Archive of Our Own

Dick hung from his knees, watching the scene below from his upside-down vantage. Clark watching Bruce. Bruce watching the Bat-Computer.

“Bruce,” Clark said, trying to interrupt Bruce’s intense concentration for a third time. “Bruce.  Batman.”

“Hh.”

“You should head to the Fortress soon. Unless you’re coming with me…”

Bruce’s nose twitched under his cowl. “Why doesn’t she just come here?”

“You know why,” said Clark.

“Is it because it’s dark and creepy and cold?” Dick provided.

“The Fortress is cold,” Bruce countered.

Clark crossed his arms. “It’s a dry cold. That’s different.”

Bruce just rolled his eyes. “I’ll meet you and Diana there,” he said, finally responding to Clark’s offer.

Dick righted himself and and then tried his luck: “Can I come?”

“No,” Bruce said.

“But I’ve never gotten to see it!” He was whining, he knew that.

“The Fortress isn’t an amusement park. Things there are fragile.”

“I know that!” Dick’s face pinched in frustration. He slid to grip the bar with his hands and then swung himself in an easy turn onto the ground right in front of Clark. “Clark! You know I won’t break anything, right? Can I go? Please?”

As expected, Clark’s expression softened, and he glanced over at Bruce. “He can come, Bruce.”

It was good that Bruce wasn’t the one with laser eyes, because he shot Clark a look that could kill. Clark immediately realized his misstep and sucked in air.

“I mean—”

“Thank you!” Dick shouted, not allowing an opportunity for the permission to be revoked. Bruce would be annoyed with Clark for a few minutes, maybe, but he’d get over it once his pessimistic worries failed to manifest. “I’ll be really good, I promise. And I’ll get all my weekend homework done on the plane, Bruce. And I’ll sleep on the way home. And I won’t bother you guys at all.”

Bruce sighed, and Clark flashed him an apologetic grimace.

“He’ll be fine,” Clark assured. “Between Kelex and Krypto, there’ll plenty of eyes on him.”

“Isn’t Kelex a robot?” Dick asked.

Clark nodded.

“And… Krypto?”

“Krypto’s the dog,” Bruce answered.

Dick’s eyes went wide. “You never said you had a dog!”

Dick crawled behind Krypto, winding this way and that through the tunnels of the Fortress.

Be careful, Bruce had warned. The dog doesn’t like intruders.

But Dick wasn’t an intruder. He was a friend, and Krypto had sensed that, right from the moment that Clark had opened the door to let them in and the big white dog had bounded out, knocking Dick flat into the snow.

Bruce had been right about one thing, though: the Fortress was cold, and the stupid thermal pants and parka that Bruce had forced him to wear were proving their worth. Put them on, and hurry, Bruce had said, in that tone that demanded immediate obedience, with no room for argument. Because arguing might mean death. Or, in this case, frostbite.

Compared with Antarctica’s poor excuse for a summer, the Fortress had felt downright balmy when they first got in. But now that the freezing outside air was merely a memory, the ice felt a lot colder.

The Fortress was kind of like the Batcave, but reversed: where the Batcave was deep and dark, the Fortress was airy and bright, like the sunlight was shining through the ice-like walls; where the walls of the Batcave were craggy and jagged, the Fortress walls were perfectly smooth.

And so, after Bruce and Clark went off to their secret meeting with Diana, Dick had began exploring. Not right away, of course. There was a lot to look at in the main hall, watched over by two giant statues (Jor-El and Lor-Van, Clark had said—his Kryptonian parents). And then Dick had spent a while marveling at the strange collection of alien creatures that Clark had saved, all the last of their kind, just like Clark.

He’d stood there a while, really, watching a little alien thing roll about and gather leaves into itself. The last Var-Sneuf of Urr, Kelex had announced as he watched. The leaves disappeared, eaten, though the creature’s mouth wasn’t identifiable at all. He touched his hand to the Kryptonian glass barrier, saying hello.

It had been cute, happily rolling around. You’d never think it was all alone in the world, that everyone it had known, all its family, had perished.

Dick understood that. He knew he wasn’t the same as Clark or these creatures, but he was similar enough.

And he hadn’t liked thinking about that. So he’d asked Krypto to help him explore, and the aggressively cheerful white dog, tongue lolling from his mouth, had barked and torn off down a tunnel. Dick sped behind him, leaving the happy creature to itself. Alone again.

He wound through the halls and tunnels, this way and that, chasing after Krypto until they had arrived at this little room. It didn’t seem to have much in it, though the walls of this place seemed to conceal compartments that weren’t visible to the human eye.

“Krypto,” Dick said, taking a rest in the icy nook, “c’mere.”

He tried to snuggle against the warmth of the dog, but Krypto wrestled out, ears at attention.

Voices.

Dick strained and caught the sound, coming closer. It was Clark, his voice sharp and agitated.

“Then bring her here!” Clark said. “Having friends your own age is—it’s important. I had Smallville, the Legion… they helped me become who I am. Helped me feel like this world is mine.”

“I know. I don’t want loneliness for her. And still, I worry,” Diana said. “Man’s World is dangerous.”

“Isn’t that what your mom said to you?” Clark pointed out.

“This is completely different!” Diana snapped.

If Dick hadn't known they were best friends, he would've worried about the bitterness in their tones, but that explained why this was happening in the Fortress.  Somewhere private, where friends could argue.  Where the Trinity could argue and not affect the whole League.

“She is so much younger," Diana continued. "She isn’t even yet finishing growing.”

“But she has your strength,” Clark said.

“Not quite.”

“Still. She can protect herself. Most people here don’t have our powers. And most people are safe, most of the time.”

Bruce grunted. “There are plenty of dangerous people. Enough who are strong, too.”

“As strong as Diana?”

“Yes.”

“But she’s not in danger.”

“Diana’s trained. Extensively. If Donna is—what? Fourteen? That’s different, Clark. That’s—”

“Dick’s age?”

A silence fell, and Dick held his breath. He knew Clark had meant it well, like Dick was old enough to handle the world, and that meant Donna was too… but all the same, it gave Dick a bad taste in his mouth, being used as a point of argument.

“It is not the physical danger that worries me,” Diana said, breaking the heavy silence. “She does not understand the… psychological toll of Man’s World.”

“You seem fine,” Clark noted.

“I was an adult when I came. I was confident. I had the gift of coming of age on Themyscira. I never felt the need to paint my lips or scorn bread to starve myself for the appeal of some man’s benefit. No one said my worth was based on the attention of men.”

“No one actually says that,” Clark said.

“Not in so many words, perhaps! You have no idea what it is to be a girl in this world, Kal-El. Yes, she can fight off attackers, but she should not need to. She may know her worth, but it should not be in question! Men are constantly—”

“We’re men, Diana! Bruce and I. And Barry, and Hal, and—not all men are monsters.”

Dick missed the next words, because Krypto decided that licking his ear was a great idea, but after he wiped off the super-dog saliva on his parka, he heard his name in Clark’s voice again. Something like, and what about Dick?

“Even kind young boys sometimes turn into monsters.”

Dick’s ears burned hot at the thought of that. He didn’t want to become a monster. He knew what men—or even boys—could be like. He’d seen enough in Gotham, in school, even in the circus, to know that Diana wasn’t completely unjustified. But he’d never put himself in that category.

“Dick would never—” Bruce shot, finally speaking.

“Perhaps not,” Diana ceded. The small vote of confidence was nice, but it didn’t ease Dick’s mind entirely. She continued: “But one young boy does not cancel out all the monstrous young men of this world.”

“Well, Di,” Clark snapped, “you’ve clearly made up your own mind. I don’t know why you’re even asking us!”

“Because my sister wants to help! And I want to let her help. How can I say no to her?”

A low growl began to rumble in Krypto’s throat. Probably upset at the argument, Dick figured, but when he looked over, Krypto’s attention wasn’t on his master. His ears were alert, listening to something in the opposite direction.

“Shhh, boy,” Dick said, running his hand through Krypto’s fur. But Krypto’s growl only grew, making it impossible for Dick to make out Bruce’s response below.

“Krypto? What do you hear?”

“Stop!” Clark ordered below, his voice cutting across the talking and growling. “Something’s wrong. There’s—”

But Dick didn’t get to hear Clark’s theory of what there is, because a great rumbling sound echoed down the tunnels, and then the rumbling gave way to cracking, and cracking to crashing.

The Fortress of Solitude was caving in.

Dick looked up. He tried to check for support beams, for structural integrity, for anything he’d been trained to look for in a building that might collapse, but this was no human building.

Krypto jumped on top of him, knocking him aside just before a cascade of the strange alabaster-ice material fell across the tunnel.

They were trapped.

And then Bruce shouted out, “Robin!” but before Dick could respond, Clark said, “He’s right there, on the other side of that wall.”

“I’m okay!” Dick called back, but Bruce’s voice masked him.

“Get him out,” Bruce barked. That tone again, the one that didn’t allow for argument. But Clark argued.

“It’s not that easy! The wall—”

“Tear down the wall!”

“I can’t! It’s a Kryptonian fortress! It’s made to keep out guys like Zod and Doomsday—like me—and—”

“If you can’t break a wall in this place, then what the hell just did?”

Bruce’s question led to silence, everyone asking themselves just that. The Fortress had security systems, both Kryptonian and human. Nothing could have attacked without warning

“Go find out,” Diana ordered. “Kal, get the boy to safety.”

“And what will you do?” Bruce demanded.

The sound of metal scraping on metal rang out—a blade unsheathing. “I will defend the Fortress.”

“Defend it from what?” Dick whispered to Krypto, who let out a long, thin whine.

“Dick? You still okay?” Clark’s voice was loud and clear, as if he were right on the other side of the wall.

“Yeah. I mean. I’m kind of caved in, but I’ll be all right for a while.” Until the oxygen starts running thin. But there was no way Clark wouldn’t be able to get him out by then. If not Clark, Clark and Bruce and Diana could manage it. Assuming they weren’t killed by whatever was attacking.

“I’m going to get you out.”

“It’s okay,” said Dick. “Go stop whatever did this.”

“But—”

“Seriously, go! Krypto’s here. We can wait.”

A hesitation, and then something like a roar echoed through the tunnels. “Okay. Don’t move. I’ll be right back. I promise.”

Dick nodded even though no one could see him, and Krypto nosed his snout in under Dick’s arm. It was true—having Krypto there made all the difference. He’d been stuck before. Kidnapped. Trapped. You name it. And he was pretty good at keeping a cool head through it all, but it always was lonely when it was just him. At least with Bruce trapped alongside him, he’d find a way to crack a joke. Looks like our plans just got put on ice, huh? And Bruce wouldn’t even roll his eyes or scoff. He’d laugh, knowing the relief would help them both think more clearly and escape more quickly. Sometimes, he was trapped with bad guys, henchmen usually, and then he could taunt them. But alone, sometimes all he could do was replay a story in his head while he waited it out.

So he began to tell Krypto a story. Robin Hood. It was his favorite, a classic. And one Kryptonian dogs probably didn’t know. But Krypto didn’t seem to have much interest. Dick had only got as far as the crusade when Krypto suddenly stood at attention and flew to the top of the barrier.

“Krypto? Boy?”

Krypto didn’t answer. He was sniffing around at different cracks in the rubble.

“Is there a way out?”

A concentrated growl broiled in his throat as he began pawing at one of the fallen segments of the Fortress. Trying to free them from the rubble. Dick moved to the other side of the small cave and watched the shimmering ice-rock wiggle in its place. Wiggle, but not come out.

Shouts came, though Dick couldn’t make out the words. The Trinity, calling to each other. There was a fight.

And Dick still had no idea what they were fighting.

“Come on, Krypto,” he urged. “We gotta help them.”

Krypto went back to the task, pawing, growling, wresting the edge in his super-dog teeth. And then—yes!—it came crashing to the ground. Krypto barked in self-satisfaction, looked at Dick while floating high in the cave, and began pawing at the next available piece of rubble. Soon, there was a narrow passage through. It wasn’t much, but Krypto demonstrated by slipping through it and then wiggling his way back in. Dick scurried up to the hole and gauged the entry. He could do it.

At times, it was annoying to be small for his age. Today, he was glad for it. He pushed his head through first—it would make for a trickier exit, but fresh air would be critical if he did get stuck—and then his shoulders, which were the real test. Something was catching—his parka. He slid back in, pulled it and the heavy pants off, and shoved the outerwear through the hole.

The cold hit his skin with a rude awakening, but the only thing that mattered was getting out.

Getting out and helping the others.

He was almost out, reaching for a grip before letting his legs swing out, when Clark arrived in a blur of blue and red.

“I told you not to move.”

Dick shrugged in response and then pushed himself forward, knowing that Clark was there to grab him out of the air.

“What’s happening?” he asked, righting himself in Clark’s arms.

“One of the alien creatures. It… transformed. I don’t know how, but it’s attacking everything it sees. Devouring everything.”

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

Clark set Dick on the ground and held his shoulders fast. “Not you.”

“Don’t,” Dick warned.

“Remember what Bruce said in the Cave? He was right. The Fortress is dangerous. I can’t have you get hurt here, Dickie.”

Dick’s brow furrowed deep and he began to push against Clark’s hold. It was futile, he knew that. He didn’t care.

“It’s my fault you’re here,” Clark continued. “I told Bruce you’d be safe.”

Dick furrowed his brow and, nostrils flaring, glared up at Clark. “And what about Bruce? Is he safe? You left him out there!”

Clark stole a quick glance back in the direction of the noises and returned to Dick with a serious expression. “He’s with Diana. I left because he told me to get you to safety. I’m going right back.”

“And so am I. I’m his partner. And I’m not going to sit around and do nothing while you guys are in danger. I can’t do that. Not after my parents…”

Clark’s hardened expression began to soften. Maybe it was a little manipulative, to invoke his parents’ death, but it was true. Dick already had enough nightmares of helplessness, of not being able to catch his mom and dad as they fell. If this monster was going to kill Bruce—and Clark and Diana, he was going to be on the front lines with them, not watching, listening from a distance.

“If it’s that dangerous,” he argued, “then it’ll eat all of you and then eat me anyway. At least I can help.”

“Dick—”

“It’s Robin.” He gestured at his red vest, no longer covered by his parka. “The location’s no longer secure.”

“Robin, you can’t—”

“We’re wasting time. Let me come.”

Clark nodded and glanced back away. Listening to the fight, probably. He didn’t give an answer in words, but he scooped Dick up and whistled for Krypto to follow. Soon Dick was zooming through ice-white halls and around collapsed walls before being dropped off at the edge of a corridor where Bruce and Diana were fighting the alien creature.

It towered over both of them, rolling from side to side and stretching itself into grotesque configurations as they launched attacks. It opened something kind of like a mouth, only to reveal a raging fire, like a kiln. Bruce threw five smoke pellets in a perimeter around it, buying him time to make eye contact with Clark, who flew into action, sensing Bruce’s command.

A grapple launched out from Bruce’s grip, and Clark took it, wrapping it round and around the creature while Diana used her lasso to throw rubble at it from all directions, keeping it distracted and confused.

Clark emerged from the dissipating smoke, and it looked like the alien thing was well-constrained, but then it rolled itself over and the grapple line disappeared, consumed by it. Dick had seen that before.

It was the same little alien Dick had seen earlier, rolling around in the leaves, cheerful and harmless. Somehow, it had become anything but. It was like Clayface, if Clayface had a fiery, gaping void for a mouth that could dissolve things into itself.

“It didn’t work,” sighed Clark, but Bruce held up a hand for patience, and then an electric buzzing came from the alien, who jerked, stiffened, and fell silent.

With the threat neutralized, at least temporarily, Bruce turned his attention to Dick.

He didn’t say anything at first, and instead reached out and pulled Dick against his chest. The hard edges of his cowl pressed into Dick’s skull as he hugged him tighter.

“You’re okay,” he said.

“Yeah,” Dick answered, wanting to escape the semi-embarrassing hug but also never wanting to leave it. “I’m okay.”

“I was worried,” Bruce explained, his voice gruff.

“I’m okay,” Dick repeated, pulling away from Bruce’s sharp armor.

Bruce finally turned to Clark. “You saved him.”

Clark nodded.

“Duh, B,” Dick said. “He’s Superman. Though really, Krypto deserves the credit for digging us out.”

Bruce didn’t even acknowledge Dick’s comment. His eyes were fixed on Clark.

“I said I would,” Clark said.

Dick looked at the monster, paralyzed on the floor. “Why do you think that alien creature turned into that… thing?”

Diana shook her head. “Perhaps this is just the way it grows.”

“Into a monster?”

She shrugged, as if those words weren’t heavy. As if she hadn’t said the same thing about him, less than an hour ago.

A groaning sound behind them made everyone spin toward the fallen thing, and Bruce pushed Dick back.

The tranquilizer had already worn off, apparently, because the thing now rose to its full height, nearly three times that of Diana, who stood in front of it, lasso in one hand and sword in the other.

It reared up, and then it launched itself toward them.

There was no time. No time for orders, no time for a plan.

Clark was in the air, rocketing toward the thing with frightening speed, but instead of a super-punch, there was a thing-punch, and Clark was tossed far and wide, careening into the walls of the Fortress with an echoing crash.

Bruce reached for his utility belt, but before he could do anything, Diana’s sword was in the thing’s chest. She had thrown it like a spear, but now she leapt up and took hold of the hilt, pulling it down with all her might and ripping the thing in two.

Purple guts spilled out and a noxious gas hissed where its blood hit the cold floor.

“No!” Clark shouted from across the Fortress. He shot into the air and flew back to the monster and Diana, pushing her aside and kneeling over the thing like it had been his child.

He scanned its body and then turned, furious, on Diana.

“How dare you—”

“It was going to kill us all,” Diana interrupted. “And everything else in this place.”

“We were containing it! We didn’t have to—you didn’t have to murder it.”

“That was not murder,” she snapped back. “It was battle. And it is not a person. It was a beast. A monster.”

“Who are you to say?

“Clark.” Bruce stepped up, taking Clark’s arm in his hand, but Clark shook him off.

“We were containing it. We would’ve found a solution.”

“And then what? What would you do, Kal, with a monster in stasis? Keep it that way forever? That is not living. It could only live by feeding on something, and you would not have sacrificed any other life for it.”

“That was my choice to make!”

“And it was my choice to bring down a thing of evil.”

“It wasn’t evil!”

“It was! You are blind to it, but it was too strong, and only growing stronger. If we had waited, we may not have even been able to stop it at all!”

“You don’t know that! It was the last of its kind!”

“Clark,” Bruce repeated, fully inserting himself between the two.

Dick held his breath, hoping neither’s anger got the better of them. He trusted Clark. And he trusted Diana. But Dick knew anger, knew how it could make a person snap.

But Clark looked at Bruce and turned away. “I’m going to find Kelex,” he said, “and clean up this mess. You two secure the perimeter.”

And then he pushed off the ground and flew to the next room, leaving Dick, Bruce, and Diana staring in his direction.

Bruce turned slowly back toward Diana.

“I will not apologize for saving lives,” Diana said, anticipating the argument.

Bruce just nodded, and then looked back to where Clark had gone. “I should… talk to him,” he said.

Dick scoffed. “No offense, B, but you aren’t the best with this kind of thing. I got it.”

He turned around, not waiting for Bruce’s counter-argument to come. “C’mon, Krypto.”

He found Clark in another little pod-area, typing rapidly on an incredibly foreign keyboard of sorts. There was no screen to speak of, just a collection of crystals that lit up in different patterns as Clark typed.

“Hey, pal,” Clark said. His voice was cheerful, as if nothing was wrong, but his stiffened spine betrayed his lingering anger.

“Hey.” Dick stepped up and leaned his chin over Clark’s forearm, and Krypto sat down next to him. “Whatcha doing?”

“Diagnostics. The Fortress can repair itself, but there are some protocols first.”

“Cool. Can I watch?”

“Sure.” Clark continued his work, glancing between the keys and the crystals, until he stopped and said, “Dick, you don’t need to check up on me.”

“I know,” said Dick, resting his chin more solidly, now that Clark’s arm had stopped moving. “But you’re angry. I just want to know why.”

“I said why. This place is supposed to protect the creatures I save, not kill them.”

“Right.”

“I know that’s why Diana did it, to protect the others, but… there’s always another way.”

“You’re nothing like that thing, Clark.”

Clark dropped his arms and turned. “What?”

“You’re nothing like that thing,” Dick repeated. He shrugged and knelt down to pet Krypto. “You think you are. Because you’re the last. And you’re strong. And some people think that makes you dangerous.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Guessing,” said Dick. “When Bruce won’t share what’s really wrong, I guess. And then he says if I’m not right. I’m usually right, though.” He looked up. “Am I right?”

Clark shook his head. “This isn’t your job, Dickie. You don’t need to listen to my problems.”

“I don’t need to,” Dick agreed. “But we’re friends, I thought.”

“We’re friends, but…”

Dick stood back up and crossed his arms. “But?”

“I’m okay.”

“You didn’t look very okay. You looked like you were gonna throw down with Wonder Woman.”

“I was not going to—to throw down,” Clark laughed.

Dick shrugged.

“Do you think I’m like the Var-Sneuf?”

“No.” Dick shook his head. “That’s why I said you weren’t. But that’s what Bruce would’ve felt like. Like he’s the real monster.”

Clark sighed, falling into a saddened pity, and he sat down next to Krypto. “I don’t think I’m a monster. But I don’t think all monsters are necessary monsters, either. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Maybe it was just confused. Or angry. Maybe I could’ve found a way to communicate with it, calm it down.”

Dick crossed his ankles and dropped into a pretzeled sit. “Diana’s good with animals. If she did that… she probably knew you couldn’t.”

Clark nodded slowly. “That’s true. I don’t know. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I was identifying too much with it. When I was your age…” He sighed. “I had no idea what I would turn into. I used to have nightmares of becoming something like that, terrifying and inhuman and destructive. A lot like that, really. I thought maybe I’d just transform into something my parents couldn’t even recognize.”

Dick cocked his head, thinking through what Clark had just said. The Var-Sneuf really had seemed like something out of a horror movie. Like something he might dream up if you told him, There’s an evil alien creature with unstoppable strength, out to devour your neighborhood! Like something from a nightmare.

“Clark… what if… what if it was?”

“Was what?”

“A nightmare. What if it turned into that because it… I don’t know, picked up your thoughts?”

“You think that’s possible?”

“Don’t you? There are metas who can do that. Even people like Scarecrow. Why not an alien?”

Clark’s eyebrows dropped, darkening his expression. “So I… made it into that?”

“Not on purpose. I don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t you. Maybe it was Diana and Bruce and everyone, arguing. Maybe it was me.”

“You?”

Dick shrugged. “Even kind young boys sometimes turn into monsters,” he repeated, Diana’s words still echoing in his head.

Clark’s face pinched, and then he pulled Dick into a tight hug that made Dick huff out an ooof from the air left in his lungs.

“You won’t. You couldn’t.”

“Thanks,” Dick choked out. “Clark—I—you’re crushing me—”

“Right,” said Clark, releasing him. “Sorry.”

“Say… if it did do that—change like that… maybe it wasn’t the last one at all,” Dick reasoned. “Maybe we just don’t know what the other ones look like. It could have family, still.”

“Huh. Could be.”

“We should talk to Bruce,” Dick said, tugging Clark’s arm. “See what he thinks.”

Clark nodded. “All right. That sounds like a good idea.”

Dick and Clark both rose, Krypto following their lead, and walked back to where Bruce and Diana were working. Bruce was prodding the creature with some kind of instruments while Diana lifted rubble and helped clear the mess from the fight.

“B! I had an idea!” Dick shouted, running up toward Bruce.

Bruce raised his head slowly. “You’re back.”

“Yeah,” said Clark. “Can I talk to you?”

“Can we talk to you,” Dick corrected.

“Actually, um. I just need a minute, Dick. We can tell him your idea after.”

Dick’s face fell. “Okay.”

Bruce stood up, wiping a small scalpel with disinfectant before placing it back in his belt.

“Robin,” he ordered, “help Diana. I’ll be right back.”

Dick nodded and reluctantly walked over to her. It wasn’t that that Diana was bad, or anything, but he could feel his shoulders tightening as he approached her.

Dick was used to heroes. To Bruce, who literally gave bad guys nightmares. To Clark, probably the most amazing hero to exist. But Diana was something else. Something more? She was… who knew how old. She had met literal gods. Dick had spent weeks with Ma and Pa Kent, but Diana’s mom was an immortal warrior queen of a magical paradise island that Dick had never seen and probably would never see.

“How is he?” she asked.

Dick shrugged. “A little better, I think.

“He has a soft spot for the survivors,” she said. “The last members of their species.”

“Like him,” Dick offered.

“Yes. Like him.” Diana sighed and looked down at the creature and then gestured back to the enclosure where it had escaped. “Come.”

Dick followed in her path as she led them to the wreckage where the other alien creatures lived—some safe, others gone. They went through each space, checking on each of the remaining creatures or noting them as missing.

Each missing creature, an extinct race. It turned Dick’s stomach, but he refused to let himself look weak in front of Diana. So instead, he asked her a question.

“I saw it before,” he said, remembering the happily rolling creature. “It didn’t even look lonely, for being the only one of its kind.”

Diana nodded once, keeping her eyes ahead. “We don’t always look lonely when we are.”

Her words pierced straight into his chest. Maybe she knew him better than he thought. Maybe Bruce had said something.

Or maybe she knew herself.

“Hey—um—Diana,” Dick said, lowering his voice. “I know it’s kind of a hush-hush thing, but…”

Diana narrowed her eyes. “Yes?”

“I heard you before. Talking about your sister.”

Her eyes closed now, and she sighed. “Yes. It’s—complicated. I’m not trying to hide—”

“I know,” Dick said. “You have good reasons.”

“Would you bring a young woman of your age to this world?”

Dick grimaced. “Maybe not,” he admitted. “But if she’s the only person our age there? Yeah, I would.”

“For that reason alone?”

“Weren’t you ever lonely, growing up? The only kid?”

“No, I—” Diana blinked. “I suppose I was, at times.”

“And when you came here,” Dick continued, “you were grown up already, so it probably was still kinda lonely. If she’s ever going to come here, then I think… coming sooner means she’ll feel more at home. And that seems important.”

Diana acknowledged his point with a single nod.

“Anyway, I think you want to. Or you wouldn’t have asked Clark his opinion. Or mine.”

Diana smiled now, a bright shining smile. “You are clever.”

Dick shrugged. “I know the world’s pretty messed up. But… I wanted to say—if she does come, and if she needs someone to… I don’t know, show her around, or something? Like a guide? I know what it’s like to be in a weird place, and to be a teenager, and…” He looked away. This had seemed a lot better in his head, and now he sounded like an idiot. Or worse, he sounded like he was trying to set himself up with Diana’s sister, which was absolutely not his intention. “Just let me know if I can help.”

Diana’s face was stoic, and Dick’s heart raced. He absolutely sounded like he was trying to set himself up with her sister. Exactly what she was wary of.

“As a friend,” he clarified. “I’m not trying to… I just mean as a friend.”

Diana raised an eyebrow, whether amused or skeptical, Dick couldn’t tell. So he made a desperate bid and looped his hands through the lasso that hung at her side, holding his interlaced hands up for her to see.

“I just want to help,” he said, eyes looking up in defiance.

Her other eyebrow raised to meet the first, and her eyes twinkled in amusement as she gently took his wrists and removed them from her divine lie-detector.

“I did not doubt you,” she said. “I will… consider your offer.”

“Oh,” he muttered. Now he definitely looked like an idiot. They finished their task in silence, and then started back toward the monster’s corpse.

He couldn’t say exactly why he felt the need to go see it, but he did. And before anyone could stop him, he was kneeling next to the alien, whispering to it.

“I’m sorry we turned you into a monster,” he said. “We didn’t mean to do that. We turned you into something we had to kill. I’m sorry.”

“Robin?” Diana’s voice.

“We should’ve done better,” he whispered.

“Robin!” Bruce that time. Not a question. A command. “Get back.”

“But—”

“Get back!” Bruce shouted, running toward him at full speed. “It’s not dead!”

Clark got to Dick first, sweeping him off the ground to lessen the impact of his speed. From above, Dick saw the monster heal itself and rise back to its full size.

“How?” Diana asked.

“It’s hyper-adaptive,” Bruce explained, throwing six sticky pellets in a semi-circle around the alien. He thumbed a trigger, and suddenly the thing was surrounded by a force-field of sorts. Dick hadn’t seen something like that before. It wasn’t quite human. Borrowed Kryptonian tech, maybe. Probably. “It was playing dead.”

“Being what we wanted it to be,” Dick reasoned, as he and Clark touched back down. The alien was back up, but it wasn’t moving as fast as before. It had been hurt by Bruce’s electric jolt and Diana’s sword.

“Something like that.” Bruce drew out a handful of new gear—flashbangs from the third pocket to the left, electric batarangs from the right side, second belt.

“No,” said Dick. “Exactly like that. That’s what I was trying to say.”

Bruce looked back at Dick. The cowl concealed most of his expression, but Dick could still read it. Narrowed eyes, pinched inward. Mouth open, just barely. He was listening.

“I think it turned into that… thing… because of us. Because it thought we expected it to be. Maybe it died because we wanted it to, too. And now it’s alive. Because I said I was sorry.”

Dick cut a straight path toward the alien, and Bruce held out an arm.

“What are you proposing?”

“Put away the weapons,” Dick ordered. “We need to tell it what we want.”

Diana hummed, somewhere between approval and curiosity. “And what is that?”

“To be friends.”

Bruce lowered his arm, and Dick proceeded.

“I’m Robin,” Dick said, stepping into the force-field. As soon as he did, the var-sneuf rose up and opened its fiery mouth. It lurched back, as if ready to roll right over him.

“Robin, step back!” Diana called, drawing her sword.

“No!” Dick spun and held his hand out, gesturing for her to lower her sword. “We have to trust it.”

She nodded and slowly lowered her sword, backing up.

“Hey,” Dick cooed, holding his hand out toward the writhing mass. “You don’t need to fight. No one needs you to fight or attack like this.”

The thing roared again, but it did not attack.

“I’m Robin,” he repeated. “These are my friends, back there. They were only fighting because… they thought you wanted that. But you don’t want to fight. We don’t want to fight you.”

It waited. Listening.

“We confused you, I think,” he continued. “We just want to be your friend. This is Earth, and… you’re in a place for friends. A safe place. We’re all lost or alone, just like you. But we’re friends. Do you… think you could be a friend too?”

He closed his eyes and tried to focus on the idea, knowing the alien creature probably understood feelings or thoughts more than English words. He thought about Bruce, and Alfred. About Clark. About Diana and Barry. About Wally and Roy.

When he opened his eyes, the fire had calmed, from a roar to a dull glow.

He smiled and stepped closer. “I said hi earlier, remember?”

The Var-Sneuf began changing shape, pulling its body into itself. Shrinking. Soon, it was no bigger than Dick.

“Yeah,” he said, widening his smile to a grin. “You remember. You were eating a leaf. Maybe… you could do that again?”

It shrank smaller, into a little ball, and rolled in a circle to demonstrate. Dick’s laughter soared into the vaulted ceilings of the Fortress.

“Yeah, just like that.” Dick looked back at Bruce, who nodded with approval. Next to him, Diana was smiling. And Clark stepped up to meet Dick.

“This is Kal-El,” Dick explained. “From Krypton. He’s the one who saved you and has been taking care of you. You remember him, too?”

The Var-Sneuf rolled up to Clark’s feet and then turned into a spindly tower, arching over him. Inspecting him.

“Hi again,” said Clark. “Why don’t we find you a safe place, all right?”

It shrank again and rolled in a circle around Clark. An answer. Yes.

Clark walked toward the menagerie, the little creature trailing in his wake.

Behind Dick, Bruce cleared his throat. But he wasn’t looking at Dick. He was looking at Diana.

“Should we finish our conversation here?” he asked.

“No,” she said. “I don’t think I need to discuss it any further.”

“Hn. So you’ve made up your mind.”

“I have,” she answered, casting her eyes over at Dick. “But there’s room in the jet if you want to come.”

Dick shook his head, not quite able to believe what it sounded like Diana was saying. “The jet? Your jet?”

Diana looked back at Bruce, who shook his head slowly.

“Diana, we’re… not welcome there.”

“No, not entirely,” she agreed. “But Donna does have much to learn about Man’s World before she moves here, and I cannot think of a better ambassador than Robin.”

Dick ran his fingers around a golden-rimmed basin that shimmered with some kind of lettering. It was almost Greek, but different. Circle the way of the clock to warm the water; circle back to cool it, their guide had said. She’d been friendly—friendlier than any other Amazon—but Bruce and Clark hadn’t held onto her every word as Dick had. Probably because they’d been here before.

He traced the circle to the right and then lifted the basin, pouring pleasantly warm water over his hands and into the basin below. Light glimmered in the water in the basin, and then cupped in his hands.

“This place is amazing,” he said.

“Hm,” Bruce said.

“I guess so,” Clark said.

Dick spun away from the basin. “The Fortress was cool too. I liked Krypto. Krypto is cool. Say, Bruce, what if we got a dog?”

“No.”

“Come on! The GCPD has dogs!”

“We’ll discuss it when we get back,” Bruce said, ending the conversation.

“Hopefully that’s not too long from now,” Clark added. “I can’t say I’m not looking forward to being free again.”

He nodded back toward the doorway, where two Amazon guards were standing, spears up and at the ready. Sure, maybe they were kind of imprisoned, but they were imprisoned in a palace. And only until Diana was done arguing with her mom, or whatever she was doing.

And semi-imprisoned or not, they were still on Themyscira.

“You guys are too jaded,” Dick concluded. “This place is insane.”

“I’m not jaded,” Clark argued, eyeing the basin. “There’s just a lot of ... magic.”

“Hrn,” Bruce agreed.

“Nah, you really hate it because for once you’re the weirdos in pants.” Dick splashed the magical water in their general direction. “No pants, no problems.”

Clark broke into laughter, and even Bruce cracked a smile before saying, “Don’t throw water at Clark.”

“Why? Is he gonna melt?”

“No, but—”

Dick flung more water, until Clark retaliated by crossing the room, snatching the basin, and dumping it over Dick’s head before Dick could even blink.

He looked down at his soaking clothes and the water on the floor and began to laugh.

And it was of course at that exact moment that the door swung open, revealing the two guards, Diana, and a girl Dick’s age—Donna.

Clark replaced the basin in a flash, but it didn’t prevent the guards’ disapproving looks.

“Friends, I want you to meet my sister, Donna. Donna, this is Kal-El, or Superman.  And this is Batman and, of course, Robin.”

Dick looked up at Bruce, asking a silent question.

Bruce narrowed his eyes, looked at Donna, and then back at Dick, and nodded.

So Dick used his left hand to wipe the water from his face, held out his right, and said, “Hi, Donna. I’m Robin in the field, but my real name is Dick.”

“Hi, Dick,” said Donna, clasping his forearm instead of his hand—like he’d seen Diana do. “My sister says you’re the one I should go to if I have questions or need a friend. Is that right?”

Dick caught Diana’s eye and then broke into a bright smile. “Yeah. That’s right.”

“Good!” Donna brought her other hand to wrap around his arm and leaned in with an eager grin. “Because I have a lot of questions.”