Chapter XI: Good Life

I hate this chapter. All this exposition, ugh! I feel like I'm explaining stuff everybody knows already! Aw well, it's necessary.

"Dick, how did you know about the Kryptonite? And what makes you think I have it?" John asked.

"I discovered from Lady Shiva that the League of Assassins had acquired one hundred pounds of Kryptonite and that they had sent it to someone. I also learned from the magician Zatanna that it went missing recently. She also told me about how she helped you and Mom and how you two had managed to get out of Kravia. I knew that you were behind the theft and that only you would be crazy enough to steal it before someone else did."

"Okay, you caught me," John laughed. "You really are the Batman's Prodigy after all."

"But I've always been your son," Dick said quietly. "I've never forgotten that."

"I'm grateful," John said, smiling. It was nice to be appreciated. "We need to get some breakfast, besides I have to wake your mother."

"Not until you tell me where that Kryptonite is, I need to move it here where it will be safer," Dick said, assuming his "Robin" persona once again. He was wearing his Robin uniform and John had to wonder if his son had slept at all.

"Who's to say it's not safe where I've hidden it?" John asked. "I'm not brainless, you know. I've kept it hidden and so far nobody's found it."

"I know that, it's just the Tower's more secure, and at least I could keep track it here," Robin said, folding his arms. "Well?"

"I won't tell you where it is Dick," John said. "I'll take you there."

"We should go now-" Robin began.

"Not until after breakfast, Dick," John interjected. "I'm sure it will be just fine right where it is," he reassured his son. That box wasn't going to sprout legs and walk off.

John turned around and made his way back into the Tower as Robin and Beast Boy watched him go.

"What'd you come up here to talk to him about?" Robin asked, looking at his green skinned friend.

"I was just asking him about stuff and how he's not like Batman. I don't know, I guess I just expected something different," Beast Boy said.

"Everyone is expecting him to be Batman, but he's not, and I'm glad of that. Come on, let's get some breakfast."

Beast Boy followed Robin inside and headed off to the kitchen while Robin saw his father make his way back to the living room where Mary was sleeping on the circular couch. Robin wondered what she was doing out there. He had shown them an empty guest room, not Terra's room of course, where they could sleep until he finished getting another room ready for them.

When Dick had left Gotham City he had taken many of his personal belongings with him, including a lot of his parents' possessions. He had pulled them out of the storage boxes and began furnishing a room for them after his mom had drifted off to sleep. The room he had given them was actually the Safety Room they had made for Raven when Trigon sent Slade and an army of fire demons after her. Robin thought the symbols were protective and reminded him of what he needed to do for his parents.

"Mary, wake up," John coaxed his sleeping wife. "It's morning."

"John," Mary yawned. "Let me sleep."

"Dick's up already, honey," John told her, knowing that she would probably wake up if Dick was awake.

"Oh, I guess I'll get up then," Mary conceded. She yawned again and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Standing up, she straightened out her clothes and followed her son to the kitchen.

Mary heard Cyborg and Beast Boy talking. It sounded like they were arguing about something.

"…No, Beast Boy, we're not feeding Robin's birth parents tofu for breakfast!" Cyborg said, pounding the table for emphasis. "These people live on real food, unlike you, who eats tofu and pizza 24/7."

"There's nothing wrong with tofu!" Beast Boy retorted. "At least it's healthy."

"Ha! If you're so "healthy", why're you eating as much junk food as you've been eating?" Cyborg asked.

"I like chips, what's wrong with that?" Beast Boy shot back. Starfire and Raven walked in, noting the smell of brewing tea and coffee.

"If you two are arguing…" Starfire began.

"Then who's brewing the coffee and tea?" Raven finished.

"Huh?" both Titans asked in unison, looking over at the two girls. They turned around and saw mother and son quietly preparing breakfast for the others. Mary was doing as best she could, having lost two of her fingers the previous night.

"Since you two wouldn't stop arguing, we decided to make breakfast ourselves," Robin said. "Anybody hungry?"

"I'll make myself some tofu eggs first," Beast Boy said, quickly moving off to get his tofu from the refrigerator.

The rest of the other Titans along with the Graysons, with the exception of Mary and Starfire all sat down around the kitchen. The other two had gotten up to serve breakfast.

While the others were busy talking and laughing, Starfire remained unusually quiet as she had the previous night.

"Is something on your mind, Starfire?" Mary asked. She noted the alien girl had been strangely silent.

"Oh, it is….just…I was wondering why your son has never spoken of you before all this happened," Starfire did not know why Robin had never mentioned his mother. He had always been introverted, but he had never spoken of his mother until he had discovered the desecration of his parents' graves.

"I suppose it was….too painful," Mary said. "We were very close, all of us. We were his world. His whole life revolved around us. When we were taken from him, he lost everything. But don't feel bad, shutting you out is something he decided to do, I'll have to talk to him about it."

"I think I understand," Starfire said. "I know that your death changed him, and that he is very much like you."

"We'll talk about this more once we sit down," Mary smiled. "The others are probably starving." They carried the plates out and served the rest of the Titans breakfast.

They sat down and they all began to eat.

"I wanna ask you something Dick," John said, looking up from his food. "Just to satisfy an old man's curiosity."

"What's that?" Robin answered, "What do you want to know?"

"I know you were once Batman's sidekick, but who's been raising you all this time? Where did you live before you moved here?"

"I lived with multi-billionaire Bruce Wayne," Dick admitted. His parents' faces registered complete shock.

"The worst part about dying…wasn't the actual death, it was me wondering…who would take care of you when I was gone," Mary said, glancing down at her plate. "How did Bruce Wayne find you? I remember seeing him in the audience that night. That performance's' profits were supposed to go to Wayne Charities."

"He came to your funeral and…he paid all the expenses, he told me he was sorry for my loss," Dick said. He was hesitant to bring up the subject of Batman in the same context because, even if his parents were alive again, Bruce Wayne wouldn't want him to tell them about that.

"He's a good man, Bruce Wayne," John said. "He told me about his parents, once, when he toured with Haly Circus years ago. Said he wanted to learn acrobatics from me, heh, strange, isn't it?" John sighed, leaning back against his chair.

"The man has enough money to do whatever he wants and he traveled across the country with us. You weren't born yet Dick, we'd just gotten married. Although, he didn't call himself Bruce Wayne, I knew it was him when he said his parents had been murdered in Crime Alley, it wasn't that hard to figure out. I still think it's strange 'because if I were him I wouldn't tell anybody that. Maybe he trusted me, maybe he thought I wouldn't figure it out, who knows? Still, he called himself John Smith, which is the oldest alias in the book."

Dick nearly laughed aloud. John Smith? Bruce must have not had any detective training back then, he would have never said anything about his "real" life if he were undercover nowadays. It must have been much different back then, when Bruce was trying to find his purpose and course in life. To think that his father had taught Bruce Wayne his acrobatics that he used as Batman. Why hadn't he noticed that before? He had worked with Bruce for years but hadn't given Bruce's acrobatic training a second thought. Perhaps that was why Bruce had adopted him. The pieces all fit and it was strange that the two families were connected through fate.

"Still haven't figured out why he lied to me, but I'm sure there's a good reason for it," John sipped his coffee.

He stared at the Titans. "This conversation must be boring you, huh?"

"Oh no, you are the first formerly dead resurrected persons we have ever gotten to have a conversation with that did not involve destroying the world," Starfire said. "The last time we talked to a person who was formerly dead, it was Slade who had come back to help Trigon destroy the Earth," Starfire said.

Mary had been drinking tea but started choking and unexpectedly spit up the remainder of it. "Wait a minute….that perverted creep used to be DEAD?! How did that happen?!"

"A few years ago, we met a girl named Terra," Robin explained. "We discovered that she couldn't control her powers and she thought that Beast Boy had told us after she had secretly confided in him. She ran away and we didn't see her for three months, then she returned, saying that she could control her powers. We weren't sure if we could trust her but after she helped us defeat Slade, we let her join the team."

"She was with us for three weeks and everything was fine until Titans Tower was attacked by Sladebots-these robotic henchmen that work for Slade. We didn't know how they had gotten passed our security. We had to fight them off, Starfire, Cyborg, Raven and I. We then discovered that Beast Boy and Terra were gone. Terra had persuaded Beast Boy to go with her on a date far, far away, clear out of town."

"While they were out, Slade found them and attacked Beast Boy, Beast Boy fought him off and learned that Terra was working for Slade. He'd sent Terra back to us to learn all our secrets so he could kill us. She'd betrayed us even after all we did for her, taking her in and giving her a home. She didn't understand that Slade just wanted her to be his apprentice and that's why he manipulated her into joining him."

John and Mary were silent, listening to their son's story in horror. This was the man who had trained them to kill, this was the man who had tried to rape and murder Mary, the man who despised John and wanted them both dead. This was so very complicated, and yet, it made sense.

"When Beast Boy returned to the Tower, he told us everything. Needless to say, we were angry and hurt. We had trusted her and considered Terra a friend. A few weeks later, she attacked us while were out driving around in Cyborg's car. She'd been trained by Slade in martial arts and Terra managed to hold her own against all of us. We retreated back here and decided to give her one last chance to get away from Slade and come back to us."

Robin sighed, this subject, was still hard for him to talk about openly, but it was crucial for his parents to understand Slade and what they were up against. He had to give them all the details in order to prepare them for what they were going to face.

"That night, Terra staged a break in at the Jump City Maximum Security Prison. She released three of our deadliest enemies, Cinderblock, a monster made completely of rock, Plasmus, a metahuman that turns into an acid spewing thing that we don't even know what he is, and Overload, he's completely made of electrical energy and can steal anything that feeds off electricity. Slade had Terra place neural links on all of them and sent them to various places in the city, in order to separate us. We split up and went off to fight all of them, and after we defeated each of them, Terra would show up and fight us. She beat us too…I think it's because somewhere deep inside all of us, we didn't really want to fight her, she took advantage of that and used it against us. She nearly crushed my head with a rock and Starfire managed to shove me out of the way before it hit me and she plunged over the side of the cliff into the water below. She tried to drown Raven in mud and sealed Cyborg and Beast Boy in a pit she created using her power to control the earth. Lastly, she had to fight me, and when I asked her why she hated us so much, she said it was because I was born. That really ticked me off because it made me think of you, mom, and how she had no right to say that about you."

"This Terra girl should consider herself lucky that I was dead, I feel like I want to rearrange her face at the moment, never mind, what happened to you anyway?" Mary asked.

"Terra kept throwing rocks at me until I grew tired of dodging them. Then she broadsided me wit ha large boulder and piled rocks over me, thinking I'd be crushed by all that weight. I managed to escape after she left and I met up with the other Titans who had managed to get away from her too. We knew that she wasn't our fried and we weren't going to give her anymore chances. We confronted her after she drove everyone out of our city and we beat her back and she ran away. We had to beat back Slade's robots again and Ternion, which is a disgusting combination of Cinderblock, Overload and Plasmus. Beast Boy tracked Terra to Slade's hideout and he discovered that Slade was controlling Terra via the suit he had given her, now he was forcing her to fight us, even though she didn't want to anymore."

"We found Beast Boy right as Terra was about to kill him by plunging a large, razor sharp rock into his head. Beast Boy managed to convince Terra that she had a choice and that she didn't have to serve Slade and that she could do the right thing. She told him she was sorry for everything she'd done and then turned on Slade, using the neural suit against him. Her powers triggered a volcano, and she sent Slade plunging down into a pit of lava. She the sacrificed herself so we could escape and turned herself into stone."

"After that, we thought it was over but one year later, Slade returned, this time, he had supernatural powers, he could spew fire from his hands and there was a strange symbol on his forehead. He attacked Raven and spoke of a message. It turns out; he was resurrected by an inter-dimensional demon called Trigon, who planned to come our world using a "Portal". It wasn't until Slade attacked us again that Raven revealed the truth about her destiny that she was supposed to destroy the world by becoming Trigon's portal, and the reason is that Trigon is her father."

Mary turned and looked at Raven with an expression that was a mixture of horror and sympathy. She had noticed Raven's was a bit darker in personality, but she hadn't expected anything like this. She waited or what happened next.

"Trigon sent Slade with an army of fire demons to the Tower to retrieve Raven, but we put her in a safety room and we tried to protect her. Eventually, we were overwhelmed and captured. Raven came out and said that she would go with him. We didn't want her to and she used her powers to knock us out so we wouldn't' stop her. The last thing I heard her say was "Be safe." When we woke up we tracked her to an old library in the city where we had first discovered the prophecy about her birth. We couldn't stop Trigon from coming and Raven disappeared after she became to Portal. We thought she was dead and we tried to fight Trigon using the power she had given us when she knocked us out, but it didn't work. Slade came offering to help us, though he had his own motivations for it. He said that Raven could still be saved, but only one of us could go with him to rescue her. I went because I wanted to find her and I wanted answers from Slade about why he was doing all this."

"We traveled down deep into what I can only describe as Hell itself manifested. We had to fight off a small army of fire demons and they knocked off Slade's mask."

"Dude, did you actually get to see his face?" Beast Boy asked.

"No, all I saw was a skeleton, I asked him what happened and he wouldn't tell me until I gave him the ultimatum of giving me the answers or be left to his own devices. Because he needed my help he told me what had happened, how Trigon had resurrected him and had promised him his flesh and blood if he would help him open the Portal. He admitted he enjoyed what he called "fringe benefits" of his newfound powers and being able to lead an army of supernatural demons. But in the end, Trigon betrayed him because he coerced Raven to go with Slade instead of Slade bringing her to Trigon as he was instructed. Trigon tried to kill him but he was wearing a ring of Azar and it protected him from being disintegrated. He then told me where I could find Raven. After fighting more fire demons I found Raven in the ruins of the church where she had once taken me to hide from Slade when he had first returned. She didn't remember me then, but I managed to convince her to come with me and I told her stories about her life to help her remember what had happened."

"We were attacked by more demons and Raven nearly fell into a pit of lava, but I managed to pull her out and then she remembered everything and told me there wasn't any hope left because all her powers were gone. Then I told her that I'd have to have hope for both of us; she seemed to understand what I meant and so we made our way back to our friends who had been fighting evil replicas of themselves for hours."

"We decided that this was our last chance. Him or us. All or nothing. We attacked Trigon with everything we had. He used his powers to stop us but then Slade showed up."

"He told Trigon, "For the record, I'm nobody's servant," and threw a flaming ax in his eyes. We kept fighting him and fighting him, but then he knocked us out. The only one left was Raven, and when Trigon tried to destroy her, she discovered that she still had some of her powers. She realized that she had control of her own destiny and that he couldn't control her life just because he had created her. She took back the power she had given to us and used it to destroy Trigon and restore everything back to the way it was."

"It wasn't until after everything was back to normal that we realized that Slade had disappeared. We knew he'd come back someday, but I never dreamed it'd be because of you two," Robin said, gazing over at his parents, who were no doubt trying to process all this.

John drank his coffee. "I think I understand everything a little better, but I don't understand why Slade wanted Terra to be his apprentice, what would he need an apprentice for? Slade's a diabolical genius on his own."

"He wants someone to follow in his footsteps, he's got this twisted notion that he's like a father to me, and when I escaped him, he went after Terra."

John was stunned. "How come nobody's told me this?"

"I thought you knew already. Mom knew, Raven told me before I came up onto the roof about her conversation with Mom last night and that she'd asked her about it."

"Slade forced me to become his apprentice when he threatened to kill my friends if I didn't do what he said. He had planted baroscopic probes inside their bodies and if I disobeyed him, he'd kill them, and he'd make me watch….just like before when you both…" Robin sighed.

"I couldn't let them die, I guess it was the lesser of two evils, I suppose, but I never accepted it. I always fought him; I didn't want to work for him. I didn't want to steal things and become a criminal. The other Titans discovered what Slade had done and they came to rescue me. Slade tried to kill them using the probes but I ran over to the machine and let the probes fill my body. I gave him a choice, he could let my friends and I go, or I'd die with them…I'll admit, and I haven't told any of them this, but when it felt like I was going to die…I thought about you, and how I'd be able to see you all again…I really didn't want to die, but there was nothing I could do to stop those probes from tearing me apart. Then Slade destroyed the remote and came after me himself, I guess he respected me enough to let me live. We fought him, but he escaped, and now he's back again."

"Dick…" Mary whispered. She took her hand in his, holding it quietly.

"Mom, there's something I have to tell you," Robin told her. She wasn't going to like what he had to say.

"What's that, honey?" she asked.

"When Slade tried to rape you…that wasn't his idea, he didn't come up with that on his own. Someone told him to do that to you."

Mary could only look at him in horror. She knew that Slade was a sick, twisted man. He was totally capable of coming up with this on his own, but who would want him to do this to her?

"Dick, who told him to rape me?" she asked, dreading the answer.

"Ra's Al Ghul, he told Slade to do that so it would drive you both towards him, make you both loyal to his cause. And when Slade saw you both, I don't think it was that hard for him to like the idea. After all, Mom, you're beautiful….and I have no doubt if Dad hadn't gotten there in time, he would have raped you…and then he would have used that against me…he would have tormented me with what he would have done to you."

Now Robin had never seen his mother become visibly sick before, but after he told her that, she turned deathly white. She looked as if she were going to vomit right then and there. The other Titans watched as she got up from the table and ran over to the sink, they could hear her vomiting and Beast Boy covered his mouth too, he was getting sick because she was sick, and Cyborg was trying to ignore the sounds he was hearing because he wanted to keep his breakfast in his stomach.

Starfire and Raven were both worried and Starfire voiced her concern. "Robin…is she going to be okay?"

"I'll go check up on her," John said, getting up out of his chair. John made his way over to the refrigerator and pulled out a gallon of cold water from inside. He poured his wife a glass and handed it to her.

"Here, this'll make you feel better," he said, handing her the glass. She took it and drank it quickly. She turned on the water to wash all her bile down the drain. She turned off the faucet when it was finished.

Mary drank some more water to get the bitter taste out of her mouth.

"Are you okay?" John asked in a whisper.

"I just found out that everything that happened to me back in that temple was orchestrated by a lie, that someone I trusted planned to have a psychotic pervert rape me, and you're asking me if I'm okay?!"

"How do you think I feel?!" John retorted, trying to keep his voice even. "I'm the one who's supposed to take care of you…and I've been doing a lousy job of it, too."

John placed his hands on Mary's shoulders. "I promised to protect you and that's a promise I intend to keep." John quietly took his wife in his arms and kissed her, not caring that four of the five Titans were in complete shock, they weren't used to such open physical affection between two people, even Robin and Starfire's displays of affection in front of all of them were few and far between.

Robin however was not very surprised, they had always been physically affectionate, he'd gotten used to it after awhile. They had been equally affectionate with him, his mother always gave him hugs and kisses and his father would often hug him or ruffle his hair when he was a child, even in his pre-teens.

"Uh, Dude," Beast Boy asked. "Aren't you gonna…make them stop, or something? All this P.D.A. is freaking me out here!"

"They've always been that way," Robin said, smiling slightly. "So leave them alone, Beast Boy, and no teasing them about it."

"They are very sweet," Starfire told Robin. "You say they have always been this way, even when you were a child?"

"Yeah," Robin replied. "They haven't changed much."

"But they've been kissing for five whole stinking minutes already, and neither looks interested in stopping!" Beast Boy said loudly.

"B. Knock it off, they're married, it's normal," Cyborg said, he elbowed Robin. "How does he do it? You ever ask him?"

Robin noticed his father had deepened his kiss and his mother was running her fingers through his hair.

"He told me he breathes through his nose," Robin said. "Ignore them, it's what I did for years." Beast Boy noticed them too and his eyes popped out of his head.

"Okay, but I can't believe they can just kiss each other like that and you don't care." Beast Boy sighed. "I wanna be like that when I'm married."

"If you get married, Beast Boy," Raven remarked. "At the rate you're going you won't be married 'til you're thirty."

Robin went back to eating as if nothing was happening and the other Titans continued to watch the Graysons. They finally stopped kissing and pulled away.

"I don't taste like vomit do I?" Mary asked, leaning on John's shoulder.

"Nah, you're just fine. Feel better now?"

"Mmmhmm," she replied. She saw four of five Titans staring at her. "How long have you kids been watching us?"

Nobody answered that question.

"Apparently you all have been watching us for quite some time, or you wouldn't be blushing right now," Mary laughed. "Let me have my seat back, I actually have an appetite now."

"Oh, I just remembered something," Robin said, reaching down into his utility belt. In all the commotion of bringing his mother to the Tower, he'd forgotten about her wedding ring.

He pulled it out and held it out to her.

"I believe this belongs to you," he said.

She gasped. "Dick…how did you find this?"

"I found it in the cemetery, it must have fallen off of you when they were…taking you and dad away."

"I thought I'd lost it for good…" Mary felt tears stinging her eyes. John had used a large portion of his salary to buy her that ring when they were getting ready for their wedding. It was precious to her, she hadn't worn it when she died because it would interfere with her ability to grip the trapeze bar. She was touched that they had buried her with it.

Tears leaked out and streamed down her face. "Aw, look at me. I'm an emotional train wreck…"

"It's okay Mom," Dick said, smiling as he moved over and hugged her.

"Dad, I need you to take me to that K, A.S.A.P," Robin said, he was all business now.

"Okay, okay, I'll humor you," John sighed. "As soon as we get it here, you'll stop pestering me won't you?"

"Yes," Robin sighed. He wanted to get that Kryptonite to the Tower so he could lock it up in the safe.

"Since I'm done, we can go," John said, standing up. Robin joined him. "Mary, you should stay here wit the Titans and rest. You've been through a lot."

"John, I want to go. I want to help-" Mary began.

"Mom, you really should stay," Robin said, agreeing with his father.

"But-"

"Please, Mom. Do it for me. I just want you to be safe, okay? It'd make me feel better knowing you're here," Robin pleaded. He didn't want her to get hurt and she did need to rest.

"I hate it when you do that," Mary said, exasperated.

"Do what, Mom?" Dick asked.

"Emotional bribery," she said. "You keep using how I feel about you to get me to do stuff."

"Hey, it works," Dick laughed.

"And it only works on me!" she exclaimed, running her fingers through her hair. "Okay, I give in. I'll stay. But don't think for one second that I'm going to forget this anytime soon."

"I know you won't," Dick said, walking out toward the elevator.

Mary Grayson sighed quietly. She walked into the living room and sat down on the circular couch. Beast Boy was sprawled on the couch, flipping though the channels.

"I guess your son didn't want you to go help him pick up the K, huh?" Beast Boy asked, looking up at her.

"I guess he didn't," Mary said, looking at him. "Mind if I see what's on?"

"Sure, why not?" Beast Boy replied. "Have at it."

Mary took the remote from him and began flipping through the channels. There wasn't anything on, just infomercials, MTV and soap operas. Mary frowned, "Is this all there is on TV, just junk?"

Beast Boy shrugged, unsure of what to say.

"Beast Boy, can I ask you a question?" Mary asked the green shape shifter.

"Sure, go ahead," he replied.

"Where's my son's room?" Mary asked.

"Oh, I'll show you," Beast Boy got up and led Mary down the hall and to Robin's room.

Mary gazed at the name engraved on the door. Robin. How appropriate. She had given him that nickname as a child. He hadn't really liked it, he said he'd be made fun of for it but it seemed to stick. What name could be better for the partner of the World's Greatest Detective? She pushed a button on the wall and opened the door.

Stepping into her son's room, she was surprised at how clean it was. It was immaculate, not a speck of dust anywhere, no clothes on the floor. Everything was clean.

"I can't believe he keeps his room this clean," she laughed. "I always told him to keep his room clean. I guess he listened to me after all."

"He rarely sleeps in there," Beast Boy told her. "He sleeps in the evidence room."

"The evidence room? Why?"

"He's always working, ya know, crime fighting. He's always trying to solve cases and stop crime. He does take time to chill out and stuff but he never stops."

"Well I'll tell you one thing, he didn't get that from either of us," Mary said, looking at the things in her son's room. She noticed the giant portrait hanging on the wall of her and John.

"Where did this come from?" she pointed to the portrait.

"Bruce Wayne had it made for him, after you guys died, it was in Wayne Manor until Dick moved here," Beast Boy said.

"He tell you that?" she asked. Beast Boy nodded.

"That was thoughtful of him, it's like, with that picture it's like we were with him." Mary moved over to the closet.

"I have a feeling he doesn't have any civvies in here," she opened the closet. "Interesting, he has more than one uniform."

"Yeah, he does," Beast Boy noticed her looking for something. "What are you looking for?"

"Oh, I was just looking for the uniform I made for him, all these others are based off it. I wonder where it is."

"You…made that for him?" Beast Boy asked, stunned. He'd never said anything about his uniform being something his mother made for him.

"Yes, it was the last ting I gave him before I died," Mary said quietly. Beast Boy stared at her intently listening, it was very fascinating, her telling him all this. Robin never went into detail about his past.

"Oh, I guess that's why he wears it constantly. He'd always think of you that way," Beast Boy said, "So where'd the name "Robin" come from anyway?"

"I've called him "little Robin" since he was a baby. He was born on the first day of spring, and a robin landed on the windowsill outside the hospital. It's a term of endearment. I guess it stuck."

"I didn't know he liked it so much," Beast Boy laughed.

"Actually, he didn't like it so much, he said that kids his age would get beat up for nicknames like that," Mary told him. "Guess when he needed a code name to work with Batman, he decided it would work and, in a way, he'd always think of me."

"I didn't know it was that personal for him," Beast Boy said. "He must've really missed you guys."

"Yeah, he did. Come on, I'm going to see what else is in this Tower of yours." Making her way out to the hall, she asked Beast Boy, "Where's the evidence room?"

Down the hall first door on the left," Beast Boy pointed at it. Mary walked down the hall and into the room. She saw all the newspaper articles and pictures of the various supervillains the Titans faced on a regular basis.

Mary glanced at the newspaper clippings on the wall and smiled. Her son had always loved reading the newspaper, not because he was interested in politics or the weather but he loved reading about Batman and Superman's exploits. Ironic that he would be the one that other little boys would read about and be in awe of.

Scanning the wall, she read the headlines of various stories concerning her son and the Titans.

Hmmm…"Who is Slade?" Interesting, no one seems to know much about him, not even Dick," Mary shifted her gaze and saw a large poster of The Flying Graysons on the wall. "I guess he thought it was right to keep it up one that wall, but with it being right next to an article about Slade doesn't make me feel flattered."

Getting up, Mary Grayson exited the Evidence Room and headed out toward the living room where the other Titans were waiting for her. So far, things seemed fine, but she knew how fast situations could change. Her new life was good and it was just beginning, but she just had to wonder how long her peaceful sanctuary inside the Tower would last, and how long it would be before the League of Assassins would invade the Titans' home, and attempt to take her life…

Dick Grayson, along with his father John, made their way through Jump City. His father was on a nondescript bike his son had loaned him. They drove through the back alleys and tried to avoid open places if at all possible. His father was leading him to where they had hidden one hundred pounds of Kryptonite.

His parents had inadvertently stumbled on a conspiracy to assassinate Earth's greatest hero, Superman. Something this big couldn't remain hidden forever.

Discovering this plot was dangerous enough, but with the entire League of Assassins after his parents had put them in a dangerous position. The League was definitely behind the plot to kill Superman but putting his parents in the middle of it made them all the more determined to wipe them off the face of the earth so that they wouldn't expose their activities.

"Are we there yet? How much farther?" Robin asked. He didn't like being out in the open with his birth father, not that it was that he didn't like being with him, he was just worried that one of the Demon's Teeth would jump out and start trying to take them both out by cutting off their heads.

"Don't worry, just a few more blocks," John said as quietly as he could. Keeping his voice down was hard because of the motorcycles' engines.

They drove down a few more blocks until John turned into Pier 41. Robin recognized this place was where Slade had once housed his decoy Chronoton Detonator.

John got off his bike and went over to a nearby warehouse and picked the lock on the door.

"Get inside, it's best if no one sees us," John said. Robin complied and quickly moved inside the warehouse.

Robin stared around at the inside of the warehouse in amazement. The interior was filled with state-of-the art computer equipment and surveillance technology. He gazed up at the monitored. They had his entire city under surveillance.

"Not that I'm impressed with this place, but haven't you ever thought that maybe someone could discover this place and use all this to commit crimes?" he asked his father.

"Don't worry son, I have safeguards on this place, and it's owned by a dummy corporation that's a front for Ra's Al Ghul. If they ever find us here, they'll never get to us."

"How do you know that?" Robin asked.

"Because well, I—" he stopped in midsentence. "Did you notice something?"

"What?"

"It's too quiet," John told him.

"Of course it's quiet, there's no one here but us," Robin observed. He was right. Something was out of place, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"No, I mean as in nobody's working in the other warehouses. When your mother and I lived here, we constantly heard workers hauling shipments in and out of all the other warehouses surrounding us. Today it's quiet, as if everyone decided to take the day off."

"You're right, it's as if, someone scared them off," the realization hit Robin. They both were in danger. He heard a clicking noise. He whirled around to come face-to-face with one of Slade's robotic Minions.

"Looks like Slade found us," Robin said.

"We can take on this thing, it's just one," John observed. "Not a problem."

"You're wrong Dad, there never is just one," Robin told him. Just then about two dozen Sladebots, also known as Minions, dropped from the rafters above them. They were completely surrounded. The Minions had their guns pointed at them, ready to shoot the life out of them.

"Looks like we're going to use whatever safeguards you have on this place," Robin said, brandishing his Bo Staff. Slade wanted father and son to fight their way out. Robin wouldn't disappoint him.