The dark expanse of space was like a sheet of black, blackness so deep it stifled all sound. If the twinkling stars weren't spread across the sky to break up the color it would've been a very sobering sight indeed when their goal was a far way off. Then again, Raven's journal was in her pack, which had been strapped onto the back of the T-Ship. It wasn't the time to contemplate some good lines of dark poetry when she had no means to record it.

It took a small degree of effort to rake her eyes from that sight that for all she knew could have spanned into eternity. When she did, focused back in on her friends' voices over the com-link, Raven found them in the middle of conversation.

"Might we visit Tamaran on our return home from retrieving Beast Boy?" asked Starfire when she was less familiar with the neighboring planets of Earth. "I am most interested in seeing how it is thriving under new leadership."

"We'll see, Star," said Cyborg, punching in commands on his screen over the solar system they'd be visiting. "I don't know though. I'm not liking the reports about this system…gangsters, smugglers, it might be difficult getting the fuel we need. This place…you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."

The jet coasted the skies for a minute in silence: fifty-eight seconds longer than it should've taken in a normal day until Robin got the Star Wars reference to Mos Eisley. It was meant to raise a little snicker but the time had passed for any such thing. Before any of them could start to get depressed again over the one person who would've gotten that joke instantly Raven spoke her first word since takeoff.

"You haven't fully explained to us the situation we're in, Robin," she said over the com-link. A glance to the space around them told that they had nothing but time on their hands. "I understand that there was little time before but now-"

"Yes, Robin," Starfire chimed in, distracted enough. "Please tell us how these events have come to pass."

The eye slits on Robin's mask narrowed a small degree as he piloted the jet but he couldn't give his full attention to driving when there was nothing like an asteroid field or the like to avoid. He'd messed up on the last mission, not once but twice. He'd misread the signs of the innocent party, was so assured of their guilt that he dismissed the odd behavior of the academy girls at the club. Worst yet, he'd lost his teammate right under his nose, and not because he was up to his neck fighting bad guys the way Batman was whenever he'd lost track of a rookie Robin. It was because he couldn't tell the difference between his friend, the things that made up his character, and a cheap copy of him.

Some friend I am, Robin muttered bitterly in his thoughts and he could almost hear Batman saying that he was going to take him back to basic training…

But the Titans weren't Batman. They didn't expect nothing less than perfection the way the Bat did and what Robin expected of himself. Beast Boy was everyone's friend, not just his and they had the right to know even if it was a source of great shame for him. He felt another small shot of guilt when he realized that they shouldn't even have had to ask.

He gave a half-hearted sigh and began, "Academy students across the nation were being replaced with replicas in order to gain access to their powerful parents. They were going to tap into those resources and use the replaced subjects to launch an attack when Gotham was vulnerable without Batman there to protect it. Batgirl does all right on her own but it just would've been too much for one person to handle."

"Only if that one person wasn't the Batman, man." If a guy could ever swoon like the girls in old-fashioned movies then Cyborg did the closest thing to it. "Star, Rae, you guys see what this guy's done? Smilex gas epidemic, kryptonite asteroid, is there anything he can't-?"

"Anyway," Robin cut in with a little irritation. He could never seem to bring up the name without an overabundance of living legend worship. "We'd thought things had calmed down. But we were wrong. Something happened when we separated to check out Cherrywood Academy. Beast Boy should be in the same place as those missing girls."

Raven nodded. "Were you able to find any further information from those boys you questioned? You already know on our end that the droid that replaced Beast Boy destroyed anything that could've been of aid to us."

"They didn't know anything."

"Can you be sure?" Raven pressed. "You haven't spoken very highly of them from what we've heard."

"I can field that one," Cyborg cut in before Robin could reply. "They may have been big jocks but you can tell they didn't really have the spines to do anything more than gambling in that city. Even if it wasn't written all over their faces during that interrogation, my sensors confirmed that what we heard was the truth. Still, I would've liked to do a little more investigating around the campus."

"The droid didn't think to relieve Beast Boy of his communicator," said Robin, back to business now that the heat was off him. "He still has it and we'll be able to pick up its frequency when we've pinpointed the planet he's on."

Raven fingered over the on-screen readings. "There are only five planets in this system."

"Yeah, but what if B loses it or it's been confiscated or something?" Cyborg had to mention. "Then what? Are we supposed to separate and pick through each planet with a fine-toothed comb for him? Meet back up on the fifth one in a few years?"

"He'll know how important it is to hold onto his communicator," Robin insisted, having at least that much faith in his friend. After all, Beast Boy had only just lost one of his uniforms in the academy for not concealing it better. He knew. "If worse comes to worse, we have Raven. She found him before, she can find him again."

"I'm not so sure that I can," Raven's voice crackled over the com-link.

"Oh, but I am sure that you will be able to, friend Raven," Starfire pitched in for a vote of confidence when she thus far had been unable to contribute.

"It's not that my powers are lacking in this," she explained when the others were about to give similar support. "It's that your capacity for mental links haven't been well exercised. My link to him was weak with the distance and it didn't last long. I'm not sure that I can reestablish it."

"He'll hold onto his communicator," Robin insisted again and he unconsciously gripped his own that laid in his utility belt.

Silence followed for a few moments until Cyborg gave a half-hearted reply in the subject he already knew had lost. "We still could've investigated the schools a little to know what we're getting into before we just plunged in. You know that group of girls you two saved were prisoners longer than those two guys. They might have known more."

"We could have looked further into this operation on the Bat-Computer," Raven said, though they'd gone too far to turn back to Earth now.

Robin's voice became threaded with a strange tone. "And we could have hacked into surveillance videos?"

"Yeah, man, why not?" Cyborg said, a little cheerier as if Robin was reconsidering. But he stopped when Starfire gave a little yip and he too realized the true meaning of Robin's question. "Uh…you mean that video?"

"Yes," Robin growled into the speaker, "that one."

"But…but the villain of red and black spoke of it and it was so very interesting to imagine a small Robin new to the duties of truth and righteousness. And…and…" Starfire stalled when her excuses were running dry. "And Cyborg was at fault for locating the file! I tried to avert my eyes but-"

"But you watched it just the same as us, Star!" finished Cyborg when she was just as guilty as he. "Aw come on, Rob, it's just some dumb home video. It's not like you were as bad as Titans East your first couple times."

"Yes, yes!" Starfire joined in, eager to explain away their guilt on the matter. "You would have noticed that we had been um…laughing, but this I assure you was not in jest of Small Robin, it-"

"It kinda was," Raven said when it seemed no excuse would sound genuine and neither of her co-conspirators could switch off her com-link in time. "I mean…seeing you like that…" Raven stalled as she spoke. Pink brushed over her grey face with the images of the video and she had no choice but look away when their leader threw an irritated look her way.

When Raven made her true feelings known the others seemed to take the notion that there would be no getting away with it. Cyborg and Starfire switched off their com-links but they need not have bothered when they got out all of that laughter in their individual pods. Glaring into the darkness of space, Robin waited until they were fit enough to talk again.

"Hah hah, it was so cool seeing you as a little squirt like that!" Cyborg blurt out between breathes. "I thought Harley was lying about that footage, I really did, I mean I just had to check it out! And I did! And it was great!"

"You were most precious when you were small," Starfire beamed. "Just as sweet as my dear little bungorf, Silkie."

"Yeah, and then there was that part when you were all like "Holy Hole in a Doughnut, Batman! What happened?" " Cyborg elaborated when all of them fully knew that no such thing had happened.

"Throwing that box on that goon when you didn't have your belt…" Raven mumbled into her shoulder, unable to not join in just a little.

"By the Stars of Orion would you infernal teenagers just shut up already!?" Beast Boy's voice yelled over the com-link and it took them all a second to remember that it wasn't actually him. Nothing could possess their friend to talk like that. The droid's head had actually gotten so fed up with all the noise that he'd dragged himself to the button with only with his metal tongue.

And all of the droid's work had been for nothing. Each Titan dialed their off button synonymous with the others.

With the droid's interruption, talk of the hacked surveillance video also came to an abrupt halt, though snickers still crackled over the wavelengths. Not since it had begun had Robin spoken a word over it. He'd remained silent that whole time to absorb all that his friends said and now that it was through did he make his thoughts known.

"This is a disciplinary issue," he said into his mic and the snickering was soon replaced with grumbling. "Your assignment was to locate Beast Boy and I found you all goofing off when I returned to the cave. That computer is state-of-the-art and is intended for investigation; analysis of forensic, chemical, and voice signatures; and weapons development. Not YouTube."

"You had us stuffed up in that creepy cave all day," Cyborg griped. As if the coldness of that cave didn't chill what parts of him were still human, the shadows cast over the criminal memorabilia of the mechanical T-Rex, the sinisterly smiling giant Joker card, and the vampire shroud looked as if they were waiting to spring back to life. "That stuff might be Raven's dig but the rest of us need a little sunlight and-"

"Have I been too soft on all of you?"

"NO!" They all fired back into their speakers. Each and every one of their weekly training regimens was full and catered to their specific abilities and their best was never enough when their limits could always be pushed further. There was always the looming presence of the adult leagues, always the issue of measuring up, but it was just asking too much to have to hold themselves to the same strict standards that Robin expected of himself.

A collective shudder seemed to pass between the pods at the thought of getting up at 5am every day to train.

From his pod Robin gave a smirk of satisfaction when that threat was all it took to get his teammates in line. But that wasn't enough, not when they had uncovered such an embarrassing piece of information from his rookie days and shared it with every Titan on the planet.

"You know…" he said and the others tensed slightly as he drew his voice out. "You guys really shouldn't have done what you did."

His ominous tone told tales that any one punishment they could think of would be child's play to what he had in mind.

"So we're sorry already!" Cyborg answered as if that would erase the deed. "Super sorry, all right?"

"This means of course that I'm going to have to dig up some dirt on each-one-of-you," he said and he didn't need to look to feel the tension come off in waves from the other pods. "Voice cracking? Awkward phases? I'm sure you haven't forgotten my guardian is a master detective and that he passed that onto me. And do you want to know the best part?"

Robin was well aware that that was the part they wanted to know least and he continued, "You'll never know when I'll strike."

The chuckles that became grumbles turned into nervous silence. Raven could look nowhere but the stars and it showed fully in Starfire when she bit her lip and crunched her hands over her knees. Cyborg stiffly piloted the craft like he was more machine than man but his mouth spread wide in a grimace.

Having a little more power over them than usual was the first positive Robin had had in a couple days and he reclined his seat a little with a self satisfied smirk.

As soon as the heavy door slammed behind him and he didn't have to behave anymore, Beast Boy yanked at the collar around his neck with such force that he nearly toppled himself over. His feet paced in all directions as he tried for any slack in the device's design. Turning into a hippopotamus might have shattered it and a hamster might've allowed him to slip out from under it but his powers wouldn't let take the form of anything other than a little green boy.

The clearance under the door seemed to mock him when he couldn't slip under it as a rodent. Glaring at it, Beast Boy sunk down to one of the benches and kept tugging at the collar anyway out of spite. It should've been a simple enough thing to just not get caught until his friends came to get him but there he was among hordes of other aliens awaiting whatever these "games" were.

"You know," a gruff but unmistakably female voice drifted in from somewhere, "I make a point of familiarizing myself with the junior leagues. Recognize the face but…hmm, could you help me out on this one, kid?"

"Uh…" Beast Boy looked to either side of him to seek out the owner but the space seemed to swarm with only the large-set muscular types. Just looking around caused one of them to glower and bare saber-tooth teeth in his direction. With a squeak, Beast Boy cut the searching and took on the stance of a tin soldier. He'd done combat training with Robin, the only non-super in their team, for this very instance of finding himself without his powers but he somehow didn't want to test the David vs. many, many Goliaths theory if it wasn't required.

He carefully moved his eyes in either direction so he'd attract little notice. He waited for the voice again.

"You're a fidgety little thing, aren't you?" The woman sat down beside him. If he hadn't known who she was than Beast Boy could've easily deduced as much from her appearance: feathery brown wings tucked in from the enclosed space and a smart bird-like cowl wrapped around long red hair.

"Hey, you, you're-!" Beast Boy blurted out, caught up in the exciting moment of meeting another top Justice League member. He caught himself and cast a suspicious glance around to the other prisoners, who he only just realized were sparring and working out in a makeshift gym.

"It's all right to name names here, kid," Hawkgirl said with a little amusement for his reaction. "I mean, I'm sure we'd all be enemies outside these walls but inside we're all just the same prisoner. We're all battled out enough as is without starting up any private spats. Plus…" She took a moment to send the piercing eye of a bird of prey right back at the large alien that had done as much to Beast Boy. Even a man of his girth looked a little shaken. "Although they could easily swarm us," The composure Beast Boy had been slowly regaining took another hit. "Tear us apart like paper dolls like each of them so dearly wants to," Not entirely inconsiderate, Hawkgirl took notice when his face twitched despise the rest of him being determined to stay strong. "Not one of them would ever dare."

The conviction in her voice made his shoulders not so stiff. "Why not? Aren't we vulnerable right now?"

"Because the big boss in charge of all of this doesn't give one whit for any of us. He enjoys seeing new and interesting Supers in the arena and if anyone takes that away, well, I expect we wouldn't see them again." She looked off without really looking at anything in particular but she still felt those admiring eyes on her and sighed. "All right, go ahead and ask it then, kid."

"It's Beast Boy, Ms. Hawkgirl."

"I don't know how many times I have to request civilians not to use the "Miss". You're a Super so please refrain."

"Oh…yeah okay." Maybe it was just the particular Supers he met that repeatedly told him to nix the titles that came naturally to him. He somehow didn't see heroes like Green Arrow or The Flash turning up their noses at a little hero worship. "So…uh, how did you get caught? I mean, I can see me getting caught but-"

"I miscalculated," she said simply without too much shame. "All of us do at some point. I'm just biding my time to figure this one out without sustaining an overt amount of damage on the way out. Is it sad that this is the closest thing I've had to a vacation in two years?" Hawkgirl didn't wait for what would be an uncomfortable reply. "I'm not going to lie by telling you we're in a good situation right now, Beast Boy."

"It's not like my job is all sunshine and rainbows," the boy grumbled into his hand, with the very vivid image of how Brooke had run away with such fear in her eyes. "What are we in for here?"

"The role of a gladiator," Hawkgirl said as if she were speaking to any adult Justice member. "In a death-match that never ends until you're so beaten down that you can't stand. Stay with me and we may be able to stick it out a little longer until my partner tracks me down. On that note, do you happen to have a communicator?"

"I hid it in my room," Beast Boy said. "Galaxy-wise it's a bit short-ranged but if your partner's somewhere on the same planet…"

"Good, good, mine was confiscated," she carried on as if already she was forming a plan with the new sources. "We're not the ones in control right now so just keep it down and play it safe. No need to tempt anyone here into…"

But when Hawkgirl looked again the boy was halfway across the room, marching straight up to the alien that had given him a dirty look. Beast Boy didn't need anyone else fighting his battles for him and, truth be told, after what he had put Brooke through taking out his anger on someone who had already singled him out first sounded like a capital idea.

"I don't have a glove to kick off a duel right, Tiny, but-" Beast Boy stomped on the alien-beast's rather sensitive-looking toes as Hawkgirl looked on in irksome disbelief. "You're on like Donkey Kong! See you from the winner's circle!"

The alien grabbed his foot and howled in pain. The boy that could've been a mouse amongst the hulking monsters all around strode proudly from the room to the arena like the Titan he was. No one seemed to want to get into that space but him so he was first in line and the door slid open for him. The alien-beast had to turn crouch and turn himself sideways just to fit through the door but only they were permitted entry.

Though she was running after him, the door slammed shut right before Hawkgirl's worried face.

Beast Boy didn't turn to spare her a look though he was sure she'd been going after him. The dome somehow felt even more immense from the inside, like several Titan's Towers could've been stacked one atop the other and still have not reached the top. And there were spectators, all the lowest and vilest that the galaxy had to offer, filling up every seat available. They spilt out from the lips of the walls above, cheering, and cried for blood. And not the blood from their brother that was Beast Boy's opponent.

"Everybody's against me I take it?" he asked when he actually had to dodge a dislodged chair. Beast Boy gazed around the general admittance until he came to the box seat where the ruler of the palace waited with anticipation of what he and all others assumed would be a one hit K.O. fight.

From across the dirt ground the alien-beast took a wide stance. Dreads curled around his temples from a balding head and his flesh was bound in splotchy purple and horns that stuck out from odd places. He brought down a leg the girth of a tree trunk and the ground shook like the first fissure from an impending earthquake. The crowd's cheers grew.

Beast Boy took on the same stance, did the same thing just for the formality of it when his weight didn't shift even a pebble from the ground. As soon as he'd entered the arena he'd felt a certain warm but otherwise indescribable feeling return to his chest.

His shapeshifting had returned and he was more than ready to use it.