Beast Boy growled in frustration as he kicked a chair in the Tower med bay into a wall. The team had reconvened there after the fight and chase. Their collective mood was tense and somber.

"Gar, you need to calm down," Starfire was busy addressing a serious wound on Tara's arm as the girl sat on a bed in her tattered uniform, looking every bit as pissed.

"I can't believe we let those guys get away!" Beast Boy shouted, ignoring his leader's command.

He himself was in rough shape, second to Tara, with blood running down his face from a flesh wound to his forehead, and various tears in his uniform to other superficial cuts and scratches.

"We didn't let them get away. How could you even say that?" Wonder Girl shouted at Beast Boy.

She sat on another bed while Superboy, who wore a grim expression, cleaned her cuts with antiseptic. Most of her wounds had already mostly healed, thanks to her accelerated healing, but some deeper ones sustained in the initial explosion were still on the mend.

"Well, they got away, didn't they?! After they almost killed all of you, after they shot Tara, how could I lose them?" Beast Boy continued to rage, grabbing fists full of his hair in frustration.

Tara glanced at him them, eyeing him up and down. Starfire had just finished giving her the localized anesthetic to start digging the bullet out of her arm.

"Hombre, if you don't sit down so I can clean that wound, we're gonna have to restrain you," Blue Beetle warned him.

Beast Boy exhaled roughly, "Fine."

Raven stood next to Starfire, assisting her with Tara, getting her the necessary tools, and cleaning any other small wounds. Her jaw was clenched tightly, and her brow was furrowed as she tried to keep the negative emotions in the room from affecting her, as well as her own emotions from affecting others. She knew Beast Boy's outburst wasn't uncalled for, as everyone was feeling a similar sense of frustration and defeat.

Tara had been shielded from the initial blast by Raven, who was only able to shield the two of them in time. Most of Tara's wounds, and the rest of the team's, had been sustained afterwards as they got tossed in the jagged rubble during the battle. Raven herself was dirty, bruised, but otherwise unharmed as her powers had protected her in the fight.

"You're sure you don't want me to heal that?" Raven offered to Tara, a little in disbelief as watched Starfire drop the bloody bullet on the tray of used tools.

"Thanks, but no thanks," Tara responded dryly.

Raven just shrugged and brought Starfire what she needed to stitch up Tara's arm.

"I know we're all deeply disturbed from today's events," Starfire began to address the group as she continued to work on Tara, "we had what appears to be a targeted attack on our civilian lives, with no answers as to who, what, why, or how. We need to stay level-headed and alert, and we need to rely on each other now more than ever. Right now, we need to care of each other and ourselves before we can go take care of our city that is also hurting right now…" Starfire trailed off and looked away from the blood she was cleaning off Tara's arm to look at the news channel that was on the med bay tv.

Total casualties were still uncertain as search and rescue crews were still working to find anyone else trapped in the rubble. The bomb had gone off in a central area of the mall that many people had been passing through, right outside the store the girls had been in, which got ripped apart in the explosion. So far, there were 4 confirmed dead, and at least 40 injured, according to the local news station. The rest of the team looked on, and a renewed sense of failure settled over them.

Starfire looked away, sighing sadly, before returning to dress Tara's wound.

"We will bring these people to justice, but we can't do that in the state we're in. No patrols until I reassess our routes and protocols. We'll need added safety measures in case we were the intended target. We will rest and recover tonight, and examine this with fresh eyes tomorrow," Starfire finished.

The room nodded in collective, if reluctant, agreement.


Across the country, at Wayne manor, the three brothers sat staring at the Batcave computer with tired eyes.

"I'd hate to say it…" Jason started; his strained eyes still trained on the screen. He had his elbow on the console, with his chin rested in his hand.

"Then don't," Damian warned. He was leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed and his legs spread wide, trying to find a comfortable position after sitting for a couple hours in the spare chairs was becoming difficult.

"…these guys are good. Gotta be professionals. No way this was a random attack at this point," Jason continued anyway.

Dick closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"We've been at this for hours and still haven't figured out where or when the bomb was planted, let alone who. We've found that most, if not all, the cameras in the area the bomb went off were hacked and put on a loop way ahead of time. Clearly, these were professionals. Clearly, this was targeted. The implications of that are huge," Dick paused and looked over at Damian, "I know you just got home, but we're both going to be needed in Jump. I'm going to have to called Tim and Steph back from their trip…"

"Trip? You mean mission?" Jason jumped on the slip right away.

"Mission! I meant mission. Mission, trip, same thing," Dick clumsily attempted to cover.

Jason looked hard at Dick for a moment, "…They're fucking, aren't they?"

"No! I mean, I don't know! Why would I know that? That's none of my business."

"Grayson, you are without a doubt the worst liar I have ever seen," Damian commented.

"Oh. My. God. They are fucking! I knew it," Jason said.

"No, you didn't," Dick and Damian said in unison.

Dick's cellphone ringing abruptly interrupted the brothers' bickering. He answered it as fast as he could manage.

"Kori! Baby, are you alright? What's going on?" Dick answered in a rush as he got up and hurried to find somewhere private to take the call.

Jason looked at Damian, ready to make a smart remark, when Damian's cell phone also rang. When Damian saw Raven's name scrawled across his screen, he quickly ran to get out of earshot.

"Raven," he breathed, gripping the phone to his ear with both hands.

"Damian," she said his name with echoed relief.

"Raven, tell me everything," he demanded.

"We're all okay. Mostly. Everyone is a little dinged up, mostly Tara. She got shot but she'll be fine."

"And you? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine but…they got away," she admitted in a low voice.

"All of them?" Damian asked, a little taken aback.

"All of them," she echoed sadly.

"I should have been there. I shouldn't have left," Damian said more to himself than her.

"Your being here wouldn't have changed anything," she reassured.

"Yes, it would have," he said adamantly.

"You can't be everywhere at once, Damian. You can't abandon your family…"

"You are my family."

Raven paused a moment, "I'm not your only family. Whoever did this was good. I know you feel like you could have changed the outcome if you were here, but once it was clear they wouldn't win against us, those guys made sure they disappeared."

"Shadows?" Damian speculated, wondering if it was truly possible for the League of Assassins to be involved.

"They kind of seemed like it."

"So, the team has been compromised," Damian concluded.

"I don't know, it's possible. We don't even know the objective of the attack, or if there was one."

"Grayson, Todd, and I have been trying to review any and all security footage, but it's been fruitless. Grayson and I plan to return to help with the investigation on the ground."

"I'm sorry. You haven't even been home a full day…"

"It's more important to me that I'm there for you and the team," Damian interrupted.

"When do you think you'll be back?"

"I'm not sure. Grayson will probably want to finish reviewing the security footage, and I should…" Damian stopped and thought about his case that brought him here, wondering if he could really rely on Todd to hold up his end of their deal if he was gone, or if he should abandon the case altogether in light of this attack.

"Well… keep me updated. I… miss you," Raven added shyly.

Damian tightened his grip on his phone, "I miss you too. I'll be home soon."

"Well, I need to get cleaned up but… I'll see you soon, then?"

"You will. Stay alert. Be careful."

"I will. Goodnight, Damian," Raven said before hanging up.

Damian let out a breath before tucking his phone away and walking back to the computer where Jason sat clicking idly through security feeds.

"Who was that?" Jason stopped clicking to focus his attention fully on Damian.

"None of your business, Todd."

"You're no fun."


Back in her room alone that night, Tara also had a call to make. She sat in the dark and dialed an unsaved number and stared blankly at her wall.

"Go ahead," the gruff voice on the other end answered.

"Slade, what the fuck?" Tara seethed.

"You wanna be a little more specific there, little girl?"

"You're going to pretend like you don't know what happened?" she asked incredulously.

"You knew what was going down. You even sent the signal."

"I'm talking about getting shot. How the fuck could you let them do that to me?"

"Oh… that. I did you favor there, little girl."

"Excuse me?" she nearly screeched.

"Let's face it, you haven't been doing a great job endearing yourself to those bleeding hearts, which is saying something. You needed this to solidify your place with them and make them more sympathetic to you."

"Fine. I get that," she conceded bitterly, "but you didn't think to warn me? I thought you had flipped on me!"

"I needed it to be believable. You needed it to be believable. I'm sorry I couldn't give you a heads up, but you know how important this contract is."

Tara sighed, "I know."

"It'll all be worth it, little girl. You'll see."

"It better be."

"It will be. Now, don't call this number again unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Understood. And Slade…"

"What?"

"I… miss you."

"You too," he said brusquely before hanging up.


Back at the Batcave, Dick was regrouping with Damian and Jason after ending his phone call with Kori.

"How's Kori?" Damian asked.

"She's… coping. The gunmen all got away, and there were some injuries," Dick informed.

"I heard."

"Then you know we're needed there, and sooner rather than later," Dick concluded.

Damian nodded.

"I'm going to download the security footage. We'll look at it again with fresh eyes once we're back at the Tower. For now, get some rest. We'll leave after breakfast tomorrow," Dick sighed deeply, "Bruce is going to be disappointed, but I can't just leave Kori on her own for this. I've already sent a message to Tim. He and Steph are going to have to fill in for me on the cartel case here."

"I can help here too, if I can find where Bruce locked up my helmet," Jason offered.

"Jason, we both know you're still recovering. You should not be worried about any of this right now. Worry about yourself, please. You won't be able to help with anything if you don't let yourself heal," Dick admonished his younger brother.

"Oh, come on. Look at me! I'm healed enough. I'm crawling out of my skin here."

Damian felt out of place witnessing their exchange. He wondered if he underestimated the severity of Jason's injuries, or rather if Jason had downplayed it to him too much. It wouldn't be out of character for Bruce and Dick to be extra cautious when it came to the safety of the rest of the family, but it also wouldn't be out of character for Jason to throw himself into action without regard to consequences. Somewhere between the two points of view had to be where the truth of the situation was.

"Jason," Dick dropped his voice a notch lower, "I need you to promise me you'll stay out of trouble while I'm gone."

"Okay, Dad. I promise I'll try. But don't worry so much! Once you've come back from the dead, a little work-related injury is a piece of cake."

"I hate it when you joke about that."

"I know you do," Jason grinned.

"Whatever. You two get to bed. I'll finish up and shut things down here," Dick said, dismissing them.

Once they made it back up into the manor, Jason looked around, before grabbing Damian's shoulder to whisper in his ear.

"I already have the meeting set up for tomorrow afternoon. I'm still in if you are."

Damian eyed him up and down.

"What if you get caught and get in an altercation? Are you truly recovered enough to handle that?"

"Not that I think anything would happen in Arkham, but I have fought through way worse. I wouldn't offer if I wasn't feeling up for it."

"Fine. I'll take your word for it. Text me when it's done, and I'll call you when I can."

"Works for me. I'll see you at breakfast, Baby Bat," Jason said while rubbing Damian's hair, much to his chagrin, before heading up to bed.

Damian smoothed his hair out, before also going to bed, feeling more than ready for sleep.