Part 7

The only sound that could be heard coming from the batcave was from the worried whining of the black bat hound Ace, and typing from a whirring bat-computer. The elderly Bruce Wayne paused in his work and reached down to comfort the dog, who was worried about it's other master, Terry McGinnis, who had been missing for three days, along with his Batsuit.

"It's alright boy, we'll find him…" Said Wayne, in his usual serious tone, he put his hand on his chin and thought in silence. Not only was Terry missing, but the Batsuit was nowhere to be found as well… Even by the global positioning system built into it. There were only two possible explanations for this; Either the Batsuit has been completely demolished (And Terry along with it), or…

Bruce put his hand on his face, thinking hard about how it could be possible that Terry was in another world. Then it struck him, maybe he was taken to that world by something… or someone… who could travel across dimensions.

If that was the case, he was obviously in trouble and had no way to contact him.

Terry wasn't stupid, but he wasn't nearly as smart or experienced as Bruce, it takes two people to be Batman. Bruce could never admit it, but he was worried about the teenage Batman.

Bruce was slightly startled by the electronic opening of the door behind him; he turned in his chair to find the familiar form of Max Gibson walking into the batcave. She looked angry, but the old man could never tell with her.

"Alright old man, where's Terry?" She hissed, storming into the Batcave.

"You tell me, I have no idea."
"You better not be holding' out on me Mr. Wayne! I've had to deal with his girlfriend for the last three days, so if you know anything that could possibly get him back SOON, you'd better spill it!"

Bruce glared at Max, though his facial expression didn't change much, she just felt this chill go down her spine, she took a guess and figured this must be how Terry's enemies felt when he gave them the infamous 'bat-glare'.

The old man turned in his chair and typed something else into the bat computer.

"If I knew where he was, I'd have gone to find him myself by now…"

"What about the Batsuit? Doesn't it have some kind of GPS on it?" She asked and leaned on his chair.

"Of course, at least, it did. The way I see it, either Terry and the Batsuit have been destroyed…" Max grimaced.

"Or, he's been sent to another world entirely… And if there's been no mention of his death at school..."
"Nope."
"Then we can't assume the worst."

"Right… I just hope he's still alive."

"Me too Gibson… Me too."

"Ugh… It's bad enough Terry left without telling me, he won't answer my calls, he hasn't shown up at school, no e-mails, text messages, nothing!… At first I was mad, but now I'm just worried about him…" Said Dana Tan, propping her head up on her elbow. She and her friends Chelsea, Max, and Blade sat at a table at her favorite restaurant.

"Dana, I went and talked to Mr. Wayne about Terry." Max said, Dana's eyes lit up and she smiled a little.

"And?"

Max shook her head sadly, which caused Dana to slump in her seat even more than she was before.

"Is he in Juvi again?" asked Chelsea, leaning in.

"I asked his mom about it, she said she filed a report with the police and they said he wasn't back in Juvi." Dana said sadly, she seemed on the verge of tears worried about Terry. She was used to him disappearing randomly, but at least then she knew it was on an errand for Mr. Wayne, or Max would tell her where he was. But now no one knew where he was and she couldn't stop thinking about him.

That night, Dana lay in her bed thinking about her missing boyfriend… She tossed and turned in her bed, unable to sleep. That's when she really stopped to think about his disappearance… Not only had Terry been gone, but there had been news reports of rising crime in the past few days… She put two and two together and realized that not only was Terry gone, but so was Batman.

Almost immediately, she jumped from her bed and got dressed, she knew that if anyone would know about the dark knight's disappearance, it was the Police Commissioner.

Dana snuck out quietly, and ran straight to the Police station, where Commissioner Gordon was working late; she too was concerned for Terry… Mostly because of the city's rising crime rate, but she was nonetheless anxious for the safety of the boy in the suit. She heard a knock on the door and heard Dana's voice.

"Commissioner Gordon?"
"Yes, come in…"

Dana walked in quietly, Barbara stood up.

"Young lady, what are you doing out this late? Have you any idea what time it is?"

"I'm sorry Commissioner Gordon… I just wanted to tell you something about Batman's disappearance…"
Barbara raised her eyebrows, "I'm listening."
"Let me introduce myself, I'm Dana, Dana Tan… And my boyfriend went missing at the same time Batman did. I can't help but feel that the two might be related."

The Commissioner sat down again, realizing that this girl may be Terry's girlfriend.

"You wouldn't happen to be Terry McGinnis' girlfriend, would you?"

"Yeah, I am… And I'm worried about him. Did his mom already file a missing person's report?"

"Yes, she did, and we're doing the best we can Dana, now go home before your parents find out you're missing."

Dana did as she was told and Barbara watched her leave, and as soon as she was out of sight, the older woman left immediately toward Wayne Manor. What Barbara didn't know; is that Dana saw her leave and followed her.

"Barbara, do you have any idea what time it is?" Said Bruce Wayne gruffly as the Police Commissioner walked into his study.

"I just hope it's not too late for the boy, Wayne." Barbara scowled and sat in the seat across from Bruce's desk.

"I knew you'd come to me about this sooner or later, I just didn't think you'd take so long."

Wayne leaned forward in his desk, stone-faced. Barbara sat up calmly, though she did seem agitated.

"If you know where he is, you'll tell me now."

Bruce gritted his teeth.

"If I knew where Terry was, do you think I'd be within miles of this place?"

"You spend so much time coaching the boy from behind that computer, I assumed you'd just try and save him from there."

Barbara said in a deadpan. Bruce glared at the former Batgirl, and then closed his eyes.

"You can come in Dana…"

Barbara's eyes widened as she turned around and saw Dana walking in slowly through the large door.

"You followed me?" Barbara said, pushing back her distressed emotions.

"I had to! I knew you knew something about Terry and I had to find out!"

Bruce smiled smugly,

"Has being out of practice so long made you soft Barbara? You used to be able to hear a mouse following you."

Barbara scowled and gritted her teeth at the elderly man, Dana stood in the background losing her patience.

"If you know something and you're not telling me-!" Before Dana could finish, Bruce put a hand up and walked over to Dana.

"Terry tells me a lot about you Dana, and I have to say that he isn't lying when he says you're one of the most beautiful women in this city…"
Dana blushed when she heard that Terry talks to his boss about her.

"… He also says you're very strong-minded, as well as loyal. Would you say he's telling the truth?"

Dana nodded slowly and Barbara looked at Wayne as if he were crazy. Bruce looked Dana over a little in a glance.

"Excuse my forwardness, but how do you stay in such fit shape?"

Dana blushed a little, but there was something about Bruce Wayne, she couldn't explain it, but she felt like she could trust him with anything.

"You can thank Terry for that… He's been teaching me how to defend myself ever since that little incident with Ratboy…"

Bruce nodded and walked over to his bookcase.

"Beautiful, strong, loyal, determined… You are everything Terry claims you to be… Except…"
Dana watched the old man intently, "Except?"

"He says you're smart and observant as well…"
Dana felt a little insulted.

"What do you mean?"
"Terry claims that you are very observant. Think for a moment Dana, who went missing around the same time McGinnis did?"

Dana knew he was talking about Batman, and a thought flashed through her mind…

"Batman."
"Smart girl."

"But what does he have to do with-…"

Dana's eyes snapped wide open when she put Terry and Batman in the same sentence. "Mr. Wayne?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know something…? About Terry… And Batman?"

Barbara and Bruce exchanged knowing glances, and led Dana to the old grandfather clock in the wall.

Batman and Raven stood in an alley, they had just recently avoided a group of massive green-and-purple synthoids.

"We're trapped…" Batman said through gritted teeth.

"It's best we lie low until those synthoids are far off…" Raven said, sitting down against the brick wall. Terry did the same.

"Right… So what exactly is your relation to Dick Grayson?" Terry asked her; this question had been gnawing at his mind since he had met Starfire earlier, and he felt much more comfortable asking Raven.

"We never called him Dick; he was always Robin to us."

"Well, he doesn't go by Robin anymore."
"I know."

"How do you and Starfire know him?"

Raven looked down.

"Dick, Kori, and I were all once part of a team. We called ourselves the Teen Titans back then. We were near-unstoppable, no matter who we fought against, no matter how terrible the odds, we'd come out on top."
"So what happened?"

"Joker happened…"

"We were celebrating a recent victory in Jump City, we had been fighting together for three years at that point, and most of us weren't exactly teens anymore.

Then Robin stepped away from the celebration, he had a phone call to take. What was said would change our lives forever… Three seconds into Robin's phone call, I could sense something in him, his emotions were spiraling out of control, and he was being told that his mentor, Batman, had been murdered at the hands of one of his old enemies.

The Joker.

Robin disappeared into his room after that; he didn't come out for several days. When he did come out, he was a completely different person.

He said he was leaving the Titans, Kori, Garf, and Victor all wanted to talk him out of it, but I stopped them.

-FLASHBACK-

"Do what you have to Dick…" Said Raven, standing in front of a distraught Beast Boy, a shocked Cyborg, and the emotional wreck known as Starfire.

"We won't stop you…"

Raven gave him a hug and he returned it.

"Thank you Raven…"

They pulled away and Dick took off into the night, in his newly-discovered Nightwing suit.

"Raven… Why did you let him leave?" Yelled Koriand'r, her eyes glowing with green energy. Raven glared at her, and pulled her hood down.

"You have no idea what Dick has been through Kori, I do, he's in more pain now than you could ever imagine. He wants to go back to Gotham City, he believes that the death of his mentor, his father, Batman was his fault... Maybe it's just re-rising emotions from when his biological father and mother died, and he just couldn't take feeling that pain again... So he grew into self hatred."
"But it wasn't! We must-…"

Starfire was about to follow Nightwing, but Raven held out her hand and stopped her.

"He has to be alone for now… If you're his friend… You'll respect that."

Starfire knew Raven was right, and fell to her knees in tears. Cyborg picked her up and the group walked back into Titans tower.

-END FLASHBACK-

"Without Robin, the Titans split up in a matter of days, Cyborg started leading his own group of Titans, Changeling went back to his old group, and Starfire stayed in Jump City protecting it from crime…"
Terry narrowed his eyes.

"And you?"

"I…"

Before Raven could answer, there was a sudden flash of light in a nearby street, and the two dark figures were on the defensive. They rushed out to see what the ordeal was, and they saw a sight that shocked them both.

Tim Drake was unconscious at the feet of the Joker.

"Joker!" Batman roared, drawing a Batarang. The Joker, who was smiling wickedly at that point, looked up and his face changed. He looked as if he had seen a ghost.

"No, it can't be!" Joker stepped back as he caught the sight of the black, pointy-eared figure advancing on him.

"Right, it CAN'T be! Hahahaha! You must be one of those Titans playing dress-up with old Batsy's clothes! It'd be funny if it wasn't so pathetic!"

Raven used her powers to carry Tim over to her; she held his unconscious body while Batman scowled at the white-faced madman.

"What have you done to Tim clown?" He yelled in anger, to which Joker simply waved his finger, "Temper, Temper Bats! Little Timmy here got caught snooping around my basement, so I did what any normal person would do to trespassers… BEAT 'EM WITH A CROWBAR! HAHAHAHA!"

The Joker laughed maniacally.

Raven examined the damage Tim had taken, "Batman! If he doesn't get medical attention soon, he's not going to make it!"

"Leaving so soon Batman? I think not! I've missed kicking you around!"

The Joker grinned darkly, and despite every inch of Terry's body telling him to attack the clown prince of crime… He knew he had to get Tim out of there as soon as possible. He reached for his belt and twisted the buckle, turning him invisible.

"That's a new trick!" The Joker said, surprised and amused at the same time.

"You'll get what's coming to you soon enough Joker… Watch your back!"

He flew off and Raven flew with him, following the sound of the rockets on his boots.

"Ohh, I can't wait…" The Joker grinned crazily and watched as the two left.

(Yeah, longer chapter, things I should fix? Continuity questions? Stuff I need to work on? REVIEW SO I CAN GET BETTER! It's for YOUR benefit!)