Chapter 3

Bruce Wayne had been in an unusually good mood all day. He supposed it was probably because Dick was due to come for a visit in a few days, that usually put him in a good mood. Even work had been enjoyable for a change; he had no frustrating telephone calls and the only meeting he'd had was with Lucius and it was to discuss his favourite part of his job: new ideas for the R&D department. Since his only meeting had been with Lucius he was able to leave work early, which meant he hit no traffic and so the good mood had lasted.

Even later that evening after he had donned the cowl and become Batman, the good mood had stayed. Of course that didn't mean that Batman had a huge grin on his face all night, because that would have been absolutely ludicrous, but his mood was still brighter than usual and it had stayed that way for most of the night. Right up until he had received a call from Starfire.

"Batman here." He answered the call

"Batman! You must come to Jump City immediately! We have run out of places to search and we haven't heard from him in two days and Cyborg denies it but I fear we will not find him without your help and -"

"Starfire!" He cut her off, "You're not making any sense. Start from the beginning."

"Okay." He heard her take a deep breath before she started again, "Robin is missing."

And with those three simple, terrifying words, Batman's mood had hit rock bottom with an almighty crash.

"What?!" He growled in response

"Please, you must come help us find him!"

"I'll be there in two and a half hours." And with that he cut the call and then growled into the communicator embedded in his cowl, "Batman to base."

"Here, sir." Alfred answered almost immediately, "Is everything alright?"

"No." Batman replied, "I just received a call from Starfire. Robin is missing."

"Oh dear Lord."

"I'm on my way back now. Prep the plane; I want to leave as soon as I get home."

"Of course, sir, I will see you soon."

Batman grunted in response, "Batman out."

Exactly two and a half hours later Batman walked into the living area of Titans' Tower only to find the Titans bickering about where they should search for Robin next instead of actually doing something useful. No one noticed his entrance except for Raven who looked up from where she had been watching the others bicker with a trace of annoyance on her face and simply stared at him expectantly.

He took another step forward before clearing his throat to get their attention. Under different circumstances their reactions would have amused him: Starfire and Beast Boy both squeaked and quickly ducked behind Cyborg who let out a surprised "Whoa!" before taking two steps back and Raven simply watched them with a raised eyebrow, but Robin wasn't there, with his signature smirk, to sigh dramatically and ask if they would ever not get a heart attack every time Batman came to visit and that is what made the difference between Batman finding their reactions amusing and him finding them to be just plain annoying.

"Perhaps," he grumbled, "If you lot spent less time bickering," he shot a glare at Cyborg, Starfire and Beast Boy, "And more time paying attention to your surroundings," he glanced at Raven, "You wouldn't have lost Robin."

The whole team exchanged guilty glances before Cyborg spoke up, "How did you know Robin was missing? We haven't even contacted Titans East about it yet."

"It was I who called him." Starfire answered

"What? But I told you we have it under control!"

"If that were true, Cyborg," Batman all but spat the name out, "You would have been in the field now instead of bickering over where you should search next!"

Cyborg looked down at his feet but didn't say anything

"Give me a full brief, now." Batman ordered.

Cyborg sighed before reluctantly beginning to explain the events of the night Robin went missing, "We've searched basically the whole city," he wound down, "But we haven't been able to find any sign of him. We were just debating over which of the few places left we should search next."

"And what about the bomb fragments? Did you finish reassembling them?" Batman asked

Cyborg nodded, "Whoever built it is good and left no signature so I couldn't trace it to anyone."

Batman nodded, "How many places do you still have left to search?"

"The old warehouse district near the docks and Slade's old haunt and its surrounding areas."

"I say we should have searched Slade's old haunt first." Beast Boy put in, "The last time Robin went missing like this was when Slade kidnapped him and forced him to be his apprentice."

"We don't even know that Slade is alive!" Cyborg argued, "It can't be him."

"We don't know that he's dead either," Raven countered, "The last time Robin and I saw him he was alive and well."

"And he was only alive because of Trigon; he most probably died again when we defeated Trigon." Cyborg argued, "We haven't seen or heard from Slade since then and that was what? Three years ago? If he were still after Robin don't you think he would have tried before now?"

"You know how meticulous he is," Raven said, "He spent months terrorizing us before he took Robin the last time, maybe he's been planning whatever it is he's doing now for this whole time."

Cyborg opened his mouth to lodge another argument but was silenced by Batman, who uttered one, low word: "Quiet."

All bickering stopped as each Titan turned to look at Batman, "Cyborg's argument makes sense," he acknowledged, "But," he carried on before Cyborg could send a smug look at Raven, "So does Raven's. One cannot throw out a theory in a case so dire even if it doesn't seem to make sense, especially when it comes to an adversary as unpredictable as Slade; understood?"

Raven, Starfire and Beast Boy nodded readily in agreement when Cyborg only did so begrudgingly.

"I believe that you should have searched Slade's old haunt first." Batman continued, "Especially if the majority of the team seemed to think that he was behind it."

Cyborg scowled, "If Slade did take Robin then he wouldn't have gone there, it's the first place we would look if we suspected him!"

"Yes, and he might reason that you would think that and ignore the place until it was your last option. Which you obviously have done."

Cyborg opened his mouth to argue but was once again cut off by Batman, "Whether or not he really is there remains to be seen, but sometimes answers present themselves in the most obvious places."

Starfire nodded vigorously, "That is what Robin says whenever we are having difficulty locating somebody or someone."

"Yeah it's exactly what he said before he led us into that warehouse to be blown up." Cyborg grumbled

Instantly his team turned on him

"That was NOT Robin's fault!" Starfire yelled indignantly, "How could you say such a thing?"

"Yeah, man, what gives?" Beast Boy asked, crossing his arms and looking upset for the first time ever since Batman had met him.

"Or did you forget all the times Robin was right and it led us to the answers we were searching for?" Raven added

"You are his best friend," Starfire added accusingly, "How could you?"

Cyborg hung his head and lifted his arms up in surrender, "I'm sorry guys," he said as he looked up at them, "I didn't mean it that way. I just…"

"You're stressed out." Beast Boy allowed, "We all are."

Starfire nodded, "That is why I called Batman; we are lost without Robin."

The others nodded before turning their attention to Batman, who had not moved during the whole altercation.

"Slade's haunt?" Cyborg asked

Batman nodded, although he was not used to working with a team of teenage heroes, he got the feeling that if he tried to exclude them things would not end well, "Let's go."

'I'm coming, Robin, just hang on for a little while longer.'

AN: Cyborg fans, please don't hate on me, everyone says things they don't mean when they're stressed!