disclaimer: I don't own a thing
Also archived on my livejournal.
Titan Tower was usually a fairly loud place in the morning, the sounds of video games, cooking and other activities waking up the occupants fairly early. However, Robin hadn't come out of his room, and it was nearing noon. Slowly, each member of the Teen Titans had come to stand around Robin's door, waiting for a general consensus of what was to be done.
At first, all four of the heroes had independently decided that Robin needed some time alone. Robin had not been well the night before; he had chased the ghost of their clearly defeated enemy, Slade, physically and emotionally drained as he pushed himself to find the defeated foe. In the end, the Tower was empty, but two things were clear: Slade wasn't as gone as he seemed, and Robin was not well. He had been pale and panting, almost half laughing as he found the radio transmitter that Slade had somehow slipped into the Tower. He had put it in his room to study and gone to bed.
The Titans hadn't seen him since.
"What should we do?" Beat Boy asked while looking at the door.
"Rob was sick yesterday, I don't know if we should just leave him," Cyborg added.
"There's no way he could have slept through your racket this morning," Raven said while staring pointedly at Cyborg and Beat Boy. "There must be something wrong."
"I am worried about Robin!" Starfire exclaimed hurriedly. "Why does he not want to talk to us?"
"It's decided then," Cyborg said after a moment. All four teens turned to the door and simultaneously attacked it with their respective powers. It creaked open on its own, albeit slightly more dented and burnt than it had been previously.
The room was empty, the bed made, not a thing out of place except for a note on the pillow. Raven went over and picked it up. "'I took Robin back to Gotham. He will return when he's ready.'"
Beast Boy gave her a look. "Who wrote that?"
Raven held the note up for the other three to see. "Look for yourself." They circled around the note and examined it closely. On the bottom was an image of a dark bat.
"Batman," Cyborg breathed heavily. "Robin trusts Batman; he worked with him for years."
"Why has this Batman taken Robin away from us!" Starfire shrieked.
"I don't know," Raven said slowly, "but we trust Robin, so we have to trust Batman and hope Robin comes back soon."
hr
Nine days later (of course all the Titans were counting) Robin returned to the Tower.
He hadn't taken the R-cycle, he hadn't taken a car. If the Titans had looked up when they opened the door, they might have noticed the shadow of a bat-shaped plane in the sky. When all four Titans had opened the door, Robin pushed his wet hair off of his face and nodded weakly.
"Robin?" Starfire said slowly.
"Hey Star," Robin said as he closed the door and wiped as much rain off of his arms and shoulders as he could. "Did I miss anything?"
She shrieked happily and threw her arms around Robin, hugging him tightly. He did not resist, but he felt cold and stiff. "There is something bothering you?" she asked in concern.
"Yeah, man," Cyborg added, "you left so quickly, you didn't even tell us…"
"Batman came to pick me up."
"We saw." Raven said hollowly.
"Why'd you go?" Beast Boy said. "Was it because of Slade?"
Robin walked inside the living room and sat down on the couch, groping for the remote. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Well you're going to have to talk about it, Robin," Cyborg said seriously. "Not only did you leave without telling anybody, but somehow Batman managed to get in here without any alarm going off at all!"
"Of course he did," Robin said weakly, "he's had surveillance on me since we first started the Titans, he could have gotten in here ages ago."
"Why?" Raven demanded angrily.
"Because he's Batman?" Robin said lightly. "Because he likes to know what's going on. Because he worries about us. He worries about me."
"He has no reason to worry about you," Starfire said strongly, "you are an excellent warrior!"
"He worries about me for other reasons. He worries that I'll relapse like I did last week."
"What are you talking about?" Cyborg said quietly.
"When I thought I saw Slade, I got confused, I got scared, and I thought he was someone else."
"Who?" Beast Boy said.
"The Joker," Tim said grimy.
"The Joker's dead," Raven said.
"I know. I killed him."
"What?" Raven said deeply.
"I didn't mean to… it wasn't my fault, Bruce told me it wasn't my fault; that I was at a point where I couldn't be blamed for my actions. I was broken, it wasn't my fault…"
"Oh man… you were the kid," Beast Boy said quietly.
"What?" Cyborg said.
"When I was still with the Doom Patrol, years ago, we heard about a sidekick… he was kidnapped by a villain… brainwashed… for weeks…
"Everybody knew about it. Not who it was, but we all knew about it, it was whispered all over the Superhero community. Sidekicks were scared, we all were scared. I thought he took off the mask."
"I did. For three years, I refused to wear the mask, to leave my room, to talk to the doctors."
"But then?" Raven asked.
"Then the doctor suggested an alternate treatment. Put the mask back on. Start a team."
"Create the Titans." Cyborg finished.
The room was quiet. Starfire came up and hugged Robin. "I understand."
Robin nodded, he knew it wasn't an empty sentiment. Before Starfire came to Earth, she had been a prisoner; raped, mistreated, and finally experimented on by her captors. It was this horror that had given Starfire her amazing energy beam powers.
"We're all broken." Raven said simply.
"What?" Robin said.
"My father is evil," Raven said.
"The girl I love betrayed us and then died to take it back," Beast Boy added from down on the couch.
"I lost my humanity and replaced it with cybernetic parts," Cyborg said.
"But together," Starfire said, "we do not have to be broken any more."
"You will always be our friend, Robin, no matter what you do," said Raven. The Titans sat on the couch and looked at each other slowly. Robin cracked a smile, and found that for the first time in over a week, he didn't want to start laughing hysterically, to cry, to lose himself again. He was Robin again, he was a Titan again.
"Tim. My name is Tim."
Fin.
A point which seems to be of confusion: 'Dick did start the Titans, but it gets kind of nebulous when you take the cartoon in effect, because the Robin is never explicitly named. While canon-wise he must be Dick, there's enough wiggle room in the character- his costume, his attitude, his bo stick, that I sort of said, well, now he's Tim.'