Chapter 29
"Go."
"I am not leaving you to deal..."
"Yes, you are. Go. We don't have time..."
"Let me help you."
"Jason's life will be at risk if you help. You need to go." Robin dropped his hard expression, his shoulders falling. "Go and make sure Alfred is okay. We've got this."
Batman let out a sigh, "Are you sure? Do you know what Jason was trying to tell you?"
"I have an idea. But I need you to go before we do anything. Slade obviously has eyes on us, the faster you leave, the less danger Jason is in. Don't worry, I will rescue him."
"But I know you, Robin. I'm not willing to let you risk your life when..." Batman stopped as a strong hand landed softly on his shoulder. He turned to see Superman floating gently behind him.
"Batman. We have to go. For Jason's sake." Superman looked around at the rest of the Titans. "I am sorry."
Batman looked back at Robin who met his gaze. "You come home, Dick. Do you hear me?"
Robin looked at him in shock, and Batman was unsure if it was because of the sentiment behind the statement or the fact that he'd just called Robin by his real name in front of someone who didn't know. Batman flicked his gaze to Bumblebee who didn't seem to be paying attention as Raven helped heal her wounds.
"I will." Robin let out a sharp nod with his promise, and no more words were exchanged as Batman and Superman left. Robin ran a hand down his face and turned to see the five other Titans who were quiet. This was it. No more help from the Justice League. No more help from Batman. This was a Titan war. Although... there was one person Robin could call to assist without breaking Slade's request. But first...
"Bumblebee how are you?" Robin crouched in front of where she was still sat on the floor. Raven was working on repairing the tear in her wing.
"I'm better now. A little shaken, a little tired. I flew for nearly three hours to get here. I didn't know where else to go. The closest people I knew were Kid Flash and Jinx, but I couldn't find them. Though I guess that's because Flash is here..."
Robin looked to Flash as Bumblebee trailed off. He was stood staring at the floor. His eyes were frantic, darting across the floor as his mind worked on something. Robin stood and moved over to him. "We'll save her, Flash. I promise."
"Robin, if Starfire has hurt her..." Flash spat the words out and Robin jumped a little.
"Don't blame Star, it's not her fault." Robin's voice was soft. He knew what it felt like, how easy it was to blame the person who had done the act and not look at the bigger picture. "If you're going to be angry at anyone, be angry at Slade. But right now, I need you here. With me."
Flash let out a sigh and nodded sadly. "Alright. I know. I'm sorry. What's the plan?"
Robin was silent for a moment. He looked over the five other people in the room. "I have an idea, but I need to figure out what Jason meant first. However..." he took a breath. "We can't do that here." Five faces turned to look at him.
"What do you mean?" Cyborg looked as confused as everyone as he helped Bumblebee to her feet.
"Slade is watching us. He has access to our correspondence with the League. He managed to shut down all communication between us, the League, and the Bat Cave. Otherwise Jason would have been able to warn us about Starfire going after him. Cy..." Robin shot him a serious look. One the other Titans didn't see very often. "I need you to shut down the Network."
"What?!" Cyborg blanched as the rest of the room stayed quiet. "Robin we need that network to find the rest of the Titans."
"It's not the only way to find them. Slade has access to it, otherwise he wouldn't be able to do everything he's doing. The Network being active is helping him. If he has the locations of the Titans, Starfire will be able to get to them before we can help. Especially if Slade knows who we've contacted and what we're planning. The only way we are going to get ahead of Slade is to go dark."
"Damn it. You're right." Cyborg clenched his fist. "You want everything down?"
"Everything. No towers. No communicators. No safe houses. Nothing. I want it all switching off."
"Alright, I hope you know what you're doing." Cyborg moved over to the console, typing away. "We've got about fifteen minutes for it to shut down completely. The power will be the last thing to go. What now?"
"Now. We wait. I don't want to say anything until I know that Slade can't hear us."
They waited in an awkward silence. Cyborg was constantly checking the system, making sure it was closing down properly. Raven healed the last of Bumblebee's wounds and helped her stand. Beast Boy had been very quiet since the call, sat on the sofa. He felt the gravity of the situation and knew that he had nothing to contribute at the moment. His humour wouldn't be overly appreciated by anyone.
"Raven, can you go get Bumblebee a fresh uniform please?" Robin asked.
"Sure, come on." She tugged Bee by the arm. Luckily each Tower had spare uniforms for all the Titans. Well, you never knew when you would need one.
Robin wanted patiently. His mind running a mile a minute as he thought over what he wanted to do. What he needed to do. They could get started as soon as the power went out. So he just needed to wait a little longer. His hands were twitching in anticipation. He had a string of instructions he wanted to reel off. They sat on the tip of his tongue waiting to be let loose, but he contained them as the clock ticked by.
Quicker than expected, the lights went out, and they were plunged into darkness. The three boys turned to Robin as Cyborg lit his shoulder torch. Robin heaved a deep sigh. Fore taking his communicator from his belt and flipping it open. He was met with a blank screen, which is exactly what he wanted to see. Setting the device down on the table, he looked around at them. Beast Boy moved from the sofa to stand with them. "What's the plan?"
"Beast Boy, I need you to head into Starfire's room, there's a stack of pictures on the bed side table that I picked up from her broken vanity. I need to check something. Cy, I need you to pack supplies. We're going to be leaving the Tower for a little while."
"And go where? All of our safe houses have been compromised." Cyborg looked sceptical.
"Just trust me. But make sure when you pack, that the collar and the key are in with it. Flash, down in the basement, under the stairs there's a secret compartment. It requires a code, I need you to bring me what's in that compartment. The code won't work because it's been shut down, so get creative."
Raven and Bumblebee returned, with Bee dressed in a fresh uniform. She looked better than she did half an hour ago. Before they could say anything Robin turned to them. "I need you two to go and collect a couple of uniforms for everyone please? Raven, can you make sure that we have the dart guns with us, and that we have plenty of darts?"
"This all sounds good Rob, but where are we gonna go?" Cyborg knew that Robin would have a plan, but they still didn't know what Jason was trying to tell them, and now they had no Network.
"I have someone I can call who can help us. That's what I'm going to go do now."
"Rob, we can't involve the League, you said so yourself."
"I know. So it's a good thing she's not part of the League." Robin shot him a cocky smirk, and Cyborg was about to question him further when Robin continued. "We need to get out of here as fast as possible. Slade might send Starfire to see what's going on since he's lost all eyes on us. Since the system is down, we'll be even less equipped to deal with her. Everyone go do your job, and then meet back here. I want to be out of this tower within the next half hour."
The Titans made for the door, separating to go and complete their individual tasks. Robin slowly followed behind before slipping into the kitchen. He knelt down in front of the fridge and plucked a photo from the door. Folding it gently, he placed it in his belt before leaving to go to his room. He didn't spend a lot of time in his old room anymore, having opted to spend most of his time in Starfire's room at night. But after having moved a lot of his stuff into Starfire's room, he had chosen to leave a few things behind.
Stepping across the threshold of his old room, he headed straight for the closet. He had a small torch to aid him in seeing, but he would know how to find what he was looking for in the dark. Digging into the forgotten corners of his closet, he found what he was looking for. On the floor, plugged into a hidden power outlet, was a cellphone. It was an old handset, but the old handsets were the most secure. That was why he had it. He hadn't used it in a long time and there were no missed calls or text messages on it. He knew why. Because it was for situations like this.
Robin stood from the closet, pulling the charger out of the socket with him. He flicked through the contacts list before it alighted on a name he hadn't thought about for a while. There was a hesitation as he sat down hard on his bed, running a hand through his hair. Pressing the green call button, he raised it to his ear. It rang longer than he would have expected and he was muttering to himself in annoyance as the ring tone blared on. "Come on... pick up... pick up!"
"Do you have any idea what time it is here?!" The high pitched voice screeched at him and Robin pulled the phone away from his ear for a moment. "Seriously! Are you out of your mind?!"
"So... how are you?" Robin smiled into the phone, knowing the reaction he would get from his comment.
There was silence on the other end for a moment, and then a deep sigh. "Don't get smart with me, Dick. What do you want? Considering you've not spoken to me since... well. You know."
"I've been a bit busy."
"I heard. How are you doing?" There was a kindness to the voice. A sentimentality that he appreciated.
"I need your help. How fast can you get to Jump?"
XXXXX
Twenty minutes after they had separated, the Titans had met back up in Ops, a pile of bags on the floor near them. Robin was double checking that they had everything they needed.
"So what's the plan?" Raven asked, hopefully Robin would let them in on his plan now.
"We're going to stay at a place that's owned by a friend of mine. She's going to meet us there but it's going to take her a couple of hours to get here. Raven, will you be able to get us there if I give you the coordinates? I don't want to be out in the open if we can help it."
"Probably." She shrugged, taking a piece of paper from Robin who had held his hand out to her.
"Right, we're going to head there before we do anything. Everyone ready? Cause we won't be coming back until this is over."
The others all nodded mutely. Robin turned to Raven as she gestured for everyone to come in closer. Closing her eyes, she chanted. "Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos." Her eyes opened white and the group, along with their belongings, were shrouded in her energy. It didn't take long, but they all felt the cold of Raven's powers wash over them before it washed away again. It left them in a dark, open room. Robin moved away and soon the room was illuminated with a harsh light.
Looking round, the Titans noticed there were no windows. It must have been below ground, which is usually how safe houses worked. It was a large room, like the inside of a warehouse. There were a couple of sofas, and a table with chairs. A few camping cots were against one wall, and a computer was against another.
"Robin?" Flash looked entirely confused. "Where are we?"
"We're still in Jump. It's an underground safe house that was that was built for situations such as this. I didn't know where it was, since it's a last resort place, we didn't want anyone to be able to get the information about it. Only Batgirl knew the location, just like I know of one in Gotham that she doesn't know about. That way the locations can't be tortured out of us. It sounds ludicrous, but you never know when you might need to hide."
"Batgirl?" Cyborg piped up. "Is that who you called?"
"Yeah. She's not a Titan, but she's not League either. She's on her way here to give us a hand. Slade won't be expecting us to have anyone else. Beast Boy," Robin brought Beast Boys attention from staring around the room. "Do you have those photos?"
"Oh! Yeah!" Beast Boy dove into the pile of bags to find his own before handing the pile of photos to Robin who moved over to the table.
"Uh, honey. I hate to be that person. But how are photos going to help us when we have a rampaging alien out to get us?!" Bumblebee felt panicked. She was tired, and a little freaked out. From being attacked to getting here, it all happened quite quickly. Cyborg rested a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"Bee, calm down. We have a way to subdue Starfire. We just need to plan it right, since Slade has told us we can't involve the League. I know, you've been through a lot tonight, but we need to know what Jason was trying to tell us." He turned back to Robin as Bee let out a bit of a huff.
Robin had spread the photos out on the table, looking over them. A couple were torn and crumpled from where Starfire had crashed into the vanity they were clipped onto.
"There's one missing." Everyone but Robin turned to look at Raven curiously. "What? Star and I spend a lot of time chatting in her room."
"Yeah, that's what I expected. Just wanted to make sure." Robin reached into his belt, pulling out the photo he'd plucked from the fridge. Unfolding it, he placed it on the table for everyone to see. Everyone recognised this picture. It was taken on New Years Eve. The Titans had hosted a party for the entire Network. It had been a good evening. Starfire had even enjoyed herself, despite the hardships she was facing at the time with her lack of flying and being unable to fight alongside her team. Robin spotted her in the photo. She wasn't looking at the camera. Her head was off to the right, smiling sweetly at Robin who was smiling back at her. He had one arm wrapped around her waist, and she had one across his shoulders. He remembered that her hand was gently stroking the back of his neck.
The picture was taken as the clock struck midnight. It had been Argent's idea. She said it would be nice to have a memory of a new year that didn't consist of remembering which couples had kissed each other. Plus, if they did it out over the bay, they might be able to catch some fireworks in the picture. They had. A few had found their way into the background of the picture, frozen in time.
"So this is what Slade meant when he asked Starfire if she had gotten what he asked for. He wanted to know who was in the Network." Flash said. He looked down at the picture. He had been kissing Jinx's cheek as the camera flashed. She had turned pinker than usual as a blush spread across her face. Afterwards she had slapped him across the arm, before sending him a shy smile.
"Yeah. I think so. Jason never saw this photo, which means that Slade must have a copy of it. Otherwise Jason wouldn't have known to tell me about it."
"Can I ask a question?" Bee timidly asked. "Who is Jason? How do you know we can even trust him?"
Cyborg looked from her to glance at Robin who had gone still. Robin sighed and turned back to the photo. "He's my brother. I trust him with my life." His tone was dark, and Bee didn't say anything else. Robin looked over the photo. Jason could have meant anything. The kid with the red hair? The kid with the sword on his back? In Jason speak, kid usually many guy. So that ruled out the girls.
"The kid with the guitar." Raven droned. Robin's eyes flicked across the photo to Jericho. She was right. He was the only one in the photo who was holding anything. Jericho had spent the evening playing a few songs here and there. Even though he couldn't speak, a few of the Titans had joined in singing along to the sound of his guitar.
"Jericho?" Beast Boy cocked his head. "What's Jericho got to do with all of this?"
"I don't know..." Robin brought his hand up to his chin in thought. "Flash, do you have the map I asked you to get?"
"Sure do." Flash reached into his boot and pulled out a piece of folded paper. He spread it out on the table over the top of the other photos. The map was littered with the symbols of each Titan. Most situated across the United Stated, but the rest were scattered across the world.
"A map of Titan locations?" Bee was a little confused.
"Nah." Cyborg smiled at her. "This is part of the Blue Bird protocol." A flash of confusion fell across Bee's face. Cy gave her arm a gently squeeze. "Because you had your team, this didn't apply to you. But since we have a lot of individuals who are stationed across the planet, we needed a way to be able to find them should a situation like the Brotherhood of Evil arise again. Once I shut down the Network, they would have had a notification on their communicators to let them know the system had been compromised. It should hopefully prompt them to go to safe houses that only they know about. Luckily, we have this map to help us locate them."
"We need to rule out the ones we already know Slade has captured." Robin walked away to the computer where he opened a door and retrieved a pen. He also grabbed a pack of sticky notes. "Right so, we know they obviously have Titans East." Robin put a cross through where the Titans East Tower would have been on the map. "Jinx. Pantha. Red Star. And Hotspot. Anyone see anyone else?" He was met with a resounding no. "Right so that leaves us with quite a few Titans left who are hopefully safe from Starfire."
"So what now?"
"We need to speak with Jericho, I think, before we do anything else. I just don't know if..." Robin trailed off in thought as he bit his lip.
"If what?"
"Do we involve the Titan Network? They're all as safe as they can be where they are, if they've followed Blue Bird. I feel kind of selfish asking them to come out of hiding to face the threat they're hiding from."
It was a good point. And one that they didn't have the answer to yet. "We can decide that after we've spoken to Jericho. Whatever info he has might sway that decision a little. But we need to get to him without getting caught. If Slade can't find any more Titans, he might send Starfire on a hunt."
"Or do worse than he already has to the Titans he has with him. We need to get them free as soon as possible. Where is Jericho meant to be hiding?"
Flash pulled the map towards him. "This says Jericho should be in L.A. Which isn't that far from here!"
"We need to bring him here. I don't want to leave Jump if we can help it."
Just then, a door at the other side of the room opened. The Titans all jumped and poised themselves. A slender figure walked through the door, and Robin visibly relaxed as he spotted the Purple and Yellow. "That was fast?" He raised an eyebrow at her as she flicked her orange hair over her shoulder.
"You're not the only one with secrets, Boy Wonder." Batgirl grinned at him before sprinting towards him and throwing her arms around him in a tight hug.
