WARNING: Some Language . . .


M'gann flew back to the others. They could tell by the look on her face that it was bad news. The question was, how bad was it?

"They're gone," she exclaimed, setting down between Superboy and Kid Flash.

"Everyone?" Artemis asked. She stood back, nearer to the Bioship's entrance, but close enough to be a part of the plan.

"Everyone . . . Everything! Nothing is left!" M'gann cried out. "I don't understand it; they were here last night!"

They had already confirmed that Robin had been here; Batman had found the still-ziptied guards on the roof of the neighboring building. But he was no longer here either. The boy had either found and followed Crane, or he had been captured and taken with them. No matter that Robin was here without permission, he would have presented himself as soon as he detected the Team's presence; that he hadn't spoke volumes.

Batman turned on the GPS tracker sewn into Robin's uniform, but nothing showed up. It was as if the Boy Wonder had dropped off the face of the earth.

"What do we do now," Kaldur asked quietly.

Pray . . .

"We search for clues," Batman growled instead. Damn it, Dick! Damn it! "We question potential witnesses. We wake up those guards and interrogate them."

And we pray . . .


"I'm in trouble here, aren't I?"

Robin watched as the Wraith shifted uncomfortably. It was odd, considering the spirit couldn't exactly feel discomfort in the same way as the living could. But it wasn't hard to see by his actions that he knew what was going to happen next. As Robin understood it, sometimes he couldn't; but this time . . . This time he knew the Wraith could.

"Am I going to die tonight?" Part of him didn't want to know when the end came, but another part of him was desperate to know; to prepare for the end somehow.

The Wraith looked up at him; surprised? How could he be surprised? The Wraith pursed his mouth and tilted his head. Robin sucked in his lower lip and bit it; a nervous tell that he had yet to successfully rid himself of. Batman could deduct scads of information just from watching Robin gnaw on his lower lip.

The Wraith crawled across the truck's floor toward him; and if that didn't look creepy, Robin didn't know what did. He rubbed his arms and swallowed. The ghost boy had always been his friend in his other form. Robin wasn't sure what to make of him now, however.

When the Wraith was practically in his lap, he slowly shook his head.

No? Was that a no, he wasn't going to die tonight?

"I'm not going to die," Robin asked, just to clarify. It seemed like a good thing to be clear on, he thought.

The Wraith shook his head again, but this time raised up his hand. The way he was situated, it looked as if he should fall on his face. That he didn't just made the being seem all that more surreal. He held his hand up in front of Robin's face and held his fingers apart by only an inch.

Robin frowned at the fingers hovering in front of his eyes. "So, I won't die, but it will be close?"

Blue lips quirked up into a smirk, and the Wraith sat back on his heels. He nodded.

"Is there anything else I should know about? Can you help me devise a plan that might better my odds from close to say . . . throwing distance, maybe?"

The Wraith touched Robin's comlink in his ear. The shock of cold made him flinch, but the sudden squeal of feedback had him jumping up and yanking the device out of his ear.

"Ow! What gives," Robin asked angrily. "That hurt, you know?"

Shrugging his shoulders, the Wraith tapped his own ear.

Robin huffed. "Yeah, okay," he agreed. "Having Batman and the Team here would help. I know that already, but the magnetic lock on the door is interfering with my signal. I can't contact them. I already tried.

"Even if I could, I can only tell them about the truck's logo and general direction. Fantastic Furniture Warehouse is a fairly popular store and the company has numerous locations all over Gotham and its surrounding areas. I have no idea where I am at or what our destination will be."

The Wraith stood up and closed the distance between them again. Robin found himself backing the last few inches into the truck's door, despite his best effort to remain nonchalant. Nope, he was a long way from being 'chalant' at the moment. The Wraith ignored Robin's discomfort and pointed at his ear and then at his scrawny, bony chest.

"What are you . . .? Wait!" Robin gaped at the ghostly figure. "Do you mean to tell me that you can contact the Team? Batman? You can make them see you?"

He watched the Wraith frown and shake his head and then nod.

Exasperated, Robin blew out his breath in annoyance. "So, which is it? Yes or no?"

The Wraith held up his hands and clasped them together; interlocking his fingers. He then pointed at himself and then at Robin; careful this time not to touch him. He then pointed to his ear and to himself and interlocked his fingers again.

"You can only be seen by those with a connection to you," Robin guessed. "Like what we have."

The ghostly Wraith nodded. He, once more, pointed to his ear, which suggested Robin's comlink and his connection to the Team, and then clasped his hands together again.

"So, you're saying that you now have a connection to the Team?" Robin's mind was blown. When had this come about? "How? When?"

The Wraith pointed to his wrist and then moved his finger in a circle counterclockwise.

"What's that mean? Yesterday? Last night?"

The Wraith nodded.

"You contacted the Team last night?" Robin tried not to gape, but knew he was failing badly. "Why didn't you come to me?"

Blue lips turned up into another smirk. The Wraith pointed back and forth between himself and Robin.

Robin's eyes widened. "You did? . . . Come to me, I mean? Last night?"

A nod confirmed this.

"I don't remember seeing you since you came to me in the Batcave three years ago."

The smile turned a little sad as the ghost boy tapped a finger to his head.

"The trigger, you mean," Robin was beginning to understand. "The Team told me I was kind of out of it."

The sad smile suddenly turned into a large grin. The Wraith nodded vigorously as he pointed at Robin.

"I guess you weren't able to communicate with me, then."

The smirk returned. He touched his ear, which Robin now took to mean the others automatically.

"So, you had to turn to another person." At the nod, Robin tilted his head. "Who did you talk to? Was it M'gann? The green girl?" It made sense that he would contact M'gann who was a powerful telepath.

The Wraith nodded, and lifted two fingers.

"Two people? Really? Who was the other person?"

The Wraith smirked and held up his fingers on either side of his head. Robin's eyes widened behind the mask.

"Batman? Are you serious? You appeared to Batman?" Robin started laughing. "Man, Bruce must have blown a gasket! He doesn't believe in ghosts."

The Wraith continued to smirk and nodded his head shrewdly. Translated, it meant . . .

"Right. But he does now." Robin grinned.


"Okay, so that's the plan," Robin leaned back; wincing when another pothole caused his head to thump painfully against the wall of the truck. "Ow," he rubbed the back of his head.

The Wraith grinned at him. The little boy that was the ghost was peeking out at him; apparently amused by Robin's misfortune.

"Any questions?" he grumbled.

The Wraith shook his head.

"I'll do my best to stall them in the meantime," Robin said.

The truck was slowing down for another turn. Robin braced himself, wondering if they had reached their destination yet.

"You need to go now." He said, and felt a shiver crawl up his spine as he watched the Wraith fade from existence. He prayed he hadn't just hallucinated the last twenty minutes.

Robin hit his emergency beacon. Batman wouldn't receive it until the doors opened, and he didn't know how long that would be. They would need whatever head start the Wraith could give them.

The truck had been moving for the last half hour. Surely they were close to their destination by now!


The Wraith used the new connections he had forged to locate the green girl and the father. They and the rest of the son's friends were still at the original lab. The father was on the roof of one of the buildings yelling in the face of one of the guards.

Looking for answers . . .

The men didn't know anything. The Wraith had watched the son knock them out earlier. But he had the information the father was looking for. He spotted the alien girl below, and wondered if he could contact the father without her connection now. He would try, and if it didn't work, he would go to the green girl. His connection with her was stronger now, but she still had difficulty understanding him. The father understood quickly.


Batman yanked the guard up by his shirt. He was turning toward the edge of the building with his informant when a gust of ice shot through his body. Even the mercenary felt it. Batman dropped him and turned around; searching for the source of the cold.

In front of him, barely visible was the ghost boy of last night. Fear shot through him and completed the icing process of his blood that the ghost had begun. His last message had been a warning . . . Was this one, too?

The ghost boy began motioning to him as soon as he realized that he had Batman's attention, but he was so faint that it was next to impossible to understand his hand signals. Batman held up his hands and spoke slowly and clearly.

"Wait!"

When the ghost boy paused. Batman hit his comlink and hailed Miss Martian. M'gann flew up to the roof a second later.

"The ghost boy is back," he explained. "I need you to try to strengthen his . . . signal or whatever it is you use. I need to see him. He's trying to tell me something important."

M'gann eyes were huge as they swept the rooftop in search of the ghost. She nearly missed him. Upon finding him, her eyes began to glow green and the ghost's form grew a little more substantial. She held up a hand to Batman.

"Hold my hand. I have a connection to him now through Robin, so I think I can help him hold his form," she told him.

Batman took her hand and immediately the ghost became nearly solid; more so than their previous connection. He noted the ghost's skeletal appearance was even more deteriorated than it had been the night before.

"Is Robin all right," was his first question.

The ghost nodded.

"Does Scarecrow have him?"

The ghost shook his head and immediately nodded.

No and yes . . . "Robin's found him, but he's not a captive?"

The ghost boy nodded and then pointed to his wrist, indicating time once more.

"He's not in danger, is he?" Batman glanced at M'gann in panic. "I thought you got rid of all of Robin's triggers!"

"I did," she started. "I'm sure I did."

Batman swung back around. He glared at the spirit. "What about time? Is he going to . . . die again?"

The spirit shook its head. It waved its hands in a calming manner, and Batman forced himself to breathe. Obviously the ghost boy's message was important, but not dire. Robin's in trouble, but not in danger. He repeated his theory, and felt his knees weaken when the ghost agreed with it.

"Okay. What is it you are trying to tell us? I promise to not jump to any more conclusions." Batman promised.

The ghost took a moment, and then began miming its message slowly and deliberately. It pointed to its eye and then to its temple.

"I . . . Know." Batman said.

A nod was his reward.

"You know . . . what exactly?"

It pointed to the building that had housed the lab as of the previous evening, and then it mimed walking with two of its fingers.

"You know where Scarecrow took his lab?" Batman asked slowly; afraid to assume too much.

The ghost smiled and clapped its hands.

"And Robin . . .?"

The ghost mimed a bit more; pointing to the guards and then pretending to look at the other building with binoculars.

"He knocked the guards out and then watched what was happening below?" Batman had discovered this much himself.

The ghost nodded, smiling. It then pointed to its ear and walked to where Robin had tossed the comlinks. One remained. It pointed down.

Batman kneeled down and picked up the communication device. It was receiving only static at the moment. He looked up at the spirit.

"Robin listened in through one of the guards' comlinks," Batman stated. That made sense.

The ghost nodded. It mimed hearing by putting a hand behind its ear. Then, it pretended to shoot something and climbed on the ledge. It leapt off and floated down to the side of the building near the loading bay at the rear. Batman and M'gann stared down at it. It waved its arm to follow.

Batman shot his grapple and followed the ghost to where it waited. M'gann settled beside the older hero. She reached once more for his hand, and the ghost's figure wavered and then strengthened once more.

In a few more minutes, Batman thought he understood what had happened. Somehow, Crane learned that his lab was compromised, and spent the day moving it to another location. Robin had arrived before the last truck left and had hidden in the back of it. Something about the truck prevented him from calling them and Batman's GPS from tracking him . . . He determined that if Robin's hiding spot hadn't been discovered, then perhaps a magnetic lock was involved. They had been known to foul up communications and other radio signals.

The ghost knew where the truck was headed. It couldn't manage to convey the message well enough through mime, but when Batman asked if it could lead them to the new laboratory location, it had nodded its head almost eagerly. Part of him worried that the ghost-like figure might be leading them into a trap, but it had tried to help them before, and M'gann assured him that without the ghost's help, she would have not been able to save Robin from the trigger in time.

Batman stood up from where he had been kneeling in front of the spirit.

"Lead the way," he said. "We'll follow."


"Okay, that's really weird," Wally said in a stage-whisper to Kaldur.

The young Atlantian nodded in agreement; eyes wide. Batman had just spent ten minutes holding M'gann's hand and talking to thin air.

Superboy snorted. "This happened last night as well. M'gann told me that a ghost had appeared to her and by holding Batman's hand, she had enabled him to see it, too. He had communicated with it somehow, and it had warned us that Robin had only two hours to live."

Wally laughed. "A ghost? Are you joking?"

Artemis elbowed the redhead in the ribs. "Since when has Conner ever joked?"

Wally gaped at her and then at the Kryptonian clone. "So, you're not kidding."

Conner shook his head.

Kaldur glanced back at Batman who was conversing intently with M'gann. "Whatever it was they saw, Batman seems to be putting much stock into it."

"It was correct. Two hours after it warned us, Robin's heart stopped." Conner told them. "You saw. They were barely able to save him."

Batman and M'gann ran back to the Bioship. The Team moved out of the way and then followed the two in. The opening disappeared behind them; sealing them safely inside.

"We have a way to follow them," Batman announced.

"Is that what the ghost told you," Wally asked, unsure still if he believed what Superboy told them.

"The apparition . . . Yes. It told us it could lead us to Crane's new location." Batman deadpanned.

Startled, the team glanced at one another.

"And what about Robin," Artemis asked.

"It knows where Robin is, too," Batman said.

"And where would that be?" Kaldur asked next. "Was he captured by Scarecrow's men?"

"No. Apparently, he stowed away in the back of one of their trucks, and is unable to contact us by normal means." Batman explained, even as M'gann lifted the Bioship into the air.

"And so he chose to use a ghost as a means of communication?" Wally had to bite his jaw in order to not laugh. This was too ridiculous to conceive.

Batman shrugged. "I taught Robin to be resourceful and to use whatever he could find to get the job done. Evidently, he found a ghost."

Artemis lips quirked, and she shrugged. "Well, whatever works . . ."

"They're heading west," M'gann announced, ignoring her gaping teammates to concentrate of following the ghost boy's directions.

The ship veered toward the western horizon and the city's landscape disappeared in the darkness, leaving only the lights decorating the ground below them in a beautiful parody of the night sky. The Team closed their mouths and settled into their chairs, anxious to see how this game of cat and mouse played out, and praying that their youngest member remained safe until they could arrive.


REACTIONS?

I work every day this week, but even if I can't pop out a chapter a day, I will endeavor to write every day. I hope to finish this story up before too long. Just a few more chapters to go. I won't name how many because inevitably it always takes me a couple more to get it done. But the end is near and I hope you'll be surprised and happy at the ending.