Chapter 7: Masks

Criminals never seemed to take a vacation, nor did it always go after the most logical prizes. The criminal of the day was a guy wearing all black with a few armor plates on and he had an orange circle right in the middle of his mask (Who designed that one, anyway?).

The prize he was after on this fine day was a red chip that was hovering in the air right in the middle of the vault it was stashed in. the thief was just about to grab the chip and make a run for it, but he halted when he noticed that someone was hanging upside down right in front of him.

"Tell Slade that if he wants this, he can come get it himself!" Robin snarled out in contempt before he flipped over and kicked the thief away from the chip. As he staggered back to his feet, the light suddenly turned on, revealing that the whole Teen Titans team was arrayed against him.

Tough luck, I guess.

But Robin was forced to jump back as a yellow beam suddenly impacted where he used to stand. The beam originated from the roof, where it was currently cutting open a hole from the outside.

The moment its job was completed, more goons dressed in the same attire as the first one burst in through the hole.

One of them immediately went after Robin, and the two became locked in a fierce fist fight. The goon kicked, punched and jabbed at him, forcing him back. Robin tried to kick him, but it was blocked and the goon suddenly pulled out an energy gun and aimed it at Robin.

It fired off a yellow beam that Robin was forced to weave through. He managed to jump over it and delivered a roundhouse kick to the wielder, sending him crashing into the wall.

Starfire flew into the air to dodge a yellow beam fired from another goon. Said goon tried to jump after Starfire, but she powered up a powerful starbolt in her hands and blasted the idiot back to the ground, thoroughly knocked out.

But another of those goons just jumped right over his fallen comrade and took his place. He launched a yellow beam at a construct jutting out of the wall right above Starfire, slicing off a piece of it and bringing it down towards the unsuspecting heroine.

But Robin managed to dive in and tackle Starfire out of the way. As they landed on the ground, they found a trio of the goons aiming their weapons at them. That was about all they could do before a huge computer terminal was slammed into them from the side.

"Amazing what you can do with computers these days" Cyborg commented as he dusted his hands off before rushing into the fray again.

Argent meanwhile was having her own problems with another one of the goons. The slippery bastard kept dodging and weaving out of the way of her energy constructs. And he also kept firing off those yellow beams of his as well, forcing her to divert some of her energy to defend herself.

Finally she managed to grab him with a massive crimson hand and smashed him into the floor. Argent however did not notice a second goon coming up behind her until a fist connected with her back, sending her to the floor.

As she looked up at her soon to be executioner, Beast Boy suddenly rammed the goon as a ram (How many times has he done that now?) and smashed him into the wall. Argent took the chance to get back on her feet, and of course Beast Boy could not resist rubbing his save in.

"You owe me big time, you owe me big…" his little victory song was interrupted by another one of those damn goons suddenly appearing behind him. That guy had about just enough time to raise his weapon before a crimson fist smashed him into the ground; hard.

Beast Boy looked back in surprise to his ambusher before turning back to Argent, who was giving him a meaningful stare.

"Call it even?" he offered nervously as he blushed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

Both Cyborg and Starfire meanwhile were trying to blast another one of those infernal goons, but he just kept dodging them. Finally, he flipped onto the wall and used it as a springboard to launch himself towards the chip.

He snatched it out of the air and made a run for it towards the exit. But Robin was not about to let him get away that easily and threw a birdarang after him. It hit the hand that was holding the chip and sent it flying into the air.

"Mine!" Beast Boy shouted as he jumped after it. He morphed himself into an anteater and used his tongue to catch the chip. He soon landed on the ground and glided along it until he hit the wall.

Though the moment he came to a stop, one of the goons trampled on his tongue. The pain caused him to let go of the chip, which the goon was more than happy to take in his possession.

He quickly jumped back to his remaining comrades before throwing a smoke bomb to the floor. When it cleared, they were gone. Beast Boy meanwhile was still on the floor, a pained and disgusted look on his face.

"That tasted so nasty" he commented. Hey, the guy stepped on Beast Boy's tongue with his boot, who knew where that boot had been before! Robin seemed not to care anyway.

"Titans, go!" he shouted as he rushed after the thieves. The team soon came upon a junction splitting off into six different corridors, along with a sewer gate in the center.

"Split up!" he ordered his teammates, who immediately rushed down a corridor each. Robin was about to do the same, but he stopped in suspicion. His eyes were locked onto the sewer gate. He carefully approached it, wondering if his instincts were right or not.

Finally deciding that he might as well, he entered the sewers. It proved to be a wise decision as just ahead of him, one of those goons were making a run for it. Robin narrowed his eyes in anger as he sprinted after him.

The goon soon realized that he was followed and spun around to fire off a yellow beam at Robin, which he rolled under and retaliated with a birdarang. But the goon had learned from last time and when the birdarang came close enough, he just jumped up in the air and destroyed the birdarang as it passed underneath him with another yellow beam.

Up ahead was a branch sewer line, and the thief bolted down it. Though he took the time to throw a bomb over his shoulder and detonate it, filling the tunnel with rubble and slowing Robin down.

The thief gave one last look back before he calmly walked up to the dead-end of the sewer line and used that energy gun of his to cut a hole through the wall. As it crumbled away, he found himself outside again, right in a cliff face.

But he never got far before Starfire suddenly appeared, hovering right in his way. Though of course, being the friendly and naïve girl she was, she decided to be diplomatic about the situation and avoid fighting.

"I am asking you nicely to stop running and…" unfortunately, her opponent was not so much in a negotiable mood, and had no qualms about shooting her mid-sentence. Starfire was sent plummeting towards the river beneath while the thief leaped out into the air.

A rocket system built into his boots suddenly kicked in and he was off like a missile, just as Robin reached the hole and dived out. Robin brought out two grapple guns and fired both of them off, one at Starfire and one at the thief.

The look on the thief's face when he suddenly found a rope tied around him and the weight of two teenagers attached to said rope dragging him down would have been priceless if he had not been wearing a mask.

Finding it impossible to climb any higher with the added weight, he decided to go down instead. Poor Robin and Starfire were dragged along like luggage along the river. Finally, the trip came to an end as the trio crashed into the beach.

As Starfire regained consciousness, she found that a fish had somehow entered her mouth. Needless to say, she was quick to spit it out with a disgusted look on her face.

"Now talk!" Robin snarled at the goon as he held him by the front of his shirt "Who's Slade, why does he want this chip and why are you working for… him?"

The last part came out more quietly and surprised than the rest of the sentence since he had removed the goon's mask, only to find a computer screen behind it instead of a face.

It was a robot.

Barely a second after his questions had left his mouth, the screen came to life and a one eyed man hidden in shadows appeared on screen.

"Excellent work, Robin"

"Slade" Robin snarled out in recognition. How typical of the coward to send robots to do his dirty work.

"Really, I think your skills are improving" while you would normally appreciate compliments when offered, receiving compliments from Slade always felt like being offered a cyanide capsule.

"No more games. What do you want?" Robin demanded furiously of him. If the little info you could see on the screen were anything to go by, Slade was anything but intimidated.

"But you do lack patience. If you're really so curious about my intentions, perhaps we should meet? Face to face?" again, receiving an invite from that man probably gave you a feeling of how a fly would feel if a spider were to invite him home.

"Tell me where you're hiding and I'll be there in a heartbeat!" Robin stated, eyes glaring furiously at the screen. If this was how he would react to simply talking to the man on a screen, then God be merciful when they actually met in real life.

"Patience, Robin. Patience" with those parting words, the screen went blank and the circuitry in the robot burned itself out, destroying all evidence.

"Robin?" Starfire asked in concern, but received no reply. Robin probably did not even hear her, so focused on Slade was he.

But unknown to both of them, they were being watched by a third party on top of the cliff. Peering through her binoculars, Raven had observed the whole incident, though she had been unable to hear the words being exchanged.

Internally, she was worried about the current events. 'So, Slade has decided to make his move again. It could potentially get in the way of my plans' she thought grimly. But no matter, her only target was Robin. As long as she got him, nothing else involving Slade and the Titans concerned her.

There were many things in this world that Robin hated; criminals, psychopaths, Batman, innocents getting hurt. In barely a few months, Slade had somehow managed to climb all the way to the top of that list.

"Robin, is that the best you can do?"

"Excellent work, Robin"

"I think your skills are improving"

"If you're really so curious about my intentions, perhaps we should meet? Face to face?"

Those words echoed in Robin's mind as he stood in front of the table in his private investigation room. The walls were packed with news clips and the table was in disarray, with both Slade's gadgets and Robin's own scattered across it.

Slade, the man that Robin hated more than anything else at the moment. A scheming psychopath who continued to elude him at every turn. A mastermind who was so cloaked in shadow and mystery, that Robin had no idea what to expect from him.

"Who are you?" he asked out loud, as if he expected Slade to waltz right out of the shadows and answer him. Behind him, the door opened, but he did not turn around to address whoever had entered.

"Robin?" Starfire asked sweetly from the doorway "I am wondering if you might wish to…"

"No" Robin briskly cut her off, uncaring whether he offended her or not. Starfire looked downtrodden from his answer.

"Thanks, but I need to figure out why Slade wanted that chip" Robin explained a little more friendly. Starfire perked up at that.

"Agree, and perhaps if you were to take a break, the answer would be easier to…"

"I can't" Robin once again cut her off "You almost got hurt. Next time it could be worse. He's planning something, I have to find out what"

It was obvious that he was not going to abandon his work. Not until he had caught Slade. But Starfire was not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

"But Robin, I am sure that…"

Robin seemed to have developed a new hobby of constantly interrupting Starfire, but this time he used the tried and used "close the door right in their face" tactic. It worked like a charm, Starfire finally gave up on him as she lowered her head in defeat.

"At least I have a pretty nice view" Raven commented to herself as she sat in a chair in her newly rented apartment, with a perfect view of Titans Tower. This was her spot from which she spied on the Titans without sneaking into the tower itself.

Surrounding her were all sorts of surveillance equipment. The most regularly used was the heat sensor which she used to keep track of the Titans inside the tower. Currently it showed nearly the whole team being gathered in the living room.

And Robin was… well, he was still locked up in the same room since they got back from their last little adventure. Seriously, did that guy ever take a break?

But while the heat sensor was a very practical tool, the most useful item in her apartment was a device that was hotwired into the Titans communicator signal and allowed her to eavesdrop on talks through their communicators.

When she had managed to capture Cyborg and Beast Boy, she had not just simply let them go. No, she had taken the opportunity to plant a bug inside their communicator system, giving Raven access to it. Et voila! Now everything they said into their communicators, Raven could hear.

Raven had to admit though, surveillance was boring as hell. Hours would often pass until something were to happen. And trust me, those hours could be hugely aggravating. But fortunately, she had a wonderful way to pass the time.

"Come on, Rambo! Gun 'em all down!" Raven sheered with a mouthful of popcorn as she was watching Rambo 4 in HD. 'Best movie ever' she thought gleefully as on screen, Rambo began mowing down the Tatmadaw soldiers with a heavy machinegun.

Ahh, the wonders of modern technology. Whoever invented these entertainment systems must have truly been a genius worthy of recognition. God knows what Raven would have had to do otherwise during these boring reconnaissances.

But as the credits began to roll for the movie, Raven cast a quick glance at the heat sensor, counting… four heat signatures in the tower?

"Wait, what happened to the fifth?" she asked in confusion. Checking their positions across the tower, Raven found that the heat signature that was missing was the one bunkered up by itself, away from the others.

Robin.

Raven cursed herself profusely. Out of all the Titans she had to lose sight of, it had to be her main target! But where could that bastard has slipped away to?

Internally, Raven groaned. Trying to track him down would be next to impossible if he set his sights on remaining undetected. So how in the world was she supposed to track his sorry ass down now?

A thought suddenly struck her. She had a way to track him down, but she had not used it in years. Her empathic powers. She could use them to track Robin's emotions from wherever he was.

But she immediately shook her head. No way was she using it. Out of all the powers her father's blood had cursed her with, she detested that one the most. It required superb control over your own emotions, since you would be tapping into others emotions.

It always felt disgusting to Raven, being able to sense other emotions and sucking them up like a leech. Besides, not too long ago she had to contend with her daemon side. Not something she felt like repeating.

But still, this could be her chance of taking out Robin. Could she really wait around for another opportunity to present itself?

"Desperate times call for desperate measures" she mumbled to herself as she took up a lotus position. She dug deep into herself, trying to draw out that damned piece of herself she hated so much. There it was, buried deep within herself. Locked away so that Raven could experience being human.

Carefully, she let her mind brush against it, seeking to draw out the specific power she was looking for. Finally, she managed to draw it out. Raven took a deep breath in preparation.

"Showtime" she said as she let her empathic powers reach out across the city. It felt like being hit by a freight train. Thousands of emotions smashed with unrelenting force against Raven's mind. It was like a tsunami of emotions, seeking to drown Raven.

She had not used this power for years, and she was horribly out of practice. Raven was barely able to stay conscious against the barrage. Gritting her teeth from the exertion, she pushed on; swimming through this ocean of emotions in search of the one she was looking for.

Her breathing became labored, the mother of all migraines threatened to explode her head yet still she kept searching. 'Come on, you bastard! Where the hell are you?!' she thought frantically.

Finally, her empathic touch found what she was looking for. She could faintly feel Robin somewhere in the area where the chip was. Wasting no more time, Raven withdrew back to her body and pressed her empathic powers back in the cage she had it locked up.

Sweat glistened on her forehead, and her breathing was hard and labored. Not to mention her head felt like it was about to split open any second now.

But overall, she felt good. She had done it, she actually managed to use her powers. Not that she was planning on making it a recurring event, mind you. But still, now she knew where the bird boy was. And if she hurried, she might get there before any of the other Titans could.

Her hope of getting there before the other Titans proved to be too much to hope for. They arrived at about the same time she did. But even with the four Titans on scene, there was still no trace of Robin himself.

"Now what's he doing? Hiding from his own team?" Raven asked herself in irritation. She slowly crept closer until she was within hearing range, though she was careful to remain in the shadows.

She discreetly activated her bug in their communicator system. Raven hoped that Robin would at least call the team and alert them of his whereabouts. And right she was.

"I'm working a Slade lead on the far side of town. Sure you guys can handle this without me?"

Raven did a double take when he revealed his location. Far side of town? Then why the hell had her empathic powers led her here then? Was it some malfunction on her part? She had been under extreme pain when she tracked him. She could have probably sensed wrong somehow.

"No problem" Cyborg answered. Raven was considering leaving now, since her target was not present, when someone suddenly came out of a ventilation shaft.

To say that he looked interesting was an understatement. The guy was bedecked in an all-black suit with a tattered black cape. He wore a skull-adorned black mask with a red x over it. Another red x was over his heart but one of its edges was drawn out over his whole upper body.

"You working for Slade, tough guy?" Cyborg questioned as he aimed his sonic cannon at this new foe.

"Red X works alone" he answered before he fired a red x from his palm. From her hiding spot, Raven observed this new player with interest. 'Red X? Never heard of him before. Must be a new guy in these areas. Still, he has some cool toys' Raven though off-handedly.

What followed was a humiliating defeat for the Titans, as Red X skillfully countered each of their attacks before striking at their respective weaknesses. So well in fact that it made Raven suspicious. The guy was loaded with just the right toys to take out the Titans.

If Raven did not know any better, she would say that that suit was designed purely to defeat the Titans. Not that long after, the fight was over. All the Titans lay defeated and Red X simply teleported away.

As the night grew quiet again, one question reverberated through the minds of both the Teen Titans and Raven; who was that?

There were few things in life that could surprise Slade these days, given his vast criminal network. But one of those things was currently staring him right in the face from a computer screen.

"Rumor has it you're interest in this" the masked thief stated as he held up a red chip in his hand. Slade merely stared back impassively.

"I'm interest in many things, Mr. …?" Slade retorted, leaving the sentence unfinished as an invitation for the thief to introduce himself.

"X. Red X" someone had been watching way too many James Bond movies if the introduction was anything to go by.

"Hmmm… catchy. So, are you proposing a sale, or a gift?" Slade inquired, his sharp mind already analyzing everything he could about this new unknown factor.

"A partnership" Red X clarified "I give you the chip, you cut me in on your plans"

"Partnership? My my, we are ambitious. But an alliance cannot be forged from one small chip" Slade stated calmly while narrowing his eye at Red X "If you're going to win my trust, I'll require more"

I was a challenge to the thief, to see how far he would go. A challenge he was more than willing to accept.

"Just tell me what you want"

Red X. Who the hell was he? That was what Raven mulled over back in her apartment. He was definitively skilled in martial arts and had access to state of the art technology. The guy was some form of thief, that was for certain, but what was his motive?

He had said that he worked alone, but Raven was not so easily convinced. He went after the same chip that Slade was after. He could potentially be stealing it to sell it to Slade.

But there was also another fact that did not sit well with Raven. The way he fought, the way he moved. It looked so familiar to Raven. And the way he outmaneuvered the Titans, it was more than skill and luck that carried the day.

He knew the Teen Titans somehow. He knew exactly how they fought and how to counter them, right down to the last detail. That was not something you just picked up by watching footage. That was something you could only learn by fighting with them.

It was clear, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Red X was at the very least a former comrade of the Teen Titans. But if that was the case, why was he fighting against them?

A beeping noise caught Raven's attention. Someone was using the Titans communicator. Shelving her thoughts concerning Red X for later, Raven activated her bug.

"… but then I spotted Red X pulling a robbery in the tech sector"

Okay, maybe she would not need to wait that long for answer anyway, now she had a chance to get them directly from the source.

"I'm on it. Get here as soon as you can"

Raven could not help but smile sadistically when Robin said it. 'Oh trust me, I will' she thought humorlessly.

Getting to the tech sector was the easy part for Raven. Finding her target was the hard part. She was perched on a roof, overlooking a good portion of the sector. But so far, no signs of either Robin or Red X.

"Did you send me on another wild goose chase?" Raven said irritably. She still had a slight migraine from last time. Even the rest of the Titans had shown up by now. So where were the stars of the evening?

"There!" Cyborg suddenly called out while pointing towards a warehouse. And right on cue, down from the roof both Robin and Red X flipped down. X was in the lead, with Robin hot on his tail.

But Red X suddenly spun around and threw a net at Robin. He was too slow to react and became entangled.

"Robin!" Cyborg shouted in alarm and was about to rush to his aid.

"I'm fine. Get X, go!" Robin shouted back while pointing after Red X. the Titans looked hesitant at first, but eventually decided to follow his commands and gave chase after Red X down into a subway station.

Up on her rooftop, Raven almost felt like dancing in joy. Red X was no longer a concern to her, now was her chance to kill Robin. She could just shoot him, but she wanted to savor this. She drew her broadsword and quickly jumped down until she was on the ground.

"Well bird boy, I must say that this was sort of an anticlimactic end to our little chase" Raven taunted as she drew nearer to Robin, dragging the tip of her sword along the ground "I mean, you survived my ambush on you, and now you're brought low by a simple net"

She expected many forms of responses to her taunts; insults, pleas for mercy, boring speeches on how good was going to win in the end etc. she most certainly did not expect the answer she received.

"I'm fine. Get X, go!" he shouted. Raven paused in confusion at that.

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"I'm fine. Get X, go!" Robin repeated. Now Raven was more than confused, she was smacked senseless. Was he not aware that he was about to die? Was that line all he could say? Unless…

Raven carefully nudged him with her sword. It went right through him as if he was air. Raven's eyes widened in chock.

"A hologram?!" she said out loud. But if this was not Robin, then were the hell was he?

Something suddenly clicked in Raven's mind. 'When I used my empathic powers, it lead me back to the tech building. Robin called and said that he was not there, but instead Red X showed up' Raven began to contemplate all the pieces here.

'Red X showed a superb knowledge of all the Titans' strengths and weaknesses. And now, Robin called and informed the team that Red X was pulling a robbery here. Red X disables Robin and continues to flee, but Robin was only a hologram. Robin must have planted the hologram to fool someone, but the only one who was close enough to place the hologram in place was… Red X'

The puzzle was finally completed in Raven's mind, and she could not help but chuckle in amusement. 'Robin my dear boy, I had no idea you could be this crafty'

Now she knew where Robin was. And more importantly, she knew where he was going to strike next.

Someone once said "the end justifies the means". That was what Robin tried to tell himself as he approached the third chip. This was the last theft, then he would have gotten close enough to Slade to finally unravel his plans.

He briefly wondered what the other Titans would think when they found out the truth. No doubt they would be angered by his abuse of their trust. But he would live with it. As long as he caught Slade, nothing else mattered.

"Excellent work" Slade suddenly said from behind him just as he grabbed the chip. He was still wearing his Red X costume so he had to struggle with all his might not to leap at Slade when he stepped into the light. He could not give himself away now of all times.

"Honestly, I couldn't have done better myself" he congratulated him, sending shivers down Robin's spine. Yup, even when he was talking to a possible ally, he was still unnerving.

"So, do we have a deal?" Robin asked. Time to put the final nail in the coffin.

"Indeed. You and I are sooo very much alike" Slade answered, making Robin wish that he could just gag at him "It seems… only natural we should be partners"

Oh how Robin wished he could just leap at him and beat him to a bloody pulp. But alas, he still did not know what Slade hoped to accomplish, he needed that one final piece before he could strike. So, the charade had to go on.

"What are they for?" he asked as he held up the three chips in plain view "I need to know what we're planning… partner"

Speaking that last word felt like swallowing sour milk with a few cyanide capsules to boot. He would certainly enjoy beating Slade up once this was over.

"Patience. You can't expect me to trust you such sensitive information right away, can you… Robin?" Slade inquired while narrowing his eye at Robin. He had just enough time to widen his own eyes in chock before a net was fired from behind him and ensnared the chips.

The bundle flew right into the waiting hands of Slade while all the lights turned on, revealing dozens of Sladebots surrounding him.

It's a trap!

Well, Robin was not about to go down without a fight at least. Besides, he had failed to figure out his plan, but if he stopped Slade here and now, it would not matter anyway. After all, a plan was useless if its mastermind was beaten and locked behind bars.

The two sides were about to engage one another when the roof exploded.

"Titans, go!" Cyborg shouted as he along with Argent and Beast Boy descended on the robots with a vengeance. Robin took his chance to go after Slade, intent on finishing this once and for all. But Cyborg had other ideas as he came up behind Robin and grabbed hold of his cape.

"Gotcha!" he shouted. Slade took the chance to slip away. Obviously, that did not sit well with Robin.

"Let go! Stop him!" Robin snarled while pointing after Slade. It was at that point that Starfire joined the fray.

"No, release him! He is…" Starfire began but, in honor of his new hobby, was interrupted by Robin.

"Me!" he shouted as he ripped the mask off. The whole team was left flabbergasted by this revelation, but Robin seemed not to care as he tore himself loose from Cyborg's grip.

"Slade's getting away! Come on!" he shouted before he sprinted after Slade, jumping over a few robots blocking his way. The Titans found themselves unable to follow as they were surrounded by robots.

This was just too good to be true. Slade had just burst forth from within the building and Robin was not far behind him; all on his own. Someone must have started to take pity on Raven, as she now had a golden opportunity to finish this.

She was currently crouching on top of a building on the other side of the street with an M82 semi-automatic sniper rifle loaded with .50 caliber rounds. One thing was for certain, Robin would not be getting up again after a hit from this baby.

Raven watched the chase through her scope as they jumped from rooftop to rooftop, always being careful to keep Robin within her line of fire.

Finally, the chase came to an end next to a huge red neon lighted sign. Robin was absolutely livid as this point, but Slade was the very epitome of calmness.

"Careful, I wouldn't want you getting hurt" Slade taunted, further angering Robin.

"I'm not the one who's going to get hurt, now hand them over!" he snarled back as they began to circle one another.

"Robin, I thought we had a deal" Slade said in a mock hurt tone.

"Sorry, I have a strict rule against giving stolen technology to psychos" Robin retorted coldly.

"How very noble of you. But stealing in order to trap me? That wasn't so noble. Two wrongs don't make a right" Slade stated just as coldly. It seemed that Slade's words had a greater impact on Robin than vice versa.

"Don't ever lecture me!" Robin snarled back in anger "Whatever you're planning, Slade, it's over!"

"On the contrary, Robin. It's just begun" Slade revealed just before he rushed in to attacks. He tried a punch, but Robin somersaulted over him and tried a kick.

Slade ducked under it and delivered his own kick that Robin flipped back to avoid. Robin tried several swings, but Slade dodged them all before he threw a fist at Robin. He sidestepped the blow and tried a kick from behind.

But Slade blocked it and kicked Robin in the back, sending him sprawling to the ground. He was quickly back up on his feet and made ready to dive into the fray yet again.

But Raven had other ideas as now Robin had presented her with his back. She took careful aim at where his chest was. Raven did not need to score a headshot here, one hit and it would be all over for him.

"See ya, bird boy" Raven said with a wicked grin as she pulled the trigger. The bullet soared out of the barrel and raced towards the unsuspecting Robin. He was too preoccupied with Slade, he would never see the danger in time.

A mere second away from impact and Robin had still not moved. Then, Slade grabbed hold of him and threw him clear of the shot. It impacted against the roof instead.

For a few seconds, all Raven could do was blink owlishly. Had Slade just saved Robin? Why would he do that? Her confusion soon turned to anger and she swiveled her gun until Robin was in her sight again.

"Dodge this!" she snarled out in anger as she let loose with the semi-automatic system. But this time, Robin was ready and managed to take cover just in time before he would have been shredded by the barrage of high caliber bullets coming his way.

Raven growled as her clip ran dry. She was about to reach for a second when she heard the unmistakable sound of a rocket soaring through the air. Looking up, she found a rocket heading straight towards her, originating from Slade.

"That son of a…!" Raven cursed as she abandoned her weapon and ran for her life. Barely a few seconds later the rocket impacted against her old position. Raven was sent flying over the edge from the blast wave, but managed to grab hold of the edge. She was left once again dangling over an edge.

"Slade, you're sooo dead when I get my hands on you" she muttered to herself.

Robin was meanwhile staring at Slade in disbelief. Had it just happened, or was it another trick of his?

"You… saved me?" he asked on confusion. Slade merely narrowed his eye at him.

"I'm not through with you" he simply stated. That was all the explanation Robin needed before he sent a flying kick at him. Slade blocked it and Robin tried sweeping his legs from underneath, forcing him to jump back.

But Robin pushed on and tried a punch that was sidestepped. Without warning, Robin somersaulted right over Slade and before he could counter, Robin had scored a blow to his stomach.

Slade was sent flying to the ground while the chips fell out of his belt. Robin promptly strode over to the downed Slade.

"This ends now!" he snarled as he ripped the mask off Slade's face. But the only thing underneath it was a computer screen that quickly turned on, revealing the real Slade standing smugly in his lair. Far away from the actual fight.

"Patience, Robin. We'll meet face to face some other time" Slade stated calmly "Oh, and speaking of time"

Suddenly, a countdown appeared on screen counting down from five seconds. Robin barely managed to leap clear before the inbuilt bomb detonated.

The end justifies the means. It may feel like a good comforter when you have reached your end. But when you have fallen short just like Robin has now, those are only empty words. Today, the only comfort he had was Slade's mask, which he held in his hands.

In light of his failure, he had barricaded himself inside his study to brood on this fiasco. Not that it had stopped the Titans from barging in one after the other to give him a piece of their minds.

He could not blame them.

He abused their trust in him, there were no other words to explain it. They trusted him to lead them, and he used them to create the image of a ruthless thief. He was actually surprised he was still welcomed on the team.

The door suddenly opened, but Robin did not turn to acknowledge whoever had entered. He did not need to, there was only one Titan left that had not spoken to him yet.

"You want to yell at me too? Everyone else has" Robin said tiredly to Starfire as she walked inside "And I can't blame them"

"I do not wish to yell, merely to understand. Robin, why did you not tell us the truth?" she asked in confusion.

"I needed to fool Slade. If you guys knew it was me under that mask, you would have held back" Robin explained, momentarily turning his eyes away from the mask to look at Starfire before he turned back to it "Doesn't matter anyway. Slade figured it out, and I still haven't figured out anything about him"

"That is not true. Whoever Slade is, you and he are… similar. Slade did not trust you, and you did not trust us" Starfire revealed to him before she walked out. Robin may not have shown it on the outside. But on the inside, those words have hurt more than you could ever imagine.

As he looked upon the mask, he could not help himself but ask this one question; was this what he was slowly becoming?