Batgirl was tired of waiting.

Nearly three days had passed since she had last seen Robin.

When Raven first told them that Robin had gone off on his own for awhile, she took it in stride. Unlike Starfire, who seemed find it impossible not to wear her emotions on her sleeve, Barbara read the note calmly and pondered the meaning behind Dick's seemingly simple message.

She had no doubt it related to his upcoming confrontation with Batman.

While Barbara was curious what her boyfriend was up to, she decided to give him some space. He was under a lot of pressure, and her presence apparently wasn't giving him the support she had hoped. Of course, the fact that she thought he was nuts to want to stay with the Titans instead of returning to Gotham hadn't helped matters much.

Fighting with the alien bimbo wasn't one of her greatest moments, either.

Add in years of experience dealing with Batman's brooding, and she wasn't all that worried.

On the first day without their de facto leader, the Titans went about their normal business. Cyborg stepped up into the leadership role as the team prevented various run-of-the-mill crimes. Downtime was spent indulging in seemingly endless banter, marathon video game sessions, horrible cooking excursions (tofu waffles?), and various other normal teen activities. She even joined them in a Tower top volleyball game.

Spiking Starfire in the face was a particularly memorable highlight.

Nearly being decapitated the next time the alien served the ball was something she'd rather forget.

Batman never had time for fun and games, so all in all it was a nice change of pace. Although she did wonder how carefree the Titans would be if they had to handle depraved psychos like the Joker on a regular basis.

Day two was when she started to get bored.

She ran through Robin's various training programs in the morning, marveling at the difficulty of some of the courses. Bruce was a harsh taskmaster, but Dick had not let up once out of his mentor's shadow. She had gotten as thorough a workout as any she'd endured in the Batcave. It was no wonder he wasn't getting anything out of their sparring sessions earlier in the week. He hadn't lost any of his skill these past few years.

In fact, Barbara had to admit, he'd only gotten better.

The afternoon was spent perusing the team's computer files. Their content was enlightening and, in some cases, rather entertaining. While Batman's files were always factual, dry and to the point, the Titans' accounts varied wildly. Apparently, all five of them took turns updating. Beast Boy's smart ass comments about the villains were often hilarious, topped only occasionally by Cyborg's artful putdowns.

Only one villain's file was written consistently by Robin, who mimicked Bruce's clinical style perfectly. There were no jokes about this adversary. Someone known only as Slade. According to Dick, this enemy could even put Bruce through his paces.

Maybe the Titans had fought some worthy foes after all.

By late afternoon, she was starting to feel a bit cooped up in the Tower. So when the alarm sounded during dinner, Batgirl was grateful to accompany the others as they responded to trouble in the city.

She soon regretted it.

At first, she thought their opponent was laughable. Some overweight, uber-fanboy with a bad hair cut and even worse wardrobe named Control Freak. But it soon turned into the most surreal battle of her young life.

At one point they were fighting Freddy Kruger, Darth Vader, Sauron, and some anime guy with really bad hair, all of whom conjured up from this guy's apparently omnipotent remote control. The Titans seemed to take it all in stride as reality changed around them, while she kept thinking about how nice Gotham's dour skyline would have looked right then. It didn't help that Control Freak kept shouting at her about being an "unannounced, superfluous guest star."

The jerk even had the nerve to ask her for Batman's autograph once they finally took him down.

It had been hard to sleep that night.

Today was the third day of Robin's self-imposed exile, and she had had enough.

The battle with Batman was looming.

What could he possibly be doing?

For the first time, Batgirl began to worry. Starfire's initial concern about Robin didn't seem quite so pathetic now. However much she couldn't stand the flying little princess, Barbara knew the extra-terrestrial's feelings for Robin were heartfelt. Maybe there was something to be concerned about. Dick had done some foolish things in the past, especially when he felt he had to prove something to Bruce.

She glanced up at the noonday sun and made a decision.

It was time to track him down.

As she left the roof of the Tower and made her way down the stairs, Batgirl's mind went into overdrive.

While she knew Robin as well as anyone could, and perhaps even better than Batman himself, she did not know Jump City. She needed someone with local knowledge to aid her. At the same time, she wanted to minimize the Titans' involvement. That meant she needed someone easy to convince, but also easy to manipulate. Particularly someone who wouldn't give her too much trouble when the time came to ditch them.

Only one Titan fit that bill.

-----

"Hey, Beast Boy!"

"Gaah!"

The youngest Titan jumped nearly a foot in the air as he turned to see Batgirl standing in front of his open bedroom door. He hastily covered himself with a sheet as he realized he was still in his underwear. Only seconds earlier, he had been peacefully dreaming.

"Sorry," the redhead said, coming in and making herself at home on the only chair not covered with dirty laundry and other sundry objects, "But I figured you'd be up by now. It is after noon, you know."

Beast Boy stifled a yawn.

"Yeah, well, Cyborg and I had a Militant Mutant Monkeys DVD marathon last night. That battle with Control Freak reminded us how cool that old show was!"

Bargirl frowned.

Oh, yeah, Major Mandrill really beat up on her during the fight. . .

"Heh, heh," he laughed nervously, rubbing his head self-consciously, "So what can I do for you?"

Batgirl looked around his room with mild interest.

He began to wish he'd cleaned up a bit, or at least put away the girlie magazines.

"I was wondering if there was a decent place to get some pizza in this town? I'm really missing East Coast food."

Beast Boy beamed, "Oh yeah! Dude, we have this place we go to all the time! It serves the best supreme-veggie pizza! Let me go get Cyborg and we can—"

"Oh, that's all right," she replied quickly, "Cyborg's in the middle of overhauling the T-Sub. He's the one who told me to come see you."

"Oh, okay. Well, then, Star and Raven are probably hungry, so—"

"They're meditating."

Batgirl stood up, "So I guess it's just you and me, then." She paused, tossing her long red hair and smiling at him, "If that's okay with you?"

She winked.

It took a few seconds for him to find his voice.

"Uh, yeah! Great!"

Dude, I think she's HITTING on me!


"Well, then, I'll give you a few minutes to get ready."

-----

A few hours (and an entire pizza) later, Barbara was beginning to feel a bit guilty. Beast Boy was immature and girl crazy, but a nice enough guy underneath. He had insisted on paying for the meal and had been a perfect gentleman, although he was clearly crushing on her.

Still, she needed to find Robin.

"So, where do you think he is?"

"Where who is?" Beast Boy was concentrating on polishing off the last of his crust.

"Come on. You know who I mean. Robin."

"Oh, yeah," the green Titan considered the possible whereabouts of his leader for approximately half a second, "Who knows?"

Batgirl sighed. This is going to take some work.

"Aren't you worried about him?"

"Worried about Robin? No way. He can take care of himself."

"What if he's in trouble?"

"Dude! Robin can handle anything! He's, like, the best fighter I've ever seen."

Batgirl folded her arms and looked away.

"Ah, present company excluded, of course!" Beast Boy quickly added.

Batgirl continued to pretend to be offended.

"Hey, I'm sorry! You're really good, too!"

"For a girl, you mean."

"No, no!" he stammered, "I think you're awesome! You know, with the Batarangs and the utility belt and all that!"

She continued to avoid eye contact. Can it really be this easy?

"I'm sorry! Really!" He went around the table and stood by her, "How can I make it up to you?"

Bingo.

She made a sad face and finally looked at him, "I'm just really worried about Robin. We're been . . . friends for a long time, and I just want to make sure he's okay. Do you—" she pretended to wipe a tear, "Do you think you can track him down for me?"

Beast Boy appeared uncertain.

"I mean, you do have such cool animal powers!" She purposefully put a hand on his arm, "I bet a bloodhound or something could catch his scent."

Beast Boy brightened.

"Okay, but only to see if he's all right."

Jackpot.

-----

It had taken several hours, but finally Beast Boy led them to a rundown industrial waterfront. Several abandoned warehouses dotted the area, but a few more minutes in canine form and the green hero tracked down Robin's custom motorcycle. It was carefully hidden under debris behind a dumpster that hadn't been emptied in what looked like months.

Beast Boy reverted back to human form and stretched.

"Well, he's got to be nearby. Robin's not going to just leave his bike behind," he shielded his eyes from the setting sun and looked up at the rooftops, "I guess I'll turn into a bird and scout around. Still, we should be getting back to the Tower, don't you think?"

A blow to the back of the head was Batgirl's reply.

She carefully caught his unconscious form and dragged Beast Boy into the shadows next to the motorcycle. She spent a few minutes hiding him from casual observation and took his communicator.

"I'm truly sorry, Beast Boy," she said to him, knowing he couldn't hear her, "But this is one reunion where three's a crowd."

She pulled out her grapple and fired into the air.

"And I strongly suggest you lose some of that naivety before it gets you killed."

-----

It was well after dark before she finally found him.

She had heard some noises coming from a broken skylight and quickly investigated. At first, Barbara thought he was battling a super-villain, but before she could jump into the fray to aid him, the two combatants stopped. The darkness of the warehouse prevented her from getting a good look at Dick's foe.

"Very good, Robin. That move was quite effective. Your mysterious opponent won't see it coming."

Robin muttered something in reply.

Realization dawned.

They're sparring!

"I believe we are just about out of time, Robin," the other man said, voice slithering out of the darkness.

Its tone immediately put Batgirl on edge. It had the same hint of threat she often heard from the Joker, Two-face, and the rest of the Arkham freaks.

It was the voice of an emotionless psychopath.

A killer.

Just what the hell are you doing, Dick?

Robin stood firmly and nodded.

"I thank you for the training, Slade, but don't think this changes anything between us. The Titans and I will take you down someday. Someday soon."

The man laughed.

The sound sent chills down Barbara's back.

This guy could give Joker some lessons in creepiness.

Wait a minute, something in her mind clicked, Did he say Slade?

Her heart began to sink as she watched the grim tableau below.

"Ah, Robin, your simple adolescent threats are as pathetic as they are amusing," the armored man strode confidently into the weak light of the moon, single white eye boring into the Teen Titan.

Robin assumed a classic combat stance.

"Still, I shall look forward to our next meeting. If anything, it should prove more of a challenge than it usually is."

Slade mock-saluted the visibly angered young man and left.

Robin did not follow him.

Instead, he simply stood there, head down, lost in thought.

-----

Robin finally exited through the skylight nearly an hour later.

He was troubled.

Just what have I done?

The skills Slade had shown him over the past three days would prove very useful against Batman, mainly because they had originated from a variety of lethal martial arts Bruce had never decided to teach his ward. It might just give him the edge he needed.

But at what cost?

"Dick."

He spun, but not in time.

The blow to the face, fueled by anger and hurt, knocked him to the ground.

Any desire to retaliate vanished once he saw Barbara standing over him.

"How could you?" she whispered, eyes filling with tears, "How could you betray him like this? Betray me?"

"Barbara, it's not—"

"HOW COULD YOU!"

Batgirl spun and sprinted away into the darkness.

Robin laid there on the hard, cold roof for a long time, coppery taste of blood in his mouth.