Chapter 1

Peace and Quiet

Three Weeks Later…

"Let go of the pizza or the arm comes off".

Cyborg tightened his grip around Beast Boy's wrist as he tried to force him to give up the last slice of pizza.

"No way Cy, you've already had like fifty pieces" Beast Boy replied and used his other hand to try and pry Cyborg's off. Raven rolled her eyes and flipped through the pages of her book hoping they would leave the restaurant soon before the two caused a scene.

"Dude there are not fifty slices in three large pizzas now LEGGO!" Cyborg countered and squeezed harder. Beast Boy's grip on the pizza loosened and Cyborg went in for the kill. But just as he was about to grab the pizza, a brown glove, covering a small slender hand, came out of no where and snatched it out from under them. Cyborg and Beast Boy quickly stopped fighting and turned to the owner of the hand, Terra.

"Thanks guys" Terra said with a smile as she held the pizza above her triumphantly. She lowered the pizza and slowly placed it into her mouth when Beast Boy grabbed the other end and pulled it away before she could take a bite.

"Hands off Terra, it's mine" said Beast Boy who was now engaged in a game of tug-of-war with his girlfriend.

"Hands off yourself, its mine now" she replied trying to sound threatening when she was almost laughing and pressed her boot into his face.

Cyborg looked between his two friends with a goofy smile on his face. Now here was entertainment. Sparks began to fly from both of them and Cyborg knew things were heating up. "OH YEAH!" he shouted trying to sound like an announcer "LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE"!

At this, Beast Boy and Terra stopped instantly and glared at Cyborg coldly. They looked to each other and realized how stupid they must have looked and backed off. "Uh…sorry, you can have it" Beast Boy said sheepishly as he handed the slice over to Terra.

"No" she replied instantly and pushed it closer to him "we can share it".

Cyborg groaned and slumped down in his seat. "Oh man" Cyborg complained as he leaned on his arm "and I was all geared up for some good 'ol kick boxing…shouldn't have said anything".

Terra and Beast Boy rolled their eyes simultaneously and held the slice in between them and began to eat it. Cyborg cocked his eyebrow as he tried to figure out why they were starting at opposite ends instead of just splitting it in half. They came closer and closer together until their faces were mere inches apart until they stopped, both of their eyes closed as they leaned forward. Realizing what they were about to do, Cyborg placed his hands in between them and pushed them apart. "OH HELL NO, DO NOT DO THAT IN FRONT OF ME" he shouted in disgust "THAT'S ALMOST AS BAD AS WHEN I WALKED IN ON RAVEN TRYING TO KISS TERR-"

"Ahem!" came a loud cough.

Cyborg turned to Raven where he thought the cough had originated but she merely shook her head and returned to her book. Cyborg then looked to Beast Boy and found he looked quite annoyed. "What"?

Beast Boy pointed to Terra discretely and pushed Cyborg's hand away from him. Cyborg looked at Terra and found she was looking quite sad. "Uh Terra" Cyborg said wearily "you ok"?

"I'm fine" she mumbled and got up from the table "Here Beast Boy, I'm not hungry". She handed to him the last bit of the pizza and walked away but wasn't able to get to the stairs before Beast Boy stopped her.

"Terra" he said and placed his hand on her shoulder "you don't have to leave; we could find something else to do, just the two of us".

She faked a smile and said "No thanks, I'm not in the mood right now" she kissed him gently on the cheek and then descended down the stairs. "I'll meet you back at the Tower". And with that she disappeared down the street.

Beast Boy's shoulders sagged as he slumped back down into his chair and fiddle with a crumb. "Nice going" he grumbled.

"Dude I didn't know she was still so sensitive about the topic" Cyborg replied as he called a passing waitress over to their table "you'd think after two months she would have gotten over it".

"Well she hasn't!" Beast Boy said angrily "do you have any idea how hard it was to convince her to come with us today"?

"Veggie or cheese"?

"What"?

"Your topping dude" Cyborg clarified as a teenaged waitress took their order.

"Oh…veggie I guess" Beast Boy replied a bit more calmly.

"That'll be all ma'am" Cyborg said to the waitress.

"Ok" she said, sounding somewhat annoyed, as she played with one of her many earrings. She turned back to the kitchen and called "HEY JOE, YOUR FAVORITE CUSTOMER WANTS ANOTHER ROUND, TWO LARGES, ONE CHEESE AND ONE VEGGIE"!

The waitress rolled her eyes as she heard curses coming from the kitchen and turned back to Cyborg. "Sorry about that, he's still a little sore after the last time you were here".

"No problem" Cyborg said and with that the waitress left to take other orders. "Don't see to many red heads lately huh".

"What are you talking about" Beast Boy asked.

"The waitress dude".

Beast Boy looked at their waitress. She had short brown hair, blue eyes and several earrings in each ear. "She has brown hair" he corrected.

Cyborg looked at their waitress but saw a very different person. The waitress he saw had long red hair and brown eyes with no earrings at all. She seemed very annoyed when anyone looked at her. "What are you talking about, she has red hair".

"Brown"

"Red"

"Brown"

"Red"

"SHUT UP!" Raven shouted threateningly "she has brown hair, end of story".

"Yes" said Beast Boy and pumped his fist. He was about to high-five Raven but she gave him a death glare and he quickly backed down. "Soooo" Beast Boy said "weren't we supposed to meet Robin and Star here".

"Yeah" Cyborg replied and looked down at his arm that was now displaying the time "bout an hour ago".

"What's taking them?" Beast Boy complained as he leaned his back against the table.

"You know them" Cyborg said and clasped his hands together "they like to be aloooone".

For some reason, when Cyborg said 'alone' Beast Boy had several images of him and Terra flashed through his mind and he suddenly felt depressed. "You know" he said in a low tone "I think I'm gonna head back to, see ya".

As soon as Beast Boy was out of ear shot, Cyborg said humorously "I guess he and Terra wanted to alone too".

Raven snapped her book shut and glared at Cyborg "Would you just leave them alone".

"Since when did you care when I made fun of him"?

"As much as they bug me, they're my friends and yours to" Raven said threateningly "besides I don't recall your little relationship with Jinx going so-"

"Don't go there" Cyborg snarled ominously and took a long sip of his drink.

The Mall…

"OH ROBIN, THIS HAS BEEN A MOST GLOURIOUS DAY AT THE MALL OF SHOPPING!" declared a teenaged Tamarnean girl, drawing a lot of attention from other shoppers.

"Glad that you liked it" Robin replied, not at all happy drawing attention from the other shoppers. He never was fond of going out in public, especially in full uniform causing him to stick out like a sore thumb. It always made him feel…awkward and the sounds of admirers, jokers, usually making fun of him, and winy kids wanting their autograph didn't help. Though Robin was glad he could spend time with Starfire, he would do anything to get away from this crowd. Then as if someone answered his prayers, he caught something in the corner of his eye. He turned to look where he had spotted it and saw someone running down an alley across the street.

"Is something wrong Robin?" Starfire asked, noticing his attention was occupied on something other than her.

"Thought I saw something" he replied. He glanced down the alley one last time to make sure he had seen something, but when he didn't he follow Starfire to another store, she became annoyed and pulled him along. There were once again in front of another small clothing store with little ornaments and hair pieces that would make any outfit look good no matter how out of fashion it was…Robin instantly despised it. Starfire squealed as she flew around and began to try on everything she could get her hands on while Robin was left waiting outside the store with her mountain of bags looking quite helpless.

Oh please oh please let there have been someone in that alley he thought as he continued to glance every so often at the alley. As he was looking back into the store, a beam of light hit him in the eye and he put his hand up to block it. Out of curiosity, he followed the beam of light with his eyes and saw it originated from the alley. Robin saw a glimpse of someone standing against the wall in the alley and his heart began to race. YES!

Without bothering to tell Starfire that he was leaving, Robin took off and dodged traffic as he made his way to the alley. Evidently his quarry realized he had been spotted and ran for he was no longer in the alley. But that didn't stop Robin; he guided with faint glimpses of his prey as he ran down alley after alley in an attempt to catch him. Soon he reached a dead end and was at a loss as to where his quarry had gone. "I saw him come down here" Robin said to himself as he checked every possible hiding place "I'm sure of it". After several minutes, He had checked every inch of the alley twice and was still unable to track him. "Could he have climbed the wall…but how?" he mumbled as he felt the face of the wall for any sign of footholds. The thought had occurred to him before but he found it unlikely, the wall was two stories tall and its relatively flat surface made it difficult to climb on.

Just as he was about to give up, he heard something drop behind him. Robin spun around and found a small fragment of cement lying on the ground with a cloud of dust hanging over it. Robin picked up the fragment and found no evidence that it had been chipped off the wall. Then another series of fragments bounced off his head and he instinctively looked up. There, suspending himself off the ground with his arms and legs against the sides of the two buildings; was his quarry. Robin instinctively pulled out his Bo-staff but his quarry descended upon him and wrestled Robin's Bo-staff from his hands. The attacker kicked Robin's feet out from under him and brought his foot down onto Robin's face. Robin quickly caught the attacker's foot just as it was about to squash his face into the dirt and twisted it around so his attacker lost his footing. Robin quickly jumped to his feet and pinned his attacker against the wall by his wrist.

"Why were you running?" Robin demanded as he twisted his attacker's wrist even harder "and why are you attack me"?

The attacker reply was a quick bashing of the heads and smashing Robin into the wall with his elbow before he could even react. The attacker then grabbed Robin by the foot and began tossing him from one end of the alley and rebounding him to the other with almost inhuman agility. The attacker finished the volley with a bone crushing kick that knocked the wind out of Robin and pinned him to the ground. Robin grabbed the attacker's boot that was now crushing the life out of him and tried to force it away. With every attempt, Robin lost more and more of his strength until his vision began to blur. He tried beating against it but this only made his attacker press harder. He only had one option now, call for backup and hope that he would last long enough for them to arrive. He let go of his attacker's boot with one hand and desperately tried to reach his communicator that was hanging loosely on his belt just a few inches away. The attacker cocked his head as if trying to determine what he was up and only continued to increase the pressure that might soon end Robin's life. Robin's finger barely brushed the side of his communicator when it fell of his belt and clattered to the ground. Robin tried to reach for his communicator one last time when his wrist was pinned against the ground by his attacker's iron boot that had only moments ago try to crush the life out of him. The attacker then kicked the communicator far out of Robin's reach, and then did something Robin would have never suspected. He ran. He dashed out of the alley and out into the open sun where he could finally be seen for who he really was.

One man crossed into his mind as his attacker came into full view. A man whom Robin had hunted across the city for two years and had never succeeded in capturing once. A man who had masterminded several daring strikes against Jump city to defeat the Titans once and for all, and he nearly succeeded. His presence in the city could only mean something big was about to happen and very soon. Robin clenched his fist as his mind wrapped around the one name that he hated most.

Slade.