Disclaimer: I'm looking at my Watchmen poster. Watchmen, which I don't own. Watchmen, which belongs to DC Comics. Just like Teen Titans.

Sob.

A/N: Okay, I will admit that I took elements from Rena Redhead's story What? Because Rena is awesome and a genius when it comes to Robin/Slade stories. All credit goes to her idea of Robin's "seamless" room. I just really liked the idea.

Chapter 11: Missives

-S-

About twenty minutes later Robin walked into the haunt. He must have been speeding to get back so quickly. By then Starfire had calmed down considerably. She used the meditation techniques Raven had taught her to help control her unbridled emotions. Starfire knew that her sadness would spread like a virus among the others.

He did not seem like his usual determined self, which was something that Starfire was both glad and worried about. His very gait suggested that his efforts to locate Wintergreen did not go well. Robin's movements seemed a little slow and despondent, and his head hung a little lower than usual. He usually carried an air of determination, with his chest thrust forward and his shoulders thrown back.

Being back in Slade's lair probably didn't help.

"Was your meeting successful?" Starfire asked.

"Somewhat," he replied curtly. "But Wintergreen knows nothing about who triggered the chemical reagent."

"Is Wintergreen to be trusted?" Cyborg asked. "I mean, he used to be Slade's butler."

Robin shot Cyborg a cold glare. "He can be trusted."

He sighed and gazed around the haunt. Since the overhead lights weren't working they were working in semi-darkness. Now that Starfire had calmed down she looked around at her surroundings. Was this the room where Slade's video took place?

"Wintergreen was the one who helped me cope…somewhat…while I was with Slade. I mean, I didn't talk much to him but he would patch me up. If Slade beat me he would leave me on the ground. Wintergreen always helped me back to my feet." Robin put a hand to his side, as though remembering an old war wound. "And if he really had a grudge against me, then he would have sold my identity to other villains a long time ago."

Well, there was nothing to say to that. Robin shook his head slightly and spoke

"So why are we here?"

"Slade didn't just plant that video to taunt you," Raven said. "He left you a message."

Robin's face went blank. Starfire could not deduce what the Boy Wonder was thinking. He seemed to be considering his words carefully, as well as his sanity.

"What kind of message?"

Raven proceeded to tell him about the numbers on the bottom of the screen and of her theory that it must be a password. He listened to her carefully as he rubbed his chin.

"I know where to look."

The others followed him down one of the many passageways. Robin stopped in the middle of a hallway and began to feel the wall to his right. He pressed an ear to the wall and tapped it lightly with his fist.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Beast Boy asked.

"If there's one room Slade knew I would never look in," Robin said, tapping the wall, "it would be this one."

"What room would that be?"

The Boy Wonder stepped back and kicked at the wall. A loud echoing sound resounded. Robin then went up to the wall and pressed on the wall. A section of the wall slid open.

"My room."

No one stepped forward to join him. Starfire didn't know why she didn't want to come into the room. It was rather like stepping into the parents' master bedroom while one's parents are still asleep… it just seemed inherently wrong.

"Star…" Robin said, holding out a hand towards her. "Everything will be all right."

He tried to smile.

Nothing about this was right. He knew it and everyone else knew it.

It was a small room with no windows. Everything in the room had a muted color to it, from the ochre walls to the musty black bed sheets on the cot pushed into the corner. The little furniture in the room was coated thickly with dust. From the way everything looked, it seemed as though the room had just been abandoned. Just like a frozen moment in time.

Little bottles of rubbing alcohol and penicillin were set next to a first aid kit resting on top the dresser, along with a syringe and a box of gauzes. Starfire tore her gaze away from these medical instruments and looked around the room. The bed was made, the black sheets tucked tightly underneath the mattress in a military fashion.

Robin stood in the center of the small room, his shoulders hunched as he stared at the ground.

"Robin…" Starfire said, her tone hesitant. "Are you all right?"

She went to his side and grasped his hand in hers. Starfire found that his hand was closed into a fist, but as soon as she touched him he relaxed. Slowly, his fingers uncurled themselves and allowed her to entwine her fingers in his. Robin clung to her as though she was an anchor to reality, and if she let go he would spiraling back into his nightmarish oblivion.

"I wish I could say I was."

His other hand crept up to rub his temple. Starfire understood what it felt like to be so afraid. She herself was afraid of the Gordanians launching a massive attack on Tamaran. Blackfire was her own arch-nemesis. But at the end of the day Starfire could still cheerfully wave her sister goodbye as Blackfire sprouted obscenities at her in Tamaranean. Robin could do no such thing. For one, it wasn't in his nature. Two, Blackfire did not do anything against her unless there was something in it for her.

Raven used her powers to close the door behind them. At once a sense of claustrophobia enveloped Starfire. The room suddenly seemed cramped and intimidating. When she looked back she saw that the door blended in completely with the walls. No way in. No way out.

"Whoa…" Beast Boy said, stepping back to look at the door. "The door…"

"Yeah," Robin said, "the door was made to blend into the walls, just like the outside."

"But why?" Starfire asked.

"So I wouldn't escape. And if you guys ever broke into the haunt you would have never found me."

Clever. The Titans had walked by that stretch of wall at least a dozen of times as they searched the haunt. She could understand why Robin did not mention it before. This was not a place of happy memories. This was his prison. Talking about his prison would be like her talking about her prison abroad the ship as a prisoner of the Gordanians.

"Please open the door," Robin said. "It's not locked, but still…"

His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. She was glad that he suggested the open door. As a natural flier she longed for the open skies, to feel the joy of flight like a Tamaranean newborn. Even if she knew next-to-nothing about Robin's past she did know him well enough to understand that he also felt this way.

No one was supposed to be caged up like a song bird. She remembered Robin once saying that Slade wanted to bring out his full potential—that Batman had been holding him back. As Starfire looked around this tiny prison she could not help but feel that that comment was a contradiction. To fully blossom one should have as much as freedom as possible and loving encouragement. It was pretentious of Slade to think of himself as Robin's knorfka.

Yes, Starfire was different from Robin. But she felt a keen sense of shared empathy for how he felt. She was captured and imprisoned just like he had been. The only difference was that she managed to escape before she could become a servant of the Citadel. Just the mere thought of a lifetime of involuntary servitude caused her to fly into a rage.

She watched in silence as Robin began to rummage around the room. He pulled open all of the drawers and took out all of his cloths. He stacked them neatly on the cot. They looked innocent enough: black shirts, pants, but everything was stamped with Slade's insignia.

"So…" he said to himself in a lowered voice. "My hunch was correct."

He reached inside of the drawer and pulled out a small box. Slade's "S" insignia was stamped across the lid. As soon as Robin picked the box up a tiny screen lit up. At first everyone tensed, thinking it another one of Slade's tricks, but Robin shook his head.

"It's just a touch-screen, guys. He wouldn't kill me" He turned to Raven. "What were the numbers you found?"

"15-39-28."

He set the numbers in. The safe clicked softly open. With some hesitation Robin lifted the lid open. Everyone leaned in to get a closer look. Starfire heard Robin take in a sharp intake of breath. He placed a hesitant hand inside the box and drew out an old piece of paper.

"What is it?" Cyborg asked.

"Nothing…" Robin replied, folding the paper and sticking it into his pocket. "Just another reference to my past."

It wasn't nothing, and Starfire knew that everyone else thought the same.

"Hello Robin," Slade's voice said, obviously a recorded message. "I see that you managed to find this. Excellent work. It's touching that you paid such close attention to my missive."

She knelt down next to him and put an arm around his shoulders.

"I'm assuming that you are here in the haunt and in your room. Take a look around you. This brings back memories, doesn't it? Perhaps I am feeling nostalgic.

"There are many things I wish to talk about with you. I wish that I had recognized your talent before Batman did, although of course I wasn't around in Gotham at the time. Even though Terra is my apprentice now I want to let you know that you were always the perfect apprentice. Intelligent, naturally athletic, determined…of course, you were never intelligent enough to take an opportunity when you see it.

"Terra knows nothing about our former partnership. Not that that matters anymore. But just as you cannot be in peace until you bring me to justice so I will never be in peace. As I retrospect on our time together I mourn the things I had yet to teach you. Perhaps you may be thinking that it was unfair that I knew everything about you while you knew nothing about me. And believe me, I do know the identity of your mentor as well as yourself. If you wish to know my identity you will have to come to me. But you're a clever boy. I 'm sure you'll do everything in your power to figure out who I am.

"Perhaps you'll work together with your mentor or even the Justice League. But you know me better than any of those 'heroes.' You know that I will always be one step ahead of you no matter what you do. Terra is more than capable of annihilating your friends, but if you do not wish to be annihilated yourself then you will come back to me. Remember the basics."

Sparks flew out of the safe as the recording ended.

-C-

It was late afternoon by the time they came back to Titans Tower.

This latest trip to Slade's haunt unnerved Cyborg. It was one thing to go to Slade's lair when Robin wasn't there and another to go to listen to Slade taunt Robin. He wondered how Robin was really handling this. The kid was obviously unsettled, but was so stubborn that he didn't—or couldn't—express his inner angst.

Like his mentor, though, Robin just sucked it up and acted as if nothing was bothering him. He wasted no time in organizing a team meeting.

"Who benefits?" Robin mumbled. "That's the question we need to ask ourselves."

Robin took out a sharpie and began writing down names on a poster board: Brother Blood (The HIVE), Scarecrow, Joker, and Slade. Cyborg thought about saying something about Slade's name, but decided to keep his mouth shut. What with all that Robin was going through right now…it would be better just not to mention it.

For now.

"What are we, back in third grade?" Beast Boy mumbled.

"I can't figure this out on my own," Robin admitted. "I need all of your input."

"Brother Blood benefits because he's our current concern," Cyborg said. "But Blood is…how should I put it…loquacious. The dude loves to hear the sound of his own voice. If he was behind this he would shove it in our faces."

He knew Brother Blood better than anyone in this room. While Slade had been intensely secretive Brother Blood was like a cult leader. There was nothing more he loved to do than play the big villain just for the attention. If Brother Blood was behind this then it was just another reason for Cyborg to go out and kick his butt.

"What about one of the Bat-villains?" Cyborg asked. "You talked about Scarecrow…"

"No, now I don't think it's Scarecrow." Robin sighed. "I wanted so much to believe that it was him. But he doesn't benefit."

"Your rivalry with Slade wasn't exactly a secret, Robin," Cyborg said. "Anyone who read the papers would know. Anyone could have triggered that dust to mess with your head."

"Terra's betrayal wasn't a secret either," Robin said. "Whoever is attacking us knows our history. Beast Boy and I were attacked first because our history is well-known. I worked with Batman and he worked with the Doom Patrol."

Cyborg briefly thought of his own history. Unlike Robin, he had a life he was completely content with before he became half-metal.

"Are you suggesting that whoever triggered the reagent and vandalized Terra's tomb is going after all of us?" Raven asked.

"Yes. So I want you all to think about your histories. What would someone do to attack you personally?"

His first thought was of Brother Blood. But if Robin was asking about his personal history, then Cyborg would have to go with STAR labs. How he became a cyborg in the first place. As a half-robot he couldn't really hide his identity, but as far as he knew no one on the team knew it. Or, at least, no one called him by his real name.

"And Slade's happy trail of bread crumbs?" Raven asked. "What about that?"

"I'll deal with it."

"You shouldn't be going after Slade. He left those clues to mess with you."

"He made them on the assumption that Terra wouldn't betray him. It wouldn't hurt t—"

"You just can't help it, can you?" Cyborg exclaimed, now unable to contain himself. "Why can't you just let him go?"

That night with the dust Robin admitted that it was to let Slade go. Of course, Cyborg knew that the obsession wouldn't just end overnight. Yet this was getting ridiculous. Was Cyborg acting cold towards Robin, considering what the kid had been through the past few days? Maybe.

"It's hard to let something like Slade go," Robin said finally. "You've seen proof of what he did to me."

Cyborg gazed down at his leader. Yes, he admired Robin's courage. But this obsession was eating away at his mind.

"What about Gotham's clown?" Beast Boy asked. "The Joker?"

"The Joker's the definition of psychotic," Robin said, "but he has more fun playing with Batman. So unless he's messing with me to get through to Batman, then I'd take him off the list. Whoever is messing with us has this too planned out. Joker's smart in his own twisted way, but I don't think he has the patience to plan out something like this."

"What about Cinderblock?" Beast Boy piped up. "How did he escape from prison?"

Now that was a thought.

"Are you suggesting that someone released Cinderblock on purpose?"

"Cinderblock is too stupid to break out on his own. He's always been someone's lackey."

Who benefits? That was a good question to ask.

"I'll call Jump's Maximum Security Prison and ask how he got out," Cyborg said. "We'll figure this out, Robin."

"We have no other choice."

-BB-

He walked into Terra's room. Most of her things were in boxes, but it seemed as though no one could yet force themselves to throw them away. Beast Boy knew that he couldn't make himself do it. There was still that slim hope that—somehow—they could reverse the effect.

The walls were still painted to look like the desert at night. It had been his idea to make the room look like that. Terra liked the outdoors, but she needed a home. Together he and Starfire had painted the walls as they listened to classic rock.

He knelt down next to one of the boxes and opened it. Stuff from her desk was piled inside of this one. He reached inside and pulled out a blue butterfly hair clip. On the day he first met her she had that in her hair.

Even from the beginning, Beast Boy thought that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

Beast Boy set down the hair clip back in the box. He loved her but knew nothing about her. What had been a façade and what had been real?

There were plenty of things he didn't know about Terra. As he looked around her sad empty bedroom a thought crossed his mind. How could the others be sure that the invader didn't steal anything from Terra's room?

What kind of information did Terra give Slade anyway? She didn't have the skills to hack into the main database, but what could she have gleaned from information not locked away under strict security?

Hmm.

Well, it was common knowledge that Robin used to work with Batman. His exploits with Gotham's Dark Knight is easy to find anywhere online. But Terra probably didn't have to give Slade so much information, since Slade already knew Robin's past. Therefore, she would have probably focused much of her attention on the other four Titans.

Beast Boy's own history was easy enough to find, since he was the only other Titan besides Robin who fought publicly as a superhero. As Raven so kindly pointed out at their first encounter, his secret identity wasn't much of a secret because of his green skin. He also realized with a pang that he told most of his personal history to Terra himself, all of which she probably relayed to Slade.

As for the others…well, their histories were a little more tough to get into. Star's files were probably all written in Tamaranean. Even though Cyborg was his best friend Beast Boy realized that he knew next to nothing about his history. The most that he knew was that Cyborg's…well…cyborg status was an involuntary one. Some sort of accident caused him to be this way. And there was probably no way that Terra could have gotten anything about Raven.

"15-39-28…" he mumbled.

Slade left Robin those magic numbers for him to find. What if that safe wasn't the only thing those numbers opened? It was just a thought. If Beast Boy happened to find something in here that helped their search, then it was a long shot that Slade would use the same password again.

His communicator rang.

Startled, Beast Boy opened his communicator and found Rita on the other end.

"Garfield, Steve is about to call you," she said. "Go to your laptop and answer."

"You didn't have to call me," Beast Boy said, somewhat annoyed.

"I know you won't answer if you know it's him."

Beast Boy straightened as he heard the faint tinkle of his webcam ringtone from the other end of the hall. He didn't have a reason not to answer this call. He hung up on Rita and began to walk back to his messy room. Sure enough, Steve's face was waiting for him on his open laptop.

"Steve…" Beast Boy said, his ears drooping. "What are you doing?"

Even though Steve's face took up most of the screen, Beast Boy could see the other members of the Doom Patrol lurking in the background. All of them: Larry, Cliff, and Rita were listening in on the conversation.

"I know we haven't talked in a long time, kid," Steven said. "But I feel like we need to."

Steve looked around his bedroom and frowned.

"Did a bomb go off in here? Your room is a pigsty."

"No."

Did Mento have to criticize everything? This was why he left the Doom Patrol in the first place. Yeah, his teammates criticized him sometimes, but this was different. He may be the youngest member on the team, but he wasn't stupid.

"You should clean up."

Already, he had had enough.

"Don't tell me what to do, Steve!" Beast Boy snapped.

His voice rose angrily. Almost at once Beast Boy heard footsteps pounding outside in the hallway. Robin stopped in front of the open door, the eyes of his mask wide.

"Beast Boy!" Robin exclaimed. "What's going on?"

Steven turned to look at Robin through the webcam.

"So, you're the Bat's protégée," Steve said.

"Former protégée," Robin replied, his voice hardening. "I assume that you're Mento. Good to meet you too."

Beast Boy could tell from Robin's tone of voice that he hated being associated with Batman. As for Steve, the Doom Patrol was never really as big as the Justice League. They didn't have so many reserve members or argue pointlessly. The Doom Patrol, rather like the Teen Titans, was more like a family.

"I'm talking to Beast Boy, not to you. I don't care who you are or who your mentor is."

"Beast Boy…" Robin began.

"This is family business," Beast Boy said, cutting Robin off. "It's just—"

"Do you have something substantial to say about Tara Markov, Robin?"

Did Mento really have to bring her up? Both Robin and Beast Boy could tell from Mento's tone that he disapproved of Terra.

"Who are you to judge, Mento?" Robin asked. "Even the JSA and the JLA members called to say their deepest sympathies."

That much was true. Beast Boy had been surprised when he found sympathy cards and flowers in the mail. Although there were many Terra-haters out there some people forgave her because she managed to bring down Slade. Apparently Mento was not of the latter group.

"The JLA is ruled too much by petty politics," Mento replied. "As is the Justice Society. We don't work to make the headlines like the Kryptonian and the Bat, we work to enact justice and to bring down the Brotherhood of Evil."

Always the determined one. Although Beast Boy was proud of his work with the Doom Patrol he knew that they could never be as big or as popular as the Justice League of America. While he admired Steve's dedication to eradicate evil he always hated his militaristic approach to fighting crime.

"Robin…" Beast Boy said. "Please go…"

He knew that Robin's relationship with Terra had been complicated, mostly because of Slade. But even though Robin honored her memory just as much as the others Beast Boy didn't want the boy wonder butting in on this conversation. Yes, Robin meant well, but Beast Boy needed to talk to Mento alone.

Robin shot Beast Boy a concerned expression before leaving the room.

"I heard things about that kid," Mento said, nodding towards the closed door. "I heard he used with work for Deathstroke."

First Terra and now Robin? This was unfair! Steve had no right to criticize what he knew almost nothing about.

"You know nothing about us, Steve."

"So he did work for Deathstroke."

"That's not the point!" Beast Boy fumed. Was this how Robin felt talking to Batman? Did he have to defend his team, who everyone thought of as amateurs even after all they've been through? "Unlike you, Robin and Terra were willing to give up everything to save their friends."

The other Doom Patrol members exchanged uncomfortable glances. Beast Boy was uncomfortably reminded of their last real mission together. Instead of following Steve's orders to destroy the Brain's machine Beast Boy had instead opted to save the Doom Patrol. Only Steve had been angry at this decision.

"That aside, Garfield, she—"

"You didn't know her like I did!" Beast Boy snapped.

"You allowed her to infiltrate your team! She tried to annihilate your team and almost succeeded!"

"He does have a point," Negative Man said in his usual drone. "Deathstroke almost won."

"The Brotherhood of Evil almost won lots of times," Beast Boy replied, "but in the end we won. We held our own." He reached out for the keyboard. "I'm done talking, Steve."

"Garfield! Don't you dare hang up on m—"

Beast Boy closed his laptop.

He went to his window and opened it. After morphing into a hawk he flew outside and drifted slowly down in large loops towards the Towers' rocky foundation. He landed on one of the rocks and sat there silently, wanting nothing more than to enjoy the evening and to think things over.

What if the box of Slade's stuff wasn't everything the invader stole? What if they went into Terra's evidence box and took a look at the stuff in her laptop's hard drive? Or what if they hacked into her email account like Robin did?

"Terra…" Beast Boy said quietly to himself, picking up a flat stone and weighing it in his hands. "What did you know?"

He flung his arm back and watched the rock skid across the glassy surface of the water. The neon lights of Jump City cast iridescent splotches of color upon the water, but the light of the stars above still played upon the surface. The rock skidded once, twice, three times. He found himself smiling.

He was getting better.

A/N: Hmm…Beast Boy's doing a little bit of detective work!

I thought that the beginning scene would be best told not from Robin's POV, since there was a good deal of his POV in the last chapter. Also because a character other than Robin could notice little details that Robin (in his angsty, tortured state) wouldn't notice.

And I know that Part 2 is supposed to be focusing more on Beast Boy, and I realized that I sort of failed at that while writing the last chapter. However, Robin's POV is important for the overall story (since this is primarily a Robin/Slade story) and it couldn't be helped. I'm also winging it with the Doom Patrol, since all I know about them is from the TV show. I'm kind of unhappy with this chapter, what do you think?

I'm going to try to slow down a little with the updates. Instead of twice a week or more I think I'll go to once a week, preferably Saturday night updates (like 10:00pm-12:00am pacific coast time). Fanfiction is pulling me away from my original fiction.

Stay cool, guys.

If you are reading this then leave a review.