A/N;

Again, nothin' to say.

I own nothing. Iggy's off making a bomb, so I have to do it myself.

Reviewers are so much cooler than non-reviewers. ;)

Robin smiled at Starfire, although she wasn't looking at him. She was tending to a small child, probably around nine or ten, who was still refusing to speak. They were in a hospital that had been built many years before as a shelter for the homeless, but had long-since lost its funding. It was located on the outskirts of Jump City- one call to the Mayor and the power had been turned back on, and now the escaped prisoners had a temporary place to stay, while Raven healed any injuries they might have.

"We only wish to help you." He heard the Tameranean murmur. The boy, who was curled up on the ground, shook his head. His arms were covered in a terrible rash, and Robin tried not to cringe as a puff of smoke escaped from one of the red splotches. Tears began to form in the kid's eyes and he wailed in agony, the first sound that had left his lips since Starfire had made it her mission to get him to talk. Robin almost didn't catch the slight wince as Starfire cradled the boy into her arms, but he did see the rash burning her skin. He wanted to tell her to let go, but he knew it was pointless; Starfire wouldn't listen, of course she wouldn't.

She ran a hand through the boy's shaggy brown hair and he began to cry.

"I wan' go home." He mumbled into her. "But I don' know where home is." Starfire's big emerald eyes turned to bore into the whites of Robin's mask. No words passed between them, but Robin knew exactly what Starfire wanted. He nodded with a sad smile, and Starfire breathed a sigh of relief.

"We will help you." She promised, and began murmuring to him in Tameranean- comforting him in the only way she knew how. Robin frowned and angrily stalked away- furious at himself for feeling so helpless. He couldn't house all these mutants- and most of them had forgotten their names, or couldn't return home. The city wouldn't take them, the police wanted to try them for murder... it was an impossible situation- one that he couldn't see a resolution for... not at the moment, anyway.

"Robin." Chief Walker called. Robin bit back a stream of profanities, and forced a level expression onto his face as he walked towards him.

"Chief." He greeted the man with a nod.

"This is unbelievable, son. I don't know what to do with any of these people-" he gestured around at the mutated people in the hospital, and sighed, "The public won't take 'em in... most of them are killers..." he trailed off, shrugging, "I'm at a loss."

"I'll figure something out." Robin mused, his eyes falling on a group of younger people- teenagers and small children. "They need somewhere safe."

"I don't know many people who'd wanna take in kids like these ones, Robin." Chief Walker reminded him. Robin sighed again. He'd been doing that a lot lately.

"I know... like I said. I'll figure something out, Chief Walker. Just... give us some time. Could you... speak with the Mayor? I want to ask him something, but my hands are kind of tied at the moment." Robin asked carefully. He watched the Chief's expression go from reluctance to acceptance.

"Alright, son. I'll talk to the Mayor. You just handle things here." he nodded, and Robin thanked him. He walked back to Starfire, who had the now-sleeping boy in her arms. The boy wonder saw the burn marks on her, and she gave him a nervous smile.

"I will have Raven heal me later." She promised. Robin nodded. "He says his name was arranged to be Magma Spot." Starfire continued, and Robin growled under his breath. He would find Rick Worthington, and he'd find Red X, and they'd pay for doing this to so many innocent people.

Red X. Another mystery... Robin clenched his gloved fists, and Starfire shifted the boy's form so she had one arm free. She placed that hand on Robin's shoulder, and she smiled.

"We have dealt with worse things than this, Robin. We shall find a way to keep them safe." The princess promised. Robin was about to reply, but groaned softly when he was cut off by his communicator. He flipped it open, answering the call from Cyborg.

"Hey Cyborg," he gave Starfire one last tired smile before walking to find a place to talk in relative privacy, "how's it coming?"

"Well, so far Shift's implied that BB doesn't like girls, had nightmares while she slept in the car, and freaked out because of all the noise. Oh, and she's claustrophobic, so I guess we're gonna have to figure out a way to get her around without usin' the elevators." Cyborg grinned. Robin sighed- a claustrophobic, possibly deranged metamorph. Just what he needed.

"What about Alcaeus?" Robin asked.

"He's lookin' out for her. Makes sure she doesn't piss anyone off, actually. He seems like a good guy- if not a little frightening." Cyborg answered.

"Okay. No signs of...?" he trailed off, uncertain. Cyborg frowned and shook his head.

"She seems okay upstairs. No weird mental breakdowns or anything. I'll keep you posted." The half-robot promised. Robin nodded.

"Give her the scan soon... I need to know what Worthington did to her, and I need to know fast. If she's dangerous... well, let's just hope you can fix her, okay Cy?" Robin ran a hand through his heavily-gelled hair. Cyborg nodded in understanding.

"Will do. Cyborg out." The communication cut out, and Robin placed the T-Com back in his belt, heading over to find Raven.

--

Raven held her hands over the chest of a middle-aged woman, her nerves completely shot. All the emotions in this place were driving her insane, and giving her a big headache. The woman kept mumbling things under her breath, her eyes squeezed shut. Listening closer, Raven realised she was praying desperately. The empath rolled her eyes, but felt a pang of sympathy for these people, including the praying woman. She had numerous gashes and bruises lining her body, and from the feel of her mind, not much sanity left.

"Hey." Robin's quiet voice cut through the muffled murmurs around her, but Raven didn't look up.

"Hi." She replied curtly. "I'm almost finished with her."

"Okay, good. Star's got some burns... but she's insisting you take care of these guys first." Robin said as he reached the half-demon.

"She's right- I don't know how much longer I can keep this up..." Raven's voice was strained, tired. Robin frowned.

"Just go on for as long as you can, take a break, whatever." He said, "I still don't know what we can do for them." Raven finally turned to him, raising her eyebrows.

"It's not a difficult answer," She told him, "Why don't they just stay here? It's a hospital, it's safe..." She turned back to the patient, who was still muttering to a higher power.

"I've thought of that... but what about their families? Their lives?" Robin replied. Now Raven frowned, healing the last gash on the woman's shoulder.

"Most of them don't have that. I treated a very talkative little girl before- she said her family wouldn't want her, but that was okay because she had family here. Look, I'm no expert on reforming mutants, but I think that they would find society frightening, and society would definitely find them frightening. Hire people to look after them here, raise the kids... maybe even talk to the Justice League about getting someone in to teach them to control their powers." Raven suggested, leaning against the nearest wall as she finished treating the woman. Robin sighed.

"It sounds so easy." He answered finally. "I just-"

"The bottom line is- they have nowhere to go, and most of them have already formed ties here. You can't force them back into their old lives- too much has changed." Raven finished, satisfied. "Just think about it. I've got to finish healing." She stalked out of the room, and Robin felt another headache coming on. Raven had such a good point... but it would take so much for it to work. He sighed, and felt another headache coming on. He looked at the woman in the hospital bed. Her wide brown eyes stared at him in fear.

"I'm Robin." He tried, but she just gave a tiny, muffled scream and shut her eyes. "Sorry." He mumbled, and retreated from the room. Maybe one of the cops had some aspirin handy...

A/N;

Longer than the last chapter, at least. :)

R & R.