Not-Teen Titans

The Rise of Nightwing

~Robin's POV~

I still can't believe Raven left us. After all she'd done for me and I'd done for her... I tought our friendship was stronger than anything else... guess I was wrong.

I don't know what to do anymore, if I couldn't protect Raven, what assures me that I can protect Starfire? Or Beast Boy? Or Cyborg? I don't feel like a leader... not anymore.

On top of all that, all the villains we once defeated somehow got free and started getting revenge for what we Titans did to them. It was a different attack every day, we won the first times, but they got stronger each day somehow and we couldn't take it much longer.

When the Brotherhood of Evil attacked, we got defeated. They must've studied the flaws in the Tower and in the team and got advantage of it. We lost... we lost it all. The pain of losing Raven didn't compare to what I felt when we almost got killed fighting for our lives and the Tower.

The rest of the team tried to comfort me telling me everything was going to be fine... but I knew that wasn't going to happen, so one night I just vanished from their lives. Because of me they almost die, because of me they lost their home, because of me they lost everything. I don't want them to get hurt again.

I changed my hair, I got rid of my old "Robin" uniform and started using my real name, Richard John, because if I used Dick Grayson I knew everyone would find me.

After a year, I went back to the Tower, stealthy of course, and managed to retrieve the belt I used for "Red X". After that, finding Professor Chang was easy, he left evidence of his further plans in his old hidehout, so I got to him and asked for Xenothium, the substance I used for Red X suit.

I built a new suit, a better one of Red X. Knowing there was another Red X somewhere, no one would guess it was actually me behind that suit.

For the first years it went fine, I tricked a couple of the bad guys thinking I was the "New Red X". I knew all their plans so I anonymously warned the Titans whenever I could to let them know something was approaching. However, when the "real" Red X showed, they made us prove who we really were.

When Red X took out his mask, it was none other than Jason Todd. The irony of life, he took my spot with Batman a long time ago and now I took his with the villains of Jump City. They all looked at me, waiting for me to take out my mask. "I know who you are... Dick Grayson, or as everybody knows you, Robin" said Jason Todd.

I had no other choice than to run away, everybody knew my secret so I had to disappear once again. I made sure no one followed me. That was a second costume I wasn't going to use ever again. I stayed off radar for a couple of months, until I decided to play hero again.

Being too much time in Gotham City made me remember all the adventures with Bruce and Clark, so I adopted the name of "Nightwing" and headed back to Jump City to reclaim what was once mine, even though nothing was the same anymore.