The Titans were doing great. Crime was manageable, and there were no complications at the Tower. Or, none that four of the five Titans knew of. Unknown to them, something was happening in one of the rooms at the back of Titans Tower. The one no one was ever allowed in. The one that someone was crying in.

The back room

Sparrow stared at the computer screen, tears blurring his vision until he couldn't make out the words on the Email anymore. Not that it mattered. He already knew what it said. Batman, his mentor and father figure, was dead. He hadn't really thought about it when he hadn't heard from him in the past few days, but he should've. Only now it was too late, far too late. Alfred had emailed him the evening before last, but the others had wanted to watch a movie. He thought it had been from Bruce. He thought it could wait. But this couldn't, not this.

'Richard,

I know you won't have heard yet, but Bruce has been killed. The funeral will be in three days time. I hope you can make it.

I would love to have you back, and people will start to notice HIS absence soon, so Gotham will need someone, and as odd as it sounds, I would sleep better if I knew it was you.

There is also something else you should come back for, but if your friends and city need you more, I understand.

Alfred'

Wiping the tears off of his face, Sparrow took one last look at the Email. The funeral would be tomorrow. He had to go. He had to be there, and Alfred was right. Gotham would need a hero with Batman gone. The only problem would be the other Titans.

The Teen Titans thought they had gotten to know him. They thought they knew more about him than anyone else in the world. But they were wrong. They knew nothing, only the name he had taken on to hide behind, like the bird he was named after hid in the trees, behind the brightly coloured leaves and branches. They didn't know anything about him, and never would. He knew he would never tell them his real name, his past, the people he knew before them, where he had lived before he appeared in Jump City, just before the alien invasion that had brought them together and formed the Teen Titans.

If he was honest, he had been looking forward to giving Jump City its own heroes. That had been the reason he had gone to JC. Bruce had told him about the rise of crime, and had given him the assignment of looking for someone to look after the city. That was all it really was, an assignment. Then Bruce had said to stay, get them set up properly and sort them out with a leader before coming home. He had sorted everything out, but the Titans still looked at him as the leader. He had been getting Cyborg to step up and take his place, but convincing him that he was good at the job was difficult.

Sparrow turned away from the computer and pulled the backpack out from under the bed. He quickly started shoving all his clothes, laptop and other possessions into it. He was about to pull it up onto his shoulders, when he caught sight of himself in the mirror by the door. He looked kind of…sick. His face was pale, even more than normal, with slightly crumpled, light coloured clothes of light and dark grey with pale brown. Dumping the bag on the ground, he quietly pulled the wardrobe door open. There was only one thing inside, and that was his old uniform.

When he'd left Gotham, Bruce had given him a lighter coloured uniform to wear, seeing as Jump wasn't as harsh as Gotham and he could afford to stand out a bit without having to worry about getting shot in the head, and he was working during the day as well.

Throwing a glance at the alarm clock by the bed, Sparrows' eyes widened. It was getting later in the morning. If he didn't hurry up, the others would wake up and he would never be allowed to leave. They just didn't understand.

He almost ripped his clothes in his hurry to get out of what he was wearing and into his old uniform in time. When he glanced in the mirror again, he was pleased to see that he looked more like himself than he had in a long time; wearing dark colours that made his face seem even paler, but his hair didn't look as out of place. Quickly messing up his raven hair so it flopped into his eyes, he grabbed his bag and shoved the window open. Then, with one last glance at the room that he would never call 'his', he jumped.

A few hours later…

Cyborg and Beast Boy sleepily walked to Sparrows' room, where Starfire had been pounding on the door for the last five minutes, asking him to open the door.

"Friend Sparrow, will you please open this door! I am worried that you were not awake before the rest of us!"

Beast Boy turned to Cyborg, confused,

"He isn't up yet? He's always up first."

As Starfire was about to bang her fists on the door again, a dark shadow surrounded them and turned her away from the bedroom.

"What are you doing? We must see what is wrong with our friend! We mus-"

Raven cut her off before she could get any further.

"Starfire, I don't think he's in there."

They all stared at her, their brains freezing at her words. With an annoyed sigh, Raven waved her hand at the now black door to open it. That got them moving.

"What are you doing? No one is ever-"

"Are you crazy? Sparrow never-"

Starfire however had moved inside the now open door and stared in wonder.

"Friends."

"Star, what's th- Oh."

Sparrows' room. The walls were dark grey, and a bare desk sat on the left wall. On the right, a messy single bed sat. What really caught the remaining Titans' attention was the open window, letting the cold early morning air inside the empty room.

A gasp escaped Starfire as she shot over to the bed and picked something up off it. As she turned, Ravens' eyes narrowed. In her hands, Sparrows' uniform hung, one of the sleeves torn.

"So he's walking around without any clothes on?"

Raven glared at an extremely confused Beast Boy, while Cyborg just hit him up the back of his head.

"OW! What wa-"

"No you idiot! It means he was wearing something else when he left," and glancing at Starfire he added, "Maybe Slade's back."

"No."

All three glanced at Raven. The Dark Titan had moved over to the window, and was now staring out into the waking city.

"There was no one in the room but Sparrow last night. He wasn't angry when he left, just extremely sad. Something big happened to him," she whispered turning to the paling Titans.

"We must find him! We must go to the city and look for him!"

"No Star. If he wanted us to find him, he wouldn't have left in the middle of the night when we were all sleeping." He walked over to stand beside Raven and watched as the city woke, not yet realising what had happened. "We'll just have to wait for him to come back on his own."