Gamer4 in. Fun fact: I was originally going to have these author's notes fill in the part of the book I'm not covering, Johnny's story. While it's obviously a little too late to do such a thing now, I'm thinking of having a little summary of Johnny's story in a later chapter. I don't know, what do you think?

Disclaimer: I own a pen. It is mightier than a sword.

Chapter XIV

Exploration #4: Tim's Story

"No!" Starfire swiftly responds. "Robin, I will not allow you to enter the hallway of darkness!"

"Star, we have to," Robin repeats. "They went in there with rations for five days. It's been nine. And on top of that, Beastboy's gotten that signal- they're in trouble, they need help, and we're the only ones that can give it!"

"Why?!" Starfire cries. "Why must you be the one to go in?!"

"Who else is going to?" Robin retorts.

An uncomfortable silence falls. Finally, Robin speaks. "We need to decide who's going in," he says, turning to his companions.

The other Titans glance down at the floor. It is obvious that none of them are keen on entering the hallway, particularly after reading that diary.

Finally, though, one of them does speak up. "I'll go in."

For a moment, the words hang in the air, and Robin slowly looks up, as though uncertain that they were really spoken. Sure enough, Raven has a look of shock on her face, as though she herself can hardly believe that she actually said those words. Slowly, though, the shock fades away, replaced by a look of defiance. "Well, you heard me," she said. "I'm going in with you."

"Are- are you sure?" Robin asks, staring. Raven had been the one who had protested the most vehemently about going anywhere near the hallway, after all.

"Well, Starfire's hardly going to be able to go in there, she's claustrophobic," Raven points out. "And I'm not sure about Cyborg, either- if that place turns off powers, who knows what it could do to him. And Beastboy..."

Silence fell. It seemed that, despite her convictions, she couldn't think of a reason Beastboy shouldn't go. Beastboy, however, shakes his head. "Don't worry about me," he mutters. "There's no way I'm going in there."

Everyone else turns to stare at him for a moment. Finally, Raven says, "Well, there you go."

"So, you're planning on going in there alone?" Cyborg finally asks. "Just the two of you?"

"Of course not," says another voice. "I'm going in with them."

Once again, everyone turns in surprise. Tim has raised his hand as though volunteering- which, of course, he was. "I volunteer as tribute," he says, smiling slightly as he puts down a couple fingers to make the District 12 salute.

"Tim... are you sure?" Robin asks, looking uncertain.

"Hey, I know I'm not as used to dealing with weird things as you are," Tim smiles, "but I'm not about to just sit around here while my brother dives into trouble alone."

For a moment, silence falls, as everyone looks somewhat awkwardly at each other. Finally, Robin says, "Alright, we need to work out a plan."

"Go in, find them, get out," Tim says, smiling. "Fairly simple."

"Granted," Robin nods, "but there are a couple things I want to do- first off, we should do the same thing we told the group to do- drop off rations every couple hours or so. We should also go in with some more rations than just the five day's worth- I doubt they're going to be in the best shape when we find them. That said, we should bring some medical supplies, too, just in case."

"Here's an idea," Cyborg says, raising his hand. "We don't want to fall too far out of contact, so how about we get two radios, and just as you're about to fall out of contact, someone stays behind to set up camp so they can relay messages between us?"

"That's a good idea," Robin nods. "Any volunteers?"

"Sounds like my cup of tea," Tim says, smiling slightly as he raises his hand once more.

"Well, in that case, we should get two tents, also," Raven points out. "I think I'll head out and do some shopping of my own." With that, she stands, and a moment of focus later, has disappeared into a shadow on the floor.

"I suppose I should get going," Tim nods, heading out of the living room door.

This leaves the remaining four Titans in an uncomfortable silence. Finally, Robin stands. "There are some things I need to take care of," he says, turning to head out of the room. A moment after he leaves, Starfire rises and follows him out, leaving Cyborg and Beastboy to start setting up for the rescue operation.

XXXX

Among many other things, Robin's insistence on entering the hallway himself has received a great deal of debate. Many theorists suspect that it's tied to the classic male struggle for dominance- that is, Robin enters the hallway because he must conquer it to satisfy his male pride.

Others say it's more rooted in Robin's psyche, often tying it directly to Emma, an idea that would be explored later in the narrative. In essence, Robin feels the need to plunge into that darkness because he feels it will somehow make up for past sins. However, this ignores the most fundamental thing about Robin: he's Robin.

From the moment the hallway first appeared, Robin desired nothing more than to plunge in, to explore it, to find an answer. In this manner, he's actually similar to Jinx. Ultimately, while many factors can be attributed to it, be it pride, past traumas, heroism, or anything else, Robin feels that he must enter the hallway because he is Robin.

XXXX

Tim returns with several bags and packs full of rations, first aid supplies, plenty of flares and markers to go around, two flashlights complete with an insane number of batteries, two tents, and two radios. When Raven appears, she doesn't immediately seem to be carrying anything, but the other Titans, seeing that any effort to coerce information about her purchases out of her would be pointless, let the point lie.

Finally, after a great deal of preparation, the three new explorers stand in front of the hallway, staring in. After a moment, Raven takes a deep breath, and steps forward. We can see the cold instantly envelop her. She hesitates for a moment, then pushes on down the hall. Slowly, first Robin, then Tim follow after her. As per their previous discussions, Cyborg quietly shuts the door behind them and locks it. Then, he, along with Beastboy and Starfire, sit down next to the radio. A few minutes pass. At last, it crackles into life. "Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3, can you hear me? This is Rubber Duck, giving a shout-out to Pig-Pen, come on!"

"Tim?" comes another voice from the radio- clearly Raven. "What are you doing?"

"Sorry, I've always wanted to do that," says Tim's voice.

"We hear you, Rubber Duck," Cyborg says, a faint smile crossing his face.

"Hey, is that Tin Man?" Tim's voice comes in. "Gland to hear it. Keep up the conversation- we have to know when we're about to get out of range, alright?"

"Got it," Cyborg nods.

XXXX

The cameras then jump to in the hallway, as the two brothers and the empath in blue make their way through the hallway. As we can see, they start out following the fishing line left behind by the previous explorers. Tim gives a low whistle. "Well, when they said it was cold in here, they weren't whistling dixie." Knitting his brow, he wondered out loud, "Where does that expression even come from? I mean, is 'dixie' a song? And why would whistling it be like making a big deal over nothing? I mean-"

"Tim," Raven says, turning her flashlight briefly on him.

"Yeah?"

"I say this as a friend- shut up."

For a while, things pass in silence, until the group is halfway across the antechamber, when the growling starts up. "Ah, there it is," Tim says, looking around with his flashlight. "I was wondering when we'd start hearing Mr. Monster..." Turning back to Robin and Raven in front of him, he asked, "So, what do we do if Mr. Monster actually decides to show himself?"

"Same thing we'd do with any other monster," Robin mutters. "Take it down."

A moment of silence later, Tim shrugs. "Sounds reasonable."

By following the fishing wire, the group is able to find their way across the antechamber and into the next segment of twisting hallways. There seems to be no doubt in the mind of any of them that they'd be lost without the path marked out for them by the wire. No matter how deep they go, the hallway is eternally similar. Nothing marks one out from any of the others, except possibly length. Every turn is a perfect 90 degree angle. Straight at a junction, straight again, double back through both junctions because they lost the wire in the darkness, left turn, right turn, another left, another right...

Finally, the tunnel-like halls opened out into an area much greater than the antechamber. Casting their lights around, the group can tell that they've found their way to the great hall.

"The stairs are dead ahead..." Raven comments as they press forward.

"...Well put, Rae," Tim mutters, following behind.

Sure enough, several minutes of walking later, the three finally arrive at the staircase in the Great Hall's center. For a moment, they stand in silence, peering down the center into the darkness it descends into. "So..." Tim begins, "who wants to go down the dark, creepy staircase inside the dark, creepy hallway first?"

For a moment more, they stand over the abyss, hesitating to actually enter. Finally, Robin breaks the silence. He reaches over for the radio, and speaks into it. "Alright, Cyborg, we're at the staircase. Can you hear us?"

"You're still coming in loud and clear," comes Cyborg's voice.

Robin sighs and turns to Tim. "Well, if you're going to set up camp anywhere, I guess here is as good a place as any. We just need you to stay in contact with us."

"Got it," Tim nods. "I'll... get on that, then."

Robin turns to Raven. "If you want to turn back, now's the time to do it."

Raven stares back at him with her eyes half-closed. "Oh, yes, Robin, I came all this way in just to turn around at the staircase after you give me that cliche line," she snarks.

"Alright, alright," Robin agrees, raising his hands in surrender. "Just wanted to make sure."

Without further adieu, the two birds turn and begin their descent down the stairs. Slowly, Tim sets down the bags he's brought with him, and prepares to set up his tent.

While there's no certain estimate of how long Tim expected it to be before he heard from Robin or Raven, the length of time that passes is clearly shorter than that sum. Namely, it's only a couple minutes at the most before he hears a distant gasp- and not over the radio. A moment later, the radio itself crackles into life. "Tim!" comes Robin's voice over it, sounding shaky. "Come... over to the banister. There's something you need to see."

"You can't have found them already," Tim notes, straightening up from the bag he'd just been emptying. "I just finished unpacking the tent!"

"No, we haven't..." Raven's voice comes in, and though she sounds less shaky, she sounds odd as well. "But Robin's right. Come on over to the banister."

Here, it seems that Tim has seen his fair share of horror movies, and is no stranger to the idea of monsters taking on friends' voices to lure the comic relief character to his death. Before he advances to the banister, he picks up his flashlight and one of the poles from the tent. Only when he considers himself sufficiently armed does he advance to the banister and peer over. It doesn't take long for what he's seeing to register, and cause him to gasp.

It's not that it was a very horrifying sight- in fact, under normal circumstances, the sight would be profoundly comforting. It was what the sight implied that elicited such shocked reactions from the three who saw it.

Because the thing is, there's a reason that all the previous explorations had been caught on tape. The Titans wanted to see everything those explorations had seen. Every step of those seven hours down the staircase recorded by Exploration #3 had been viewed by each of the Titans as well as the actual explorers. So, let any one of them try to come up with an explanation as to how, only roughly twenty feet down, thirty at the most, Robin and Raven had already reached the bottom of the staircase.

"I...it's different..." Tim gasps, slowly backing away from the staircase. "No... no thank you... no, no thank you!"

Robin tunes in again over the radio. "You getting cold feet, Tim? The staircase was the biggest part of this place... if you want to head back, you could probably do that..."

Tim looks back towards the halls that would take him back to the light and warmth of the main tower. Then, he looks back at the staircase that had just become even stranger than before. Then the hallways. Then the stairs. Finally, he sighs, and says, "Yeah, I'm thinking... screw that."

Unfortunately, as he speaks, the radio crackles into static, and Robin misses the reply. "What?" the red-clad brother asks.

Tim smiles slightly. "That's the guy that goes around signing light bulbs, right?"

"...Who?"

"Watt."

"...What?"

Tim sighs. "You know what? Forget it. I'm staying. Over. Out. Whatever. Some. Thing."

There is a moment of silence, then Robin sighs and begins describing what things look like at the bottom of the staircase. "It's a big, round room... there are doors all around the walls... back to following the fishing wire, I guess."

"Be careful," Tim says, reluctantly turning away from the staircase and returning to his bag.

XXXX

What follows is what many people deem one of the film's 'breather moments.' Very little horrifying happens over the segment focusing on Tim. And, since very little critical to the plot happens either, rather than discussing the whole thing, let us go over some of the highlights of what analysts have dubbed, Tim's Story.

XXXX

Day 1, 4:00 PM

Tim is sitting outside his tent, gazing around the vast hall. "Great hall, huh?" he asks of no one in particular. "I don't see what's so great about it." Shrugging, he glances around. "So, yeah, I'm just sitting here, neighboring with Mr. Monster here." He waves his hand all around. "Sorry. I'd point at him, but Mr. Monster is a bit camera shy. Even I haven't seen him yet. I've just been hearing his growl."

At this point, the growl grows louder. Tim, far from being scared, sighs. "Yeah, Mr. Monster isn't the best neighbor I've ever had. Has this thing for growling loudly and incessantly." Raising his voice slightly, he calls, "Can you at least stop that for night, Mr. Monster? Some of us will be trying to sleep!"

XXXX

Day 1, 8:00 PM

Tim is in his tent, operating the radio. "It's been a few hours," he comments. "How are you doing down there?"

"Everything's going... fine," Robin's voice crackles over the radio. "We haven't found Terra, Jinx, and Aqualad yet, but we've found a bunch of markers and flares- all the flares are burnt out."

Tim sighs. "The fishing wire still going strong?"

"No, we came to the end of it. A big coil, just sitting in one of the halls we came into. We've picked it up, and we're unraveling it for ourselves now."

Tim gives a small chuckle. "Ariadne, eat your heart out," he says. "Well, I'll check in with home base..."

A quick change in frequency later, he is making contact with Cyborg. "Alright, talk to me," Cyborg says.

"They've found some old flares and markers, but no luck finding the people themselves," Tim rattled off. "We're still in contact, thankfully. It's getting a little staticky, but..."

"Well, as long as you can still talk to them," Cyborg's voice responds.

"How are Star and BB?" Tim asks.

"Beastboy is sitting on the couch," Cyborg says. "I don't think Star's left her room since you guys went in there."

Tim glances at one of his bags. "I don't suppose Robin ever got around to explaining Emma to any of you?"

"Emma?" Cyborg asks. "Who's that?"

Tim, realizing his mistake, quickly backpedals. "Nobody," he says quickly. "Wow, it is late, I am really tired, gotta get to bed, bye!" And without further adieu, he switches the radio off.

XXXX

Day 2, 8:00 AM

Tim is reclining on his sleeping bag, staring up at the ceiling of the tent. "Hardly got any sleep last night," he comments. "Mr. Monster wouldn't stop growling. I went out at one point, thought I saw something, just out of sight in the darkness. I couldn't see it clearly, of course, and before I could decide whether I wanted to get closer, it was gone."

"... Funnily enough, it looked exactly like my old gym instructor."

XXXX

Day 2, 8:43 AM

"... How about some jokes? Okay, Mr. Monster? Hey, stop me if you've heard this one: There was once this woman who really, really wanted to build a house out of ninety-nine bricks. One brick more or less wouldn't do. It was her life-long dream. I don't know why that was her life-long dream, but there you go. Unfortunately for her, the nearest store she could get bricks from only sold them a hundred at a time. So she bought the hundred, took them home, built her ninety-nine brick house, and threw the remaining brick so high it disappeared into the clouds."

"...Not funny? Okay, how about this: I thought that baseball was getting bigger, then it hit me."

"... Puns aren't funny either, huh? Man, monsters are tough crowds..."

XXXX

Day 2, 10:20 AM

"Okay, I've been thinking, and I think I've got one that will knock your socks off. Assuming you wear socks, of course, Mr. Monster. Anyways, I was at a friend's house. He happened to be a farmer. So we were just chilling on his front porch when a government agent comes up to him and starts asking him questions. Eventually, he decided he was going to investigate my friend's fields for himself. My friend stood up and said, 'I wouldn't do that if I were you.' Well, as you can imagine, the agent loved that. He loved it so much that he reached into his pocket, pulled out a badge, and started brandishing it in my friend's face.

"'Do you know what this is?!' he yelled. 'This certifies me as an official of the United States Government, and it means I can go anywhere I want! Good day, sir!' So, he headed off into the field, heedless of my friend.

"So, me and my friend kept talking for a while, until a while later, when we heard the agent start screaming. He ran past us in front of the porch with my friend's bull chasing after him. So my friend, not missing a beat, stands up and shouts, 'Your badge, show him your badge!'

"... Can you give me some feedback, here, Mr. Monster? You're like the sphinx, I can't read you..."

XXXX

Day 2, 11:30 AM

"Alright, I figure this one will be more up your alley, Mr. Monster. There was once this boy who stayed over really late at his friend's house. It was already dark by the time he started out back home, taking his bike. Since he was running late, he headed through a darker part of town than usual. Suddenly, it became much harder for him to pedal, as though some force outside, some outside force was acting upon him. Slowly, it began to pull him backwards, dragging him towards some hideous fate!

"Fortunately, at that point, he went under a street light and realized that he was going up a hill.

"I think this place has a bad influence on me..."

XXXX

Day 2, 2:34 PM

"Okay, this is classic, you can't not laugh... Back in the golden age of piracy, there was a ship sailing the sea on a long voyage. One day, they came across an enemy ship. As the cannons were readied, the Captain turned to his first mate and said, 'Bring me my red shirt!' The first mate did so, and a few hours later, the ship had won.

"The next day, they encountered two enemy ships, and as the cannons were being readied, the Captain turned to his first mate and said, 'Bring me my red shirt!' The first mate did so, and a few hours later, the ship sailed away, once again victorious.

"That night, at dinner, the first mate confronted the Captain. 'Why do you always wear a red shirt into battle?' he asked. The Captain told him that he wore his red shirt so that if he was struck and began bleeding, it would blend in with the shirt, and his men wouldn't lose hope. The men were impressed by their captain's courage.

"The next day, twenty enemy ships appeared over the horizon. The crew expectantly turned to their captain, awaiting the traditional order. 'First mate,' the captain announced, 'bring me my brown pants!'"

XXXX

Day 2, 4:30 PM

"Alright, Mr. Monster, just one more. There was a woman on a flight with a small dog. She woke up at one point when she smelled smoke. Turning, she saw that the man next to her was smoking a cigar. Being opposed to smoking, she demanded that he toss the cigar out of the window. The man, offended, pointed out that there weren't supposed to be pets on the flight, either, and demanded that she throw the dog out of the window as well. Eventually, they compromised. The man threw the cigar out of the window at the exact same time the woman threw out the dog. After waiting a few seconds, the woman tugged on the dog's leash and pulled it back in, and in its mouth was...

"...

"...

"...

"...A brick."

XXXX

Day 2, 10:27 PM

Tim is laying on his sleeping bag, and, for the first time, it seems like he's finally achieved actual sleep, when the radio crackles into life. Slowly, he sits up, rubbing his eyes wearily, when a low moaning comes in over the radio. Tim jumps up in the air, slightly panicked, before looking over at the radio. Picking it up, he mutters, "Um... Starfire, right?"

"Tim!" comes the voice over the radio. "Why have you not been in contact?" Sure enough, it was Starfire.

"Hey, it hasn't been that long," Tim mutters, rubbing his eyes and glancing at his watch. "Only about... four hours."

"Hours?" Starfire asks. "Tim, it has been two days since you last called!"

Tim's eyes widen. "Um... what are you talking about? I'm certain it's only been two hours..."

"It has not!" Starfire insists. "It has been two days! We thought you had disappeared as well!"

Tim shakes his head. "Oh, boy... this place is messing with my head... is there a reason you called in just now?"

"Tim... something very strange has happened..."

"Aside from the two-days-four-hours discrepancy?"

"Yes!" Starfire says. "The... feng shui devices that Raven, Beastboy and I put up... they have gone missing!"

Tim's eyes widen again. "Um..." he stutters, apparently seeking a rational explanation of some kind, "Have you checked under the fridge? That's where I always find my left sock..."

"It is not a joke!" Starfire cries, clearly distressed. "I could not find any of the various ornaments we put up anywhere! They have disappeared!"

Tim rubs his eyes, this time out of exasperation. "Maybe... Cyborg or Beastboy decided to put them away?"

"They are the ones who told me!" Starfire cried. "They wanted to know why I put them away!"

XXXX

Day 3, 7:30 AM

"That's what she told me," Tim is saying over the radio.

"That is odd," comes Robin's voice. "We'll have to hurry. The sooner we find the group and get out of here, the better."

"How's the search going, speaking of?" Tim asks.

"It's going cold," Robin mutters. "We're finding fewer and fewer flares and markers. The ones that we do find are out. We can't find any of the rations they left behind at all. Maybe-"

Suddenly, the radio cut to static. "Robin?" Tim says, prodding at it. "Robin?" But no matter how long he waits, the radio has officially cut out at last.

"...Well, this is just fantastic..."

XXXX

Day 3, 10:45 AM

"Well, nothing much else to do, Mr. Monster. You've been a very good host- aside from the whole 'making-my-friends-disappear' thing and the whole 'time-in-the-halls-isn't-equal-to-time-outside' thing. You know, in retrospect, you've been a really lousy host. But still, just to show there's no hard feelings, how about a shadow puppet show?"

Tim, sitting in his tent, props up the flashlight and puts his hands in front of it, contorting them into intricate shapes. "Oh, look, is that Mr. Monster? Mr. Monster has a frowny face on, I think. But that's why... he invented a time machine! And he went back to the age when dinosaurs ruled the earth!" He begins making several odd noises, apparently in imitation of dinosaurs, before looking around self-consciously. "...I really am losing it," he mutters.

XXXX

Day 3, 12:00 PM

"Hey, everybody, it's Tim Drake, and welcome back to more let's sing silly songs with Tim Drake!" Deepening his voice, he begins to croon, "Somewhere, over the rainbow..."

He is cut off when the radio crackles to life once more. "T-im!" comes Robin's voice, sounding panicked.

"Robin!" Tim says, quickly jumping on the radio. "What's going on!"

"Can't- -plain!" Robin says quickly, his voice cutting in and out. "Found- -ra... -qualad! Raven... shot!" A loud crack that sounds very much like a gunshot sounds off. Static. "-im!" Robin's voice comes in. "You have to meet us at the bottom of the staircase! Hurry! The bottom of-" Here, there is another gunshot-like noise, and the radio goes dead again.

Tim turns nervously to face the staircase. "Oh... oh, boy," he mutters. "I didn't exactly sign up for this..."

He approaches the staircase and peers over the edge. "It's pretty different, actually being here..."

Looking around, he calls out, "Well, you heard him, Mr. Monster! Gotta go down! Sorry I couldn't-"

As he speaks, he sets one foot down on the first step. He is cut off as the growling suddenly grows a hundredfold in intensity. Tim looks urgently around. Looking up, he sees the ceiling collapsing towards him, forming a sort of oval above him. Beneath him, the spiral staircase suddenly stretches out like an accordion, then collapses back to the 20-30 feet it had been before. As that happened, the ceiling returned to its original position as well, and the growling died down.

Taking the hint, Tim removed his foot from the staircase. "Okay," he said. "Nope. No. Uh-uh. No thank you..."

XXXX

Day 3, 12:05

Tim is sitting outside the tent, looking down the stairs in horror. Finally, he seems to come to a decision. He picks up the radio. "Starfire? Cyborg? Beastboy? You there?"

"I am here, Tim," Starfire's voice responds.

"How long has it been since I last called?"

"...Three hours."

"Good, good. Same here. Look... I'm coming back."

XXXX

Hope I didn't hit you with one too many bad jokes here. Anyways, next time, we follow this chapter from Raven and Robin's perspective with Exploration #4: The Rescue. Please R&R, constructive criticism welcome, flames to be delegated to the ring of fire, Gamer4 out.