Review Responses:

CalliopeMused: Small details are important. I like having the heroes dealing with mundane things like laundry. It allows for more realism. Anyway, as always I'm glad to hear your opinion. Hope you like this chapter.

BLIvorySS: Surprise again; here's another chapter earlier than most people would think. I don't have a great history of quick updates. Nightwing and Starfire are always 'on the rocks' in the comics. She's just too bright and he's just too angsty. Still, there's hope for them. As for revealing the past, that's part of the fic. The setting is nice, but seeing how it got so bad is interesting as well. I do hope sincerely that you enjoy this next chapter.

Bhill62: Starfire is a bit too lost-puppy-ish in the show. She's just so doting on Robin that it's a bit annoying. Nightwing has strengths and weaknesses, and interpersonal relations is a major weakness. Hope you continue to enjoy the story.

Coeus: Keeping everyone in their changed character is important to me. They act differently at this age, but they are still themselves. I'm working on showing the past, and I'm glad people like how it's going. Here's that next installment you wanted.

Anime Chick009: You're welcome! This chapter is fairly soon, for me anyway.

hoshi-ko88: I'm glad you felt something when you read the fic. Here's the update.

Dr. Evil 99: This fic is one of the few that I am proud of in a real way. The characters are close to their comic versions, while hopefully retaining some of what made them who they were in the show as well. Raven is a little crazy from isolation, but she's still lucid. I am always glad to see a review from you, as you well know. Thanks.

rockpaperscissor: It's a sad setting. Nothing seems to have gone right for the Titans since they split. Raven is having issues, since she relied so heavily on her friends for stability, and they all left. "Update Soon" in your case, is only a matter of a day or two, so enjoy.


A/N: This story continues to surprise me. Though I have a fair idea of where I'm going with it, the writing moves by itself. Most importantly, by some fluke, it continues to be good. So hey, enough of my babbling up here. Enjoy chapter three.


Nightwing winced reflexively as he opened his eyes. The light outside was pale, filtered through the clouds above as well as the falling snow, but it still seemed overly bright. His mind was muddy, sluggish with lack of sleep. Shaking his head sharply, to chase away the cobwebs in his mind, he looked down at the papers that he'd been sleeping on. Blueprints. Prison blueprints.

Nightwing frowned. He'd fallen asleep in the middle of searching for the security flaw. Another mistake. He wasn't supposed to make mistakes. He pushed his chair back from the desk he'd been working on, and stood up, forcing himself to look out the window. The snow fell endlessly outside, keeping the city nothing but white with gray-black walls standing in the fog. He frowned. The weather was a result of another stupid mistake.

Turning from the floor to ceiling window, he walked quickly across the living room, and reached out to open the door to the bedroom. The doorknob was missing.

Right, he'd had an argument with Starfire.

He sighed with exasperation. It was hard to predict Starfire completely, but he knew that either she'd be in the bed, still angry with him, or she would have stayed in a hotel, and was probably crying. Either way, it would be difficult to deal with her for the next few days. As much as he loved the woman, and despite the fact that he couldn't imagine life without her, her tendency to ignore all logic in favor of her seemingly random mood swings vexed him to no end.

Pushing the door open slowly, Nightwing crept into the bedroom, careful not to make any noise at all. He peered around the door frame, and saw the empty bed, apparently unused. He sighed in relief. At least she wasn't angry and simply waiting for a chance to work out their problems with their fists. Neither of them ever won that sort of fight. Moving more quickly, Nightwing pushed the door the rest of the way open and walked to the ostensibly simple desk in the corner. Pressing a small switch on the side opened the desk's surface, revealing the computer workstation underneath.

The small monitor built into the console lit up, flashing a few screens of standard startup information before being covered with a stylized green face. Oracle's symbol, and a few moments later, Oracle's real face. She looked mildly irritated, but that didn't mean that anything had actually happened. She was usually irritated with him. Her voice sounded like Raven's on a bad day. "What?"

Nightwing grinned, not to be swayed by his longtime partner's bad mood. "Good morning to you too, Babs. Find anything on the prison breakout since this morning?"

She furrowed her brow for a moment, as if confused, and then shook her head. "No, I've been distracted. Batman has been following a lead on Joker's latest slaughter since last night, and now I've got Dinah working on it. I'm afraid your breakout is going to have to wait."

"Does he need my help?"

"Would he ever ask, even if he did? Stay in Jump City, Dick. I'll call you if anything comes up. Oracle out."

The screen went black for a moment, before displaying the standard operating system interface. Nightwing frowned. Fine, stick with Gotham, let Jump City rot. He wondered if Oracle would ever really forgive him for leaving Gotham. It had been almost a decade since he'd done so, but she still seemed mad. It's not as if there was anything else she would be angry about.

Nightwing tapped the screen a few times, maneuvering through the system to activate Starfire's tracker. If she'd taken the hotel route, he might as well get there before the press drove her crazy. Being famous superheroes meant that even checking into a hotel was difficult. The tracking icon blinked several times before finally centering the onscreen map on a small island out in the bay. A small "S" flashed roughly in the center of it. The coordinates fit.

She was in the Operations room of Titans' Tower.

Nightwing impulsively slammed his hand against the desk. The console made a buzzing noise, as the keys he'd pressed were unavailable in tracking mode. Starfire knew he didn't want her going to the tower. The place was falling apart. It was a deathtrap to anyone at this point. Even besides that, it was the place of another mistake. One of the biggest one's he'd ever made.

He stood, pressing the switch to hide the console again, and undressed, kicking his pants aside as he entered the shower. A few minutes later, he was out again, feeling refreshed and much more alert. Knowing that he couldn't go to the prison investigating the foundation until nightfall, he dressed in normal clothing. Nightwing turned away from the dresser and walked back to the console, revealing it again. Tapping a few more onscreen buttons brought up the security cameras he'd hidden around the prison. It seemed as if everything was going smoothly. The guards were a little more attentive today than normally, given the recent breakout, and everyone still seemed to be in their cells.

Starfire's location still bothered him, however, so he tapped a few more buttons, leaving the prison's interface. The list of internal cameras for the tower came up, most of the names in red, showing broken or non-functioning equipment. The only active cameras were labeled as Exterior002 and Lobby005. The exterior view would only be falling snow, and snow that had already fallen. The lobby camera would just show an empty, darkened room with no life or value. Nightwing pressed the switch again, hiding the console.

Leaning back in the chair a bit, he let himself reminisce for a moment. It wasn't something he normally indulged in, given that it often depressed him. He felt more himself when he was in the middle of a fight. When he was swinging down on a de-cel line, there wasn't time to remember the arguments that split his team apart. When he was being hit by Mammoth, the sound of his ribs cracking drowned out the thoughts of his failing relationship with Starfire. Living moment to moment made everything so much easier.

Still, the past did exist, and he couldn't just forget it. The Titans had been almost as important as Batman in his life. However, they'd been fated to fail. It had started with Brother Blood. Cyborg's insistence on having his own team, and his strange and sudden chafing under Robin's command...

No, that was wrong. That was too late a time to start. Cyborg had never been comfortable being a follower. Even the first time they'd met, there had been questions about the chain of command. As time had passed, it had become apparent that Robin's experience fighting crime and passion for the work made him a competent leader, and so he'd become the official leader almost be default. Still, as time progressed, as they all grew up, Cyborg's patience had waned.

A casual observer would say that the final argument between Titans was over a petty problem. However, whatever had been the initial cause wasn't even important. Nightwing, thinking back after five years, couldn't even remember what it had been. The argument had years of other grievances behind it, and it had taken a life of its own. Words were said, tensions were high, and Robin had thrown the first punch.

He still didn't know what had driven him to escalate the shouted confrontation to physical violence. It had to be the same impulse that had caused the obsessive search for Slade, the descent into the underworld in search of Raven, and all the other excesses that had marked his time with the Titans. Too much passion, too much fury, and too much 'living moment to moment'. He'd been angry, frustrated, and exhausted. The tension had been building and gaining momentum for too long, and once he'd swung his fist, the floodgates had opened.

It hadn't taken long for everything to fall apart. Beast Boy and Starfire had tried to keep everyone calm, and Raven had even gone so far as attempting to force everyone to stay in the Tower, but the steel walls were only so powerful, and Cyborg had blasted a hole in the roof, from three floors below it. Beast Boy, making a quick decision to side with his longtime friend, had flown away, carrying Cyborg with him. Robin and Starfire had remained in the tower, for a time, but it wasn't long before the memories of the place became too much, and they had left as well. Raven, so far as Nightwing could recall, had gone to Azerath.

Nightwing stood up again, focusing his mind on dressing in his costume, instead of remembering the mess he'd made of his team. A few minutes later, he was out the window, sliding down a dropline to an inconspicuous maintenance hatch on the shore nearby. He tried to avoid daylight excursions like this, but his mind was too unfocused today to stay indoors. He'd think himself to death.


The cold air bit deep into his costume and skin as his small speedboat cut through the waves of the bay. Sea spray and the thick morning fog weren't helping to keep him warm, and his costume was soaking wet even before he had to dive into the freezing water to avoid detection by the prison guards. The speedboat, on autopilot, roared away again as soon as he was clear, the loud sound retreating from the prison and letting the guards know that whoever had accidentally gotten too close had decided to leave again.

Breaking into the prison was easier than breaking out. Nightwing ran up the shoreline quickly, between guard patrols, and waited, pressed against the wall. He listened to the footsteps above him on the walkway, get louder and then start to fade as the guard passed. A quick toss of a batarang hooked a line over the wall, and Nightwing climbed quickly, unhooking the grapple and dropping to the ground again before the next patrol came over the corner.

It was too early for the exercise yard to be used, so no one was being paid to watch it. Still, even a wayward glance would spot him out here. He knew the way well enough, and ten seconds saw him inside the main prison structure, his electronic pick having opened the door effortlessly. The maintenance shaft was less than twenty feet from the entrance he'd chosen, and he was out of sight of the general populace in moments. If the security flaw was with the foundation, he'd find the evidence down here.

Time always moved faster than it seemed, when he was investigating. He bent his mind entirely to the task, and all other concerns faded. Two hours passed in a heartbeat, and suddenly, he was left without leads. The foundation was secure. There were no holes dug, no broken supports, and no flaw in the tunnels. Nothing big enough for even Gizmo to crawl through, let alone the huge bulk of someone like Mammoth. The search had led to a dead end.

Suddenly an electronic crackle in his earpiece made him jump. His position, nearly 30 feet underground, caused the signal to be rather poor quality, but he was still in contact. Oracle's voice spoke into his ear. "-ightwing, do yo- -opy?"

"A little busy, Oracle." Nightwing kept his voice low, not that there was anyone likely to hear him from here. Was that waste disposal pipe supposed to be open like that?

"-arfire is h-- -r way. H-w does sh- fly so fas-?"

Nightwing pressed the small receiver to his ear. The metal in the disposal pipe was making the transmission even worse. "Didn't copy, Oracle. What about Star?"

The static in the earpiece faded significantly; Oracle must have pulled another Lexcorp communications satellite out of standard orbit to boost signal gain. "Starfire is headed your way like her life depends on it. Be ready for a--"

Oracle's voice cut out, and Starfire's cut in. Nightwing had set her communicator as a higher priority. "You must come out, Nightwing. I require your assistance."

Oh hell. Barbara would be furious for being cut off in favor of Starfire, but there was nothing to do about it now. "Starfire, I'm busy. I think they may have used this pipe to-"

"I do not care about the prison break. You must accompany me to the Tower." Something was weird about Starfire's voice. She was angry with him, or at least frustrated, but there was a weird desperation in it.

Nightwing sighed. "I'll be coming out on the north end of the island in about three minutes. Go get the boat, we can talk about the fight when we get back home. Nightwing out."

He switched off the communicator, not wanting to hear either Barbara or Starfire rant at him right now. A swatch of orange cloth on the wall of the pipe caught his eye, and he pulled it from the snag of metal that had torn it. Half of a prison number was stitched into it, and it was the latter half of Gizmo's. That confirmed it. They'd used this old disposal pipe to leave the prison. How had they gotten here from their cells?

Suddenly, a powerful explosion collapsed the pipe, not twenty feet ahead of Nightwing. The sudden light shining in from above blinded him momentarily. He pulled his hand away from shielding his eyes, but could only see the silhouette of Starfire against the bright light shining in from the ruined tunnel. The blazing light in her eyes and hands was even stronger than the daylight, however. She looked furious and nearly demonic.

"Starfire, what the hell are you doing?" They would be swarmed with prison guards in minutes, if they even had that long. Thankfully, they were outside the prison walls and on the opposite side of the island from the only opening in them. Nightwing was almost surprised to feel the concussive discs between his fingers. He'd drawn them almost reflexively.

Starfire's voice was full of anger, but still carried that desperate tone as well. "I do not have time to waste in fighting you, Nightwing. You are required at the Tower, and I will not hear excuses!"

The impulse, the same one that had caused the breakup of the Titans, caused Nightwing to throw the discs at her. At the time, however, he felt as if he was making the correct choice. Knock her out, disable her, and run. Keep the guards from seeing them.

Starfire's eyes glowed brightly, and a laser-fine beam of energy sliced the explosives out of the air. Nightwing's fingers pressed the recall button for his speedboat, as he dodged downwards, ducking under Starfire's sudden flying lunge. His escrima batons were out in half of a second, and he let one loose without hesitation, narrowly missing Starfire as she deftly dodged the attack.

Nightwing jumped quickly to his left, dodging another shot from her eyes, and then leapt towards her, striking down heavily with his remaining baton. Her fury and raging emotions seemed to affect her speed as well as strength, however, and Nightwing's eyes widened slightly as she simply reached out and caught the weapon. The woman's hand didn't move in the slightest, though all of his strength was behind the attack.

He suddenly found himself hanging from a metal stick that was being held by the most powerful woman he knew.

Then Nightwing made another stupid mistake: he blinked.

The last thing he saw before darkness took him was the back of Starfire's armored gauntlet sailing towards his face. He collapsed to the floor and knew nothing else.


The rush of air was in his ears when he came to. He was flying, and could feel Starfire's strong arm holding him. She had apparently felt the change in his body as he awoke, and he felt her grip tighten, both to keep hold of him, and to warn him not to try to escape. When he opened his eyes, he found that the black of unconsciousness had only been replaced with a solid gray. They were high enough in the air to lose the ground in the fog. the only variances in color were the small, swirling white spots of snowflakes as they drifted lazily through the air.

Nightwing's head was spinning, the concussion making him feel groggy and pained. Still, he noticed that Starfire was flying slowly, as if she was having difficulty keeping them aloft. Apparently the fighting had put her into another depression. He knew that she had trouble flying when she couldn't summon up joy. Having no desire to fall hundreds of feet to the ground, Nightwing decided to try to calm her. "I'm sorry."

"For what are you sorry? Is it the fighting this morning, or the refusal of a simple request?" Starfire's voice was angry, but Nightwing tried to keep calm.

Oracle's voice crackled through his transmitter, despite his having switched it off. "For ever moving in with a psychotic alien princess in the first pl-"

The voice was too quiet to hear as Starfire's fingers pulled the receiver from his ear and dropped it into the swirling fog below them. Nightwing sighed. "She's not going to be happy about that, Star."

"I do not care. Do you remember what you said to Cyborg, five years ago? That no matter who the leader was, we were Titans first? That all other concerns must be secondary?" Starfire's voice wavered, as did her flight.

Starfire was a strong woman, emotionally as well as physically. Nightwing was not so blind that he did not notice her strange manner. "Yes. What brought that up? What's wrong, Starfire?"

The woman stopped moving forward for a moment, and lowered herself in a controlled fall, feet first. The fog below them seemed to grow darker at first, until it became clear that they were over the bay, with the dark waters below them. Nightwing's boat was below them, still tracking him, as he'd set it to back in the prison. Starfire landed lightly on the boat, and let go of Nightwing. She seemed to almost collapse then, sitting heavily on one of the two seats, and cupping her face in her hands. "Everything. Everything is wrong, Nightwing, and nothing we have done has changed any of it."

He hesitated a moment. She had been angry earlier, and when she was wound so tightly, she tended to move between emotions without any real provocation. He had to tread lightly. "Starfire, talk to me. I'll pay attention this time."

Starfire pulled her hands away from her face. She seemed close to tears, but her face remained dry so far. "It is the future, Nightwing. Warp was correct. There is no changing it."

"Warp? Oh... Blorthog. Look, I know things aren't going as well as they could, and what happened with the Titans might seem like Rekmas, but you know what caused it. Besides, it's not the same. Cyborg is not stuck in the Tower, Changeling is at least close to competent as a crime fighter, and you are still here. We might not have changed everything, but it's still better than what you saw."

"Raven." Starfire's voice struck him deeply. It seemed as if all the pain she'd ever felt was placed into that one word.

Nightwing didn't speak for a moment, and Starfire seemed as if she was incapable of it, staring into the water next to the boat. After a few seconds, the silence became unbearable, and he felt forced to say something. "She... She's in Azerath. She said she was going there. She's got to have friends there; she isn't like the one you knew in the future."

"You... you are wrong. She is..." Starfire closed her eyes, and Nightwing knew her well enough to know that she was simply trying to stop herself from crying. He knelt beside her, putting his hands on her shoulders, and pulled her close.

She didn't cry, but she clung to him regardless. Her voice was weak, and it sounded as if she had to choke out each word. "She is... not as bad as I saw, and worse. I do not... I can not talk about it. You must see her."

Nightwing gently moved Starfire, pulling her away so that he could look her in the eyes. "Starfire, we can't go see her. She's not even on Earth."

"Dick, she lives in the Tower."


The small motorboat was running quietly now, as Nightwing took care to approach the island slowly. Nightwing helped Starfire out of the boat, and then stepped out himself, turning off the engine, and pulling the boat a few feet inland, to keep it from washing back out to sea. He turned slowly, careful of his footing on the frozen rocks, and looked upwards, at the Tower. Even though the daylight was pale and bright, the face of the Tower seemed to loom darkly over them. He could see his old window, though it seemed to be missing most of the glass. He frowned. No one should be living here.

Movement from Starfire refocused him, and he followed her to the large doorway, which was standing ajar. The orange-tinted light inside made him think that the room might be on fire. When he actually stepped inside to look, he found that the truth was worse.

"What are those doing here?" Before he'd even thought to do it, he felt his escrima batons in his hands again.

Starfire walked confidently forward, though her brightly glowing eyes showed that she was ready for combat if it was required. Her voice was guarded, but Nightwing could hear her anger. "They are guards. Raven was attacked when the crime was bad. She is powerful, and would win if she knew they were coming. She must sleep, however, and so she summoned guards."

"Raven always hated them, though. Too close to her father." Nightwing couldn't help but be nervous among these things.

Starfire turned to look at him, her face troubled. "I did not say that she wanted to summon them."

Nightwing looked up the elevator shaft, dismayed at the broken mechanics. "Going to fly?"

The woman shook her head, sighing. "I am unable. I can not summon the joy of flight. Having you here, in the Tower, makes it too difficu-mmphh-"

Nightwing held Starfire close as they kissed. It was a planned move, of course, to help her perhaps feel enough joy to fly, but it was also a true expression. He'd been too focused lately, too fixated on crime fighting. He could see, in Starfire's eyes, the same expression that he'd seen in all the women in Bruce's life. The knowledge that they were always second place. He knew what that sort of life lead to, and he wasn't planning to follow in Bruce's footsteps.

When their lips parted, Starfire pulled away slightly, but kept her arms around him. Her eyes were shining with happiness. "That was... you have not kissed like that since we were children."

"Since we were Titans." Nightwing grinned. "Titans first, everything else second."

The flight to the top of the elevator shaft only took a few seconds. Nightwing heard voices up ahead, and recognized Changeling and Raven.

"Come on, eat. You know you want to."

"I can't. I'm full, Beast Boy. When is Starfire coming back?"

"She'll be back any second. Look, if you don't eat, I'll leave too."

"You- You're leaving?"

"Ow, don't hurt my hand like that! Jeez, I was just kidding! Don't squeeze so hard."

Nightwing couldn't help but smile. It sounded like flirting, but it was more than likely nothing but Changeling doing what he could to keep things light. He always did like to joke around. The short corridor from the elevator to the Operations Room ended, and Nightwing stepped through the door, while Starfire stopped in the doorway, blocking any retreat.

Nightwing's smile disappeared, as he saw the other three people in the room. Changeling didn't bother him. Raven was... she looked horrible. She was his friend. Back when he'd had friends, she was one of the best. They had all left her, and she was paying for it. Changeling set the fork with the stir fry on it back in the Styrofoam dish, as Raven looked over at the newcomer to the room.

Her eyes were dull for a moment, but not for long. She stood weakly, then ran over to Nightwing, throwing her arms around him and holding on to him tightly. He put a hand on her back, holding her close, as she cried happily on his shoulder. She must have been waiting for the Titans to come back, all this time. She... she was starving, miserable, and apparently half crazy, or she'd never be clinging to him like this. She was a friend, a teammate, and, above all, a Titan. He would do all he could to help her. However, she wasn't the only one there.

Finally, Nightwing let himself look at the third person that had been in the room when he'd arrived. Cyborg, looking the same as he had all those years ago, stood up from the generator he'd been repairing in the wall, and looked back at Nightwing. Neither of them said anything for a few moments, just staring at each other as if they were separated by a chasm a mile wide. Nightwing felt Raven shift in his arms, as she felt the change in emotional climate.

Cyborg looked around the room, at the gathered group of heroes. "Alright y'all, we're back. Now what?"


A/N: I hope you enjoyed the third chapter. Please review, positively or negatively, and I'll see you next chapter.