Disclaimer-I do not own Batman or Young Justice

Dick's POV

Dick could never escape them. Deep down he knew that. He had been their prize Talon, one of the best they had ever had, he'd heard them say so. There was no way they just let him disappear without trying to track him down.

But Dick was smart, and he knew how to go undetected. He had been many places, never staying in one place for very long, saving lives as Robin the whole time. He'd been to France, Spain, Britain, all across Europe; he'd hid out in Africa, Australia, parts of the USA, Canada, Brazil… the list went on, and Dick couldn't help but wonder if his latest choice was his stupidest.

Gotham, the Court's city. It was also the most crime infested city, which is why he chose to be stupid and come here. Dick was looking to redeem himself, even if he knew deep down that he never really could, just like he could never really die thanks to the synthesized electrum in his blood. He could only be put into a cryo-induced coma, and that wasn't really dying, but it wasn't really living. He'd been put in them before, and he'd been like the living dead.

Part of Dick wanted to run from Gotham, but he'd talked himself into staying. As long as he was really careful, only roamed the streets as Robin, and stayed completely off of the Court's main territory, even though they saw Gotham as completely their city, there was a part of it that was sort of their 'turf', he should be fine. Hopefully.

Right now, he was up on a rooftop of a large building, gazing own at the passing cars below him.

Dick could not remember just how many cars he'd been hit with in his lifetime. There'd even been a few buses and a semi. But none of the pain the cars ever inflicted upon him ever compared to what the Court of Owls did.

Dick suppressed a shudder as he remembered some of the things they'd do to him and the other Talons. Coffins full of spikes, the cryo making them sleep in living-dead comas, the whippings, the cuttings, the sheer abuse they caused.

Breaking them down and building them back up. Turning them into perfect killers. That's all the Court of Owls ever did.

And then, Dick heard a scream. He immediately jumped up from his crouch on the ground and ran towards it.

It was a feminine scream, belonging to a woman who sounded like she was probably somewhere in her twenties.

Dick was right. The woman looked young, but she was definitely an adult. A man had just stolen her purse.

Robin came out of nowhere. He dove down on the man, giving him a nice nerve strike that the Court had taught him.

He gave the purse back to the woman and was already half way up the fire escape of another building before she could even react.

He hadn't needed to do anything to the man; the nerve strike would have him unconscious for quite a while, and Robin didn't really want to draw too much attention to himself; the Court would find him easier then.

Little did he know that not only the Batman, but also a team of young super heroes had been watching him.


Batman's POV

Bruce was mildly stunned when the boy had swooped out of no where. He knew the Young Justice team was patrolling tonight, so he'd been prepared to fly down, but only if the team was not already swooping down to help.

He was quite interested, and was considering contacting Young Justice to see if they had seen this masked vigilante before, when he got a call on his com from Aqualad, with the same question.

No, no Bruce didn't know who the boy was, yet.


Wally's POV

Wally had been about to zip down with the rest of the team to help the woman, when the red and yellow clad figure had jumped down out of nowhere and rescued the woman's purse.

Kaldur had called Batman about it, to see if he new anything, but Batman had never seen the boy before either.

"Should we pursue him?" Conner asked.

The Young Justice team all had a simultaneous answer: Yes.

After all, the boy couldn't have gone far, and almost all of them had a power to help them catch him. Wally had the super speed, Conner could detect him with his heat-sensing vision, M'gann had her telepathic and telekinetic powers, etc.

The team pursued the mystery boy wonder, until they had found him, several rooftops over, though they had no idea that he was always prepared to be snuck up on, and to possibly even kill his attackers, if they were who they thought they were of course.

Thankfully for the team, Robin would realize quickly enough that they weren't the Court of Owls and they weren't Talons.

The boy was crouched near the edge of the building, staring intently over the edge. Wally hoped he wasn't thinking about jumping.

Before the team could approach the boy though, he jumped up and spun around, unsheathing a pair of swords.

"Whoa, calm down, we just want to talk," Wally said.

The boy eyed them suspiciously, assessing each of them, as if he was expecting someone. Once he seemed satisfied, though Wally couldn't imagine what he'd been looking for, he lowered the swords, but didn't put them away.

"What do you want?" the boy asked.

"To talk," Wally repeated.

"What do you really want?" he asked.

Wally blinked. The team really just wanted to talk.

"We're not looking for a fight," Kaldur assured him.

"Oh? So you sneak up on people for fun?" the boy asked.

"No, but when we want to talk to them, yes," Conner said.

The boy still looked rather hostile, so Wally decided the best way to get him to lower his guard a little was to engage in conversation.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Robin," the boy replied.

"That's an alias," Artemis said.

"And what, you don't go by aliases?" Robin asked, looking defensive again, not that he'd ever stopped looking defensive, it just increased again.

"Well, well, we do, but..." M'gann trailed off. She didn't really seem to know what to say to the hostile little bird.

And then she created a mental link between her and the team. Maybe we should call Batman? she suggested.

Perhaps that'd be a good idea, but let's see if we can handle this first, Superboy replied.

"So, what're you doing out at a time like this?" Wally asked in a friendly tone. The boy didn't really look dangerous. He was small, athletic, and young, probably around their age, but seemed smaller than Wally, Conner, and Kaldur. The only really scary thing about him that Wally could see were those swords.

"Nothing right now," Robin said, looking like he was prepared to either fight them, or flee from them, and Wally could tell, and so could the rest of the team.

"We're not here for a fight," Kaldur said, "and we're not going to hurt you."

Robin's expression changed, but it was unreadable. Wally tried to decipher it, but failed.

"What were you doing before?" Wally asked, continuing to be friendly.

"Why do you care?" Robin asked. Wally could tell he wanted to run away from them, even though they were attempting to be friendly, but Wally could tell that it wasn't because he hated them or anything, he was afraid of them.

"We-" but Wally never got to continue before the bird-like boy leapt off the roof.

His eyes widened, and M'gann immediately used her telekinesis to catch Robin as he jumped, she began to pull him back up onto the roof, though he was struggling in her mind grip, and hold him in place.

"Do you have a death wish?" Conner asked, stunned.

They had no idea that a part of the little bird did have a death wish, merely because he couldn't die, couldn't even kill himself if he was caught by those who hunted him, and in his opinion, that was a fate a thousand times worse than death.

"Let me go," Robin sounded quite menacing, but Wally could see past it. Deep down, he was a scared boy who was probably just in need of a friend.

"You can let him go," a voice sounded behind them, making Wally jump, as Batman appeared out of nowhere.

Robin's eyes widened slightly, a mix of curiosity and fear. He obviously knew who Batman was.

Miss Martian let Robin loose from her telekinetic grip. the boy looked prepared to run again, but Batman stopped him with a glare. "If you do that, we'll only pursue you," he said in the 'Bat voice', "and catch you."

"What do you want?" Robin asked between gritted teeth.

"Like Kid Flash said, we just want to talk," Batman said.

"About what?" Robin asked.

"We saw you save that woman," Batman said, "it was very impressive."

"No it wasn't," Robin said, and Wally noticed something change in his demeanor, it was almost as if he hated himself, but Wally couldn't imagine why.

And apparently, neither could Batman. "It was. Why are you being so hard on yourself?"

"Doing a few good things doesn't make up for all the bad ones," he said. "Good bye, Batman."

And then, he jumped again, and they weren't prepared for it, so M'gann didn't catch him in time.

The team and Batman ran towards the edge, but Robin was gone, and all there was on the ground was a single scarlet bloodstain.


AN: Well, what do you think? Good? Bad? Should I continue? I do have some good ideas for this fic after all. I know Dick may seem a little OOC, but he was raised and abused by the Court of Owls in this fic, so he has some issues. I promise, he will end up warming up to Batman and the Young Justice team, because Wally was right, deep down, even if he doesn't even know it, Robin just needs a friend.

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this.

-DragonsintheMoonlight