From what Slade knew about Robin, caffeine wasn't a foreign substance to his body. That meant he could give him a higher dosage of caffeine initially-more so than he could to someone who wasn't a frequent consumer of the substance. He filled the syringe with the equivalent of about six cups of coffee. Seven was nearing a dangerous number because it was the number that was considered an over-dose when reached. Just because he wasn't so sure how Robin would-or could-handle it, he stayed safe with one under the limit.

Robin didn't roll in his sleep so he was in the same position as he had been in when Slade checked to make sure he was asleep a few minutes before. He thought about using caffeine pills instead of the shot, but getting Robin to ingest them would be too difficult. Good morning, Robin, Slade thought as he slipped the needle into his skin. He pressed until everything was flowing through Robin's bloodstream. Soon his body would go into a false mode of panic. Soon he would be up with him against his will. It was such a shame he had to force Robin like this. Or was it?

Robin was having a dream of his friends back at Titan's Tower. Starfire was trying to feed everyone alien food, Cyborg was bragging about a new feature in the T-car, Beast Boy was playing video games, Raven was reading and Terra was . . . wait a minute. His eyebrows bent in his sleep. Where was she? Hallways flashed in front of him as his dream self moved through the Tower in search. Just as he reached her bedroom door, his eyes opened with a jolt and his breathing was heavy. He looked around and the walls of Slade's lair appeared as a blurry mesh. It made him feel dizzy so he closed his eyes. In his chest, his heart was beating fast. Once his eyes had adjusted, he pushed himself off the floor into a sitting position. He moved one of his hands towards his head to brush through his hair but stopped midway. Extending his arm out in front of him, he watched his fingers and hand shake as if some sort of vibration was coming from within him. Throughout his body, he could feel the surge of excitement. That was great, except, right now he wanted to sleep. What's with me? he wondered. What time is it? He was hoping it'd been one of those situations where he'd go to bed and it'd seem like only a short amount of time had passed when he woke up seven hours later.

His feet felt a little bit like heavy weights at first while he looked for a clock of some sort. The feeling wore off and he was starting to feel awake-very awake, actually. It has to be morning, he thought. He came back to where Slade sat with his monitoring screen and frowned. The time shown at the bottom right-hand corner of each screen was 12:31 AM.

"What's wrong, Robin?" Slade asked from a chair. He turned around and continued, "Can't sleep?"

Robin raised an eyebrow. It seemed odd that he instantly came to that assumption but when he thought about it, it was the most logical one to make. "Yeah," he answered. "I guess I can't."

"I guess you'll have to join me in search," Slade suggested. It sounded more like an order to Robin and he didn't like it. "Terra's still nowhere to be found. . . ." He was about to ramble further, but a thought came into Slade's mind and stopped him. A strange feeling had entered his body-a feeling like someone in his lair knew more than they were telling. "Robin," he began, "you wouldn't happen to already know the whereabouts of Terra, would you?" His eye narrowed in suspicion at the leader of the Teen Titans.

Robin's lips pressed into a firm line and his eyes glared. "No," he answered. What a stupid thing to ask, he thought. He knows I want to know where she is just as much as he does. "I don't."

"It would explain why she's unable to be located. You've hidden her from me, haven't you, Robin?" Slade turned away from the monitors. To him, the answer was clear now. Terra wasn't out in Jump City or the areas around it. Robin had come up with some clever place to put her, to keep her away from him.

"No," Robin said in a growl. He couldn't understand why Slade seemed so certain about this. "I want to find her just as much as you do, Slade," he explained. "I have no idea where she is. She probably ran away." He didn't like to think about that but it was a possibility. She had a good reason, anyway. When Slade gave him a skeptical look, he added, "Look. She probably got freaked out about all of this. You did enough to hurt her last time. If I was her, I might run away too." His determination to stop every plan Slade created would keep him from doing that in reality.

Slade motioned to Robin's belt and said, "Your communicator. Take it out."

"What?" Robin asked. "No. I'm not going to track her or anything for you. She'd be smart enough to leave it somewhere, I don't think she'd take it with her if-"

"Take it out, Robin, now."

Robin took out his communicator and looked back at Slade for approval. "What exactly do you want me to do?" His voice was bitter.

"Call the girl, Robin, and I'll trace the signal you're sending out from your communicator to where hers is. That is, if hers hasn't been destroyed. As long as the signal can connect to it, I can trace it." He walked over to the control panel in front of the screens and typed in a few commands.

Robin frowned and looked at the communicator for awhile. He wanted to know where she was and hoped she'd pick up to talk, but at the same time, Slade would learn where she was. He opened it and sent a call to her.

In Rose's bedroom an annoying, themed beeping had started. Rose rolled over to the edge of the bed and complained, "What the hell is that awful sound?" It wouldn't have been so bad during the time she was awake. Anything that woke her up was automatically annoying. She shuffled around in the bed looking for the source of the noise but found nothing. Since she had no luck and the beeping still persisted, she shook Terra awake and demanded, "What's that sound?"

Terra was groggy and grumbled a little before she listened to the familiar chime. Then, a voice came through. Terra? Where are you? Pick up, it's Robin. "It's my communicator!" she said, sitting up.

Slade almost jumped when the signal tracked back to his hideout. "That's odd," he said just above a whisper. "It says it's not more than a couple dozen yards away." He spun around to look at Robin. "This doesn't make any sense," he pointed out. "You better not have done anything to corrupt the signal."

"I didn't do anything," Robin said. "It means she's already here."

"Then why don't you find her for me, Robin," Slade said. "She should be in that direction." He pointed. "And not very far away from where we're standing here. I suggest you keep calling because you'll be able to hear her communicator going off as you approach."

I already knew that, thought Robin. "I'll go find her." He started off but stopped to glance back at Slade. He hoped this wasn't some sort of trick.

Once the sound stopped, Rose set her head back on the pillow and said, "It better not go off again." She spoke too soon, because it soon did, much to her dislike.

"Okay, where did you put it?" Terra asked. "If you just give it to me . . . wait." She remembered she had her wrists tied up to the bed. "Answer it for me?"

"Are you crazy?" Rose asked, annoyed. "It's probably one of your friends looking for you. No way we're letting them have an idea about where you are or what you're doing."

"Look, it's just going to keep ringing." Terra said. "You might as well."

"Or not," said Rose.

"Slade," Robin called back, "It's coming from this room but I can't get into it. The door's locked."

Rose spit out a few curses and threw the covers off the bed. "He's right outside," she said in a harsh whisper. "Damn it!" She repeated the last phrase a few times and then turned to Terra and tossed the pillows away from her. She yanked at the ropes that held Terra to the bed in hast. I don't have a lot of time, she thought. Gotta make a plan. She decided she could put Terra in the bathtub since she knew no one would look in her bathroom for her. Although her reflexes were better than most people's, the knot she'd made was strong.

"What's going on?" Terra asked, mimicking Rose's low voice. She heard Robin and knew it was him but she didn't understand why Rose was in such a panicked hurry.

Slade stood in front of Rose's door and frowned. "I don't understand," he said. "You're positive it's coming from inside here?"

Robin nodded and called Terra again. "Listen."

Sure enough, Slade could hear the sound of her communicator ringing inside. "The door locks from the inside," he said. " There is a way to open it from outside, but I don't have the key."

Rose's eyes lit up after she heard Slade. "He doesn't have the key!" she said in relief, still hushed. "Of course!" She stopped untying Terra and let out a breath. She could just pretend she was too much asleep to hear them.

"I should have a master key with me," Slade said. Robin nodded as Slade went through a pocket. His body still felt like a constant surge of electricity was flowing through him, forcing him to be awake. He didn't suspect anything yet.

Rose shook her head and said, "Hell with it." She bent down and pulled out the sword she'd laid across Terra earlier and sliced through the ropes in a single motion. Terra closed her eyes and opened them only when she was certain her hands were still intact.

Slade opened the door. It was dark so Robin felt along the wall for a light switch. He found one and flicked it up. Slade and Robin's eyes traveled immediately to the same place: the bed.

Rose had her legs over Terra's body, sword in one hand, Terra's wrists in the other. Rope still clung to them and to the bed's iron rods since the middle that connected the two had been severed. Rose's long hair, like Terra's, was a little messy from the short time they'd been able to sleep. She turned to face Slade and Robin with a blank look that told nothing. Terra had an expression somewhere in-between happiness and fear; happy relief from seeing Robin and fear from Rose, her sword, and Slade's unwanted presence.