Hello to the Night
Chapter Four
1
October 12, 10:11 PM
The teen accepted it. "Tim Drake." He paused, looked straight into Robin's hidden eyes, and inquired, "Have you been practicing on the trapeze much?"
Robin felt his face drain of blood. His mind kept repeating the thought, This guy knows.
"Why do you ask?" Robin had to force the words out of his mouth. He wanted to run and call Batman, tell him that someone knew his secret identity.
Tim shrugged. "Just wondering."
And with that, the teen turned and walked away.
"Was that a friend of yours, Robin?" Starfire cocked her head to one side, hovering a few inches from the ground.
But Robin could only meet Raven's wide, lavender eyes. She was as pale as he was.
"Uh, yeah," he told Starfire. "I… I need to go call somebody."
11:57 PM
Robin quietly placed the headset back in the cradle and stared at the telephone. The headset was an almost straight line and lay horizontal across the vertical cradle to form a T. The phone's base was a mound— the entire thing was a novelty phone, a replica of Titan Tower bought in one of the many gifts shops catering to tourists.
He had expected Batman to be angry. He had expected Batman to demand that he come home.
Batman had done the latter. He hadn't done the former… well, he hadn't done much of the former.
No, they'd spent half an hour racking their brains, trying to come up with a connection to Tim Drake.
They'd come up with few answers.
Tim knew. Tim had seen him, when he was in the circus.
Have you been practicing on the trapeze much?
It was the only connection that made any sense. He must have met some smart kid before a show one night, that kid being Tim Drake, and the boy had figured it out when he heard Robin's voice.
That had to be it. Batman had even agreed.
The gypsy focused on unraveling the mystery of Tim Drake so much that he didn't notice the sound of the elevator door hissing open.
"Robin?" A voice sounded behind him.
He turned, startled, then identified the speaker as Raven. "Oh, it's you. What do you need?"
"That boy… Tim Drake."
Have you been practicing on the trapeze much?
"Yes?"
"Robin… he knows."
"I know." He told her. He ran a hand through his hair. "I know…"
"He knows you used to be in the circus. He probably knows your name." She paused. He noticed that her facial expression looked troubled, before she made it blank again. "How much will people be willing to pay for that?"
"A lot." He wasn't worried about himself. In the current situation, his name put him in no particular danger. If people wanted to know where to find him, they only had to look for the T-shaped tower.
But Batman… If Robin was Dick Grayson, the boy Bruce Wayne had adopted, then who could Batman be, unless Wayne was a complete idiot?
Have you been practicing on the trapeze much? "What am I going to do?"
She sat down next to him. "What can you do? You'll just have to wait and see."
"Thank you, Raven." He rubbed his temples. "This is crazy. I thought that the circus… I thought that everybody forgot about that kid."
Raven shrugged. "When I came to earth, I thought nobody could guess that I wasn't human."
He grinned weakly. "Shows how much we know, huh?"
October 14, 12:47 AM
Robin shadowed the newest group of visitors. Every now and then, he chuckled just barely loudly enough for them to hear.
The visitors looked over their shoulders, nervous. They stopped in one of Raven's rooms, as the Titans had come to call the rooms earmarked for Raven's illusions.
Robin watched one of the visitors gasp as fanged birds sprang towards him, covering him in a pile of shadowy wings and feathers. The mound melted into the ground, and the other visitors screamed.
He followed them again as they entered the basement, another of their number dragged away, this time by the not-rats.
At last, they entered one of his rooms, and he showed himself, laughing manically.
"Well hello…" He paused, gazing at each face in turn. "We seem to be missing some people…"
He took a dramatic step towards them, laughing more. And then, just as quickly, he left to go scare another group of visitors.
That group's screams rang in his ears, and he had to admit that he was having almost too much fun.
.
.
.
Starfire glowed eerily, drifting towards the group of visitors.
"You… do not… belong here!" She cried, flinging starbolts.
The visitors screamed, and she fought the urge to giggle. It was really working!
.
.
.
1:04 AM
Robin took the elevator down, laughing and joking with the group. He learned their names, shook their hands, thanked them for coming… Batman hadn't been the only one to teach lessons. No, Bruce had taught him how to play the friendly host.
Even if he wasn't feeling so friendly.
As they stepped out of the elevator and into the entrance hall, he noticed a teenager, of medium height, wearing a Gotham Knights pullover with the hood pulled up.
Funny. He hadn't seen the kid in the elevator, but there he was, stepping out.
He noticed the boy's face as he passed him, and grabbed his wrist.
"You again!" He hissed.
"I did want to come to the haunted house. It was good, you know."
"What do you want?"
"Nothing."
"I don't want to see you on this property ever again. Do you understand me? Leave. Do not come back."
"Alright," Drake said easily. With that, he freed his wrist and walked out.
2
Tim Drake walked out the front doors of Titan Tower, down the front walk.
"You know, my son says that mannequin they dressed up like Raven is actually a redhead." "You're kidding!" "Nope." "How does he know?" "He works at Spencer's and he said he saw Robin and Cyborg walk in, cool as you please, head straight for the rack with the inflatable corpses, and buy one. He said it was a redhead."
He passed the pair of gossiping women, walked down the stairs to the ferry. Bits and pieces of conversation danced around him.
"You know Joy, who works at the Movie Station? Meg styled her hair for the prom, and Meg said Joy saw the Teen Titans!" "Oh, did Meg style her hair? You know, it was so nice to see Joy out of that pony tail!" "Dude! That place was wicked cool!" "No kidding! Man, I'd live there any day!"
He stared out at the waves as the ferry sliced through the water. He had messed everything up. Sure, he knew that Robin wouldn't be happy to learn that somebody knew his secret identity.
But he'd never expected that Robin would react like that. Of course, maybe that was just the side of him that had held Robin as his one and only hero since he was a little kid.
He had completely blown it.
Slade was going to be so mad…
…
…
But don't get mad, get even
And don't let 'em get to you
I never promised
It was fair and true
Before they're through
They'll have me hunting you
—Eddie and the Tide, Power Play