Wonder Girl stood on the museum rooftop looking out onto the city. She was trying to think what to do next. Right now she wanted to be beside her friends bed. Waiting for him to wake up. But she knew she couldn't. Wonder Woman's words where running through her head.

"It's not what Timothy would want."

What would Tim want?

She knew exactly. He would want her to use her head. To think before acting. He hated recklessness and would be lecturing her right now. If he was able. He would lecture her about use of deadly force against some punk. He would lecture her on fighting Wonder Woman and threatening the police. But most of all he would lecture her about risking his identity.

She knew he wasn't happy dancing with her. She knew he was thinking about his profile and how best to explain dancing with her to every one. They had even spent an hour talking about how to interact at the party. Showing this amount of emotion over him would raise questions. She would need to get her head together to stop anyone discovering his identity.

The door opened behind her. She could hear harsh breathing and shuffling. To her anyway. To anyone else Wonder Woman would have been walking regally and with great power. But Cassie knew better. Her punches had hurt her friend and mentor, both physically and mentally.

"Diana."

"Cassie."

Diana walked to her protégé and stood by her side. She wanted to choose her words carefully. There was a saying in Patriaches world about not casting the first stone so she couldn't really lecture her young student about rage issues. She knew how she was feeling. A good man had been senselessly gunned down. Good men where hard to find in this world. She could sense strong feelings.

"What happened?"

Cassie didn't answer.

"Cassandra, I am your friend and I want to help you but I can't do this until you tell me what is wrong. I know you liked that boy but I can't believe you would loose control to such an extent. Is there something going on in your life that I am not aware of?"

Cassie dug her nails into the concrete walls of the roof. Then she looked up. He was behind them.

Batman.

The shadows melted around him. There was a rage on his face she had never seen before. She realised then and there. It wasn't because Robin had been shot. It was because Batman hadn't been at the fight because they where there. Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl. He didn't come because he trusted them to handle it and that made it worse.

He just looked at them. Wonder Woman walked forwards standing in front of Cassie taking the brunt of what was to come despite what Cassie had tried to do to her.

"Batman. I am sorry for what happened today... Is there something wrong?"

Something was different. Diana had expected him to be angry but this was different. She couldn't place it. He was staring at Wonder Girl. Why?

"What! Have! You! Done!"

"Batman?"

"What Have You Done? I leave you alone for one night in one building and all Hell breaks loose. One Night. Not even that. The party was only supposed to last four hours and you couldn't even give me that. I trusted you."

"Now wait a minute. Do not take that tone with me. I have been training for as long as you. I am not some junior member of the League and I will not be spoken to as such. Nor shall I allow you to speak to Cassandra like this. What happened was a tragedy, I accept that. But it could not have been avoided. Those people would have struck even if we hadn't been there."

Batman stared at her.

"In fact it would have been worse. Even with your presence I might add."

Batman stared at her.

Wonder Girl snapped at this point. Hurling a huge chunk of wall at Batman she screamed.

"HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU THINK YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE HURTING. THAT YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE WHO COUNTS. HE WAS MY FRIEND. MY BEST FRIEND!"

Stopping herself. She tried to regain her composure.

"Cassandra" Wonder Woman gasped. She had barely been able to block the debris from hitting Batman. She had never seen he friend like this.

"He told me all about you. Everything. About how you ordered him to never give away his identity to anyone. Not even his best friends. You robbed him of the chance to tell us himself. Even as you gave it away to anyone you needed to pass messages just because you where too gutless to speak to some old guy. He even told me when a friend of yours was shot you ordered everyone out whilst you stood over him to brood. Even the guys own daughter. His own daughter wasn't there for her dad because you where the only one who matters. You sick son of a bitch. When Gotham is burning and people are dying you just up and order everyone out. Every superhero who could get this town up and running in hours, just because it's your town and damn all the innocents."

Batman stared at her, fists clenched trying to restrain himself from seriously injuring the blonde teenager. Wonder Woman moved forwards putting her hand on Cassies shoulder to pull her back but she just shrugged her off and moved forwards so she was face to face with Batman.

"So what happens next? You just order everyone out and make us feel like shit because our feelings don't matter? Only yours? You sick, selfish son of a bitch. You're probably going to make some sick threat about how you know how to hurt us. And yet I was the only one who wasn't surprised when we found out about all your plans. All your plans to stop us if we ever went out of control. Yeah right. You've been threatening us for so long it's just a joke. You only did those files to push us around. Couldn't keep up with the super brigade so you had to get all those expensive toys to bully us around and make yourself look big. Compensating for something?"

Cassandra sneered at that line and this time Wonder Woman wrenched the girl back away from Batman, livid at the way she was treating a senior member of The League.

"That is enough. I have tolerated this for so long it cannot continue. This ends now and you will apologise to Batman this instant."

Batman stared at them. He stared and stared and stared at them. He walked forwards towards them... Then he stopped. He tapped his cowl and looked up at the sky.

"Damn."

With that he melted into the shadows and vanished. The women just stood there and blinked. He'd gone. Just like that without a word... Well with one word. He just dismissed them. Wonder Woman knew what he could be like but this... This was just unbelievable.

"Mother £&#£!"

"That is enough. I do not care what you felt for the boy. It is no excuse for..."

"Robin." Cassie whispered. "He was Robin."

And with that she crumpled into the arms of her friend and teacher sobbing.

Superboy flew to Gotham. He flew as fast as he could. He thought only about his friend. He thought about his friend as much as he could. He thought about going to see him. Breaking down the hospital doors in heroic Hollywood style. Walking in and demanding to see his friend as he exposed his secret identity to the whole world... Wait a minute. He stopped in midair. What the Hell was he doing? If he burst in there right now it would be chaos. He couldn't do that. On the other hand it would guarantee Tim was alive since he would have to get out of bed to throttle Conner. OK, that was not a good idea either.

He could be a friend from school, yeah, that's great. Wait, what if his Dad asked questions since he didn't recognise him? No, Tim's dad doesn't know anything about Tim's life. Hell, he could pretend to be Tim's fiancé for all his dad knows about his own son. OK, that was a little cruel. Don't make that joke around Tim.

Conner floated in the air thinking. His brain was starting to hurt. Wait, what about one of Tim's friends from Metropolis. In Gotham visiting friends, planning to surprise Tim tomorrow when he saw the news. Yeah, that would work. Even Tim's friends from school would believe that.

Although, how did he explain his costume. The T-shirt he could excuse, but he was wearing his old Young Justice stuff. Not good. He couldn't fly back to change. It would take too long, and even if he could he had nothing else to wear (which was why he was wearing the old costume). Maybe he should wash his clothes. Ma Kent didn't seem to be doing it as much as she used to.

He couldn't think why.

He had to buy new clothes. But how. He only had $5 on him. Even if there was somewhere open (it was 11 at night) he couldn't get much.

Then he saw it. A charity shop. It was open too. But he couldn't go in there in his costume. He had to take it off. Walk in there in his underwear asking for new clothes with only a five dollar bill and assorted change? It was stupid. It was insane. It was the best idea he had.

Walking in he looked around slightly nervous. This was so stupid. The woman behind the desk smiled at him. Then a naked man ran in.

"Hi Joan, listen I have a bit of a problem..."

"Don't worry Mike. I have something set aside for you."

"Thanks, listen, I don't have any money with me..."

"Don't worry, you can settle up at the end of the week."

End of the week? Conner watched as Mike the naked guy picked up the clothes and got dressed. Smiling at him he quickly left. Conner turned and looked at Joan.

"Er, hi."

"Hi, you're new here. The size you want is over there."

Pointing across the shop Joan signaled a row of clothes. Walking over he quickly picked out a selection shirt and trousers. Clean, smell free and even fashionable. Cheap too. He still had change for a Coke after. Then a blonde in a clown suit that was ripped to shreds walked in. Almost naked she dragged a dead puppy along by its leash.

"Hi Daphne, you're early tonight."

"Yeah, got a few jobs on tonight. Going clubbing after."

Stripping naked she tossed the puppy corpse in a bin and started to pick out clothes. Looking at Conner she noticed he was staring and drooling. She couldn't tell if was at her or her dog. Well, she couldn't.

"Why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer."

Conner paid and ran out hearing the blonde shout Weirdo as he did. Gotham really freaked him out.

Ducking down an alley he took off into the night sky. All things considered he was quite proud of himself. He used his brain and it felt good. Flying towards the hospital a sudden screeching brought him crashing towards a rooftop. Shaking his head he realised it was some sort of sonic attack. Bracing himself he braced himself for an attack.

Out of the shadows the Batman appeared. He looked pissed. Of course he always looked like that.

"Dude, what is wrong with you? That hurt."

"Go home."

"Excuse me?

"Go home. Now."

"Dude, Rob got shot. I've got to get to him. I even got a civilian disguise and everything."

"Joan's Charity Shop no doubt. I'm surprised you found anything left this close to rush hour in Gotham."

"Rush Hour? Dude, your city needs therapy, you need therapy and Rob needs me."

Batman was not happy. He was never happy, but this was a really bad day. Robin had been shot and instead of getting to his side he was having to chase every two bit meta who thought they where friends with his son out of town.

Batman was not happy and being called Dude was not helping.

"Go Home. Now. I will not ask again."

"Excuse me? My best friend has just been shot. He may die and you want me to go home? Just like that. Forget about everything?"

"Yes."

"You know what, I have really had it with you. With the way you treat everyone. With the way you treat Tim. You ever think about what you're doing to him? To everyone else? Or do you just not care? Or maybe you do know and you get off on it. Everyone knows about you and what you do to him. Hell, I'll bet you'll walk into the hospital and kick his own family out. His real family."

Batman stared at him. He walked to the teen of steel so that they where face to face. Conner was starting to sweat slightly. Batman could see it,

"Out of respect for Robin I am going to let those comments pass. But just this once. You are going to go home right night and wait for me to call you. If you cannot obey these simple orders there will be grave repercussions, and I do mean grave."

Batman gave a slight smile. The one devoid of humour that let his opponents knew he was going to do something really horrible.

"Yeah, I'll bet there will be. I know all about the files. So tell me, are they really there to stop the League going rogue, or just to prove you're the baddest of the bad? I gotta say dude, I am not impressed."

And then it happened. Superboy pushed Batman. Like a kid wanting to start a fight, the clone pushed the Dark Knight backwards. With a cocky smile Conner could see the expression on Batmans face. He was caught off guard. He could take him.

Before he could blink Superboy was face down on the roof with his arm round his back feeling like it was about to break.

"There's something about your powers that you should really know. You are not invulnerable. Unlike Superman bullets do not bounce off your skin. They bounce off your Tactile Telekinetic Forcefield. A forcefield that covers your body from any solid object with sufficient force to pierce your skin."

Superboy grunted. He couldn't breath. This was going to be bad.

"Anything which does not have the ability to hurt you will get let through. A friends hand for example. There are certain places on the human body, your body, susceptible to certain touches. Nerve touches. You have probably seen them in ninja movies. They are real and I know all of them and your field can not tell the difference between them and a handshake. A noticeable flaw which Batgirl demonstrated when she first met you. If you had half a brain you would have figured out anyone with the correct knowledge could kill you with the slightest touch. I could cripple you right now and there is nothing you can do about it. There is nothing you can do about anything that I can do to you whenever I want."

"Yeah," Superboy grunted as he tried to breath. "You gonna cripple me? Leave me for dead? Maybe kill me? You haven't even killed the Joker. Killed or crippled. You'd never do that. You think you're the worst out there. That you can do things to me that have never been done before. The woman I loved was murdered in front of me. Her killer laughed in my face. What can you do that compares to that? You gonna kill Cassie? Maybe target my loved ones. Ma and Pa? You gonna target them because I doubt even you would have the guts to do that knowing what Clark will do to you? I've been tortured and beaten by people who want to kill me and I have survived it. I've seen what you do to your enemies and it doesn't even begin to compare to what people have done to me so bring it on Batbitch."

Conner struggled and released himself. Twisting around he got up only to realise Batman had let him go. He'd let him go and disappeared.

"Yeah, you better run!" Conner yelled.

Conner felt his arm. It really hurt. As he rubbed his arm he realised his hand was shaking.

Holding it steady he set off for Gotham Hospital. Batman had better not be there when he got there.