AN: I decided to skip episode 11, which is the Belle Reve episode. I did have something there, but I can't find it anywhere, and it'll take me so much longer to either find it or rewrite it. The solution was to just skip it all together. Sorry?

Not sorry.

xXx

Dick stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, frowning at his crooked tie and his messy hair which refused to stay down. He quickly decided that he hated everything about his uniform, and instead of getting ready, he wasted most of his time glaring at his reflection.

"Bat-glares won't work on yourself." Bruce commented from the doorway, sounding amused.

Dick groaned in response. "I look so stupid," he mumbled. "Everyone is going to make fun of me."

Bruce shook his head and stepped forward. "No one will make fun of you. Here, let me help." He grabbed the container of hair gel and put a small amount of it on his hands before running it through the boy's hair. He then took the comb from Dick and used it to repeat the gesture, successfully keeping it down. "Better?"

A quick glance to the mirror was all he needed to nod. "Yeah, much better." He then tugged on his tie, grinning sheepishly. "Honestly, I've never touched a tie in my life."

The man chuckled and shook his head. "I suppose you wouldn't have, would you? Come here, I'll help you."

Within minutes, Dick no longer looked like someone who just crawled out of a Lazarus Pit, and had the sharp appearance of someone of Bruce's financial status. While that definitely was an improvement, he still hated the uniform. "Why can't I just wear my normal clothes?" He grumbled. "If they want a uniform, I have a better one in the Bat Cave."

Another laugh. "That you do."

He looked at Bruce's reflection, narrowing his eyes. "... I'm surprised that you didn't make another comment about me quitting Robin," he said quietly, knowing that the comment wouldn't do anything but start a fight.

The smile faded away. "Let's not discuss that right now." He said firmly, mouth set in a thin line. Dick knew that it would be pointless to argue that he wanted to talk about it now. Bruce wasn't willing to talk about anything unless he was the one to bring it up. They should switch names; Dick suited him more.

Well, they could both be assholes, then.

Dick shut his mouth and brushed past him, good mood already taking a bad turn. This argument had started days ago, after his guardian had been against him assisting the Team during the Belle Reve mission. Even though Robin had the most insight on how criminals behaved, he wasn't allowed to go undercover with M'gann and Connor. This lack of control over what should have been his own decision left a bad taste in his mouth, which successfully agitated him for the remainder of that day. When his mentor returned, they immediately shared a couple of words.

And by that, he meant that they had a twenty minute shouting match, which ended with Batman telling him that he wanted him to quit the hero business, and Dick storming out. The days after that were filled with bitter comments from both sides, slammed doors, and lack of eating on Dick's part. Eventually, he calmed down enough to see where his guardian was coming from, but he still didn't like it. Bruce wanted him to stop being Robin because the man was afraid that something would happen to him. Dick was glad that he cared enough to say something like that, but felt as though Bruce was implying that he couldn't take care of himself; that he wasn't good enough.

And if he wasn't Batman's protege, what was the point of him living in the Manor?

He frowned, and stopped where he stood. Being Batman's protege meant everything to him, and being a hero was even more important. If Bruce tried to take that away from him...

The situation was so frustrating. He had to be Batman's protege. Something in his mind told him that there was nothing else he could do, or his entire existence would be pointless.

... But why did he have those thoughts?

xXx

The car pulled up in front of the school, and Dick and Barbara both climbed out through the back doors. "Thanks for the ride Alfred," Barbara said with an exaggerated smile. "It was fun listening to Dick complain about his outfit the entire ride here."

Dick huffed. "Hey, don't act like you don't hate it too!"

Alfred simply smiled. "You are most welcome, miss Barbara." He then looked at Dick with those same disapproving eyes he had when the boy refused to talk to Bruce. The elderly man had tried to get the two to be civil, but had given up when the bat-glares began. "Master Dick, please eat a decent lunch today, since you yet again refused to sit with Master Bruce at breakfast. I will see you both after school."

The thought of food made his stomach feel uncomfortable, but he forced himself to not show it. The last thing he needed was either Barbara or Alfred thinking he had an eating disorder.

Which he probably did, but...

"I'll make no promises," he finally said, waving at him. "See you later Alfie."

The butler gave him another look of disapproval before pulling away, probably knowing that his adoptive grandson wasn't going to be eating. He was almost always looking at him like that, Dick realized. Did that mean something? Alfred liked him, didn't he? Before he could think about it any further, Barbara grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him towards the building. "We have no time for day dreaming, Dick. I promised Bruce and Alfred that I would give you a tour of the place before school starts." She narrowed her eyes at him.

Dick chuckled and let her drag him around. Leave it to Barbara to not take any of his self hating bull crap. She was a great friend, distracting him from things before they could effect him.

Speaking of friends...

Was that Artemis?

A girl with long blonde hair had her back to him, but her voice carried over. She sounded embarrassed about something she had said, and she turned her head slightly, unknowingly letting Dick get a look at her.

"Recognized: Artemis Crock." His chip chimed in his head.

Well, what do you know? She actually came to Gotham Academy after all. When Bruce told him about her scholarship, Dick immediately assumed that she would decline the offer. Apparently, she did not. Dick briefly wondered why she accepted, but decided that it really didn't matter. If he was being honest with himself, he was going to mess with her no matter what her reason was.

He ran over to her, threw an arm around him, and snapped a picture of them with his phone. "We'll laugh about this someday," he promised her before backing into the shadows, resisting the urge to cackle. Heh, he was going to have a lot of fun during the year.

Barbara remained where she stood, crossing her arms. "Dick, what was that about?" She asked without turning to look at him.

"Nothing, Barbara. Just being friendly to the new girl." Okay, that was a lame excuse, considering that he was new too. Oh well, what else would she think he was doing?

"Mmm." She huffed and turned around, stalking over to the building.

Dick shrugged and looked at the new photo on his phone. Yeah, it was perfect. The ultimate way to mix his civilian life with his hero one. Take that, Bruce! There was no way he was going to be normal now!

He gave himself a little grin and put his phone away, turning around to talk to his friend. Wait, where did she go? Dick stared at the spot he last saw her, feeling his heart sink. She ditched him? No, she probably thought he was right behind her. She knew about his anxiety issues and wouldn't just leave him there.

By himself. In a new setting.

Dick just about ran to the closest building, throwing the doors open and stumbling inside. He searched for Barbara nervously, blue eyes filled with panic. He was alone in a foreign building full of strangers, the only Team member in his proximity had no idea who he was, Bruce was back at home, and the one person who was supposed to stay with him left without a word. Dick took in a deep breath and slowly let it out to calm himself, reminding himself that he was at school and that no one meant him any harm. The students surrounding him were not going to point a gun at him anytime soon.

He could do this on his own.

As he searched the hallways for his locker, he started to make a list of reasons why he was safe, just to keep the panic at bay. Bruce had maximum security at Gotham Academy, the teachers would make sure nothing happened to him, he had his utility belt under his inform in case trouble arose, and Deathstroke had no idea where he was... Right?

His thoughts were pushed away as he was faced with a new task: opening his locker.

Dick stared at the numbers blankly and hesitantly grabbed the knob. It was just like a safe, wasn't it? He has opened one of those before. He turned the dial towards the correct numbers and then tugged at the handle. It didn't budge. Dick narrowed his eyes and tried it again, getting the same results. After a third fail, he pulled a scrap of paper out of his pocket and glared at it. On it was the information he needed to get into his locker. He didn't use the wrong combination, so what was it? Did he need to use a secret knock too? Was he turning it the wrong way? Did the school give him the wrong information?

The bell rang.

Dick scowled and entered his combo once again, growling when it continued to keep him out. What. The. Hell. Was school always like this?

Something told him that it was.

xXx (Later) xXx

Robin jumped onto a low building, and ran to jump over the ledge leading to the next. As he ran, he wiped the frustrated tears of off his face, mentally cursing himself for getting so emotional about everything.

He and Bruce had a fight the second he got home. About civilian life. Again.

And Bruce nearly fired him.

What started off as an innocent suggestion turned into an all out shouting match between the two of them, and they both said things that was untrue. They were aiming to hurt each other with their words in order to get the other to back down, but it didn't work. Bruce ended up storming out, and Dick, well...

He ran away.

He couldn't handle it. Bruce being so angry with him was painful enough without the man knowing just what to say to make him feel worthless. Dick had locked himself inside his room for fifteen minutes before deciding on leaving. He scribbled down a note telling Bruce that he was leaving, that he might be back later, grabbed the spare Robin costume out of his closet, and then escaped through the window.

And now, he was running through the streets with no where else to go. That was, until he saw Artemis trying to sneak into a Zeta Tube. Why didn't he think of that? He could always stay at the Mountain for the time being!

He dropped down in front of her, making her jump. "Artemis?" He asked in false surprise, tilting his head at her childishly.

"Robin? I, uh..."

He rose his eyebrows. "How random that you're in Gotham City instead of Star City, where your uncle, Green Arrow, lives?" He was somewhat curious to what kind of excuse she would come up with to justify why she would be in his city.

"I'm, uh, here to see my cousin," Artemis said lamely, "She was in the state spelling bee. Here. In Gotham. City."

Wow, she needed some work on her lying skills. He decided to go with it anyways, deciding he wouldn't tell her that he knew her identity. It would be a little weird if a kid told you that he knew your identity because a voice in his head informed him of it. "C-o-o-l. Did she w-i-n?"

Her eyes narrowed. "N-o."

"D-r-a-g."

"Yeah." She sighed. "Let's just go to the Cave."

Robin smirked and gestured to the Tube. "Ladies first."

"Your town," she argued, "you go."

Okay, she wasn't in a good mood. Maybe he should wait and mess with her later. He gave her the smallest of shrugs and stepped into the Tube. "Recognized: Robin, B01."

The dark environment of Gotham disappeared as Robin was showered in bright light, being replaced by the homey atmosphere of the Mountain.

And then he nearly died. Of course.

A great wave of heat suddenly came towards him, and he rolled to the side just in time to avoid being burnt to a crisp. Ah, the joys of being a hero. You never know when you're going to be barbequed.

"Recognized: Artemis, B07."

"Get down!" Robin shouted as another attack was directed towards her. He gave her no time to react herself, choosing to grab her by the arm and yank her down before she could be roasted. The attack had created an abundance of crimson colored smoke which managed to keep their opponents hidden. Robin stood up and put himself between the attackers and Artemis, throwing explosives in their general direction.

Artemis finally snapped out of her shock and started firing arrows into the smoke as well. "Who are we fighting?!"

He threw a couple of birdarangs at the figures. "Dunno, but we're sitting ducks by these Tubes. Head for the exit!" The two of them ran towards the only other exit the Cave had, but was stopped when a massive surge of water was sent towards them. "Or not."

The two tried to outrun the wave, but was eventually swept off of their feet by it. They were completely submerged in water for a few seconds, but it quickly relented, and they were left trying to catch their breath on the ground. Robin pushed away his weariness and stood back up, running with Artemis as they avoided several fire blasts. They then scrambled into the training room, the doors sliding shut behind them.

"Robin to Team. Come in. Aqualad!" He shouted while holding his hand up to his comm. There was no reply.

Another blast of fire from behind knocked them off of their feet again. They wasted no time in getting right back up again, avoided a vortex of fire as they fled.

Okay, time to get Batman.

"Robin to Bat Cave. Override: RG4." Again, there was no reply. Desperately, Robin switched signals again. "Cave calling Justice League. HOJ/Watchtower- B01: Priority Red."

During his attempts to contact anyone, he and Artemis had gone through the boy's locker room and Robin automatically went to turn the showers on. Artemis did the same, not even questioning his motive.

Oh. Oh. He was technically acting as leader right now!

"Comm is down." He turned one last shower on. Nothing happened. "Locked. At least the water's helping." The faucets then shot out of the walls, letting in large amounts of water. "Or not," he amended as the abundance of water lifted them up. They were again submerged, but Robin wouldn't let himself panic just yet. Mission. He had to focus on the mission. Keeping his thoughts calm, he swam over to a wall and attached an explosive to it. The disk made a whining noise as he retreated, and-

BOOM!

A hole was created in the wall, where all of the water escaped through, dragging Artemis and Robin with the current. The two of them gasped for breath simultaneously, and gave themselves a couple of seconds to expel all of the liquid from their lungs before moving again, aiming for the common room.

"We need to get lost," Robin said quietly.

Artemis pointed to the ventilation shaft in the kitchen. "The air vent!"

"Perfect. Go!" While Artemis jumped onto the counter to remove the grate, Robin went over to the nearest control panel and connected his holo glove to it. Alright, they needed a plan, and they would be dead in the next five minutes if they continued to wander around aimlessly.

"What are you-"

"Downloading Cave blueprints. Could come in-" he heard the sound of approaching footsteps and pulled his cord out of the panel, moving towards the vent. "Go, go!"

As the two of them moved through the maze of passageways, Robin pulled up the newly installed map on his holo glove. "Go left," he ordered, and Artemis complied. They barely managed to make the turn just as a jet of fire shot through the space they had just occupied. Robin sucked in a breath, feeling a small amount of panic before he squashed it. "Too close... Take the first right."

They continued on this new path for a minute, and Robin pulled up his map again. "There should be a cover right in front of you."

Artemis pulled the cover off and dropped down the chute, Robin following close behind. Once they had landed, Robin looked at his screen again. "This way," he said, running to down the nearby staircase. As they sprinted across the room, a figure cloaked in fire crashed through the ceiling. Both teens held their breath as it looked around, but were forced to move when it spotted them and readied an attack. As they ran, they saw that one of the machine's heat levels had risen to red. "Not good." He said, and they had to dodge another fireball. He pulled up his map again, wrinkling his nose. "I know that other access tunnel is here somewhere?"

"You mean this one?" Artemis asked from behind him, jumping into the now open vent. Way to be blind, Dick, he mentally scolded himself as he followed. As he dropped into the tunnel, he heard the explosive he planted on one of the machines go off. Ha, take that, hot head!

The tunnel was dark, but had just enough light for Robin to see what he was looking for. There! An electric panel! He took off the cover and plugged his holo glove's wire into it. "Locking out Cave's motion and heat sensors to prevent the enemy from tracking us."

"And I ask again: who is the enemy?"

Robin grinned. "Let's find out," he said, pulling up the security footage from earlier.

"Torque wrench." Wally said, and grinned when M'gann gave it to him. "Thank you, green cheeks."

Aqualad then spoke, "I have been meaning to ask: any problem with juggling your school work with your responsibilities here?"

"No," responded Superboy, or Conner, as Robin kept reminding himself.

Wally continued to work on Connor's bike. "Juggling's just one of my many talents. Socket wrench."

M'gann gave him his needed tool. "Daily cheerleading practice has presented a challenge. Oh, but my first loyalty is always the Team. This Team, not the Bumblebees."

"What of Robin and Artemis? Do you think they will have trouble maintaining their loyalties?"

Robin and Artemis both shared a scowl. What did Aqualad think they were doing when they weren't in school? Painting each other's nails? They spent most of their free time contributing to the hero community!

Wally paused on screen. "Rob? Have you even met that kid? I'm pretty sure he would rather be a hero all day than anything else." Thank you, Wally. "And Artemis will handle alright. I mean, how much more hostile and annoying-"

All of a sudden, the camera was taken out.

"What happened?" Artemis demanded.

"The explosion took out the camera. I'll find another angle." They went over the footage from all other cameras, but they all had the same problem. He suppressed a groan. "That's it. All four are dead."

Artemis stiffened.

"The cameras." Robin hurried to clarify. "I-I meant the cameras. I'm sure the others are okay." Well, he sure hoped so. The thought of losing those who were like his siblings made his heart sink. He shook the feeling away. Focus on the mission. "Just give me a sec to find the fastest route to the hanger." He brought up his map again to do just that.

"Yeah, they're fine. They've all got superpowers. They can handle anything."

Robin nodded slowly, unsure of what she was trying to get at. Uh, he had powers too. Sure, it wasn't as magnificent as the others, but it still counted!

Kind of.

He closed his map and motioned for her to follow him again. They crawled through another short vent and exited through a grate leading to the library. "There's a secret passageway behind one of these bookcases," he told her as they ran down yet another staircase.

"Seriously? Cliche much?"

He let out a quiet cackle. "You should see the Bat Cave!"

Thinking about the Bat Cave made him think about his mentor, and he frowned slightly. There was a chance that he wasn't going to make it through this, and he would regret not being able to apologize to his guardian for all of the awful things he said.

Focus on the now, he told himself, worry about Bruce when this is all over.

Robin and Artemis both froze when they heard the sound of a door opening. They both snapped out of it quickly enough and drew their weapons, moving to hide behind the closest bookcase.

"Artemis. Robin." A familiar voice said, and a figure came closer to them.

Artemis perked up. "It's Red Tornado!" She jumped out of her hiding spot without a second thought, only to be met by the sight of someone who did look like Tornado, but obviously wasn't. The imposter moved to grab the blonde, but Robin tackled her out of the way before it could reach her.

"Yes on the Red, no on the Tornado!"

They ran away from the Tornado look alike, but was stopped by yet another, this one being female. She thrusted both of her arms towards the teens, and they just barely moved out of the way before she shot fire out of her hands.

Robin used the shelves to climb on top of a bookcase, and pretended the bookshelves were rooftops, springing off one and onto another in order to pursue an escaping criminal.

Except he was the one escaping. And Artemis was with him instead of Batman.

As Robin jumped off of a final case, sprinklers from the ceiling came on. Okay, he had to find what book activated the secret passage, before the water chick drowned them. As he searched, Artemis fired an arrow behind them to keep the androids occupied. He found the book just as Artemis jumped down, and they scrambled into the passage right before the bookcase could crush them.

The entryway closed, and they ran down the hallway. "Did you know Tornado had... siblings?" Artemis asked.

"No," he answered, and moved to make a turn, but was stopped when Artemis grabbed his arm.

"So now what? Tornado was one of the powerhouses of the League. How are we supposed to take down two of him?!"

"They do seem pretty user unfriendly," Robin commented with a shrug.

"Don't joke! The-"

"Attention Robin. Attention Artemis. You have exactly ten minutes to surrender, or the lives of your friends will be extinguished."

Not good.

xXx

Robin and Artemis ran down the hall as fast as they could.

"Eight minutes." The Tornado wannabe announced.

He ignored that for the time being. "We can access the hanger from here." The sound of rushing water was heard the second he said that, and they turned around to see another massive wave coming towards them. "Or not."

"Will you please stop saying that?" Artemis snapped as they ran away from it. They were, of course, eventually swept off of their feet again. The force of the impact made the two of them accidentally gasp, which also caused them to inhale water. Robin had no equipment with him that would help him in this kind of situation, so he simply put up with not being able to breathe.

All of a sudden, one of the androids shot through the water and grabbed Artemis by the foot, pulling her back. Robin scowled and grabbed one of the archer's arrows that were floating around, swam over to the android, and drove the point of it into his eye socket. Robin then wrapped an arm around Artemis's waist, launching a grapple line that attached itself to the furthest wall and pulled them towards it. Behind them, the android was left to deal with the multiple explosives that Robin had left him.

Soon, both Robin and Artemis were able to surface, and they took in deep, gasping breaths.

"Look out!" Someone shouted, and they dove back under water to avoid another fireball. Wow, they were having lots of close calls today.

The two of them travelled under water, resurfacing when they were close to Superboy and Kid Flash. "You guys okay?" Robin asked, looking them over for any signs of serious injuries. Luckily, there were none.

"Forget us," Superboy said, "help M'gann."

Artemis followed his gaze and spotted Kaldur in the fire cage. "Aqualad, is she-"

"She is unconscious. I fear she- we- cannot survive much longer."

That definitely didn't sound good. They needed a plan, and fast. Before Robin could say anything, Red Tornado's sister appeared and shot another blast at Robin and Artemis. They ducked under water to avoid it again, and swam towards the closest staircase. When they surfaced and climbed out of the water, Robin noticed that he lost his cape somewhere. He actually didn't mind it; in fact, the lack of weight on his shoulders felt great.

While he was distracted by these thoughts, the two of them managed to let themselves be caught in between both androids.

"I'm almost out of arrows!" Artemis hissed as the teens stood back to back.

She was low on arrows, and he was running out of ideas. Okay, first things first, they needed a way to keep in contact with their friends. And he knew just how to do that. "Distract her!" He ordered, and she obeyed by firing an arrow at the female. While she did this, Robin charged at the male and chucked a bunch of disks at him. After two, he threw one at just the right angle, and it ricocheted off of the android's body and went flying towards Kid Flash and Superboy. Robin heard the speedster yelp, and knew that it hit its target.

Robin grabbed Artemis by the arm, and they both jumped back into the water just as the two Reds fired their attacks at them simultaneously. The young heroes shot through the water and swam towards a new vent grating. The grate was quickly pulled up, and they followed the vent, following its path upward until they could finally surface.

They collapsed onto the floor, panting from the lack of oxygen.

"Six minutes."

Artemis looked at him. "What do we do now?"

"We save them," he replied softly, "That's how this works."

She threw her hands up. "Maybe that's how it's supposed to work, but those robots already took out our four superpowered friends!"

Again with the superpower comment? He felt a stab of annoyance, but quickly pushed it away. He was in charge right now, and couldn't let his emotions get in the way of this mission. There were several lives at stake, and it wouldn't do anyone any good if they couldn't keep their heads straight. "You seem distraught," he commented, knowing that she would react badly to it. It was best if she got all of her bad thoughts out right now, so they wouldn't distract her in the field.

"Distraught?!" She exploded, as expected. "M'gann is dying, we have no powers, and I'm down to my last arrow! Of course I'm distraught!"

"Well get traught, or get... dead." He had purposely used the word that Bruce created, finding that this life threatening situation made him really regret the fight they had.

Wait, no emotions. Bad.

He shook his head and began to move again. "How can you be so calm?" Artemis asked quietly. "You're supposed to be the panicking one. You have high anxiety, right? So how is it that you can just... do this?".

He stopped, and sighed. "Practice. Living like I have for so long makes you realize that you can't panic in battle. You have to push those feelings away, and if needed, let them out later."

It was Deathstroke who taught him this technique. During his training in Cadmus, he cried all the time and panicked anytime he so much as saw a sword. After the message was quite literally beat into him, it became a lot easier to handle. He still messed up from time to time, but he was certain that he was getting better.

... It was weird how getting amnesia in Bialya unlocked a lot of his memories, including those. There was a huge piece missing from the puzzle, but-

"There might not be a later! What chance do we have against unrelenting machines?"

.Wait. If they were machines, then Robin could use his new ability to defeat the enemy, couldn't he? He focused his mind on the area he just left, and felt the buzzing of electronics there. If he focused, then maybe he could-

No, he couldn't. They might be machines, but they still thought like human beings. Even though they weren't technically living, to completely get rid of them like that would be no different from murder.

And Robin was no murderer.

But he did have a different solution. "Duh, they're machines! And one electromagnetic pulse will shut down any machine within range."

"Great! Except you better have an EMP emitter in your utility belt, because I know I don't have one in my quiver."

It seemed as though sarcasm was Artemis's favorite weapon whenever she was stressed. "Fresh out. But I'm betting we can make one." He pressed his hand again his communicator, which was connected to the disk that he threw towards Wally. "What do you say, KF? Doable?"

"Totally doable."

"Five minutes."

".. You know, if you had more time."

Robin and Artemis crawled out of the vents and into the med lab, listening to Wally's instructions. As the boy commanded, Robin pulled out his holo glove and used it to convert x-rays to EMPs with a cascading energy vector directed outward. Robin then pulled one of the blue canisters out of the machine, awed by the brilliance of it. "A ripple effect. Like dropping a stone into a pond."

"A stone with ten to the twelfth power of wattage, yeah."

Robin tightened his grip on the canister. This might be their only chance for everyone to walk out of this alive. "So, we need to hook it up to the Cave main generator."

"Which is where?" Artemis asked.

He smiled sheepishly and led her back through the vents, this time using the vents leading to above the glider, instead of below.

"Four minutes."

"Okay," Robin whispered after making sure that neither of the androids had spotted them. He brought his hand back up to his comm. "Make with the distraction."

"Hey, Red Tomato!" KF shouted. "Who's your girlfriend, Red Onion?"

Connor joined in. "Yeah, and by the way, worst death trap ever! We can escape anytime we want."

... If this was the best they could do, Robin was going to need a serious talk with Batman about the Team's ability to distract.

"I can vibrate my molecules out of here before your binary brains can count to two."

Robin was done listening to this. "Cover me," he whispered to Artemis, connecting a line to a wall and jumping over to the platform that the generator rested on. He immediately opened the compartment door and lowered the canister inside before plugging his glove in. "Rerouting power now," he said quietly. He looked over at the androids and saw them standing exactly where they were earlier, unaffected. "It's not working." He looked it over and finally spotted the problem. "Circuit's incomplete, I need something conductible. A piece of metal-"

"ROBIN LOOK OUT!" Artemis screamed.

The boy spun around, and his eyes widened as he was met with a giant wave. There was no time to react, and absolutely no where to run. He was unable to do anything while the water pulled him off of the edge of the platform and submerged him completely.

A couple of bubbles came out of his mouth as he cried out in shock, which was a big mistake because it used up all of his oxygen. He tried to remain calm, but he couldn't breathe. He seriously couldn't breathe.

Stay traught, he told himself. 'Act like you've drowned before you actually do.'

He closed his eyes and let his body fall limp, faking unconsciousness. His body wanted to thrash around in all directions, but he stubbornly held still. He had to keep up the act...stall for time... he had to...

It wasn't an act anymore.

xXx

Everything was dark. He wasn't aware of anything, really. It was like there was fog over his mind.

"Power shutting down." A robotic voice mentally informed him. Why did that matter? He was sleeping...

Something was wrong, though. It was difficult to breathe. Was he even breathing at this point? Hm...

He was alone.

That didn't feel right. Bruce? Barbara? Where were they? Alfred, and Wally?

A hand fell onto his head, and another on his chest. Was it... Bruce? He forced his eyes to open, coughing as he did so. Both of his eyes narrowed against the sudden sight of bright light, but he managed to make out the form of Artemis. Oh, right! The androids!

"He- he's breathing too!"

She must have been talking to one of their Teammates, and since she was speaking so freely, it must've meant that she was able to fix the circuit.

They won.

"Way to get traught," he said, smiling weakly.

...

"Figured my only shot was to "surrender," pretend to drown before I actually did. Blacked out though," Robin told the gathered Team. M'gann and Kaldur were recovering from their bad experience with fire, while Wally and Connor received no serious injuries from the course of the drawn out battle. Robin was relieved that everyone was okay, but wasn't sure about what they would do if the androids woke up.

He was too exhausted to fight.

"M'gann," Connor said softly, holding his hand out.

The Martian smiled and took it. "I'll be fine," she assured in a tired voice.

Woah, they were holding hands? Did that mean that they were a thing? It was about time! All that was left was for Artemis and Wally to admit they had feelings for each other.

Well, he wasn't in a hurry to find someone for himself just yet. Actually, that thought rarely ever crossed his mind. He had been distracted by so many things that he never considered himself to be a relationship kind of guy. Well, there was one person he could see himself dating, but...

"Will you quit playing with that thing and cut us free already?" Wally snapped.

Artemis glared. "It's not working, genius. EMP shuts down all machines, remember?"

"All machines present at the time," Red Tornado added as he entered the room. Robin nearly had a heart attack just from hearing his voice. The other Reds really messed with his head. "What has occurred?"

Robin answered with, "Had a little visit from your family."

"Your extremely nasty family," Artemis put in.

"I was not aware I had relations."

Connor frowned. "Where have you been?"

"Monitor duty in the Watchtower." Red walked over to the fallen androids. "When it became clear that Cave communications were down, I attempted to investigate, but your Zeta Tubes were also malfunctional." He knelt down next to the two. "I transported to Province, and proceeded here."

Sphere then made a whirring noise as it removed itself from the crater in the wall. Superboy watched it, relaxing slightly. "Hey, boy."

A red beam shot out of the object Artemis was holding just as Robin's chip said, "Rebooting..."

That could only mean one thing. "The pulse has worn off!" He and KF exclaimed at the same time. Everyone stared at the three androids, falling silent as Tornado gently touched one of their hands.

And then there was more chaos.

All of a sudden, Red Tornado sprung off of the ground and into the air, generating twisters to suck away all of the oxygen in the room. Robin gasped and grabbed at his throat desperately as he struggled to breathe, and fell to his knees. His vision blurred, and he let out one final, strangled gasp before falling to the side, unconscious once again.

xXx

"Dick. Dick, you need to wake up."

Dick groaned, but complied, automatically obeying the familiar deep voice. He forced his eyes open, and saw that it was Batman who woke him. His first thought was him wondering if he accidentally fell asleep while he was getting ready for patrol. Oops? "Sorry," he mumbled tiredly, slumping forward and being caught by Batman.

"Dick, snap out of it."

He blinked slowly, trying to piece together what happened. Finally, he remembered: Red Tornado attacked them! His eyes widened, and he searched the room for the traitorous android, only to find that he was in the Bat Cave instead of the Mountain. "Wha-"

"The others already told me what happened. You were still unconscious, so I brought you here."

Oh. That made sense. "Why'd you wake me up?"

"To make sure you weren't seriously injured. You don't seem to have a concussion, which is good. Give me a list of your injuries."

He waited for his chip to give him the list, but it was strangely quiet. "Probably just a few minor burns and bruises. I didn't get hurt too bad."

"Hmm. Fine."

"Did you find the Reds?"

Bruce pulled his cowl off and moved towards the Bat Computer. "No."

The lack of detailed answers made him wince. "You're mad at me."

The man narrowed his eyes. "You ran away without telling me where you were going. I tried to use the Zeta Tube to get to the Cave, but your Tubes were down. I even tried contacting you through your communicator, but that wouldn't work either." He ran a hand over his face. "So no, I'm not mad, but you have no idea how worried I was."

"... I'm sorry."

A blink. "What?"

"I said I'm sorry. I didn't mean any of those things I said, I shouldn't have ran away, and I'm sorry for worrying you."

Bruce slowly turned around, and regarded him for a second. Finally, his expression softened. "Me too. I also said some things that I shouldn't have." He sighed and returned to where Dick was, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'll stop pestering you about being Robin. I finally realized that it wasn't right for me to try and force you out of doing something you love."

Dick grinned. "It's alright, Bruce. Seriously, all I could think about while I was fighting those androids was how much I regretted our fight."

A nod. "I thought the same when I couldn't find you. I thought you were..." he shook his head. "Anyways, Artemis told me about how you remained calm and took control of the entire situation. Dick, that's a big accomplishment for someone with your high levels of anxiety."

'I'm proud of you,' is what Dick translated from that.

"I'll probably have a few nightmares to make up for it," he joked. "Maybe even have a panic attack the next time I see a tomato."

"...A tomato?"

"Blame Wally. He's really bad at distractions."

Bruce chuckled and nodded. "I believe that. So, how did fight really go? I think Artemis left out some information."

Dick grinned knowingly and launched into the tale, adding sound affects and exaggerated hand motions as he did so. Bruce listened to his every word, chuckling and making light comments every once in a while. Eventually, exhaustion caught up with him again, and his traitorous eyes drooped. Bruce took over with the conversation, going on and on about absolutely nothing. Eventually, Dick dozed off, falling against his guardian.

He later woke, recognizing his ceiling above him. Wait, Dick didn't fall asleep there, right? Heh, Bruce was such a softy, bringing him up to his bed after he passed out. And people said that he didn't have a heart.

It was good to be home.

xXx

AN: There's some good hints about the future right here. They're good, but they're also decently hidden. In time, one should be able to piece everything together. Or just wait until I tell everyone. That works too. xD

Anyways, thanks to everyone who reviewed! I'll see you all next chapter.