Starfire's Point of View

I barely managed to wrap my arms around him before the bomb detonated. I curled myself around his body as the force of the blast propelled us through brick walls I only just managed to weaken with my eye beams before we slammed into them. I flew at my top speed, getting us away from the epicenter, but it was not fast enough to save even me from emerging unscathed. My skin sang with burns across my legs and arms.

"Robin? Robin!"

The fires were far behind us and I allowed myself to slow to a hover to finally inspect him. It was several moments before I realized the keening wail in my ears was actually me. Tears overflowed and my flight wavered precariously.

"Robin? Robin, you must answer me," I said, moving one arm behind him to support him while the other traced the purple swellings on his cheek. "You are in pain but I have come to take you to a place of safety. Do you hear me? You will give me the sign, yes?" So many injuries. His right wrist was badly broken. One kneecap was smashed and covered with blood. The strong handsome face looked as though it belonged yoa monster. His mask was askew but it hardly mattered anymore.

He needed Raven. Now!

"R-Raven," I sniffled into my communicator. His chest did not rise or fall. His eyes were shut and swollen to narrow slits. "Raven, I have him," I said, getting myself under control.

"Starfire, you need to get down here fast. Everyone thinks he was in the building when it blew. Batman's gone after Joker..."

"Raven." My voice broke and I hugged Robin's limp body and my communicator tight to my chest.

"Azar..."

"H-he is..." I could not say it. I was a warrior. I had been on the fields of battle before and I knew what the face of death truly looked like. I would not delude myself. "I will return with him shortly." It was hard to find the happiness to fly us back, to return to the scene where I had found him. It was all ablaze now. The warehouse was a twisted heap of melted metal and ash. I fell the last five feet, cradling him safely against me. The Titans were there. They took one look at me and knew. Beast Boy morphed into a lion and roared, Cyborg came over and helped me lay him on the ground. Raven held back, her violet eyes wide with shock.

"Do not worry," I said sadly. "Not even your powers can bring him back from this. I do not expect it of you."

"Robin!" Batgirl dropped from a nearby rooftop to run to his side. I watched numbly as she pressed her fingers against his neck in search of a pulse. Tears fell freely from her eyes, sliding over her mask to drop onto his chest. Behind us I heard a snarl of such unbridled rage that I did not need to look to know who had uttered it.

"Hee Hee Hee! you mean I actually did it! I actually killed the bird?" His voice rang out, that hateful, horrible voice. My hands curled into claws.

"YOU!"

"Starfire, wait!" Raven called, but it was too late. I flung a starbolt at him. I did not care that he and Batman were locked nearly nose to nose while Batman lifted him by the front of his jacket to pummel him. The starbolt struck them both, but Batman's cape was made of the same material as Robin's and he quickly pulled it around himself to deflect the damage. Joker flew back into a stack of crates that wobbled precariously. I flew at him, determined to make him pay for what he had done. My fingers closed around his throat and squeezed. No. A quick death was too good for the likes of him. He bared his teeth at me in a smile of sickening sweetness.

"Do it, doll face. You know you want to."

"No!" Something hard and metallic struck my cheek and I released him out of shock. Batman's foot collided with my hip, knocking me away from Joker. I staggered, shocked that he would protect the villain who had killed his own son. "He is mine," he growled at me. Joker rolled his eyes.

"Oh please, Batsy. We all know you lack conviction. Legs, on the other hand, now she looks like a girl who knows how to commit." Joker dragged his yellow eyes up from my toes to my waist in a way that made me wish I could scrub the flesh from my bones.

"Joker is mine," Batman repeated. I glared at him. How dare he think he held prior claim. Robin belonged to the Titans. We were a family. We loved him. Batman had beaten him down and driven him away. It was Batman who had instilled the need to prove himself alone that had gotten Robin killed.

"Will you let him live after what he has done? Will you send him back to his prison knowing that he will only do the breaking out and return to torment us again? When does it end? When will the lives of the innocent be worth more than the life of a criminal? On my planet it is not weakness to destroy our enemies. It is considered a strength. When I came to Earth I accepted Robin's rule never to kill. I understood that everyone must be given an opportunity to change, to have a new beginning. The Titans were formed because each of us sought a new beginning when we could easily have chosen to continue down our separate paths of darkness. But there will always be those who do not wish to change. There will always be those who need to die to keep the rest of the world safe. I will destroy him if you cannot, and if that means I must be branded no better than he is that is a price I will accept. Get out of my way." I raised my hand out in front of me and conjured a starbolt. Batman did not move. His face was a mask of anguish, but there was no yielding in his dark eyes.

"Starfire, stop!"

Arms grabbed me from behind as Beast Boy tackled me. I locked my legs so that we did not fall, but he did manage to shift my aim enough that Batman had time to move. There was a hissing sound and black smoke covered the corner where he and Joker stood. I heard more insane laughter, followed by a blow that mercilessly rendered the deranged clown silent. When the smoke cleared, Batman and Joker were gone.

"Why did you stop me?" I wailed, rounding on Beast Boy. "I could have avenged him!"

"You know why," he shouted back at me. "Do you think this is what he would want?" His eyes were red from his tears. His voice cracked. I fell to my knees, wrapping my arms around his legs. He sank down so that we embraced each other.

"One, two, three!" Cyborg's voice as followed by a thump. Looking over I saw him working with Batgirl and Raven to channel energy from a modified version of his sonic cannon into Robin's chest. Batgirl leaned over him and gave two quick pumps on his chest.

"Again," Raven said gravely. Her eyes glowed white and she held her arms over his body as though casting a net over him.

"One, two, three!" Robin's body jerked as Cyborg sent another jolt into him.

"I've got a pulse!" cried Batgirl eagerly.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos." In a blink, Robin and Raven were gone, disappeared in a vortex of black smoke. Batgirl cried out in frustration and surprise. She looked at Cyborg.

"He's in good hands," he assured her in his deep, soothing voice. Wiping her eyes quickly on the back of her hand, Batgirl gave a brisk nod.

"Where has she taken him?" She was trying to sound composed, but her voice was uneven and ragged. Even from where I knelt I could see her chin quiver. Cyborg lowered his voice.

"The Bat Cave." Batgirl gasped.

"He told you?"

"No. We may not be part of the Bat Family, but the Titans are a family too. It's hard to keep secrets from family. Raven's the only one who knows where it is. Will you take us?" I envied his ability to remain calm in light of everything. I wanted to shake her and demand to be taken to him. Batgirl looked around to where Beast Boy and I were watching her, then down at the ground where Robin's blood had seeped into the road. She sniffed.

"Okay."

The familiarity of following a black-caped figure on a motorcycle through the streets brought an ache to my chest. As much as I wanted to pull out my communicator and ask Raven how Robin fared, I did not wish to distract her. Beast Boy rode with Batgirl on her bike while I carried Cyborg. She led us away from the heart of the city toward an enormous house situated on a hill overlooking Gotham. We did not go to the building however, but beyond it where a tunnel appeared leading underground. It was so like the hidden entrance to the tunnel beneath Jump City Harbor that my heart stuttered again with renewed pain. Xhal, let him survive this. If he does not, I am not certain that I will.

When we reached the Bat Cave i did not stop to admire the enormous computer screens or the various vehicles emblazoned with bat emblems. My focus was on the glass room straight ahead where I could see Raven bending over a figure and a white-haired man in a black suit standing opposite her. Hearing our approach, the elderly man straightened and quickly came out to greet us. Cyborg and I were closest and he dipped in a formal bow.

"She has managed to stabilize him for the moment, but his condition is still critical. She is doing everything she can to heal the damage done to his organs first. His collapsed lung gave her particular trouble." Considering the resistance with which Batman and Batgirl had greeted me, I was stunned by the man's directness. When I blinked in surprise, his mouth relaxed marginally into a smile.

"My name is, Alfred, Miss. I wish that we could have met under better circumstances. Master Richard speaks very highly of you."

"Master Richard?" I repeated uncertainly.

"Dick is short for Richard," Cyborg murmured behind me. "Don't ask me why. My god, he really is Dick Grayson."

"I thought dick was another term for-"

"Unfortunately," Alfred interrupted smoothly. His pencil mustache twitched, and I thought I saw the ghost of a smile on his pale face.

"Alfred, is he...?" Batgirl had reached us. She was looking past us to the glass room. She had removed her mask and I saw that she was older than I had expected. She was a young woman, twenty or twenty-one. Succinctly Alfred repeated the information he had given Cyborg and I. Batgirl paled even further so that her freckles stood out more sharply on her face. She covered her mouth with her hands and walked up to the glass to watch as Raven worked.

"Master Bruce?" Alfred pressed. She glanced over her shoulder to where Cyborg, Beast Boy, and I stood.

"He's dealing with Joker."

"You think that wise?" Alfred asked. His tone was even but I sensed his concern. Batgirl shrugged.

"If he kills him it'll do the world a big favor."

"I am inclined to agree, but I fear the effects such an act would have on his mental state." Batgirl shrugged again. Her attention was reserved for Robin and it was clear she could not be bothered with worrying about the consequences of Batman's actions. Cautiously, I walked over stand at the window beside her. Her breath hitched, but she did not turn. We stood there, looking in on the man we both cared for.

"He'll owe you his life if he survives this," she said softly.

"I merely got him away from the explosion. It was you and Cyborg and Raven who held him to this world." She looked at me then. At first there was suspicion in her gaze, but it softened when she saw I meant my words.

"He's going to make it. He's too stubborn to die."

I reached out and took her hand. She flinched, but she allowed the contact.

"Yes. I believe he does not know how to do the giving up."