Bruce went wide eyed as she continued. "A few months ago there was a fire in downtown Gotham. I was living in that building. The place was in flames and I got out thinking my parents were right behind me, but they weren't. I looked up and they were still on the top floor."

Tears started to fall from her eyes and down her cheeks. Bruce looked away. He could remember every detail as she told him.

"They were screaming for someone to help them. I saw the Justice League arrive and I ran up to one of them. I don't remember who though."

"Please, you have to help them," the little girl pleaded.

Batman looked up at the building then back down at the girl. "We'll try our best, I promise."

Superman was getting other people out of the bottom of the building, shielding them from the flames as they walked out the door. When he got all the people out of the bottom he headed for the higher floors. Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Hawkwoman were already trying to get the people out. As Green Lantern and Superman was just about to go in to get more people out, there was a huge explosion.

Green Lantern and Superman were thrown into the building across the road. Batman leaned down and covered the girl with his cape.

When the danger was over, Batman uncovered the little girl and ran toward Superman and Green Lantern to see if they were all right.

The little girl looked up at the building, which had even higher flames now, and screamed, "MOMMY! DADDY!"

Batman looked over to the little girl. He saw her on the ground crying. He remembered when he saw his parents' death and when he watched Dick's parents fall to their death, now he was watching yet another young child loose her parents.

Bruce walked over to the young girl. "I'm sorry for your loss."

The little girl looked up at him with stain-filled, angry eyes. "You let them die! You killed them! Why didn't you get them out!" she said as she started hitting Batman.

"Batman, we need your help over here," Hawkman yelled from where he was helping the survivors.

Batman looked down at the girl who had stopped hitting him and was crying into his waist. He knelt down as she looked up at him. "I'm sorry we couldn't save your parents. Go over to the police and they will take care of you."

The little girl sniffed and nodded her head. She turned around and started walking toward the police car sitting behind all the fire trucks.

Batman watched her for a few seconds, feeling sorry for the girl, then turned around and headed toward Hawkman.

"After I watched my parents die, a man came up to me. He said he was sorry for my loss and told me that he would take care of me," she said, wiping away her tears. "I went with him and never looked back on that day again."

Bruce looked back at her. "I'm sorry."

She looked up into his face and smiled. "Thanks."

"You said that he could change, shape shift, what did you mean by that?"

"Well, a few days after my parents death, I still couldn't get over their death. He told me that he could help and he changed. He changed into my mom."

Bruce's eyes got wide and Tiffany stared at him.

"What?" she asked confused.

"You mean, you've been staying with Clayface?"

Tiffany lowered her head. "Yes, and that's why I didn't want Robin to go out there alone."

Bruce stood up and looked down at her. "You mean Robin is chasing Clayface and he doesn't know?"

Tiffany looked up at him and nodded.

Bruce turned to Alfred who then stepped forward and said, "Come, Miss, I shall show you to a room where you can stay for the night."

"Thank you," she said as she stood up and followed the butler up the stairs.

Bruce watched them disappear around the upstairs corner then ran to the Batcave to warn Robin.

YJYJYJYJYJYJ

Robin had been running for miles. As soon as he stepped out of the house, the guy attacked. Robin raced down the driveway and jumped over the wall, running as fast as he could to get away from him. The guy was catching up to him quickly, and Robin had to think of something fast.

He ran all the way down to the waterfront and stopped to catch his breath. He looked around to find the guy nowhere in sight. Robin stood up straight and walked a few steps from where he just came from.

"Huh, must of lost him," he said with his famous smirk on his face.

"Think again, Bird Boy."

Robin's eyes went wide as he turned around and saw the guy standing behind him.

"How..." Robin started.

The guy grabbed him by the collar of his uniform and picked him up so Robin couldn't touch the ground. Robin grabbed the guys hand, trying to make him let go, kicking and squirming.

"Let. Go!" Robin yelled. The guy grinned and threw Robin really hard into the building close to them.

Robin got up on his knees, one hand still on the ground the other grabbing his head, and looked up and saw the guy walking toward him.

"You haven't figured it out have you?" the guy asked with a smirk on his face.

Robin stood up, a little dizzy from hitting the wall, and pulled out a bird-a-rang.

The guy continued to walk toward him, but changing as he does.

Robin's eyes go wide. "Clayface?"

"That's right," he replied, now completely changed into his Clayface appearance.

Robin narrows his eyes as he throws the bird-a-rang that was in his hands at Clayface then jumps up and over Clayface.

The bird-a-rang exploded and Clayface gave a short "Agghh" as he split in two. Clayface quickly recovered and pulled himself back together, tuning to look at the now escaping Boy Wonder.

"Come back here you little brat!" he yelled as he watched Robin run away slowly and off balance.

Robin was in so much pain. His back hurt, his right arm felt like it was broke, his legs were throbbing, and his head felt like it had exploded. He was having a hard time seeing straight.

Just then, he heard Batman's voice come out of nowhere. "Ba- Batman?"

"Robin, where are you?" Batman asked cutting right to the chase. He could tell that Robin was in trouble.

"At... at the waterfront." It was getting harder to stay awake and keep moving. "Clayface... the guy... is..."

"I know. Try to find a place to hide until I can get down there."

"I-I'll... t-try... ugh," Robin stuttered then fell down. His head hurt so much; he couldn't stay awake any longer.

"Robin? Robin!" Batman knew he didn't have much time. He knew had to get down to the waterfront and help his partner, his protégé, his son. He ran to the Batmobile and raced out of the Batcave toward the waterfront.

YJYJYJYJYJYJ

At Mount Justice, the team, minus Robin, was all sitting in the common room doing their own thing. Superboy and Wally were sitting in front of the TV playing a video game trying to beat Robin's high score, Aqualad was sitting next to them just watching, and M'gann was looking at a new cookbook that her uncle got for her.

They all were pretty tired from all the fun they had at Robin's party earlier that day, and were happy that they got to be a part of it. They had never been a part of any of Robin's civilian live before so they were happy that they got to celebrate his birthday with him.

As Aqualad watched Superboy and Wally play the game, Wally was close to beating Robin's high score, when a thought came to his mind.

"Guys, do you remember yesterday when Robin came in all beat up?"

M'gann looked up from her book at Aqualad. Superboy paused the game and Wally's eyes went wide.

"Hey, I was about to beat Rob's..." Wally looked at Aqualad and went silent.

"Yeah, what about it?" Superboy asked.

"Well, do you know anything about the guy that attacked him?"

M'gann, Wally, and Superboy all shook their heads.

"As I thought," Aqualad said. "Perhaps we could call him up and ask him about it."

"Yeah, we're his team. Maybe we can help him out in some way," Wally said as he stood up. Wally taped his comm link to call Robin.

He tried a few more times but couldn't reach him. "He's not answering guys."

"Perhaps we should call Batman and see if they are out on patrol," Aquaman said.

Wally tried to get a hold of Batman, and it took two tries to finally reach the bat.

"What is it?" Batman asked not to happy.

"Ummm... we were wondering what happened to Rob yesterday and we can't get a hold of him. Do you by any chance know where he is?" Wally asked carefully and a bit nervously. Batman was a hard person to talk to, and you normally didn't just call the Batman to chat, so Wally felt very awkward calling Batman to ask him where Robin was.

"He's not responding," Batman said in a voice that said 'I don't have time to talk.'

"Uhhhh... he's not even responding to you?" Wally asked unsure if he heard him right.

"No," was all Batman said. He never liked asking anyone for backup and he didn't want the Young Justice team to worry and get in his way. "Don't worry I'm handling it."

With that Batman broke off communications. He didn't have time to talk to the kids, he was at the waterfront and he had to focus on finding Robin.

He jumped out of the Batmobile and walked around looking for any signs of a struggle. Everything looked pretty normal except for one building. He walked up to the building and examined it. He could tell a body had been thrown against it. It didn't look like it got too much damage, so it must have been hit by a child and not an adult and that meant only one thing, Robin was the one thrown against it.

Batman looked around to see if he could find any other evidence of a fight. He looked but saw nothing until he came to a building closer to the water about ten feet away from the other building with damage. He saw something shiny sitting on the ground underneath a street light.

He walked up to the street light found Robin utility belt lying on the ground. Batman picked it up and held it in his hand, squeezed it, and closed his eyes.

'I was too late.'