Author's note: Wow, it seems that you're really into this story. Dark Robin is certainly a great way to develop a plot, right? Just imagine all the intension, twists and turns you might encounter along the way! Why didn't the producer of the Teen Titan let things flow this path right at the beginning?

Ahhh, right! This is supposed to be a kid show, my bad…

Anyway, let's get on with the third chapter. Are you ready for some mischiefs up a certain masked hero's sleeve?

Chapter 3

The weather was very nice today. Robin noted to himself as he gazed out of the blissful blue sky embellished with clumps of floating white clouds just outside the gigantic window of the Tower's Common Room. A nostalgic feeling slowly built up within the Boy Wonder as he took in his surroundings as well as everyone present in the room. Everything, even the tiniest details, was the spitting image of the piece of memory running in his mind.

He was occupying the seat in the middle of the black sofa. Starfire sat to his left, one of her legs was crossing on top of the other as she laced her delicate fingers together and placed them atop her knees. Beast Boy took the sit to his right, his back stiffly straightened as he kept fidgeting in his spot. His nervousness reflected in his pursed lips as well as the beads of sweats kept rolling down his forehead. Cyborg stood behind them all, clutching the headrests tightly in his massive hands. His face was calm, but still couldn't hide the fact that he was anxious.

Robin's orbs darted around underneath his masks, taking a good look at all of his friends before coming to a halt at the person sitting on a chair just behind the coffee table.

The man's appearance entered his vision. The familiar angular face with hollow cheeks and chiseled jawline, nasolabial folds ran deep on his skin, etching down even further whenever his lips curved into a smile. Age had done a number on him, given the fact that his brown hair had already mixed with white strands and several wrinkles ran under his eyes. Still, his entire feature showed a distinctive temperament that few could possessed.

What's more, his brown eyes expressed calm and quietude, but a part of they still carried sincerity and sympathy – exactly the expression a stranger would wear when coming to condole with somebody.

No wonder his younger self was fooled by this look. A cruel glint flashed across Robin's cold eyes as he studied the older man in front of him. Not even a trait of reluctance or disdain could be picked up from his behavior, expression, and even posture. As expected of a cunning old fox. Never let his guard down until what he wanted was in his palm.

"Mr. Mayor." The Boy Wonder greeted with a small smile. As the word fell out of his lips, he had to tighten his fingers into fists to stop them from shaking in rage. That title, that spiteful, contemptuous, despicable title was pulling memories out from the bottom of his mind. But it only took a moment before he managed to push them all down.

"It's such an honor for us to get your visit today." Spoke Robin as he picked up the pot of tea on the table and pour a cup for himself, then his team, and then the "venerable mayor" sitting in front of him. His eyes stole a glance at the older man, and his lips secretly twitched into a sly smirk before falling down again.

There was no need to drown himself in rage anymore.

The time when he could literally tear that spurious, detestable smile off that bastard's face would come soon.

All he needed was a little bit patience.

"Don't mention it, my young friend. And you can call me Mr. Ruth, by the way." The older man's smile turned even brighter as he casually lifted the cup and sipped a gulp: "You're the protectors of the city, and now you're obviously in a grave distress. This is the least I can do for you."

"Thank you, Mister Ruth. That is really nice of you to say so." Starfire nodded her head gratefully as she tried to uphold her composure. Mr. Ruth answered her with a small, reassuring, his hand reached out to pat her slightly. Robin and the other Titans didn't say anything. But he could detect that at the moment the final words slipped from the mayor's lips, tension had begun to rise in the room.

"This must be a harsh time for all of you. I can hardly imagine what you're going through right now. I myself would have been devastated for the rest of my life if my close friend was behind bars for such a terrible thing." He paused for a moment, letting out a long sigh, before continuing: "Ms. Raven was… a good person. She contributed a lot to this city. She never failed our trust and always fulfilled the duty of a hero. I…Even now I still can't believe that she was capable of those brutal crimes."

Robin sat in his spot and listened to the "sympathetic" words the mayor had to offer. As expected of someone who could slip away from his fingers until he was the only one left. Age truly did come with wisdom. He had to give this old man some credits, not everybody could put the art of killing without spilling blood into practice this well.

Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy could barely hold themselves together upon entering the room to meet with the mayor. Ever since Raven was accused and locked away, their life hadn't been easy at all. The reality of one of their own turned her back on all obligations and duties of a hero and did the most unspeakable things was enough to tear them apart. And the pressure they faced every day just dug that wound deeper and deeper. The citizens and the press would often crowd up around them after every battle, making questions about Raven's incident. They tried to defend her, but the situation kept on deteriorating when all evidences pointed otherwise.

They knew there was no hope. Still, they struggled to maintain the unaffected images.

But those words were simply the last straw. They reminded them of what they never wanted to accept, peeling the scabs off an unhealed wound.

Starfire couldn't hold on anymore. Her big, emerald eyes began wavering, and she had to bite her lips to stop the sobs from coming out. Cyborg's robotic hands tightened around the cushions as he bit his lips and bowed his head. Beast Boy's head fell into his hands as his fingers tightened around his green hair. He could feel his body tremble. This pain was simply too much for them to take on, and none of them could do anything to fix it…

But the tension in the atmosphere soon shattered. None of them expected their leader to talk. They thought that he, just like themselves, was being swallowed in all the trauma and grief the current situation put them through.

"Thank you for thinking of us, Mr. Mayor." Robin spoke casually as he put the cup of tea back onto the table. "But that won't be necessary. I myself don't believe our Raven is capable of those crimes either. It just doesn't sit right with me. She is a good person, she protects the citizen, and she has contributed a lot to the city, so she just doesn't have any reason to damage it, right? As her leader and friend, I believe in her innocence. And I think that you should do just the same. After all, she has never failed any of us, isn't that right, Mr. Mayor?"

His lips tugged into a small smirk as he finished the last words. Underneath the masks, his eyes secretly followed Ruth's reactions, and he instantly picked up a dark glint flashed across those brown orbs, but it disappeared within a split second. On the outside, his expressions remained unchanged, but satisfaction was swelling up within him. Had it not been for the current situation, he might have already let a full grin bloom on his lips.

Did that old bastard really thought he nobody would notice that he put everything about Raven's heroism in past tense to etch into their mind that she had casted it all away?

As expected, his plan upon coming here was obviously to open up their old wounds and leave behind even more fresh ones.

Robin thought as he put one hand on top of the other to cover the fact that his fingers were tightening into fist. This conversation did take place in his past life. But at that time, he was blinded by the sadness for Raven and the belief that Ruth was on his side the whole time, so he couldn't see through the rotten nature behind that smiling face. He even felt grateful that someone as busy as the mayor could come and condole with them!

Just how foolish was him back there?

"It is a good thing that you can still have faith in your friends in such a time." Ruth flashed him another sympathetic smile, picking up his cup and drained the liquid inside: "This virtue is not something many can possess. I know it is difficult, and I want to believe in her to. But the evidences are as clear as daylight now. I'm terribly sorry, but you must accept that…"

"There are people framed almost every day in the world, Mr. Mayor, and there are people released for the same cause every day." Robin nonchalantly cut in: "Wasn't there a man like that in Jump last month? I remembered news about that were all over the place. As I remembered, he was proven guilty at first, right?" His lips formed a small smirk as he continued, underneath the masks, his cold blue orbs pierced into Ruth's brown ones: "Who knows? Maybe her name will be cleared today, or tomorrow, or the day after that, or the moment she is transported away. Nobody can be certain of the future." His body slightly leaned forward as he lowered his tone and enunciated every word clearly: "We'll stand by her side the whole time. We'll be there as the abject miscreant that slandered her facing their punishment. And I'm sure that you, the one who always stand for justice and peace, will do the same for their protector, right? You did say that you never believed that she could perform those brutal actions, didn't you?"

The corner of his lips quickly tugged into a devious line before dropping back in an instance as he saw Ruth's smile withered as his expression went constrained and his jaw tightened. The last shred of amiability gradually vanquished from his eyes, leaving behind nothing but total darkness. Having his own plan backfired with the words he intended to use with them at the beginning and by the one he always looked down on was certainly not a very pleasant feeling. The bastard must be furious now!

"Mr. Mayor? What's wrong? Why are you so fretful out of a sudden?" Robin leaned against the cushion of the black sofa, putting on an innocent smile as he eyed the older man. He could sense that his friends were eyeing him with shock spread across their expressions, but he just brushed that aside.

He didn't intend to explain this whole… restore-to-life incident to them. He didn't want to hide it from them at all, but they wouldn't believe. Even some part of him still thought it as an utter delusion by now! Trying to explain everything could lead to an even bigger mess. In the worst case, they might process this as a sign of him being out of his mind due to the unbearable stress lately and send him to an asylum.

As far as he could tell, right now, the number one choice for this matter would be not breathing a single word.

Robin pondered for a moment before again driving his attention back to Ruth. The man had already snapped out of his unintentional broadcast of feelings and was no longer hot under the collar. This wasn't something of a surprise, the Boy Wonder had already seen this coming. His choice of words might be out of the man's anticipation and rendered him frustrated for a while. But it would take more than that to truly drag his real nature out.

Still, it didn't matter. He had already stamped on that vile plan of tearing his team apart even more. For now, that was quite enough.

"Sorry, something just popped up in my mind." Ruth replied with a calm and placid voice, a slight smile tugged his lips' corner upward. It was like he and the person whose face contorted in wrath from earlier wasn't the same person. "You know, boring paper works, they're all over my office now." His orbs rolled down, and he suddenly raised his wrist with an exclamation of disbelief : "Oh my, look at the time! It's already this late. I'd better get back. Goodbye, Titans. And I hope you can all make it through this harsh time."

With that, he flashed them one last smile before standing up from his seat and displayed himself to the door. He took long pace. The action seemed nothing suspicious, but by the look of his rigid spine and his somewhat urgent footsteps, Robin could tell that he wanted nothing more than getting out of here at once.

"Whoa, dude, that was... speechless." From the furthest corner of his right, Beast Boy suddenly inched closer to him, his words slipped out just above a whisper as if he had yet snapped out of his stupor. He even jabbed his forearm multiple time as if to make sure that he was still the real deal and hadn't be replaced by a robot or alien or something.

Robin turned to meet his green friend's gaze. Tons of questions were swimming in Beast Boy eyes, as clearly as daylight since the younger boy didn't even bother to hide them. And although they didn't say anything, the Boy Wonder could tell with no difficulty that Cyborg and Starfire were staring at him in awe, still had doubt in what they had just witnessed.

"I only told him the truth." Robin shrugged, removing his eyes from his shocked friends before latching his look at the door where the mayor had just walked through seconds ago. His voice was calm, almost like nothing had happened and he himself didn't have the mayor left in such a thunderstruck state. "Raven isn't a criminal. He should have already seen that, but he didn't. As a mayor, he shouldn't let false information get to his mind this much. I just wanted to remind him."

"But Robin, she's in a very dire situation here. The laws, the evidence, the police, everything is against her." Cyborg breathed out in a desperate manner. The pain lingered in his eyes showed that he didn't want to accept this either, but there was no other choice.

"She was framed, and that is all that matters." The Boy Wonder replied with a stern manner as he stood up and made his way to the gigantic glass scene that looked out onto the ocean below and the faraway city. As the puzzled gazes of the other Titans fell on his back, confused of what he about to do, he suddenly turned back, almost making them jump from their spots.

"Raven is our friend, and right now she needs us more than anything. Those people out there, they don't know her. They only believe in what they see with their own eyes. To them, she is just a criminal who committed unforgivable crimes and must be punished, nothing more, nothing less. It's written in the stone for them, and it has etched into their mind that she is evil. So they won't try and fight for her. Every slandered victim has to undergo the same thing, and it's definitely not a pleasant experience."

Robin stated his point with a clear, steadfast manner. Those were things he had realized and always hold within himself ever since she pulled him out from the icy depth of the ocean and held him as her power made its way into his flesh and sewed up all his wounds. She acted like nothing had changed, and there was nothing wrong with her. But he knew deep down inside, she was not, that a terrible scar had carved itself onto her mind and soul, a scar that could never be erased.

And no matter how hard he tried, he still couldn't completely tear down the wall that had concreted between them.

He could never truly return what had been taken from her.

It was always eating him from inside out, pulling down his heart with a massive weight, and burying him under pile after pile of laments.

He never stopped wishing he could do everything all over again. Then he would protect her with all he got, hold her in his arms and never let her go. Never would he let any tragedy fall upon her.

And now that he had been granted with that chance, he intended to keep his words no matter what it cost!

The thoughts ran through Robin' head, filled with determination as his gloved fingers clenched so hard that his nails seemed to have torn through the spandex and pierced into his palm. He took a while to observe his friends, taking in their reactions. One by one, he saw their expressions began shifting, starting with disbelief, then doubt mixed with incredulity, then a bit bewilderment as his words finally set in. Eventually, the waves after waves of emotions sweeping through their features stopped, and utter calm took over them.

"You… you're right." Cyborg muttered after a while of silence, shaking his head as his voice picked on a higher notch while anger started lingering in his tone: "There was no way our girl could do such a thing. Somebody must have set her up. Just wait until I got my hand on them!"

"We shall stand at her side. Oh, our poor friend, it must be terrible for her to live the life behind those bars. We need to get her out quickly." Starfire stood up from her seat, her voice wavered as thoughts of what her friend must be going through right now ran through her mind. Still, her emerald eyes gleamed with utter determination as she made her point: "You are precise, friend Robin. This is the time friend Raven needs us the most and we cannot let her down."

"Dude, you're surprising us." Beast Boy was the last one to talk, after the other two had finished for one minute. Even now, his eyes still couldn't hide the awe and disbelief Robin had dragged him through. "I thought you would be like 'We must do what's best for the city' and 'We have no other choice'. You've always been that way since they took her away." He stopped, locking his gaze with his leader's, and suddenly his lips cracked into the wildest smile his muscles were capable of displaying: "I'm so glad that you changed, Rob. We'll do all we can to clear her name."

Robin just replied them all with a brief nod before again returning his masked eyes back to the see-through glass. His reflection staring back at him, two set of masked eyes pierced into each other as he inched closer to the screen, until his nose almost met the cold surface of glass.

He never thought he could see himself like this again.

The protector of the city, the leader of the Titans, the one that always upheld justice by all he got.

He took a long look at the ebony hair that was always neatly shaped into spikes, the red shirt of his uniform, the 'R' symbol he always carried on his chest, the black-yellow cape that never left his back, and the domino masks that hid his real identity beneath. This was Robin. Fearless Robin, brave Robin, courageous Robin, the one that never stop fighting the wrong and stood up for the right.

His fingers suddenly smashed onto the screen, right in the middle of his face as his brows furrowed and his jaw clenched.

Stupid Robin, foolish Robin, rash Robin, the one who let his entire family die and push the girl he loved away.

He became Nightwing because he couldn't stand seeing Robin again every time he caught glance of his reflection. Just the thought of how stupid he was and how he was completely unaware of how those bastard stabbed him in the back all the time enough to drive him over the edge. He was afraid he would someday take his own life if he went on living as Robin.

And now, fate had brought Robin back to him once more.

But he didn't find this ironic, not even a bit. He was angry at himself back there for being so foolish. But this also made him see one thing clearly.

Robin was the one at fault, not Nightwing, nor Dick, nor Richard Grayson, so Robin must be the one who fixed it. Robin must be the one who took back what he had lost.

And as for those that dare to take anyone he cherished away from him…

The Boy Wonder's eyes narrowed as his vibrant blue orbs underneath the mask ran cold. Something began stirring in the depth of them and began getting closer to the surface. His eyes went darker, and darker, and darker as whatever underneath them emerged and coated them in utter darkness. In an instance, all emotions faded from his gaze, all but a wicked glint and utter ferocity.

The corner of his lips twisted into a devious grin as he gazed upon the city below.

They better sleep with one eye opened from now on, because Robin would be out for their blood!

oOo

The chamber was small, brightly illuminated, but small. Everything inside was kept as simple as possible. Four walls clad in titanium, a small bed located in a corner of the room, while a toilet and a sink located in another corner. And that's it. No table, or chair, or mirror, or any other essentials. A door was attached to one side of the room – it was a gigantic one, made from an entire hunk of metal, rigid and completely unbreakable.

A small figure was curling up on the thin mattress of the bed. The curves and shape of the body showed that it was a young girl. Her short violet hair scattered around the pillow underneath her head, some strands even spilled onto her face, but it seemed that she didn't mind. Her skin looked pale, but not in usual or lively way. Bags had already formed underneath her eyes as her violet orbs focused gazed into distance, as though she was trying to escape from reality. Had it not been for her constantly rising chest, she might have appeared dead by now.

The girl stirred, somehow catching the sight of her orange uniform in the way. A bitter smile pulled her lips upward. Who would have thought that the strong and proud Raven of the Teen Titans would someday end up locked up in the most secure sector of the prison like this?

And even worse, for murdering 20 people at once, including 4 cops…

While she didn't even know when and how she committed it…

Raven let out a long sigh. She hated being so helpless and incapable of anything like this. But what could she possibly do now? All the evidences were again her, all the witnesses were against her, and all the testimonies were against her. How could there be witness when she didn't even do anything?

The empath knew that she was framed, that someone was trying to set her up, but she didn't know how she could get out, because nobody would believe her.

The city, the citizens, the police…

Her friends…

The thought of her friends sent a sharp needle through Raven's heart. She missed them, she really, really missed them. She missed the squabble between Beast Boy and Cyborg over what to eat for breakfast. She missed the Starfire's persistence in getting her to taste her alien meal or accompany her to the shopping mall. She missed the training sections with Robin every morning. She missed everything about them.

She wanted to see them so, so bad.

But even them wouldn't believe her. They thought that she actually slaughtered 20 people by her own hands. And there was nothing she could do to get them to trust her again when the evidences were as clear as daylight.

Raven had hoped that her name would be clear sooner or later. She had thought that she wouldn't have to be here long, and her friends would come and get her right away. But days kept on passing by, and nothing ever changed. Nobody came and freed her.

Her hope had started wearing thin.

She still couldn't get it. Why did thing come down to this?

Suddenly, the door to her chamber burst opened, cutting Raven's chain of thoughts. Startled, the empathy jumped up from her bed and cautiously turned her eyes toward the opened entrance. At least 4 cops were standing there, in their amours with apparently loaded weapons in their hands. Raven's brows furrowed. This was strange. Cops did drop by her chamber once in a while, but never had the full set on like this.

"What is…"

Her lips parted to make a question. But before she could finish, someone in the group suddenly lifted their gun and fired at her!

Raven's heart almost jumped to her throat as her eyes went wide. Still, it was already too late for her to avoid the strike. She wasn't in her best shape now, and her power had been nullified by a special collar around her neck. All she could do was standing there and watched as a wave of electricity shot out of the gun in a split second, and quickly engulfing her entire body!

Unbearable pain seared through her flesh and bone, and Raven had no choice but to let out a scream before crumbling to the floor. The attack was simply too much for her body to take on, and her system had started shutting down. As darkness clouded over her vision, she could still see several figures approaching her, as their voice slipped into her ears:

"Is she out yet?"

"Look like it. She took quite a hit. I doubt that she can still stay awake."

"Less talking. We don't have much time. Grab her and leave."

"Fuck, just look at those curves! Lucky bastards, they get to have her all for themselves."

What?

Raven tried to figure out what they were saying. But she couldn't hold on any longer. Her entire body hurt, and her mind refused to cooperate.

With a painful groan, the dark girl was out.

Author's note: That's it, end of chapter 3! Do you like it? Tell me in the reviews, okay?