Author's Note: I own nothing, including the nursery rhyme in this one. No that along with all these characters belongs to DC comics. Please review.

2. Ghost Stories

Robin was beyond pissed. She was fine, pretty much everyone else was injured but she was fine. She felt no different than she ever did. Her head was still a bit fuzzy from the dart to the neck but other than that there was nothing different. But that worried her. She had been at the mercy of four of the deadliest villains to ever run in Gotham and she came away without a scratch, but not through her own skill. Something had spooked all four villains, even the Joker and that was not even easily said. The Joker didn't scare.

"So why am I still alive?" Robin muttered to herself as she sat on the exam table. Zatana was reading one of her spell books in one of the chairs. She looked up at him.

"What was that?" Robin shook her head.

"Nothing. Hey Zee do you mind? I should change into my civvies." Zatana grinned.

"I don't mind." Robin rolled her eyes, she was seriously gonna have to find a way to put Zatana off without hurting her feelings. She didn't want to lose Zatana as a friend but Zee had caught her off guard with that kiss on New Years. She hadn't planned for any of that. Someone loving Robin had never been on the books before, not where anyone could do anything about it at least. That had all changed now. Robin wasn't too fond of change, it made everything so complicated.

"I do Zee. I just need a minute ok?" Zatana winked and nodded standing up and heading for the door.

"Alright but no breaking any Bat rules, I don't wanna get in trouble with Bat's." Robin grinned.

"If I wanted to do that I'd just show him that footage I lifted from the Harm incident." Zatana stared for a moment before grinning widely.

"Artemis was right, you really do know everything." The door had barely closed behind her when Robin was up and moving, but not to the pile of clothes on the table by the bed. She headed instead for the computer situated at the end of the room. It was set up like the rest of the computers in the cave and therefore connected to them, but Robin needed it to herself for a little while. It was a simple matter for her to isolate the computer and hack into the Batcave from there. She pulled up a few files searching each one for a keyword.

Owls.

Nothing, there was nothing anywhere. No mention of owls anywhere even in the penguins file. That seemed to be the only bird he avoided. It was strange. She growled in frustration. She couldn't get that word out of her head. Owls, why owls? She did a database search for them, nothing. Finally she got silly and did an internet search for owls and Gotham. The first few sites were all about night flying birds but the fifth one Robin came across was a conspiracy theory website. She glossed over most of it until she came to an old Gotham nursery rhyme.

Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time.

Ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime.

They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed.

Speak not a whispered word of them, or they'll send the Talon for your head.

"Well that's not creepy at all." Robin said rolling her eyes at the creepy nursery rhyme. But hang on a second, she remembered something. Someone, a voice she didn't recognize speaking of owls before she had felt the dart in her neck. She pulled off her mask and looked at it for a moment before nodding and hooking up the tiny camera to her wrist computer. She snatched her sunglasses off the pile of clothes and slid them on before continuing, force of habit by now. She pulled up the footage from the fight and skipped ahead to when she had been caught. The villains were terrified. She boosted the audio as much as possible.

"Tempt not the Owls, they hold the city in their hand. Fear the Owls, they are the true night. Touch not that which belongs to the Owls, or lose the harming hand." The dart had hit just about then but the camera was still active. There was a figure just out of sight but the face was easier to make out. A mask of pure white, with pitch black holes for eyes.

"Little Robin watched over Gotham city just like a good boy should. But soon the little Robin will be taken by the Owls, to become what she truly should be." Robin stepped back a bit as the blank black eyes stared into her soul and quickly shut off the footage. She needed Batman to see this.