Chapter Text
Of course, it happened when Alfred was out of town. Stuff like this always has to go down when Alfred is out of town. Bruce cursed to himself as he made his way back down to the Batcave For some reason Mister Mxyzptlk had decided he had had enough of Metropolis for the time being, and of course, he picked Gotham to harass. A series of elaborate events occurred which included, but were not limited to Tim insisting that he be included in taking the trickster down for reasons that he refused to tell Bruce, Steph coming because Cass was in China and she was bored, Damian breaking out of the manor to join patrol while grounded, Dick following because he was supposed to be watching Damian goddamnit, and Jason seeing Damian and following him because the bastard stabbed him in the leg a week ago and was “Supposed to be grounded, Bruce!”
No matter how it happened, the end result was still the same. All five robins, former and current, had ended up in an encounter with Mxyzptlk and had all been hit by a beam of reddish-white magic bullshit producing the most inconvenient result possible.
Bruce reached the bottom of the staircase. His boots hit clean linoleum silently. Despite this, a chorus of high-pitched voices shouted out “BRUCE!” and he was bombarded by a small crowd of children, his children, all far younger than they should be. His current guess was that the kids were sent back to the age when they became Robin. This was based on the fact that they all knew the identity of Batman, but not all of them knew or recognized one another.
Nevertheless, the situation was that Bruce now had a full nest of baby birds of ages ranging from 8-15. Dick seemed to be 8, Jason 13, Tim 13 as well, Steph 15, and Damian 10. They didn’t have any memories past the age that they were when they became Robin and even their memories now are hazy.
Bruce waded through the crowd of children towards the Batcomputer as voices overlapped one another.
“Father, what is going on! How are you alive?”
“Father?”
“Yes, Grayson.”
“I’m not Dick?”
“What?”
“How do you know my na-”
“You’re Grayson?”
“Who are you?”
“Wait, Bruce died?”
Bruce sighed and stood up from the computer, and the chittering of the birds tapered out.
“I am going to see Zatanna and try and get this reversed. To explain quickly, you all got sent back to the age you were when you became Robin. The effect is likely temporary, but I would like to make sure.”
A hand went up from the clutter of birds.
“Bruce?” a small voice piped up.
“Yes Dick, what’s wrong?” Bruce asked.
“There weren’t supposed to be more Robins.” He stated plainly.
“That changed.”
“I wouldn’t let that happen.”
“That changed too.”
Dick’s brow furrowed and he looked away, crossing his arms.
“I have to go now,” Bruce started again, “Stephanie, as much as it pains me to say this, you’re in charge.”
Voices once again erupted into a cacophony of sound,
“Hey!” Steph shouted, offended.
“Yeah! Why am I not in charge, Father?”
“Duh, because you’re eight.”
“I’m ten, you dimwit! Plus I’m the blood son, Brown”
“The eight-year-old blood son still.”
“I’M TEN”
“Robin!,” Bruce shouted, and the voices stopped instantaneously.
“I’m still caught on the ‘Father’ thing,” Jason muttered, scuffing his sneaker on the ground.
Bruce let a small sad smile tug at his mouth before schooling his expression, “Behave, listen to Stephanie, and don’t ask too many questions.”
The kids exchanged glances wearily before each nodding in agreement.
An hour later and the living room was thoroughly destroyed. Dick had somehow destroyed two tables. Tim had set a small electrical fire that Steph had put out in a short ten minutes allowing it to burn a substantial hole in the carpet, and Damian had tried and succeeded to stab Stephanie, luckily his blade ricocheted off of the body armor she had wisely left on. She still didn’t know who the hell this kid was. Jason, bless him, was simply sitting on the couch reading what looked to be The Catcher in the Rye.
At least she knew the others. Tim, of course she knew Tim. Jason, she only knew as a legend, the “good soldier” who had sacrificed himself for justice. At least that’s what she assumed, she wasn’t supposed to bring him up. Dick, she knew of obviously. She had even met him before. But Damian, as he informed her, was a wild card. He seemed to know her though. He seemed to know all of them, apparently, and was incredibly confused. He kept asking what was wrong with Todd which was a really weird question to ask. Equally so was the question, “Why is Grayson such an ass.” Which, honestly, was a fair question. The boy was far more standoffish than Stephanie had expected considering who he was as an adult.
Two hours in and things had calmed down, Damian was now occupying himself in the corner with a drawing of some kind. Which Steph was more than happy to encourage if it meant less stabbing. Dick had engaged himself in quiet conversation with Jason, which probably wouldn’t end well, but it seemed to be going all right for the time being. Tim just sat next to Stephanie, and kept trying to sneak glances at her when she wasn’t looking.
“Yes, Tim?” she finally said.
“You know me, don’t you?” He asked.
“Yeah, but so does Damian.”
“I think it’s different.”
“How so?” Steph cocked her head, interested in how the younger version of her friend thought.
“You know a lot about me. I can see it in the way you look at me. You seem interested in who I was. Damian just knows me, knows me.”
“I guess that’s true. I mean, I can’t speak for Damian, but I think the kid has a lot going on right now”
“Yeah, probably. I mean he did mention Bruce being dead earlier,” Tim said nonchalantly.
“He, what?” Steph whisper-shouted, trying to keep her voice down.
“Was Jason the only other person to catch that? I thought the rest of you just chose not to comment on it like me?”
“You just chose not to comment on it?”
“Yeah? I mean he clearly got better.”
Steph returned to her book for a few moments before shutting it, “I feel like we should address Jason.”
“Oh shit, yeah.” Tim said, leaning in as well, “How the hell is he here?”
Their conversation did not go unnoticed by the other occupants of the room, but Dick and Jason seemed to Disregard the discussion in favor of their own. Damian however tuned into the hushed words of Tim and Steph.
“Damian seems to know him though?”
“Yes,” Tim snipped, “Damian seems to know everyone.”
“He seems confused though,” Steph noted, “Like Jason wasn’t what he was expecting.”
“Which seems weird right?” Tim agreed, “This seems to be the Jason that we were told of.”
“Does he know a different- Hey Jason! Dick! What’s up?”
The younger of the two, Dick, scoffed, “Okay we get it you were talking about us. You two are from the future right?”
“Technically, yeah?” Tim said, “What do you guys need?”
“We have some questions.”
“Dick! Be nice.”
“Well if you’re so righteous you ask.”
“Okay, whatever,” Jason sighed,” We just wanted to know what happened.”
Tim’s eyes went wide and Steph did her best to school her expression, “What do you mean?”
“Why is Bruce so like,” Dick started, but couldn’t seem to find the word. He looked toward Jason.
“Sad?” The older boy finished.
“Yeah, sad,” Dick continued, “What happened to him? He’s always brooding places.”
“He’s actually a lot better, when I got here,” Tim paused, uncertain on how to phrase it, “He was dangerous. To criminals mainly, but also to himself. It was too much.”
“Hm,” Jason responded.
This seemed to hamper the boys’ curiosity and they went back to their couch, and Steph and Tim turned back to each other. They were entirely certain that they were not supposed to tell Jason that he died, that much was obvious, but what other topics were they to avoid. Stephanie sighed and flicked on the TV.
“Let’s see what entertainment the future has to offer.”
To put it simply Bruce was having a shitty day. A very shitty day. He had gone to track down Zatanna only to find out that she was in Malaysia for seemingly no reason, so Bruce had to fly himself to Malaysia, and at a certain point, it would be easier to get Cass to do this. By the time he had thought of that though, Bruce had gotten the Batplane halfway over the Pacific Ocean.
Last night’s events had left Bruce scatterbrained, to say the least. Seeing his kids like that, so young was astounding. He couldn’t explain everything that had happened since each of them had become Robin, and he could only hope they didn’t figure it out for themselves. For their sakes mainly, but also his own.
Bruce entered a few commands into the Batplane and pulled up Zatanna’s contact before pressing the call button. They arranged to meet in Singapore in a couple of hours to discuss an “issue”.
Bruce landed his plane on an unoccupied Helicopter pad and stepped out, greeting Zatanna, who was waiting by the rooftop access door, with a nod. She smiled and waved before walking over.
“Hey, Batman! What brings you to Singapore?” she asked playfully, “Is it league business?”
Along with her question, she did a small spin, “Xut ym otni egnahc,” she said, and with a golden shimmer, she had transformed into her costume.
Bruce shook his head, “Not exactly, it’s more of a personal issue.”
“Oh god, what happened?”
Bruce sighed, “Everyone’s okay…just young. The robins seem to have reverted back to the age that they were when they became Robin.”
“Who-?”
“Mxyzptlk”
“Figures, all in all, they should be alright. I’d give the spell 24 hours from its onset to wear off. Mxy doesn’t usually inflict permanent damage,” Zatanna says nonchalantly, turning around to look out over the city.
“Hn”
“You don’t like the sound of that usually, huh? I can come to Gotham to observe if you’d prefer.”
“That’s alright,” Bruce grumbled, “It’ll wear off.”
“If you insist,” Zatanna said, turning back around only to see that he was gone. “Figures,” Zatanna sighed, “Not even a thank you.”
Back at the manor, it was almost nightfall. Steph had what could only be described as a pile of Boys encompassing her as Pretty in Pink ended, and Sixteen Candles began. They had tried and failed to find new movies that interested all of them. Dick, with all of his anger and sass, seemed to never be able to agree to watch something. After flicking through seemingly infinite channels, they had landed on the Chickflic channel and Dick became instantly enamored with The Breakfast Club. This, Steph was more than happy to encourage. The rest of the boys had crowded onto one couch with Tim and Steph throughout the movie. The channel seemed to be on a Molly Ringwald kick, as three movies in they have not wavered from her content.
Bruce walked into the main living room at 6 pm, thoroughly exhausted, but ready to address his kids’ questions only to find them all piled together. Bruce smiled at the sight and Steph paused the tv causing them all to look over at him. Simultaneously, they all yelled, “Bruce!,” and kept up to greet him. Damian, however, remained seated on the couch and watched his father meticulously. After greeting most of his children he walked over to the couch where Steph and Damian were seated.
“Hey, Steph. Were the boys okay?”
“There was a small fire,” Steph stated plainly.
Bruce nodded, “I expected nothing less, but other than that?”
“Everyone’s good. We’re just kinda confused really,” as she said this, Steph’s eyes flicked quickly to Damian who still sat facing forward.
Bruce nodded in understanding, and Stephanie stood up to join her other brothers on the other side of the room. Bruce took her seat on the couch and looked over to Damian, who used to be his youngest son just a few hours ago.
“Hello, Damian.”
“Father.”
“Listen, I know you’re probably confused and-”
“Why would you pretend to be dead?” Damian said quietly.
“What?” Bruce was confused, he thought he knew what Damian was thinking, but he wasn’t expecting that question.
“Why would you pretend to be dead, and lie to Grayson and me? He needed you!” the young boy crossed his arms and looked away from his father, “I needed you.”
“Oh Damian,” Bruce sighed, “I’m so sorry for leaving you, it was never my intention.”
“What happened?”
“I- I don’t know if I should tell you, but-”
“What’s the worst that could happen!” The boy was now shouting, drawing the attention of the room.
“I’m not Todd! Whatever you tell me won’t hurt me! What’s the problem!”
Damian froze where he stood, processing what he had just said and meeting his father’s eyes as Bruce stood slowly.
“Damian, may I speak with you outside?”
“Yes, Father,” Damian hung his head as Bruce walked with him to the back patio.
With the two gone, all eyes were now on Jason who just stood frozen. He wasn’t sure what Damian had meant, but it couldn’t be good. The boy felt tears begin to spring to his eyes, and he ran out of the room with Steph following him.
“And then there were two,” Tim said offhandedly.
“Holy family drama, Batman.”
“Wait, you actually said shit like that?”
“What’s it to you?”
“Nothing!” Tim raised his hands in mock surrender. It’s just interesting, is all.”
“Whatever, dork.”
"You're calling me a-"
Steph ran through the halls after her brother for what felt like hours, though he eventually lost her in the maze of a manor.
“Where the hell did he go?”
“You should be asking where he would go.”
Steph lept a foot in the air, having not noticed Damian appear beside her. If the boy noticed he didn’t say anything, “He’s probably in the library, or Bruce’s room. He usually goes to one of those places when he’s upset.”
“Oh,” Steph said.
“Yeah,” Damian responded and awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.
They walked in silence for a bit, before Steph piped up, “So, you know him?”
“Know him is a stretch, but yes, he’s alive for me. Bruce told me to check those spots though”
“Weird.”
“I guess. I don’t think he’s the same one I know though.”
“Meaning?” Steph asked.
“I mean, well I’m not sure. I didn't expect him to be so… chipper as a kid. I also don’t think current day Jason is the one I ‘know’ he and Father must be on decent terms if he was with the rest of us when we got de-aged.”
“Speaking of Bruce,” Steph transitioned, “How was your guys’ conversation.”
“It was good I guess,” Damian mumbled as the two turned a corner, “He’s nicer than I remember.”
“I agree, he seems to be doing well now.”
“Dick and Jason don’t think so,” Damian responded.
“Yeah, I heard them too. He’s never gonna fully recover, and we know that. He can still get better though.”
“He can still get better," the boy repeated.
The two finally reached the library, its large mahogany door frame dramatically adorning the glass doors that led into the space. Steph motioned for Damian to stay behind and carefully opened the door. She crept quietly around the library for several minutes before finding her brother. He sat curled up in a red armchair, his head buried in his arms. Steph crouched beside him.
“Hi Stephanie,” the boy muttered, still not looking up.
“Hey, Jason. How are you?”
Jason giggled a little bit, and took his head out of his arms, “Never better,” he gave a small sad smile.
“Glad to hear that,” Steph smiled back, “What’s going on?”
“That’s the thing,” the boy said, “I don’t know what’s going on! Everyone keeps looking at me weirdly. Especially Bruce, it’s like- I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
“I wish I could explain,” Steph sighed, “It’s just- Bruce really doesn’t want to explain too much about the future and, as much as I hate to say it, we should probably respect that.”
“Yeah,” Jason took a deep breath, “You’re probably right. Can we go back to the group now?”
“Of course, Jay.”
The two walked out together and rejoined Damian. The boys made awkward eye contact for a moment before Damian spoke, “I’m sorry, Todd. I was out of line.”
Jason smiled, “That’s alright. I know you didn’t mean to hurt me. Plus, we’re brothers, right? Brothers fight sometimes.”
Damian smiled back at his older brother, “Right, brothers,” he said quietly before leaning in and giving a hug to Jason. It was stiff but intentional, and Jason could tell that the kid was trying his best, so he reciprocated by wrapping his arms around the smaller boy.
“Aww!” Steph exclaimed and grabbed both boys, still in their hug, and lifted them up. Jason started laughing and broke the hug, while Damian just scoffed and tried to hide the smile on his face as Stephanie threw each of the boys over a shoulder. They remained like that, smiles and laughter all the way back to the living room.
Stephanie entered the room with two of her brothers over her shoulders, and watched as Bruce looked up from what appeared to be a spirited debate against Dick, an eight-year-old, who seemed to be winning. He gave her that same smile that she just couldn’t get used to. It was so weird seeing Bruce so open like this, but it was nice. She walked over to the couch where the others were and dumped the boys onto the couch as gently as sisterly instinct would allow. The two boys landed with an -oomph- onto the couch before Jason once again burst into shaking laughter.
“Great! You guys are back just in time!” Dick exclaimed.
“Back in time for what?” Damian asked, sitting himself up.
“Dick is trying to convince Bruce to let us all go on patrol. He’s succeeding too.”
“He is not succeeding,” Bruce said, “It’s a terrible idea.”
“We’re totally going on patrol,” Steph said.
“No, absolutely not,” Bruce reiterated.
“Please, Bruce,” Jason pleaded, bringing out the puppy eyes.
“Hn,” Bruce conceded, his voice strained with exertion.
“Aw, yeah!” Steph exclaimed.
In the ensuing chaos, Bruce hadn’t heard the door open. Nor did he hear two pairs of footsteps walk down the main hall and into the living room. Two figures stood in the doorway of the room and watched as the domestic scene played out before speaking up.
“What the actual fu-”
“Fun. This will be fun.”
Damian leapt up, “Father! Intruders!”
Bruce sighed, dragging his hands down his face, “Damian, they aren’t intruders. Kids meet Cassandra Cain and Duke Thomas, your siblings. Duke, Cass meet the Robins.