They continued on, coming to another dead end. Robin looked up at Slade expectantly, knowing that the man wouldn't lead them to a true dead end since lethal traps lay at all dead ends inside the maze. Slade placed his hands on the hedge in front of him, pressing into the wall and testing it. Finally, he put both hands on the right side of the hedge and pulled, and the wall of the hedge, actually a door, slid open and he and Robin slipped through. Slade closed the door behind him, and Robin was a bit amazed at how far the two of them had gotten. They were still alive. They hadn't died. Maybe they really could do this.

"Cloak yourself."

The instant Slade disappeared, Robin panicked and did the same, and barely had Robin disappeared before six guards came from a hallway off to their left, looking down where he and Slade stood before continuing straight. Robin, dodging silently and turning left, almost cried out in surprise when Slade pulled him in the direction the guards were going instead.

"Why are we following them?" Robin whispered, barely able to hear himself speaking as they followed the guards several hundred feet behind. "Wherever they came from is where we want to go."

"One of the guards had an exit key in his hand," Slade muttered. "It is late; they are switching shifts with others."

Robin blinked, now quite jealous. How did Slade know all this? "But if guards are all over, then people can just follow them and get out of the maze that way."

"Only near the maze's exit are guards stationed," Slade said quietly. "We have made it quite far, and those of the black level do not believe it possible for criminals to be here."

"Why?" Robin asked.

"No one has gotten this far in the past fifty years," Slade said. "The people of Wayne Enterprises believe their black level to be impenetrable, but such a legend will be broken tonight."

Robin nodded, and the pair followed the guards all the way to the exit door of the maze. Pure joy flooded Robin as he saw the exit door open and several guards walk out. The guards passed them by without noticing them, and Robin, hearing the guards' steps fade away and un-cloaking, was about to rush over to the door and open the latch when Slade stopped him.

"If that handle is touched by someone the computer doesn't recognize, the alarms will go off," Slade said, stopping Robin in his tracks.

"We're stuck?" Robin asked.

"Patience, Robin," Slade said. "There are other ways of accessing a door."

"Other than the handle?" Robin said, folding his arms.

"You have much to learn," Slade said, chuckling. He took out a small laser and began to cut a hole in the bottom half of the door. Robin watched for a few moments before speaking up.

"Why don't you just cut through the lock?" he asked. "That would be quicker."

"Alarms would be triggered."

After Robin thought it over, he blushed a bit, then shook himself off and began listening for any guards or robots nearing them.

"It's done," Slade said, pulling away the steel and revealing a hole he'd made in the metal. Slade crawled through and Robin followed. As soon as they were out of the maze, Robin stood up, sighed, then kept watch and listened for guards as Slade reattached the metal to the door. Once Slade was done, he too stood up, and Robin looked around.

All that was in front of them was three doors, one on the right, one on the left, and one

straight ahead. There was also a button off to Robin's left. "What's that?"

"A transport system for guards to instantly be both brought here and taken away by changing their molecules into light," Slade said.

"Why didn't we take that route to get here?" Robin asked.

"The transporter reads each person's DNA, Robin. We would be killed."

Robin swallowed, then looked back at the doors in front of him, unsure which one they should take. Robin looked up at Slade, but Slade seemed to be giving Robin the choice.

"My blueprints end here," Slade said. "These are the testing rooms. Choose one."

Robin's breath caught. So the time was here. The most infamous and dangerous part of the black level was staring them in the face. Now it was Robin's turn to choose, just as it was when Slade was making him steal. Robin looked at the three doors in front of him, then shook his head. "S-Slade, I —"

"The choice is yours," Slade said again.

Robin's chest hurt. What if he chose wrong? What if they fell into a pit of lava and died instantly? Why did he have to be the one to make this choice? Swallowing once, Robin reached a shaky hand out to the door in front of him, pressing down on the latch and walking inside. The door shut behind himself and Slade instantly. Bright lights flickered on above them, and Robin found himself inside a completely square, completely blank room. On the other side of the room Robin could see a door, and he was just about to run toward it to escape when he heard the voice of a computer above him.

Activate.

Instantly, the room seemed to change. Robin's vision grew hazy for a moment, then he saw fog rolling toward him, filling the entire room so that he could barely see Slade standing next to him.

Robin squinted through the fog, turning to Slade. "I thought my mask was supposed to see through elements."

"This is not real fog," Slade said. "It is an illusion. Do not separate."

"But the wall should be right over—" Robin jolted to a stop as Slade grabbed his arm, preventing him from running over to check.

"Observe," Slade said, taking out a batarang of his own. He threw the weapon into the fog, and Robin watched it disappear instantly. He waited. The weapon didn't return to Slade, and he didn't hear it hit the wall, either. "If you were to run into that fog, you would never be able to locate me again. Even if you were able to see me in the distance, the illusion would keep you stuck, running as though on a treadmill and never going anywhere."

"How are we going to get out?" Robin asked, glancing all around and becoming even more fearful when he realized that he could no longer see the door they'd entered by.