Slade's grip on Jump City has been steadily tightening. Robin is beginning to sweat under the collar. He is desperate to stop Slade, and even more desperate to simply figure out who he is. But Slade has proven again and again that he is smarter than Robin, and at every moment is turning the tables on the the Titan.

So Robin decides to approach Slade as someone else. The persona he invents eventually comes to be known as Red X.

But he does not trust his friends, the other Titans, with this secret. He keeps them in the dark, and leads them to assume Red X is a thief for hire that Slade happens to have an interest in. The charade goes on over and over again. Red X steals for Slade, the Titans attack, and each time Robin is conveniently missing, or defeated by Red X before he even comes into view.

And then the facade is blown apart. Starfire, concerned for Robin's health in the face of his obsession with Slade, goes into his evidence lab without his permission. In looking over his gear, she accidentally knocks over a small metal ball. From the device springs a hologram of Robin trapped under a net thrown by Red X. An image she recognizes, Starfire then figures out his deception.

Robin has set up a meeting with Slade as Red X to exchange goods and cement their roles as business partners. However, the Titans arrive on the scene and completely destroy this plan. Cyborg takes a fist full of Red X's cape, and is completely shocked when X peels off his mask to reveal Robin.

Robin believed he was alone in his fight against Slade. It wasn't that he wanted the glory, or to be the one to take Slade down. It was that he believed he was the only one capable of doing so. He believed he had to keep his double identity a secret from his friends in order for his plan to succeed. Robin became so caught up in his own game he could no longer look at the situation objectively.

Appalled at his own actions, Robin locked the Red X costume away, closing the heavy vault door on it as he was closing off the part of him that had created the suit. It is clear he thought of his time as Red X and the repercussions it had on his teammates over and over again. His guilt and knowledge of his failure was eating him away inside. Unfortunately for Robin, it is often our worst mistakes that come back to haunt us.