Innocence Can Be Forever

Chapter 4: An Owls Prey

A/N: So I was listening to Amsterdam by Imagine Dragons and it may or may not effect my writing. So yeah, I really like writing this story actually, its funny and sad at the same time which is what I like in fanfiction. When the writer can break your heart and then make you laugh in the same chapter, now I'm not saying that I'm THAT good quite yet, but a lot of people are. I'm just going to say this... thank you fanfiction writers for teaching me the beauty of writing. Wow, I'm getting all symbolic again, oh well, fuck it I'll just write for eight hours straight.


The sun shined down on Titans Tower as the hours ticked by, it had been three hours since everyone woke up, but after a bit of drama, everything was normal...

To an extent.

"Please, friend Robin!" Starfire squealed as a head ache induced Raven and an entertained Terra stood by as onlookers in this impressive duel of will power and tactics.

"Absolutely not!" Robin growled as he stood in a battle stance.

"But you would be of adorableness!" Starfire said as she held up the unspeakable weapon.

This had been a twenty minute battle so far, in all honesty Raven was on Robins side while Terra merely laughed at the small birds expression. Starfire had somehow found a tiny blue dress and was urging the six year old to wear it, however, Robin was not going to comply. He himself had an oddly large amount of modesty for some odd reason, he didn't even know why, he just didn't want to show that much of his body to people. Starfire on the other hand... well... she had different ideas for him.

"PLEASE!" Starfire cried as she held it closer to Robin. "Just for a few of the earthly hours?" Robin shook his head as he glared at the frilly garment.

"Absolutely, positively not! I'm not a doll, I'm a boy!" Robin complained as he continued to shame the dress.

Terra giggled as the birds cheeks grew redder with every please, Raven on the other hand was trying to calm a migraine while trying NOT to choke the two combatants. "Just shut up, please, just SHUT UP!" Raven growled angrily as her headache only grew.

"Well, I think it would be cute to see him in a dress, just once, Robin?" Terra said as she lowered her voice to a whisper to help ease Ravens pain.

"Bu-" Robin started.

"JUST WEAR THE FUCKING DRESS, GOD DAMN IT!" Raven screamed, causing Terra, Starfire and Robin to shudder in fear.

Robin glared at the floor in fury. "Fine, one hour." Robin said. Starfire cheered quietly as she handed the dress to the ever oh-so-angry bird.

After ten minutes and numerous sounds of swearing later, Robin came out of the bathroom in the accursed garment. Terra and Starfire 'Awed' at the sight while Raven smirked in somewhat satisfaction. She too thought that Robin looked adorable, although, she doubted that said child would be as amused.

"This. Is. Not. Funny." Robin growled, the dress dragged as he stomped away.

Terra finally was able to breath after a few minutes of laughing. "Okay, that was adorable." Starfire nodded in agreement.


~ONE HOUR LATER~

The Titans felt guilty as Robin refused to even look at them for the whole period of wearing the dress. He really hated wearing it, Raven even had to stop him from licking a power outlet in hopes of moving on to a less frilly life. After taking off the dress, Robin still refused to talk to anyone, he eventually just locked himself in a bathroom as an overwhelming wave of shame over took him. How had he, Dick Grayson master thief, become a dress wearing child in a mere 24 hours. He sighed inwardly as he sat on the closed toilet, the Court of Owls hadn't even gone to find him, it made Robin feel quite worthless to them as he realized just how easy he was to forget, he was even sure by now that the Titans wouldn't even care if he ran away. They only wanted to use him for information and a toy and then throw him in jail, no one seemed to care about the circus freak.

Tears rolled down Richards face as he tried to calm down, he had to be stronger then this, he was a stone cold criminal for Christs sake! But it was hard for Robin to even breath as he felt flashbacks replay in his mind, the first time he was beaten by Vulture, his parents deaths, the abuse at the detention center. It all came crashing down at once as Robin tried to hold back his sobs.

"Friend, Robin?" Starfire asked as she knocked on the door. "I apologize for my actions towards you, I was unaware of how you would feel."

Robin didn't answer as he finally broke, a down pour of tears feel from the birds eyes as he sobbed from loss and pain of abuse, he just wanted to go back to the circus. Starfire burst in as he began to wail loudly, she ignored the broken bits of what was left of the door as she picked up the crying child and hugged him. The other teenagers hung back as they watched the event from the hallway, unsure if they should step in and say something. Robin hugged Starfire back despite his brain telling him that she was just another enemy that had to be killed, he cried into her hair until he was only coughing and hiccuping.

Raven levitated to the two as she placed a comforting hand on the now sleeping birds back. "What in the world happened to this child." She asked to no one in particular.

"The Court of Owls." Terra answered as she too stood next to Starfire and Robin. "Whatever they did... it was bad."

"Actually, I think Robin knows more than we think, much more." Cyborg said as he pulled out some documents from a hidden compartment in his thigh.

Everyone looked at Cyborg in confusion as they all followed him to the main room. The Titans stared up at the screen as it (1) flashed to life before there eyes. On screen, a document labeled [Project Robin] was shown on screen. A picture popped up of a little boy that looked exactly like Robin, except maybe a year or two younger, but not by much. A few paragraphs were seen as well as they mostly contained dates and status updates to a persons profile.

"These things keep talking about some massive project about Robin, apparently, hes a protege among the other assassins, hes flown through training and assignments faster then anyone else apparently. It says that hes supposed to be this big weapon that they'll use in some big plan of theirs, I'm not sure on what it is though, at least, not yet." Cyborg explained as he tapped a few more buttons.

Suddenly, the computer began to spark as the screen changed to a video chat. (2) Terra growled in disgust as she expected Slade to show up on the screen, but was surprised to see seven men dressed in grey wearing different bird masks show up instead. "Hello, children." Said the man in the middle of the group, staging as the leader. "As you clever little birds have probably already figured out, Robin is very important, and we need him back as soon as possible." The man explained, he was now standing, showing that he was very tall.

"No way!" Terra screamed. "Hes not going back there, you'll just beat him senseless!"

The Court seemed troubled as they looked at one another, although, it didn't show through the masks. "I see... well, its all part of his training to become are best assassin." The man stated.

"I don't care if its for training, hes only six for crying out loud!" Beast Boy yelled.

"Yes, he really is, quite impressive I might add, its a shame how his family died though. They never were letting him go to his full potential." The man said as he hanged his head slightly.

Cyborg glared at the screen. "Well hes with us now, so you can't have him!" He said as he looked to Starfire, who was clutching the sleeping boy close.

The giant of a man seemed to laugh at this. "Very well then, but we WILL get him back. One way, or another." With that, the transmission was cut off, leaving with the files as well.

Cyborg sighed as he looked at the empty screen, so these were the people Robin was stuck with for two years? Poor kid. One thing was clear to the Titans tough.

A fierce battle was on the rise.


A/N: Hope you liked it, I got WAY to carried away though, it started silly but then it got sad and then it got SERIOUS. Yeah, I think I need to stop writing for a bit. But no, I'm now writing chapter five because I have no life.


(1)- I made a Flash joke.

(2)- In this story Slade wants Terra as his apprentice but not as much as he wanted Robin in the show, so naturally, he will be involved soon enough. But yeah, Terra will talk about being his apprentice for awhile before Robin showed up, its a theme in my next chapter.

~Supercasey.