After returning to the cave with injuries, Bruce angrily lectures Dick about his reckless behavior. Dick wants more credit for being the leader of the Teen Titans and thinks that he should be able to go out on his own. He says that not only does Batman not treat him like a capable crime fighter but tries to control him. Bruce tells Dick that the world has become a much darker place and that in all honesty, if it were up to him today, he never would have taken Dick under his wing. Enraged, Dick storms out of the Batcave and Gotham City as a whole!

Taking up a job as a dishwasher and looking for a place to stay, he overhears someone talking about going to "Eddie's place." Metal Eddie, as he tells people to call him, is a young man that has spent ten years in Tibet building and hardening himself. He says that parents are scared of getting replaced by their kids. This is when Dick first sees Liu, who Eddie met in Tibet.

Back in the present, Nightwing is following Liu when he passes by the spot where they first met - a skyscraper has since been built in its place. Dick recalls their relationship and wonders to himself if Liu isn't to blame for his issues with commitment. Although he can't find anything in her background to suggest otherwise, Dick can't seem to shake the feeling that he cannot trust her. And her association with Metal Eddie does not quell his feelings of unease.

Despite Liu's claim that their relationship is strictly business, their interactions would seem to suggest otherwise. It is however of note that Eddie seems to have cleaned up his act - looking more business like.

Soon a man dressed like the Vigilante fires a bullet aimed at Metal Eddie. Eddie manages to deflect the bullet with his bare hands. Nightwing, knowing that the original Vigilante (Adrian Chase) killed himself goes after the would be killer to attempt to find who is behind the mask. The two fight each other but ultimately the Vigilante gets away.

Back at home, Nightwing pursues his only lead - JJ, the person responsible for building Adrian Chase's Vigilante gear. Although he cannot find JJ, he does locate a note left behind explaining that J.J. has moved on. This leaves Dick with only one possible lead left - Metal Eddie.

In an effort to discover just why Vigilante was trying to kill Eddie, Nightwing sets up a dinner date between himself, Eddie and Liu.

At the dinner, Dick explains that he had decided that it was finally time to forgive Eddie for whatever was in the past. Eddie agrees and says that he himself has forgiven Robin for "just doing his job" and busting him all those years ago. After a temporary moment of panic, Dick realizes that thankfully, Eddie does not suspect that he is/was Robin.

Although the dinner may not have earned Dick any more clues, it did successfully both literally and figuratively land him in the cross-hairs of the new Vigilante. When he returns home, the lights have all been cut. Suddenly the Vigilante bursts out of the shadows demanding to know Dick's relationship with the criminal Metal Eddie. Vigilante reveals that he knows quite a lot about Dick's current life (but does not appear to know that Dick is Nightwing). After capturing Dick in a "porous polymer net" which restricts breathing more and more as the captive struggles, Vigilante prepares to interrogate Dick Grayson.