It was dark and, while Fort Lauderdale wasn't exactly New York City, Andy was still a little frightened. They had to pass through an area of a lot of nightclubs and bars on their way to the bus station. They had to walk in shadows most of the time, walking in and out of the fizzing glow of neon lights.

"So, Robin, I don't know how much you know about the Everglades," Nasim said. "But... it's not exactly the boardwalk."

"Board... walk?" Robin asked, squeezing to the side of the sidewalk as a three young, drunken men singing off-key passed by.

"What Nasim's trying to say is that: if the alligators don't kill you the mosquitos will," Andy supplied.

"Oh. Alligators?" Robin said, still confused.

"This is probably going to be impossible to explain," Nasim sighed. "Like cars... electric lights... plastic... any boat built after 1700."

"Giant lizards that swim," Andy tried.

"I thought you said those were called dinosaurs?" Robin said, briefly lit up as he walked under a sign that spelled "perGa inev". Well, it probably didn't spell perGa inev, but the bright green letters that curled in an exquisite, illegible pattern that a dyslexic like Andy couldn't read. What she could make out were a bunch of violet circles stacked on top of each other in a symbol that vaguely resembled grapes.

Suddenly the door of the perGa inev opened and a group of extremely intoxicated women poured out. They looked a little like a bachelorette party, all wearing midriff- showing pink sequined halter tops and metallic feather boas. One of them wore a plastic rhinestone tiara fashioned to look like grape leaves, and clearly led the group. Unfortunately, the timing of their exit trapped Robin in the middle of them.

Andy had seen the uncomfortable look on Robin's face earlier, but now he looked slightly frightened. No, he looked downright scared and looked back at Andy and Nasim with terrified hazel eyes that were begging a rescue.

"Oooh, who's this?" one of the women squealed, catching Robin's shoulders. He tried to push the hands off, but the woman's long, claw-like red nails tightened.

"Handsome, ain't he?" another woman giggled, pinching Robin's cheek and leaving a red welt. The women clustered around him, nearly blocking Robin from Andy and Nasim's view.

Robin did not cry out, but he continued to struggle weakly, as though afraid of hurting his assailants.

"Come on!" Nasim said, leaping forward, but even he looked worried about pushing his way past the women. Andy had no such reservations and she barreled forward, kicking out at shins. She felt her shoe connect with something thin, which cracked.

One of the woman shrieked as her stiletto heel broke and she fell back into Andy's arms. Andy, nose wrinkling with disgust, pushed the woman off into one of her drunk friends. The friend - intent on trying to join the fun of teasing Robin - tried to push past her and the two took their struggle into the street where the jubilant cries of "cat fight!" spurred on their aggression as they exchanged claw mark for claw mark.

This left Andy's field of vision cleared.

Robin was at the center of the struggle and Andy could clearly see the woman clawing at Robin's face. His arms were up, weakly trying to block their attacks. Some of the drunken girls had grabbed Robin's shoulders and were shaking him forcibly.

Andy pushed more of them away and they began to fall back. The only one left was the one in the silver tiara. She gave a hysterical laugh and clutched at Robin's hair as she turned and fled. The boy cried out in pain as she ripped out a lock of his hair and the robin feather.

Nasim and Andy caught Robin and lowered him to the ground. His eyes were watering in pain, but he seemed to recover fairly quickly. Long red scratches marked his face and he held one hand to where his hair had been torn out. As he flexed his fingers, the scar on the back of his hand suddenly split and began to bleed freely.

"M - " Robin swallowed and tried again. "Maenads."

"Who?" Andy asked.

"The raving ones," Nasim said quietly. "Female followers of Dionysus."

"Wait a second," Andy remembered. "Didn't they - ?" Nasim nodded but put a finger to his lips. Andy understood: Robin had just had a terrible shock and mentioning his half-brother's death wasn't a good idea.

"They took my feather," Robin said hoarsely. "I don't have another robin feather."

"After that you're worrying about a robin feather?" Nasim laughed, clearly trying to sound cheerful and put a hand on Robin's shoulder. "Come on, it's not that important, is it?"

Robin was quiet for a moment, then slowly said, "No. It doesn't matter."

A/N: Footnotes:

Maenads: mortal women who devoted themselves to the worship of Dionysus. They did so by drinking and dancing until they were in a frenzy; sometimes in this state of madness they would attack young men (such as Orpheus) and kill them.