All That's Left of Richard Grayson

I just realised that I seem to have some weird thing for Robin's past. All my Teen Titan fics seem to have some mention of it. I mean, Storytime, Coulrophobia, Trapeze and Unmasked all have major mentions of it. This story actually relates to Unmasked. Then Explanations and Middle-Naming both have slight mentions – Explanations talks about being in Gotham and having to change, while Middle-Naming mentions that they're trying to find out his name. Spitfire and Hypothetical Murder, admittedly, don't have anything, but then again none of Titans West even turn up in it. Heck, I even managed to make a mention of it in Reflections. Although I'm surprised there wasn't any mention in Forget, which was a Robin POV. And now there's this one.

Whatever. I like Robin's mysterious past and the idea of the Titans finding out about it. But no-one clicked on this to read a list of what I've already written.

Disclaimer: Yada yada yada, don't own, not making any money, just after reviews.

Beast Boy kneeled by the remainder of the T-Car – two tyres and a strip of metal. "It was a sweet ride – while it lasted." He said, tears streaming down his face as he held it.

"Don't sweat it BB." Cyborg told the crying changeling. "We'll build another." He gestured at their friends. "The important thing is that we're all back together."

Beast Boy stopped crying and looked up, still holding onto the tyre. "I guess that's a pretty good prize."

"Actually, I've got another." Robin stated. He held up his briefcase. "All of you took a risk to help me protect this. It's only fair that I show you what's inside."

Raven started, looking at the masked leader. "You don't need to do that, Robin. Sometimes secrets aren't meant to be shared."

"Even with your best friends." Cyborg agreed, stepping forwards. The Titans had all subconsciously gotten into a circle, with Robin in the centre of it.

"I used to think that." Robin answered, looking at his case. The other Titans all instinctively moved to see it as well. "But not any more."

Click. Robin's fingers hit the latch. For the briefest second he hesitated, and then…

He opened the case.

In it was a couple of clothes. There was a medal for Mathematics. A photo album, along with two individual framed photographs. A small stuffed dog, about the size to fit in someone's hand. A poster.

The Titans all blinked. Whatever they had been expecting, that wasn't it.

"Uh… what is it?" Beast Boy asked.

It went to show how well the Titans knew each other that they could see the flicker of nostalgia in Robin's eyes – even behind the mask.

"All that's left of Richard Grayson." Robin said softly.

"Who is Richard Grayson?" Starfire asked.

Beast Boy screwed up his face. "The name's familiar… something to do with a circus…"

Robin pulled the folded over poster out of his briefcase. He rolled it open and showed Beast Boy.

"The Flying Graysons…" Beast Boy read aloud.

There was a poster of a family. A woman, a man and a little boy with bright blue eyes and a laughing posture. The family was dressed in matching red leotards. Behind them was a trapeze.

Underneath the family was a banner with the name 'The Flying Graysons' in large, fancy script.

"That's not a recent poster." Raven took it. "How old is it? Seven, eight years old?"

"About then." Robin nodded.

"They were the ones who had that whole circus tragedy." Cyborg realised. "When the trapeze snapped."

Starfire took a sharp intake of breath, her eyes on the picture of the laughing child. "They were… the okay, though? The net caught them, yes?"

"No." Raven shook her head, eyes widening. She pointed out a slogan to the alien princess. Flying through the air, without the safety of a net! "They didn't have a net."

"Surely… surely they were not all killed, though?" Starfire asked, looking sadly at the family.

"I don't know." Raven answered.

"No." Robin shook his head. "The boy survived. He'd already gotten off the trapeze before it snapped."

"Oh. That is at least some good news." Starfire admitted.

"But why have you got the poster in your briefcase at all?" Raven asked, handing it back to Robin.

Robin glanced away.

Starfire reached for the suitcase. "May I…?" She began.

"Sure. Go ahead." Robin passed it over.

Starfire gently pulled the toy dog out and looked at it. It was a little worn and had the air of a toy that was much loved by a small child.

"So, wait. Why did you say that this was all that's left of Richard Grayson?" Beast Boy asked. "Richard Grayson is that little kid on the poster, right?"

"Yeah, that's him." Robin admitted sheepishly.

It was amazing that they hadn't pieced it together, but then again they had been through an exhausting day. Plus it wasn't like guessing was easy or anything.

"So why… what's that about?" Beast Boy asked

Raven picked the photo-album up and opened up the first page. "Hold it. Is that the kid – Richard?" Raven blinked.

"Mm-hmmm." Robin nodded.

The other three Titans crowded around Raven, Beast Boy gently placing the toy dog back in (Starfire had passed it to him). Raven flipped the pages carefully.

"He's getting older." Cyborg stated the obvious. "In each of the pictures… how old would he be now?"

"The poster was about seven or eight years old, and the boy on it was about eight or nine, so he'd be fifteen, sixteen, seventeen?" Raven shrugged.

Then the Titans all looked up at the flushing Teen Wonder in unison, the same basic thought running around their heads.

Cyborg flipped to the end of the book. Richard was about fourteen or so there, grinning and waving at the camera.

But his eyes had dulled. He had seen something – or a lot of somethings – in the years since the poster was made and this photo was taken that had stolen most of his innocence.

And if they covered the baby-blue eyes… if they spiked up the black hair… if they gave him a tenser posture, dulled down the cheerfulness a tad and added a few years…

"Robin?" Raven blinked.

"Is that… you?" Beast Boy asked slowly.

Robin looked up from the ground and gave a slight nod. "Yeah. That's me."

For a second none of the Titans were sure what to say to that.

Cyborg flipped to another page, looking for something to say. This one, Robin/Richard was a little younger. His hair was slicked back and he was wearing a school blazer. "Ah. So that's where you start to gel your hair."

Robin glowered.

Cyborg and Starfire continued to look through the book while Beast Boy dove for the briefcase again. "So what's the deal with these clothes?"

"Nothing spectacular." Robin shrugged. "They're just ordinary clothes."

"What? So they're not anything special? You weren't wearing them on some big occasion?"

Robin flinched. "Well… when I came to Jump City, I didn't quite realise I was going to be leaving Richard Grayson behind. I didn't figure it out until about three weeks after we'd become a team. So I packed everything that I had left of Richard Grayson up into a suitcase."

"Including your civilian clothes?" Raven asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I figured if I ever wanted to wear them it wouldn't exactly be hard to open the case." Robin shrugged it off.

"Oh. Okay then." Beast Boy nodded.

"Who's this?" Raven asked, picking up one of the framed photos. In it was Richard Grayson, smiling. He looked to be thirteen or so there.

Behind him, a tall, well-built man was smiling at the camera as well. The man had a hand on Richard's shoulder.

Robin almost flinched again as he looked at the photo. "That's Bruce." He answered Raven after a second.

"Wait, if you're Richard Grayson, would that make that Bruce Wayne?" Cyborg blinked, giving Starfire the album. She began to turn the pages as the cybernetic teen walked up to Robin and Raven.

"Uh… yeah." Robin admitted, looking at his feet.

"Wait, if that's…" Beast Boy looked between Robin and the picture. "If you're… wait… that makes... does that mean that Bruce Wayne is…?"

Robin winced.

It was one thing to trust his friends with his own identity, one that he didn't even use anymore. It was another to reveal Bruce's. That was one of the main reasons he had never taken off his mask in front of them.

The other was that Richard Grayson had effectively stayed in that suitcase since he'd left Gotham City, and Robin wanted to keep him in there.

"Yeah." He finally admitted.

"Huh." Looking for something else to say, Beast Boy's eyes fell upon the picture. "Who took it?"

"Uh, Alfred did. I'm sure I've got a picture of him somewhere…" Robin took the album and moved through a few pages. "Here we go."

A smiling elderly man was looking at the camera. He seemed a bit amused at whatever had been said before the photo was taken.

"And what is this?" Starfire picked up the second photo in a frame.

"Gotham City skyline." Robin whispered softly.

The photo had been taken from a distance. The night-sky was cloudy grey with a full moon shining against the clouds.

"I took that photo the day I left." Robin added, a touch of wistfulness entering his voice. "I stopped to take a final look, and I just knew I'd miss it so much that I took a picture."

Raven looked over. "That's not the moon, is it?"

Beast Boy looked to where her finger was. "No, it's not." He realised. "That's the Bat Signal."

"The what?" Raven raised an eyebrow.

"I'll explain later." Beast Boy shook his head.

"Do you miss it?" Starfire asked, looking over to the Teen Wonder.

"Sometimes." Robin shrugged. "Currently I'm too busy missing Jump City to miss Gotham though."

"Fair enough." Raven agreed. All of them were feeling homesick at some level.

On the plus side, when travelling the world to fight evil as a teenage super-hero there was never time to stop and miss their home. The race earlier that day had been proof of that.

"How did we come to be a team, anyway? How did we all get to Jump City?" Cyborg wondered. "I can barely remember it…"

Robin smiled slightly, looking at Starfire. "I can remember."

"Yeah. The Gordinians." Beast Boy agreed.

"Yes," Starfire smiled. "I believe I am almost thankful to them for kidnapping me. If they had not, I would never have come to Earth."

"Although if you had told us when we first met that we would have become a team, I doubt any of us would have believed you." Raven said.

The night was beginning to fall. "Should we camp here? It's as good a place as any." Robin suggested.

"Yeah." Cyborg agreed, picking up a tent.

As the Titans went through the now familiar motions of making camp, they kept talking.

"You know Robin, I swear you had been planning on going solo when we first met." Beast Boy said as Robin clicked his briefcase closed and placed it carefully in his tent.

"Yeah. That plan lasted a while, didn't it?" Robin said wryly, straightening again.

"A grand total of three seconds." Starfire smiled, gently teasing him.

"Oh, you're one to talk. Wasn't your first priority going back to Tamaran?" Robin teased her back.

"My first priority was to get away from the Gordinians – and of course, the strange people who seemed to be following me." Starfire smirked.

"Again, another priority fail." Beast Boy smirked.

"Well, you were… you were…" Cyborg began, then paused.

"I was trying to find some new friends and a place to live. I totally succeeded." Beast Boy said, his joking tone underlaid with warmth.

"So really, how did it all happen?" Raven asked, crossing her legs and beginning to levitate mid air.

"Well," Starfire paused. "I suppose it began when I managed to escape the custody of the Gordinians…"

Well, they did randomly add the episode 'Go' after it. While I loved the episode and the explanation for how they got into a team, it did seem just a little random to put it in there. And I was already saying what had happened after 'Revved Up', so I figured, why not?

So, review, okay? Please?