Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The air was thick with the heavy fog that Gotham was known for giving the rooftop a dreary dangerous appearance, it was like even Gotham knew what was happening on this rooftop would change the future of this world. 

The two figures standing on the roof were complete opposites. The woman was tall and slender wearing an elegant blue dress that accentuated her curves and sharp angles, her hair was pulled into a tight bun with not a single stray hair and her eyes were an icy blue. The man on the other hand wore a poorly fitting suit, his hair tangled and messy like he had been running his hands through it, his brown eyes twitching nervously. The Drakes were admittedly an odd couple and they were certainly not a very good one. 

Janet was using annoyance and a dismissive attitude to hide the fear on her face but Jack had no mask and you could plainly see his terror as he jumped at every sound on the empty rooftop.

In the end the people meeting them on the roof made no noise as they seemingly appeared out of nowhere. A man dressed in flowy emerald green robes was surrounded by figures dressed in all black, masks covering half of their faces and hoods covering their hair so the only thing you could see was their eyes.

Jack shivered but Janet stepped forward thrusting the small bundle in her arms at the green clothed man. “Here,” she bit out, “Your payment for the favors.”

The man silently took the bundle in his arms looking at it for a second before nodding at the Drakes.

“This is acceptable, consider your debt paid.” Jack's shoulders slumped in relief but Janet just stepped back to stand barely in front of her husband. 

The Drakes turned to walk away but the man in green spoke before they entered the building, “If I hear that you have told anybody about this transaction,” He paused meeting Janet and Jacks eyes before tilting his head and smiling cruelly, “Let us just say that you will not appreciate what happens after as much as I will.” 

Jack nodded quickly and Janet’s mouth pressed into a thin like before she nodded once sharply acknowledging his words. The couple disappeared down the stairwell and the man gestured to two of the figures behind him. “Follow them, make sure they don’t do anything that concerns us.” Two of the shadows activated grappling hooks grappling down the building.

Ra’s al Ghul looked down at six month old Timothy Jackson Drake in his arms and a smirk slipped onto his face when his acid green eyes met pale blue ones.

Four Years Old

He wasn’t fast enough.

Excruciating pain tore through his stomach seconds after his teacher threw her dagger and hit Tim. He wasn’t fast enough to dodge or to block the knife with his own. He lay on the cold sand that filled the sparring ring knowing that his wound was fatal.

He heard someone talking in the League Dialect ordering someone to pick him up. He almost screamed as the knife still inside of him moved as he was lifted but one of his first lessons was to be silent and he would not show weakness. He watched as the clear blue sky disappeared as they walked.

Sometime during their journey his eyes slipped closed but they jerked open as a burning sensation filled his entire body and he thrashed struggling out of the unnatural green liquid that surrounded him. He burst out of the burning liquid falling to his knees once he felt stone beneath his bare feet. 

When he lifted his head the world was tinted green and that burning pain lingered but he struggled to his feet bowing to Ra’s who stood at the entrance to the cave they were in.

“Timothy, I expect you to do better during your combat training. Your failure today was unacceptable.” 

Tim nodded, pushing the residual pain into a small box in his head before striding to the door, intending to go to the courtyard to complete his three hours of training before lunch.

Later as he looked at his reflection in the mirror hanging on his wall in his bathroom he noticed that there were swirls of mint green in his left iris mixing with his natural pale blue, the two front pieces of his shaggy hair were tipped with white fading back into black at the roots.

Five Years Old

Tim bowed to the black clothed ninja in front of him before shifting into a ready stance. The ninja scanned his posture before striking, Tim blocked, easily redirecting the hit to the side of him. The pace of their spar became faster and faster until they were fluidly moving into blocks and strikes. Tim feinted a blow to the ninja’s head and simultaneously snapped his little foot forward hitting the ninja's knee in a move that made him drop to his knees. Tim held a small knife specially made for his not yet grown hands to the ninja’s jugular vein. He looked up at the green clothed figure watching them and noted the satisfied smirk on his face.

“Kill him, if he cannot beat a child then he is of no use to me,” Ra’s said, turning and walking down the hall behind him.

Tim hesitated as the ninja begged for Tim to let him go but Tim’s face hardened and the ninja’s still warm body crumpled to the floor, blood staining the packed sand of the sparring circle. Tim wiped the blood on his knife off onto his loose black pants before sheathing it and walking through the halls of Eth Alth’eban to his strategy class.

The first person Tim killed laid motionless on the ground growing colder as blood spilled out of him. Eventually another ninja dragged him away to be disposed of.

Six Years Old

“Timothy, meet Damian, you will be training together,” Talia nudged a child with black hair and green eyes wearing black league clothes with emerald green edges that signified he was a descendant of Ra’s.

Tim bowed respectfully scanning the child noting the katana sheathed at his side. Tim saw a faint hint of nervousness on his face, a sign of weakness in the League but all that Tim could think was that they hadn’t broken him yet. He nodded at Talia. “Of course Lady Talia,” Tim made sure to meet her eyes for a second before dropping them to stare at the floor. You cannot show defiance to an Al’ Ghul, it will only end badly for you. Tim learned that lesson quickly after he watched a ninja get almost beaten to death for looking Ra’s in the eye’s too long.

“Tt, you expect me to train with this” Damian paused wrinkling his nose, “Child, mother.” Tim could see through the false bravado at the kid underneath the mask searching for recognition. He also decided not to mention that the other boy was also still a child.

“Yes Damian, you will learn from each other,” Talia nodded at both of them before spinning on her heel and striding away. Damian looked Tim up and down before scoffing, “I guess you will be an acceptable opponent.”

Tim wanted to raise his eyebrows and let the corners of his mouth curve up but that would be showing too much emotion and emotions are a weakness. But maybe Tim could save this child from breaking like he had to.

Ten Years Old

Tim was kneeling in front of Damian, wrapping the sluggishly bleeding gash on his leg with strips of white gauze. Once he was finished he pulled Damian's pants leg back down over it and gave Damian a small smile that only lasted seconds on his face. When there was a knock on the door of their shared room Tim and Damian quickly stood at attention facing the door. 

Talia strode into the room followed by a black haired teenager who’s blue eyes were glazed over.

“This is Jason,” Tim listened attentively as she explained that he had come back from the dead and was currently unresponsive. When she told the boys that Jason would be staying with them for now he nodded.

Tim and Damian took care of Jason for the next few months giving him simple commands and training with him teaching him how to fight with the katana and hand to hand combat. Tim was happier than he had ever been before with the league that's why he knew that something bad was going to happen. His theory was proven to be correct when Talia burst into the room while he, Damian, and Jason were doing a simple Kata.

“We need to move, now,” Talia was tense, moving quickly as she grabbed Jason’s arm and pulled him with her, Tim and Damian following close behind. Tim’s heart sank as he realized where they were going. The doorway to the Pit was unguarded which was strange but if Talia was doing this without Ra’s permission then it made sense why she was rushing.

Tim couldn’t do anything, the thought popped into his head and although he was mourning Jason's mind inside his head he didn’t move from his position beside the door standing stiff at attention when Talia shoved Jason into the pit. There was nothing he could do.

When Jason burst out of the Pit, eyes glowing green Tim felt his resolve harden. He would not give up on Jason’s sanity.

Eleven Years Old

The next year was filled with Meditation and breathing techniques and Jason calling him strange names. When Tim questioned why he didn’t just call him by his name he could see something sad inside of Jason’s eyes, Tim had quickly changed the subject.

Tim had done his research. Batman’s identity along with his companions identities were not hard to find and when he dug deeper he found Talia and Bruce’s relationship, resulting in Damian. Tim was happy with the friendly hair ruffles and casual touches that came with Jason’s memory coming back but it was also a burden to calm Jason down after a pit attack and to tell him the truth after Talia filled him with lies about Bruce. Controlling his own Pit Rage had become more natural for him and he hoped that he could make it natural for Jason too.

He wasn’t surprised when Talia deemed Jason healed enough to go learn different techniques with different trainers all over the world. It was going to be the best thing for Jason before he went back to Gotham. Tim just hoped that he had given Jason enough control and enough truth about his father that he could make his own choices about what to do next and not just rely on Talia's manipulative lies.

It was surprising though when Talia revealed that Damian would be going to live with his father. Tim could see his companions fading away from him. Jason with his training and eventual return to Gotham and Damian being able to live with his father. 

Jason promised that he would come back for Tim. 

Damian told Tim that he would tell his father about him.

Tim knew that they would forget about him, he wanted them to forget about him. To live their own lives because no matter what he had found out about his parents the League was his home. He would never be able to leave.

Chapter Text

Twelve Years Old

Out of all the things that Tim was expecting to do today, breaking someone's nose was not one of them. But here he stood frozen as the bald girl in front of him cursed and cupped her bleeding nose in one hand.

There were two men standing behind the girl and neither of them seemed very surprised by the girls broken nose. The brown haired man to the right of the girl looked like he was holding back laughter, his lips pressed tightly together, the other man was looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, I guess we better set Prus ‘days without a broken nose’ count back to zero!” The brown haired man said, his grin only growing wider. The bald girl ‘Pru’ as Tim now knew directed some very creative curses to the brown haired man, that Tim deduced was ‘Owens’ from one of the many death threats that Pru was describing in horrifying detail.

“This was not part of the mission we were assigned,” The other man that Tim didn’t have a name for said lightly not sounding too shocked by the turn of events. He turned his sharp brown eyes toward Tim, giving him a slight nod, “I’m Z, that's Owens, and Pru.”

Tim’s gaze flickered toward the weapons that each of the trio carried. Z didn’t appear to be carrying more than a couple knives but Owens had a sniper rifle slung on his back and Pru had several guns spread on her person.

“Not much of a talker huh,” Owens said, bumping shoulders with Pru who was currently pushing her nose back into place. Tim gave him a once over before deciding that he was the least dangerous and certainly the most talkative of the group.

“Are you League?” Tim said keeping his tone and expression neutral as he spoke.

“Yup! What gave us away? Was it the many weapons, or perhaps the flattering black clothes that we all wear,” As predicted Owens was the one to answer Tim’s question, Tim liked being right.

“Why are you here?” ‘Here’ was currently in the middle of Asia performing a hit on some rich business man. Tim likes to pretend that he relies solely on the information that the League had given him but in reality he had done his own research on Nathaniel Astor, an incredibly successful business man that had inherited the family business. Unfortunately Nathaniel had ‘forgotten’ about a debt that he owed to the League.

“We are here-” At first Tim thought Owens was pausing for dramatic effect but when he turned to Z and whispered, “What are we doing here?” That idea was quickly discarded.

“We were ordered to help you by Ra’s, he wants you on another mission right after this that requires our assistance,” Z said.

“So what do we call you?” Pru asked, wiping the blood off her face with one sleeve of her shirt, without waiting for Tim to respond she continued, “Master? No, that sounds SO wrong. What about…” As Pru started to rattle off increasingly worse names Tim decided that his strategy would be to just ignore her and instead he turned back to the map that he had been studying before he was interrupted.

“I got it!” Pru exclaimed after what seemed to be an endless stream of names, “I’m gonna call you Boss. Short, easy to remember, catchy, it’s perfect.” 

“Please don’t call me Boss, that makes me sound old,” Tim replied while checking that all of his equipment was in place.

“Wow. I can’t tell if that was sarcasm or just a statement because his voice didn’t change at all,” Owens said, staring at Tim intently with a small amount of fascination in his eyes.

Tim donned a red sweatshirt over his gear originally intended to help him blend in although it was proving to be surprisingly comfortable. His League pants were similar enough to sweatpants that he just added some heavy duty boots to the outfit and exited the League provided apartment. Unfortunately the trio followed him into the hall.

“If you’re going to come with me at least try to blend in, I can’t have you breaking my cover,” Tim said, turning to face them. Pru had at least gotten most of the blood off her face but the tight fitting black long-sleeve and black jacket over it did not do anything to hide the guns strapped across her chest and on her thighs, Owens had a freaking sniper rifle on his back, and Z actually blended in pretty well as his knives would have been invisible to anyone that wasn’t trained by the League.

Pru sighed a noise filled with exasperation and shifted her guns positions to hopefully be less noticeable, Owens grumbled before taking his rifle off and leaving it on the worn couch inside the apartment.

Tim nodded before continuing down the hall. He had a plan before the trio came that would have enabled him to eliminate the target without getting caught, now that they were apparently joining him he had to adjust the plan a bit and create new backup plans but it should be just as effective.

He wonders what Mission Ra’s could have planned for him that would require not one but three extra Assassins to complete. He was so deep in thought that he almost missed the alley that he had selected to get onto the roofs. Shaking his head to snap out of it he used the natural wear of the bricks to pull himself onto the rooftop. 

Pru, Z, and Owens followed him mostly silently as he ran across the roofs, he says mostly because occasionally Pru or Owens would say something or aggravate the other in some way. Pru tripped Owens as he was running and the resulting tussle almost re-broke Pru’s nose.

When Tim had finally arrived at the rooftop of his Targets' lavish house a new conversation broke out. 

“I bet 50 bucks that Boss will take out the Target in five minutes tops,” Pru said, smirking at Owens. 

“50 that it’ll take him ten,” Owen’s shot back

“50 in three minutes or less,” Z said, speaking for the first time since the apartment. Pru and Owens looked at him incredulously, turning to look at Tim. But Tim was already gone.

“What the crap?” Pru exclaimed her voice barely above a whisper. Owens' face clearly expressed agreement to her confusion.

They would have missed his return as well if they hadn’t been watching the skylight that Tim had opened and entered through. Tim pulled himself back up onto the rooftop to see Pru and Owens looking disgruntled and Z looking slightly smug. Z held out his hand to the other two assassins and they begrudgingly both slapped two twenty dollar bills and a ten dollar bill into his outstretched hand.

“You just made me 100 dollars richer,” Z informed Tim.

“You bet on me?” Tim said, the confusion on his face was the most emotion they had seen since they met him and Pru and Owens were a bit annoyed that it came with their loss, “What bet won?”

Pru informed him of Z’s bet and a half smile flashed on his face for a couple seconds before disappearing again. 

“At least we know not to bet against you anymore,” Owens said, patting Tim on the head, “Why are you so short? Are you like 7?” Pru and Owens filled the walk back to the apartment with mindless chatter and Tim would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy it just a little bit.

The trio was amazed to find that Tim was in fact 12 and he ‘hadn’t gotten his growth spurt yet’. They, not including Tim, all agreed that he was just short.

Fifteen years old

Tim gestured for Pru to join him as he crouched behind a pile of crates. Pru scowled at him as she not only had to crouch but also slouch a considerable amount to keep herself out of view. Tim smirked at her, although his height at a whopping five foot three was one of the banes of his existence it was helpful when he was trying to fit into small spaces or hide. Pru was considerably taller than him, Tim insists it’s because she’s three years older than him.

“What’s the plan Boss?” Pru muttered her hand resting near one of her guns.

“Owens is going to snipe people down from the rafters, Z and I are going to be securing the package and you are going to be providing cover at our backs,” Tim drew a little diagram in the dust at their feet while Pru nodded along, “You got that, Owens? Z?”

A clearly whispering voice replied through the coms, “Aye, Aye, Boss.”

Z crept toward Pru and Tim, “The two guards at the entrance have been taken care of.” Tim nodded in acknowledgement before whistling a quiet low note. A gun fired and one of the goons closest to Z, Pru, and Tim suddenly dropped a red spot quickly spreading below him. Tim listened to the other goons panicking and nodded before sharply whistling a high note and the three Assassins on the ground jumped out from behind their hiding place.

After that chaos filled the warehouse as Tim, Pru, Z plowed through the goons toward a man in a suit with a briefcase attached to his wrist by a handcuff who was looking around frantically barking orders at the goons that were either not heard or ignored as they raced for safety.

Tim stepped up calmly to the man in the suit twirling his bladed bo staff with one hand as he advanced.

“Please. Please, I’ll give you anything you want, I’ll pay you twice as much as whoever hired you!” The man pleaded desperately and uselessly as Tim walked forward, his face completely blank.

“Anything I want huh?” Tim said, looking like he was contemplating the deal. The man in the suit nodded quickly, “Anything.”

“I doubt you could pay more than what I’m getting so I’m just going to say…” Tim tapped the ground with his staff, putting one hand on his hip and looking toward the ceiling of the warehouse. Tim finally lowered his head looking the man straight in the eyes, “I require that briefcase,” He started before smiling wickedly, “And your life.” The man's eyes widened in horror seconds before Tim’s bo staff darted out slicing right through the man's jugular vein.

Tim tutted and shook his head as he used the bloodied blade on the end of the bo staff to cleanly cut through the handcuffs attaching the man in the suit to the briefcase. “They never learn that attaching themselves to the valuables will just make them a target. Pru laughed behind him before snatching the briefcase and checking the contents.

“Yup, they’re in there,” She reported plucking a few contents out of the briefcase and putting them in small containers that she then passed to Z and Tim keeping a couple for herself and a couple for Owens. A quiet clunk noise came from above them and all three of their heads snapped up but they relaxed when they recognized the figure lowering himself down on a grappling line.

Owens grinned at them all, “Did we get them?” Pru nodded and tossed him two of the small containers. “Nice!” He beamed before his face twisted in confusion, “Do we even know what they are?”

“They’re vital and very hard to get parts of a deadly toxin that is able to go airborne, be inserted into food or water or put on a blade and be delivered through skin contact,” Tim replied absentmindedly as he cleaned his bo staff, “It’s actually quite fascinating, the stuff in those vials come from the Inland Taipan snake. Its bite has enough venom to kill one-hundred people.”

“I don’t know if I should be amazed or really creeped out that you know that,” Owens said as he, Pru, and Z stared at Tim who was checking his blade in the sparse light of the warehouse.

“It’s Tim, I don’t know why we’re really surprised at this point,” Pru said, seemingly getting over the shock of Tim’s explanation and turning to grimace at the broken and bloodied bodies that covered the warehouse floor. “I’m going to have to clean these shoes again! I just cleaned them after our last mission,” She complained, wrinkling her nose at her blood spattered gray boots.

“You really should just buy some black ones, that way the blood won’t show up as much,” Z commented walking around the bodies to retrieve his knives.

When they got back to the warehouse Tim and Pru immediately claimed the showers first making Owens grumble but Z just nodded turning to take care of his weapons. Once they were all done showering they flopped onto the couch. Pru was aggressively taking a cleaning cloth to her shoes, Owens was flipping through the channels on the T.V., Z was absentmindedly staring off into the distance while flipping a knife with one hand, and Tim was filling in a mission report for the League. All of them but Tim jumped as their League transmitter beeped and a easily recognizable voice spoke to the four assassins.

“You have a new assignment,” Ra’s announced, “This one should be more entertaining for you than your last mission. There is an organization that has been taking out League members, we need you to take care of them. The information will be sent to your laptop Timothy. All of the League's resources are at your disposal. You should not run into any issues from the Bat’s as Batman is currently dead and I’m assuming the other ‘Heros’ are busy with their own problems,” 

“We will start this mission immediately Lord Ra’s,” Tim spoke evenly.

“I wish you luck Timothy. Try not to die, it would be very inconvenient if I had to put you in the Pit again.” Another beeping noise and then the room was silent.

Tim was thinking rapidly, Batman was dead? There was no way that he was actually dead.  What did that mean for Jason and Damian? What kind of organization targets assassins? He turned back to his laptop and opened the file that the League had sent him. He skimmed through the file on the Council of Spiders before accessing the Leagues network and hacking into the files about Batman. The information they had on his disappearance which was admittedly not very much gave Tim a general idea of what might have happened.

“We have two new missions,” Tim said looking at his team who groaned.

“You have your ‘I’m plotting something that you probably won’t like but I’m doing it anyways and because we are fools we’ll follow you right into a crap ton of danger’,” Owens said disparagingly, “So what random plan have you come up with this time?” Pru and Z nodded in unanimous agreement with his assessment.

Tim grinned maniacally, “We’re going to crush this Council of Spiders and then we’re going to save Batman.”

“I thought Bat’s was dead?” Pru said although she mostly seemed resigned to the fact that her Boss had seen something that no one else would have ever seen and deduced something absolutely crazy because of it.

“That's what everyone else thinks. I have proof that he’s not dead, he’s just gone missing, and we’re going to find out where he may have gone.”

Chapter Text

Fifteen years old

Tim scowled as he stared at the crime scene image on his computer. Well it wasn’t truly a crime scene as all of the evidence of it was carefully cleaned up by the League after they found it and recorded all the information in it. 

Tim was currently looking at the images that showed different angles of the dead Assassin. His stomach had a gaping hole in it seemingly caused by a sword or two impaling him. Pru flopped down next to him with a bowl of microwave popcorn in her hands.

“Wow,” She looked fascinated by the Assassin's stab wound, “Just think of the power you would need to stab completely through someone's body.”

Tim looked contemplative before starting to speak, “If you calculated the mass of the person you were trying to impale and then took into account the type of sword you would use-” Pru cut him off with a grin, “That was a rhetorical question Boss. I don’t use swords, I use guns so the information would have been useless for me.”

“Swords are apparently the chosen weapon of this person right here,” Tim pulled up a blurry and slightly pixelated picture of a hulking figure with two scythes, “I could have taken a better picture,” Tim muttered under his breath before continuing, “The Widower one of the Council of Spiders that is apparently seen the most.”

Pru hummed and shoved a mouthful of popcorn into her mouth before offering the bowl to Tim. He grabbed a handful but used his other hand to eat one piece at a time. “Sounds like you have a lead though,” Pru said, not quite done chewing.

“Gross Pru, chew before you talk,” Tim wrinkled his nose at her but a faint smile lingered on his face, showing his amusement.

“You sound like a mother,” Pru snarked back, stuffing more popcorn into her mouth and making a point to chew with her mouth open, right next to Tim’s ear. Tim snorted and shoved her away.

“What are we talking about?” Owens skidded into the room sliding on the hardwood floor of the safehouse. Z followed at a more sedate pace glancing at the picture of the Widower on Tim’s laptop before speaking, “I’m assuming you’ve been staring at your screen for the past hour and have at this point come up with a plan along with at least three backup plans if the main plan goes wrong.”

“You underestimate me, I have six backup plans along with a multiple step trap that we’re going to use to capture the Widower,” Tim crossed his arms giving his team a smug look.

“Let's hear this multiple step plan then,” Owens leaned on the back of the couch propping his chin on his hands and looking intensely at Tim, a wide smile on his face like he was a little kid waiting for someone to tell him a story.

Tim gave him a raised eyebrow but clicked a couple times on his laptop entering a slide show presentation titled ‘The Plan’ with sparkle emojis on each side. Every slide was a neon color and there were cat memes to go with every segment. When asked why he had done it like that Tim simply replied, “I thought you guys might listen more if I made it more entertaining.” It’s safe to say it worked and Tim was satisfied knowing that he didn’t have to go over each slide several times because Pru and Owens would get distracted by something.

Tim had a completely separate plan that he ‘forgot’ to mention consisting of the several steps he would have to take to get Bruce back but that was between him and his heavily encrypted google document.

Fifteen years old

So after digging into backup plan seven and twelve, of course Tim made more, Tim was proud to say that in this random cave in the Desert he had reached step nine in his ‘Find Bruce Plan’ and step sixteen in his ‘Capture The Widower Plan’ which was coincidentally the last step as his bo staff blade was currently pressed to the Widower’s neck as he laid bound on the floor of the sandy cave.

Unfortunately during backup plan twelve one of the requirements was baiting the Widower to the cave in the first place which resulted in a very nice stab wound in the upper left side of his abdomen, the resting place of his spleen if Tim remembered his ‘Where to Best Injure Someone’ lessons. Calling it ‘Bodily Anatomy’ was boring and Tim much preferred his name.

Pru was currently laying on the ground on her side as to not choke on blood from the slash wound in her neck as she applied pressure, Owens had his hands pressed to his stomach which was bleeding rapidly, and Z still had a sword impaled in his shoulder but Tim was planning on worrying about that after he interrogated the Widower.

With several calm questions and a little bit of handy acid that Tim carried around he had the answers to several of his most confusing questions. He had everything he needed so he stabbed the Widower in the neck ensuring a quick death as promised, Tim wasn’t a monster he did keep his promises, and he could now stumble to the side of the cave where he noted down everything about the bat symbol carved into the wall into his photographic memory. Once that step was done he tied a tight piece of fabric around his wound before loading all his friends into their car and driving to the League.

He made it to the entrance of Eth’Alth’Eban telling the nervous looking ninja who was standing guard what to do before promptly passing out.

He woke up to the normal green burning sensation and pulled himself out of the pit bowing to Ra’s before turning around to help a cursing Pru out of the pit.

Z had already made it out bowing to Ra’s as Tim did before yanking Owens out as well who was looking entirely too fascinated by his situation, he was muttering, “Lime Kool-Aid,” Over and over under his breath so Tim took a note to check that his brain functions were all working properly.

“Timothy, I assume that you came with information about the Council?” Tim almost sarcastically responded with ‘I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t’ but he forced himself into his League mindset before he said something that he would later regret.

“Yes my lord, I have some new knowledge about their workings that could prove useful when finally killing them,” Tim kept his eyes lowered showing the proper amount of respect to the leader of the League of Assassins. He made a quick hand gesture to his team causing them to stand next to him and bow before assuming the same lowered head stance as Tim.

“Excellent, I will be expecting you at the gathering later today,” Ra’s gave Tim a last once over before spinning and walking out of the cave, his robes blowing dramatically behind him and his loyal goons hurrying after him looking like little ducks following their mother. Tim shivered at the thought of Ra’s as a mother and quickly flushed it out of his head with gory crime scene photos.

“Wow, I feel like I just drank an insane amount of energy drinks,” Owens' body shuddered like it was struggling to not move. Pru snorted, “I feel the insane urge to go find anyone that has ever offended me and use their own bones to slit their throats.” 

Tim blinked at her, “That's… Really dark Pru. Wow.”

Z seemed the least affected besides Tim, his brown eyes were polluted with specks of green just like Pru and Owens blue eyes becoming more of a teal but he wasn’t showing any physical or mental reactions.

“We match!” Owens suddenly shrieked, tugging at his new white streak on the side of his head. Tim checked and sure enough Pru and Z had also gained a white portion of hair.

“We should go to our rooms and prepare for the gathering. I would advise that you all participate in a couple minutes of meditation so that you are fully in control of yourselves when we are called up to present our information,” Tim walked with his team who were either describing what the pit felt like or their new appearances. Tim chose to hurry to his room telling his team that they would meet in the common room at four thirty.

When Tim had safely closed his door he closed his eyes and leaned against the cool stone wall taking measured breaths until he felt like he could control himself. His vision was immediately drawn to himself in the mirror. 

Tim had always thought that his deep raven black hair had sucked all of the pigment out of the rest of his body. His eyes had turned two different colors as a side effect of the pit, his right one icy blue and the left mint green, even the pit couldn’t put its acid green color into him. The white tips of his bangs framing his face had always made Tim look like he was in a gang but it was shameful in the League to cover up the pits markings as it was a mark of strength showing that you were strong enough to survive its corrupting power so he was stuck with the gang member look unless he was on a covert operation.

 Tim actually decided to take his own advice and he spent most of his time before the meeting sitting on the floor cross legged putting his jumbled thoughts back in the right places. The pit had always messed with his emotions but Tim had many years of experience in taming the green beast that rested inside of him so it rarely affected him anymore. Even when it did affect him his actions were strange, most people reported feeling unusual amounts of uncontrollable rage like Jason but Tim, he didn't feel angry. The pit just made his brain go crazy, like someone had dumped thoughts that weren't his into it and he had to take extra time to sort out what was his and what wasn't. After he felt more centered he took a freezing cold shower letting the temperature shock him back into his body and quickly dressed in the League clothes that someone had left on his bed. 

The loose clothing was black just like the rest of the ninja clothing but unlike the regular uniforms Tim's had blood red cuffs on his pants and sleeves and a gold collar with gold on the edge of the hood and mask as well. Ra’s had tried to put green detailing on the clothing but Tim had firmly denied not wanting what the color represented. They had compromised on red and gold, still signifying his status but not attaching him to Ra’s. After he had realized that his team wasn’t going anywhere he had requested the red detailing be added to their clothes too, over a couple years the color had started to represent his teams efficiency and sometimes ruthlessness. 

Tim brushed and tied back his long slightly shaggy hair before exiting his room seeing Pru, Z, and Owens already waiting for him, also looking freshly showered and wearing clean clothes. He whistled and their attention snapped to him, he gestured toward the hallway and they walked with him through the halls to the meeting room. Pru handed him a travel mug filled to the brim with freshly brewed coffee Bless her Tim thought as he took a sip. He had discovered it while working late on one of their missions and it had quickly become normal to see him with a cup of the bitter drink in hand as he worked.

A circular table dominated the center of the room with several high ranking League members sitting around it. Tim strode into the room, his hood over his hair leaving only the white bangs visible. His team followed close behind him, Pru stood behind his chair while Owens and Z took the chairs on either side of him. Tim had no choice in the seating arrangement; his team was very set on him being their tiny Boss that needs protection at all times with the League even though they had watched him kill several people that were much bigger than him. 

“Now that we are all here Timothy and his team have some new information for us about the Council of Spiders situation,” Ra’s had stood up from his throne like chair at the head of the table to speak but now he sat gesturing to Tim. Tim had been watching the assembly while Ra’s made his announcement and he was gratified to see that they all flinched when Ra’s said his full name. Tim had made it very clear that he hated when people addressed him by his full name and everyone but Ra’s, who Tim had not even tried with because it would only make Ra’s use it more, had taken it very seriously after Tim had killed a couple defiant people. 

Tim stood and he knew that his five foot five figure was not very intimidating, he had grown two inches in three years and his ‘I haven’t hit my growth spurt’ excuse was not working as well as it had three years ago. Tim relied on his commanding and slightly threatening presence to silence the assembly, his team called it his ‘Boss Aura’ a name that Tim despised and he made it very known that he hated it but his team didn’t care.

Whatever he called it it worked and the assembly was silent as he started to speak, “Through the interrogation and death of one of the Council members ‘the Widower’ my team and I have discovered that the Council is led by a meta that goes by the moniker ‘the Wanderer’. She was given the meta ability of being able to kill through physical contact when she was chased into the jungle and was bit by a Brazilian Wandering Spider, which can kill a fully grown man with one bite, three hundred and nineteen times at age eight. She proceeded to kill the men that were chasing her and then killed her mother and likely the rest of her town as well. There are several other members of the Council all of which have some sort of spider related ability or skill. Some of which include a poison master, a meta with many limbs, and another meta that can control spiders. All of the information I received will be put onto the League's database for further inquiries.” Tim sat back down bumping his fist with Owens under the table.

The rest of the meeting went quickly with most of the departments running smoothly with few complications. A couple of the assembly members seemed to want to know what Tim was planning to do about the Council but Tim had no intentions of sharing his plans at the moment so he responded to their questions with a sharp glare that usually caused them to turn pale and turn away from him without making eye contact.

Once they had returned to their common room Pru and Owens flopped down onto the couch and the carpeted floor respectively. Z sat on a chair and Tim nudged Pru’s feet off of the couch long enough for him to sit down but they popped back up onto his lap after he had settled. Tim rolled his eyes and put his laptop on her legs before starting to type. Owens quickly got bored with staring at the ceiling and he pulled out the portable Nintendo that Tim had bought for the team. In less than five minutes everyone except Tim, who was absorbed with his laptop screen, was playing Mario Kart. 

Tim’s travel mug was refilled and he had dumped half of an energy drink into it as well for an extra kick, he hadn’t slept in an unholy amount of time so the caffeine was absolutely necessary. He plugged a red flash drive into his laptop once he was done putting all of the information about the Council onto the League database, after he put in several passwords all of his information about Batman popped up onto his screen. Tim felt a smile creep onto his face as he plugged in the data from the bat carving on the wall and the answer appeared. He loaded all of the information into a file in an organized manner to make it more efficient to read. He labeled the file 'Batman's Location’ and showed it to the rest of his team.

“I only see one thing wrong,” Pru said, Tim’s heart stopped. Did he miss something? Was all of the data invalid? “You didn’t put your name on it.” Tim felt tension stream out of him as quickly as it had gathered.

“Pru! You can’t just say things like that! I was genuinely panicking because I thought I had done something wrong,” Tim scolded Pru who looked a bit sheepish but then Tims brain processed her statement.

“Why would I put my name on it?” He asked, confused. 

Pru grinned glad that Tim had stopped lecturing her, “You know, most people sign their work so that they can take credit for what they did. You deserve the credit for literally discovering that Batman was lost inside the time stream, along with two of the younger members as well. ‘Cause that's insanely impressive, not even the Justice League people could figure it out.” 

“Oh,” Tim could feel heat rise to his cheeks and he cursed his pale complexion that made his blush very visible.

“Awww. Pru you made him blush!” Owens said in a teasing voice before talking seriously, “Actually though Tim, you deserve to be recognized for this. Especially because you did it while also working on the Council of Spiders.” Z nodded his agreement.

“I can’t exactly sign ‘Tim’ on the flashdrive,” Tim said, “That would be ridiculous.”

“Then make up a code name!” Pru said, “Here I’ll help-”

“No!” Tim quickly interrupted his mind, flashing back to the many horrible names that she had tried to get the rest of the team to use. Pru gave Tim a grumpy look pouting at him but before she could complain Z started to talk.

“People in the League call you the Phantom,” He offered.

Tim thought about it for a minute, “It's actually not a bad name,” he admitted. Owens was practically bouncing up and down with excitement, “It’s perfect! Alright hurry and put it on the drive so we can do our creepy assassin thing and drop it off on their doorstep so then they panic and wonder if some super villain knows their secret identities!”

“You sound very excited about causing mass panic,” Tim noted with a raised eyebrow, “And how do you even know if I know who they actually are.” It was his team's turn to raise eyebrows at him, “Tim,” Owens started, “You’re Tim, you know everything.” Tim couldn’t argue with that logic so he quickly pulled the flash drive out, snatching a piece of paper and a pen and scribbling a quick message onto it before signing his name and fastening the drive to the paper with a zip tie, “Lets go scare some vigilantes!” His team cheered and they left to their respective rooms to gather supplies.

Hope this helps -Phantom

Chapter Text

Fifteen years old

What was supposed to be the simple dropping off of a flashdrive ended up being much more complicated and Tim blamed it all on Owens.

While the brown haired assassin was messing around Tim was carefully placing the drive on the porch it was going perfectly, no motion sensors activated, no cameras had caught sight of them, Tim knew it was too good to be true.

The plan came crashing down as one of Owens' careless movements activated a ground sensor and now not only did they have at least three cameras on them there were red blinking lights on the sensor that clearly meant someone was alerted to their presence.

The assassins all froze, before turning to glare at Owens. He held his hands up in the universal I am unarmed sign that Pru, Tim, and Z knew was a lie as they had watched him strap knives onto his League outfit.

“Fudge!” Tim swore, “Owens you idiot! It was going so well and you just HAD to mess around.” Owens went pale as Tim turned his signature I am disappointed in you and extremely annoyed look onto him. His team called it the ‘I am not your mother but I will hurt you if you do that again’ look. Tim was starting to wonder if they were ever going to run out of names for his different expressions.

“Sorry! Geez, I didn’t think that one step would activate like five different things!” Owens tried to defend himself but he knew that against Tims rage it was most likely a lost cause.

Tim swore again making sure that his hood and mask were covering most of his face, “Alright so backup plan seven everybody! I sure hope you were paying attention to my slideshow because otherwise you can say goodbye to movie night tonight and hello to Bat-Jail, they probably won’t even have entertainment in there. It’ll just be a boring white box, so get moving!”

After he had caused mass terror at the threat of no entertainment Tim waved goodbye to the cameras before pushing a mini EMP that successfully shorted out all of the not-Tim-protected gadgets within fifty meters. It was pretty easy to get away when all of the defenses and cameras were shorted out.

Tim immediately turned on Owens when they got into the apartment, “You should be so glad that we were all wearing regular League clothes and not our normal ones because if the Bats found out that one of the elite teams was sent to their house you can bet your sniper rifle that it would not be good. I am now going to spend several hours hacking into all of the Bats and Co’s databases to delete as much footage as possible of us.” Tim spun and stormed off into his room slamming the door behind him like an angry teenager, which he technically was, he’s just an angry assassin teenager.

“You’re in trouble,” Pru said in a sing-songy voice nudging Owen's shoulder before passing him into their little kitchen, a couple of seconds later her voice echoed through the apartment as she yelled, “Who ate all the cereal?!”

Tim had discarded his League garb for black sweatpants and a red hoodie, he had an earbud in one ear and was squinting at his screen fingers a blur as he hacked into the different systems quickly and efficiently deleting any trace of him and his team on the Wayne property. The usually mind numbing task was suddenly a lot more interesting as a different person started to counter his hacks. A grin spread across Tims face as he countered every one of the hackers moves following the trails that the security camera footage had left and deleting it from several different devices. A little black text box appeared in the corner of his screen, classic boxy green text appearing in it.

Who are you?

Tim thought of all the ways that he could respond but eventually decided to utilize his new alias, I am Phantom, who are you?

Oracle. May I ask why you are deleting footage from these security cameras?

Tim wrinkled his nose at the reminder of what he was supposed to be doing although he now knew who he was communicating with, Barbra Gordon Aka; Oracle. Well there wasn’t supposed to be footage on the security cameras and there wouldn’t have been any if my stupid teammate hadn’t messed up and activated them.

So you’re the one who was sneaking onto Wayne's property. What were you doing there?

Tim was starting to feel a bit interrogated but that was probably the point of all the questions. Well you should know Oracle. I'm assuming that the Bats gave you the flashdrive.

How would the Bats have gotten it if you left it on the Wayne's property?

Tim giggled when he read the new message, it was very clearly a last ditch effort to try to hide the identity of the Bats but it was useless against Tim. Well I delivered it straight to the Bats front porch so I would be surprised if they didn’t get it.

What makes you think that the Wayne’s are Bats?

Tim hummed recalling the many different clues that gave it away. They aren’t that good at hiding it, none of the Heroes/Vigilantes are. I mean Superman just takes his glasses off! If people weren’t so dull they would have figured out their identities too! Anyways, did they give you the flash drive or not? If they did you should probably be in by now I didn’t put that many defenses onto it.

I’ll admit the costumes don’t really do much for hiding their identities, the flash drive is very well protected, I was working on opening it when you started to hack into the databases. Where did you learn how to code?

Tim’s mind flashed to the past when his younger self had found a computer, he had to learn how to use it and after several mistakes and a lot of books and YouTube tutorials, once he had found out that YouTube existed anyways, he had become proficient enough for the League to determine that giving him his own laptop would be beneficial to them. Coming back to the present Tim typed out his response, I taught myself.

“Tim! We have to go, the League just told us that a Council of Spiders member was spotted in Metropolis and we’re the closest,” Z said, poking his head into Tim’s room. Tim gave him a thumbs up before looking back down at his computer.

How old are you?

Woah Oracle, that's some very personal information right there Tim thought with a grin I have the perfect response. Have you not heard about how bad it is to disclose personal information on the internet? Stranger Danger am I right? Gtg talk to you later! He closed the laptop with a happy hum satisfied with his hacking job and the panic he most likely just caused in one Barbra Gordon.

Fifteen Years Old

The ride to Metropolis was incredibly boring. There were no attacks from any sort of mentally unstable villains and Tim shuddered as the scenery around the train changed from wonderfully dark and shady alleyways and decaying buildings to blindingly bright skyscrapers and cheery neighborhoods. Honestly if he wanted some sort of ‘Utopia’ he would watch shows meant for children that have not been exposed to the real world.

His team seemed to be amused by his growing discomfort and he scowled at them as he tugged his hoodie over his head sharpening one of his favorite knives so that he could do something with his hands, ADHD can really be a pain sometimes, quite literally when one of his mentors handcuffed his hands and then taped them together to stop his fidgeting, it was a knife wielding class. Tim got really good at controlling his movements after that, or just hiding them.

When the train stopped Tim tucked his knife back into its hidden sheath and pulled his backpack over his shoulder. To anyone else he would look like a completely ordinary teenager going to school with three very muscled people who towered over him casually walking beside him. Okay so maybe he didn’t blend in very well but it isn’t his fault that Pru, Z, and Owens don’t look like very normal people.

When they made it to another LoA safehouse Tim immediately plopped down on the chair pulling out his laptop and putting on Bluetooth earbuds. “Z, can you make dinner please, I don’t trust Owens or Pru with the stove. Or the oven for that matter.” Z muttered assent and Owens pouted at Tim.

“Last time I made us food it didn’t turn out so bad,” He complained. Tim looked up at him, “You tried to microwave lasagna with a tin container and exploded the microwave. I don’t want to see what you could do with an entire oven.”

“How was I supposed to know that it was thirty minutes in the oven and not thirty minutes in the microwave,” Owens said under his breath but he sat on the floor and started to meticulously clean every part of his sniper rifle.

With pop music blasting in his ears at a volume that would probably make him deaf at one point Tim ran through the files on the sighting in Metropolis, apparently one of the members named Funnel, an expert on poisons and acids, was seen exiting one of Lex Luthor's buildings at approximately four twenty one, five minutes before Tim and his team were alerted and approximately an hour and forty five minutes before Tim and his team arrived at Metropolis. With that much of a head start Funnel could be pretty much anywhere in Metropolis or its closely surrounding cities.

With this information it was easy for Tim to create an area around Lex’s building of where Funnel could be, adding in stuff like security cameras and where she has been found before, Tim was able to cross out sections of the area, Funnel was known to hate poor areas and she was apparently a bit of a snob about cleanliness and the quality of her living spaces.

“I have a couple of places that we can check to see if we can find Funnel,” Tim said while eating the bowl of pasta that Z had set in front of him. There’s a lot of them but if we start now we can probably get a decent amount of them tonight. I think we should go during the cover of darkness, so long as we make sure to not get spotted by any civilians or cops or anything it will hopefully prevent Funnel from knowing that we’re in Metropolis at all.”

For the next couple of hours Tim, Pru, Owens, and Z found themselves running across rooftops to different locations, performing a search of those locations and finding nothing in every single one. Tim was getting tired, his legs were sore, and he was about ready to call it a night or technically a morning as by this point it was about one am and they had been doing this for what felt like forever. Tim passed out fruit snacks from his belt and popped open a can of coffee for himself. Owens was immediately enraptured by sorting the small gummies by color and then eating them one at a time. Pru shoved them all into her mouth and Z ate them one at a time but straight from the bag. Tim chugged down the caffeinated drink before wiping his mouth with the back of his gloved hand and addressing his team.

“I think we can do one more and then call it a night, it’s going to get lighter in a couple of hours anyways and if we want to get up before noon then we should get to bed sooner rather than later”. Even with the pit's boost of energy they were all still teenagers who very much enjoyed sleeping. Except for Tim who seemingly ran on the excessive amount of caffeine and spite that filled his body. With agreement from his team Tim checked his wrist screen, not unlike the bats wrist computers that he took inspiration from but with a couple of extra ‘Tim’ elements. The next place was a warehouse in one of the nicer districts that was owned by one Lex Luthor.

Tim unlocked one of the skylight hatches with one of his favorite tools, a hand held tiny lazer, easing the window open so as to not alert anyone who may be below. Pru ducked her head into the hole with Owens holding her belt so she didn’t accidentally fall in, they learned that lesson the hard way with a mission they very nearly didn’t complete. When she pulled back up she signed to them which immediately put Tim on alert, she wouldn’t sign unless there was someone that might hear them talking.

I see people down there, it looks like there’s about ten guards and then a team of scientists working on some sort of liquid, one of them might be Funnel couldn’t tell with the protective gear they have on. They’re definitely working for either Luthor or the Council on something illegal, what they’re working on is not a normal project.

Tim nodded, I want Pru, Z and I to enter at different entrances and knock out the guards at our doors as quietly as possible. Owens you’ll be covering us with sniper fire once we get noticed. We have no idea what they’re working on so be careful and try not to get touched by it or let it enter you in any way. Once we knock out our guards use the coms to tell the group and we’ll attack at the same time.

They split up with three shadows running for different sides of the roof using grapples to lower themselves down while Owens stayed crouched by the open window putting his rifle together and loading it with bullets.

Tim turned on his coms murmuring a quick order for his team to check in, once he heard them all report in he got to work picking the lock of his door into the warehouse, once he had it open it was instinctive for him to move quietly stuffing the guards mouth with a cloth to prevent him from setting an alarm and then putting him into a hold before slitting his throat and lowering him to the floor to be sure that his infiltration didn’t attract attention.

“My guard is out,” He said in the coms, his voice just audible enough to get picked up by the coms but not enough for anyone else to hear him. Pru and Z reported similar messages soon after and after making sure that Owens was ready he gave them the signal and three figures burst from the shadows catching the people in the middle off guard. Four more guards were dead before they realized what was happening. The scientists bolted for cover from the sniper above while the five guards that remained, clearly Pru had missed some, advanced against the assassins. With a throwing knife from Z and another shot from Owens another two were down for the count and the last three were quickly defeated.

The team members inside the warehouse immediately turned to the scientists ready to restrain or eliminate them, no one could be underestimated unless they wanted a careless act to end in death of one of their members so they were ready when one of the scientists pulled out a vial of something orange and bubbly grinning as she threw it towards the team. Tim, Pru, and Z had gas masks built into the seemingly ordinary cloth that covered half of their face so if it was supposed to be inhaled they were fine but they all dove out of the way anyways which turned out to be a good idea when the bottle shattered on the floor and proceed to explode.

A muffled bang could be heard in the room and the scientist who threw the bottle dropped as a bullet hit her in the chest. Tim took advantage of her injury and cuffed her hands and feet making sure that the rest of the scientists were taken care of before crouching down. When he got a closer look he could see the features that clearly exposed her as Funnel.

“You’ll never defeat us,” She spat with a wicked smile, “Other people are already taking out the rest of the League as we speak. You’re too late.”

Tim hummed, nothing like the happy hum he had made after his conversation with Oracle and more contemplative. His neutral expression twisted into a slight frown, “You say that we’re too late,” the frown morphed into a sharp grin that could cut steel, “I say that it’s never too late as long as I’m alive. Now,” He pulled a vial of something dark yellow out of one of her pockets, “I’d like some more information about your plan to destroy the League. If you say no, I’m sure there's plenty of fun things in these mixtures you have that will convince you.”

Once they were back at the safehouse Tim admitted to the team that even if she hadn’t broken once she saw what he was holding he still wouldn’t have used it on her, “I can’t do something that people I’ve vowed to never become would do.”

Pru put her hand on his shoulder, “Just because we kill bad people doesn’t make us monsters.” Tim offered her a weak smile before dropping onto the couch and promptly passing out. His team looked at each other with a silent promise to protect this person who somehow grew up in one of the most violent places on earth and still became a person that they would follow off a cliff.

In the morning when they paid a surprising amount of attention to Tim’s plan he looked at them for a minute and then dismissed it deciding that he didn’t want to know and just appreciating the fact that they didn’t start arguing while he was explaining a possibly life or death step.

Tim packed up his stuff with relief plainly visible on his face, he didn’t want to spend another second more than necessary in the excessively bright and new streets of Metropolis. Next stop, he thought, the Arabian Peninsula. Time to defeat the Council of Spiders, permanently.

Chapter Text

Fifteen Years Old

As expected Eth’Alth’eban was in a state of panic by the time Tim and his team arrived, Shadows were rushing for the garage seeking an escape from the base. They all had wide terrified eyes and there was no mistaking that they were

“Cowards the lot of them,” Pru scoffed as more dark clothed ninjas ran from the screams that came from deeper in the town. 

“Is it cowardice or is it self preservation?” Tim said with a raised eyebrow, “Self preservation that we clearly do not possess.” He pulled his collapsed staff out of its sheath that lay at the center of his back and flicked it, extending it to its full length. “Be ready for a fight, cover as much skin as you can just in case the one with poison touch is here.”

His team nodded, putting on black gloves and pulling their masks and hoods over their faces, Tim did the same and soon everything but his eyes and the sliver of skin around them was covered. During the flight to the League base Tim had briefed his team on the Council's plan, the infiltration of Eth’Alth’eban and the death of all the assassins there. It really was a clever plan and if it didn’t include killing him as well as his team then Tim would be very impressed.

With a twist of his hand Tim activated the blades on either side of his staff, he whistled two sharp notes, a signal that Tim had taught Pru, Owens, and Z soon after they had become a team. Each person whistled back softly weapons in hand, they stepped carefully making sure that no noise reached the intruders. Finally they saw what was happening, several council members were killing any League member that they saw, no wonder that the rest of them ran, the room was a bloodbath. 

Tim could see at least four different council members, two of them had some sort of extra limb, one of them was controlling spiders and Tim grimaced at the sight of League members being eaten from the inside out. It was not a pleasant sight to say the least. The last league member seemed to have four sharp metal claws instead of fingers on each hand and Tim couldn’t help but wonder how he ate if he couldn’t pick up any utensils or the food.

With a few hand signals and some quick planning one more whistle and his team had spread out, each taking a different league member. Tim raced toward the man with claws, the man saw him coming and turned to face him. Tim had watched as he fought other people and noted that while he was good with the claws he had clearly taught himself and had no professional training. That meant that he would make mistakes if presented with a scenario that he hadn’t encountered before.

As he ran Tim flicked his wrist retracting his staff's blades and at the last second before he was in reach of the claws he used his staff as a vault flipping himself over the man twisting in mid air so he didn’t ever have his back toward his enemy. With a smooth motion Tim took a small knife from his belt and the second his feet were on the floor he threw it, hitting the man right in the neck and hopefully piercing his windpipe making him unable to breath. In the moment of shock that you experience when you get injured Tim dove forward snatching the knife and pulling it out of the man's neck letting everything that was held in by the knife come out.

It was relatively easy after that to finish him off making sure that he was dead before leaving him on the floor. As Tim turned to check if any of his teammates needed help he heard a bang and the four armed man in front of Pru collapsed to the floor with a bullet hole in his brain. Z had killed his with a knife to the heart and Owens had used one of his specially made bullets that Tim had coated in pesticides to kill the man who controlled spiders. 

The team ran deeper into the halls skidding to a stop when they saw who was in the next room. Ra’s was facing the Wanderer, he only had two of his guards beside him and at least three more were sprawled out on the floor, their skin black and shriveled. Tim guessed that they must have fallen prey to the Wanderers deadly touch. Ra’s smirked as he saw them. 

“I see that my team has gotten past your little watch dogs,” He said, looking very smug. The Wanderer scowled.

“They may have gotten past my team but that means nothing if they perish now,” It was unexpected when she launched herself at Tim who was at the head of his team Tim activated the blades in his bo staff and used the staff to smack her side mid air causing her to stumble clutching her side. She snarled at Tim and he got into a ready position. After they had exchanged a few blows it was easy to tell that she had actual martial arts experience and Tim found himself evenly matched as they traded hits dodging and spinning through the room. 

It took Tim longer than normal but he figured out her weak point. She wasn’t trying to kill him through martial arts, she was trying to expose enough of Tims skin to kill him through her meta ability. With all his skin covered Tim just had to catch her unaware and as she was reaching for his sleeve he flicked the staff down sideways and heard the crack of bone as it hit the Wanderers arm. Pain crossed her face for only a second but that was all Tim needed and with the blade on his staff he pierced her heart eliminating the threat.

The League recovered quickly and soon enough the damage that the Council of Spiders had done was repaired and the bodies were cleaned up. Tim was slumped on a chair in his team's common room, eyes closed and body protesting from the jet lag caused by the quick flight and time change and lack of sleep. Pru, Owens, and Z were with him all sprawled on a different piece of furniture, or the floor in Owens case. A quiet knock on the door startled Tim out of his light doze, when he opened the door a ninja stood on the other end handing him an envelope before bowing and walking back to wherever he came from. 

Tim opened the letter and stared at its contents for a good minute before Owens finally asked him what it said. His answer was not what his team was expecting, “Ra’s just got a message from the Bat asking if he could meet up. Ra’s has requested us to join him, we have to be ready by noon tomorrow.”

Dick Grayson Twenty Six Years Old

When Babs told Dick that she thought whoever delivered the flash drive was a kid he was skeptical. It wasn’t exactly easy to believe that someone under the age of eighteen was able to get past most of their security and then delete all of the footage that their cameras had gotten. Then again it wasn’t easy to believe that Bruce was alive and lost in the time stream but here he was in front of the Justice League giving them the information from the flash drive.

“Where did you get this Nightwing?” Zatanna asked, staring at the pictures and notes that were spread across the big screen in the middle of the table.

“It was dropped off to us by an anonymous person,” Dick replied, almost wincing at the pain in his throat as he replicated Bruce's gravelly voice. He honestly didn’t know how B always talked like this in costume and then was able to talk normally afterwards like it didn’t tear his throat apart. But while he was in the Batman costume he was determined to use it even if the JL already knew their identities.

“Whoever gathered this information just saved Bruce's life,” Zatanna said, still studying the contents of the flash drive with a bit of admiration on her face. “There is no questioning it, Bruce is alive. If we time it correctly we can snatch him out of the time stream, I’ll gather the rest of the magic users to help me and we could have him back this week.”

Dick almost slumped in relief, he could feel moisture gathering behind his eyes but he repressed it to give Zatanna a nod, “Keep me updated, we’d like to get him back in Gotham as soon as possible.” The meeting was dismissed and Dick used the zeta to get back to the cave. Alfred, Jason, and Damian were waiting for him looking hopeful. Dick pulled the cowl off and gave them a nod, grinning and finally letting the tears spill over. Bruce was coming back and it was thanks to the mysterious person who gave them that flash drive.

It was only four days later that Bruce was zeta’d back to the cave, looking a bit pale but with some help from the JL medics much better than he had before, and Dick slammed into him wrapping his arms around him and burying his face into Bruce's chest. He felt B rub his back soothingly while he sobbed on his shoulder.

“We thought you were dead B,” Dick said later when he had calmed down enough to release Bruce and Damian and Jason had gotten their turn to greet their dad. After they were all curled up in the living room with cups of steaming hot chocolate in their hands courtesy of Alfred who had smiled warmly at Bruce and hugged him before leaving him to the mercy of his children and getting food ready, no one saw him wipe away a tear as he walked away.

With all of them in the same room and not crying Dick finally explained everything that had happened in the past year before ending with the mysterious flash drive. It was easy for the bat-kids to see that Bruce was clearly intrigued with the stranger who had found him but he tucked the urge to go down to the batcave and track down this mystery person away to relax with his family a bit more.

Only a few minutes after that decision Dick was fidgeting in his chair, Jason was staring off into space and Damian was pressing his lips together, his brow furrowed in concentration. Bruce sighed, “None of us are going to be able to relax until we figure out who delivered the flash drive.” His family sheepishly agreed and decided that it was still spending time with family if you were tracking someone down together.

It wasn’t long after that with the determination of four vigilantes and a grandfather that they connected the person to the League of Assassins. They were very confused on why Ra’s would want Bruce back but they sent a message to Ra’s requesting his presence in Gotham and settled down to wait for his reply.

“I really hope it’s not a kid,” Dick murmured as they all stared at the sent email on the batcomputer. There was a silent agreement from all of them because if there was a kid in the League who could find Bruce in the time stream who knows what Ra’s had done with them or what he had made them do.

Chapter Text

Fifteen Years Old

When Tim imagined coming face to face with the bats he thought that he would be feeling a lot more than he was right now. Honestly he was just glad they were alive and looking as normal as they could be in a stoplight colored costume and a very shiny red helmet. He would question their design choices later.

Tim kinda has the urge to run and give Jason a hug right now but as he always says (and his teammates always facepalm and sigh in resignation) if you feel emotions push them deep inside of you and lock them in several boxes and then never take them out and let them fester and slowly break you from the inside. Oh and he thinks he would get shot if he ran at Red Hood in his league clothes.

“Ras,” Batman growls in that gravelly voice that makes you know his throat is constantly in pain, “We have determined that one of your members delivered a flash drive to our door containing some information, we would like to know which one of your members did that.”

…Oh crud. Tim’s screwed.

Jason Todd Twenty One Years Old

As expected a slight green tinge appeared in his vision as Ras and his shadows slipped out of the shadows to face the Bats. Even after years of being back in Gotham he still shudders at the thought of what could have happened if he had believed Talia's lies about Bruce, with that thought a twinge of pain flashed in his chest as he remembered a kid with black hair and icy blue eyes. Shaking the thought away so he could stay focused on the meeting happening in front of him.

He studied the group of shadows around Ras and his eyes were immediately drawn to a rather short figure on Ra’s right side. They were dressed in classic league clothes but instead of being all black the cuffs of their sleeves and pants were red and there was a gold trim around the edge of their hood. There were three larger and burlier shadows that were to either side of the person and behind them as well. They all had colors on their league clothes too but there was no gold in theirs, only red. Curious, Jason thought.

He could see several different weapons hidden on the group including several knives, guns and in one case a sniper rifle, he marked that group as potentially more dangerous and then continued his scan of the numerous shadows around Ras.

B finally spoke asking about the flash drive and Jason saw a slight twitch from all of the red group except the short one in the middle. That was odd. 

“I assure you that the league has nothing to do with the flash drive found on your property,” Ras said, his smooth voice making the green that had partially faded away come back, Jason took a couple deep breaths pushing away as much of the pit as he could.

“One of us tracked a signal to the leagues universal internet system,” B interjected. 

“Only one of my teams was in Gotham at all recently and they were only passing through to deal with some,” He paused, “Other matters. I could ask them if they saw anything suspicious while they were there. Of course it would come with a price.” His oily smirk made all the Bats bristle and B was about to speak before Oracle's voice spoke on all of their coms.

If this wasn’t the league then someone we don’t know knows the identities of the bats, if Ras has any information that we could use then whatever he wants could be worth it, Oracle had a point but Jason was still reluctant.

We ask the price first, if it is too high or something that we cannot give him then we will figure out who gave us the flash drive ourselves, B said through the coms.

“What would the price be?” Batman asked Ras.

Ras smiled, “One of you against a champion of my choice, battle to first blood. You have five minutes to pick your warrior or forfeit. My shadow will be required to answer truthfully whether you lose or not.”

Jason spun so he was facing the other bats, “It can’t be Robin or Batman, Robin although skilled is small which won’t help him, B is still recovering from the time stream, Wing you don’t know how the league fights, it should be me.”

“I also know how the league fights it should be me,” Damian argued, “You could lose yourself in the pit too easily.”

“Well the league knows both of your styles, I should fight because they don’t know mine, “ Dick said.

Dick, Damian, and Jason started arguing, each pointing out their own skills that would be beneficial in the fight.

“Well B, what do you think,” Jason asked, interrupting his brothers.

B sighed, “I think Jason would be the best pick.”

“Ha!” Jason crowed, “I told you!”

“Listen,” Bruce ordered, “Robin, I don’t want to make you fight against a league member you have not completed your training, Nightwing you would not want to spill blood, it is one of your strengths but in this case also one of your weaknesses. Jason is the logical choice because he is fully trained and will not hesitate against a shadow.”

“Your time is up,” Ras said, “Have you chosen?”

Jason walked forward, “I will be fighting.”

“Excellent,” Ras gestured to his right side, “Abn alzilal, will be my champion.”

Son of Shadows, Damian murmured through the coms. 

After he spoke a feral growl came from the three shadows that wore only red, Jason could see that they had armed themselves one with knives in each hand and two with guns. “Stand down shadows,” Ras ordered but to all the bats' surprise none of them moved. After a tense silence, a sharp two note whistle cut through the air and the three shadows sheathed their weapons and took a step back although Jason could tell it was reluctant. All eyes flashed toward the one who whistled, the short person that was between them. The person met Jason's stare with their own and Jason noted their two different colored eyes and the white hair that peeked out of their hood this person had clearly taken a dip into the pit.

“I accept the challenge,” When he spoke Jason noted two things, one that the person was clearly male and two that the voice was suspiciously high pitched. 

“The warriors may only use the weapons they have on their person, people from either side may not intervene at any time, whoever draws first blood wins,” Ras smiled, “Let the challenge begin.”

Jason was expecting the normal start of a spar, where both warriors circled each other to note the other person's advantages and weaknesses. That was how sparring had started in the league and most other places Jason had trained so he was not expecting his opponent to launch himself at Jason the second that Ras began the match. Somehow while he was lunging at Jason the shadow had slipped a knife into his hand. Jason would have been too slow to block if muscle memory hadn’t kicked in and he blocked with his own knife. The shadow used the momentum from the block to push himself up using Jason as a spring pad and flipping into the air to land behind Jason. Jason heard an approving hum coming from Dick and he shot a quick glare in his brother's direction.

When he turned back somehow the tiny shadow had gotten a bo staff. Where the crap did that come from?! Jason found himself blocking a blur of attacks from the staff. Well at least the staff didn’t have blades so technically it couldn’t draw blood. He saw the shadow's eyes twitch in a similar way to Damian's when Damian was smiling but didn’t want anyone to know. Jason soon learned why when the shadow twisted his hand sharply and knives slipped out of either end of the staff. Way to go Jason, he thought to himself, you jinxed it.

Jason let his instincts take over blocking the blade while he came up with a quick strategy. Clearly this ninja was not the average shadow, he used different moves and techniques that the league didn’t teach. A noise snapped him out of his thoughts and he realized that the shadow was humming to themselves.

Jason nearly choked on his laughter as he realized that the very skilled and seemingly professional ninja he was fighting was humming the Mission Impossible theme song. Unfortunately this new information was another piece of evidence pointing to this shadow being on the lower side of his lifespan. Meaning that he was most likely a teenager or young adult, probably a teen with his height, and he had clearly been trained for many years.

When he finally got a couple seconds where he wasn’t being violently slashed and stabbed at, well it wasn’t exactly violent it looked more like a dance with how smoothly the ninja moved but Jason couldn’t exactly say ‘while he was smoothly and elegantly slashed and stabbed at’. Jason pulled out one of his guns (with rubber bullets don’t worry B) and shot at the ninja aiming for the knee so that he could at least stun the ‘maybe a kid’ and draw blood without really hurting him.

Well that didn’t work because the freaking skilled mini ninja whacked the bullet away with his staff. Jason heard a whoop from the Ras side of the crowd and he was conveniently facing that side so he could see one of the red shadows jumping up and down which inevitably made their hood fall off and Jason could now see it was a bald girl who was yelling, “I KNEW all those bullets I shot at you would pay off eventually!” Jason didn’t know if he should be more concerned that apparently his opponent ‘maybe a kid’ had gotten numerous bullets shot at them or that his opponent ‘maybe a kid’ knew and regularly interacted with Prudence Wood, one of the most skilled and feared assassins in the league.

“Shut up Pru! That does not make up for the month I spent wearing Kevlar armor because apparently ‘bullet tag’ is a thing,” the ninja ‘maybe a kid’ yelled back while trying to stab at a place that Jason really really didn’t want to get stabbed, well he didn’t want to get stabbed in general but if getting kicked there hurt more than getting kicked anywhere else he didn’t want to know if getting stabbed there was worse as well.

Jason was starting to think that this battle would never end but then the short ninja back stepped away quickly twisting his hand and tapping the staff on the floor causing the blades and the staff to retract into a small cylinder that he tucked into a sheath at his back only to pull out two smaller metal sticks that with a flick transformed into something that looked similar to Nightwing's escrima sticks. The ninja dove at Jason again and it looked like he was aiming for Jason's legs until at the last second he pushed up performing a side flip over Jason's head Jason barely had time to react as his helmet was tugged off his head and the little gremlin landed behind him for the second time that fight this time with Jasons helmet in his hands.

Damian gasped on the coms and Jason realized why when he looked at the shadow.

During the flip the ninja's hood had gotten flipped off and Jason found himself staring at a frighteningly familiar face who calmly met his eyes and with a grin said, “I win.” Jason couldn’t find himself mad at the loss or confused about how the ninja got his helmet off without disabling the safeguards because he was face to face with someone he thought was dead. Tim.

Tim Drake Fifteen Years Old

Tim was rather proud of his win. He was a bit less happy about the fact that his hood fell off, they really need to find a way to make those stay on better, and about the fact that he was potentially going to get outed as the person who had delivered the flash drive to the bats and gone against Ras orders while doing it.

Tim did what he was good at and completely masked his face of all the worries while he grinned at Red Hood declared his win and proceeded to toss the again horrifically designed helmet back to his open mouthed sort of brother who currently had a streak of blood coming from a thin cut on his cheek and a domino mask plastered to his face (Tim thought that was a bit excessive but Jason had always had a drama kid personality). Jason seemed to catch it on instinct and his mouth closed with a snap. Tim spun on one foot and trotted over to where his team was waiting for him. Owens gave him a fist bump and Pru ruffled his hair while Z just nodded at him with the barest hint of a smirk on his face.

“Well it appears we have a champion,” Ras said, his tone practically dripping with satisfaction, “And you have paid your price.” He gestured to Tim, “Timothy was the one who traveled through Gotham with his team, you are welcome to ask him any questions about what he may have seen.”

Damian and Jason were both staring at Tim but Batman quickly started, “When were you in Gotham?”

Tim reluctantly gave the day he was in Gotham which he knew was the exact day the flash drive had been delivered.

Batman hummed narrowing his eyes at Tim but before he could say anything one of his children blurted out a question, it wasn’t the kid that Tim had expected though, Damian and Jason still looked like they were trying to process Tims existence, which confused Tim a bit because it wasn’t like they hadn’t known Tim was still alive. Instead it was Nightwing who had interrupted Batman, “How old are you?”

Tim knew that no matter how he put it the bats were not going to be happy about his answer, “Almost sixteen,” He said after a slight pause.

“So you’re fifteen,” Dick said, looking like he was about to pass out.

Tim made an affirmative noise ,"Do you need some water or something? You’re looking a little pale,” Tim asked, genuinely worried about how pale the bats were getting.

“Hey! Boss, you can finally get your driver's license in a couple places!” Pru exclaimed, seeming very excited about that fact. 

“Well legally yes, but I’ve been driving since I was like twelve Pru. It’s not like it's hard to create a fake license,” Tim said nonchalantly, “Okay I’m seriously a bit worried, are you guys sick or something? Cause you somehow got even paler than you were before and that's a serious accomplishment as you guys were like ghosts and now you’re like… paler ghosts,” Tim said as he stared at the Wayne's.

“So what’s your name?” Dick asked, a strained smile on his face.

“Tim,” Tim said, “And these are Pru, Owens, and Z.” He gestured to each member of his team.

Jason had apparently recovered from his apparent shock at seeing Tim (Which was again really weird) and he was the one to ask the next question. “Tim, how are you still alive?” That was a bit of an odd question and Tim just shrugged, “Honestly I don’t really know, I’ve done some stupid crap.”

“Some,” Owens snorted, “Like you aren’t wanted in at least fifteen states all over the world, probably more, are in the top five of interpol’s most wanted list, and constantly come up with plans that have a fifty fifty success rate and a seventy thirty survival rate.”

“Awww,” Tim said, “Don’t make me blush.”

“Don’t forget the Cambodia incident,” Pru added. In sync Tim, Owens, and Z all turned to glare at Pru, saying in unison with matching dark voices, “We NEVER bring up the Cambodia incident.”

“Anyways,” Tim turned back to the bats, “So about the flash drive that was maybe sort of, me?” Tim did jazz hands with a sheepish look on his face, “I had an excuse to travel with the whole Counsel of Spiders trying to murder everybody and the clues were pretty obvious once I connected the dots.” Tim shrugged.

“So,” Jason started slowly, “Not only are you alive despite what Ras told us, you have also been practically terrorizing several places all over the world.”

“Yup,” Tim appeared to think for a second before adding, “I try not to terrorize anywhere that makes really good coffee though. What's this about Ras saying I died though? I mean technically I’ve died several times but I always came back so it’s okay.”

“I’ve got to sit down,” Nightwing said, proceeding to slump to the ground and bury his head in his hands with a groan. Bruce looked a bit like he was constipated and a bit like he was concerned which ew emotions. Jason had his murder face on, and Damian was giving his grandfather the evil eye. 

Ras didn’t look very happy either, “Timothy I ordered you to focus on the Council of Spiders and not the Bat.”

“You did,” Tim confirmed, “I just ignored you and focused on both instead.”

Ras dragged his hand down his face and growed something like ‘I should have expected this would happen.’

“Well I believe it is time to wrap this very nice meeting up,” Tim said clasping his hands together, “Hood, Robin, it was very nice to see you again. Nightwing, Batman, it was a pleasure to meet you. Ras, thanks and no thanks for the training and the trauma. I am going to go with my team to a place where drinking under the age of twenty one is legal and let Pru and Owens get drunk while I work on a couple of things and drink more than the recommended amount of caffeine for my age.”

Everyone on the roof stared in shock as Tim started to make his way to the edge of the roof with his team following close behind.

“Tim, where in the freaking world do you think you’re going?” Jason said, crossing his arms across his chest with his helmet still gripped in one of his hands.

“Maybe Europe, I don’t think they hate me there yet,” Tim mused, turning to face Jason. 

“Tt. It is unacceptable that you are leaving after Hood and I just found out you are still alive akhi,” Damian said, frowning at Tim. 

Tim noted the desperation in both of their eyes and sighed, “I’ll be back in less than two weeks,” He flicked something small and black at Jason. Jason caught it, seeing a small com in his hand. 

“Keep in touch,” Tim said grinning at them, “Uhibbuk.” Tim tipped backward off the roof and his team jumped after him. Jason ran to the edge but there was no sign of Tim, Pru, Owens, or Z. Jason sighed and went back to where the bats were standing, Dick had gotten up but his eyes still looked a little wet. [I love you]

“Timothy will not be found if he does not want to be found,” Ras said his face saying that this information was learned by experience and Jason couldn’t help but snort because of course his feral little brother would decide that he wanted a little vacation and disappear off the face of the earth. 

“Ras,” B said, “This meeting has been informational but I expect you to remember that this was a one time thing and league members are not tolerated in Gotham”

“Of course Detective,” Ras said, “Until next time.” He and his remaining shadows faded back into the darkness.

“Two weeks,” Jason muttered under his breath as he grappled with the rest of the bats back to the cave, “You just have to wait two weeks.”