Author's Notes
I tried writing a continuation of the series, which ended much too soon for me. This ends up being pretty much a Robin season.
Chapter 1, Vanished
"Home sweet home!"
Beast Boy threw himself onto the couch while the other Titans, weighed down by luggage, wearily trudged into the tower after their long flight from Tokyo.
It had been a pretty good trip in general, if you overlooked Cyborg ticking off that sushi chef. And Beast Boy accumulating an insane all-girl fanbase, which Cyborg still believed to be a hoax. Of course, there was that small incident where Robin was unjustly incarcerated for a murder he did not commit, followed by his great escape which led to all of Tokyo turning against the Teen Titans. Oh, and the whole ordeal with Commander Daizo controlling the supposedly mythical Brushogun for fame and recognition in the city.
Still, all in all, a pretty good trip.
After all, Robin and Starfire had finally admitted their feelings for one another, much to the relief of their friends.
Once cleared of all false charges to their name by the Mayor of Tokyo and publicly acknowledged for their heroic deeds, Robin, Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, and Cyborg remained a little longer to take in the sights of the city just as Cyborg and Beast Boy had wanted. The second half of their trip had been much more enjoyable than the first. Robin and Starfire spent practically every waking moment together, Cyborg gained almost ten pounds by 'sampling' all the fine dining Tokyo had to offer his bottomless stomach, Raven found something to read at last, and Beast Boy was granted special permission to head back into the abandoned comic book factory so he could claim any complimentary issues he found as his own.
Raven levitated her bags to rest near the couch Beast Boy was sprawled upon and then headed to the kitchen to fix a cup of soothing herbal tea. She had a bit of a headache thanks to Beast Boy's stirring rendition of "I Know a Song that Gets on Everybody's Nerves" during the last leg of the ride on the T-Ship. After he hit the chorus for the seventeenth time with no sign of stopping any time soon, Raven had snapped and encased his face with her magic to get a little peace and quiet, making it look like he had a black fishbowl stuck on his head during the remainder of the ride home.
"Friends, I am off to do the unpacking of my bags and then I believe I shall retire for the night as I am quite exhausted from our journey," Starfire told the others as she floated towards the hallway.
Raven, Beast Boy, and Cyborg wished her a good night. Robin, on the other hand, waited a minute and then followed in her wake.
He gave a quiet knock on her door and smiled as she opened it wide enough for him to see that she had already emptied the contents of her bag, which were now scattered all over her room.
"Yes, Robin?" Starfire inquired, her eyebrow drawing together in that way that always made him grin.
"I just came to, uh, say goodnight," Robin answered, stepping forward to softly kiss her on the lips.
Starfire reached a hand up to cradle the back of his neck and pressed her lips a little harder to his before slipping away. "Goodnight," she giggled, sliding her bedroom door shut in a haze of happiness.
"Good night," he echoed dazedly.
He stared at her door until the sound of throat being cleared made him jump. Robin whirled around to see Raven was behind him, a cup of tea in hand and a smirk playing on her lips that told him she had seen too much. He flushed.
"Good night, Robin." Her voice was monotone and yet somehow it was still dripping with laughter.
"Er, good night," he muttered, still blushing fiercely.
He headed back to the common room and found Cyborg and Beast Boy there.
"Well, I'm gonna crash too," Beast Boy yawned as Robin sank onto the couch. "I'm wiped."
"Aw c'mon, the night is young," Cyborg protested.
"Hey, I need my beauty sleep so I can keep looking great for the ladies!"
Cyborg mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'those Tokyo chicks are nuts,' before cracking a devious grin. "Okay. I guess I'll just have to play Galactic Doom VII all by myself then."
In a flash, Beast Boy was back on the couch staring at the game Cyborg held in his hand like it was the Holy Grail. "No way," he practically squealed, "where did you get that? It's not coming out for another three months. How did you—?"
"We were in Tokyo. Stuff really does come out earlier over there. But since you're not up to it, there is a one-player mode…"
Before Cyborg even finished his sentence, Beast Boy had set up the Gamestation and returned to the couch with two controllers in hand.
"It's on."
Cyborg's eyes narrowed. "You're going down, grass stain."
Robin watched them pummel bears armed with lasers with a mild interest for a half-hour before he realized that it was Cyborg's turn for night patrol.
"Um, Cyborg?" Robin tried as Beast Boy and Cyborg continued to slam down on the control buttons.
"Yeah, ma—oh no you didn't! Cheater!" Cyborg interrupted himself getting angrily to his feet, his eyes never leaving the screen.
"Dude, that is totally allowed!"
"Right," Robin said as he headed towards the front door. "Listen, guys, I'm going out to patrol for an hour or so, just to check up on how the city's been since Cyborg's, uh, busy."
"Thanks, Rob—ha! You're going down, sucker!"
-T-
Robin flew over the gap that separated two building with ease, landing on the opposite rooftop before rolling gracefully back into run in one fluid movement. He loved doing night patrol mostly because he could get away with being a little reckless without his team worrying. Grabbing onto a fire-escape rail, he tucked his legs in before spinning around it and then letting go to propel himself further.
He stopped to catch his breath for a few minutes, scanning the shady streets below him. It was nights like this that he missed the old times, those early days when everything was so new and thrilling to him. Fighting crime was still exciting and he would never in a million years dream of giving it up, but somehow it just wasn't the same. Not like before.
Shaking himself, Robin made to start his rooftop run once again when he felt a sharp pain explode at the back of his head. He fell forward onto his knees with a groan before another pain as equally excruciating as the first rocked him. It was the last thing Robin knew before the darkness took over.
-T-
It was four in the morning when Starfire woke up with a dry throat. Gently setting down Silkie, she made her way out into the hall. Bleary-eyed, Starfire dimly noticed that Robin's bedroom door was wide open and walking past, she also saw that it was empty. Tired and disoriented, she wondered where he was as she headed towards the kitchen.
Entering the common room, Starfire was immediately forced to shy away from a glaring light that blinded her as the doors slid open. Once her eyes adjusted a bit, she headed to the couch. Beast Boy and Cyborg were slumped there, both awash in the blue glow of the television screen that blinked Game Over. She smiled to herself and floated over to the sink to pour herself a glass of water.
"M'up, Robin," Cyborg slurred as he jolted awake at the noise, peering into the darkness.
"My apologies, Cyborg, I did not mean to disturb you," Starfire whispered to him as Beast Boy was still fast asleep.
"Star?" said Cyborg, stifling a yawn. "When did Robin get back? We were waiting up for him."
She stilled at his words. "I have not seen Robin. He was not in his room." Her breath caught. "Where has he gone?"
"Night watch," he said, a little more awake. "He's not back? It has to be late though." He squinted at the clock and now he looked concerned. "You're sure he's not in his room?"
Starfire nodded as Beast Boy let out a particularly loud snort in his sleep.
Cyborg pushed the communicator button on his arm and set it to Robin's frequency before speaking into it. "Robin? You there, man?"
Static was the only response.
"Robin, answer," he demanded again. Starfire drew closer to the couch to listen.
Nothing.
Cyborg tried tracking Robin's signal and finding his heat signature, but both came up empty. He was starting to get worried, but he made his face stay blank so as not to panic Starfire. He called Robin's communicator again.
"Damn it," he swore softly when Robin didn't pick up. "Um, Star, how about you go call Raven so maybe she can help find him…" He saw the fear rising in Starfire's eyes, and quickly tacked on "…faster."
When she left the room, Cyborg turned to Beast Boy and shook him by the shoulder. "Beast Boy, get up. Wake up! Robin's not back from patrol."
Though he had planned on drifting back to sleep, Beast Boy shot up at Cyborg's last sentence. "What?" he said loudly before Cyborg shushed him. He started again in a whisper, "What do you mean he's not back?"
"Starfire said he isn't in his room. He's not answering his communicator and I can't read him on any of my scanners. I'm trying not to make Star go into hysterics before we have to, but this doesn't look good."
Before Beast Boy could respond, Raven swept into the common room, an anxious-looking Starfire behind her. Cyborg quickly explained the situation. Starfire covered her mouth with her hands while Raven immediately folded her legs into a levitating lotus position. The others watched her with bated breath.
"I can't sense him either," she told them after a few minutes, opening her eyes which were clouded with worry.
"We must go out and find him," Starfire declared to the others, already flying full speed towards the door.
-T-
Cyborg scoured the streets from the T-Car, its motor roaring as he carefully scanned the roadways with his human eye and the shadows with his cybernetic one.
Morphing, Beast Boy attempted to track Robin's scent in blood-hound form, but he couldn't detect the slightest hint of where Robin might be. It was as if there wasn't a scent to be found in the first place.
On the rooftops, Raven paused yet again to seek out Robin's aura, but she came up blank. Sighing and struggling to contain her unease, she took off once more to keep searching.
The night air whipped around Starfire as she flew back and forth across the city. Tears, stinging and hot, blurred her vision every few minutes. When she reached the Jump City boundaries once again without any sign of Robin, she drifted down onto the roof of a nearby building and gave over to the despair she had been struggling with and broke down completely. After a few minutes, she forced herself to swallow her tears and gulping in deep breaths of the cold, early morning air, Starfire took to the skies once more.
By the time the sun had fully risen and Jump City was bustling with life, Robin was still nowhere to be found.
He had vanished without a trace.