Boy who swung around to look at him, their faces stretched with excited grins.

“We’re about to meet BATMAN!” They said in unison.

Beast Boy lifted his arms and shrieked like a fan girl at a boyband concert. “How’s my hair? Is my breath okay? Anyone got an autograph book?!”

“I hope he signs my arm!” Cyborg grinned, and pulled out a pen that matched his blue cybernetics.

“Dude I hope he signs my face!”

As the pair began to fanboy over the Dark Knight, Raven took a step towards Robin. He stared desultorily out to the other side of the forcefield, helpless to stop Starfire from seeking out the bat-plane. “You don’t seem excited,” she commented shrewdly.

“I’m not. It’s been two years.” He stared at the space where Starfire had stood. “And I… haven’t told him about Star.”

“Oh where could that plane have gone?” Starfire asked fretfully aloud. She floated several stories off the ground and flew slowly, looking for the strange plane. Darkness was starting to settle over the world now and despite thirty minutes of searching she still couldn’t locate the plane.

Robin had seemed to adamant that she find it, she couldn’t possibly disappoint him, fail the mission.

It had seemed like an easy enough task to accomplish at first. She had noticed the plane on the search for her friends but hadn’t paid much attention to it, thinking it some government aircraft.

Now it was nowhere to be seen.

“Oh if only Cyborg were here, surely he could track it.” She landed in an area between the forcefield and a grass clearing on the outskirts of town.

Despair bound her heart. Her friends were trapped in the bubble and she had no way to get them out or to find the plane that Robin had seemed so eager for her to locate!

“Perhaps the plane has gone back to where it came from,” she speculated aloud again. “Maybe I can break this shield?”

Starfire lifted her hands and began to beat her fists against the dome. The reverberations rippled across the surface of the strange material but it didn’t crack.

Eyes glowing green, she called a starbolt to her fist, ready to try that when a dark shadow appeared at the corner of her left eye.

“That won’t work,” a dark, serious voice said.

Starfire gasped in surprise and whirled, the starbolt stilled pulsing around her fist. “Come into the light! Make yourself known!”

For a moment there was no movement, then slowly, the dark figure crept out of the twilight. His cape was wrapped tightly about him and the only visible body of him was the lower half of his face exposed from his pointy-eared cowl.

Starfire shrank a little. Fear thrust itself into her chest and didn’t let her rise. Whatever this creature was it was extremely dangerous. “Who… what are you?” she asked smally.

“Batman,” the Dark Knight said grimly, his scowl a thin line upon his severe face. “I’m here to see my son.”

Chapter Text

Starfire flew at shoulder-level behind the man draped in the long black cape that called himself Batman. Evacuees gasped and whispered and stepped back when they saw him but truthfully, honestly, she had no clue who he was.

Despite his frightening appearance he was a hero, no doubt, but she had never been one to keep up with current events. The TV in the tower was almost always switched to a show or movie one of the boys wished to watch or it was used for the playing of the video games.

When she had first some to Earth she had been interested in its happenings but witnessing so much destruction and pain had disquieted her, made her feel guilty as if she should be flying across the globe to help. Raven had helped her understand that they couldn’t be everywhere at once, that they could only do what they could so she had avoided the news reports and when things had gotten better she simply hadn’t started watching them again.

Now she wished she had, at least she would have had a clue as to who this man? Bat? Thing? Was and just who was his son.

Batman stood before the crowd, a stern look upon his face. “Aid will be arriving shortly. The majority of the Titans are on the inside of the forcefield. If you have family members still inside the city they are safe. We just have to find a way to get the field down.”

Starfire could sense people wanted to ask questions, but none dared. They seemed in fearful awe of the creature. She was still a little fearful herself but he was on their side and there was something a little familiar about him that she couldn’t put her finger on, something about his manner and driven succinctness.

The whump whump whump of helicopter blades arose in the south and the frightened evacuees looked in that direction. Starfire did too and breathed a sigh of relief that help was on the way for the displaced citizens. With them taken care of she could finally focus on how to rescue her friends.

“My thanks for—” She turned to address the man in black and paused when he was no longer there. Her eyes quickly, expertly, scanned the places that he could have gone and she spotted him already quite a distance away. She sped after him and floated lower, speaking at his right as if he had never left.

“My thanks for offering the people of the city assurances,” she said brightly.

The Dark Knight whirled to her, his frown even more severe than before. “How did you do that?” he demanded.

Starfire blinked and slowly placed her feet on the ground. “Do what?”

“How did you know where I went?”

“Oh that! It is no hard thing to know once you have plenty of practice. Robin has taught me the trick of it,” she said proudly.

Batman grunted in disapproval and continued to walk away. “Is that what he’s been doing out here?”

Star continued to follow him, moving further and further away from the crowd of evacuees and towards an open field at the edge of the city. She gasped in delight, clutching her hands together and pressing them against her chest. “Oh you know friend Robin? Joyous!”

The Dark Knight stopped suddenly and tapped a hidden button on his gauntlet. The air in front of them rippled, revealing the plane that had been camouflaged. The top hissed open and slowly the man turned to her and though she couldn’t see his eyes she could tell that he was regarding her critically. “He’s never mentioned me to you?”

“Should he have?” Starfire asked hesitantly. She tapped her chin, trying to think back. “He often keeps secrets, at least in the past, but he is getting better at being more open and I think I would remember if he had mentioned a frightening pointy-eared man in a cape.” She smiled brilliantly. “We will ask him later. First, I will help you find your son.”

“He is my son,” Batman said flatly.

Instantly Starfire’s smile fell and her eyes went wide. Her jaw swung open. If it could have hit the floor it would have. She pointed to him then back to the dome. “Then you are… then he is…?”

Before Batman could make a move, Starfire lunged in and hugged him tightly, taking his feet off the ground. “You are Robin’s father! Joyous day!” She spun Batman around happily. “I have longed to meet his family! I am –

Starfire tried to tighten the hug but her arms only hit herself. Surprised, she blinked and found that the Dark Knight was no longer in her grasp. He was standing by the plane again, scowling at her. “Don’t do that again.”

“My apologies,” she said hastily with a nervous laugh. “I am oh so happy to meet more of the Robin family.” She took a few eager steps forward and held out her hand. “Please allow me a proper Earth greeting. I am Star—”

A black drone silently winged overhead. Batman lifted up and arm and the drone swung under his arm, holding onto the underside of his gauntlet like a bat. The eyes on the cowl lit up as he read the information that drone had picked up. If at all possible he frowned even deeper than before. “These aren’t Brainiac’s typical readings. Something is wrong here. The files require more analysis.”

Starfire gasped in alarm. “Should I go warn Robin, your son, my –

“No. Readings indicate that a different source has tampered with Brainiac’s code. I can’t recognize it but you might once everything has been untangled. I’ll need the Batcomputer to do an in-depth analysis.” He lowered his arm and the bat drone flittered beneath his cape as it fully consumed him once more. He turned and leapt flawlessly into the plane. “Come with me.”

Hesitation clouded Star’s beautiful face. She looked back towards the dome then to the plane. “Will the others not wish to know where we are going?”

“There’s nothing they can do to help us. They’re fine exactly where they are.” Batman buckled in and fired up the plane. “Stay if you want but our chances of figuring out what’s happening are much greater together.”

The logic was sound and there was something about him so Robin like, that straight to business demeanor, focused, driven. She didn’t know him but she did believe he was who he said he was, Robin’s father and that was enough.

Well, maybe it wasn’t, but here was family, Robin’s family and she wanted to get to know him! Maybe Robin hadn’t been ready for him to be introduced, hadn’t ever mentioned a singular family member before, ever, at all, not even in passing, but fate had other plans now and who was she to refuse fate’s call?

Choice made, she flew into the air then slid into the seat behind Batman’s. The top suctioned shut and she buckled in as the plane lifted off, ferrying them towards Gotham City.

“While we are on our way,” Starfire began as the plane sped towards the East. “This will be a wonderful time to ask you many questions about Robin that I have always wished to know!”

Raven sat comfortably in a meditative lotus pose, eyes closed, and tried to calm herself. There was nothing they could do trapped in the dome except to wait for aid from the outside but there was no telling any of the boys that.

“Okay, so how about this?” Beast Boy said, his voice squeaky with excitement. “Batman, sir! It’s an honor to meet you, sir! I’ve been showing your good pal Robin the ropes ever since we met, sir! He’d be nothing without me, sir!”

“Nah man, what are you in the army? Let’s try for this.” Cyborg cleared his throat. “Yo Batman good to meet you. How’s the League doing? You heard about how we saved all of Tokyo? Pretty sweet right? Say how about you hook us up with some of that Watchtower tech while you’re here, huh? I’d love to get my hands on a few satellites!”

“Dude this Batman! You can’t just talk to him like he’s one of us!” Beast Boy protested.

“Well it’s better than that whole Doom Patrol yes sir, no sir you’re slipping into!” Cyborg returned emphatically.

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

Fighting back a loud sigh, Raven gave up the idea of meditating and slowly opened her eyes to stare at her three teammates all in some level of excitement or panic.

Beast Boy and Cyborg paced, hotly debating what to say to Batman when they met him while Robin, a spade from a nearby hardware store in hand, dug frantically at the edge of the barrier. He was waist deep in a hole and the remnants of explosive gels, sonic wingdings, and other things to try to crack the forcefield lay scattered around the hole.

“Robin, I don’t think there’s an end to the dome,” Raven said firmly, sternly, trying to reel him back in.

Robin continued to dig. Dirt shot up from the whole, leaving little mounds of earth spotted around the circumference. “Can’t stop,” he panted. “Gotta get through. Star’s out there.”

“With Batman,” Raven said reasonably. “If all the legends are true, she’s safer with him than with us right now.”

Robin huffed. “Oh yeah she’s safe alright until that pointy-eared jerk starts talking to her, starts pointing out everything she’s doing wrong or how she should be focusing on the mission! It’ll be fine until he starts getting into her head and twisting her from who she is. He’s going to ruin everything. Like he ruined me!”

“Robin, dude….” Beast Boy said with concern as he walked closer to the whole.

Cyborg joined him, both hands held up. “Take it easy man.”

“I can’t!” The spade tip bent as it hit the forcefield one to many times, clanging like a bell to signal defeat. Robin screamed in rage and tossed the spade down as he fell to his knees. He panted haggardly, his gloved hands clutching the dirt.

Raven joined them at the edge of the hole, looking down at Robin. “Is this about why you left?”

Robin didn’t move, suddenly very still. He stared at his masked face through the dirty smudges on the broken spade but didn’t see himself. His mind was back in time, years before he had become leader of the team, when he had first put on the Robin uniform.

He had been shorter than he was now, nine, nearly ten, all energy and smiles. He laughed delightedly as he performed a double somersault over Batman’s head and landed perfectly on his feet. He put his fists on his hips, striking a proud pose. “How’d I do tonight Batman?”

“You need to work on your stealth.” Batman walked past him towards the Batcomputer. “Two-Face nearly spotted you in the rafters.”

“I had him handled.” Robin waved a hand dismissively. “Even if he had seen me I was way too fast tonight.”  

“The hostages could have gotten hurt,” Batman chided.

Robin’s face fell a little, struck by the truth of it. “Okay. Yeah fair. I’ll train on being quieter in the morning.” He gave a jaw-cracking yawn and stretched, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet. “I’m going to be heading to bed right now. I’m bushed.”

“You need to fill out your reports before you head to bed,” Batman reminded him.

Robin blinked at the large computer, the screen almost blinding. He read the time at the bottom right, a startling 5:34 a.m. “But it’s almost dawn.”

“It’s Saturday and you’re the one who wanted to go out on patrol,” Batman said sternly. “This isn’t a game, Robin. You can’t just quit when you’re tired or distressed or overwhelmed. I need to know you can take this seriously.”

“I can. I’m trying. I will,” Robin swore.

Batman pointed to a clear space to the left of him. “Then do the hard thing. Sit. Draft your report.”

Robin sighed tiredly and dragged a chair towards the computer. Batman tapped away at the keys filling out his own report for what they had done tonight, going into lengthy detail about uncommon things that had caught his eye and connecting clues to a bigger case.

Determined to prove that he could tough it out, Robin grabbed a pencil and a notebook where he kept his case files. Batman didn’t trust him with the entirety of the Batcomputer just yet. He started to write but paused and looked up, his initial question from before still heavy on his mind. “Did I… do good tonight?”

Batman didn’t hear him, already lost in his reporting. He opened a case file and squinted at a grainy photo of several men trying to creep out of a backdoor. Robin looked up and recognized one of the men. “Hey, I know him!” He said excitedly, leaping to stand on his chair. He pointed to one of the men in the photo who was holding a bowler hat stitched with a question mark on it. “I saw him in the warehouse with Two-Face tonight, sneaking off! One of those thugs called him Riddle-man… no, Riddler! I followed on the catwalk and I remember everything about his car and where they were going!”

A small grunt of approval came from Batman. The edges of his mouth tipped up into a near smile. “And this is why we report why it’s all fresh. This is why the mission never really ends.” A rare moment of tenderness overtook the Dark Knight and he reached over, ruffling Robin’s spiky hair.

Robin grinned from ear to ear as he sat down again. He lived for those all too few moments where Batman was happy with his progress and showed it. Maybe if he kept doing better Batman would be happier too. Maybe he would see he was a good crime fighter and detective. Yes, all he had to do was be better. The best!

Invigorated, he got to reporting with a relish and didn’t stop until sleep took over, pencil still in hand, bits and pieces of the case dancing in his dreams.

Robin blinked, coming back to himself as the memory faded. His hand ached and he looked down to see he was clutching the dirt with a shaking vice grip.

They didn’t know Batman. Not like he did. They didn’t know how growing up with the man would make you lose who you were. They hadn’t known the Robin of before. The Robin who had been the center of attention. Who had smiled more, laughed more, had taken it easy. That didn’t know that Robin because he didn’t know that Robin anymore. He had lost him in the quest to be the best, to make his adopted father proud – the one thing he had failed at miserably.

“It doesn’t matter,” he growled finally. “I’ve just got to get to Starfire and tell him to leave our city. You don’t know him like I know him. Even now Starfire’s probably have the worst time since coming to Earth.”  

“Please, tell me, do you have any baby photos of Robin with you?!” Starfire asked excitedly from the back seat of the aircraft, thoroughly enjoying the ride and the company of the Dark Knight.

Batman gripped the yoke of the Batplane in a vice grip and leaned as forward as far he could as if trying to get away from the vivacious orange alien girl. “For the seventy-fifth time. No.”

“Then it is wonderful that we are going to your home!” Starfire asked, undismayed by his grouchiness. She had seen Robin at his grumpiest and that didn’t deter her in the slightest either. “Might I have a copy of one when we get there? I have a scrapbook and I would love to have a picture of baby Robin in it.” She gasped as she alit upon an idea. “We can have a photo exchange! I have many photos of my friends. You will be so pleased with them. There is Robin winning the volleyball match between him and Cyborg. One of him and Beast Boy dropping a bucket of water on Raven while she meditates. She nearly shredded their souls for that amusing jest! I have the picture of their mortal souls trying to hang onto their bodies! Then I have plenty from in the tower when we celebrated his birthday last year! Oh the cake we consumed! It was chocolate, Robin’s favorite. I and Cyborg made it all through the night!”

Batman grunted at that and the plane lurched slightly as they began a descent. Starfire tried to look out the windows but they blurred black suddenly, blocking her view. The rush of water roared around them, pattering against the plane but soon that passed and the sound of rushing water faded into the distance, as the plane finally went into hover-mode and slowly landed.

“We’re here.” Batman leaned back and unfastened his seatbelts. “Stay in the Cave. Do not touch anything unless I tell you. Don’t try to leave without me knowing. You won’t be able to find your way out so don’t try. Understand?”

Starfire nodded exuberantly, an excited grin on her face. “Understood Robin’s father!”

“Batman,” the Dark Knight said emotionlessly.

Starfire beamed. “Forgive my error. I understand, Robin’s father Batman!”

Batman frowned sharply as the top of the plane lifted backwards. Hydraulics whined but they were nearly drowned out instantly by the chittering screeches of bats.

Starfire stood up and gasped in astonishment at the huge Cave. It certainly was something. A depressing sort of something.

Maybe she was judging it too harshly though, she thought inwardly. Maybe she needed to give it a chance. Determining to be open minded about the huge dank cave, she peered around, ogling the sights with as little skepticism as she could muster. “This is Robin’s… home? It is a place. Certainly. Strange that he did not tell me that he grew up in a cave such as this. If he had I would have taken him to the caves of the Ymeer forest on Tamaran, he would have been quite at home in the spookiness!”

Batman muttered something she didn’t catch, probably a compliment she thought. She flew out of the plane and landed by his side, her head on a swivel. There were rows of suits, weapons, gadgets, vehicles and deeper still were curiosities, a giant penny, a t-rex and a towering playing card.

She sped towards the many different shelves and cases and trophies, looking at everything with awed, wide eyes. “Amazing! Quite a collection! Please, tell me, which ones are Robins trophies?”

“Stop gawking, we have work to do,” Batman said sternly.

Starfire drifted toward Batman still all smiles and awe. “You are correct. Forgive me I am most excited. The only thing that would make this more perfect is if Robin were here with us and that I had a guest gift to give you for bringing me to your home! Since I do not, I shall finally introduce myself!” She took a deep breath. “I am –

“Starfire. Species: Tamaranean. Real name: Koriand’r. Abilities, Flight, strength, durability, starbolt projection from eyes and hands, language translation through lip contact.” 

Starfire deflated at the list of her abilities and even her real name. Only her friends knew of it or were supposed to. For a moment all was silent and Batman almost breathed a sigh of relief when Starfire popped up again even louder than before. She clasped her hands together, pressing them against the side of her cheek in absolute delight. “Then he has spoken of me!” she cried out with a girlish squeal.  

Batman continued to walk on. “No.” The word fell like a stone from his scowling mouth.

“Oh….” She blinked in confusion. “Then how do you know?”

“Investigation. It pays to keep tabs on who Robin fraternizes with.”

“I see,” she said a trifle uncertainly then perked up again. “Has he told you aaaanything at all?” Her heart pounded madly in her chest. Had Robin spoken of their relationship? Had he mentioned their kiss in the rain in Tokyo, how they had finally stopped tiptoeing around their feelings and had accepted they were in love?

Batman continued on until they reached a massive computer. “We don’t speak.”

For the first time since entering the cave a frown found Starfire’s face. “I do not understand. He is your son. Why would you not speak to him?”

Batman didn’t answer. He slipped into the seat before the computer and the Batdrone crawled from beneath his cape and settled on a charger. The eyes glowed red as the information downloaded onto the computer and he began to work.

The screen turned green as digital information crossed the screen. “Do you recognize anything?”

“I am staring to recognize a lot of things,” Starfire replied quietly. She could see now where Robin had fostered that dogged determination of his, how he could push everything aside for the mission, sticking to it obsessively, letting it drive him like a merciless taskmaster.

“Focus,” he said sternly. “Your friends are counting on you.”

Starfire stared at him, having more to say but he had a point. She finally looked at the screen and gasped at a familiar mischievously grinning, bald head bopping back and forth in several spots along the screen. “That is Gizmo’s work. He adorns his viruses with icons of himself. He wishes to let all know of his technical genius.”

“Last known location?” Batman asked.

Starfire trawled her mind. “I do not know. Robin investigated their whereabout but rumor said he went… to Metropolis!”

“Brainiac has too much ego to ask for help, especially from the likes of anyone on Earth,” Batman mused. “Something else is going on here. Something is wrong.”

He rose suddenly, cape snapping as he went back to the plane. Starfire followed, floating behind. “So we are going to Metropolis then?! How exciting.”

“I’m going. You’re staying here.”

Starfire blinked in confusion. “I thought you needed my help?”

“And you helped. You correctly identified this… Gizmo’s work and told me his last known location. I will take it from here until we get back to Jump City.”

“Oh you must not!” Starfire cried pleadingly. “Gizmo is never without his friends, Mammoth, Jinx, and perhaps others. You cannot possibly go into danger alone.”

“I will and you’re staying here,” he said firmly, leaving no room for debate. “Wait for my return. Don’t touch anything. When I get back we’ll return to Jump City and hopefully dismantle the barrier. You may still have more information that can be useful. These are your city’s criminals after all.”

“But—”

“I’ll be back soon.”

Starfire watched in dismay as Batman reboarded the plane. Engine flared to life and growled. The plane lifted upwards and sped towards a waterfall, disappearing on the other side.

Sadness filled Starfire as she slogged her way to the Batcomputer. She sank desultorily into the seat and slumped forward, her brow pressed against her forearms. Silky red hair draped over her slumped shoulders and folded arms. “Oh this is nothing as I imagined! Robin was born in a drafty cave, he has no baby pictures, and his father despises me!”

She sighed heavily, sadly, then a white gloved hand gingerly tapped her shoulder. Slowly, Starfire looked up and an old butler in an immaculate uniform stood to her right. He held a silver platter in his right hand and on it was a large glass filled with yellow liquid and a red bendy straw stuck within. “Pardon the interruption of your lamenting madam, but might I offer you a refreshment? If my sources are to be believed mustard is your beverage of choice?”

Starfire’s green eyes searched the kindly older man. “Who are you?”

“A far more understanding ear, my dear.” He didn’t smile but there was mirth in the wrinkles around his eyes. “Please, call me Alfred. And might I say it is a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance.”

Chapter Text

“Here we are, Miss Starfire, a late dinner. I do hope you’ll forgive the sparsity. I hadn’t been expecting Tamaranean company this evening.” Alfred placed a silver tray of cucumbers with peanut butter and anchovy sandwiches in front of Starfire and added a small saucer of strawberry’s in a jiggly yellow aspic beside it.

Sitting now at a smaller table that looked like a low workbench, Starfire’s eyes widened in delight. “My thanks, friend Alfred, and there is nothing to forgive, it looks wonderful! You know my tastes so thoroughly!” She picked up one such strange sandwich and munched happily, her spirits elevated once more. “Do you do the investigations as well?”

“Not particularly so, Miss Starfire. My source is far more direct.”

Her eyes glowed beatifically. “Robin. He has spoken about me?”

“Quite so. In great detail,” Alfred replied levelly.

She dimmed a little as a sudden thought struck her. “Oh I wish I could say the same. I apologize friend Alfred but I know nothing of you or this place or of Robin’s father Batman.”

“I’m not surprised in the least.” The dutiful butler picked up a feather duster and began to dust away at a row of batsuits while Starfire dined on her strange sandwiches. “The young master was not taught to be open about his personal life.”

Starfire picked up a spoon and dug into the jiggly aspic and strawberry’s with a relish. “Is that why the Batman has no baby pictures of Robin? They have nothing to show of those precious times?”

“Oh there are photos, but none as young as a baby. Batman is not his biological father. Robin was taken in as a young boy, adopted after… well, it isn’t my place to tell you much, I believe that will be for the young master when the time is right.”

Her shoulders slumped and she placed the delicious aspic down, the spoon stuck floating in the center. “I have such fear that he shall never tell me. He has never even spoken of his father to me. Is it because he knew he would not like me or the team? Is that why the Batman does not speak to his son?”

“No, it hasn’t anything to do with you or your team,” he assured her, never once halting in his duty.

“Then why don’t they speak? Why are they not as a father and son should be, friend Alfred?”

Alfred sighed heavily, sadly. “It is a complicated matter to explain, Miss Starfire. The young master lost something that he could not find again all on his own and he blames Batman for it. Their relationship is strained to say the least and has been for two years now.”

“Could this precious thing Robin has lost not be found?” Starfire asked desperately. “I would help look. Robin should not be without his father. No one should stay so angry for so long. Please, we must find this precious thing that was lost so they may make amends!”

“Aren’t you afraid of what that might mean for you?” the butler asked with vague curiosity. He looked at her through the reflection in the glass, but his gaze gave away none of his thoughts. “If they were to reconcile then he might return to Gotham.”

Starfire deflated some, the truth of it weighing her. “I had not considered that.” She twisted at her fingers nervously as she pondered the matter. If Robin were to make up with his father and return to Gotham what of the Titans? What of them? Then again, the Robin she had first met had been driven, hard, and angry lots of times. Perhaps that was due to his father and if bringing them together could cure that, that is what she wanted. “Family is more important,” she said gently, but determined. “It would be better if Robin could make good with his father, that I know for certain, no matter what would come after.”

Alfred paused, duster still raised and looked back at Starfire. One white bushy brow was arched as he studied her. “You care for the young master very deeply.” It wasn’t a question but a statement of fact.

Heat rose to Starfire’s face. “Yes. I do.”

“He mentioned as much, but I had not quite believed the extent of it until this very moment.” Alfred placed the duster on the top of the batsuit’s glass cases and gave her a small, curt bow at the waist. “I will return shortly, Miss Starfire. I have something I believe you should see.”

Robin walked the barren, ruined streets, his shoulders slumped, head down. The electricity in the city was blessedly still on but the power had been greatly reduced. The streetlamps that illuminated their way seemed dull and stained and cast the city in a dreary, smoggy light that reminded him unpleasantly of Gotham City.

The other Titans followed behind but they kept their distance, looking out for trouble and murmuring amidst themselves about what was bothering him.

They knew him though, knew that when he was in one of these moods it was best to give him space. And they were right.

He was at war with his thoughts, trapped with them like he was trapped in the bubble.

Memories cascaded through his mind, echoes that he could hear clearly in his head. The darkly shadowed street upon which they strode felt like any creep-infested block after sundown, filled with crooks and henchmen racing to do the bidding of some insane criminal mastermind. A rat rustled loudly through the garbage in a dead-end alley to the right of him and he stopped at the mouth of the alley and peered down the narrow lane. An old street lamp on a wire flickered at the end of the alley and cast queer shadows that took him back in time. They seemed to move in his vision, warping into the forms of him and Batman. In his mind he could hear the ragged panting of crooks racing unseen down the alleys and the mad cackling of a white-faced clown.

“We should go this way!” the shadow that was himself yelled, pointing to the right. The little boy was gone now, this shadow was taller, leaner, a little older.

“No.” Batman’s shadow formed beside him. His voice was calm but final. “We’ll go this way.” He pointed to the left.

The Robin-shadow spun to the face the towering Batman-shadow, the slim, short body taut with anger. “Why don’t you ever take my advice? Why don’t you ever think I know what I’m talking about?”

“You need more experience.”

“I’m not a little kid anymore.”

“You’re acting like a child at this very moment.” The Batman-shadow swept past his own shadowed self, heading to the left. “I know you think you’re right, Robin but you’re not. Do the hard thing. Follow my orders.”

The Robin-shadow didn’t follow at first but at length he marched in the same direction as the Dark Knight, hands curled into fists of teenage rage.

Robin remembered that night well. He gone along because he had doubted himself as he always did when he and Batman got into an altercation. Maybe Batman did know best, but each passing year, especially tripping into his teens things had gotten more strained until that night, that fateful night, when things had come to a head.

Robin squeezed his eyes shut tight, trying to block out the memory but it hit him like blow straight to the chest.

They were standing in the Batcave, soaking wet with foul Gotham river water. The thunder was so loud outside it even reached the cave.

He stood facing the Dark Knight, dripping wet and practically shaking with rage. “If you had just listened to me, we could have nabbed the Joker tonight! Now he’ll be going on another crime spree by next week!”

“Those people on the ferry needed us, Robin,” Batman returned sternly. “They were more important.”

“GCPD was well on their way. They would have been able to get everyone to safety.”

“I couldn’t run that risk.”

He swung an arm negatively through the air as he looked up at the cowled crusader. “Since when don’t you run risk, Batman? When did you stop caring about the mission?!”

Batman took an angry step forward. “The mission is to help people, Robin.”

“Not stopping the Joker isn’t going to help anyone!” he shot back. “You could have handled the ferry. I could have gone after the Joker.”

The lower half of Batman’s cowled face went rigid with anger. “No. You will not face him alone. Ever. Are we understood?”

Robin stretched his arms out to his side in challenge. “You can’t stop me forever!”

“I can and I will not stand insubordination, Robin. Our work is too serious. You work with me you do the hard thing. You follow my orders.”

Robin shook with fury. “Why don’t you think I can do it? I’m good, Batman.”

Batman spun away, ending the conversation in his brusque manner. He always ran when their arguments got too heated, shutting him out as if pushing him away would solve the problem. “Make your reports and calm down, Robin. That’s an order.”

Robin ignored him. “Maybe I’m just never going to be good enough for you. Is that it? Always to be the little kid who you’ve got to keep one eye on?”

“I didn’t say that,” growled Batman. “But the more you keep letting this rebellious streak master you the more I’m considering it.” The Dark Knight gripped the back of his chair. “What’s happened to you, Robin? You were never like this before.”

“You’re right,” spat Robin. “But wasn’t I always too thoughtless, always laughing at the worst time to give away our location? Never focused enough? Never driven enough?! Little by little I got rid of all of that, all of me, and you don’t like it? I train and I investigate and I sleep just so I can wake up, train and investigate some more and you still don’t think it’s enough?!”

“I didn’t say that!” snapped Batman. “This conversation is over. I gave you an order.”

“You didn’t have to say it.” He pointed at Batman’s back. “But I’ll show you what I can do. I’ll show you how much letting go of everything I ever was paid off.”

And he had tried to.

Tried being the operative word.

In the end Batman had been right. He shouldn’t have tried to take on the Joker alone.

He could remember hanging there wrapped in chains over a bubbling vat. Noxious green gasses rose in streamers every time a large bubble of chemicals popped at the surface. It was the closet he’d ever come to death but also victory against the Joker. He had the clown right where he wanted him, and then Batman was there, freeing him, slamming the Joker’s face in.

The police had come to take the Joker away, and after on a nearby rooftop, the argument that had finally snapped them apart.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into you, Robin, but you need to stop it,” Batman growled angrily. His typical grim composure was nowhere in sight tonight. He was furious. “The Joker could have killed you tonight. I told you you weren’t ready and you disobeyed.”

“I had a shot.” The Boy Wonder produced a new wingding he had been working on, with a boomerang quality. “One last wingding and I would have knocked him out and stopped him from releasing the toxins in the water supply!”

“And then what, Robin? Let the fumes kill you?”

“I would have figured something out!”

“No. You wouldn’t,” snapped Batman.

“If you could have done it I could too!”

“You’re not me, Robin!”

Those words broke something he had carefully guarded inside of him and turned that something into fuel for the fire of his anger. “I gave up everything I ever was for this! Friendships, interests, trust, life, who I WAS. I gave it all up for you. I can’t tell you what my favorite anything is or when it was the last time I wanted something other than to catch a criminal! I gave up everything for you and your mission because you were all that I had left! You took me in! You gave me a reason to keep going, to keep hope alive, and all I’ve ever wanted to be since then was to be like YOU!”

“But try as you might….” The words stopped there but it was too late. It had been too far but the damage had been done.

Robin stood there angrily, his neck red, his pulse hammering. “I hate you. From this moment on we’re done.”

Batman hadn’t stopped him as he ran to the edge of the rooftop, swung his way down, got on his bike and left right at the moment.

That entire ride out of Gotham had plagued him.

If he wasn’t like Batman, if Batman didn’t think he would ever be good enough, then who was he, what was he? He had spent so long trying to be him, to emulate him that he no longer recognized the boy he had been. He had utterly lost himself trying to ascend to Batman’s height, his approval, and yet he had fallen short in his father’s eyes. Batman didn’t think he would be able to meet his expectations and he had long ago forgotten who had been, leaving him in a nebulous limbo that couldn’t place exactly who he was.

He didn’t have friends. Didn’t have a life. The mission had consumed everything. His quest to be the best, to be like Batman, had dominated his life and now he would never be that. He would always be a failure to his father.

He hated to admit it now but it was more shame than anger that had made him leave Gotham.

“Hey Bird-Boy!” Mammoth roared, snapping Robin out of his dreary thoughts.

With pure mental practice he pushed the tortured thoughts to the back of his mind and focused on the familiar threat of the H.I.V.E graduates.

His bo staff came to his hand instantly and he extended it, crouching in a ready fighting stance. “Titans! Trouble!” Robin yelled and the three other Titans sped up, coming to his side.

“Not this time,” Jinx said, appearing to Mammoth’s left. She put her hands up and Mammoth did as well. “We don’t want any trouble. We came to talk.”

Cyborg arm transformed into his sonic cannon and he leveled the weapon at them. “Make it quick.”

Mammoth and Jinx looked at each other worriedly then back to the Titans. “Things are worse than you think they are,” Jinx admitted. “Gizmo had something to do with this.”

“We dunno what though.” Mammoth pulled out a H.I.V.E communicator from his belt and tossed it in their direction.

Robin caught it with his free hand, flipping the yellow and black device open.

“Somebody in one of his weirdo tech circles contacted him about a month ago,” Mammoth explained. “He didn’t give us all the details but he was excited about it. He kept saying he was moving into the ‘big leagues’. He ditched this place for Metropolis, but we hadn’t heard anything from him until today. We got that from him about an hour before the skull heads showed up.”

Robin tapped a button on the H.I.V.E communicator and the screen frizzed on. Gizmo appeared on the screen, his face lined with distress and fear. One of the lenses of his goggles was spidered with cracks and his jetpack was shooting sparks causing him to wobble and jolt in the air. “Jinx. Mammoth!” His voice was a tight, frightened whisper. “This ain’t at all what I thought it was! These scuzz-balls aren’t our kinda bad. They’re… they’re monsters! Ya gotta get to Metropolis! Ya gotta get me out of here, guys! Please! They’re –

Someone or something shouted from behind him and a bright red blast hit his back. The communicator fell from his hand tumbling into darkness as he groaned in pain, then the video went dark.

Starfire stared at the elevator the butler had taken and wondered what was up there. Probably more cave, she assumed, feeling sorry for her friend. To have lived in such a draft, barren place with such a father. It couldn’t have been easy.

And yet, Alfred was different. He didn’t seem cold and distance like Batman or driven like Robin. He had a steady equilibrium to him that belied the nature of either Batman or Robin. The questions of just how everyone operated here only brought even more questions to her mind until she felt absolutely dizzy with unslaked curiosity.

She was starting to understand why Robin had left though. If Batman was always the cold, brusque, aloof creature she had met then Robin must have grown up miserably!

Left to her own devices now, Starfire floated up to the giant dinosaur in the cave and tapped at a tooth. It wobbled in the socket and she lurched forward to make sure it didn’t fall. She could also see why Robin typically kept his quarters so barren as well. It was a strange place this cave, nothing home-like, nothing welcoming, just as cold as his father.

“Ahem,” Alfred cleared his throat and Starfire squeaked, caught, as she spun around in the air. “Please refrain from touching the dinosaur, Miss Starfire. It is quite a chore to restore it should it break.”

Her eyes found Alfred swiftly, and her green gaze followed him as he walked from the open elevator and down a long flight of stone steps hewn from the rock of the cave. There was a sleek mahogany box in his hands that he carried carefully.

She sank towards him as he reached the table where he had spread dinner and he lowered the box gingerly. He took off its lid with his white-gloved hands, revealing rows of letters within. “Perhaps the young master has forgotten to mention it, but he does write me religiously, every two weeks.” Alfred explained.

He neatly rifled through the box and snatched one up from the far right. “I believe this was his very first. Would you care to read?”

“Yes please!” Starfire grabbed the letter and gently unfolded it. Her wide green eyes eagerly scanned the letter but disappointed followed a moment later. It was short, succinct, reading like one of his many reports.

A,

Arrived in Bludhaven 8:55 p.m. Cold. Rainy. Police corruption: heavy. Stopped a bank robbery on the corner of 5^th and Main. A few heroes are already here. They’ve got things handled, cleaning up the streets. My presence is unneeded. Feels like Gotham all over again. I think Batman trailed me here. I need to go further. West Coast maybe. Will write soon.

-R

“Very matter of fact isn’t it?” Alfred said calmly as he looked through the letters.

Starfire gently folded the letter and returned it to the busily perusing butler. “Yes. It is very like Robin. Very… precise.”

“A kind word to use Miss Starfire,” Alfred chuckled. He pulled another from the box and handed that over. The letter was a little scuffed, the edges crinkled with some sort of faded brown ring, coffee maybe, on the paper. “Try this one.”

Still disheartened but curious, Starfire opened the letter. This one was longer but still succinct and report-like.

A,

Arrived on West Coast, 6:00 p.m. Location, Jump City. No hero presence. Police corruption: Light. Day, sunny. Feels different from Gotham. Stopped a carjacking 7:45 p.m. Spotted a female in a long cloak. Spotted a male all in green. Make-up? Was too far to see. Followed a male wearing a gray hoodie. Seems to be hiding something. Caught glimpses of prosthetics, requires further investigation. Could be trouble. Could be nothing.

The letter looked like it should have ended there but a few lines down was another bit of writing.

A,

Update. Encountered previously sited persons again. Encountered also another female. Alien. pursued by other alien attackers. Rescued female alien. Other three previously sited persons helped. Names: Raven. Abilities: Empath, magic. Beast Boy. Abilities: Animal shapeshifting, Cyborg. Abilities: Various cybernetic enhancements. Genius intellect.

Alien female rescued.

Deliberations between the five of us have taken place and we have decided to form a team to protect this city from further threats. More corruption than what appeared on the surface is evident now.

-R

Amendment: Forgot to report on alien. Name: Starfire. Species: Tamaranean. Abilities: Flight, strength, durability, starbolt projection from hands.

At the very bottom of the page was a smudge as if something had been vigorously erased but the eraser used had been bad and squinting close she could just make out what the final few words said.

Pretty eyes.

Just as she was done with the letter Alfred placed another in her hands, this one months later.

A,

Tell Batman to stop spying. Also tell him that he can’t cheque book his way out of what he said. We’ll use the funds for a base but I won’t speak to him. This is for the mission and nothing more.

Investigating a criminal organization known as H.I.V.E and someone known as Slade, too many updates for one letter.

We’re working on how to fight as a team. Difficult but progressing.

They’ve convinced me to have weekly pizza on Fridays. I hope that’s okay? No changes in training so no negative effects. It seems to do the team good. Starfire has never had pizza before coming here. She likes it. She also likes mustard as a drink. Her people have nine stomachs and she’s got the longest red hair I’ve ever seen.

Alfred continued to hand her letters, jumping around weeks and months as Robin wrote of his doings in Jump City.

He chose one from about a four months from the last letter. It was a little longer but she smiled as she read it.

A,

You won’t believe it, Beast Boy and Cyborg have invented a game called Stank Ball, a bunch of sweaty old gym socks tied up together! I wasn’t going to play then Starfire threw it at me and it hit me right in the face. I threw it at her but she ducked and it hit Raven. I thought I was a dead man for that! We played for hours and even Raven threw it a few times, just at me though, I guess I deserved that!

Cy’s working on a vehicle for us to get around. T-Car he calls it. I’ve been helping him out with it. It’s nothing like the Batmobile, it’s roomy and has a real radio not a police scanner and we’re making a CD collection for it!

Starfire added two Mongolian throat-singing CD’s and one that’s only Swiss yodeling. She dragged me to the music store today and said I needed to contribute but I didn't have any CDs to add. We listened to albums for hours so I could pick one out for the T-car. I figured out I like rock music today. How about that? Starfire says we ought to go to a concert. I’m not so sure but I’m considering it.

She also convinced us to go to a carnival coming to town. We’re going next week. I promised to take her on the best rides. What’d you think, maybe the Ferris Wheel? Bumper cars? She’s never been to one before and I want to make it something she’ll really remember. She’s really amazing. I’m a little nervous going to the carnival, I haven’t been to something circus-like since, well, you know, but she has her heart set on it and I want to make it special.

-R

Starfire picked up a few more, reading them intently. By the time she came to one roughly a year from him leaving Gotham the report like nature of the letters was all gone. Very little about their fights were mentioned. It was Beast Boy playing pranks, Raven recommending books, Cyborg and him working out or tinkering with the T-car, and her mentioning something she didn’t understand or telling them an amusing snippet from life on Tamaran.

“His letters become quite varied, Miss Starfire, but, it is my humble observation that there is not one since he moved to Jump City that doesn’t mention you in some capacity.” He handed her a far newer letter. “Here, this one is only a few months old.”

Starfire opened the newer letter and the handwriting, while Robin’s typical solid, swift handwriting was shaky.

A,

I kissed her. In Tokyo. It just kind of happened. I can barely think. I feel like I’ve been walking on air for a week. I asked her out on an official date after we got back to the Tower. I've never been so scared in my life! We had corndogs at the pier at sunset and it was magical. I won’t forget it. Ever. Just me and her and then the rest of the team trying to watch from afar. I really don’t know how Beast Boy thought we weren’t going to notice a green bald eagle always flying overhead or Cyborg trying to blend in with just a large sun-hat or Raven trying to hide behind a newspaper.

They went out of their way to make sure it would be perfect, that nothing ruined our first official date, not even Control Freak robbing an arcade. And they succeeded. It was perfect. I kissed her. Again.

A, I never expected this. I came here to prove myself, and now I’ve found so much more. It’s incredible. She’s incredible. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me. I have a girlfriend!

I wish I could bring her home to meet you. Maybe we’ll figure something else out but you’ll love her. I know I do.

-R

Starfire put the letter down, soft amazement on her face.

Alfred smiled kindly and took the letter from her numb grip, depositing it back into the box. “I thought it necessary that you understand the situation in full. The Robin that left Gotham is not the Robin of today. He has… changed, grown, and come into himself in many ways, none of which could have happened had he stayed here. Though their separation grieves me, it needed to be done. He had to get away so that he could grow.”

Starfire sputtered for words. “But he left angry, alone, not knowing who he was.”

Alfred nodded to the truth of it. “Yes, that is all true. But nothing would have changed beneath Batman’s wing. He could not find himself, especially not here, and not all on his own. You may not believe it, Miss Starfire, but he did not just rescue you from your alien pursuers. I believe you may have rescued him from that dangerous solitary path he was taking. The letters are proof of that. Obsession no longer consumes him. He isn’t all mission anymore. If I may be so bold, I would say that you have discovered that part of him he lost so many years ago and have given it back to him.”

Starfire swallowed hard, dumbstruck by Alfred’s opinion. “Your words are warm in my heart, friend Alfred, but that does not fix the break that has been made with his father. It must still grieve him, I know. I know my Robin.”

“Alas, you are correct, Miss Starfire. I know Batman too.” He sighed heavily. “Robin needed to leave but he left in the worst of ways, a ragged snapping of what once was. I have tried to see the break mended but my endeavors have always failed. They’re both too stubborn in their own ways. This is one problem that I do not know how to fix or if it can be fixed at all.”

Starfire looked down sadly, her heart a mix of happiness and sadness for Robin. Happy that he had found some of himself again, sad that he had lost his relationship with his father. Why couldn’t they have both? Why couldn’t there be a balance?

She opened her mouth to ask just that when the roar of the Batplane’s engines filled the cave and the plane appeared past a waterfall.

The Batplane landed and Starfire zoomed towards it. A thousand words she wished to say to Batman about Robin buzzed in her throat. The top opened and instead of the Dark Knight leaping out there came only a pained groaned.

A shaking hand gripped the edge of the cockpit and Batman weakly hauled himself only half-way out, his other arm wrapped around his middle. “Alfred….” Batman rasped weakly, his voice stitched with pain.

“My word!” Alfred cried, running towards the plane.

Starfire gasped and flew forward, grabbing him and lifting him out of the plane. “Friend Alfred, he looks badly hurt. How must we help him?!”

“Quickly take him to the surgery over there!” Alfred pointed to a small sterile looking space with a gurney and a bright white light overhead. As he spoke, he pulled off his butler’s jacket and rolled up his sleeves as he headed to the surgery. “A simple investigation and information retrieval in Metropolis shouldn’t end this badly. Oh dear oh dear, Miss Starfire, I believe things are worse than we feared.”

Chapter Text

The H.I.V.E hideout for the three best students had seen better days. After being formally expelled from the academy, they’d been punished by having to start from scratch again, leading them from plush safehouses in the best part of town to now an abandoned elementary school as their base of operation. Though dusty and defunct the dilapidated school was better than nowhere since Titans Tower was on the outside of the force field and gave them a place to try and figure out just what Gizmo had been up to.

“Aaaalright, so what do we know?” Beast Boy paced in front of an old chalkboard that he had scribbled on with a nub of chalk. Wielding a broken ruler, he tapped the crude images of a hastily drawn Brainiac Mothership, with X’s for eyes, overtop a drawing of a bell curve to represent the force field. “One! The skull-ship was a distraction. Two! The dome is still up so Batman and Star still haven’t found a way to get it down.”

In front of him sat the teens in the old desks, staring blankly at Beast Boy as if he were a teacher. Mammoth slowly raised his hand, a brow arched with incredulity. “Wait. Batman’s here?”

“Uh huh.” Cyborg nodded eagerly, a smile forming on his face. “Saw his plane and everything.”

Mammoth gave a fangirlish scream and slapped his hands to his face. “Batman!”

Jinx rested an elbow on the back of her chair and cast a sidelong glance to Raven, wholly unamused. “Do they all do that?”

“Yes,” Raven replied flatly.

“Beast Boy has a point,” Robin said seriously as he slid out of the desk and walked to a broken window. Grimly, he looked out across to the city to the slightly blue, translucent dome that held them in.

Beast Boy blinked at him, surprised. “I do?”

“Batman should have been able to dismantle the force field by now. He’s faced off against the likes of Brainiac before.” Robin tucked a fist under his chin, lost in thought. “Even if Gizmo had something to do with this, he’s more than capable of cracking his code.”

“Not if he had help,” Cyborg pointed out. “He said he was going to the ‘big leagues,’ whatever that means.”

Mammoth leaned back in his chair and brought up his legs, crossing them at the ankles on the desk’s surface. “All the stuff Gizmo left behind is in the cafeteria.” He jerked a thumb towards the door. “If you wanna take a look.”

“Let’s hurry to the cafeteria, then,” Robin said and started towards the door. “If Batman hasn’t been able to take the force field down then he either knows something we don’t or he knows less than we do. Neither is good. Let’s cover our bases. Cyborg you do your thing. Raven, Jinx you follow up with your powers. Tech. Magic. We can’t afford to miss any angle. There must be a reason the Mothership attacked here.”

Raven floated up from her seat and followed behind the Boy Wonder. “I thought we were a distraction, to divert the League from Metropolis.”

“I’m not so sure now,” Robin confessed. “I’m starting to think it wasn’t just a ruse. And I’m positive now that it had absolutely nothing to do with us.”

“So we weren’t even bait?” Beast Boy bemoaned as the teens filed out of the classroom and headed for the cafeteria.

Robin shook his head. “No. I think we were just collateral damage.”

Eerie white light spilled from beneath the cafeteria’s door as they approached. Cyborg pushed open the twin metal doors revealing Gizmo’s mad lab. Sparking wires hung down from the ceiling and scraps of tech sat cluttered on the benches and long tables. At the center of the room was a silver cube about five feet tall.

“Gizmo must have been busy before he left,” Raven commented as they stepped inside.

“Sure was,” Mammoth affirmed, kicking a small heap of spare parts near the door. “He barely left this heap.”

Beast Boy clambered past the other teens and arrived at a mountain of half-finished tech. He tossed bits of junk and circuitry over his shoulders as he dug into the pile with relish. “You know, you’d think for a boy genius, Gizmo might have invented something useful and cool. Like, I dunno, a toaster-radio-Swiss-army-knife-miniature scooter combo or something?”

“I’m more concerned about what this is.” Cyborg stepped in front of the silver cube and lifted his arm as he ran a diagnostic scan on it. “Or what it was he was making around this thing. I don’t think even Gizmo has the know-how to build this… whatever it is.”

Robin let them work unmolested and stared at a faded map of the states on the wall. A second sense itched him, telling him something wasn’t right. The other dome, the one that was the “real” threat the Justice League were trying to dismantle what did that have to do with all of this…?

Nearing the map, he dug into a pouch and pulled out a pin and stuck it unto the once brightly colored words that read “Jump City: You are here” then dragged a finger across the map to Metropolis on the East Coast. His eyes widened with horror. He had never noticed it before but they were almost perfectly aligned across the continent, forming a straight line.

Almost like a link.

He took a step back as the truth struck him and just as he did the cube in the room hummed loudly. Cyborg yelped in surprise and backed away as the cube began to rise from the table. It hovered in midair, only humming.

And then an insignia appeared in red upon all its silver sides.

An omega symbol.

“What is that?” Jinx asked, uncertainty and fear penetrating her typically mocking tone.

Raven backed away, her eyes pinned to the cube. “Something that tells me if we weren’t out of our league before, we are now….”

“It’s a Motherbox,” Cyborg said with awe. “Some kind anyway. A huge one….”

“What’d we do?” Mammoth asked.

Cyborg turned, his metal feet clanking over the old floor as the humming began to grow louder. “We run! Everybody out!”

Heroes and villains began to flee as the humming turned into a high, shrill whine. The air began to grow hot, scorching their lungs and singing their hair.

Beast Boy shifted into an elephant and thundered towards the doors as Mammoth and Cyborg flanked him. Together the three power houses burst through the school’s old doors and the teens sprang free just as the building exploded. Glass shattered from every window and door, creating a million red sparks and the heat chased them out, causing them to fly across the old school yard and land in the abandoned playground.

Moans and groans of pain echoed from the teens but they were all still in one piece. Cyborg stiffly sat up in a twisted heap of jungle gym equipment, a pole wrapped around his face. He yanked the peeling metal pole off his face then rubbed his bald head and looked around. “Everybody okay?”

“I think so….” Beast Boy said, spitting bits of an old swing-seat out of his mouth. He patted around his lanky body to make sure everything was intact.

“We’re okay but what about that?” Raven pointed to the school.

The ruins of the school sat like a dead husk, the doors thrown off, rubble strewn about. Coming out of the center of the school’s roof was a large red beam that shot towards the top of the dome. The beam easily penetrated the bubble and punched into the base of the skull ship.

The eyes of the hovering vessel glowed red and the iris’s became omega symbols.

The symbol of Apokolips.

Of Darksied.

“Giz was right….” Mammoth slowly climbed to his feet and began to back away. “This ain’t our kinda bad. This is too big for us. Jinx, let’s beat it!”

“Hey wait!” Beast Boy yelled, thrusting out a hand in their direction. “We could really use your….” He got no further as the two criminal teens raced away as fast as they could. “Help,” he finished smally.

“I hate to say it but they have the right idea,” Raven commented as she came to her feet. There was fear in her eyes but she faced the beam bravely.

“They would,” Robin grunted and stood by her side, Beast Boy and Cyborg alongside him. “If we weren’t the Teen Titans.”

“We don’t have a shot of beating this thing, do we?” Beast Boy asked, all joking gone from his voice.

Cyborg shook his head but stood firm. “Nope, but we’re gonna try….”

At the edge of the Batcave surgery, Starfire watched Alfred work. Distress marbled her face but she dared not interrupt or get in the way. The butler was grim but efficient, working quickly. Bandages were wrapped around the Dark Knight’s bare torso but the rest of him remained covered. His utility belt hung at the edge of the gurney along with several pieces of now red stained sponge and gauze Alfred used to dab up the blood and work on his stitches.

“Thank heavens it’s not as bad as it looks,” Alfred sighed as he stepped back. He cleaned his hands on a dark towel and looked at the Dark Knight with a mix of relief and dismay. “The pain killers should start to work soon, sir, but you will need a little time to rest.”

“No time,” Batman growled, his voice laced with pain.

“You must make the time sir,” Alfred chided. “You will be no good to anyone in your present condition and I will be quite displeased if you manage to ruin my good stitching. I will man the Batcomputer and seek to monitor the situation. I assume your Batdrones gathered some information?”

Batman didn’t reply with words but nodded stiffly.

“Good, then use the time it will take to parse through that information to rest.” The tired butler looked over to Starfire and motioned to a wooden chair near the gurney. “Would you be so kind as to make sure he doesn’t try to stand up for a little while?”

“Alfred – ” Batman started to protest but the butler cut him off.

“Use whatever force you deem necessary, Miss Starfire,” he encouraged, then stepped away to attend to the computer.

Starfire floated into the surgery and sank hesitantly onto the chair by the gurney. She sat cross-legged on the chair, her hands on the edge of the seat. “Um… hello again?”

Batman tried to pull himself over to the edge of the bed, but Starfire caught him with easy strength, making him lay back once more. “Oh, you must not! Friend Alfred has said you must remain here.”

“Can’t.” He hissed in pain. “Have to figure this out.”

“Alfred will try to do the figuring out,” she repeated what the butler had said. “I am sorry but I will not let you go.”

He tried to fight her grip but she was too strong and he too injured. That didn’t stop him from fighting, though. He struggled as she pleaded for him to remain still, then, from the darkness surrounding the surgery a whip snapped and a cat-o’-nine tails wrapped around Batman’s exposed torso, tying him to the gurney.

Starfire squeaked in surprise and floated backwards, her hands covering her mouth but Batman continued to struggle though his arms were pinned to his side and he couldn’t move.

“You,” he growled.

“Yes me,” a sultry voice purred. The owner of the whip stepped into the light, a willowy, lithe looking woman all in black, her gloves were tipped with claws and she wore a cowl but her ears were far shorter, cat-like. “Who else was going to make you behave?”

“I told you to stay out of the cave,” he hissed in pain.

“And I told you I’d consider it….” She leaned over the gurney, her eyes searching him. “Don’t worry, I’m not coming to cause trouble. I saw what was happening in Metropolis. The rest of the League still fighting and you retreating.” The playfulness in her voice faded to a concern that Starfire knew well. “I know you wouldn’t leave unless something bad had happened.” In an instant the seriousness was gone, the cheshire smile returning. She tapped at the tip of his cowled nose with a claw. “So relax, I’m here to help.” Slowly her head turned towards Starfire and the sultry became sweet. “Has he been giving you very much trouble, dear?”

“From the very start!” Starfire proclaimed, finally venting her frustrations to someone she could sense had the Dark Knight very well handled. “I am at my wits end with him! Which typically I say of my Robin, but I see now where he gets it from!”

“What does that mean?” he asked in a grunt.

“Recklessly driven,” the strange woman explained. “I warned you about that, didn’t I? I told you what Robin was becoming, but you didn’t listen.”

“They do not seem to like to listen to anyone.” Starfire sighed and put her chin in her hand.

“Oh I wouldn’t say all that, dear. I can bend the Batman’s pointy ear every now and again.” She dexterously jumped the gurney in one single smooth motion that made Starfire gasp and stood before her, hands on her hips. “Catwoman, dear. It’s a pleasure to meet you finally. But let’s not stand on ceremony, shall we? I much prefer Selina.”

“Catwoman,” Batman growled helplessly.

The cat burglar laughed lightly. “And he hates it when I use my real name when we’re in costume.”

“I am Starfire.” She became emboldened by Selina’s display. “Koriand’r though is my real name.”

Catwoman purred in delight and tapped a finger beneath Starfire’s chin. “Oh and you’re not a stick-in-the-mud! I like you already.”

Starfire couldn’t help but giggle, warming to the vivacious Catwoman instantly. “And I already feel a deep kinship with you. My people evolved from cats, much like the humans here did primates.”

“We’re practically family then a Koriand’r the cat.” Catwoman paused and wrinkled her nose cutely. “Well that’s not very pithy is it? Just a Kory Cat then, sort of like kitty cat.” She slid over to Starfire’s right and thew an arm around her shoulder. “We’ve talked so much about you, haven’t we, Batman?”

“Catwoman!” he seethed through gritted teeth.

“You have?” Starfire asked.

“Why of course. Do you think that Mr. Tall, Dark, and Broody doesn’t know who his son’s girlfriend is? Why I recall him telling me about the celebratory television broadcast from Tokyo, about how you were holding Robin’s hand. What were your exact words, Batman? ‘She seems genuine. Ardent. She’s good for him’.”

Starfire gasped. “You said those things about me?” She blinked at Batman. “I thought you did not like me?”

Catwoman hummed mischievously. “Oh, you have so much to learn about the Batman and his brood, Kory Cat my dear. If he didn’t like you he wouldn’t have allowed you access to the cave. I’ll share a little secret. It’s not what he says you need to pay attention too. It’s what he does.” She finally slide away from Starfire and leaned instead against the edge of the gurney. Leaning close to the Dark Knight she traced spirals on his bare chest. “Like letting me continue to pop in uninvited. He knows what’s good for him, even if he has the devil of a time saying it.”

Dubiousness filled Starfire’s face. She didn’t quite buy it. “Batman, if you like me, why have you been keeping me at arm’s length?”

Silence stretched between the three, the only sound a sharp intake of a pained breath here and there before the Dark Knight sighed heavily. “Robin would never forgive me if something happened to you.” His throat bobbed as he took in another painful breath. “I don’t know how to fix what happened. What I said to him. But I wasn’t going to endanger you. You mean too much to him.”

“On my planet we do not hide our emotions,” Starfire said. “I have learned it is… different on Earth. You are one of those, yes? You seek to hide your emotions.”

Catwoman rolled her eyes. “Bottled up and thrown to the bottom of the sea more like. Which is why he and his son haven’t made nice again. Even though it’s obvious he wants to.”

“Robin has said nothing of his father to me,” Starfire said sadly. “I think he is still very angry with him.”

“Mm, maybe and maybe not.” Catwoman teetered a hand uncertainly in the air. “You can never tell with the bats and birds. But, it seems if that trouble in Metropolis and Jump City are as really bad as they appear, you really ought to be thinking about putting your priorities in order, and what means more to you, your son or your pride, Bru…atman,” she said, obviously toying with his name and his secret identity. Without losing a hint of vivaciousness she tapped his nose again, her laughter sultry again but edged with a hint of obvious danger. “Or I will. And you really don’t want that. It’s gone on long enough. I thought one of you would be more mature but I guess this kitty was wrong.”

“Yes, why have you not done the smoothing out with your son?” Starfire asked. Now that Batman was literally lashed to the gurney there wasn’t anything to distract him or for them to ignore her over.

She thought that perhaps he simply wouldn’t answer her, but the Catwoman was like a thief, managing to steal her way through his ribcage and into his heart. She could see his jaw relax some, his muscles unspool a little.

It reminded her much of Robin, especially when they did the kissing on the top of Titan’s Tower. There was a trust there that unknit the tension, as if they knew they were safe and when they were safe, they opened up just a little.

“If I could take it back, if I could go back in time, it would be different. I would try to stop the obsessiveness from consuming him too. I would try to be a better father.”

“It is never too late.”

Batman shook his head weakly. “He doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

Catwoman looked at Starfire and gestured a hand to Batman as if to say ‘see the nonsense I’m dealing with here’.

“I cannot say for sure if you are right, but he has changed, Batman,” Starfire replied honestly. “He is not the boy you knew who left this drafty cave. But he still needs his father. Perhaps he just does not know how to approach this. Maybe he has been waiting for you to do the hard thing and make the first move?”

Something nearly akin to a chuckle ghosted from Batman’s lips. “Did he teach you that?”

“What?” Starfire asked curiously.

Batman shook his head, pushing the question away. “Never mind. Catwoman is right though. I do want to make amends. When I saw you two holding hands in Tokyo I realized I had missed something important in his life. I regret it. I still do. I wish we had been on speaking terms. I wished he had felt welcome back here, to bring you and introduce you.”

“Well, I would say better late than never, sir,” Alfred said as he appeared beneath the harsh light of the surgery once more. His face was waxen and grim. “However, the second beam has just activated in Jump City.”

“What beam?” Starfire asked, a hint of fear in her voice.

“Why I came back here,” grunted Batman. “What injured me. The dome in Metropolis had a Motherbox in it. A large one. I think Darksied is trying to make a huge boom tube. He’s trying to bring Apokolips to us by connecting two Motherboxes across the nation, it would be big enough to do it.”

Starfire gasped and Catwoman finally released him from the gurney. He started to rise and she helped him, wrapping one of his arms over her shoulders and steadying him.

Batman staggered to his feet, already reaching for his utility belt and armor. “We need to go. Now.”

“I’m coming with you,” Catwoman said, leaving no room for debate.

“Selina—

“You’re still not up to strength, Batman,” she chided. “I’m going.”

“Will we have time?” Starfire asked. “Your plane is fast but we are all the way across the country.”

Alfred nodded in Starfire’s direction. “Miss Starfire is correct and as such I already took the liberty of activating the emergency zeta.”

Batman weakly pulled his cape back on. “Good. We’ll need all speed.”

Pain bit around the edges of the Dark Knight’s mouth but he managed to walk on his own, heading the small group as they came to the zeta tube. It was built into the back of the cave like the barrel of a shotgun with large metal tumblers that spun around the outside.

“Quite impressive!” Starfire applauded. “But it looks… familiar.”

“You’ve seen one before, though you didn’t know what it was,” Batman grunted as he tapped in a code on a nearby console. “I had one clandestinely built into Titan’s Tower.”

Starfire blinked at him in shock. “All this time?”

“It’s the exit that your land vehicles take in the vehicle bay. I hid its functions in the architectural designs in case… Robin needed me.”

Starfire’s eyes glowed with cheer. So Batman did care greatly about his son! “All those times we staved off the end of the world, were you there?”

“No. I knew he could do it. He had his friends. He had you.”

Catwoman purred a laugh. “What about when you cornered Slade and –

“That doesn’t count,” Batman said harshly. “I had a score to settle with him.”

“Ah yes, because beating the man who tried to turn your son into his evil apprentice is all well and good but heaven forbid you actually talk to the boy.” Catwoman rolled her eyes. “Not that I’m complaining. I would have done worse had I been able to get my claws on that Slade. He would have lost that other eye….”

“Focus, Catwoman.”

Catwoman clicked her tongue. “All work and no play, Batman.”

“I’m serious. This isn’t like before,” Batman said as he stared into the portal. “I’m going to… need your help. Yours too, Starfire.”

“And help you shall have!” Starfire exclaimed.

Golden light suddenly spilled out of the zeta as it charged. Foreign energy hummed as the tumblers around the teleporter spun faster and faster. The golden glow began to blur and on the other side came a familiar sight – the vehicle bay of Titans Tower.

Nodding, the Dark Knight bit down his pain and raced towards the portal, Catwoman and Starfire following.

Entering the zeta was like passing through a bubble. The world distorted and swam as if they were submerged, then they breached the surface a second later and came out the other side directly in the Tower’s vehicle bay.

“Oh it is good to be back home!” Starfire shot up, spinning off the ground.

“I bet this place has some fabulous things for me to borrow,” purred Catwoman as she slipped a wrench up her sleeve.

Batman tapped a button on the side of his cowl and different lenses shuttered over the eyes, allowing him to see through the eyes of his drones. “We need to get to the city. Fast. The beam is getting larger. When it reaches capacity it will activate the boom tube. The League is working on the one in Metropolis. We need to get into that ship.”

“Then let us hurry!” Starfire said fervently. “I will not see my friends annihilated.”

“Neither will I if we can help it. We need a ride, though.” He nudged his head towards Robin’s R-cycle. “Have you got the keys to this?”

Cyborg’s arm hummed as he attached a half-slagged piece of wire and metal and circuitry to his cybernetics. It was scavenged from what they could find around the schoolyard of Gizmo’s tech. The wires instantly pushing into the open ports in his arm and the typical blue turned red as the two pieces of technological wonder duked it out. He flexed his fingers, the metal joints moving smoothly. “My systems are trying to integrate this piece of Gizmo’s tech connected to the Mothership. The barrier must be weakened where the beam is coming through. I might be able to make a sonic boom big enough with this baby to open it for a few seconds.”

“Good.” Robin punched a fist into an open hand. “Then we get back on that ship and try to shut it down.”

“I need to be down here and see what I can do about the Motherbox,” Cyborg said. “If we can’t shut it down topside we may need to shut it down on this side. Whatever it takes.”

“I’ll help. Maybe there’s something my magic can do,” Raven offered.

“It’s a plan then.” Robin nodded. “Beast Boy you’ll be with me. We’ll—

The ground suddenly began to shake again, nearly throwing them off their feet.

“Aw man what now?!” Cyborg yelled.

The red beam shooting into the sky boomed like thunder and from it’s vast crimson depths clawed out horrid flying creatures with gnashing teeth and sharp claws.

Parademons.

Robin whipped out his bo staff. “Change of plans. Cyborg. Raven. You work on that Motherbox. Beast Boy, we buy them all the time they need,” he ordered as he broke out into a run. “Titans! Go!”

Beast Boy shifted into a pterodactyl and flapped upwards. He grabbed Robin with his talons and sped them towards the slavering parademons. He released Robin as they were upon them and the Boy Wonder leapt into action.

A steel lined boot bashed into the face of the first parademon and he springboarded off that one into the chest of another. Like lightening he worked spinning, kicking, his bo staff cracking and flashing, highlighted by the red of the beam that cast all in its dreadful crimson glow.

He jumped higher and higher, using the parademons like stepping stones until he was near the top of the dome.

Beast Boy flew in circles around the slowly widening beam, destroying the mindless parademons with beak and talons. He switched into a gigantic python and wrapped the limbless body around one of the parademons, sending it off course and crashing into another. Switching to a bird next, he pecked at the eyes of another and landed on it’s back shifting into his Beast Boy form. He held on tightly as the parademon flew side to side, trying to shake him off. He managed to grab the creature’s helmet and steer it into a knot of parademons, bowling through them. “Whoo-hoo!” Beast Boy pumped a fist in the air. “Strike for the B-man!”

“No time to celebrate, Beast Boy!” Robin held his bo staff around one of the parademon’s neck, forcefully riding the mindless thing higher. “You see anything on ground level?”

Beast Boy finally released his dazed parademon and flapped into a red-tailed hawk, allowing him to see what was happening on the ground with perfect clarity. Raven was holding off parademons with her magic while Cyborg both fought and worked on the new function on his arm. The lights on his arm finally glowed blue as his systems finally won the battle and integrated the Mothership technology into his circuits.

Flapping to Robin he joined him on the back of the slavering parademon Robin rode and switched into Beast Boy form again as he held onto Robin’s waist. “Looks like Cy’s ready!”

Robin wrenched back on the staff, making the shrieking, enraged parademon fly higher. “Good. Get ready too –

A traitorous blast from another nearby parademon dislodged Beast Boy from the fiends back.

Robin looked back, his eyes wide. “BEAST BOY!” he screamed but the green teen was already shifting.

In seconds Beast Boy shifted into a goose and winged his way smoothly through the parademon hordes. The mindless, soulless husks flew after him, forcing Beast Boy to take them on a wild goose chase – literally.

Robin grimaced as he forced himself to look away and stick to his part of the mission. With Beast Boy providing the parademons distraction and Raven and Cyborg fighting on the ground, he was going in solo.

Higher and higher he forced the slavering creature to fly, keeping close to its back as the top of the dome came into clear view, still immovable and fully intact unless Cyborg could find a way to pierce through it. “C’mon Cyborg… C’mon….”

He didn’t look behind him again. It would be no use. He kept his unblinking gaze pinned to the top of the barrier. It would be a hard crash if it didn’t open. He gripped the ends of his bo staff tighter, his muscles tense as he prepared for impact, then a blue beam cut through the air just a hairsbreadth away from him and zapped into the barrier. The blue material seemed to dissipate slightly, creating a small hole barely big enough to fit through but it would have to do.

Leaping from the back of the parademon, Robin leapt through the hole, barely making it through as the dome repaired itself. Metal bottom boots landed hard against the outside shell of the forcefield. He was free from the dome but the curved surface of the dome had no handholds, no traction, and he began to slide down the dome at an accelerated rate.

Quickly, he dug into a pouch for his grapple and fired up at the hovering Mothership. The tough cable wrapped around a metal strut sticking out from the ship and the mechanisms within the grapple activated, slowing his fall and speeding him upwards instead.

As he course corrected, his mind tried to frantically compose a solution on how to deactivate the beam, but no clear answer presented itself. There were too many variables to name, but the beam was getting larger.  More parademons were filling the dome. His friends were counting on him. He couldn’t let them –

“Robin!” Starfire yelled his name suddenly, forcing him out of frenzied thoughts. He looked up then to his left and finally to his right where he saw her catching up to him holding Batman in one hand and Catwoman in the other.

Her flight was slow holding both of them, but she was doing her best, pushing herself to the limit.

“Long time no see, birdy!” Catwoman wiggled her fingers at him then looked up at Starfire. “I think I’ve got it from here, Kory Cat my dear. I won’t weigh you down anymore.”

Dexterously, Catwoman freed herself from Star’s grip and whipped out her cat-o’-nine tails. The lash snapped in the air as she wrapped it around the same strut as Robin and she swung herself upwards in a front flip, landing perfectly upon the metal beam.

Robin arrived next. Leaping upwards he landed squarely on the strut just as Starfire dropped Batman upon it.

“Robin. Report,” Batman said sternly, all business.

Without even a thought, just as if they had not been apart for two years, the Boy Wonder sank back into old habits. “Titans still trapped in the bubble. Beam getting larger. Gotta find a way to disable it.”

“This should do it.” Batman reached into his belt and pulled out a small green cylinder of circuits and chips with two probes sticking out of the top. “I located Gizmo just as the beams erupted in Metropolis. He was being held by the Female Furies. I freed him and he gave me this before he ran away. It may be able to disrupt the beam and if this one dies, so does the other. I sent the League over the materials and components. They’re working on one for Metropolis in case we fail.”

“You brought the original here?” Robin asked. “Why? You still don’t trust me so much you have to oversee everything?”

Batman spun away, cape snapping. “We don’t have time for this.”

“Hate to admit it but Batman’s right,” Catwoman replied, following after Batman in a run.

“For now,” Robin agreed, following, his hands curled into fists.

“Robin please,” Starfire pleaded as she flew alongside him. “You must listen to reason.”

Robin’s face was grim. “Star, it’s… it’s complicated. Was that jerk okay to you?”

“All is well, Robin, but I truly believe that you must –

“Watch out!” Batman yelled in warning.

A huge robot crashed from the ceiling, making the heroes sprawl away, Catwoman and Starfire to the right. Batman and Robin to the left. This robot was nothing like the swarming skull droids running on autopilot. This one was huge, all dark metal, it’s chest bearing the insignia of the omega.

“I guess we’re really unwanted right about now.” Robin broke out his bo staff once more, giving it a twirl.

Batman leapt back, grunting in pain, three batarangs between his fingers. “We can’t let this slow us down. We’ll fight on the run. Everyone keep moving. No matter what, keep the cylinder headed for the central chamber.”

The quartet exploded into a run as the robot lumbered towards them. Two more robots of the same like exploded from the walls, making Batman have to skid to a halt. He tossed the batarangs and they exploded against the shell of the robot but did nothing to slow it down.

“Catwoman! Here!” Batman pulled the cylinder out of his pouch and tossed it to Catwoman.

Catwoman caught it and purred deliciously as she sprinted past the first robot and directly towards another coming up behind hit. The second robot creaked and groaned as a mighty fist came swooping down. Catwoman slid between the robot’s legs and popped up on the other side as the robot spun, in hot pursuit. “I’m going to go off course. Kory Cat, catch!”

She threw the cylinder upwards just as Starfire flew overhead. She grasped it with one hand and continued to fly on as Catwoman ran to the side, diverting one of the pursuing bots.

More dark robots came peeling away from the walls, red eyes bright, the omega signs on their chests brighter, as they followed. Starfire ducked through their blasts and swatting hands. She struck with the beams from her eyes but the robots seemed all but indestructible. She flew low and twirled to fly on her back. A robot was coming down from the ceiling and she threw the cylinder as Robin came racing from the right. “Robin!”

“I got it!” He yelled, catching it as he ducked into a forward roll, barely dodging a robot’s fist. He dropped smoke pellets to confound the bot and dashed through the thick plume, racing away with the cylinder in hand.

Breath panted from his lungs as he kept running. Behind him he could hear the thundering and shrieking and whine of the robots as they battled. Starfire’s starbolts lit up the ship’s corridors behind him. The crack of Catwoman’s whip and the tinkling of her caltrops echoed through the air.

He jumped, dodging a beam of fire from a robot’s eyes as the bots continued their tireless pursuit.

His heart pounded in his ears, but he kept running. Couldn’t stop. The beam below was getting larger by the second, the boom tube on the verge of activating. He turned a corner and the central room came into view—

Just as two more robots thundered down from the ceiling.

The bots landed with a quaking crunch before him. Their arms shot out and this time they were attached to tubes that allowed them to extend.

Robin jumped over the first but his eyes went wide as he saw the second coming for him with no way to duck. A scream started to erupt from his throat then a familiar arm grabbed him and swung him out of the way.

The Dark Knight landed roughly with his ward as the two robots spun to face them. The grapple swing had launched them on the other side of the robots and there was nothing now in their way from the central room.

“Batman, the cylinder, take it!” Robin urge, holding it out.

Without looking back, Batman shook his head and pushed Robin towards the door. A grunt of pain spilled free as he did so but he held his ground to the slowly approaching robots. “No! Get in there, Robin. Figure out where it goes. Stop this!”

“But… but….”

“I trust you, Robin. I know you can do it.” He braced his stance and threw a bevy of explosive batarangs at the robots as he ran doggedly towards them. “GO!”

Hesitation crossed Robin’s face, then it slowly melted into determination. He bolted towards the door just as Catwoman and Starfire skidded into the corner with the other robots hot on their heels. The trio fell upon the robot’s and the last thing Robin heard before he shut the door was Starfire’s starbolt bouncing off an Apokoliptian droid.

Robin did a quick scan of the room, quickly spotting the initial console that Cyborg had been working on, and raced towards it. The ports there were still open and plunged the cylinder into the port and slowly the red glow began to turn Gizmo green.

He took a step back, pleading inwardly for the virus or encryption or whatever it was Gizmo had made as a failsafe to hurry, then the door exploded open behind him. Whirling, he watched in horror as the unstoppable Apokoliptian droids stepped in.

Batman, Catwoman, and Starfire were still fighting, trying to get to him but the droids were too indefatigable, too stalwart. Only a few were needed to hem them in, the others were pouring into the chamber, more than one Boy Wonder could possibly take on alone.

“Robin run!” Batman yelled, throwing lock-foam at a robot that slowed it for all of three seconds before it broke out.

“Please! You must Robin! There is nowhere to run within!” Starfire pleaded.

Robin braced himself and pulled out a wingding. “I’m not running,” he said determinedly.

“ROBIN! NO!” Batman screamed but the robots were already lumbering towards the Boy Wonder.

Robin stood his ground, not moving even as the robot’s crossed into the middle of the floor, then he let his wingding fly–

Right into the button Beast Boy had pressed before.

A loud beep echoed from the chamber and all at once the floor gave way, spilling the robots and Robin out.

Air rushed around Robin’s ears and tears stung at his eyes from the swiftness. He swung his body around so that he faced the ground and saw that the barrier was still up, and this time he had nowhere to go, nothing to cling to.

Nothing to stop his fall.

Closer and closer he fell, watching as the nearly undefeatable droids crashed into the barrier and broke into a thousand pieces.

He tensed once more, preparing for the splat then a whip snapped down, wrapping around his ankle.

“Gotcha!” Catwoman laughed.

Hanging there, Robin looked up to see a chain of people. Starfire struggled as she held onto one of Batman’s arms. Batman clung to Catwoman’s waist and her whip was lashed around his ankle, catching him.

Starfire dipped and swayed, struggling to hold them all. “Please, we must find a place to land!”

“The city park,” Batman said. “The barrier’s falling. That’ll be our best landing.”

Robin looked back down to see that the Dark Knight was right. The barrier was melting even as they spoke and the red beam began to suck back all of its inhabitants, pulling the parademons back to their master. The bandy tenacles that had braced the city with the dome swayed and fell and as the dust from their toppling cleared the first rays of sun began to glow in the East….

“So, did we really just stop Darksied from bringing his whole planet here for a visit?” Beast Boy asked as they stood on a hill in the park, looking out over the city.

Sunrise was nearly upon them, pure yellow sunlight undiluted by the blue forcefield. People were beginning to come back into the city and the ship that Cyborg so wanted to adapt had disappeared, going back from whence it had come.

“I think so,” Cyborg replied, checking his arm scanner. “No signs of trouble in the city and the Metropolis field is down too. I think they took a play out of Robin’s handbook and came up from under the ship.”

“Speaking of Robin,” Raven said, turning around.

Batman, Catwoman, Robin, and Starfire stood a small ways apart from the others. The tension between Robin and Batman was palpable and thick though neither addressed it.

“Uh, hey everyone, day saved.” Cyborg called out as he, Beast Boy, and Raven joined Starfire. “We’re all clear so is this a good time to…?”

Starfire looked to him and shook her head then stared back at the Dark Knight and Boy Wonder with a mix of apprehension and anticipation. “Please my friends, I bid you to silence to witness this most tense of reunions.”  

Batman and Robin stared off at one another, silent, tense, their frowns grim as they looked one another up and down. They had just saved the world from Darksied, surely if there was anything to get them to speak again it would be this!

At length, the stubborn pair turned and parted, each marching to the other side of the park, leaving Catwoman and Starfire dumbstruck. The two women recovered themselves instantly, their shock turning into fury and indignation.

“Alright, I have had enough out of you!” Catwoman caught up with Batman, pinched one of the cowl’s pointy ears, and hauled the Dark Knight back across the hill.

“And I of you!” Starfire did the same, nabbing one of Robin’s ear’s and hauling him towards Batman and Catwoman.

“Catwoman!”

“Star!”

The two women met in the middle with their stubborn men and at the same time screamed, “TALK!”

Alien and burglar backed off as father and son stood before one another again. The pride and anger had waned some, replaced with an awkwardness neither wished to address.

Robin looked up at him as Batman looked down, breathing a heavy sigh.

“They’re right, you know,” the Dark Knight finally admitted.

Robin rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. “Yeah, I know. Especially after today.”

“Defeating Darksied is not small thing.” Batman nodded. “You did good work.”

“That all you have to say?” Robin asked the sternness in his tone hedged with a hope that there would be more.

Batman blew a sigh through his nose. “No. Robin, I’m… sorry about our fight. I didn’t know how much it meant to you, how much it hurt you. I never wanted you to become like me.”

“Why wouldn’t I want to?” Robin asked gently. “You gave me everything after my parents died. And all I wanted to do to repay you was carry on what you started, to make you proud.”

Batman stepped forward, placing his hands on Robin’s shoulders. “I always told you to do the hard thing, but I never did. I failed you in so many ways. I just thought it was teenage rebellion that was making you lash out. I didn’t understand that you needed to grow, that eventually I would have to let my Robin fly on his own. You needed more than I could offer you and that scared me more than you will ever know. I closed myself off. I held you back because I was afraid.

“But no matter how I’ve failed or what I’ve done or said, I have always been proud of you. I’ve admired your courage, your determination, and your heart since the very beginning, but what I am proud of most is that you aren’t like me. You’ve allowed yourself a life outside the mission. That’s the hard thing I could never do and I’m so very proud of you for doing it. For becoming the person I never could and I hope one day that I can learn to be a little like you.”

Robin stared up at him, frozen, then suddenly he moved, wrapping his arms around him in a massive, forgiving hug. “Dad.”

Batman staggered, stunned by the hug, then slowly he wrapped his arms around the Boy Wonder. “Son.”

“Cy, take a picture, take a picture!” Beast Boy yelled.

“Already did, and set it as the Tower's screen saver,” Cyborg confirmed, wiping a tear from his eye.

Robin pulled away, nodding strongly to his father. The moment faded quietly and Batman’s arms fell, the cape covering him totally once more as his typical stoic mien claimed him again. “Will you… introduce me to your friends?”

“You already know everyone,” Robin said for certain. It was Batman after all.

The Dark Knight didn’t try to deny it. “I know, but I’d like to do it right this time. I’d like to be let into your life again. If you’ll let me.”

“Alright,” Robin replied with a small laugh of excitement in his voice. He stepped towards to his friends, starting with Cyborg. “This is Cyborg.”

Cyborg grinned hugely and lifted a hand. “Yo!”

Batman nodded once in greeting. “I’m impressed with the modification you made to Robin’s cycle. We should discuss upgrades.”

That seemed wholly too much for Cyborg. Batman acknowledging his work! His real eye twitched and his cybernetics seemed to freeze and he fell backwards, metal legs stuck in the air.

Robin shook his head good-naturedly and moved to Beast Boy. “This is – ” Before Robin could finish Beast Boy gave a piercing scream and fell backwards, feet in the air like Cyborg.

Grinning nervously, Robin rubbed the back of his head and moved on. “Okay, this is Raven.”

Raven took a step forward, eyeing the Dark Knight up and down.

He returned the same imposing stare and finally gave her a nod. “Nice cape.”

For a second Raven didn’t move then slowly she fell backwards too. She could handle his stern stare and broody demeanor but the compliment knocked her off her feet like her other two friends.  

“Starstruck,” Catwoman chuckled as she slipped in beside Batman and together they stood in front of Starfire.

Robin stepped to Starfire next and this time he stood by her side. She held onto one arm with her opposite hand and though she had spent hours with the Dark Knight this was different, official, and she was filled with nervous excitement.

Robin grabbed her hand like he had done in Tokyo and looked at her as she smiled at him with all the warmth in the world. “I know you’ve already met, but this is Starfire. My girlfriend.”

“And a wonderful young lady she is.” Catwoman winked at Starfire. “Don’t forget to remind this one you have some claws of your own, Kory Cat. Sometimes they need it.” She nudged Batman in the ribs causing him to wince.

“Catwoman is right,” Batman agreed surprisingly. “Sometimes we do need it. I owe you an apology for earlier Starfire. My rudeness to you. I wish we could have met under lighter circumstances, but it’s been a pleasure to meet you.” He slipped his hand from beneath his cloak revealing a small picture wedged between his index and middle finger. “Here. This is for you. It isn’t a baby photo but it is Robin when he first tried on the Robin uniform.”

“What?!” Robin’s smile quickly washed away with shock. He slapped a hand to his forehead and stared at the picture of a nine-year-old him doing a handstand, his cape trapped beneath his hands, his mask slightly askew, and one shoe threatening to fall off as he grinned into the camera. “Where did you get that?!” he screamed, his face going red with embarrassment.

“I always carry some of your pictures with me,” Batman replied, fighting back a wide grin. “You’re my son.”

Starfire laughed in delight and grabbed the photo with both hands, holding it gratefully. “Thank you, Robin’s father Batman. I will cherish it most dearly!”