Disclaimer: I own nothing here other than the characters Harry, Jerry, Frank and Barry.

A/N: I played a lot of Batman: Arkham City recently (as Robin, of course) and decided I needed to make Robin more Robin-protege-of-the-Dark-Knight-silent-hunter-bos s-y.

Behold (& also review like there is no tomorrow, or I send scary Robin on you)!

Predator

Raven slowly came to, nursing the biggest headache ever to be unleashed upon mankind.

She discovered she was: a) tied to a pole with some electrodes stuck to her forehead which were emitting an annoying buzzing noise, stopping her concentrating, b) in some creepy hospital building full of gargoyles and iron walkways, with dirty white tiles covering the floor; a building she didn't remember having ever seen before, and c) there were four fairly hulking henchmen in the room with her, all armed with assault rifles and sporting green question-mark-esque badges on their tattered jackets.

She looked to her left. Cyborg was powered down (also tied to the pole) directly beside her, and Starfire was held in some green handcuffs which evidently had dispensed an immense electric shock when she'd tried to use her powers and knocked her out.

She looked to her right, but was disconcerted to realise that only Beast Boy lay unconscious (on the floor, with a green dog-training electroshock collar around his neck) and there was no sign of Robin.

Robin. Suddenly her leader's voice echoed through her head.

"Okay guys. Riddler's dangerous, so be careful on this one. He'll probably have a counter to all your powers, or at least some kind of plan for dealing with you, so stay frosty. Don't get caught alone, don't let him distract you with his taunts, don't try and solve any stupid riddles he throws at you, or he WILL get you."

Raven sighed. Riddler's goons had attacked her with sonic weaponry that prevented her from concentrating, snuck up and gassed Beast Boy who was trying to solve a riddle that was something along the lines of "What has a head and a tail but no legs?", distracted Starfire by EMPing Cyborg and dragging him off and then tranquillizing her brain out.

Robin was nowhere to be seen. Damn him and his lateness.

Not like she expected colourful, in-your-face, fearless leader Robin to mount a stealthy attack anyway.

She was just considering this when a muffled "mmf-" and a thump brought her back to reality.

Suddenly, Riddler's annoying, superior-sounding voice cut in through the speakers.

"I don't want to worry you fine gentlemen, but I think he may be in there with you."

The henchmen all tensed up, and held their rifles a little more aggressively.

One of them wandered over behind a wall, where Raven couldn't see him, and shouted out to his comrades "Riddler was right, I found Barry! He's out cold. Spread out, search the room. Bat Junior can't hide forever."

The remaining three henchmen fanned out across the hospital room.

The room was silent for an awfully long time, apart from the occasional cough from a henchman or a clunk from the old ventilation systems.

"I don't like this, Jerry. How you doin' over there?" one of the goons said nervously.

"It's just Batman's Little Helper." Jerry replied from the other side of the room. "What's he gonna do, cry? C'mon, Harry. Chill out."

There was a loud explosion and a shriek from the third henchman, ending with the thump of a body hitting the tiled floor.

Jerry instantly turned around and sprinted in the direction of the noise.

He skidded to a halt. "Harry! Frank's down."

Harry jogged up and bent over Frank's unconscious body. "I think he fell from up there." He pointed at a walkway above them, one with a recently made hole in it, the metal warped and bent by the force of the explosion.

Jerry was getting more afraid, Raven could sense it.

"OK. OK. You check over up there, and I'll stay down here in case he's in one of the vents."

Harry nodded blankly and (practically) tiptoed off, gun raised.

About three minutes later, there came a noise from the far corner of the room.

This was not the shocked yelp of a man who'd just found a brightly-coloured boy crouched in a vent.

This was the terrified, final scream of a man who'd just looked Death in the eyes, and blinked.

Then there was a short crack and the screaming stopped. Raven guessed Robin had just headbutted Harry.

Jerry ran up the walkways, until he found what he was looking for.

Harry was hanging from one of the gargoyles by a black cable tied around his legs, completely unconscious and blood dripping out of his nose to splash horribly noisily on the floor below.

Jerry looked around nervously. He was now obviously terrified. Raven could practically hear his heart beating.

He took two nervous, quaking steps down the walkway and stood in the middle of the room.

"Robin?" he called to the darkness. "I know you can hear me! Come down here...and...and fight me like a man!" His voice wavered.

"That's not going to work." Riddler drawled over the PA system. "You fool, how can you win? All on your own?"

Jerry didn't respond.

A sharp hissing burst out from behind him, and he span, terrified, and sprayed a full clip into a slowly hissing pipe.

He took a series of deep breaths. "Just a pipe, Jer. Chill out. Just a pipe. Phew."

He reached for another mag, and a harsh, brutal voice rang out and echoed around the room. A harsh, brutal voice that couldn't belong to Robin, no matter how much Raven tried to convince herself otherwise.

A voice that should have belonged to a monster, stalking its prey through the shadows.

"Don't bother reloading. That knife in your left boot is useless. Best shot is the backup piece." it spat.

Jerry dropped the gun and stepped backwards, pulling out his sidearm, a badly-oiled Mini-Uzi.

"How did you-?" Jerry questioned the darkness.

That voice – she refused to call it Robin – stayed silent as the grave.

Jerry took tiny, scared steps in a small circle on his walkway, while he made numberless pleas to it to let him go.

"I'm not a threat! Go after Riddler! Please! Take the Titans! Just leave me alone!" he yelled, voice shaking.

A birdarang flew from one of the corners of the room to embed itself in a railing behind him.

He looked at it stupidly for a moment before it exploded violently and he was thrown away, landing on his back.

He stood up, scrabbled on the floor for his Uzi and pointed it in terror at everything around him.

"WHAT ARE YOU, ROBIN!?" Jerry screamed at the nothingness around him, firing the machine pistol randomly around him, the muzzle flash lighting up a circle around him, spent casings pinging off the floor and unsettling him even more.

The gun suddenly stopped firing and just started clicking whenever Jerry pulled the trigger in panic.

"Out of ammo? What a shame." the horrible, taunting voice that hid in the dark rang out again.

"No...no...just let me go, please! I'm begging you!" Jerry said, almost crying.

And then it started laughing. A terrible, sinister laugh that echoed around the room and seemed to come from everywhere at once.

That wasn't Robin's laugh. Robin's laugh was quiet and sweet and made her feel happy inside. This laugh was cold and cruel and mocking.

It made her want to run and hide.

"Hahahahahahahahaha."

"Stop it." Jerry screamed, clicking his gun at everything. "Stop laughing. I don't like it. Stop. Stop. STOP! STOOOP! NOOOOOOOOOO!"

The terrible laugh continued, on and on and on and on and on.

She barely heard Robin's boots land on the metal walkway behind Jerry. The laughter drowned out everything and echoed around in your ears. It was enough to drive one insane.

Jerry span around only to see Robin's grim face staring him right in the eyes.

He clicked the gun at him helplessly. "You said the backup piece was my best shot!"

"It was." the dreadful nightmare that inhabited Robin's body told him, as it backhanded the gun away (it flew off and clattered on a tile, far too far away for anyone to get it), smashed its fist across Jerry's face, breaking his jaw; then kneed him in the ribs (Raven heard a few sickening cracks and a shocked whimper from Jerry), twisted his arm behind his back and elbowed it hard (another sickening crack) then finally roundhouse kicked the broken, gasping and terrified man sideways so hard he bent the railing of the walkway when he impacted it with a dull thunk.

Robin shot his grapple line into the air and swung over to her.

"You OK?" he asked. Raven nodded mutely. Robin untied her and directed her to free the other Titans.

Robin himself walked over to Barry, whose eyes were just starting to open.

Snarling, he brought his boot down on Barry's face, snapping his nose and knocking him out properly.

Raven looked over at Robin.

She really, really hoped she was dreaming, and when she woke up the nice, light, smiling, cute Robin that made her feel a million miles high would be back.

Because this Robin scared her.