AN: Yay! New chapter! Sorry it took a little bit, I've been busy and writing other fan fictions as well. Anyway, I've skipped the chapter with the Titans. Sorry, but I just wanted to move on with the story and I couldn't seem to get that chapter out. So here's the phone call afterwards instead.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

The phone rang a couple of time this time before someone picked up.

"Slade?" Robin asked with a semi crackly voice before the man could greet him.

"He's a bit busy at the moment, but I can take a message for him." An older man said into the phone. Robin didn't recognize the man's voice and was a bit worried he'd dialed the wrong number at first, but then he realized what the man had been saying. Slade did live there, but was busy at the moment. "May I ask who's calling?"

"Who is this?" Robin asked despite that the man had asked first.

"A friend of Slade's." The man said simply.

"I didn't realize he had friends." Robin said without thinking.

"Well that was a rude accusation." Slade's oily voice entered Robin's ear. Robin perked up glad he'd gotten in contact with who he'd originally meant to call.

"Slade." Robin said the man's name not as a question, but more as a reminder that was who he was talking to.

"Hello, Robin. That was Wintergreen you were talking with. I was a bit… preoccupied at the moment." Slade said. Robin wanted to ask 'with what?' but reframed from doing so sure he didn't want to know the answer. Robin tried to think of what to say to Slade. He knew why he was calling but he didn't really want to admit it out loud. Slade sensed the hesitation. "Why aren't you with Bruce?" He asked. Robin wasn't positive, but he could've sworn there was actual concern in his voice.

"We had a fight." Robin answered numbly.

"I see. So you are back in Jump then?" He asked, but Robin could tell he already knew the answer.

"Not for long." Robin replied sounding a bit defeated. This got the full attention of the older man.

"Robin… What are you planning?" Slade demanded.

"Nothing yet…" Robin replied simply. Slade paused.

"Why did you call?" Slade pressed.

"I don't know how to put it." Robin finally said truthfully.

"Then say what's on your mind and I'll decipher." Slade said patiently.

"The Titans and I also got into a fight." Robin admitted sadly. There was a pause and Robin begin to wonder if Slade had heard him.

"Continue." Slade said calmly.

"I left the Tower. I can't go back to Bruce though." Robin sighed.

"Where are you?" Slade asked urgently.

"At a payphone near the bank… Why?" Robin was curious on what the urgency in his voice was for.

"Stay there. A black BMW will be there in three minutes." Slade said.

"Slade, I don't think-"

"You shouldn't be alone right now. I'm not shipping you off anywhere. If you run, I'll just have a chase on my hands, but I will find you. We need to talk, but somewhere a little more private." Slade insisted. Robin sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Talk about what?" Robin demanded.

"Three minutes. Stay there." Slade said again and before Robin could demand what he meant again, the phone went dead. Robin sighed again and hung up the phone. He debated on running. He didn't really know what Slade had planned, but at some point in Robin's mind, he didn't care. Everyone had turned on him. Maybe it was bad that he wanted comfort from his enemy, but Slade seemed about the only one willing to talk to him like he meant something right now. But what if Slade wanted him to be his apprentice again? But Slade didn't seem like he wanted to force Robin into anything. Then again, he had said 'we need to talk'. Even still, running wouldn't be the answer. Slade had said it himself, he'd have a chase on his hands if Robin ran, but he would find Robin and Robin knew that Slade always got his way.

With the decision made not to run, Robin sat down at a bench across the street and mentally started counting in his head the minutes it took. He hadn't even gotten to minute two before a black BMW arrived. It stopped in front of him, and just waited. The windows were tinted so Robin couldn't see inside of them, but he knew who was in the car. It was funny, Robin probably had seen this car around the city hundreds of times but hadn't pieced that this was Slade's car.

After a momentary battle within himself he finally slipped from the bench and got into the back of the car. This was stupid! He told himself, but what did he care? So what if he was getting in the car with his worst enemy. It wasn't like Slade was going to kill him, and even if he was, well Robin didn't exactly care at the moment. He told himself that if this was a mistake, it wouldn't feel so right. But it did feel right. It felt thrilling really, breaking the rules. If it ended in a fight, oh well. Robin would fight and win and prove to everyone he could take care of himself.

"Seatbelt please." Slade purred from the front driver's seat. Robin nodded once to himself and put the seatbelt on. Then the car begin to move.

"Where are we going?" Robin asked watching building past by.

"To my safe house." Slade replied calmly.

"You don't think it's a bad idea showing your hideout to your worst enemy?" Robin raised an eyebrow. Slade chuckled.

"You don't think it's a bad idea calling your worst enemy, and an even worse idea of getting in the car with them?" Slade countered.

"Point taken." Robin nodded. "But I'm not scared of you."

"Good." Slade praised. "That wasn't my intention."

"What is your intention?" Robin questioned leaning forward some.

"Oddly enough, to help." Slade shrugged as if what he just said had been completely normal coming from his mouth. Robin blinked in surprise. His eyes narrowed in suspicion, but he replayed the tone in his head and couldn't detect any malicious intent in it. What was he going to help with? How? "We're here." Slade pulled Robin out of his thoughts as the car pulled to a stop. He looked around and saw they were in a garage of a nice neighborhood. Robin barely caught the street sign name as the garage closed behind them. They were in Highland's Hills, a pretty decent neighborhood around Jump.

Slade waited until the garage was completely shut before exiting the car and Robin slowly exited after him feeling a bit awkward. He'd assumed the hideout to be in a less casual place, in like an abandoned warehouse or something. Slade walked in through the side door, not waiting for Robin to follow him. Robin took one last look around the empty garage before entering the home.

"Shoes." A gentleman's voice immediately said from the kitchen. Robin paused looking over where the voice had came from. He was an older man, around Slade's age, with the same grayish white hair seen on Slade, except he had both his eyes and only had a mustache and not a beard. The man was cooking. Robin could safely assume this to be Wintergreen, since that was the only friend he knew that Slade had.

"Take your shoes off, Robin." Slade said from somewhere else in the house. Robin blinked once but then did as he was told. He slipped out of his shoes and walked further into the house in search of where Slade had gone.

"You hungry?" Wintergreen asked almost cheerfully as Robin pasted him. Robin paused turning back to face him.

"No thanks." He said awkwardly. Honestly, why were the two supposed villains being so damn nice?!

"If you get hungry, just tell me." Wintergreen offered his attention back on his pot on the stove. Robin nodded wordlessly and walked through a door leading out of the kitchen and into a living room. Slade wasn't in the living room, but his voice sounded from a room down the hallway.

"Just wait right there, I'll be out in a moment." He said. Robin didn't know if he was supposed to sit down or just stand there, so he didn't move. The house so far seem like such a normal everyday house. It was very surprising to Robin, who even though he'd seen Slade's face, still had a hard time accepting him as human sometimes.

Slade exited a room from down the hall in casual clothes, a pair of black pants and a loose long sleeved shirt. Somehow seeing Slade out of his uniform was almost more intimidating than seeing him in the skin tight uniform. He supposed it could've been because there was so much more Slade could hide in loose clothing than his uniform, but Robin tried not to think about it.

"You can sit down." Slade told him sitting in an arm chair across from the couch. Robin noted he moved almost soundlessly as he walked. Robin finally took a seat on the couch and stared at him. Slade stared back at him.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Robin asked looking away.

"I needed to make sure you weren't… planning anything rash." Slade measured his words carefully. Robin glared back at him.

"It was a onetime mistake! I'm tired of everyone holding it against me!" Robin flared angrily.

"Relax, Robin. I'm not holding it against you, but I just had to be sure." Slade said soothingly. Robin didn't relax though and his glare didn't lessen. "With all due respect, you did just call me from nowhere and when I asked what you were planning you said 'nothing yet'." Slade countered. Robin's expression soften and he nodded.

"Okay, I see your point." Robin replied. "I didn't mean it like that, but I see where you could've gotten the idea. I meant, I didn't have a plan on what to do with my life yet."

"Returning as a hero is out of the question?" Slade asked a little surprised.

"I tried. But Batman doesn't want me to and neither do the Titans who found out about the ordeal through Batman and tried to convince me to go back to him. I'm not going back to Batman, and apparently I'm no longer able to go back as a Titan either." Robin looked down and sighed.

"And that's why you can't be a hero?" Slade asked as if not quite getting what the problem was. Robin looked back up and creased his eyebrows in confusion.

"Well, I don't have my job as a sidekick or a leader anymore." Robin said. What wasn't there to get from that honestly?

"So?"

"So, my days as Robin are over."

"So you're telling me you're giving up because a couple of people told you to?" Slade actually sounded somewhat annoyed or maybe frustrated. Robin didn't reply just staring at him confused. "So don't go back out as Robin." Slade said simply. "Robin's dead. Pick a new name and pick up where you left off without a team or mentor. You don't need anyone else to do what you do. You never have needed anyone else."

Robin blinked again. Slade was making so much sense it almost hurt to listen. A new name? He could be his own hero… Robin had to think about this.

"I would need a new costume." He said thinking out loud.

"Yes, your traffic light uniform does rather scream childish…" Slade mused. Robin gave a slightly amused glare.

"I made it when I was a child." Robin countered.

"That would explain it." Slade smirked.

"What color would you suggest for me then?" Robin asked trying to fight a smile.

"Something darker… Black's always a good color to start with. You've always looked better in black. And maybe some blue…" Slade said thoughtfully. "What's your new name going to be?"

Robin had to think. "Well, there's a Kryptonian legend that Superman's told me about…" Robin begin.

"What's the name then?" Slade asked again.

"Nightwing."

Thanks everyone who's following, reading, and reviewing! Hopefully, I'll move this forward a little more quickly.