Alright...Let's see how this chapter goes.

"Conner," Robin hissed as he shook his friend's massive shoulder. "Conner. Conner! Get up!"

"Huh?" Conner groaned as his blue eyes fluttered open. "Robin?"

"No, it's Bats," Robin replied sarcastically, slight relief flowing into his voice as he sat back on his heels with a sigh. He ran a gloved hand through his ebony hair and watched as Conner scrubbed a hand tiredly over his face as he sat up slowly.

"What happened?" Conner asked after a moment.

"We dropped into some sort of vortex," Robin muttered as he raked his brain as well to remember exactly what had happened. He really only remembered dropping and waking up on a random rooftop with a screaming headache and a very unconscious Conner holding onto his wrist with a strange gentleness that only a Super could have.

"Oh…" Conner mumbled. The boy glanced about. "This…isn't the warehouse…"

"No…it most certainly isn't," Robin snickered. Conner gave him a weird look as if to ask what Robin was thinking. "You sound drunk."

"Drunk?"

"Yeah," Robin chuckled with a nod.

"What's that?" Conner asked with an innocent look on his face as he rubbed his shoulders gingerly – how a Super could do anything gingerly was beyond the Boy Wonder.

"Let's just say you will probably be lucky to never feel more than a possible buzz from alcohol," Robin smiled. "You can thank Superman for that ability. I've never seen him drunk and he claims he just can't get drunk which means he's tried to." Robin had raised an intellectual finger and waggled his brows meaningfully and Conner couldn't help but laugh. His hand shot to his head after a moment.

"My head hurts," Conner muttered a bit awestruck.

"Yeah…Something tells me that you're going through what I did," Robin explained with a sympathetic gaze. "Plus, I've seen Batman make that face after a hard night of drinking thanks to a hangover…Another good reason to never drink but with our jobs…who knows what kind of vices we'll pick up?"

"Vices?"

"Simply put, bad habits," Robin explained with a shrug. "I can't say I know many of us without one either."

Conner frowned. "Really? Why do we have them?"

"For us, as for a lot of other people, a vice can be a coping mechanism. You have an especially rough day; you drink a few glasses of scotch or gamble away a few million bucks if you have the money to do so."

"What does Batman do?"

"Really bad days, he drinks and has flashbacks about his childhood. Normal days?" Robin shrugged again. "He trains like he always does." There was another shrug and a wary gaze.

"How about Superman?"

"He gets depressed with himself," Robin muttered. Conner gave him a soft glare. "What? You don't want to see him on a bad day."

"He doesn't want to see me on a good day," Conner muttered back.

"Don't even start with that," Robin growled. "Let's focus on the situation alright?"

"Fine."

"Fine…Good to know we all agree on something."

They sat on the rooftop for a few moments in complete silence as Conner rubbed his temple and Robin glared at the scenery. He found only tall buildings that all managed to look dirty and dank with darkness. Listening, he heard sounds he'd always heard in Gotham; screams, rummaging, crashes, bangs, hissing of curses.

"Where are we?" Conner asked softly as if to apologize for bringing up Superman in a situation that didn't need his own issues on top of it.

"To tell the truth," Robin sighed in resignation. "I haven't the faintest idea."

"So we're lost."

"It would seem so but I haven't looked at this building quite yet so just hang on a second," Robin huffed with a bit of laughter in his tone. It was like he believed it was impossible to get lost. He glanced over the building edge for a little bit until he returned to Conner's side with a slight frown on his face.

"What is it?" Conner asked.

"I think we're in Blüdhaven," Robin murmured. Conner cocked his head in slight confusion. "Think Gotham only a few times worse." Conner frowned at the idea. He didn't really like the idea of a place worse than Gotham – it just seemed impossible.

"How many times worse?"

"I don't even want to think about it."

"That bad huh?" Conner murmured as he pulled himself to his feet with a groan. "Yeah…never drinking alcohol even if I am immune to it."

"Good choice," Robin sighed. "I fight mean drunks all the time. It's not all that much fun to tell the truth." At the confused look from Conner he added, "Read up on it." Conner nodded as he looked over the building edge.

Sure enough, the building sported the name Blüdhaven on it in glowing red lights. It also sported the words 'general hospital' in the same gleaming red. He frowned.

"We're on the roof of the general hospital," he mused. Robin came up on his left and followed his gaze to the sign, the red casting eerie shadows on both of their faces. Robin was frowning but didn't seem to want to speak his mind. Conner watched a few of the letters flicker out and back on a few times as people milled around in the streets.

"The hospital didn't have all the lights working last time I saw it," Robin muttered a bit darkly. "Hell, that wing wasn't there either; not ever." Conner followed his finger to find a third of the building that did look a little newer compared to some of it. The lights in the windows were all on and as he closed his eyes, he picked up the sound of giggling children coming from the walls.

"Children's wing," Conner stated.

Robin let out a soft snort. "That wasn't there the last time Batman and I were in Blüdhaven."

"It does look a bit new."

"Not new enough to be fresh construction," Robin observed. "So a few decades or so old. Looks good for Blüdhaven standards."

Conner could tell from the other buildings about them. Some had crumbling edifices and what he could almost smell the mildew from there. Then again, there were a lot of old buildings about them, each with some sort of damage to some part of them.

"Hey…could you listen into the building?" Robin asked. "Just this one; we had to have landed here for a reason."

"Sure," Conner shrugged.

It wasn't like he hadn't already started doing that so why not broaden the scope? His eyes slipped closed again and he focused in on the building under their feet. He heard the usual shuffling of nurses and doctors. A few patients were speaking to each other – friendly banter between people stuck together until one left for something – their conversation not interrupted by the chirping machines they were hooked up to.

Then, something caught his attention.

"Con?" Robin asked as his friend's eyes flashed open, worry drowning in surprise. "What'd you hear Con?"

"You know those machines that tell how a person's heart's beating?" Conner asked. Robin nodded; a bit worried at the question that would most likely follow the action. "What happens when it just keeps beeping?"

Robin frowned in slight confusion. "You mean when it just makes the continuous bleep that never seems to end?" he asked. Conner nodded. "It's called flat lining…it's when the heart stops beating. With Flash, he's made his heart beat so fast it can't keep up but for normal people…it's not a good sign."

Conner nodded in understanding, not daring to question further. Instead, he listened in closer to the noise about the person he'd heard flat line. The doctors started giving commands in louder voices, metal began to clink around as people rushed about in a frenzy organized chaos, and above them he could hear gasps and softened sobs.

"There are a lot of people around them," he said. "A lot of metal objects too."

"Sounds like a surgery going south," Robin explained. "It's not uncommon for someone to go into surgery and not come out of it better. Hell, some people get major complications from minor operations and end up needing major surgery to fix it…sometimes you even find more than you thought was there." He gave a soft shrug but Conner had a feeling he'd been on the receiving end of these realizations before.

"Do surgery rooms have something above them where people can sit?"

"Yeah," Robin nodded. "Observation Rooms. Usually other doctors watch…sometimes family members are allowed to come in there and watch but that's really rare. You need a lot of connections to be able to do that."

"Connections?"

"Like let's say someone was rushed to the hospital from a crime scene," Robin explained easily enough. "They're a possible witness so a cop will be placed at the hospital to be able to tell others when the person's out of surgery. Though, usually it is a bit rude to do that so usually the cops just ask the hospital to call them and keep them apprised. If it's someone of importance – like someone diplomatic or with an assassination threat on their heads – they post guards."

"Okay…These must be connected family members," Conner murmured as his ears picked up someone yell 'Clear' followed by the sound of a body seeming to leap from the table and fall back onto it. "What does it mean when someone yells 'clear' in these situations?"

"Uh…a defibrillator…it shocks the heart back into action sometimes…but you don't want to be near the person when it goes through them."

"Right. Why?"

"Electricity can travel through a body just as well as an outlet."

"Oh…alright." He listened for a moment. "They got their heart pumping again."

Robin nodded and sighed for a little bit. It always seemed to bother him whenever he had to deal with the whole idea of a hospital. He didn't like being near them, he didn't like being in them. He'd seen death a few times through Bruce, through victims of the men they fought, and through his own eyes. He hated hospitals.

"Hey…there's an argument going on in the lobby," Conner stated.

"Huh?"

"Something about how someone shouldn't be out of bed let alone getting discharged," Conner muttered with a shrug. Of course he didn't understand. No x-ray vision and no ability to really tell what was wrong with the person being yelled at.

"Batman and I do that a lot," Robin murmured musingly. It was unnoticed by him but it certainly went noticed by Conner. The clone felt his gut twist at the idea that his friend – his mortal friend – would willingly walk out of a care facility when they weren't fully healed up. He could see him doing it though.

"You're doing this against medical advice!" a woman screeched from below. Robin glanced over the building to watch a woman with a lithe build and steely eyes yelling at a man with dark hair and his left arm in a sling.

"Yes Cara," the man called back a bit sarcastically as if to tell the woman she was overreacting. "I've discharged myself with full understanding of what I was doing so will you relax?"

"No I will not relax!" the woman yelled back. "Should I shoot you again just to show you how stupid you're being?" Her hand lifted to her hip, revealing a gun. Conner tensed, his hands gripping the stone near to the point where it would break and crumble.

"Cara," the guy said. "You're a detective. You really going to shoot your partner?"

"If my partner weren't such a fucking idiot, I wouldn't even be tempted!" she yelled. The guy chortled and shook his head.

"Look, I'll take a few days off from work alright?" he replied amiably. "I won't even call in to check on you or anyone else in the force okay?"

"I'd prefer you stay in the hospital!"

"And I want to sleep in my own damned bed Cara. I don't want bodyguards either," he snarled at her, giving a warning jab to the shoulder as he spoke. "Don't even tell the Captain that I've discharged myself either! He'll order me to go into witness protection or some stupid shit like that so don't tell him!"

"I'll tell whoever I want Richard! You're injured damn it! You should be in the hospital!"

"I hate hospitals," the man grumbled. "I'm not staying in a hospital."

"Will you knock it off? This stupid phobia of yours is ridiculous; especially considering you seem to enjoy getting yourself injured all the time!"

"Cara!" the man yelled, his voice finally rising above her hysterical yelling. She blinked at him in surprise and slight fear, like she'd only seen him mad once before and it had been an experience she never wanted to repeat. "Shut up."

He walked off leaving his partner behind as she blinked, shook her head, and muttered a few curses before going off on her way. Conner released the brick under his hands as Robin watched the exchange in a bit of a bored manner. He'd seen cops do that dance a lot. A partner making decisions without the other's approval was something he'd seen often in Gotham. Jim Gordon had made a living through it in some ways in his first year in Gotham.

So had his first partner.

"Should I be calling him a jerk?" Conner asked.

Robin shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe he has a good reason to be like that. You have to remember that everyone sees things differently from others."

He sighed softly and looked about the city again. It was darker than Gotham he realized as Robin watched the man stalk down the street. The younger boy knew that walk; Bruce did it every so often when he was mulling over something. Conner glanced back to his friend and then followed his gaze towards the man from earlier.

"You want to follow him?" Conner asked. Robin jumped uncharacteristically and blushed a bit.

"Yeah…a bit," Robin admitted softly.

"Okay…why not? It's not like we don't have anything else to go on right?"

"Shut up," Robin chuckled. "Let's go."

"Alright," Conner sighed before Robin launched himself to another building. He leapt after his friend, amazed at how much slower he was in comparison with the smaller boy who seemed to be able to fly as he raced across the rooftops. It was a little odd to know there was something he was bad at when it came to his job.

"Jeeze," Conner huffed when they skidded to a stop. "You're fast at this stuff."

"Thanks," Robin smirked proudly. "He went in there," he pointed out as he gave a soft huff. Conner glanced at the building and listened carefully as the man, Richard, thumped up the creaking stairs. He listened as a door was unlocked, the key scraping against the innards of the lock. Conner pointed to the windows that would belong to the door and Robin nodded before flying to the fire escape outside of them. Conner landed softly next to him, earning a grin from his little friend. The lights flicked on, the boys shrinking form them…

"Hey Dick," a deep voice rumbled. "Long time no see. Blüdhaven seems to be treating you well by the looks of that arm."

The room stayed silent for a moment, the boys watching as Richard stared towards his kitchen counter at a broad shouldered, ebony haired person with surprise, anger, and exhaustion. He kicked the door closed, turned the latches, and then turned to look at his visitor.

"I would ask how the hell you got in here but I can see the window to the fire escape is open and we both know how high you can jump if you don't try to fly."

"It really is good to see you again," the visitor murmured. "Seriously, it is but you could at least pretend you're glad to see an old friend."

"Not when aforementioned old friend breaks into my apartment; the apartment that I know for a fact only four people should know about," Dick growled in a feral manner. "You can get out of my home now." He turned to leave, his visitor turning a bit on the stool so that half his face was finally visible.

That's…Clark, Conner thought as Robin's hand strayed up to his sleeve, gripping it tightly as he too recognized the face that was too young to be Clark's face – even their Clark wasn't that adolescent looking. This guy looked almost fresh out of his teens. At best, Clark looked nearly thirty if not twenty-five.

"That hurts," the visitor murmured. "I'm not even allowed to try to catch you up on things?"

"No Conner, you're not," Dick stated bluntly. "In case you forgot, I grew out of the Robin tights a long damned time ago and don't really plan on revisiting old wounds thanks."

The older Conner frowned. "You know, you're going to have to talk to the rest of us sooner or later right? Wally's going to give you so much shit for just disappearing on us the way you did."

"Oh? Not Roy? I could have sworn he'd have been jealous of me for actually breaking free; unlike him," Dick smirked. "FYI, if he would stop biting off more than he can chew, he would have been able to handle some of the crap he got into."

"Roy's not jealous of you Dick, he's worried about you," the older Conner chided. "All of us are. You may as well be a liaison to the League; not a cop in Gotham's evil twin city!"

Dick glared at his friend. "Last time I checked no one really gave a damn," he muttered. "No one cares what I do anymore except you guys and I don't talk to you anymore remember? I have a life here and I like it."

"You have a life here? Really? This isn't a life Dick. This is you doing what you were trained to do since you were nine; only here, you have stricter rules you have to adhere to and less of a budget to do it on."

Conner glanced to Robin who'd edged back into his broad chest, his thin frame shaking a bit. He wrapped a strong arms around Robin and pressed him closer to himself. Why is he so scared, Conner wondered. I notice we're watching me yelling at someone I apparently know very well but that shouldn't be much of a surprise. I kinda yell at everyone.

Dick glanced at the floor for a moment and then towards his bedroom before his lips drew themselves into a thin line and his blue eyes glowed with a determination. He looked at the elder Conner with those eyes and the boys could have sworn they saw him flinch. Dick pulled the sling off his shoulders, his left arm carefully guided to his side. The sling dropped to the floor.

"Leave," Dick stated, his voice cool, calm, threatening. "I'm supposed to be resting up from this…Leave."

"…No."

"Why not? I'm done talking to you so you may as leave." Dick sent him a sinisterly kind smile before stiffly pulling his shirt off to reveal the bandages wrapping around his pectorals and his left shoulder. Conner felt Robin's hands grip his arm tightly as the smaller boy shrank further into his chest.

Conner knew he was holding him a little tighter too but he had a good reason.

Dick's body was riddled with faded scars. He could tell what a few were, he'd seen them before because Batman occasionally got himself stitched up at the cave if it were necessary. Bullet holes, knife wounds, burns, claw marks, bites, and others wound about his body like intricate tattoos. Hardly an inch of his skin didn't have some sort of faded – obviously well cared for – injury. Some of them even wove into one another like snakes or like someone had tried to wipe one away with another.

There was one scar however that caused the most of his horrified amazement though.

It sat over his naval and under his sternum, little branches spreading out from it almost like a star of some sort. It was faded more than most of the others, a few just a bit lighter than it but that didn't matter.

Conner had seen that scar when it was still an angry red.

"I want to see it Robin," Roy had said on one of his visits. M'Gann was cooking while Wally and Artemis sat before the television, Kaldur between them, arguing about which kind of movie to watch for the sleepover party they were all having. Conner was off to the side, watching Roy and Robin talk to each other softly. He was also listening.

"See what?" Robin asked as he laid down some cards onto the table. "I'm almost out of cards here Roy. You better step up your game."

"Don't. Play coy Rob," Roy muttered softly, his teeth gritting together. "I want to see what Poison Ivy did to you alright?"

Robin was silent for a moment, Conner glaring at the red headed archer as Robin thumbed over his cards.

"Any fives?" Robin asked.

Roy sighed and muttered, "Go fish."

A few hours later, they'd all eaten and were camping out in their 'assigned' rooms. Conner couldn't sleep though, the earlier conversation still ringing in his ears. It had been weeks since Ivy had nearly killed Robin and Conner had nearly killed her in return. He sat up, closed his eyes and listened to the others' breathing.

"Damn Robin," Roy hissed softly. Conner ground his teeth together and sped to stand outside Roy's room. He peeked in through the slightly open door to find boy of the humans in pajamas, Robin holding up the black tank top for Roy to see the angry red of his injury.

"Shut up," Robin muttered. "It's healed so shut up about it."

"Jeeze," Roy sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face as he sat back on his bed. He glanced at the injury again, his brown eyes filled with grief and disgust, before he tugged the shirt out of Robin's hand and over the scar. "Shit…Did he really damn near kill her?"

Robin sighed and nodded as he plopped onto the bed next to his old friend. He was still wearing those damned sunglasses as he spoke to his friend. He ran a hand through his raven black hair as he crossed his legs.

"Yeah…he was understandably a bit pissed off," Robin murmured.

"Rob…he's fucking dangerous," Roy muttered a bit darkly. "First he pretty much crushes your ribcage after you set him free, he has hardly any control, and he almost killed someone!"

"Lower your voice," Robin commanded. "Conner can't help that stuff either so cut him some slack. Besides, I know you're not going to claim everyone in the League hasn't damn near killed someone – or wants to kill someone. Batman has some of the best control I've seen but I know he wants to kill someone – lots of someones."

"Batman doesn't have powers."

"I've seen Superman when he's really angry Roy. He's damned near dropped someone from twenty stories up once…Note that it wasn't in the papers either."

"Superman's got better control than Conner."

"Conner should be learning from Superman."

"…I hate it when you're logical."

"Forgive me for learning how to be that way," Robin muttered sticking out his tongue before standing to leave. "I need to sleep. I have tests tomorrow."

Conner rushed back to his room then. He didn't sleep though; angry, crimson scars haunting his sleep every time he closed his eyes.

"I see that one didn't fade completely," the elder Conner muttered looking away from his friend as Dick tossed the shirt onto a chair lazily, turning towards his room to reveal more scars.

"Of course it hasn't Con," Dick murmured gently. "Ivy only stabbed me with a giant branch remember? Of course there's a scar from it. Now seriously, leave. I'm tired and in no mood for a talk about how I should check in more often."

The elder Conner pursed his lips, scrubbed a hand over his face, and sighed.

"Fine. I'll be back tomorrow though…with Wally," he threatened as he stepped towards the window. Conner shrank into the shadows, Robin curling closer to make sure no one would see them. "Though Dick, seriously, you need to call in more often than you do."

"Conner, I'm warning you," was the reply, Dick never turning to look at his friend.

The elder Conner sighed before leaping into the air from the window sill. He halted in midair and spun to stare back at his friend who didn't move. He let out another sigh before kicking off and invisible roof and shooting off into the sky, disappearing within seconds.

I learn to fly? Whoa, Conner thought, a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth until his thoughts reminded him of that one of a kind scar.

"Shit," Robin hissed softly. "Shit…shit…"

"Hey!" a shout came from the window. Both boys jumped and met icy cool blue eyes framed by somewhat long black hair. Dick glared at them for a moment before snorting at himself and shook his head. "Get in here you two."

Please review. Ignore the rant.