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"What the hell just happened?" Wally exclaimed once they were back in the mountain.

"Sit down," Batman ordered in a steely voice. No one hesitated.

Batman sighed. "I adopted Robin when he was eight years old after his parents' death. I first noticed what he was during winter, as that is when his kind shifts."

"Shifts?" Artemis asked. "Do you mean he's a… werewolf?"

Batman nodded. "Not the kind you would imagine though. He doesn't respond to a full moon nor does he go insane with a thirst for blood and human flesh. He just… becomes a wolf."

"He doesn't recognize us, does he?" M'gann asked with a sniffle.

"He may look at you and sense familiarity, but other than that, no," Batman replied. "He possesses the mind of a wolf right now and everything about him that was once human is gone until he shifts back."

"So, why was he dying?" Wally asked. "And why did you turn him back? Who'd want to be a wolf their whole life?!"

"He would have died if I didn't turn him back into a wolf," Batman replied darkly. "You see, this isn't a magical curse. It's a scientific disease. The shifting is just a symptom of the disease. I cured Robin of turning into a wolf, but in doing so, it caused him to grow ill after a few years because the shifts keep death at bay. Now that he is shifting again, the illness will have left him and as soon as winter is over we can bring him back here and I will cure him again for another few years before having to repeat the process."

"How exactly do you cure it?" Superboy asked.

"I have to give him an extremely high fever and then he must shift," Batman said. "It has to be fought as a wolf. If not, he will surely die.

"Why?" Kaldur asked.

"Because he can't kill the wolf as a human," Batman said. "Now enough questions. When winter ends, Robin will get in contact with us and I will bring him back here to be cured. I should warn you though, his shifts will be erratic when he first comes back. Even when he isn't extremely cold he may turn back into a wolf. They're supposed to even out if he's a wolf for multiple years, but I am never going to let that happen again."

Then the Batman left, leaving the team to sit in silence in Mount Justice.

Somewhere deep in the forests of Romania, wolf paws pounded along the ground. They ran through the bitter cold snow that came with the freezing weather that made them what they were.

The wolves ran faster than any other creature within the trees, skidding to a stop in the clearing they made their dens in.

Each wolf let out a low howl, creating a chorus of eerie music that could almost be mistaken for beautiful, ethereal singing. They were, after all, humans underneath all their wolf skin.