"Okay, talk," Connor said as soon as they all made it back to titans tower, "Why did you react like that when Rocket asked you when you're coming back?"

"Ah… Jinx and I have a date," Wally said awkwardly, "We'll be back in a few hours!" There was a woosh, and they were both gone.

"Why are you all acting so weird?" Artemis asked, "It was just a simple question."

The titans were quiet, all looking at Robin.

"Look, I know that you're all excited to have me around the mountain again," Robin started, "But I've been thinking about leaving the team."

Linebreak

"What do you mean, you're thinking about leaving the team?" Connor demanded, "Why?"

"I have responsibilities to the titans," Robin told them, "We're a worldwide network now, and I can't be splitting my time if I want to give them all the resources, protection, and leadership they need."

"Bull, if that was all it was you could've brought them to the team," Artemis spat, "What's your real reason?"

"Hey, he doesn't have to tell you anything," Beast Boy snarled, "You don't get to tell him what to do."

"Beast Boy, stop," Robin said, "I knew they'd be upset, it's okay."

"No, it's not okay," Cyborg disagreed, "They don't get to come into our house and yell at you like this."

"Please," Aqualad stepped forward to defuse the situation, "We are merely surprised and confused. We will accept any explanation you choose to give us, Robin."

Robin sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, "No, you guys do deserve a better explanation than that. Just… give me a minute." He went over to the window and stared out at the ocean, face even more hidden than it usually was.

"I've been Robin since I was nine years old," he finally admitted, still not looking at the rest of the room, "And from the time I first put on the mask I wasn't allowed to change. Oh, I could get better, be a better fighter, a better tactician, a better hacker, but everyone expected me to stay that wise-cracking little snotball. You guys were better than the league, but I still had to always keep the act up or deal with everyone wanting to know what was 'wrong' when the only thing wrong was that I was growing up and they didn't want to deal with it. And at first, the titans were just an escape from that, somewhere I didn't have to pretend all the time and could be out from under Batman's shadow. It was selfish, frankly, but it led to some of the best times of my life."

"What…" Megan started, but Zatanna quickly put a hand over her mouth. The titans slowly drifted towards their leader.

"Then, later on, the titans became my family," Robin continued, still staring out the window as Raven laid a hand on his shoulder, "And I knew I had to protect them. More than half the titans, if they'd gone anywhere near the justice league when we first started out, would have gotten shipped off to foster homes, their old families, science labs, or straight off planet so fast their heads would've spun. I couldn't let that happen. So I went back to the team, back to the league, to make sure no one ever found us, fat lot of good it did in the end. But it did give us time to grow, get stronger. We're worldwide now, I mentioned that, and the media loves us. If the league tried any of that now, we'd be able to fight back."

"Did you really think they would?" Megan finally got Zatanna's hand off her mouth.

"Some of them," Robin admitted, turning around, "And I couldn't just show up and hope that cooler heads prevailed, because if I took that risk and failed, everything we built would have been history. And even the more reasonable league members would have tried to monitor us, give us rules, control us. Look what they did when the team started up! We don't like being controlled, not even by the 'good guys'. I wasn't going to put us in a position where we were going to be."

"So what about us?" Artemis demanded, "Are we just not good enough to know or something?"

"Didn't want to make you guys lie to your mentors," Robin said, "But honestly? You guys might be my friends, but the titans are my family. I'd do whatever it took to keep them safe."

"Hey, we'd do the same for you, man," Cyborg said as the rest of the titans converged on their leader, clapping a hand on his back.

"Totally," Beast Boy agreed.

"So? What're you going to do about it?" Robin asked.

Any answer the team might have given was cut off by another alarm, but this one was different, more urgent.

"Intruder!" Robin yelled, "Cyborg, get our defenses up now!"

"I'm trying man, they're getting shut back down as fast as I can activate them!" Cyborg said, frantically typing away at his arm.

"The mystical defenses are going down too. I can try… Ugghh!" Raven stumbled, hand going to her head.

"Raven!" Starfire cried, catching her.

"Whoever it is, they're in the tower, headed this way. I'll try to get the cameras up…" Cyborg told them, bringing up a grainy picture of the hallway with a black shadow sweeping down the center of the hall for a split second before the camera feed went to static.

"Wait, I recognize that," Robin said, eyes wide, "But how did he find us?"

"Who?" Connor asked, the team getting into fighting stances.

The door slid open, and the intruder came in.

Robin strode over, looking more confident than he felt. "Batman," he greeted his mentor.