Author's Notes: Oh my goodness, the reviews just keep piling on. Thank you all so much!
All right, yes, I know last chapter was pretty obvious—sorry, everyone, I did my best! But as to the events that are about to transpire in this chapter and the next, I hope they were not as easy to figure out…
Just to make sure there is no confusion, everything in italics is flashback. That's how these scenes come out when I try to write them—I can't have somebody narrate it, I have to have it play out in front of me in real time.
So, everybody ready to find out what really happened? Here comes all the tragedy and angst that I've been holding out on….heh heh heh…

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Starfire lingered in the doorway, unsure of how to proceed. She had never had the need to 'tattle' on someone before, and it made her uneasy, especially with the thought that it was most likely one of her trusted friends.

Robin noticed her tension. "What's wrong?"

She stepped fully into the room, hearing the familiar sound of the door closing automatically behind her. Holding the paper nervously in her grasp, she moved toward Robin. "I…have found something, but I do not understand it," she started.

Raising an eyebrow, Robin lifted a hand, reaching for the papers that she held. "What is it?" He took them, glancing over the first one quickly. As he did so, darkness descended over his features, his eyes narrowing behind the mask, his face pulling into an angry grimace.

Starfire was slightly alarmed—she never seen this look on Robin's face before. There was something behind the tightness in his features that made her shudder inside. She nearly jumped as he suddenly crumpled the papers in his hand, and uttered one word in a loathsome growl…

"Terra."

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Terra looked up as the door opened, her wide, blue eyes blinking at Robin as he entered. "What?" she asked.

He crossed the space between them with quick, short steps, and when he stood in front of her, tossed the crumpled papers into her lap. "Explain this."

Terra picked up one of the papers, smoothing it out some in order to read it. A look of confusion crossed her face, and she glanced up at Robin. "I don't get it…why are you showing me this?"

"Don't act stupid!" Robin shouted. "You've been feeding this information to Slade, haven't you?"

Starfire, who was hovering at the doorway, was shocked by the fury in Robin's accusation.

Terra sat speechless for a moment. Then she stood, her own temper flaring. "How can you even think that? I wouldn't do something like this!"

In one rapid movement, Robin pulled out the metal bo staff from his belt, extended it, and swung it into the side of Terra's face without warning. Terra reeled from the blow, stumbling back into the wall and clutching at her head.

Starfire gasped.

"Shut up!" Robin was screaming at Terra now, "He's a madman who has murdered innocent people and tried to kill my friends! And you're handing him all the information he needs to keep doing it!" Robin brought the staff up again and swung it down hard, cracking into the back of Terra's skull.

She fell to her knees this time, her vision fading from the force of the blow as unconsciousness threatened to overwhelm her. The blackness cleared after a few long moments, and she looked up just in time to see Robin aiming another swing at her.

"Robin, what are you doing? Please, stop!" Starfire rushed forward, trying to hold Robin's arms as he continued to beat the staff into Terra's defenseless form. He didn't seem to hear or, or even feel her as she tried to wrench the weapon from his grasp. He continued screaming, swinging at Terra again and again. Her hair looked wet in places, and was clinging to the side of her head. And now the end of Robin's staff was becoming discolored; when he swung it, crimson droplets flew through the air.

The door flew open. Alerted by the noise, Raven entered the room, with Beast Boy and Cyborg right behind her. For a moment, all three stood motionless, unable to believe the scene that greeted them. Then suddenly Raven had moved, and now stood between the livid Robin and Terra's motionless body.

"Stop," Raven said darkly, her eyes narrowing at the furious teen.

"Get out of my way, Raven," Robin said through gritted teeth.

Raven's eyes darted across the room to land on Cyborg. "Take Terra out of here," she said.

Cyborg nodded dumbly and moved to scoop Terra off the ground. He looked away from the few dark red patches that had appeared on the ground beneath Terra's head, and exited the room quickly.

Robin's gaze was focused on Raven. He said nothing.

"Why?" Raven's voice seemed smothered in the heavy, tense atmosphere of the room. "Why did you do that, Robin?"

"She was feeding information to Slade! She was giving him everything he needed, just handing it to him on a silver platter so that more innocent people could be manipulated and killed, so that everything we've been working for to bring him down was a waste! I will not accept it!"

Suddenly a tiredness crept into Raven's eyes, too subtle to notice. "Terra wasn't giving anything to Slade," she said, her voice still forceful.

"Shut up!" Robin shouted, "How you can defend her after what she did?"

"Because she didn't do anything." Raven's voice suddenly dropped to a near whisper. "I did."

Starfire and Beast Boy gasped audibly, and the fury in Robin's face was replaced for an instant by pure shock. Then the insatiable anger rushed back, and he was practically shaking. "YOU?"

Raven met his gaze squarely. "Yes."

"Raven…" Beast Boy's voice almost cracked, it sounded as though he were close to tears. "Why?"

She turned to look at him, and for a moment she looked genuinely sad. "Because I had to." Then her eyes returned to Robin, "It doesn't matter. But if you have to punish someone, then punish me."

Robin didn't move. Time seemed to have stopped, and no one breathed.

He lifted the staff again…

Beast Boy made a choking sound and dashed forward, to late to stop the first blow. "No, Robin, don't! Leave her alone!"

"Out of the way, Beast Boy!"

"Stop it, please!"

"Beast Boy, MOVE!"

"No! I won't let you do it!"

"I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU BOTH!!!"


Starfire sobbed.

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Cyborg got back to the tower as quickly as he could. Thinking that it might not be safe enough to keep the injured Terra inside the tower itself, and not knowing where else to take her, he had gone to the outskirts of town, leaving her in the small cavern that had been her 'home' before she had come to live with them.

Leaving his injured friend alone was against everything he had ever been taught, everything he had ever believed. But he had left more friends in a rapidly worsening situation back at the tower.

So he'd dealt with Terra's injuries as best as he knew how, and left her as comfortable as he could. Fortunately, her wounds weren't terribly serious. The gash on the side of her head was the worst, but it wasn't deep enough to have caused permanent damage. He'd managed to stop the bleeding, and so long as she didn't have a concussion, she would be fine.

Cyborg reassured himself with the fact that he would be back for Terra, as soon as he could be. He didn't know what had happened, why Robin had suddenly gone crazy and hurt one of his teammates so badly. He didn't know what Terra might have done to cause Robin to do such a thing, but it could not have deserved the severe beating that Robin had given her. And if he'd done that to Terra, what had he done after Raven tried to stop him?

Shuddering inwardly, Cyborg redoubled his pace. He had to get back to the tower. He had to know what had happened, if the rest of his friends were all right…

But when he finally did return, he found himself wishing he had not come back.