FudoTwin17: Yo, guys. Ugh.

Cat: That was her equivalent of an apology. At the moment, she is extremely swamped by school work, her school play, and . . . well, life.

FudoTwin17: On the upside, I did get a lead role (Woot! Woot!), but on the downside, we started two weeks before we're gonna be preforming. Thus, this is probably the only piece of writing I'll be uploading in a while. Plus, my grades are down, and I have until Friday to raise them again. JFKA;JDK;J!

Dog # 1: Yup.

FudoTwin17: But anyways, you guys left a large amount of reviews that really made me happy. Since this is one of my favorite stories, I always check the reviews to see what you've written, and I just want to thank you guys. You all just blow me away!

Cat: However, there are things to address.

FudoTwin17: Yeah. I know a few of you guys wished for a bit less heaviness, but I don't know how well I can pull that off. My normal style is a lot lighter, but whenever I get into a story, it starts getting really dark. Sorry. Plus, I kinda worry that if I try to give you a bit of lightness, then it'll throw the story, and I don't want to do that. :( WARNING! Triggering conversation below. It's not a good conversation. It may be triggering to those who've dealt with sexual abuse or have been in abusive relationships. It's the one in Robin's bedroom after Beast Boy's bedroom scene.

Cat: Next, there are the teams.

FudoTwin17: Right. I thought I was pretty clear, and I'm sorry that I wasn't. In this fic, Speedy and Kid Flash from Young Justice are different people than those from Teen Titans. I did this specifically because of character differences in the show, and I didn't want them to go all crazy the way Robin did, and he obviously went off the deep-end for a reason. I've been trying to show how traumatized I made him, but I dunno if all the hints (and simply stated facts) really settled in for everyone.

Cat: The heroes!

FudoTwin17: Yes, they'll be appearing shortly. However, some things had to happen before they made their grand entrances. Mostly, I'm curious about who you think said/did what. I wanna know who you guys think should be the ones to cause Robin to blame himself. Obviously, there has been some superhero tension, and I want to know who you think were the biggest culprits. I can't tell you if you're right or not, but I'm more than willing to listen to your theories and possibly use them.

Dog # 1: Next!

FudoTwin17: I know some of you want to know why it took so long for the team to go after Robin (thank you, KunnegAndris, for asking), but that is one of many questions that, for now, must remain unanswered. It's too early to tell you guys yet. Actually, that's one of many questions that can't be answered yet, and I'm a little surprised the other questions haven't been asked either. Then again, that's probably best. It's kinda cruel considering how much about this story hasn't been revealed as of now. :D However, I hope you will forgive me for that.

Dog # 1: Hurry up. They're going to want to read!

FudoTwin17: Right. I'll hurry for those of you who actually read the AN's I write. Now, fanart. I don't mind at all if people draw things for this or any other fics of mine. In fact, I'd be honored. But please tell me! I love seeing the stuff that is somehow inspired by my writings. Seriously, I'm not an amazing artist, and what I do draw well never ends up on the Internet. Thus, covers will most likely not be of my own design. If you make something for a fic of mine, it'll probably end up with my good word and possibly as a cover with the artist's permission. Please, though, talk to me, guys!

Cat: Thank you! She doesn't own DC! Enjoy!

Chapter 13

A tight smile slid across the boy wonder's face as he stood to face none other than three of the more familiar superheroes on the League, Superman, Supergirl, and Rocket. He stood but made no attempt to approach, realizing that they were all seeming to speed toward him, not wasting time on walking like normal humans.

Well, all except Superman. Robin greeted the two girls before giving a curt nod to Superman who had walked a bit stiffly behind the two teenage girls. His gaze was as polite and respectful as always, making Dick's fingers want to clench automatically.

It was like looking at Conner after the woman-

No. Dick thought immediately, shutting down that train of thought. Not now. Not here. He refused to think about it.

"It's been so long!" Supergirl gushed, and Robin got the impression that she'd been talking for longer than he'd been listening. He forced himself to focus on her words as not to miss anything else. "It's been months since we've spoken!"

He smiled softly, a smile he had reserved just for her, Kid Flash, and Rocket once he'd come back to his senses. He could feel the Titan's burning gazes on him as they struggled to understand just exactly what was going on. He forced himself to ignore them. "Yeah. It's been a while."

"So what have you been up to?" Rocket questioned, her smiled decidedly fake (yet real enough to seem to fool many around her). Her only tells were in the slight stiffness of her back and the lack of happiness in her eyes.

"Well, I joined a team." Robin stated, his eyes flickering to them for just a moment. "But you knew that."

"You're right." Rocket murmured, her fake smile dropping into a soft curve of her lips that signaled being lost in happier, harsher memories. Robin could relate.

"We all did." Supergirl whispered. Robin's eyes went to the blond, and he couldn't help but remember the almost arrogant confidence she used to walk with, fly with, and fight with. However, looking at her now, her body was slightly lax in an almost defeated way as if she'd been walking miles in the desert with no sleep. It was a sad statement that he could relate. "But we're here because-"

"Because of Young Justice." Robin cut in, sparing her from saying the words known in the Justice League as taboo.

Superman nodded affirmatively, his tone polite and careful. "The League has made arrangements with the mentors." He began softly, seeming oddly submissive underneath Robin's careful eye. He raised his chin slightly, trying to give Robin the respect he deserved while knowing that the League wouldn't back down on certain terms. "All of them will be arriving within the city within the next three days."

Robin's lips thinned, and Speedy seemed to bristle a moment with anger. The tension in the room seemed to skyrocket, but before any of the frozen heroes could speak, Robin began arrangements.

"Mentors and specified heroes only will be allowed into the Tower and in our briefings. Aquaman and Aquagirl, Zatara, Black Canary, Red Tornado, Wonder Woman, and Captain Marvel only will be allowed rooms to stay in the Tower through this case. Any and all other heroes will be required to request permission to enter Jump or else they will be forcibly removed." Robin eyed him critically, and Superman did not question that he was unwelcome in the Tower. If it weren't for Supergirl, he might have already been forcibly removed, as Robin put it. "I expect all those who expect to help with the investigation and securing of Young Justice to be present by seven later today, whether or not they are packed and ready. There is a zeta in the garage. Information shared at that meeting will be crucial to the case and will not be repeated afterward."

"I understand." Superman stated. "I will inform them."

The man of steel stepped away, his cape flaring behind him as he exited the room with his hand on his communicator. As soon as he was gone, Robin's shoulders relaxed a fraction. He sighed, feeling ready to collapse. His eyes went to the new girls, unaware of the situation, and back to his team, still brimming with anxiety and questions. He pursed his lips.

He needed a plan.

"I know you all are confused and don't get what's going on right now, but please hold your questions until that meeting. I can fill everyone in at once then." His eyes swept them shortly, taking in furrowed eyebrows and shaking figures – one shaking figure in particular. He turned on his heel, walking around the couch to get to the door. "Beast Boy, come with me. We have something to talk about."

There was a beat before he heard soft padding signaling the younger boy catching up to and trailing behind him. Once the doors slid shut behind them, silence rang through the hall only interrupted by their footsteps.

However, it was oddly companionable and softly muted in a way that came with gatherings for memorials and terrible events, loss of life.

. . .

When they stopped at Beast Boy's room to talk instead of Robin's, the green boy had the oddest feeling that Robin was preparing for him to have some sort of a panic attack. They made themselves comfortable as possible in the situation on the top bunk, blue sheets tangled about them. While Robin leaned tiredly against the green wall, Beast Boy found himself stiff as a board across from him.

Robin smiled that soft smile that he'd been using too much lately, and Beast Boy found he missed the stern, strong turn of lips that made their leader seem less diplomatic and more invincible. "Ask away."

Beast Boy opened his lips . . . and nothing came out. He didn't know what to say or how to explain his confusion and lack of understanding. His eyebrows furrowed and his arms curled around his knees, not knowing what to say.

This was too serious. Beast Boy wasn't good at serious. He was the fun one! He was the silly one, the prankster! How was he supposed to force himself against his nature? How was he supposed to get the answers he wanted-needed so desperately when he could barely hold this part of him in line?

He didn't know if he could take it much longer.

"Dude," He began softly, not knowing if he could do it, "I don't know . . . ."

Robin smiled. "Alright. Why don't I just explain, then?"

The changeling blinked in surprise. If he could do that in the fist place, why didn't he just say so? He, however, did not voice his thoughts and just nodded.

"Alright. Just after another League team had been incapacitated in the country, our team was given the mission. It was my first real mission as leader. We were sent to Qurac and Bialya to prevent Queen Bee from manipulating President Harjavti into combining the two countries into one." Robin paused, eyes skimming over Beast Boy's form almost paternally as a shiver ran down his spine. The name Queen Bee haunted him. It was part of the reason he could never force himself to actually become a bee during battle. "You probably don't remember either events well since you were eight, but on our way, we helped keep you and your mother out of harms way. In return, she allowed us to stay. You were an excitable, redheaded eight-year-old back then, not too different to now." At his smile, Beast Boy gagged.

"At the ranch?" Beast Boy asked, eyes resting intently on his leader. The ranch was fuzzy in his mind, but he knew-knew that it had to be . . . .

He nodded. "My team consisted of Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Superboy, and myself. In an incident, you were injured and Miss Martian gave you a blood transfusion."

Beast Boy's eyes widened. "I have Martian blood? This so cool!" He exclaimed in surprise, though Robin could still see the lack of ease in his wide green eyes. Beast Boy blinked, flushing when he realized what he said. "Err, whoops. Go on."

Robin smiled just a bit more genuinely before it fell away. "Afterward, Miss Martian kept contact, and everyone on the team visited you at least once. In time, your skin turned green and you gained your powers. You would be able to do more, but you never really explored it with Miss Martian. Your body simply adapted a some of her abilities. However, you and your mom had to go into hiding because Queen Bee put targets on you guys." Robin shifted sadly. "The team was captured after and the rest I have to speculate. You were alone and had no one. The Doom Patrol took you on, and you blocked out painful memories to keep your sanity."

Beast Boy's eyebrows furrowed as he dropped his eyes. Something in the back of his mind was screaming that he should know this, but he just . . . couldn't recover the memories, even if he could recover the emotion, the terror. The boy suspected as well that Robin's oddly calming voice was one of the only reasons that he was still able to function.

However, he could almost feel his rising headache that came with those dizzying feelings of wrongness. Robin was clicking together pieces of a puzzle that Beast Boy not only buried but used to plant his life on.

It was dizzying but strangely satisfying.

"When you met me, you showed a lot of stress. When I didn't fit into the memories you buried right, it probably caused a bit of an upheaval of your memories." Robin said, obviously working on pure speculation, but Beast Boy knew he was right. "But it would have been worse if was the same. All those repressed memories would have come back at once. I know you've been struggling with them, but with all the members of the team that you met appearing, they've gotten worse, and you don't know what to do."

Beast Boy blinked, suddenly realizing that he'd bitten his tongue so hard it had begun to bleed. After swallowing a bit of the coppery substance, his eyes focused on the tired boy-no, man before him. Taking a moment to let his brain compute what he'd heard, he softly spoke.

"For so long, every time something would happen, it just felt so wrong. I thought it-I was crazy, but I guess it really is wrong. You're not who you should be." Beast Boy's tone regained a bit of strength as he looked at his almost surprised leader. "I'm going to bring you back." He swore.

Robin's lips parted, absolutely stunned. They spent a moment in silence, the room heavy with Beast Boy's resolve. Finally, Robin spoke. "Don't make promises you can't keep."

The youngest Titan looked at him. "I haven't."

The room fell into silence again.

. . .

When Robin finally found himself in his own room again, he slid the door shut and fell against it, hugging his knees. His mind was lost in chaos and lost memories and a promise from an eleven-year-old that he just couldn't shake. However, he knew that he needed to calm his mind and force his memories in order to do what he had to.

After all, it was finally necessary for the superhero world to know what happened.

A shiver went down his spine.

Robin wasn't stupid enough to actually believe that everything he was getting ready to divulge would remain secret, but he sincerely hoped that no one would be idiotic enough to attempt to extract more information outside or, heaven forbid, attempt to get him to talk about it. It wasn't going to happen.

Well, most likely. He didn't know if he'd be able to stop himself if Barbara or Raven talked to him, and he doubted he'd be able to force himself to refuse Zatara anything, but he knew that certain things shouldn't be shared.

This had been his secret so long that it was hard contemplating the idea of everyone knowing. He prayed that no information would go public. He was terrified of the thought of what happened being put in the newspaper.

What? I thought you liked the spotlight! Wally whispered in his mind. I mean, you're always showing off!

"Shut up." Robin whispered, wrapping his hands around his knees. "I need to prepare."

Slowly, he forced his damaging thoughts away and began to gather information for a briefing, a proper one. He rose his arm automatically, about to use his holographic computer when he realized what he was doing. With a light shiver, he moved to his laptop, powered it up, and began putting together a presentation with his limited information. It was nearing nine when there was a hesitant knock at the door.

"Robin?" Starfire's soft voice called through the door. "May I speak to you?"

The teen blinked before sighing. Robin rose from his seat on the bed and opened the door to the alien. Her eyes glowed a soft green, and she looked oddly slumped. With her clothes rumpled the way they were, he guessed that she attempted to get her mind off of things by training and couldn't gather the emotions necessary to do so. He winced slightly at the thought. "Yeah, Star?"

"I was . . . I need to ask." She spoke softly. "You lied earlier. Why?"

He blinked in surprise at the question. He swallowed, hackles rising. "What do you mean?"

"I know you lie to spare others pain." Starfire whispered, advancing into his darkened room. The door slid shut, seeming to block escape from the dark conversation. "I am not good at telling when you lie, but I know that you did to spare me from knowing what she wanted-what she took from you. Please, tell me. If no one else, tell me."

For the first time in his life, Robin felt it as she effortlessly yet effectively crushed his defenses on the subject. He always locked away such emotions as tightly as he could in order to avoid situations exactly like this. However, he knew that this time, not only would he tell her the truth, but she deserved the truth. His breath shuddered. He prayed she wouldn't hate him. After all, what he did was . . . .

"She thought we were useful for things other than carrying out her dirty work." He crossed his arms, feeling oddly exposed and . . . wrong. He felt dirty. "She considered letting some of her more hard-working men use Zee and Artemis to-to . . . relax." His breathing sped up and he suddenly had trouble seeing the blurry outline of his room. "So, I . . . I told her she could do anything she wanted with me . . . and I wouldn't fight if she . . . ."

He couldn't speak. He couldn't speak. After all Star had been through, this was something she did not need to hear. Why was he-

He suddenly felt a soft hand on his, gently pulling his arms away from his chest. Very slowly, she slid her hand into his gloved one, trailing the other over his arm. With precise, careful movements, she peeled away the glove to bare his scarred arm. He wanted to look away from the ruined skin that he kept hidden, but his eyes were locked on Starfire's movements. Her hands delicately but strongly worked the muscles down his arms, taking extra time to trace the ugly scars, before they held his hand like some kind of expensive treasure. Very slowly, she drew his hand to her mouth, kissing his fingertips. Fiery, emerald eyes locked on his mask. He couldn't look away.

"It's hard to allow yourself to stand after someone steals something like that from you." She murmured, almost nuzzling his palm gently. "It makes you draw away from touch, from friends and happiness. You feel dirty, disgusting. You feel wrong. You feel like you're not worthy of anyone. Impure. But it's not you. It's them. Don't let her take this away from you. Feeling and friends are necessary. They make up your life. Don't let her take your life from you. Not anymore."

Robin couldn't say a word.

Slowly, she kissed the scars on his fingers again, ignoring the slight tremor in his hand. She moved back up his arm, seemingly trying to prove that the woman couldn't take this from him. She kissed every scar and touched every line, and eventually drew back from his arm, but she did not draw back from him. "Fight her now."

Very strongly, she stared into his eyes through the mask, eyes glowing green. Then she rose her middle three fingers on her right hand and touched them to her cheek, underneath her dark eye. Then, she touched them to his forehead. "Gulufnog."

Though Robin didn't exactly understand, and Starfire didn't explain, he felt oddly rejuvenated. Knowing that Tamaran was a warrior state, he got the impression that that was a sign of respect for a fellow soldier. Despite it coming from such a serious state of mind, he couldn't explain why he felt oddly better afterward. He took a deep breath, taking his glove back from the alien and pulling it on.

"What were you doing?" Starfire asked softly, obviously curious and trying to return the moment to something soft and simple.

He offered her a seat on the bed next to him as he unlocked his laptop again. "I was preparing a power-point for the briefing later." He replied, frowning. "I just wish I had more information."

Starfire climbed on the bed, accidentally knocking an article from the side of the bed as she did. Quickly, she caught it, confused at first at what she was looking at. "What is this? The press knew about your team's disappearance?"

Robin blinked, glancing at the article. After a short moment, it clicked, and he remembered the incident. "Oh. No. The public didn't know about us. We were under the radar. A few months before my team was-was captured, another League team of teenagers went missing." He blinked before taking it from her. "Wait a minute, this is . . . ."

"What?" Starfire asked in confusion.

"Think about it." He said, looking up at her. "What are the chances of another team from the Justice League comprised of teenagers going missing within six months of us?"

"You think they were both planned by the same perpetrator?" Starfire asked, leaning forward from her perch at his side. Robin looked at her, an odd expression of excitement, wariness, and worry set on his face.

"No. I think they were done by the same people. The first one was planned. We were just the perfect opportunity." He stated simply, clenching the newspaper harshly in his hand. "Batman never told us the specified information he was after. He might have wanted to-"

He was interrupted by the alarm. Lights flashing and siren blaring, he looked at Starfire. For a moment, neither dared breathe.

"Looks like we've got trouble." Robin murmured, eyes dark as he threw down the article. Standing, they ran out of the room, leaving the only light in the dark room the steady glow from the computer that would eventually go out, as all bright lights do.

. . .

Zatanna screamed as she struggled against her teammate's hands, twisting and kicking desperately. Artemis forced her down, wincing in pain as her temple throbbed. Zatanna kept screaming at the top of her lungs. "I need him! I need him! Please! IT HURTS!"

"Anti! Typhoon!" Artemis shouted. "I need help in here!"

The two boys, the strongest on the team, rushed in. Kaldur held down her arms while Conner pinned her legs to the floor carefully. Artemis took a position at her head, trying to soothe the poor girl as she whimpered, thrashed, and screamed in desperation. "PLEASE!"

A single tear slid down the blond's face, falling into the magician's dark hair. "Tonight. Just hold on."

Zatanna kept screaming.

. . .

FudoTwin17: Ugh. I feel throughly depressed. My plot is finally moving again, but it was at the cost of coming out and saying something meant to be implied. Unfortunately, I wrote it while my friend was reading over my shoulder, and when I went to take out the sad scene with Star and Dick, she stopped me and told me her story and requested I post it as a tribute to people who've suffered. I'm sorry if I offended anyone, but I will not be removing it. I guess Star had to speak. That is a tribute to all who've suffered like that as well as my friend.

Cat: Please tell us who you want to see, your theories, and who you'd like special appearances from.

FudoTwin17: Don't forget about fanart and questions! Bye!