[A/N] Yeah. It's been longer than I hoped since last publishing. Life and school interfered a lot, which is why this chapter is significantly shorter. Hopefully, since break is coming up I can get the two other chapters I've been working on done. Thank you for your patience.
Disclaimer: No. I definitely do not own the Teen Titans. I don't even know what I would do with them if I did….
Chapter Three
Raven had wrapped Robin up beneath her cape and transported them both to the tower. She didn't know how bad the cut in his leg was, and wasn't going to take the chance that it had cut an artery. Of course, this meant that she couldn't heal him until she meditated; the fight and transporting them had left her with very little energy. She now sat beside the exam table, debating whether or not she should strip his uniform off. A very faint rose color touched her cheeks for half a second at the thought of being alone with a pants-less Robin. She shook her head to clear all thoughts and silently scolded herself. All modesty aside, Robin needed help and she was the only one who could provide it at the time. She snatched up a scalpel and neatly cut the uniform off his left leg. He had lost quite a bit of blood, but it didn't seem like the glass had ripped anything other than muscle. The next part would be tough, and she really wanted Cyborg here now. She had to make sure there wasn't any glass left in the wound, and didn't have any interest in digging around in his leg.
Hmm…She thought. Maybe she could summon any shards out of his leg. But then, who knows what they would cut. If she summoned them and a shard was close to his femoral artery he would bleed out in minutes. Raven was in the middle of debating this when she heard the sounds of the remaining Titans arriving and felt their worry. She sighed with relief. Cyborg could examine Robin now. She would not be left in this potentially awkward situation for much longer.
A whoosh of the door sounded the presence of the others in the infirmary.
"Friend Raven, how is Robin? Oh no. He is not moving! Friend Robin!" Starfire wailed and rushed over to stand behind Raven. "Um..friend Raven…why is Robin without pants?" Her voice took on an accusatory tone.
Raven blinked. What? What was up with the surprise and slight animosity radiating off her friends? Oh. She tried to explain. "He's unconscious. And…I had to cut his pants leg off to get to the cut…his pants are still technically on.."
Starfire was not to be placated. Her eyes tinted the faintest green, and Raven backed away, revealing Robin's unconscious and naked leg. Starfire hovered over him protectively.
"Cyborg, maybe you could check for glass?" Raven suggested, a slight hint of hopefulness crept into her voice, pulling Cyborg out of his amused trance. He came over all business and shooed them off, knowing Robin would already hate that they had seen him vulnerable and partly naked. His mouth twitched. Raven sunk through the floor, relieved to be able to meditate. Beast Boy bounded off with shouts of "Ultimate Ninjas 4!!" The newest video game he had acquired. Starfire shielded her eyes, but refused to leave Robin's side. Cyborg just grunted, knowing that Robin would not mind her being there.
He removed the rest of Robin's pants leg and got to work on the shards.
"Ugh." Robin awoke to an unpleasant taste in his mouth and the feel of cold steel beneath him. He swallowed a few times in a feeble attempt to rid himself of the weird cottony and copper taste. He gave up and focused on trying to open his eyes. The dimmed lights of the Titans Tower infirmary greeted him. Why was he here? He tried to sit up on the table and was immediately reminded by an aching in his chest, a tingling sensation somewhere behind his eyes and a dull pain in his leg. Right. Robots, glass, Slade, Starfire. Wait- SLADE. He almost growled. How had he fallen for that trap?! It seemed so obvious now. He was going to have to work harder if he was to defeat him. Or at the very least not fall into traps any idiot would recognize.
He pushed himself up more carefully now and noticed his left thigh was thickly bandaged and stripped of his uniform. His eyebrow went up. Where was his pants leg?
A light snore and a mumble of "…grizzlorp.." brought his attention to the bed next to his. A purple and orange being was stretched out there. Starfire. His lips moved as he whispered her name, and ended in a smile. She must have felt bad about nearly crushing him to death. To be honest though, he didn't really mind having her body pressed up against his so tight. It was almost worth the slight tinges of pain and lack of air.
He slowly got up, making sure his weight was off his left leg as much as possible, and limped out of the infirmary. He had to record the mission, and think.
Up in his room, surrounded by newspaper clippings and computer images of Slade, he felt eerily at home. He knew what to do here, find Slade. Defeat Slade. He could do this. He began to type up a report, reliving every aspect of the night. This just made him angrier. Ten Slade-bots should not have been a problem. They should have taken them all out in minutes, not allowing that one to run away. He shouldn't have allowed Slade to get close to him or them again. He growled and his hands curled into fists. He was supposed to be the leader. He was supposed to protect the others. But what had he done? Nothing. His fists pounded the table with a loud thud. He almost got himself killed or worse, taken by Slade again. Where would the Titans be then? If anything happened to them it would be on him, it would be his fault.
He put his head in his hands, fatigue overwhelming him. He would just close his eyes for a second, just a sec-
He was running through the docks again. Legs pumping furiously. His breath harsh and painful in the cold air. But he kept going. He knew he couldn't stop. Something was behind him, chasing him. The darkness wrapped around him like a thick cloak, cold and suffocating. He could feel whoever was chasing him quicken their pace. He tried to speed up, but his legs were burning and his lungs felt like smoldering coals burning up against any oxygen that gets close. He felt that something wasn't right, but couldn't put his finger on it.
He was coming up on another block of warehouses, and he knew that he couldn't outrun whoever was behind him, but he did still have one advantage. He saw the bars up along the side of the warehouse and was reminded of his training, not as Robin, one half of the Dynamic Duo, but as a Flying Grayson. So, he did the only thing he could think to do, he flew.
Dick grasped the bars on the warehouse and vaulted himself up, soaring through the air, his rubber clad fingers only occasionally gripping rusted metal. On the last bar he flipped himself up and found himself rolling to his feet on the roof. He found himself leaping from warehouse to warehouse, free from the clutches of the darkness of the ground. A smile began to mold itself on his face as he felt the air rushing past him as his feet left the cement.
He found himself standing in the middle of one the roofs, completely lost in the freedom of the night.
A sharp CRACK brought him back down to reality. Well, as close to reality as he could come to. He tensed and looked around. A shadowy figure crouched on the edge of the warehouse across from him. He couldn't see who it was, but it seemed familiar. The figure raised its cloaked head and stared straight at him. Robin began to feel unnerved and took a few steps toward the figure, who was now looking back down at the alley between the two warehouses. Robin's curiosity was taking hold of him now. He wanted to know who the figure was, why he had been chasing him, and what he was looking at now. Suddenly another CRACK sounded. This time it came from behind the shadow. Robin started forward when the figure leapt up and fled after the sound, melting back into the night.
Robin took a few steps back and started to run across the roof, intent on jumping to the next building and following the figure and the sounds, but when he reached the ledge, it crumbled beneath his feet and he began to fall. He reached his arms out, hoping the edge of the roof was closer than it appeared, but the distance began to stretch until the building was no longer visible. With a cry he plummeted to the cold ground.