Most anniversaries are times when people come together to celebrate something, birthdays, weddings, things like that. My own birthdays hadn't been a big deal the past few years, most of my friends didn't even know what it was, and going home was kind of a sore spot for me so the most I'd gotten was a phone call.
There were some days on my calendar that I did consider a big deal. Two of those were the other kind of anniversary though, and the first time I'd have to commemorate one of them was coming up real fast. It had taken me a while to decide what I'd do on that particular day, all I knew was that I had to do something to show that I remembered, that it wasn't just another circled date on that calendar.
Early on I decided that sitting around moping was the worst possible I could spend it, that was more Batman's thing than mine, and as much as I respected him, Batman wasn't something I ever wanted to be. Going back to Gotham got crossed off the list as well, going all the way there to put some flowers on a grave, then spending the rest of the time walking on eggshells against someone who'd be in an even worse mood than usual seemed wrong.
I knew I wouldn't want people to remember me by fighting and throwing blame around, so I wouldn't make that the way he was remembered.
It felt weird walking around Jump without my mask on, my hair missing it's usual smothering of cheap hair-gel. As far as I could I wouldn't be spending that day as Robin, Batman would mourn the other Robin, the good soldier, someone other than Alfred should be mourning the boy under the mask, and I'd do it without mine.
With Ravens help the rest of the team was back on its feet, not at full fighting strength, but they would be soon and Slade hadn't been heard from in days. I should have been worried, but I didn't have to fight, I didn't have to be Robin twenty-four seven. Dick Grayson had a few hours to walk down the streets of Jump City.
A little bell rang when I pushed open the door of a dusty antique shop and I waved meekly at the old clerk before moving inside.
"Can I help you with something young man?" He asked, something about the way he said it, along with his neat clothes an penciled mustache reminded me vaguely of Alfred, even with the suspicious gleam in his eyes.
"I'm looking for a gift." I said, keeping my posture as open and friendly as I could. Not many kids my age would go looking in a place like that, so he had the right to be surprised. "My little brother likes old-timey things, like music boxes and stuff."
"How old is he?" The man asked, getting up from his plush seat.
"Ten." I said, he'd be ten forever now, wouldn't he?
"I see, can you give a little more to work with than 'old-timey'?" He said the words with an edge of disapproval in his voice and I held up my hands in a kind of surrender.
"Books, I guess." One of the few conversations I'd had with the kid was about the book collecting thing I'd never been able to get into with Bruce and Alfred. "And, just, history stuff. Something really old and rusty." He would have liked something like that, right? He'd had that one extra credit history project he'd been so proud about.
The clerk was kind of grouchy, but he guided me through the stores moldy collection and helped me pick out some things that I could tell he didn't really think a little boy would like. A really old copy of 'The picture of Dorian Grey' and a tiny music box on a string that played a tune he said was called 'Toreador March.'
I thanked him and calmly began my walk back to the Titans tower, taking the time to rest at a park before I changed and went back to the tower.
I'd gotten the idea from Starfire. One day, Raven had been explaining Earth holidays to her and they'd come to the topic of Halloween and it's variations. Raven told her how some cultures left out gifts to appease wicked spirits. Star, being herself, had asked why people didn't do the same for kind spirits.
It was a simple question, and Raven had given her a very eloquent explanation, but I hadn't really heard it, too busy thinking up ways of applying it to my own situation.
The quiet of the park was almost soothing, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't totally safe, feeling a prickling at the back of my neck that I could only brush off as paranoia for so before I started to pay attention. A group of children were playing, tossing a ball around while their parents watched.
It was normal, so very normal. Maybe that's why I felt uneasy, like something was watching me, and judging me for daring to me so normal.
I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when my return to the tower was met with loud questions about where I'd been and what I'd been doing. All framed as "Did you find anything out," and "What do you think I should look into next." Still, it was kind of jarring, and 'my' first instinct was to ask if something had happened while I was out.
If something had happened, that would have been the first thing they told me, so I pushed that down managed an easy smile while I walked past them into the kitchen.
"I was out shopping." I said, peering into the fridge for something that couldn't be labeled 'miscellaneous ooze'. With a grimace I noticed the tofu-meat concoction was still in there, and had garnered a considerable amount of mould, hopefully Starfire wouldn't make the same discovery.
"Shopping for crime?" Beastboy asked, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
That got a mostly genuine chuckle from me, which in turn got me a pout from my green skinned team mate.
"No, shopping for antiques." I replied, biting into some stale pizza I found at the back of the fridge.
"Antiques for the fighting of crime?" Starfire asked, her voice a mixture of confusion and playfulness that I'd only really seen from her.
"There's some freaky ancient, end-of-the world mojo in that bag, isn't there?" Cyborg pointed accusingly at parcel swung over my shoulder.
"Nope, just a present for someone back in Gotham." I studied the other teens gathered around me in the kitchen while I chewed. Cyborg wasn't really a teen anymore, in a few years none of us would be. We'd have to change the name then, wouldn't we? "Speaking of Gotham, I…"
"Is it for Batman?" Beastboy asked excitedly, one hand balled into a fist near his chin while the other reached for the parcel.
"Hey, if you guys are well enough to interrogate me you should be well enough to get some work done." I moved to the computer and brought up some files. "There've been a string of high tech robberies the past few nights. I can't tell yet if it's the work of some new group or an old villain, so you guys need to… Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You're not sending us after Slade?" Raven asked.
"Until we find out where he is there's nowhere for me to send you to." I held back a sigh and patted resisted the urge to run my hand through my gelled up hair. "If we ignore the other crimes in the city we've as good as let him win, that's not happening this time."
I'd be lying if I said I was a little irritated at them for thinking I couldn't handle myself just because that man was back in jump, and that made me hate him even more. In the past I'd hunted him with what bordered in obsession, but this time I just wanted him gone, and I wanted it before he tried something or sicked his little apprentice on my friends again. There was still nothing I could do until he actually showed up again, by that time, all I'd be able to do was adapt and control the damage.
I didn't want to have to deal with a city in chaos on top of that.
Robin asked me once why I wasn't a hero, why I chose to steal and make a public nuisance of myself instead of fight for the greater good and all that. It was easy for them, set up a tower or a satellite in the sky and go out to fight crime.
It wasn't like that for everyone. When you devoted yourself to answering every call for help it just hurt more when there were ones you couldn't do anything about. Believe me it hurt. Some people could deal with it, people like Robin and his Teen Titans, but were always people who just couldn't.
Going mad with grief isn't nearly as fun as it sounds. Granted, being the walking definition of apathy wasn't a ball either, but at there was way more comedy that tragedy in my world, and I liked it that way.
My feet padded silently across the 'infallible' security system surrounding the newest version of 'cutting edge' Kord Tech computer tech. I myself was pretty sure I'd seen something way more advanced at a certain space station once, but whatever. An invisible glove scooped up the chip while another set a weighted rock in its place.
You'd think with the circles he ran in, Ted would have thought to get a better system than lasers and pressure plates. I really am doing the guy a favor pointing these things out before someone really bad got something really good.
I got out without incident, the studying the chip it the pale moonlight. It was such a tiny thing, but worth so much, I wasn't sure just yet what I'd do with it. There'd be plenty of buyers, but I just used fencing as a way to get some of the social interaction I knew I needed, you need to talk to sell you know.
The safe house Slade trashed had a whole stash of goodies I'd been too last to do anything with, even if they'd there forever, it kind of sucked that a psycho got his hands on them.
I tucked the chip safely in my utility belt and teleported over the last few motion sensors set around the area. That suit, I flexed my hands in the heavy duty, but still flexible, gloves. I'd never loved an inanimate object so much. Lightweight, strong, easy to repair and with more tricks than a swiss-army knife from space. If I were any more sentimental, I would have hugged it.
Maybe I would anyway, when I didn't have company.
"Titans go!" This time called by Cyborg and not their usual spiky-haired leader.
That right there, the adrenaline rush as I ducked a swipe from a tiger and covered Beastboy in slime that I knew from experience took forever to get rid of, that was why I wasn't a hero. I mean, how do you give something like that to put yourself though years of trauma?
"Arg, no!" Beastboy yelled, tugging at his sticky hair.
I was in Cyborg's personal space seconds later, only Ravens quick intervention keeping me from hacking through his systems and taking him out. The breath was knocked out of me by the manhole cover she tossed hard enough to send me crashing into the side if the building.
Glass crunched under my feet and gloves when I had to cartwheel away from Starfire's sparkly balls of death. On landing I grabbed hold of a street light and kept up my momentum to spin around and kick the princess away from me, before flipping away from the glass shards Raven sent my way.
Huh, had me thinking that all the time spent running from the league wasn't that much of a waste after all, then Cyborg's sonic cannon knocked me into a dumpster across the street.
Being outnumbered sucked, and I had some foul smelling liquid right in the face. The mask's face anyway, thankfully whatever it was didn't actually touch me.
"You kids want to play dirty?" I asked, the voice modulator smoothing out the edge of excitement in my voice. "Let's play dirty." They closed in on me, and I was still as I waited for them to get just close enough.
Raven got a face full of gooey adhesive before they even got a good look at me, then I got Starfire and Beastboy tangled together in a tough steel cable. I grappled out of Cyborg's reach, somersaulting onto a streetlight before I shot myself back and planted my feet on his torso.
When he took more than a few seconds to get up I was pretty disappointed, I mean I'd spent a lot of time baiting them into the fight, for it to be over so fast was a bit of a letdown. Mini Slade must have done more of a number on them than I'd thought.
"You're off your game tonight." I twisted away from another blast of the oldest Titan's cannon. "Where's your leader?" I got in close again and got my blade blocked by his tough metal arm.
"Too busy to deal with you!" Cyborg pushed me away roughly and set about trying to shoot me again.
"Should I be offended?" The blade I tossed lodged in left elbow joint and I focused the rest of my attacks on that side. Maybe I was offended, but just a teeny, tiny bit, but I wasn't going to show it. I don't deliver messages though proxies, part of that whole lack of socialization thing.
"Don't see why, you've got 'my' full attention." He made a grab for me that I narrowly ducked.
"Not interested." I dodged another of his punches and pulled on his arm, tipping him off balance. He fell to the ground with a loud 'thunk' and I slapped a card on his back with some adhesive before dancing out of his reach. "Tell the kid I said hello." A simple flip of a switch later and I was invisible on a rooftop blocks away.
I watched the Titans pick themselves up off the ground and head back to their tower. Maybe I did feel a little bad for the trouble Slade was giving them…
No I didn't, but I couldn't just let the guy get away with wrecking my stuff either, right?