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Description
It was growing later and later into the night within the Doom Patrol Mansion, former headquarters of the namesake team. After the death of most of the members it only stood as an old testament to heroic band of heroes from Midway City. Now however it had become a temporary home for a new generation of heroes, far younger and more diverse.

One of these teen heroes was the alien princess Koriand’r, also known as Starfire, who was currently wandering the spacious halls. The green eyed, orange skinned redheaded girl was still young and new to the world of Earth and its people, meaning her curiosity and want of learning of these near familiar creatures often out won any other restrictions she may have had. She was as curious to learn about the world she would need to call home as she was the ones she’d come to call friends and teammates; the other young individuals with exceptional skills and abilities.

The one she’d grown the closest with was the oldest among the earthling heroes, calling himself Nightwing. Most had accepted him as the leader of this group and only a few of them had apparently worked with him in the past. She knew the name ‘Nightwing’ was as much a title as hers being called ‘Starfire’, but the closest to his real name she knew was ‘Gray-son’; as one of them had called him by accident. She was hoping to learn more of him before knowing the others in the hopes of understanding how and why he was such a strong leader; as well as such an interesting human.

She found his room and knocked, only to find to find the door ajar. Koriand’r pushed it open and discovered he was not inside. Still curious about this human she began looking around his room, seeing the view from his window before seeing into his closet and noting several of his Nightwing uniforms, along with an assortment of gadgets, weapons and tools all neatly hung on the wall.

As she turned to look elsewhere Koriand’r’s eye caught sight of a large black album. Imprinted on the front cover were the words “The Good Old Days” in yellow, along with the symbol of “YJ” on the bottom. Curious as always Koriand’r picked it up and opened it, revealing a number of photos and pictures inside.

Each photo depicted different heroes posing or standing around for the sake of the picture. Newspaper clippings were added in among them, showing news articles or other pictures of certain individuals. Some looked familiar from the ones she’d seen through the earthling’s T.V. screens, like Superman, Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern. Others looked like young acolytes to them, and some of which she’d met, such as “Kid Flash”, “Wonder Girl” and even “Beast Boy”. The first picture at the front however showed some of those young heroes, minus Beast Boy, standing around and smiling along with another unfamiliar hero in the center. He wore red and yellow and black in his costume while wearing a mask and having an all too familiar looking smile on his face.

Looking closer at the picture she questioned aloud “Gray-Son?”

“Starfire?” she suddenly heard from behind, turning to see Nightwing himself standing at the doorway. Seeing her expression he smirked “I don’t know how things work on your home planet but on Earth we usually don’t just go looking through other people’s things. At least not without asking first.”

“I am sorry, Gray-Son. Or, uh, Nightwing. Apologies.” She quickly replied out of embarrassment. “I did not mean to intrude. I was only….curious. I believe that is the word.”

“Yeah, that’s it.” Nightwing still smirked. “Another thing about curiosity on this planet is you have to be careful with it.” He walked over, taking the photo album from her hand while asking “You don’t have cats on Tameran, do you?”

“The small, feline creatures? No.” she replied, a little confused as to what he meant or implied.

“Then never mind.” He replied before looking to the album. “See you managed to find this. Funny, I thought I hid it better.”

She began to see the slightly hurt expression in his eyes, prompting her to ask “Are you all-right? You seem…in distress.”

“I’m fine. It’s just….I haven’t looked through this in a while. Every time I do though it…well it’s a lot harder to deal with.”

Eventually he opened up to the first page of the younger heroes before Starfire, pointing to the hero she’d seen before, asked “That is you, correct? When you were younger?”

With a smile be answered “Hard to miss a handsome face like that, right? Even at that age?” Starfire recoiled with a blush and smile before he continued with “Yeah. That’s me. Young, ambitious and overly cocky me. Back then I called myself ‘Robin’. It’s a sort of bird we have here on Earth. And before this picture was taken it was just me and my…well the one who raised me. Trained me. Taught me to be more than just a broken kid after he felt he lost everything…”

Hearing his tone change towards the end indicated something painful that happened to him. Starfire had noticed and didn’t want to pry any further than that. She too knew the pain of loss and didn’t think it best for either of them.

Instead she pointed back to the photo and said “These others. I recognize the ones called ‘Kid Flash’ and ‘Wonder Girl’. They were your friends before we all met. Yes?” When he confirmed this she asked “Who are the others?”

“The one with the bow used to go by ‘Speedy’ when this picture was taken.” He explained. “And the other one was called Aqualad. Though he liked people to just call him ‘Kaldur’ahm.’ But they’ve gone their spate ways, just like the rest of us did before we got roped back into all this teaming up stuff all over again.”

“So you were all part of a ‘team’ like this before?” she asked. Nightwing sighed which made her respond with “If it is too much to speak of I will not ask again.”

“No. It’s fine.” He replied. “I guess it’s better you know anyways. After all you and Vic are sort of new to all this anyways.” He indicated the bed nearby and asked “Want to sit down?”

She nodded as her answer before they both went towards the bed. They sat next to each other on the edge while Nightwing made sure there was enough room on both of their laps for them to see through the photo album together. Giving how close the two were they smiled a little at each other, clearly not minding the other’s close proximity to them.

Despite this Nightwing began his story with “Well I guess it really all started about two years before this picture was taken. That was when the Justice League, those other heroes you see on T.V. a lot, first formed. It started with just seven of them but over the years they started to grow. But the group was originally made up of a lot of our…well let’s just call them mentors for now.”

“Mentors?” she repeated the word. “You mean like this ‘Bat-Man’ who trained you?”

“Pretty much. Him and Wonder Woman, Green Arrow and another guy called Aquaman. And a couple of others. But those guys also tended to have little trainees like us around as well. Back then they called us sidekicks and, well, let’s just say that term’s not what it used to be. Me, Speedy, KF, Wonder Girl and Kaldur’ahm.”

Looking back to the picture Starfire noted “You all seem so different back then.”

“Things were pretty different back then. We were younger. More eager. And we didn’t like being left out when everyone else was off on big missions to save the world.” He turned the page to show a burning building being put out with the headline ‘Young Heroes Uncover Devious Plot’. “So Speedy had the idea of all of us working on our own. We found out about a secret project involving creating people with superpowers through illegal genetics and a whole bunch of other really messy stuff. It was funded by a group called H.I.V.E.”

“Hive?” Starfire asked. “Are they like the hive beasts of Meletron III?”

He gave a little huff and smile “I guess. If they were evil masterminds bent on world domination.”

“They have been known to devour entire civilizations just to colonize.”

“So they’re pretty close then.” Nightwing both joked and pointed out. After that he continued with “Either way our little stunt got us into some trouble with the League but thankfully they did see the potential for having us cover some of the smaller scale situations in the world. So they made the five of us something of a covert, under cover team. The big guys handle the bigger problems while we worked in the shadows. It was Batman’s idea after all.”

Looking back to the picture Starfire pointing to the ‘YJ’ symbol and asked “What does that symbol mean? I’ve seen it in nearly all of the pictures in the beginning of this ‘pho-to album’.”

“That was our name. ‘Young Justice’ we were called.” Starfire gave him an odd look when he answered to which he followed with “That was Superman’s idea. But that’s kind of how it started for us. And like the league as time went on we started gaining more members.” He turned the pages to show other young heroes while saying “We had other sidekicks join, like Miss Martian, Tempest and Tula. Uh, Aquagirl she used to go by. Hell, I even managed to let Batman have my friend Batgirl join in. After that we found other heroes who were in need of the right sort of guidance. Hawk and Dove. Mal Duncan, the new Guardian. Bumblebee. Lilith. Even Beast Boy joined up for a while when the Doom Patrol was disbanded.” He turned the page again before sighing at the picture of a blonde-haired girl. “And….Terra.”

Like before Starfire sensed something distressing about Nightwing when he mentioned the girl, Terra. She wasn’t sure if it was the loss that was painful for him or something else. Even with the mask covering his eyes she could still see through it and into him.
She rested a hand on his shoulder and asked “You do not have to tell me more if you don’t want to.”

He seemed to comply at first before shaking whatever the feeling was off and explaining “During our time running around and doing what heroes do we found out H.I.V.E. had a bigger organization than we thought. In fact a lot of our assignments involved taking down smaller operations that we didn’t realize they were running. Turned out to all be some revenge plan against the Queen of Bialya. She wanted revenge on the League for being involved in a military act that caused the death of her sister. She was making the metahumans into weapons for war. We didn’t find that out until after….after Terra.”

“Was she not your friend?” Starfire asked.

“We thought she was. When we found her we thought she was another kidnapped teen who they abused for her powers. Turns out she was just a sleeper agent for H.I.V.E. working with a mercenary they hired to take us down from the start. She got close with us, made us trust her, and made us give up some valuable secrets about ourselves. All she needed to help take us down and work we way to the League.”

“Did you….stop her?”

Another sigh escaped his lips before saying “Eventually. But it came at a big cost. Her surprise attack managed to kill Tula and busted up Roy….I mean Speedy pretty bad. You can almost imagine what it did to Beast Boy. Funny thing though was she made sure he wasn’t around when it happened.” With a shrug he suggested “Maybe deep down she wasn’t all bad.”

Starfire then asked “What happened to her? To Terra?”

“After we caught her the mercenary, Deathstroke, let her go. Said she was just dead weight he and H.I.V.E. didn’t want to drag around. She didn’t like that and, well, she had a bit of a temper that matched her powers. She….she wound up bringing nearly all of our base down on her head.” He shook his head as he remembered how and when it all happened before saying “We dug through the rubble for hours before we found her…”

“I am sorry.” Starfire replied. “On my planet it is hard to deal with the pain of betrayal but it is worse to feel the loss of a friend. I cannot imagine the feeling of bearing both.” He nodded and thanked her before she asked “What happened to your ‘Young-Justice’ team afterwards?”

“We stayed on long enough to finally join with the League in taking down the Queen Bee’s last major stronghold right in Bialya itself. We managed to put an end to H.I.V.E. and pretty much all of their operations. But after that….we were too broken to carry on. So most of us just moved on. Kaldur and Tempest went back to Atlantis. They both still needed to shake off what happened to Tula. Wonder Girl went back to her island home with her big sister. We managed to get a scientist, Vic’s father, Silas Stone, to fix up Speedy and give him a new arm to replace the one he lost. And then the others like Lilith they just moved on.”

Sensing his tone and keeping in mind about the book she pointed out “It seems as though you had the most difficulty doing so.”

“Is it that noticeable?” he joked a little. After that he nodded and replied “I was in charge for most of the team’s run. But they were more than just teammates or other heroes. They were my friends. Everything I did, ever plan I made and every order I gave it was all to make sure that no one wound up getting hurt. I think that’s why Batman wanted me to stay for so long. I had his training but I wasn’t willing to make the sort of sacrifices he would when it came down to it. I always found a way. But even I couldn’t account for everything…”

Sensing his distress again Starfire turned the page of the album, seeing what the pictures and such showed before pointing out “There’s no more of you as the Robin.”

Veering back into his more joking attitude Nightwing replied “Well I was starting to get a little old for the uniform. Tights start to chaff when you hit seventeen. That’s when I started going by Nightwing. And that’s also when I started working on my own in a city called Blüdhaven. Wasn’t all that different from Gotham and, well, after everything with the team I sort of needed my own space to work. Managed to do a lot of good until Batman found me about a year later.”

“Did he want you to return to the city of Gotham?”

“I think deep down he did. But by then he already had a new kid as Robin. A damn good one too. And, in all honesty, there wasn’t much else for me there. Not by then. But instead he brought me a list of other young kids with powers who needed someone to put them in shape.” He sighed again as he turned the page and continued “I didn’t want to do it at first. I thought it would turn into another mess like with Young Justice, but when I read the profiles on some of these kids I started to see why Batman picked me. He knew I’d do the same for them like I did any of my other friends.” Showing her a picture of him standing with another, newer team, he said “So I found them. A girl with a magic sword called Katana. A genetic accident turned hero called Metamorpho. A girl who called herself Halo thanks to her weird colored light based powers. And a kid from Dakota called Static. Brought them back to Blüdhaven where we set up a system with this girl named Felicity Smoak. She was sort of like an intelligence and technical support. She was an old flame of Green Arrow’s too. We came to call her ‘Overwatch’. And that’s how we started this new team.”

After Nightwing pointed out the picture again Starfire read the label underneath “The Outsiders?”

He smirked and nodded “I picked the name this time. A lot better than ‘the New Young Justice’ or anything like that. And that’s how things went for a while after that. We did our best and made Blüdhaven a more decent place to live. And we brought in more members like before.” Turning the pages he showed more pictures of heroes and news clippings depicting the Outsider’s works while saying “Some like this girl, Tigress. The daughter of a couple of supervillains who didn’t want to follow the family business. I think nowadays she’s been working with Green Arrow. Even gave herself a new name. And these two, Thunder and Lightning. A twin team who Static ran into. He actually tuned out to be a good teacher for them. There’s Grace, an old friend of Wonder Girl’s who really didn’t care for superhero names. This crazy guy called the Creeper. Man, was he handful. And I even convinced Speedy to come back and join for a while. Although now he likes to call himself ‘Arsenal’. He was really into the hardcore sounding sort of stuff.”

The two shared a small laugh before she pointed to another hero and asked “What about this one?”

Seeing who she pointed at he replied “Oh. Him. That’s Geo-Force.” His tone dropped a little before he continued with “He was…is, Terra’s brother.” Seeing Starfire’s reaction he was quick to say “Don’t worry. It wasn’t as bad as you think.”

“It is just surprising to know that she had a sibling.” Starfire explained. “Was he not upset to know what happened to his sister?”

“He was…but not at us.” Nightwing answered. “Thankfully Batman managed to explain everything to him before he wound up joining the team. That’s not to say I didn’t keep an eye on him when he first joined. As much as I wanted to believe he was good I didn’t want to risk another incident like with his sister.”

“But he cooperated with you and these Outsiders?”

Nodding he answered “He was one of the best. I don’t know what it was like between him and Terra but whatever it was it never came to him. He covered my back like I covered his and the others.”

Starfire sounded relieved to hear that before asking “Where is he now? And the other Outsiders?”

“Still back in Blüdhaven. Arsenal took charge after I….well I started to have that need to be alone again.” Seeing the questioning look in her eyes he shrugged “With the city starting to get back on its feet there wasn’t too much need for heroes like us. But the rest of them had a hard time leaving. But for me the whole team thing was starting to get a little old. So I left and started doing some cross-country crime fighting.”

“But you returned now. To save me.” Starfire pointed out. “You and the others came to the call of that mysterious ‘Raven’ girl. Why?”

With a shrug he answered “Can’t really say. The thrill of getting back into the swing of things. The whole mystery surrounding you and whoever that girl is. Heck. Maybe it’s just because I like saving damsels in distress. Especially the pretty redheaded ones like you.”

While both smirked Starfire retorted “I am not sure what a ‘damsel’ is but I am one for often handling my own distress.” Raising a hand as green energy emitted from it. After Nightwing apologized in a friendly manner she added “However I accept your comment about my appearance. I find it…flattering.”

Still smiling he replied “Good to know. I’ll be sure to mention it more often. If it’s alright with you that is.”

She bashfully smiled again before changing the subject to ask “And what of us now? This new team of heroes? Are we anything like the Young Justice or the Outsiders?”

As he closed the photo album Nightwing replied “I don’t really know yet. You. Me. Vic. BB. Kid Flash and Wonder Girl. And whoever this Raven girl is who keeps pointing us in the direction of this ‘Cult of Blood’. It could all fall apart sooner than we think. But then again maybe this will be it. Our own team. Our own rules. No more interference form the League.” He paused for a moment before mentioning “You know Donna, that is I mean ‘Wonder Girl’ once said we were all destine to change the world. It was something she learned back on her island home that we all have a destiny. Be it great or small. Apparently this future seer, an oracle, told her she’d be standing with those who’d rival the titans of myth. It’s funny because that was one of the names we originally had for our team when we started. Back before they decided on ‘Young Justice’. Who knows? Maybe a bunch of teen heroes like us can actually make the difference.”

After hearing all of that Starfire nodded, going silent herself, before finally saying “On my planet we have a saying: There is nothing that can be a guarantee. For all lies in the hands of destiny.”

Nightwing smiled at her again before his hand came to rest on hers, saying “That’s a hell of a saying to go by.”

Starfire in turn took his hand and locked her fingers around his. The more they’d talked the more comfortable they’d become around each other. It seemed to be growing between them since they’d first met, the subtle hints and sayings and gestures they’d given to each other; some unintentional than others.

“I enjoyed your stories, Gary-Son.” She finally said.

“Actually you can call me ‘Dick’.” He responded, making her question the name. “It’s short for Richard. My real name. Richard Grayson.”

“Hmmm. I ‘like’ it. As you earthlings say.” She responded. “And if you wish, Dick, you may call me Koriand’r.”

“It’s pretty but how about just ‘Kory’?”

“Kory?” she repeated to herself before saying “I like it.”

He nodded before standing, putting the photo album down and saying “Okay then, Kory. How about I introduce you to the rest of the…Titans?” having picked what he thought would be a perfect name for their team.

In response she nodded and followed, still holding his hand as they left the room and closed the door behind them. The album was left with the last page open, revealing a newer picture from a newspaper clipping. It showed the newer team of heroes both Nightwing and Starfire had been a part of for only a few days. All, including the girl called Raven who’d brought them all together, were helping to save Midway City from a small alien invasion. The headline had read “Midway Thanks Teen Heroes”. The rest of the album however still had more room to be filled for what was sure to be a whole new adventures for these Teen Titans.

Description
It was growing later and later into the night within the Doom Patrol Mansion, former headquarters of the namesake team. After the death of most of the members it only stood as an old testament to heroic band of heroes from Midway City. Now however it had become a temporary home for a new generation of heroes, far younger and more diverse.

One of these teen heroes was the alien princess Koriand’r, also known as Starfire, who was currently wandering the spacious halls. The green eyed, orange skinned redheaded girl was still young and new to the world of Earth and its people, meaning her curiosity and want of learning of these near familiar creatures often out won any other restrictions she may have had. She was as curious to learn about the world she would need to call home as she was the ones she’d come to call friends and teammates; the other young individuals with exceptional skills and abilities.

The one she’d grown the closest with was the oldest among the earthling heroes, calling himself Nightwing. Most had accepted him as the leader of this group and only a few of them had apparently worked with him in the past. She knew the name ‘Nightwing’ was as much a title as hers being called ‘Starfire’, but the closest to his real name she knew was ‘Gray-son’; as one of them had called him by accident. She was hoping to learn more of him before knowing the others in the hopes of understanding how and why he was such a strong leader; as well as such an interesting human.

She found his room and knocked, only to find to find the door ajar. Koriand’r pushed it open and discovered he was not inside. Still curious about this human she began looking around his room, seeing the view from his window before seeing into his closet and noting several of his Nightwing uniforms, along with an assortment of gadgets, weapons and tools all neatly hung on the wall.

As she turned to look elsewhere Koriand’r’s eye caught sight of a large black album. Imprinted on the front cover were the words “The Good Old Days” in yellow, along with the symbol of “YJ” on the bottom. Curious as always Koriand’r picked it up and opened it, revealing a number of photos and pictures inside.

Each photo depicted different heroes posing or standing around for the sake of the picture. Newspaper clippings were added in among them, showing news articles or other pictures of certain individuals. Some looked familiar from the ones she’d seen through the earthling’s T.V. screens, like Superman, Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern. Others looked like young acolytes to them, and some of which she’d met, such as “Kid Flash”, “Wonder Girl” and even “Beast Boy”. The first picture at the front however showed some of those young heroes, minus Beast Boy, standing around and smiling along with another unfamiliar hero in the center. He wore red and yellow and black in his costume while wearing a mask and having an all too familiar looking smile on his face.

Looking closer at the picture she questioned aloud “Gray-Son?”

“Starfire?” she suddenly heard from behind, turning to see Nightwing himself standing at the doorway. Seeing her expression he smirked “I don’t know how things work on your home planet but on Earth we usually don’t just go looking through other people’s things. At least not without asking first.”

“I am sorry, Gray-Son. Or, uh, Nightwing. Apologies.” She quickly replied out of embarrassment. “I did not mean to intrude. I was only….curious. I believe that is the word.”

“Yeah, that’s it.” Nightwing still smirked. “Another thing about curiosity on this planet is you have to be careful with it.” He walked over, taking the photo album from her hand while asking “You don’t have cats on Tameran, do you?”

“The small, feline creatures? No.” she replied, a little confused as to what he meant or implied.

“Then never mind.” He replied before looking to the album. “See you managed to find this. Funny, I thought I hid it better.”

She began to see the slightly hurt expression in his eyes, prompting her to ask “Are you all-right? You seem…in distress.”

“I’m fine. It’s just….I haven’t looked through this in a while. Every time I do though it…well it’s a lot harder to deal with.”

Eventually he opened up to the first page of the younger heroes before Starfire, pointing to the hero she’d seen before, asked “That is you, correct? When you were younger?”

With a smile be answered “Hard to miss a handsome face like that, right? Even at that age?” Starfire recoiled with a blush and smile before he continued with “Yeah. That’s me. Young, ambitious and overly cocky me. Back then I called myself ‘Robin’. It’s a sort of bird we have here on Earth. And before this picture was taken it was just me and my…well the one who raised me. Trained me. Taught me to be more than just a broken kid after he felt he lost everything…”

Hearing his tone change towards the end indicated something painful that happened to him. Starfire had noticed and didn’t want to pry any further than that. She too knew the pain of loss and didn’t think it best for either of them.

Instead she pointed back to the photo and said “These others. I recognize the ones called ‘Kid Flash’ and ‘Wonder Girl’. They were your friends before we all met. Yes?” When he confirmed this she asked “Who are the others?”

“The one with the bow used to go by ‘Speedy’ when this picture was taken.” He explained. “And the other one was called Aqualad. Though he liked people to just call him ‘Kaldur’ahm.’ But they’ve gone their spate ways, just like the rest of us did before we got roped back into all this teaming up stuff all over again.”

“So you were all part of a ‘team’ like this before?” she asked. Nightwing sighed which made her respond with “If it is too much to speak of I will not ask again.”

“No. It’s fine.” He replied. “I guess it’s better you know anyways. After all you and Vic are sort of new to all this anyways.” He indicated the bed nearby and asked “Want to sit down?”

She nodded as her answer before they both went towards the bed. They sat next to each other on the edge while Nightwing made sure there was enough room on both of their laps for them to see through the photo album together. Giving how close the two were they smiled a little at each other, clearly not minding the other’s close proximity to them.

Despite this Nightwing began his story with “Well I guess it really all started about two years before this picture was taken. That was when the Justice League, those other heroes you see on T.V. a lot, first formed. It started with just seven of them but over the years they started to grow. But the group was originally made up of a lot of our…well let’s just call them mentors for now.”

“Mentors?” she repeated the word. “You mean like this ‘Bat-Man’ who trained you?”

“Pretty much. Him and Wonder Woman, Green Arrow and another guy called Aquaman. And a couple of others. But those guys also tended to have little trainees like us around as well. Back then they called us sidekicks and, well, let’s just say that term’s not what it used to be. Me, Speedy, KF, Wonder Girl and Kaldur’ahm.”

Looking back to the picture Starfire noted “You all seem so different back then.”

“Things were pretty different back then. We were younger. More eager. And we didn’t like being left out when everyone else was off on big missions to save the world.” He turned the page to show a burning building being put out with the headline ‘Young Heroes Uncover Devious Plot’. “So Speedy had the idea of all of us working on our own. We found out about a secret project involving creating people with superpowers through illegal genetics and a whole bunch of other really messy stuff. It was funded by a group called H.I.V.E.”

“Hive?” Starfire asked. “Are they like the hive beasts of Meletron III?”

He gave a little huff and smile “I guess. If they were evil masterminds bent on world domination.”

“They have been known to devour entire civilizations just to colonize.”

“So they’re pretty close then.” Nightwing both joked and pointed out. After that he continued with “Either way our little stunt got us into some trouble with the League but thankfully they did see the potential for having us cover some of the smaller scale situations in the world. So they made the five of us something of a covert, under cover team. The big guys handle the bigger problems while we worked in the shadows. It was Batman’s idea after all.”

Looking back to the picture Starfire pointing to the ‘YJ’ symbol and asked “What does that symbol mean? I’ve seen it in nearly all of the pictures in the beginning of this ‘pho-to album’.”

“That was our name. ‘Young Justice’ we were called.” Starfire gave him an odd look when he answered to which he followed with “That was Superman’s idea. But that’s kind of how it started for us. And like the league as time went on we started gaining more members.” He turned the pages to show other young heroes while saying “We had other sidekicks join, like Miss Martian, Tempest and Tula. Uh, Aquagirl she used to go by. Hell, I even managed to let Batman have my friend Batgirl join in. After that we found other heroes who were in need of the right sort of guidance. Hawk and Dove. Mal Duncan, the new Guardian. Bumblebee. Lilith. Even Beast Boy joined up for a while when the Doom Patrol was disbanded.” He turned the page again before sighing at the picture of a blonde-haired girl. “And….Terra.”

Like before Starfire sensed something distressing about Nightwing when he mentioned the girl, Terra. She wasn’t sure if it was the loss that was painful for him or something else. Even with the mask covering his eyes she could still see through it and into him.
She rested a hand on his shoulder and asked “You do not have to tell me more if you don’t want to.”

He seemed to comply at first before shaking whatever the feeling was off and explaining “During our time running around and doing what heroes do we found out H.I.V.E. had a bigger organization than we thought. In fact a lot of our assignments involved taking down smaller operations that we didn’t realize they were running. Turned out to all be some revenge plan against the Queen of Bialya. She wanted revenge on the League for being involved in a military act that caused the death of her sister. She was making the metahumans into weapons for war. We didn’t find that out until after….after Terra.”

“Was she not your friend?” Starfire asked.

“We thought she was. When we found her we thought she was another kidnapped teen who they abused for her powers. Turns out she was just a sleeper agent for H.I.V.E. working with a mercenary they hired to take us down from the start. She got close with us, made us trust her, and made us give up some valuable secrets about ourselves. All she needed to help take us down and work we way to the League.”

“Did you….stop her?”

Another sigh escaped his lips before saying “Eventually. But it came at a big cost. Her surprise attack managed to kill Tula and busted up Roy….I mean Speedy pretty bad. You can almost imagine what it did to Beast Boy. Funny thing though was she made sure he wasn’t around when it happened.” With a shrug he suggested “Maybe deep down she wasn’t all bad.”

Starfire then asked “What happened to her? To Terra?”

“After we caught her the mercenary, Deathstroke, let her go. Said she was just dead weight he and H.I.V.E. didn’t want to drag around. She didn’t like that and, well, she had a bit of a temper that matched her powers. She….she wound up bringing nearly all of our base down on her head.” He shook his head as he remembered how and when it all happened before saying “We dug through the rubble for hours before we found her…”

“I am sorry.” Starfire replied. “On my planet it is hard to deal with the pain of betrayal but it is worse to feel the loss of a friend. I cannot imagine the feeling of bearing both.” He nodded and thanked her before she asked “What happened to your ‘Young-Justice’ team afterwards?”

“We stayed on long enough to finally join with the League in taking down the Queen Bee’s last major stronghold right in Bialya itself. We managed to put an end to H.I.V.E. and pretty much all of their operations. But after that….we were too broken to carry on. So most of us just moved on. Kaldur and Tempest went back to Atlantis. They both still needed to shake off what happened to Tula. Wonder Girl went back to her island home with her big sister. We managed to get a scientist, Vic’s father, Silas Stone, to fix up Speedy and give him a new arm to replace the one he lost. And then the others like Lilith they just moved on.”

Sensing his tone and keeping in mind about the book she pointed out “It seems as though you had the most difficulty doing so.”

“Is it that noticeable?” he joked a little. After that he nodded and replied “I was in charge for most of the team’s run. But they were more than just teammates or other heroes. They were my friends. Everything I did, ever plan I made and every order I gave it was all to make sure that no one wound up getting hurt. I think that’s why Batman wanted me to stay for so long. I had his training but I wasn’t willing to make the sort of sacrifices he would when it came down to it. I always found a way. But even I couldn’t account for everything…”

Sensing his distress again Starfire turned the page of the album, seeing what the pictures and such showed before pointing out “There’s no more of you as the Robin.”

Veering back into his more joking attitude Nightwing replied “Well I was starting to get a little old for the uniform. Tights start to chaff when you hit seventeen. That’s when I started going by Nightwing. And that’s also when I started working on my own in a city called Blüdhaven. Wasn’t all that different from Gotham and, well, after everything with the team I sort of needed my own space to work. Managed to do a lot of good until Batman found me about a year later.”

“Did he want you to return to the city of Gotham?”

“I think deep down he did. But by then he already had a new kid as Robin. A damn good one too. And, in all honesty, there wasn’t much else for me there. Not by then. But instead he brought me a list of other young kids with powers who needed someone to put them in shape.” He sighed again as he turned the page and continued “I didn’t want to do it at first. I thought it would turn into another mess like with Young Justice, but when I read the profiles on some of these kids I started to see why Batman picked me. He knew I’d do the same for them like I did any of my other friends.” Showing her a picture of him standing with another, newer team, he said “So I found them. A girl with a magic sword called Katana. A genetic accident turned hero called Metamorpho. A girl who called herself Halo thanks to her weird colored light based powers. And a kid from Dakota called Static. Brought them back to Blüdhaven where we set up a system with this girl named Felicity Smoak. She was sort of like an intelligence and technical support. She was an old flame of Green Arrow’s too. We came to call her ‘Overwatch’. And that’s how we started this new team.”

After Nightwing pointed out the picture again Starfire read the label underneath “The Outsiders?”

He smirked and nodded “I picked the name this time. A lot better than ‘the New Young Justice’ or anything like that. And that’s how things went for a while after that. We did our best and made Blüdhaven a more decent place to live. And we brought in more members like before.” Turning the pages he showed more pictures of heroes and news clippings depicting the Outsider’s works while saying “Some like this girl, Tigress. The daughter of a couple of supervillains who didn’t want to follow the family business. I think nowadays she’s been working with Green Arrow. Even gave herself a new name. And these two, Thunder and Lightning. A twin team who Static ran into. He actually tuned out to be a good teacher for them. There’s Grace, an old friend of Wonder Girl’s who really didn’t care for superhero names. This crazy guy called the Creeper. Man, was he handful. And I even convinced Speedy to come back and join for a while. Although now he likes to call himself ‘Arsenal’. He was really into the hardcore sounding sort of stuff.”

The two shared a small laugh before she pointed to another hero and asked “What about this one?”

Seeing who she pointed at he replied “Oh. Him. That’s Geo-Force.” His tone dropped a little before he continued with “He was…is, Terra’s brother.” Seeing Starfire’s reaction he was quick to say “Don’t worry. It wasn’t as bad as you think.”

“It is just surprising to know that she had a sibling.” Starfire explained. “Was he not upset to know what happened to his sister?”

“He was…but not at us.” Nightwing answered. “Thankfully Batman managed to explain everything to him before he wound up joining the team. That’s not to say I didn’t keep an eye on him when he first joined. As much as I wanted to believe he was good I didn’t want to risk another incident like with his sister.”

“But he cooperated with you and these Outsiders?”

Nodding he answered “He was one of the best. I don’t know what it was like between him and Terra but whatever it was it never came to him. He covered my back like I covered his and the others.”

Starfire sounded relieved to hear that before asking “Where is he now? And the other Outsiders?”

“Still back in Blüdhaven. Arsenal took charge after I….well I started to have that need to be alone again.” Seeing the questioning look in her eyes he shrugged “With the city starting to get back on its feet there wasn’t too much need for heroes like us. But the rest of them had a hard time leaving. But for me the whole team thing was starting to get a little old. So I left and started doing some cross-country crime fighting.”

“But you returned now. To save me.” Starfire pointed out. “You and the others came to the call of that mysterious ‘Raven’ girl. Why?”

With a shrug he answered “Can’t really say. The thrill of getting back into the swing of things. The whole mystery surrounding you and whoever that girl is. Heck. Maybe it’s just because I like saving damsels in distress. Especially the pretty redheaded ones like you.”

While both smirked Starfire retorted “I am not sure what a ‘damsel’ is but I am one for often handling my own distress.” Raising a hand as green energy emitted from it. After Nightwing apologized in a friendly manner she added “However I accept your comment about my appearance. I find it…flattering.”

Still smiling he replied “Good to know. I’ll be sure to mention it more often. If it’s alright with you that is.”

She bashfully smiled again before changing the subject to ask “And what of us now? This new team of heroes? Are we anything like the Young Justice or the Outsiders?”

As he closed the photo album Nightwing replied “I don’t really know yet. You. Me. Vic. BB. Kid Flash and Wonder Girl. And whoever this Raven girl is who keeps pointing us in the direction of this ‘Cult of Blood’. It could all fall apart sooner than we think. But then again maybe this will be it. Our own team. Our own rules. No more interference form the League.” He paused for a moment before mentioning “You know Donna, that is I mean ‘Wonder Girl’ once said we were all destine to change the world. It was something she learned back on her island home that we all have a destiny. Be it great or small. Apparently this future seer, an oracle, told her she’d be standing with those who’d rival the titans of myth. It’s funny because that was one of the names we originally had for our team when we started. Back before they decided on ‘Young Justice’. Who knows? Maybe a bunch of teen heroes like us can actually make the difference.”

After hearing all of that Starfire nodded, going silent herself, before finally saying “On my planet we have a saying: There is nothing that can be a guarantee. For all lies in the hands of destiny.”

Nightwing smiled at her again before his hand came to rest on hers, saying “That’s a hell of a saying to go by.”

Starfire in turn took his hand and locked her fingers around his. The more they’d talked the more comfortable they’d become around each other. It seemed to be growing between them since they’d first met, the subtle hints and sayings and gestures they’d given to each other; some unintentional than others.

“I enjoyed your stories, Gary-Son.” She finally said.

“Actually you can call me ‘Dick’.” He responded, making her question the name. “It’s short for Richard. My real name. Richard Grayson.”

“Hmmm. I ‘like’ it. As you earthlings say.” She responded. “And if you wish, Dick, you may call me Koriand’r.”

“It’s pretty but how about just ‘Kory’?”

“Kory?” she repeated to herself before saying “I like it.”

He nodded before standing, putting the photo album down and saying “Okay then, Kory. How about I introduce you to the rest of the…Titans?” having picked what he thought would be a perfect name for their team.

In response she nodded and followed, still holding his hand as they left the room and closed the door behind them. The album was left with the last page open, revealing a newer picture from a newspaper clipping. It showed the newer team of heroes both Nightwing and Starfire had been a part of for only a few days. All, including the girl called Raven who’d brought them all together, were helping to save Midway City from a small alien invasion. The headline had read “Midway Thanks Teen Heroes”. The rest of the album however still had more room to be filled for what was sure to be a whole new adventures for these Teen Titans.