Author's Note/Info about Story:

So, I've been sitting on this idea since 2012 when Season 2 first aired. I bundled it away and never looked back until they announced Season 3 of YJ (!). There is a heavy emphasis on the Batfamily, but major characters will be introduced with enough background if you're not up to speed on all the bat kiddos.

Lastly, this is an AU that starts right after the events of Season 1. Many events that occur in Season 2 will still happen in the background and will be referenced by characters. As we go along, I may have to adjust for season 3 events (and S3 characterizations, since writing several "newer" characters like Steph and Cissie were based on their comic personalities). Feel free to ask if you have any questions!

Please enjoy!

It was supposed to be like any other mission. An easy-peasy, dig-up-the-dirt-on-the-baddie kind of mission. One that was a bit too simple for the League, but too difficult for local police to collaborate across jurisdictions.

It's what Wally West liked to call "junior justice grunt work" (though he wasn't complaining, because any excuse to get out of training was fine in his book).

Batman had been the one to brief them, flipping through images of stolen medical technology on the holoscreen, citing how each had been taken without a trace. Wally nodded along—sure, sure, find the stolen tech—while his gaze kept straying back towards his female teammates.

It's been so hot. We should definitely go to the beach after this.

Wally shifted, feeling the slick of sweat as it dribbled down the lycra lining of his suit.

So hot.

"Any questions?"

Wally snapped his attention back to the Bat and shook his head. He had caught the important parts: stuff was stolen and they had to get it back. Besides, they'd be in Central City. He knew his hometown like the treads of his sneakers. He missed a few of the details but he shrugged it off. He wasn't much for the detective part of the job—just point him at a bad guy and he'd do his thing. As long as Robin and Kaldur knew what to do and where to go, they'd be fine.

"Good luck. Report back when you have more information."

Wally planted his hands on his hip and frowned at the carnage in front of him. Shreds of cardboard and splintered crates littered the ground. A few frayed cords and scraps of metal sheeting were sprinkled amongst the wreckage. It didn't take an ace detective to know that something valuable had been taken.

"Seriously? What was Bats saying about 'not leaving a trace?'"

Artemis crossed her arms, an eyebrow lifting in mock surprise. "Oh, so you were paying attention? I thought you were too busy gawking like a creep at Megan."

"I'm pretty good at multitasking," he offered with a wink.

Robin, who had drawn the unlucky straw of being the third wheel, groaned as he straightened up from a crouch.

"This isn't like the other scenes. Something different happened here."

Artemis frowned, scuffing a boot against one of the larger crate pieces. "Maybe this isn't the same group. I mean, stealing high dollar tech isn't exactly a groundbreaking idea."

Robin pursed his lips as he skirted around a puddle of water. "No… I think it might be the same group." His fingers flew across his wrist as he plunked in information in the computer. "The other crime scenes weren't as," he paused, "messy, but they still have the same things in common. It just looks like something got in their way this time around."

Wally's eyes landed on one of the discarded metal sheets, noting the four parallel gorges ripped out, as if someone had literally pried the metal off the main machine.

"You don't say."

"And then there's this puddle of water."

"It's an old warehouse, Rob. It'd be more suspicious if there wasn't some sign of weather damage."

Robin carried on, seemingly oblivious to Wally's nervous chuckle. "Puddles of water were found at the other spots too with no apparent source. That's how Batman figured out they were connected." He frowned, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. "Water…medical tech…super strength..." He brushed away a bead of sweat along his forehead with the back of his hand.

With a sharp gasp, Robin spun back towards Artemis and Kid Flash. "I know who's behind this!"

Artemis narrowed her eyes as she notched an arrow, aiming for over Robin's shoulder. "Yeah, and I think he's right behind you."

Aqualad! M'gann! Superboy! Someone!

M'gann stopped midflight, wincing as she brought a palm to her pulsing temple.

Wally? What's wrong? You sound—is everything okay?!

No—argh! Artemis's voice cut into the conversation. M'gann winced again at the jarring emotions flooding her telepathic link. It was Mr. Freeze—he found us. Kid Flash and I are…down, but Robin ran after him. We tried to stop him but—

Kaldur, who had been listening with furrowed brow, finally entered the conversation. Miss Martian, you and Superboy find Robin and help him with apprehending Mr. Freeze. I will assist Kid Flash and Artemis and we'll find a place to rendezvous.

Conner nodded before leaping, smashing through the concrete ceiling without hesitation. M'gann floated after him, calling for Robin's location in her mind. Kaldur watched them before racing back towards Kid Flash's and Artemis's last known location.

"Hey, K-kaldur," Artemis offered a weak smile when he clambered over one of the destroyed pieces of equipment blocking the door. Wally spared a quick grunt, focusing his energy on helping Artemis. He held a vibrating hand to the thick layer of ice coating the right side of Artemis's torso and arm, trying to generate enough heat to melt the ice without accidentally tearing the limb off.

"What happened?"

Artemis winced as the ice crackled under Wally's touch. "Fff-freeze found us," she repeated, shivering. Her exposed core shuddered and clenched as she tried to fight the tremors wracking her body. "I tried to shoot, but he h-h-hit me with that fff-freaking freeze gun."

"Robin ran after him before we could stop him. I couldn't go after him—have to get this off her before it's too late." Wally added, keeping his gaze lowered. "I don't know how much longer it'll take to melt."

"Here, let me try." Kaldur knelt next to Wally, placing a hand on the ice while tucking his other hand behind his back. He closed his eyes and murmured a word in Atlantean, forehead wrinkling as he concentrated. The tattoos wrapping around his arms pulsed a vibrant teal before the ice enveloping Artemis's torso melted in a slush of water.

"Th-thanks," Artemis gasped, gingerly rotating her damp shoulder. "G-god, that was c-cold. Next mission r-remind me to pack a sw-sweater."

Wally hovered over her, poking and prodding at the reddened, ice-burned skin. She swatted him away and he disappeared before reappearing with a tattered comforter, a clothespin still attached. He wrapped it around her shoulders before zipping back to Kaldur's side.

"Thanks, you two." She grinned before reaching for her bow with her left hand.

"Any permanent damage?"

"I'm counting the seconds to my next hot shower, but I should be fine."

Kaldur returned the smile, relieved that his idea had worked. "I am glad to hear that." He straightened up, pulling Artemis into a standing position.

Wally punched an exposed palm, making a satisfying smack as his fingers curled over his balled fist.

"Good, now let's go melt some snowmen."

"What do you mean you can't find him?!"

"I—he's… I don't know…." M'gann tucked her arms closer to her chest and lowered her gaze from Wally.

"You're kidding right? He has to be here somewhere. Maybe he just got somehow kicked off our signal—"

"Wally," M'gann began in a soft voice. "He isn't here."

"You couldn't find anything?"

Conner shouldered himself into the conversation, stepping between the two.

"She's right. There isn't another heartbeat. No one else is in the warehouse."

"Wait. What do you mean by heartbeat? Are you saying that he cou—"

Kaldur pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath in to clear his churning nerves. Wally and M'ga—no, we are all starting to get anxious. Worrying about this won't help anyone.

"Robin knows more about this villain than we do," he started hesitantly. "Perhaps Robin left the warehouse in pursuit of Freeze."

Kaldur's words did little to placate most of the team, but Wally grabbed onto the explanation with an eager nod. "Yeah, that would explain it. He's probably out of range of Miss M's signal."

"I don't think that's the way it works..." Artemis murmured, hating the pragmatic neutrality to her tone.

Wally pretended not to hear her. Instead he shook his head with a forced smile. "I'm sure Rob will turn up in no time. We won't hear the end of it—how he singlehandedly took down that walking icebox."

Several hours passed and the remaining team members waited with bated breath for anything—a phone call, a reprimand from Batman, a cheery cackle. However, nothing came. Even as the small search team milled around the thirty-mile radius of the abandoned warehouse, no one could find any more evidence regarding the whereabouts of the missing Boy Wonder.

(Wally was looking for his best friend, alive and well; Conner and Artemis were looking for something more realistic. Miss Martian and Kaldur were stranded in between, hoping for the best, but fearing the worst.)

As a distant siren wailed in the background, the remaining team members regrouped at the warehouse bay, drained and defeated.

"'Not leaving a trace,' huh? So Batman was right after all." Wally allowed himself a bitter laugh as the sun began to dip below the skyscraper-dotted horizon.

Residually stiff and sore from her near-freezing, with the tattered comforter still wrapped around her shoulders, Artemis leaned towards Wally, brushing the worn fabric against his hard shoulder pads.

"Hey, we'll find him, okay? He couldn't have gone too far."

Kaldur glanced from Conner, glaring at the overturned wreckage, to M'gann, slumped against one of the crates in exhaustion. In this state, they wouldn't be of any use to Robin.

"It's time for us to return to the Cave. There isn't anything more we can do here," he began slowly. He expected Wally to contest his decision, but he nodded with the rest of the team, gaze lowered and dull.

Kaldur swallowed and mashed his lips together. It was time to call Batman.

Batman took the news as Kaldur expected him to: stoically, impassively. Other than the narrowing of the white eyelets in his cowl, Batman didn't react until Kaldur had finished relaying the results of the mission and their fruitless search for their missing team member.

Batman only offered an icy "you should have contacted me sooner," before sweeping out of the room, his cape brushing against the floor with a soft hiss as he turned.

Kaldur didn't even manage to clear his throat (for an apology? an explanation?) before Batman disappeared via zeta tube. He slumped his shoulders before trudging back into the silent living room.

What were they hoping to prove? That they could find Robin sooner than the World's Greatest Detective? Kaldur's ears burned and he gingerly rubbed them, blaming their extended exposure to the sun as the cause.

They should have told Batman sooner, but it didn't matter. He would still find Robin and then everything would be okay in the end.

(Right?)

Two weeks passed and Wally had become downright unbearable. Even the others were starting to become aggravated at his tendency to appear and disappear with dizzying frequency.

"Would you just sit still?" Artemis had been the first to snap, shoving Wally into the nearest seat when he appeared a few millimeters from her elbow.

"I can't help it!" Wally argued back, slouching further in the couch cushion. "We haven't been able to do anything. They won't even let us near the…scene. And I live there!"

Since Robin's disappearance, Batman had pulled their team off any missions for the foreseeable future. Batman hadn't even deigned to deliver the order himself, presumably too busy tracking down his missing protégé. A shifty-eyed Captain Marvel had been the one to relay the message, which didn't inspire much confidence in the remaining team members, since he seemed as unsure and confused as they felt.

The team decided to exploit his uncertainty to their advantage to gain more information about the search for Robin. When they had asked their mentors and instructors earlier, they all received similarly dismissive placations with forced smiles. Only Green Arrow had provided an extra clue, when Conner overheard him complaining about a mission that Batman had "sat out on" to Black Canary.

When Captain Marvel returned to the Cave to check up on them as he did each week, they were ready. Immediately Wally and M'gann attacked him with a barrage of questions while the others watched cautiously from a distance.

"Oh…uhm…" Captain Marvel chuckled nervously at the first question. "Well….uh… We don't—er, Batman doesn't really tell us much."

"But surely you must know something," Wally insisted, taking an eager step forward. Captain Marvel hastily retreated backwards, finding himself closer to a sour-tempered Superboy.

"Superman's your leader, right? Go ask him."

"Well, actually…"

"Hasn't my uncle assisted too? His powers are suited for finding people. He should know more about it as well."

"Yeah! And Uncle Barry has to be in on this too! Robin disappeared in Central City! That's kind of like his turf."

Captain Marvel slapped his cheeks, the sound ricocheting around the room like a gunshot. The team fell silent, eyeing him warily.

"Okay, liiiisten. I promised them I wouldn't say anything, but this is driving me crazy!" He squinted at them, puckering his lips in a very undignified manner.

"You can't tell them I told you this—pinky swear—but no one knows what Batman's doing anymore. He's—well, I think he's taking a break from the League. He hasn't been up in the Watchtower since Robin disappeared." He leaned forward, eyebrows jumping upwards. "Apparently, Superman's the only one who still talks to him, but even he says he doesn't know anything."

Wally's shoulders slumped at the news. He almost regretted asking. If Batman had stepped so far back from the others, that could only mean the worst had happened.

"Are the others still looking?"

"Yeah, I think they are. We can't do much though, because uhm…"

"But what?"

Captain Marvel hesitated before glancing over his shoulder. "Apparently, Batman closed Gotham."

"Closed Gotham?" Artemis blinked, startled by the choice of words. Last she checked, her neighborhood was still as crappy as ever, but nothing had changed in the city itself. The bat-signal still glowed against the cloud-streaked dusk sky, still the same old nightlight for as long as she could remember.

"Closed Gotham to the other superheroes," Captain Marvel amended. "I guess he doesn't want anyone's help anymore."

"How can he d—"

"That isn't po—"

"But wha—"

"Aww, man, you guys…" Captain Marvel broke off, rubbing the back of his neck with a grimace. "I think I've said too much. I can't keep this up anymore." His face scrunched up and he looked genuinely upset before backing away, practically jogging away from the teenagers.

Artemis watched him flee with a hoisted eyebrow. "We just tried to interrogate a ten-year-old. What low will we sink to next?"

"Whatever we must," Kaldur finished with a firm nod.

Black Canary came during the third week. She silenced their questions with a firm slice of her hand.

"Batman will no longer be giving you missions."

M'gann hesitantly raised her hand, waiting for Black Canary to glance her way before voicing her question.

"Does that mean… does that mean that the team is done?"

Black Canary sighed before shaking her head. "No, the team isn't done. If you feel up to it, the League has a new mission for you."

Slowly the remaining team members nodded. It was the first step towards normalcy. They were heroes, after all. It was what they did, damn the consequences.

The corners of Black Canary's eyes creased, but she pulled up the mission parameters on the holoscreen, disregarding whatever comment remained trapped on her tongue.

"Very well. According to satellite photos," Black Canary began, preparing her students for a mission she wished they would abandon.

What are we doing? They're still children. We shouldn't be sending them off again so soon.

"That was Master Richard's school that just called. They would like to know where he's been."

"I've searched everywhere, Alfred."

"I know, sir. We all have."

"The trackers on his uniform—try that again."

"I'm afraid we've tried that already."

"Then the nanomite injection? I know I said I wouldn't ever use them because they were unstable, but this is an emergency. They're find him even…even if he's already go—"

"We activated those two weeks ago. They didn't work either, sir."

"I've searched everywhere, Alfred," Bruce repeated, rubbing at the dark circles under his eyes. His cowl lay a few feet away, still damp from hours spent shielding Batman's face during another lonely, rainy vigil.

"I don't know where he is."

(How many times had he murmured the phrase to an empty cave, long after Alfred had retired for the night?)

"What should I tell the school?"

"Maybe if I go after Freeze's old partn—"

"Master Bruce!"

"He hasn't been seen since the warehouse, but they have to know where Freeze is holding out."

Alfred sighed before shaking his head. He slowly climbed back up the Batcave steps, feeling his bones creak with each step.

(When had he gotten so old?)

"I apologize for the wait, madam. Mr. Wayne was…a bit indisposed. Master Richard is currently visiting family in Bosnia." A pause. "Mmmhmm, yes indeed. September is a poor time for a trip, but he was adamant about going." Another pause. "When will he return?" Alfred's gaze strayed towards a photograph of wide smiles and a basketball.

"Hopefully soon."

A month after Robin's disappearance, the Gotham Gazette ran an article about the missing ward of a billionaire, a boy who vanished after a trip to Sarajevo. No ransoms were made; no charges were filed. The Wayne family gave a touching performance, begging for their son's return, no questions asked. Tabloids ran wild with speculations of kidnapping and murder, but soon even the gossip dried up when the tragedy of the rich no longer entertained the masses.

Three years later, when the Gotham Gazette published another article about the same billionaire adopting a feisty young orphan, Richard Grayson was barely more than an endnote.

Four years after Robin's disappearance, a replacement surfaced. Angrier, younger, harsher, but a Robin reborn nonetheless. With his return came a darker Gotham, a darker Batman. Several other partners followed in his footsteps, all dressed in darker colors and bearing darker expressions as they waged war against the darker streets.

An endless night had swept over Batman's city.

Only a handful of citizens—ones who were too stubborn to pack up and leave this new Gotham—remembered the first Robin, the one who quipped as he flipped. The Icarus to the Batman's crusade.

Ten years after his disappearance, Richard Grayson became the name that Gotham forgot.

Thanks for reading! Hopefully this piqued your interest!

I only have about half (ten chapters) written so far, but I wanted to start posting this now, since I'm afraid that some predictions might actually come true in S3 and I wanna see if I can beat the writers to the punch. Alternatively, I could be completely off and this might be a fun (?), Batfamily-centric side story that's unrelated to everything.