"Dude! Way to get your feet wet." Nightwing commented, leaning over Sphere's handles. Robin grinned along with La'gaan and Blue Beetle.

"Great job guys!" Nightingale called, standing atop of the vehicle. Blue Beetle grinned and whooped, keeping his hold on the alien in his grasp. Masked eyes looked back to the others as they swam under Sphere.

"Thanks Nena!" Blue Beetle called back, flying out the water with the struggling alien.

"Zatanna!" Nightingale called, lightly wrapping a rope around the Krolotean. The said magician said a silent spell and the rope tightened around the alien. The greenish-yellow alien began to yell.

Nightingale disregarded the yells, unraveled a portable ladder and attached it to Sphere.

"We'll take the hostages to the hospital and get them checked out." Nightwing suggested, watching the people climb onto the latter and hold themselves tight.

"Black Canary, Icon, and Green Arrow will accompany you. Green Arrow will maintain the perimeter with Icon while Black Canary will stay inside the hospital." Batman ordered, the three Leaguers nodded in agreement.

"I'll go back to the Cave with the Team and over view the mission." Nightingale told everyone, again earning multiple nods of agreement.

"We will take the Krolotean back to the Watchtower." Red Tornado ended. With that, the Justice League and Young Justice disbanded and went to follow out their final orders.

As Nightingale was doing final checks on the ladder, Blue Beetle whispered in her ear.

"The little alien said..."Blue Beetle trailed off as he talked lower, causing Nightingale's face to crunch up in anger.

"That little!" Nightingale said, glaring to the little green alien. She sighed and gave Nightwing the okay to fly off to the hospital.

~Mount Justice~

"Good work tonight team, hit the showers." Nightingale dismissed, smiling to the team. Robin high-fived Jaime as they entered Mt. Justice.

"Robin,a word please." Nightingale called,beckoning him over with a flick of her finger.

"Good luck Rob," Jaime muttered.

"What was that? I might just give you training tomorrow, I'm still your combat teacher and co-leader." Nightingale said as she turned her back and patted Sphere as it rolled away. Wolf trotted up to the leader and whimpered.

"Nothing Nena! Good night!" Jaime exclaimed, running off before Nightingale could reply.

Robin laughed and followed after his leader and Wolf trotted behind. They walked outside of the mountain and rested at a tree.

Nightingale breathed a sigh of relief as she peeled off her domino mask, brown hair flowing freely.

"What did you need to talk to me about, Annabeth?" Robin asked,looking at blue eyes that watched of Wolf as he walked around the grounds.

"You did good today. Saving six lives, taking out the zeta beam, and catching a Krolotean." Annabeth said, smiling down to her younger teammate.

"Thanks." Robin replied, leaning against the tree his friend currently sat in. Looking up to her, he took in her was a big change from what she previously wore from what he was told by Nightwing.

She wore a black body suit, ash gray leggings, black knee-high boots, arm length black gloves (one was a holocomputer), her blue utility belt was traded in for a gray belt, a black leg strap held her bo staff, composed of two eskrima sticks, a small pocket knife was hidden away in the back of her boot and on her arm was a black armband that had a single golden line through the center.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow, sensing something more was wrong.

"Tim? Somethings wrong,you can't hide things from me. You should know that by now." Annabeth jumped off silently from the tree and landed before the second Robin.

"Nothing's wrong. Just taking in what happened." Robin answered too quickly, turning rolled her eyes and grabbed his shoulder.

"Hey, if somethings wrong, you can tell me." Annabeth said earnestly. Blue eyes searched through the domino mask for a sign of defeat.

There.

On the left side of Robin's mask, the corner twitched just slightly. Annabeth would've missed it if she hadn't been studying him hard enough. Robin let out a sigh, knowing that it was pointless to lie to the older hero.

Annabeth was the type of person who as soon as she found out something was wrong, she would try everything in her power to help. But said help only went to a certain extent with certain people.

"It's Dick. He told me to lead Gama because he thought that I needed to get my feet wet. But when I asked him if it was because he didn't expect anything to happen, Dick just said not to get killed. He treats me like a kid!" Robin said, shrugging Annabeth's hand off. He turned and punched the tree they stood grabbed Robin's shoulder, turning him around to face her.

"You two are so much alike." Annabeth chuckled, peeling off Tim's mask to see his eyes. Tim whined and pulled away.

"How?"

"When we were younger, Dick didn't like being treated like a kid anymore then you did. People often teased and underestimated him because of his size. But I don't see people teasing him now." Annabeth told him with a smile. She leaned against the tree and tipped her head back as she looked up to the sky.

"Did you ever think that you were going to be this great superhero you are now Gale?" Tim asked. Annabeth chuckled and glanced over to him.

"To be honest,no. When Bruce came to me in the juvenile hall, I thought it was a publicity stunt. But then we actually spoke and he had genuine interest in me. And when he told me about the hero life, what could I say? I was a ten-year old girl coming out of a jail cell that I was in for two months. I had to say yes because I thought that if I didn't then he would throw me back in there." Annabeth replied honestly, her hair blowing around her.

"Batman gave me multiple opportunities to hang up my utility belt and take off the mask forever. Like the time I was forced to retire from the hero life for a year, to recover from a severe torture session with a masochistic maniac. He said he would've understood because of the mass amount of trauma I suffered within the one day alone. But it was because of me almost being forced to retire that I wanted to come back and be stronger than before.

"Every time I think about that week, I still cry to this day and I still have nightmares about it. But somehow, I think it helps me to know that I survived through something like that and I came out okay. I don't have any lasting trauma from that time, any that would jeopardize my likeness to be a hero at least.

"I feel like I'm stronger because of it. I mean if I can survive a week with a crazy magician, then I think I can live through just about anything. Now I'm not saying I'm Superman or Wonder Woman, but I think I'm the human version to them at least." Annabeth said as she pushed herself off of the tree.

Tim's blue eyes widened. Annabeth had come from juvie?

"I take it that you're shocked at this." Annabeth stated, glancing over to the third Robin with the corner of her eye. Tim couldn't find his voice, so he merely nodded. The older teen chuckled.

"You are probably the only person who knows about my origins. Well besides Bruce, Dick, Alfred, and the entire Justice League. When Bruce adopted me, he did everything he could to prevent the world from finding out where I came from. The documentation of my adoption was destroyed, only the people who were there to legalize the adoption know about it. And they were sworn to secrecy by Bruce." Annabeth told him as she looked back to the sky, the stars were shining brightly against the black canvas, dancing around the full moon.

"But what about your mom and dad-er biological dad? Didn't they have to be told about it before Bruce could even think about adopting you?" Tim asked, looking at the older hero. Annabeth frowned and looked down to the grass.

"My mother was there... But my real dad wasn't, he died when I was five. And my mother is also dead, killed three years ago by the Joker." Annabeth said through gritted teeth. She gripped her gloved hand so tightly that Tim would've sworn he heard a crack. Then she slowly released her tightened fist as she began to speak again.

"The woman I had tried to talk the Joker out of killing was her. I was stupid to think I could bargain with the Joker, but it was my mom and I couldn't just let her- I couldn't handle it like any other person who might've been held hostage for those few minutes."

Tim felt his chest tighten as he listened to the hero who treated him like a younger brother, the hero who he looked up to not only as a hero and leader, but as a friend and older sister of sorts.

"Annabeth, you don't need to-" Tim began, his voice came out soft but there was a beeping in his ear. Annabeth heard it as well, she tapped the small unit in her ear and spoke into it. Tim did the same after a few seconds.

"Batman to Nightingale, Robin, and Nightwing: There been reported gunfire between enemy gangs in Gotham. Rendezvous at my co-ordinance. Batman out." said the Dark Knight. Annabeth had slipped on her mask once again and Tim was about to do the same when the older one placed her hand on his and shook her head.

"Go home for the night Tim. It's ten and your parents are awake right? Go home and just hug them, and if they ask, don't give them a reason,just hug them." Annabeth instructed, she ruffled his hair before running back to the Cave. Robin stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds until what his leader said had finally processed.

He now understood why Nightingale lets him go home so early after patrolling Gotham, she wants him to be with his family as much as possible...

The ebony haired teen looked up to the sky and ran back to the Cave as well, changed from his Robin uniform and beamed to Gotham. As he ran home, he thought about everything Nightingale told him.

He opened the front door and took off his sunglasses,breathing heavily as sweat dripped down his forehead. There sat his father on the couch and his mother was standing behind the couch with a book in her hand, they looked over to the front door in surprise but then they calmed after seeing it was just their son.

"Welcome-Oh!" began, but he was taken off guard when his son suddenly barreled into him head on. The boy had wrapped his arms around him so tight that the man felt as though the blood circulation to his neck might just fail. Tim pulled away, vaulted over the couch and hugged his mom tightly as well.

"Tim,is everything alright? You're acting a bit strange..." questioned. She exchanged looks with her husband. "Did something terrible happen with the Team?Is Nightingale, Batman and Nightwing all right? What about Batgirl?"

"Nope. Everyone's fine. I just wanted to hug you. Both of you." Tim answered softly. walked over and wrapped his arms around the two as well.

'Anna B made me realize that at the end of the day my family will be waiting for me to come home.' Tim thought.