Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It starts- as things usually do with Tim- with Dick asking for a favor. Now, Dick’s ‘favors’ ranged from the most insane shit on earth to simply buying him a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream, so initially Tim wasn’t too put off by Dick cashing in a patrol switch. In all honesty, Tim would’ve taken his brother’s patrol even without having to cash in a favor. The last Arkham breakout landed the older vigilante with his bad knee being dislocated badly enough that even Damian seemed a bit offput at the sight. 

“Just for tonight.” Dick had said with a weak smile, ice sitting on his knee. Damian had scoffed, but actually looked a bit thankful when Tim had told Dick that he was taking over Nightwing’s patrol routes for the next week. No exceptions. 

Which, honestly, what did Dick expect? Nobody with a brain would go out on a dislocated (possibly torn) knee not even two days after the injury occured. It was like basic recovery 101. It definitely didn’t help that Dick looked like a wet cat when he asked Tim, all bundled up in blankets despite it being in the middle of the summer. So, in lieu of his older brother’s injury and overall pathetic look, Tim patrolled on what was originally his night off. Whatever. Patrols gave him a break from corperate bullshit that he dealt with on a daily basis now.

The weather wasn’t even bad tonight. The sky was as clear as a smog polluted sky could be, and it wasn’t so warm out that Tim was boiling in his summer suit. It was almost a perfect night for Gotham if it weren’t for the fact that everything felt…still. Like, unsettlingly so. It set Tim on edge more than he liked to admit. 

“Anything happening over there, 3.0?” Hood asks over the comm. Tim risists the urge to roll his eyes. 

“No. And 3.0, really?” Tim mutters.

“Robin 3.0. Red 2.0. You need to work on names.” Hood grunts. “Keep stealing them and someone might get the wrong idea.”

“Bite me.”

“Uh, no. You got like, no meat on you. No nutritional value, except maybe caffeine from those weird ass energy drinks you like.”

Uh, rude. So what if Tim lliked a Skittles flavored energy drink? Tim didn’t make fun of Jason for being a tea snob. 

“Asshole.” Tim stands up from his crouch, looking down at the empty streets below. “Does it seem a little…too quiet tonight?”

“Don’t even say it.” Hood growls. “The moment you say it is when stuff goes to shit dumbass, and we are considerably low on backup tonight.”

Tim winces at the reminder. Him and Jason were really the only ones technically scheduled to patrol tonight. Bruce was off doing League stuff, Bab’s had something to do with her dad, and her Batgirls were both busy with the Birds of Prey on some god knows what mission. Dick was obviously out for the count, and Damian…

Well. Neither Tim or Jason really wanted to deal with Damian without Dick or Bruce around. Ever since his…girlfriend (what was her name? Nila? Nena? Eh, who cares.) had left Gotham the kid had been in a mood remicinient of his first months in Gotham and Tim was not about to relieve that, no matter how much better he and Damian got along now. 

A pouting Damian was a brutal Damian, and Tim valued his safety, thank you very much. 

“We can always call Duke or Harper, right?” Tim asks. Hood snorts.

“I bet you money Duke is passed the fuck out right now, and I haven’t talked to Harper in months.” Hood pauses. “Aunt Kate?”

“Ugh.” Tim groans. “She went to Montoya’s to help her with a case.” 

“Jesus wept. We’re actually on our own? Nobody on comms or nothing?” Hood asks skeptically. “Who the fuck signed off on this?”

“Nobody. But B isn’t here and-”

“Crime never sleeps. I get it.” Hood sighs. “Fuck. I miss Alfie.”

Ok. Ouch. 

“Yeah.” Tim sighs. “Yeah.”

Hood stays quiet for a second. “I also miss being able to shoot at your skinny ass without consequences. I mean, damn. You’re right out in the open. Easy target.”

Tim feels himself scowl as he turns in a slow circle to see where Hood was camping out. “Way to ruin the moment. When did you even track me?”

“Scrawny teen in bright red on a rooftop and you're asking me how I found you? Idiot.”

“I’m gonna take your grapple and shove you off a roof.” Tim gives a figure on the roof of a distant apartment building his middle finger. Over the line, Hood snorts. 

“You and what muscles?” His brother gives him a short wave from a rooftop in the distance before leaping off and swinging closer on his grapple. “Maybe if you actually had any I wouldn’t have been able to hold a knife up to your neck twice.” 

“Die again.” Tim grunts as Hood lands onto the rooftop next to him. “And maybe let it stick.”

“You fuckin’ wish I would stay dead. I’m like the radioactive roaches from the sewers.” The tought of sewer roaches makes Tim shudder. The roaches were almost worse than the rats, honestly. At least the rats scurried away when they heard people coming towards them- the roaches just flew at people. Like living biological horror weapons. The roaches hiding in the crevices of Gotham’s underground were one of the few things that Tim knew made Nightwing shriek like a little girl.

“You look like one.” Tim mutters. He dodges the weak punch Hood sends his way, smirking as his brother mutters a few curses his way. 

“Speaking of roaches, someone nabbed a few of my girls earlier this evening. I tracked them down to a warehouse in Old Gotham.” 

Tim frowns. “That’s not far from Crime Alley at all.”

Hood scoffs, the sound harsh through his voice modulator. “Yeah, no shit. If they wanted to stay off my radar they aren’t doing a very good job.” Hood tilts his head at Tim. “Wanna help?”

Tim rolls his shoulders before glazing over the skyline. The lights of Gotham’s skyscrapers glinted of the stone walls of the apartment buildings that made up the East End. If Tim had his camera, he would’ve spent the night testing every angle of the city with just how clear the city seemed tonight. 

If Tim wasn’t, well…Tim, he probably would’ve enjoyed the night. Instead it really set him on edge. 

“Yeah.” Tim finally sighs. “Can’t have you getting killed now, can we?” 

“That’s the spirit.” Hood says, clapping Tim hard on the shoulder. “Now let's go get my girls back.”

“Macie and Ava.” Hood says as they perch on the rafters. “Two spitfires, really. Not sure how they got caught. They get their acrylics in a stiletto shape to be able to claw people’s eyes out.”

What the actual fuck. Tim winces at the thought of a bunch of women intentionally having their nails done to maim someone. Then again, Alley people were a different breed. 

“They don’t look injured.” Tim says, frowining at the two girls tied up below. A woman with pale hair and white robes was walking around the two, muttering to herself as she drew sigils in…

“Is that pink chalk?” Tim asks out loud. Hood leans over a little bit to peer down. 

“Well fuck me. She’s using Crayola chalk in a fucking cult circle.” He shakes his head. “What has this city come to?”

“C’mon lady let us go!” Macie groaned. “I’m missing out tonight! It’s the first night in the last two months without a single fucking cloud.”

“Hood’s gonna be pissed.” Ava complains. She blows a strand of blue hair out of her face. “He don’t favor us getting snatched.”

“Quiet!” The woman in white snaps, drawing another line. “The moon sings its songs loudest in this wretched city.”

“Amature.” Ava mutters. The woman ignores her. 

“Oh great. Another whackjob, just what this city needs.” Hood mutters. Tim rolls his eyes. Not like he wasn’t crazy when he first came back to the city. 

“Maybe if you succeeded when you first came back to Gotham we wouldn’t have so many.” Tim mutters, just to be a bitch. Even through the lenses of his helmet, Tim could feel the glare his brother sent his way. 

“Two words. Titans Tower.”

“Oh yeah, because attacking a teenager with pot shots is so edgy.” Tim scoffs. “You didn’t even kill me.” 

“I didn’t attack you. I rocked your shit birdie.” Hood waves one of his guns in the air. “Not like you’d rememeber. I got a few good hits oon your head. Probably scrambled your brain pretty good. Is that why you had to do PT after? Because I rung your bell that good?” 

“A 6’2 two-fifteen nineteen year old versus a 5’3 fourteen year old. I wonder who had the upper hand.” Tim points out dryly. “And for the record, remember everything. Like you hitting me with my own staff.”

“God you were tiny. Like, damn.” Hood sighs. “You know, maybe I did you good. Maybe I hit your bones into growing.” 

Tim gives his brother a dry look. At 19, Tim was only an inch or two shorter than Dick, which wasn’t saying much in the way of height in their family. With his luck, Tim was going to be the shortest- especially with the way both Duke and Damian were shooting up like weeds. Not for the first time, Tim cursed the fact he got his dad’s height genes instead of his mom’s. 

“At least I didn’t have to squeeze into a Party City Robin uniform.” Tim shoots back, eyeing the lady as she finishes her circle. Sue him. His height was a sore spot and he wanted to be a little petty. 

Hood snorts. “Trust me, be glad you didn’t. It was a tight fit.” He leans over again. “Wanna get this taken care of? It’s a bit sad to watch.”

“Gonna get them all.” The woman below mutters fervently. “Starting with that damn witch boy and that girl!” Macie and Ava share an exasperated look. Tim pities them, really.

“Yeah.” Tim sighs. “Let’s get this over with. You owe me Bat Burger after this.”

Hood waves him off before jumping to the ground. Neither girl startles, but the woman jumps back with a startled yelp. She blinks for a minute before anger begins to cross her face. Tim winces. Crazy cultists were the worst to deal with. 

“Ladies.” Hood says, cutting them free. 

“Thank fuck.” Ava whines. “Thought I’d be stuck here till morning.”

“Yeah, they got an outdoor movie goin at Robinson.” Macie complains. “Ivy certified an’ everythin. I didn’t wanna miss it.”

“YOU!” The cultist screams, pointing. “You’re ruining it!” THe woman starts towards them, clenching her jaw tight enough for the muscle in her neck to flutter. 

“Red-” Hood starts. 

“On it.” Tim expands his bo, twirling it in his fingers as he circles the woman. The woman’s eyes glow a sharp red, the color making her pale skin seem white. Her head twitches unnaturaly as her eyes followed him. 

“One cannot see.” She hisses before her fingers wrap with magic and she launches herself at TIm with a cry. 

“Girls, time to go!” Hood shouts, pushing Macie and Ava towards the warehouse door. Both girls nod and book it, not looking back once. Tim grunts as a wave of magic pushes him back into Hood. 

“I will show them all. ” The woman shreiks. “One cannot see light without the sight!”

“Sounds like cult jumbo to me.” Hood says conversationally. Tim resists the urge to slam his head into a beam when his brother pulls a gun out from his jacket. “Let's end this. I’m craving Insomnia Cookies.”

“Please tell me you’re using rubber bullets.” Tim pleads. “For the love of-”

“If it’ll shut you up then sure, I’m using rubbers. Like…really hard, dense rubber bullets.” Jason clicks the saftey off with a shrug. Tim gives Jason a daark look.  “Oh don’t look at me like that. What Batman doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

“He’ll fucking know. He knows everything!” Tim snaps. 

“And yet somehow, he still doesn’t know how to attend therapy like a normal person.” Hood waves a hand. “I think scrapbooking or journaling would fix a lot of his problems, actually.”

“Like they fixed yours?”

“I’ll have you know that pottery classes have had a lot to do with my anger issues, smartass.” The woman yelps as Hood fires a round into her thigh, collapsing as she holds onto her leg. 

“You-” She snarls. Then, she straightens and reaches her hands to the sky. “ Tenebras evoco quae consumunt. Qui te opprimunt, consequantur conspectum.” 

The circle begins to glow, magic pushing outwards. 

“Ah fuck.” Hood groans. He looks at Tim. “You think if I shoot her it’ll stop?”

“Dividatur anima, audiat universum—” The woman continues, voice growling louder. 

“Are you serious?” Tim asks sharply. Hood just shrugs before lifting up his gun. 

“Lux ardeat. Visus dirigat. Anima inveniat—” The woman’s head jolts back as the sound of a gunshot rings through the warehouse. Tim lowers his staff with a groan. The magic pushing them back slowly recedes, leaving the warehouse feeling strangely still. 

“Seriously, Hood?”

Hood scoffs, turning to Tim in exasperation. “What? It was barely a fight to begin with. Did you even swing that staff of yours?”

“No but-”

That's when the magic stops pushing out and starts pulling in. Tim looks up. Jason meets his gaze steadily. “Fuck.” They both turn at the same time, hoping to find some protection. 

Jason runs, but Tim- lighter and far easier to pull- has a sinking feeling in his chest when he realizes that he’s not making any ground away from the growing hole in the floor. If anything, he's getting pulled in and away from safety. 

“Hood!” Tim shouts, leaning forward as if that would help. Sue him. Tim didn’t want to die to a magic black hole. His brother glances backward. Tim could practically see the ‘oh fuck’ oh his face. Tim stumbles a little, losing feet of ground. Oh god. Ok. Time to fucking panic. “Jason!”

“Hang on!” Jason shouts, using a concrete beam to block most of the suction from grabbing him. Jason reaches out as far as he can but it’s not enough. “Fucking reach you idiot!”

“I’m trying you fucking asshole!” Tim screeches. He can’t really do much but stand still. TIm feels like if he tries to move he’ll lose balance and-

“Tim, bud you have to trust me!” Well. Whatever’s about to comeout of Jason’s mouth is either going to definitely kill him or save him.  “Jump froward! I’ll catch you!”

Tim can only stare. “Are you insane?!”

“Do you really think I’d let you die?” Jason snaps. “Fucking jump!” 

Well. It’s not like Tim had any other options, really. Tim closes his eyes. Breathes. 

He jumps. 

“Gotcha!” Tim can only gasp in relief as Jason’s hand wraps around his wrist because now Tim’s literally fucking airborn. 

“Jason! Pull me in!” Jason grunts. 

“Trying.” He hisses. 

Tim feels the moment his brother’s hand begins slipping. 

“NO!” Jason groans. His grip grows impossibly tighter. Tim could feel his bone creaking in his wrist with how tight Jason was holding on. It doesn’t matter though. The pull from the middle of the room is…

Well. 

It’s enough for the Red Hood’s grip strength to fail.  Slowly, yeah, but it didn’t change the fact that Tim would inevitably slip from Jason’s grasp. Tim glances backwards. The hole is almost pretty, galaxy-like in the center. Ok. New plan. Tim looks up at Jason. His brother was borderline coming out of his own spot of safety trying to pull Tim in.

We can’t have that now, can we? He thinks flatly. Not like the idiot didn’t already die once. 

“I think she was trying to bring something here.” Tim says, loud enough to be heard over the whipping wind. “Which means that portal leads to somewhere else.” And if it led to somewhere else, chances were that Tim would live through getting sucked into a miniature black hole. If Tim lived, he could be found. They dealt with multiversal threats all the damn time. If this is what Tim thoguht it was, this was just an average Thursday. Whoop de doo. Jason falters. Tim could see the pieces clicking together in his mind. Tim could also see the moment that Tim’s unspoken idea went out the window. 

“Tim I swear to god-” Jason growls. 

“Shut up. Call Dick. Call Bruce and the Jutice League.” Tim breathes shakily. Sue him. He was nervous. The last time he went through a damn portal he came face to face with an evil gun-toting version of him. “Don’t…don’t let them pull a Bruce on me and think I’m dead. Find me. I don’t care how long it takes, fucking find me.” 

And if there was anyone Tim trusted to pull his shit together for a multiversal or time related mission, it was Jason. Jason, who’s already went through the multiverse once. And who knows how many people they knew have gone through time? Tim would be fine. He had to be. Jason hesitates before nodding once. 

And Tim just…lets go. He doesn’t scream, even as Jason roars in anger. Soon, those fade away as Tim gets pulled further and further in. It feels like he’s being torn apart and put together over and over and-

Gotham flashes before his eyes. It disappears just as quickly. A world, burning- the scent of blood and smoke strong as fires blotted the sun out of the sky. Gotham again, the Bat signal bright in the sky. Tim swears he sees a Robin in a familiar suit, swinging through buildings with a wild grin with a long haired Nightwing hot on his tail. Tim arely has time to process that before he’s sent careeneing somewhere, somewhen else.

World after world, time after time. Everything passes him by. It makes him feel sick. Nothing was making sense, like his brain was being fried. He feels air leaving his throat, but he can’t hear the sound he makes. 

Then, everything just stops. Then, a feeling of weightlessness and vertigo and-

He’s falling. Tim blinks the dizziness out of his eyes only to be met with water coming closer at a rate Tim knows he’s going to be feeling later. He crashes into the water trying to right himself as he tumbled around to the ocean floor. Hopefully, the water was deep enough that-

Shit. He thinks as the wet sand rushes towards him. Not as deep as I thought. He doesn’t have time to correct his positioning as he collides with the ocean floor face first. 

“-fell!” A voice shouts. “How the hell is he alive?” Tim lets out a weak groan, his head throbbing. Concussion. He thinks weakly. Can’t stay here. Vulnerable. Tim doesn’t want to think about opening his eyes. As it was, the sun stabbing through his eyelids was enough to make him want to cry. 

“He’s bleeding pretty bad.” A new voice chimes in worriedly. 

“He ate the ocean floor. I’d be more worried if he wasn’t bleeding. C’mon, we need to  get him inside and check him over.” Tim tries not to cry out as gentle hands lift him up, situating him so he was leaning up against someone’s chest. 

“Should we really bring him in? He could be, you know, evil.” The people surrounding Tim remain silent for a few seconds. 

“We’re bringing him in.” Someone says from above him. The voice rumbles through Tim’s cheek. Honestly, it was pretty comforting considering Tim felt like there was a metal rod poking his brain. “And someone call Nightwing. Tell him we’ve got a security-” The words fade out as Tim slowly loses consciousness. At least they’ve got Nightwing. Multiversal constant and all. Means I’m somewhere normal. He thinks distantly, before finally letting himself succumb to the warm call that was unconsciousness.  

Chapter Text

The first thing that Tim registers when he begins to wake up is the throbbing behind his eyes. The pain feels like someone was beating his brain like a drum, so he definitely had a mild concussion at best. Tim tries not to sigh in releif when he scruches his nose and feels his domino still glued onto his face.

“...expect from me?” Someone asks sharply. 

“Jeeze, maybe don’t bring in some guy we don’t know into the medical bay before telling someone!” Someone else, a woman with a raspy voice, snapped back. “He could be with them !” Tim wants to sit up and say that he isn’t with whoever the woman thought he was with, but all  he could manage was opening his eyes a tiny bit before closing them because of the lights. Even through his mask lenses, the light was too fucking bright. 

Someone please turn off the lights. 

“He’s definitely not.” A third person chimes in.

“He’s also awake.” The first person says. “I’ll…leave you two to it. Call for me if anything happens.” 

“‘m not awake.” Tim mumbles. If he talks any louder he feels like he might start crying. Ok, upgrade that mild concussion to a severe one. The woman snorts.

“Yeah right.” Tim hears someone walk closer. “We’ve got a few questions for you.”

“Turn off the lights.” Tim groans. “If you’re going to interrogate me, at least let me see who’s asking the questions.”

“I’ve got them.” The third person says, voice lowered. The brightness behind Tim’s eyes dims enough that he feels a little less like dying when he cracks them open. A blonde woman was glaring down at him, dark eyes sharp. She didn’t look familiar- though the way she held herself was reminiscent of Cass. Even though she seemed relaxed, there was a tensness to her body that showed she was ready to act on a moment’s notice. She was a vigilante, no doubt. 

The woman scowls when she sees Tim eyeing her. “Great. You can see.” Tim looks around where he was being kept. Whoever brought him here must have put him in a cot toward the back of whatever medical facility this was. There were curtains drawn, keeping Tim seperate from everyone else and away from prying eyes. At least they gave him privacy- though, it was awfully trusting of them. 

“Yup.” Tim replies flatly. “Yay me.” Tim glances behind her, but whoever she was with must have been hidden behind the curtains keeping Tim out of sight. 

“Who are you?” She asks. Tim blinks at her. Okk so we’re going right into it. Great. Awesome. 

“Who are you?” Tim counters. She looks like she’s going to say something but Tim quickly cuts her off. “I’ve been on both sides of an interrogation before. This thing doesn’t work if I don’t trust you a little bit-which I don’t by the way. So if you tell me who you are, I’ll tell you who I am. Fair?”

“You’re in no position to demand things.” She points out, jaw clenching. “We could just throw you into a cell or force information out of you someother way.” Tim raises an eyebrow. He pauses. Right before he fell unconscious, someone said to get Nightwing. Assuming there’s a Nightwing, there’s a Justice League.

Which, hopefully, meant the League rules applying to informants and prisoners are the same. 

“I have a concussion. Throwing me into a cell while obtaining any sort of head trauma goes against Article 28 Section 19.” Tim says. He looks up at the ceiling and closes his eyes. “So, I’ll ask again. Name for a name?”

The room is silent for a few seconds, the only sounds being the machines displaying Tim’s vital signs. He keeps them closed even as he hears the curtain being drawn back. Tim tries not to smirk. Gotcha. 

“How do you know about the articles?” Tim opens one eye. The third person that was speaking originally seemed to be in his late teens, sunglasses perched on his nose and his hair cut into some long shag cut. He seemed…not familiar really, but something about him itched at Tim’s memory. “Nobody but the Justice League and those involved with them know about those rules.” 

“You wouldn’t believe me.” Tim sighs. “I mean, I’ll tell you. But like I said, I’ll tell you who I am if you tell me who you are.”

He seems to think for a second before smirking. He guestures to the woman to move, and she does. 

“I’ll do you one better.” He says, leaning forward in the chair. “You tell us who you are and how you got here, and you can ask me anything you want.”

Ah. So this was how it was going to go. It was an interrogation tactic Bruce had taught all his Robins. 

If someone feels they’re getting valuable information back, therre more likely to give you what you want.

It wasn’t something Bruce used much in practice. His usual methods of interrogation usually involved scaring people into giving up things, especially in the field. But the Robins usually obtained information when people felt they were at their safest, and they usually questioned children, victims and parents. Batman’s methods of terror didn’t usually work on people who were already scared of something else. 

Granted, only Tim and Dick used that form of interrogation these days. Both Jason and Steph found it quicker to brute force stuff out of criminals- Jason because of his crime lord reputation, and Steph because she felt like if she let up for a single moment than criminals would see her as less than. 

Obviously, neither Steph or the criminals who doubted her have been on the other side of her left hook.

The man stares at Tim, waiting for an answer. Tim nods once. He gets a grin in response. 

“Great. So do you-”

“You first.” Tim says. The man takes it in stride. 

“Alright.” He says. “So, miss grouchy over there is Artemis. Sorry about her. She didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”

“Right.” Tim mutters. The blonde, Artemis, just sneers at him from behind the man's head. 

“You were…found outside our base. Apparently you took quite a fall. A couple of our members brought you to check you over. You were bleeding pretty badly, not to mention you apparently decided to meet the ocean face first.”

“I tried to change my position.” Tim defends. “I just-” He cuts himself off. Damn concussion, making me say more than I want to. 

“Well, whatever you did do might’ve saved you from a broken neck.” The man continues. “Well, the people who found you notified me-”

Oh. So that’s why Tim felt off around this guy. He was Dick. A version of Dick that looked younger than Tim was. Holy shit. Was Tim older than his oldest brother?

“Nightwing.” Tim says faintly. Dick grins. 

“Yeah, that’s me. So, can I get your name now?”

Tim opens his mouth, then closes it. Tim could either lie to Dick or tell him the truth and hope for the best. Lying would probably mean he’d get interrogated harder, which meant either magic or telepathy would eventually get involved, but telling the truth meant the same things. But telling the truth…

Seeing this funhouse mirror version of his brother made Tim feel lost for the first time since waking up. The feeling hit hard and fast, and Tim looks down to blink the water out of his eyes. Back home, his brother was probably being eaten alive with guilt. His brother, who was such a people pleaser and tried to see the best in people, but who’s temper was worse than Jason’s when pushed. Dick, who Tim wanted to make proud the most out of everyone in the family. 

Dick, Tim trusted with his life even when their relationship was at its worst. Tim lets out a heavy sigh.

“If I tell you this,” Tim begins slowly. “You have to promise you won’t push.”

Tim could almost see the confused look in Dick’s eyes, even ffrom behind his sunglasses. 

“Uh, sure.” He says. “Why-”

“I’m trusting you with my identity.” Tim responds quickly. “I think you know how sacred that is.” The smile on Dick’s face tightens. He turns to look at Artemis, who gives Dick a look that Tim can’t interperet. Dick tunrs back to him, expression serious. 

“Yeah. I got it.” He gestures. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Tim takes a steadying breath. “Right. My name is Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne, though the Wayne part depends on who’s asking. My codename is Red Robin, formerly the third Robin under Batman’s supervision. I was sent here on accident after some cult lady’s summoning went wrong.” Tim looks up, meeting both vigilante’s eyes steadily. “I’m in the wrong universe.”

Artemis’s mouth opens and closes. Dick stares at him for a few seconds before letting out a weary sigh.

“Right, yeah that sounds about right. I’m gonna call Batman and tell him to meet us in the common room while everyone’s still out because I am not letting Kaldur and I deal with this alone.”

“Have you ran a DNA test?” Is the first thing Batman asks when he sees Tim. Artemis sighs.

“We’re not amateurs. Conner ran it while he-” Artemis points in Tim’s direction. “Was out like a light.” Tim eyes the alternate Bruce wearily as his shoulders stiffen subtly. Wait. Tim glances between Dick and Artemis. They knew who he was the entire time?

“You had confirmation of his identity within the first few hours he was here and you didn’t think to contact me?” Batman growls. Artemis shrugs. 

“We thought we’d play it safe, especially since he popped up as someone we already know. Plus, you know how Conner is. He can’t resist a stray.” 

“Should I be offended?” Tim asks Dick. The younger vigilante snorts.

“Nah. Conner, uh Superboy, he has a habit of taking in weird things. Like Wolf.” So, Kon, er Conner, didn’t use his kryptonian name here. Another difference from his home world. 

“Wolf?” He asks, a bit curious. 

“Yeah. He’s a wolf.” Dick pauses. “After the Sphere came along, we let him stop naming things. He sucks at it.”

“What, is Sphere a sphere?” Tim asks jokingly. When Dick doesn’t answer Tim turns to look at him. “You’re kidding me right?”

“Like I said. He sucks at naming things.” 

Tim looks back at Batman and Artemis, frowning. “Huh.”

“You need my code.” Tim interrupts. “Currently, I’m operating under Protocol AE876 Echo. My cave code is DTJ1990623.” Batman pauses.

“That’s…correct.” He says, sounding almost suprised. “Protocol AE876 Echo? You’re from another earth?”

“I mean, considering he,” Tim points his thumb back at Dick. “Spent the last two weeks complaining about turning thirty next year to me and now he doesn’t even look remotely close to twenty nine? Yeah. I don’t think I’m in Kansas anymore Toto.” Artemis snorts out a laugh, ignoring the look Batman sends her way.

“Don’t make me laugh.” She complains. “I’m not supposed to trust or like you yet.”

Tim smirks. “I’ve been told I have that effect on people.”

Batman-no Bruce- slides the cowl off his head, giving both Dick and Artemis tired looks. “I’m going to have to tell the Justice League about this.” He gives Tim an apologetic look. “They’re going to want to confirm your identity themselves. Superman and Wonder Woman especially.”

Tim feels his brows furrow. “They don’t trust you?” Dick winces. 

“Honestly, I don’t think anyone on the League trusts each other too much. The Team is a bit different.” The other vigilante looks a bit uncomfortable. “They don’t typically trust people who appear out of nowhere by dubious means.”

“Something tells me you're speaking from experience.” 

“I’m sure you’ll hear all about it eventually.” Artemis grumbles. 

“You’re talking about me again, aren’t you?” Someone new says from behind Tim.

Once again, Tim was hit by a sense of deja vu. The man in front of Tim is Kon, but he was in a uniform that Tim’s Superboy hadn’t worn since he’d been sent back in time by the Legion. He seemed older, more mature and serious than Tim’s best friend. A large white wolf stood at his side, eyeing Tim up and down before snorting and making his way to lay at Artemis’s feet. The closer he got, the more differences Tim noticed.

Conner was a tad bit paler than Kon, his haircut more militaristic and his eyes far more grey toned than the inhuman blue TIm was used to seein in Kryptonians. Everything Tim had come to associate with Kon, Conner seemed to lack. Truthfully, it helped Tim a little bit. Conner wasn’t Kon. This wasn’t his best friend ( they haven’t really talked since Bernard, Tim missed his best friend) this was a stranger. 

Conner comes to a stop a few feet away from Tim, cool gaze eyeing him up and down before turning to Batman. 

“He still has a concussion.” He points out dryly. “He shouldn’t be up moving around.”

“I’m fine.” Tim assures. Conner glances at him from the corner of his eye with a frown. 

“We needed to make sure Tim actually wasn’t a threat.” Bruce looks between all of them. “Though, you all might want to figure out who’s informing Kaldur’ahm of the situation. Dick, when you’re done here come home. Patrol starts in two hours.” Bruce pulls up his cowl, nods at Tim and Artemis and slips into the shadowy hallway without a sound. Tim stares at where the oler man was standing.

Right. Alternate version of his adoptive father isn’t actually his father here. 

“Shit. I knew I was forgetting something.” Dick hissed. “We forgot to tell Kal.”

“Not it.” Conner says. Dick splutters.

“You need to stop hanging out with Wally.” Artemis chuckles. “Relax, I’ll handle it. I’m the one least likely to get the dissapointed look.” Conner’s face scrunches up in distaste as Dick shudders. 

“I hate that look.” Conner mutters. He looks at Tim. “Uh. I’m Conner.”

“Yeah, I heard.” Tim shrugs. “I’m Tim.”

“I know. I ran your DNA.” He turns back to Dick. “What do we do with him?”

Dick blinks, like he wasn’t expecting to be dealing with Tim on more than a superficial level anytime soon. 

“Uh. Show him around and give him a room in the mountain?” Artemis gives the back of Dick’s head an incredulous look, while Conner just scowls. 

“Dick.” Artemis hisses.

“What? He seems fine!” Dick waves his arms towards Tim, who honestly just wanted to sink deep into the floor.

“Isn’t he technically supposed to go with you? You know, with being a former Robin? ” Conner prods. Dick pauses, thinks and then shrugs.

“I think it’d be better if he stayed here for now. At least until we can tell the rest of the Justice League and the Team.” 

In other words, Dick- and by extesion, probably Bruce- didn’t actually trust Tim enough for him to be welcome at the Manor, but because of his status as Tim Drake, Robin it wasn’t like they could just throw him in a cell. Especially with the concussion. 

Mostly because of the concussion.

“Hopefully, B can get the League up to speed and we can get this all figured out soon.” Dick smiles at Tim, but now it seems so fake. His brother never smiled at Tim like that. But this wasn’t his brother, despite similar names and mannerisms. “But hey, I’ve got to run. Tim, Con and Artie here can show you around and get you feeling right at home. If you need anything, there’s a couple of others on the Team that are living in the mountain full time. I’m sure M’gann would love to help.” Conner flinches just enough for Tim to notice. Dick doesn’t mention it. Instead, he gives them a salute before turning and heading down the same hallway Batman had disappeared down earlier.

That’s it. Tim feels…hollow. He misses home.

“That was cold. And that’s me saying that.” Artemis mutters just loud enough for Tim and Conner to hear. Conner grunts. 

“Jason’s death is still affecting them.”

Artemis glares at the ground. “Doesn’t give them the right to be assholes.” Conner hums lowly. Artemis crosses her arms over her chest. “I feel bad bailing on you, but me and Wally have a date tonight.” 

Conner waves her off. “Go. I’ve got this covered. Tell Wally everyone says hi.” Artemis gives him a grateful look before tuning to Tim.

“Sorry. I’m sure everything will get figured out. And the Bats usually are able to read the room a bit better.”

“It’s fine.” Tim mutters, staring down at the floor.

Artemis gives him a pitying look. “It’s not.”

“Yeah well. What can you do?” Artemis looks like she wants to say something else, but stops herself. Instead she too turns and walks down the hallway.

There’s got to be an exit or a zeta down there. Tim thinks distantly. 

Nothing seems real. Tim had been to other earths before, but somehow this felt the most surreal. It was like TIm was dreaming, but nothing was really going his way. Maybe it was the fact that he was truly alone this time, or maybe it was dealing with versions of his family the obviously only cared about Tim on a surface level. 

“You seem upset.” Conner points out. Tim bites the inside of his cheek in thought.

“Dick is my brother. And Batman is my dad.” Tim begins. “That’s how I know them. But I got thrown through the literal universe and now I’m a complete stranger to everyone I’ve ever known, and I have no clue if or when I get to go home.”

“When Batman tells the League, they’re going to send a magician to figure out a way to get you home.” Conner says it so simply, like all Tim’s problems are going to be magically fixed. 

Newsflash: Tim’s problems never get magically fixed. If anything, they get worse. 

“Still sucks.” Tim sighs. “I hate waiting.”

“I bet.” Conner’s eyes flicker over him for a few seconds before he nods once. “Right. Uh. Want a tour?”

“I’ve got a concussion.” Tim points out, throwing Conner’s earlier words back at him. Conner raises an eyebrow.

“Hasn’t stopped you yet.” 

Tim pauses. He was a bit curious…

“Alright.” He says. “I trust you’re a great tour guide?”

“Not at all.” Conner admits. His eyes flicker down the hallway to where the bedrooms were. His lips pinch. “But something tells me you don’t care about winning personalities.”

“You haven’t met my younger brother.” Tim replies with a smirk. He waves a hand. “Lead the way.” 

Tim doesn’t say anything about the relief on Conner’s face as they rush out of the common room. And if Tim hears a girl call out for the clone? Well, it’s none of his business.

Chapter Text

“There’s nothing we can do.” Zatanna says quietly, frowning. “I’m sorry. The spell she was using was broken to begin with.” Jason resists the urge to scream. Bruce’s lips twitch downward, a rare show of emotion considering he was currently cowled up and on the Watchtower. 

“Are you sure?” Dick asks, a heartbroken expression on his face. Ever since Tim has been dragged into the portal ( Jason felt the moment his brother had resigned to his fate and let go-) Dick had done nothing but carry his guilt on his back.

“It was my night to patrol.” He started with. “If I wasn’t hurt, he wouldn’t have even been there.” Even Damian seemed subdued. Then again, him and Tim had been growing closer after the Zur fiasco a year or so ago- just like Jason and Tim had been. 

And what a fucking joke that was, huh? It only took Bruce going insane for everyone to get their shit together and actually be a family. Jason tries not to sigh. Despite Dick’s hemming and hawing, the only person to really blame for Tim’s disappearance was him. Just for once, if he put down the gun maybe his brother would still be here. 

Next to Zatanna, Constantine snorts. “Lad, you’re lucky he wasn’t completely erased from existence. Him being stuck in an alternate timeline isn’t a horrible fate.”

“That’s my brother you’re talking about.” Jason growls. “And who are you all to tell us what’s impossible? You all literally had to fight an embodiment of death and won, but bringing my brother home is too much to ask?”

“It’s not that simple-” Zatanna tries. 

“Make it that simple.” Dick snaps. Zatanna winces. 

“Are you absolutely sure there's no way for you to get to him?” Bruce asks, putting a hand on Dick’s shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. 

“Magically? There’s not a chance Bruce. I’m sorry.”

His dad immediately turns to the Flashes. Barry holds his hands up defensively. 

“Whatever you’re thinking Bats, no.” The speedster says firmly. “It’s one thing to have us run into neightboring usiverses we’ve communicated and dealt with before, but it's another for us to go on a search mission. It’s not just stupid, it’s suicide.”

“Wally…” The red head winces at Dick’s tone. 

“Dude…Barry’s right. Run into the wrong universe and you’re dead. Not only that, we can only run into worlds that have a Speed Force. There’s a good chance wherever Tim is doesn’t even have one, considering the witch was using a broken spell.”

“So you’re just giving up on him?” Stephanie shouts. “After everything he’s done, this is how you all want to repay him?”

The people in the room all glance around, looking uncomfortable and guilty. Clark can’t even meet Bruce’s eyes. Good. Serves them right, they should be guilty about leaving Tim to rot. Jason scoffs, shaking his head. There was no point in staying any longer. Everyone had already made up their minds about the situation, regardless of what Batman and his gaggle of vigilantes thought. 

“You’re all fucking cowards.” Jason spits. “Never saving people when you fucking need to.” He turns on his heel and storms out. He doesn’t need to look back to know the rest of his fmaily was right behind them. 

“This is so fucked.” Steph continues. 

“You can say that again.” Damian mutters, the scowl on his face deeper than usual. “I do not understand. Drake has helped tham an insurmountable amount of times. Why are they not returning the favor?”

“Because they’re scared.” Dick answers quietly. “They don’t know where Tim is, or if he’s alive. They don’t want to risk hurting others simply to save one person.”

“But it’s Drake. ” 

“I know bud.” Dick galnces at Bruce. “What are you going to do?”

“Fix this.” Bruce rumbles. “We won’t leave Tim.” Dick nods, but doesn’t look reassured. Even as the family files out of the Watchtower, Dick just keeps standing there on his crutches, looking sad.

“It’s not your fault.” Jason says just loud enough for Dick to hear. 

“If it’s not mine then it's not yours either.” Dick shoots back. “It was my patrol-”

“And I was the one that let him go.” 

Dick shuts up. Jason sighs. “I get it. I really, really do. But doing the self pity schitck isn’t going to get Tim back any sooner.”

“Everything was going so well.” Dick whispers. “After all the bullshit…Alfred, Zur, Waller…everything was finally looking normal again. And now Tim’s gone again and if I had just been a little better, this never would have happened.”

“Do you need a wooden cross to nail yourself on?” Jason asks flatly. Dick shoots him a scandalized look that has Jason snorting. “Tim’s a grown up. Yes, I know you love him. I love him too- he’s our fucking brother. Doesn’t change what happened. Definetly doesn’t help. Hell, Tim’s probably already taking over an alternate team to come home by now. He’ll be fine.”

“You’re right.” Dick laughs wetly. “This is the same kid who faked getting paralyzed to avoid Vicki Vale.”

“He skateboarded down the manor’s main hallway in front of Alfie.”

“He led a team that shot Santa out of the sky.” 

Jason pauses. “He did what?”

“You didn’t know about that?” Dick asked. “It was a whole thing.”

Jason shakes his head. “The kid will be fine Dick. Now get home and get off that fucking knee before I break the other one.”

“Fuck you Jason.”

“Love you too, Dick.”  He waits until his older brother is out of sight before letting his shoulders slump in defeat.

What a fucking mess. Jason thinks sullenly. There wasn't much else to do now but go back to Gotham and look over everything again in hopes of finding a new lead of where Tim might have ended up.

Jason lied. He was sitting on his ass and doing nothing. It was hard, if not impossible to look for Tim because the circle the lady drew? It didn’t exist in any book ever, and because Jason killed her the only lead he had was sitting in the Gotham morgue. 

So. Jason fucked himself six way to sunday. What else is new? Just when Jason feels like he’s about to have a mental breakdown, a knock on his window jolts him out of it. 

“I have a door you know.” Jason calls. He doesn’t move, even as he hears his window sliding open. 

“Heard what happened.” Roy climbs through Jason’s apartment window smoothly. Jason doesn’t look at him, too upset to really acknowledge to archer. 

“Then you also heard what didn’t happen.” 

“Yeah. Ollie’s pissed at everyone too, if it’s any consolation.” Roy goes into the kitchen. Jason could hear the archer muttering to himself as he poked through Jason’s pantry and fridge. “It’s bullshit they won’t even take the time to look for him.” Roy comes out, holding what looked like a bowl of cereal and a soda from the pack Duke had left when he crashed at Jason’s last month. 

“Yeah.” Jason mutters. He takes the soda silently, staring resolutely at the TV, despite not processing anything on the screen. Roy sits down next to him with a huff, leaning back into Jasons shitty couch like it was the most comfortable thing ever. 

“So, what now?” 

It’s only then that Jason finally breaks. Everything he’d been holding back on the Watchtower comes pouring out. 

“What do you mean ‘what now’? There’s nothing we can do! Bruce is going to hole himself away and try to look for a way to bring Tim home, but he won’t be able to do that alone so that will be a bust. Dick’s gonna mope until he gets angry and does something self-destructive, and god knows how the kids are going to react! Nobody in the Justice League is willing to stick out their necks all of the sudden, and my brother is-” Jason cuts himself off. Jason knew he was one of the more emotional members of his family. It was one of the things that he and Bruce clashed on. Bruce ran on logic. Jason didn’t. 

Tim was a lot like Bruce. Tim was logical like Bruce, putting his emotions aside and compartmentalizing information like a maniac when on a case. Tim was able to piece things together few people were, and there were times where Jason was almost jealous of Tim’s analytical mind. Realistically, Jason knew his dad didn’t favor Tim more than him, but it was hard not to think that with how well they worked together.

But Tim was also so, so different from Bruce. Tim valued the relationships he had more than Bruce did (not to say Bruce didn’t care, but you know. Batman)- both with other vigilantes and with the people he constantly spent time with. Tim cared so much he was willing to distance himself from the people he cared about to keep them safe. God forbid people care about Tim’s well being. 

Tim was kind, a smartass, and wore an armoured heart on his sleeve. The idea of just…abandoning him? It made Jason’s blood boil, and Jason had tried to kill the kid a time or two.

“Well, you obviously don’t want to leave him there. So what are you going to do about it?” Roy asks. “I mean, it's not like you’ve listened to authority before. Why start now?”

Jason looks at Roy. “You’re serious.” Roy shrugs.

“Yeah. If Lian, Conner, Cissie, or Mia got thrown somewhere else and everyone told me they were on their own, do you really think I’d just let that slide?”

No. Roy definitely wouldn’t let that slide. Nobody with a brain would let it slide. Jason stands up, beginning to pace as he thought. Roy stays quiet, letting Jason’s mind run wild. 

Magicians were out of the question. Zatanna basically ran that circle, and with Constantine actually agreeing with her, their word was law. Nobody with magic would help them if they were close with the Justice League. The Speedsters were a similar case, though Jason was sure Impulse would go against them if he made the situation seem dire enough.

There had to be other ways. It wasn’t like Jason hadn’t traveled the multiverse before… wait. That’s actually a good idea. It was probably a long shot, but at this point Jason would take any chance they had. 

“Suit up.” He tells Roy. “We’re going to New York.”

“Wait, New York?” Roy asks. His eyes widen. “No way.” 

“Yup. C’mon, let’s get on the road before he gets called away for some intergalactic protest.” 

“Open the door Glowstick!” Jason bangs on the door of Kyle Rayner’s apartment. “I know you’re in there Rayner.”

Someone groans from behind the door. “Go away.”

“C’mon Kyle we need your help.” Roy calls, leaning up agains the wall next to the door. Kyle groans again before he opens the door. Jason tries not to feel bad at how tired the Lantern looks, because frankly he looked terrible. Kyle’s normally tanned skin was sallow, and the bags under his eyes had bags. Jason couldn’t tell if his t-shirt and sweats were deliberately oversized, or if Kyle had just lost weight since Jason had last saw him. Knowing Kyle, it was a fifty-fifty.  Roy hisses between his teeth, wincing a little. 

“Yeesh, what happened to you?” 

Kyle gives them both a tired look. “I just came back from spending three months in space. I spent most of that trying to make sure a civil war didn’t break out in another galaxy. I’ve been earthside for four hours.”

“Great, so you’re available. May we come in?” Jason pushes past Kyle before he can object. Roy follows, patting Kyle consolingly on the shoulder as Jason takes in the other man’s apartment. It was bare, which shouldn’t have surprised Jason considering he knew just hwo much time Kyle spent in space. There were a few photos here and there, an older woman Jason assumed was his mom, the other Earth lanterns hanging out in some bar, a few drawings and paintings of Kyle’s. A dead plant. “This is…nice.”

“It’s temporary, actually.” Kyle sighs. “Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but I kind of do. What the hell do you want?”

Jason sighs, running a hand down his face. “Tim’s missing.”

“I’m sorry-” 

“I’m not finished.” Jason snaps, ignoring the scowl that crosses Kyle’s face. “Tim’s missing in an alternate universe and nobody in the Justice League is willing to help and go get him.”

“I still don’t see what I have to do with this.”

“The Challengers.” Jason replies simply. “Look, I wouldn’t be asking you for help if you haven’t already gone through something similar with me. We might not exactly like each other, but I trust you enough to not let me get stabbed in the back if it came down to it.” 

“You’re asking me to go with you to find your brother in the middle of the multiverse?” 

“Nobody else is going so far except us. So far at least. And you, if you end up coming.” Roy shrugs. 

Jason jolts, shooting Roy a wide eyed look. “I didn’t ask you-”

“You think I’m just going to let you go without me?” Roy asks, offended. “Christ Jay. Don’t be stupid.”

“Ok, ignoring everything else, why is nobody in the League helping? That’s nothing like them.” Kyle asks. 

“A lot of people were there when Z told Bats that Red Robin was a lost cause. Nobody’s really willing to risk it to go after him.” Kyle’s lips tighten. 

“That’s…” He runs a frustrated hand down his face. “Shit, man.” 

“Yeah. That about sums it up.”

Kyle’s quiet for a few moments. Just when Jason think’s the Lantern was going to tell them no, he sighs. Loudly.

“Let me get my ring.” He grumbles. “We need to find someone who’s strong enough and willing to send us out. A monitor, maybe, but that’s out of the question because our monitor is dead.”

“Shit, we’ve got to find the new Monitor?” Jason curses to himself. 

Kyle shakes his head. “There’s got to be another way. Too much dimensional shit happens to us for there only to be a few ways to break the universal barrier.” 

Roy hums. “So we’ve got to find someone strong with some type of magic who isn’t affiliated with the league. I mean, this whole thing started with magic.”

Jason wracks his brain, then pauses. “I…might have that covered, actually.”

“Seriosuly?” Kyle raises a brow at him.

“Yeah. We helped each other out when I was still with the League of Assasins.” And as far as magic ajacent people went, she was probably one of the few who stayed out out of the cape and cowl life as much as she could. “She lives in Kentucky now.”

“Great.” Roy sighs. “Road trip.”

Kyle stands up. “Great. I’ve never been to Kentucky before.” He pauses. “Uh. You guys did drive here, right?”

“So it’s just us three for now?” Kyle asks from the backseat of Roy’s truck. 

“Well, Dick’s still out of commission and I don’t trust the other Bats in the multiverse. For some reason, I’m usually the least insane one.” Jason grumbles. 

“Well that’s reassuring.” Roy huffs. “Maybe you’re the most insane one? Heads in bags isn’t exactly a sane person move.”

“There’s no way other versions of you aren’t crazy.” Jason gives Kyle an offended look.

“The fuck’s that supposed to mean?” 

“Well you know. You’re you.”

“Ugh. To think I called you dreamy once.”

Roy chokes on his coffee. “You called Rayner dreamy ?”

“Sarcastically, yeah.” 

Roy shakes his head. “You are a special kind of fucked up, Jay.”

Jason snorts. “Aren’t we all? We’re literally trying to find my little brother who fell into a portal.”

“My first girlfriend was shoved into my fridge after she got murdered.” Rayner pipes up, like that wasn’t one of the most traumatizing sounding things Jason’s ever heard in his life. And Jason’s both heard and lived through some pretty fucked up things. Jason gives the Lantern a slow side eye. 

“What in the everloving fuck.” 

“This is going to be a long fucking trip.” Roy mutters. “Stuck with two idiots who’s forms of therapy are punching things and becoming a space cop god.” Looking at the side mirror for a second to make sure he could change lanes. Jason shakes his head, looking out at the road in front of him.

Wait. Why the hell was there someone in the middle of the road?

“Look out!” Jason shouts. Roy curses as they skid to a stop just a few feet away from Kon-El. The one car behind them lays on the horn as they swerve around them. Kyle cruses from the back.

“What the shit?!” Roy shouts. Jason shoves the door open, storming over to tower over the Kryptonian.

“What the fuck was that?” He yells. “You could have killed us you idiot!”

“I’m coming with.” Kon snaps, floating a few inches off the ground, just enough to look down his nose at Jason. Jason snorts. 

“Were you listening to us?” Roy asks sharply. He looks miffed. Maybe he wasn’t used to supers violating boundaries through superhearing like his family was. 

“The hell you are.” Jason crosses his arms over his chest. Usually thats enough for the Alley kids to be a little sheepish when they get caught doing shit they weren’t supposed to. Instead, it just serves to make Kon angrier.

“He’s my best friend!” Kon’s eyes glow red with his emotions. It doesn’t intimidate Jason as much as it probably should. “You can’t expect me to just-”

“We can and we will.” Roy says firmly. “You’re too emotional right now. You’d be a liability.”

Kon’s face crumples. Jason feels a little bad for the kid. He knew the clone and Tim were close, practically attached at the hip right up until Kon died. Sure, he came back but Jason knew as well as anyone that death always left her mark. 

Tim was particularly affected, at that point. Everyone always said Bruce’s death is what sent Tim into a downward spiral. Jason always thought Bruce was just the lowest point during the whole ordeal. No, Kon’s death was the inciting moment that changed Tim for better or for worse. 

“He’s my best friend.” Kon repeats. “And the last time I talked to him was last year, and I still don’t even know why he pulled away.” Kyle gets out of the truck and comes to stand next to Jason. He seems calm, despite the Super in front of them looking like he was about to go nuclear.

Okay, did not know that. Tim had made it sound like it was a mutual distancing caused by busy schedules and bigger priorities. To Jason, it sounded like Tim began pulling away from Kon when he and Bernard started getting serious, and with Tim’s dating track record it honestly didn’t look too good. 

Jesus, Tim. He thinks, exasperated. You’re supposed to be the smart one.

“Kon, buddy…” Roy sighs. 

Kyle leans over to Jason. “I know Tim’s uh…but did they ever. You know.” He makes some weird hand guesture. 

“No. Tim dated a civvie.” And Jason did like Bernard. He really did. He just didn’t get the appeal of hiding half your life from the person you (theoretically) wanted to spend the rest of your life with. Maybe Jason was a hopeless romantic. 

“Huh.” Kyle tilts his head a little. “Not even a little?”

“Nope.”

“Look, just let me help!” Kon begs. Roy gives Jason a look. Jason groans, leaning his head back.

“Alright, fine. But the moment things go sideways you’re out.” 

“Yes! Thank you!”

“Great. Now we’ve got four formerly dead people, three humans and a clone on the hunt for a narcoleptic vigilante that’s named after a burger joint. What could possibly go wrong.” Jason mutters sarcastically. 

“Don’t ask dumb questions Roy.”

“I feel like we’re lacking firepower. Especially with what we’re planning on doing.” Roy rubs the back of his neck. “Like, badly.” 

“Well, there’s one more person we could ask.” Kyle says slowly. “I already know she’s going to say yes, but it feels rude not to ask. Plus she picks up the firepower slack.”

“Donna?” Jason asks, a little hopeful. The smirk the Lantern sends his way is an answer enough.

“Up for a pitstop?” He asks Roy. Kon just makes a confused noise. 

“Ah shit.” Roy sighs. “Of course we’re asking one of my exes to join us. Why wouldn’t we?”

When they show up at Donna’s, she’s already geared up and ready to go. She smiles at them, blue eyes bright. She puts her hands on her hips. “I thought you boys would never get here. So, where are we going?”

Chapter Text

Conner is…not odd per say, but different. It’s kind of nice to not have a straight copy of Kon guiding him through the base. At the very least, talking to Conner doesn’t let Tim delude himself that he was home. Conner’s quiet, observant and doesn’t smile much. He doesn’t crack jokes or anything, but he never backs down from Tim’s questions or unconscious verbal jabs. If anything, he meets Tim head on, unafraid to quip back in a dry voice. 

He doesn’t float off the ground like the Kryptonians Tim knows either. It makes him wonder if Conner could even fly. 

“So this used to be a Justice League base?” Tim asks as Conner leads him through the various hallways and rooms.

“Yeah. Apparently some rogues found the location out though. It was abandoned until the League gave it to us to use when the Team first formed.” 

“Hiding in plain sight. Smart.” Tim hums. “But you guys aren’t worried about someone finding this place?

“We’ve been here for five years. No major break ins yet.” Conner opens a door, poking his  head in for a second before waving Tim in. Tim felt a smile creep across his face at the training center in front of him. It wasn’t too different appearance-wise than the one in Titans Tower, equipped with acrobatic parkour platforms, hard light holograms and dummies. Tim wonders if he could sneak in here without anyone knowing. Conner must see something on his face, because he frowns. “Don’t even think about it. You’ve got a concussion. Protocol says you’re out for another two weeks at least.”

“You actually expect me to believe anyone you work with follows concussion protocol? C’mon, I’m not stupid. Plus I’ve dealt with worse things than a concussion. ” Tim waves him off distractedly, ignoring Conner’s scoff. “My youngest brother, Damian, used to poison my food so I could build up a tolerance to the poisons the League of Assassins commonly used. It made Dick freak out, but honestly it was a kind gesture coming from Damian. Honestly it probably saved my life a time or two.”

Tim steps onto the sparring mat, bouncing on his toes a little to feel the give of the foam. It was a bit harder than anything he practiced on in his world. Definitely harder than the sparring area in the Batcave. The normal humans in this world must have joints of iron or something, because a day of jumping around on something close to a rubber mat on concrete instead of an actual sparring floor could not feel good. 

“How many humans do you work with again? Not metahumans, plain old powerless people.” 

Conner’s face scrunches up in thought. “Well all the Bats- so that would be Dick, Bruce, Barbara and uh…” He glances at Tim. “You. Younger you I mean. The Arrows, Artemis, Oliver, Will and Roy. That’s all I can really think of right now. Why?”

“Because,” Tim walks off the mats. “If I trained on that thing, I think I’d need braces by the time I turned thirty. Do you guys not need shock absorption here?”

Conner shrugs. “Dunno. I’ve never had a problem with it.”

“You’re a Kryptonian-human hybrid clone.” Tim replies flatly. “You’re pretty much invulnerable. You don’t need to worry about tendonitis or arthritis.” Conner goes still.

“How did you know that?”

Tim gives him a confused look over his shoulder as he walks over to examine the staffs and training sticks stacked on the wall. He picks one up and twirls it experimentally with his fingers. “What do you mean?”

It was like a switch had flipped in the clone. His eyes were staring holes into Tim, narrowed and suspicious. Ok, so maybe Conner doens’t trust Tim as much as he claimed, or Tim said something to set him off. 

“How did you know I’m not fully Kryptonian?” The clone asks sharply as he marches up to Tim. He towers over Tim, no doubt trying to scare him with his size. "Nobody knows that except the original members of the Team." Too bad Tim’s faced much worse than Conner.

“Does the alternate universe thing not click?” Tim asks. “Because I thought I made it all pretty clear. Alternate universe means alternate people. I had Superboy on my first team, Young Justice. Granted, he got the name Kon-El. Conner was his civilian name that nobody ever uses.”

“You know me?” Conner splutters. 

“Of course I do.” Tim raises an eyebrow. “Did you think there wasn’t a Superboy where I came from? We’ve had two since I donned the cape. One was an alternate version of you, the other was the son of Clark and Lois.” Conner studies Tim closely for a few seconds before something bitter crosses his face.

“So you’re only entertaining me because you know alternate me. Great.” 

You know, for a guy that seemed so stoic he’s oddly touchy. Tim thinks, feeling his brows furrow. And self depreciating. Guess that one might be more common than I want to admit. 

“You’re nothing like Kon.” Tim cuts him off waving his hands in a ‘stop’ motion. “And I mean that whole heartedly. Even when Kon was running around in jeans and a shirt like you are, you two are so far from the same person it’s actually laughable.”

“Yeah right.” Conner scoffs.

“Oh, so you like Wendy the Werewolf Stalker?”

“I- what? He actually likes that shit?” Conner sounds actually offended at the thought. “God, no.”

“Did you live in Hawaii after getting out of the pod? Go around picking up girls just because you could?”

“No and definitely no. I stayed with Wally and his parents for a few days until the Mountain rennovations were done. I moved in here pretty much automatically.” 

“That’s what I thought. You didn’t have a seedy manager either, right? ”

Conner looks uncomfortable. “Not unless you count Red Tornado. But he’s not seedy or a manager. He was just there to watch over us. Me and…uh, me and M’gann lived here together, but even she would go stay with J’onn sometimes so I’d have the entire mountain to myself. My plan was to get a place after I graduated college but…” He trails off. Tim waits for him to continue, but Conner doesn’t. Tim tilts his head at the clone. 

“Why do you trust me so much?” He asks, curious. “I’ve been here for what, two maybe three days. I claim I’m from an alternate dimension, but other than the fact that my DNA comes up as ‘Time Drake, 14’, nothing about me tells you that's true. You have every right to not trust me, much less take me on a damn tour.”

“I wouldn’t say I trust you, but I think you deserve a chance to prove yourself.” Conner replies simply. “Plus, I think you’d be surprised how many members of the Team weren’t trusted when they first joined. I had the entire Justice League watching me my first few months because Superman was paranoid that I was actually a weapon meant to kill him.”

Tim winces. Yeah, that would explain a lot of the major differences between Conner and Kon. Even though Clark wasn’t necessarily involved with Kon in his early years, there was at least a level of respect between the two that laid the foundation for their relationship to grow into something familial. Conner didn’t seem to have that. 

Hell, it sounded like Conner lived in something more akin to strategic isolation rather than a home. Good lord, Tim knew his people back home had flaws but at least they trusted each other as much as people who consistently dealt with mind control could. The people here just seemed…paranoid to a major extent. 

“Right, ok we’ll come back to that.” Tim mutters. “Uh, why don’t you show me where I’m staying.” Conner straightens up.

“Right. Follow me.” Tim follows the kryptonian down a series of hallways. He eventually stops in front of a dark grey door, opening it to let Tim inside. “You’ve got your own bathroom. Wally had Batman set up cable so you can watch TV if you want. If you need anything, I’m right across from you.” Conner jerks his thumb backwards at the door across the hall. 

Tim glances around the room. It was pretty bare, which was about Tim expected from a room in a mountain base. A oak frame bed with a military green duvet, cheap pillows, a wooden desk with a lamp and chair, a dresser to put clothes and the aforementioned TV hanging above it. 

“Homey.” Tim says. Conner snorts.

“If you’re staying for a while we can go get better things.” 

Tim snorts. “Hopefully that won’t happen. Uh, no offense or anything.”

“None taken. I’m guessing you want to go home.”

“You have no idea.” Tim sighs longingly. If he were back home he’d probably be curled up on the couch watching some shitty reality TV and ordering takeout. Dick would probably come anny him out of boredom, which would eventually draw Damian who would do nothing but insult Tim’s choice in decor while also promising to make better art than what he had already hanging up. Jason would probably swing by just to be annoying- he had a knack for that. 

Tim missed home. He missed Steph and Cass and Duke. He missed his friends and his brothers. The only thing that was letting Tim keep it together was the fact that he was most likely going home very soon. 

Think of it like an unwilling vacation. Tam had always said he needed time off. 

“Kaldur’s calling a Team meeting.” A voice suddenly rings through Tim’s head, causing him to flinch. Conner’s expression tightens.

“M’gann.” Conner explains when he sees Tim’s expression. “Mind-links are the main form of communication between the Team.”

Tim scowls. “She didn’t ask if I was alright with her being in my head.” Never mind the fact he hadn’t even met this M’gann yet. Damn it, Tim got too comfortable too quickly. He should have kept his guard up. 

“Yeah well. Not much of a choice.”

“No.” Tim says firmly. “I’m not comfortable with a martian I don’t know coming in and out of my fucking head when she wants to. It’s not just a privacy issue, it's a consent issue.”

Conner doesn’t say anything, but he does seem a bit…sheepish? No. Ashamed maybe. Either way, it sets Tim on edge. Consent, both physical and mental had been a thing with Tim ever since Paris. It was a little stupid since nothing ever actually happened, but ever since the Sister of Archeron…well. Tim was more willing to turn a blind eye when Jason killed rapsits, if that said anything.

“We’ve talked to her about it. Everyone else is used to it, so to them it's not a big deal.” Conner didn’t lump himself in with the rest of the Team. Interesting. “I used to have a problem with it too.” 

Alright. More vagueness. Just what Tim loves. 

He narrows his eyes. “It’s always a big deal. J’onn always asks to enter the minds of the heroes back home, and so does our M’gann. Just because you all are used to it doesn’t make it right.” Conner opens his mouth, then closes it. His shoulders slump as he sighs. 

“Yeah I know.” He grumbles. “But we’ve done it for so long, and none of the Justice League have said anything about it.”

Tim frowns. Another weird thing about this world. Tim’s Justice League could be hesitant to act if they thought it would prevent harm, but they would never flat out ignore abuse of powers- mental and telepathic powers specifically - outside of the field. Not only did it make it more likely for minds to be infiltrated by enemies, it weakened the boundaries and mental walls that a lot of hereos already had in place to protect themselves from unsanctioned mental attacks. It was training that every new member that joined had to go through. 

“I feel like you guys need an HR department.” Tim mutters. 

“Wally would abuse it.” Conner says automatically. He turns and walks out the door, leaving Tim no choice but to follow. “He’d claim we don’t keep enough snacks stocked for speedsters and that we’re starving him.”

Yeah that sounded about right for a speedster, actually. Tim stays quiet as Conner leads him back the way they originally came. The clone seems content to not talk. Fine by Tim. He was reaching his limit anyways. 

“Fair warning.” Conner finally says once they get closer to the main room. “They can be a lot.”

Tim hums in reply. 

It was a good sized group, mostly comprised of young teens. A green skinned girl with short hair (M’gann?) stares intensely at Conner, but he ignores her with an amount of determination that honestly impresses Tim. Dick was standing in front of the group with a dark skinned Atlantean who oozed an air of leadership. Tim…doesn’t know who he is.

Which is partly why Tim is surprised to find that he recognizes a few faces- Jaime, Garfield and Cassie. He probably shouldn’t have been, but seeing Conner older and on a Team with Dick made it less likely that he’d know anybody here. Just by looking at the group Tim could tell that, again, these versions of his friends and teammates were nothing like what Tim knew. 

And there was a kid in the Robin uniform Tim designed after Kon’s death. Tim could assume that was him. Judging from the way the kid kind of freezes, he’s on the same train of thought. Great minds think alike and all that. Cassie (god she was young. Had they really looked like that when they started?) narrows her eyes and steps in front of Robin with a sharp glare. 

Ok, so the little heroes don’t trust Tim with himself. Great. 

“Oh, you’re here!” The M’gann look alike smiles a plastic smile at Tim as her gaze finally lands on him. If she wasn’t trying to drill holes into Conner with her eyes she might’ve noticed Tim sooner. “I’m M’gann! I heard you’re not from here?”

“I know who you are. Before we go holding hands and singing kumbaya , let me make this clear: Don’t ever go into my mind again without my say so.” Tim says, letting his voice drop into the register he used as Red Robin. Some of the younger Team members flinch back, but M’gann just meets him with a confused look.

“I’m sorry, it’s just what we’re all used to.” She gestures back to the kids, a few of whom nod in agreement. It sends a weird feeling down TIm’s spine. 

“Yeah, well I’m not used to it.” Tim fires back. “So I’ll say it again. Don’t.” Someone in the group huffs. 

“Just because Conner and you don’t like the mind link doesn’t mean you guys have to be mean about it.” One of the Atlanteans grumbled, red eyes narrowing at Tim and Conner. Conner scowls in response, Tim just raises an eyebrow. 

“Who are you?” Tim asks. 

“I’m Lagoon Boy!” He snaps, like that clears up anything. Tim pauses, trying to remember if he worked with a Lagoon Boy. Wait. He did.

Key word: did. 

“Right. Nice. Still don’t like people in my head uninvited, but you do you.” Tim waves him off. Lagoon Boy lets out an offended sound from the back of his throat.

“I’m afraid introductions will have to wait. The Justice League is asking for you on the Watchtower.” The other Atlantean steps forward before anyone else could say anything. His voice is deep and smooth. Despite Tim’s best efforts, he found himself unclenching his fists. The Atlantean glances between the various people gathered. “Me, Superboy and Nightwing will take…”

“Red.” Tim fills in. The Atlantean nods once.

“We will take Red to meet with the Justice League. Until then, M’gann will be running your training exercise.”

The kids all grumble and mutter amongst each other. 

“Please, follow us.” The Atlantean next to Dick says. Conner falls into step next to the two, leaving Tim to catch up.  Dick glanced over his shoulder. 

“Do you always antagonize people who don’t like you?” Dick asks. Tim smirks.

“It’s part of my charm.”

“It’ll get you killed.” Conner mutters.

“That’s what they all say.”

“I take it Conner has shown you your room?” The Atlantean asks, blue eyes drilling into Tim. 

“Yeah he did. I’m thinking about buying a kitten poster to hang on the door.” Tim ignores Dick’s chuckle. “I didn’t catch your name.”

“I did not tell you.” The Atlantean gives Tim a closed lip smile. “I am Aqualad, but you may call me Kaldur.” 

Tim hums. “Don’t suppose you know Garth?”

“He is a close friend.” Kaldur confirms. “Do you work with him in your world?”

Tim shakes his head. “Only rarely. My older brother formed the first sidekick team ever with him and a few others. Garth was Aqualad for a while. He still uses the name sometimes, but he also goes by Tempest too.”

“Older brother?” Dick asks. Tim winces. 

“Yeah.” He drawls, and doesn’t elaborate. Sue him. This Dick left him to the fucking wolves, and while Tim know this isn’t actually his brother ol dhabits do die hard. And Tim is nothing if but a petty, petty bitch. 

“How are your studies going?” Kaldur asks Conner after a few seconds of awkward silence. 

“Good. I take my Praxis test next month.”

“Excellent my friend. I am sure you will succeed.”

“Duh.” Dick snorts. “With all the information Cadmus put into his head he basically has a photographic memory when it comes to education stuff.”

“And yet, I didn’t even know who Elvis was.” Conner grumbles. 

“Well at least you know now.” 

Tim doesn’t pay attention as the three continue talking amongst each other. Instead he maps the base in his head. Tim could only assume he’d been shown a good portion of it now- enough that if he needed to he could try to escape if things went sideways. 

“Have you used a zeta tube before?” Dick asks. 

TIm shrugs. “We call them zeta beams but I’m assuming they’re close enough, so yeah.”

“Great!” Dick says, then promptly activates the damn thing and walks through. Kaldur shakes his head.

“Tactful escape.” Tim says flatly. “Does he really want to escape me that much?” 

“I’m afraid Nightwing has been…off as of late.” Kaldur’s voice is soft with worry. “I feel it is because of Batman’s new Robin.”

“He’s a good kid. Dick just doesn’t let him do anything but softball missions though.” Conner cuts in. He glances at Tim. “No offense, you came at a really bad time for them.”

“Oh really? I didn’t notice.” Tim sighs. “Whatever.The sooner we get up there, the sooner I can get home and out of your hair.” 

“You haven’t been that bad.” Tim gives Conner a look. The clone’s face scrunches up. “You haven’t.”

“I’ve literally been awake for half a day. You haven’t experienced me yet.” Tim turns to the zeta. “Now, let's go get this over with.” 

Tim doesn’t like having all the attention on him. Specifically, he doesn’t like this attention. He tries not to shift uncomfortably under the cool gazes of the alternate Justice League. Captain Marvel seemed cool enough, but otherwise? Yeah, Tim could have probably gone without meeting these people. 

“This,” Batman begins. “Is Timothy Drake.” 

Green Arrow frowns as he leans forward in his seat. “Isn’t he a bit…old to be your Robin? I mean, unless he’s a…you know. Clone.” Arrows eyes dart between Conner and Superman. Neither react. 

“He’s from another universe, so no cloning or other dubious science involved.” Dick pipes up. “It’s Robin, but not our Robin you know?”

“I go by Red Robin.” Tim cuts in. “I haven’t been Robin for like, four years now.”

“Wait like the restaurant?” Someone from the back of the room calls. 

“We’re getting off track.” Wonder Woman sighs. She turns to Batman with a frown. “He’s from another dimension. He claims to be another version of one of your Robins, but have you verified that he is trustworthy?”

“We have had Superboy monitoring him since he awoke.” Kaldur assures. “Timothy- Red Robin- has shown no signs of ulterior motives.”

“That’s not necessarily reassuring.” Superman glances between the three of them, lips pinching. “Until J’onn or M’gann can do a full mental scan-”

“I don’t consent to that.” Everyone in the room turns to him with surprised looks, minus Kaldur and Conner. Tim frowns at them. “Do you guys not have any other way of verifying if someone is good other than mental invasion?” 

“It takes less time than anything else.” Superman chides. 

“You literally have the Lasso of Truth in the room. And I’m trained by Batman. You think I can’t fib a mental scan?”

“Wait you can do that?” Conner asks. Tim snorts. 

“I was Robin. Of course I can.” Tim turns back to the Justice League, standing taller. “I’d be completely willing to subject myself to an interrogation under the effects of the Lasso, but try to do anything to my mind and you won’t even know what happened.” Superman’s jaw clenches, but he keep quiet. Both Green Arrow and Black Canary look at him iwth something like respect, and Batman is just…Batman. The rest of the League don’t seem to know what to make of Tim, glancing between him and everyone else nervously. 

“That is amenable.” Wonder Woman finally says. Tim stands still as she walks up and wraps the lasso around his wrist. He looks up at her. She meets his eyes steadily, gaze steely and lacking any warmth the Diana he grew up knowing had. 

God he hated this fucking world. 

“The Lasso of Truth compels you. What is your name?”

“Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne. The third Robin, currently Red Robin.” 

“Do you have any ill intent towards us or the people of this world?”

“God no. I’ve spent almost half of my life protecting people. I’m not stopping now.” Diana looks like she’s about to ask something else, but Tim steps away and lets the Lasso fall from his wrist. 

“Great, we’ve established I’m not crazy or evil. Can I go home now?” Tim can’t keep the desperation out of his voice. These people weren’t his Justice League. Tim knew his league wasn’t perfect, but his League was kind, gave people the benefit of the doubt and they definitely worked together better than whatever these people had going on. Batman nods at Dr. Fate, who stands up and approaches Tim. He does something and the air around him glows gold for a second before fading. Zatanna (another person who’s age seems screwed up) takes his place quickly after, muttering something in her backwards casting. Nothing happens. Tim’s heart sinks. 

Dr. Fate hums. “You do not belong here. Yet I cannot send you back to whence you came.”

The young Zatanna winces. “Da- er. Fate’s right. The magic on you is pinging, but it's like there's no source for it to latch onto so you can go home.”

Son of a bitch. 

“You guys can’t use the speedforce?” Tim asks, almost begging. 

“What’s the speedforce?” Flash asks. 

That’s when Tim knows he’s fucked. He’s more than fucked, actually, because even if he fell into the evil future world again at least he knew he could find a way home.

No, he was stuck here with (granted, mostly) mostly asshole mockeries of the people he loved and cared about. 

“Excuse me.” Tim says stiffly. “I need to go.” He turns on a heel and marches out of the room. If anyone calls after them, he can’t hear them over the sound of ringing in his ears. 

No speedforce. No source to latch onto. No way home. 

Tim was fucking stuck.

Chapter Text

There had to be some deity laughing at Tim right now. Tim had been raised as a distant Christian, but once you know that Greek gods exist it calls faith into question real quick. What little remained after that revelation fizzled away after Tim got first hand experience intot he worst of the universe itself. 

No benevolent god would allow the Batman Who Laughs to exist. Nor would they continuously fuck Tim over like this because honestly? This was getting really, really tiring. 

I can’t go home. Tim thinks hysterically as he rushes through vaguely familiar hallways. I’m trapped here with no guarantee anybody’s looking for me and I’m stuck-

He turns another corner. If his memory served him correctly, this was near the medical wing. Good, that meant Tim was alone and could finally have a second to breathe. He couldn’t catch his breath though. Tim wheezes, rubbing his eyes trying to clear his vision.  When he pulls them away, his hands are shaking uncontrollably. 

“-panic attack?” Dick’s voice jolts through the haze. Tim tries not to flinch, but he doesn’t think he’s very successful. 

“No shit Dick.” Conner snaps. “He just got told we didn’t have a way for him to go home!” Tim’s mind latches onto the name and oohhh god. 

“Dick’s gonna be pissed.” Tim whispers is realization. Dick makes a confused sound. “He’s gonna blame himself because I took his patrol. And Jason. Jason’s gonna go crazy. I’m a bad brother. Oh god.”

“I’m sure your  Dick will-” 

“You don’t understand!” Tim snaps, glaring up at the three heroes in front of him. “Dick always blames himself because, and I quote ‘he’s the oldest so anything that happens to us falls on him because he inspired us’, but the only person to blame here is me because I’m fucking cursed!” 

“He’s the older brother that formed a team with Garth?” Conner elbows Dick.

“Not the time.”

Kaldur gives him a worried look. “I know you are scared, but you must calm yourself.”

“I can’t. I can’t because nothing good ever comes from someone getting stuck in the multiverse. It’s how crisises happen. Newsflash, my world can’t have another, and I genuinely think your Justice League would kill eachother out of distrust before a crisis event did anything here.”

“The hell's a crisis?” Dick mutters. 

“There’s got to be some way to get you home.” Tim lets out a dark laugh.

“You don’t have my luck.” He says bitterly. 

“Considering you aren’t dead yet, I’d say you're lucky.” Conner points out. Tim sends him a flat look. 

“That bar is so low it might actually be in hell.” 

“I never claimed to be an inspirational speaker.” Conner shrugs. “And at least you have a place to stay already.”

“Oh yeah, because living in a mountain full of teenagers who are pissed at me because I didn’t like being subjected to a jedi mind trick is amazing.” All three stare at Tim like he’s insane.

“What?” Dick finally asks. Tim just stares. 

“Oh my god. Do you guys not have Star Wars?”

“I- no?”

“Conner. The bar just got lower than hell and I’m under that bar. I’m in a world without Star Wars, my god.” Tim stands up, running his hands through his hair. Damnit, he had a fucking haircut scheduled. Nope, getting off topic. “I’ve gotta get home. No fucking Star Wars. This is my hell.”

“I think we broke him.” Dick whispers. 

“I think a breakdown was going to happen eventually.” Conner whispers back. “He was acting a little too fine back at the mountain.”

“Next thing I know, you guys are going to tell me that…that Zesti doens’t exist.” Tim rants. He pauses when there’s dead silence behind him. “No.” He says slowly, horrified.

“I am sorry.” Kaldur does sound genuinely remorseful. How nice of him. Tim likes him. 

“No!” Tim groans. “What kind of world is this?”

“A normal one?” 

“No!” Tim points at Dick. “This isn’t a normal world. I’ve been in multiple worlds! I’ve seen furry versions of the Justice League! Those worlds still had Star Wars and Zesti. This place is my worst nightmare!”

“What even is Zesti?” 

“It’s a soda, but it’s the best soda ever- why are you looking at me like that?”

“You’re clearly freaking out over the fact we can’t send you home but you keep focusing on how we don’t have a specific type of soda and what I can only assume is space Game of Thrones.”

Tim just makes a noise of outrage. Space Game of Thrones? What a fucking insult. Tim should be offended. Tim is offended. 

Tim’s a lot of things right now, actually. “Are they sure there’s no way to send me home?” Tim asks somberly. The three heroes all glance at each other.

“Rest assured, we will continue looking for ways to return you to your home world.” Kaldur rests a hand on Tim’s shoulder. “Until that time comes, you are welcome among us.”

Tim lets his shoulders slump as he rests his head in his hands and grips his hair tight. He knew that Kaldur was trying to be nice, but honestly that was the last thing Tim wanted to hear. What Tim wanted was to fall asleep in his damn boat in his own bed and steal Jason’s leftovers from his apartment with Cass. 

Tim wanted Bruce. He wanted his fucking dad. Sue him, Bruce always made people get their shit together, and the version Tim is now stuck with clearly doesn’t have that type of pull with his colleagues. 

“I don’t think going right back to the mountain is a good idea.” Dick points out lowly. “The kids don’t exactly…like him.”

“They do not know or trust him. He has not given them a reason to do so.” Tim hears Kaldur reply. “What do you suggest?” Tim half expects Dick to say something. 

Instead, Conner speaks up. “We could take him to Artemis and Wally’s. Artemis has already met him, he’s been verified by the League so we don’t have to worry about him doing anything anymore.”

“And you want to see Wally.”

“Yeah, maybe. We go to college on opposite sides of the country and he doesn’t visit often. It’s been a minute.” Conner snorts. “You’d think with being a literal speedster he’d be able to make more time to visit.”

“Wally? Chronically late Wally? Do you hear yourself?”

“I do have ears Dick, thanks for noticing.” 

“Where’s Wally going to school?” Tim asks, looking up. 

“Stanford.” Dick crosses his arms over his chest.

“Like, California?” 

“Yup. Him and Artemis both.” 

“They’re dating, by the way.” Conner tells Tim. “Just in case you didn’t put that together.”

So no Linda. Definitely no kids, which knocks out about half the speedsters from my earth from ever existing here. Great. If the differences would stop piling up Tim would love that, thanks. 

“I need to throw something.” Tim thinks out loud. 

“What-?” Dick starts, but Conner cuts him off by handing Tim an empty coffee cup from a nearby table. Tim inspects the mug, twisting it in his hand and feeling the heft of it. It wasn’t cheap, but it for sure wasn’t expensive either. Someone probably got it in a pack from Sam’s Club. 

Without preamble, Tim rears back and chucks the mug at the wall across the hallway. Conner crosses his arms over his chest as he raises an eyebrow at Tim. 

“Feel better?” Tim pauses and thinks. Did he feel better? Yeah, a little. Did that mean Tim was happy with his situation? Absolutely not. 

“Debatable.”

“Why did you do that?” Dick asks shrilly. He turns to Conner. “Why did you help him do that?”

“As the guy that’s known for his ‘anger issues’, breaking things is very satisfying and very therapeutic.” He gestures to Tim. “Plus, do you really want someone with Bat training running around with a chip on his shoulder?”

“Yeah.” Tim cuts in with a sarcastic grin. “I’m a menace.” Dick shoots him a flat look that Tim pointedly ignores. 

“I am certain there are better places to break things than the Watchtower hallways.” Kaldur points out dryly. “Neverless, I agree with Conner. Wally and Artemis’s house would be a smart place to regroup before going back to the Mountain.”

Oh is that what he’s calling it? Regrouping? 

“I knew you liked Conner better than me.” Dick mutters. Kaldur smirks, causing Dick to splutter and Conner to snort as the Atlantean turns on a heel and walks towards the zeta room. Conner and Tim glance at eachother before following, leaving Dick complaining behind them. “Wait, actually Kaldur? C’mon man don’t ignore me!”

Before they went through the zeta to California, the four heroes had nabbed some civvies to change into. Well, they grabbed clothes for Tim, Kaldur and Dick to change into. Conner just changed his shirt to a similar one with a lack of logo. 

Thankfully, the clothes the JL had in his size were pretty close to Tim’s usual style- jeans, some worn band shirt that Tim’s never heard of and a zip up hoodie in a faded maroon color. He glances in the locker room mirror, wincing at his appearance. Yellow bruises covered half of his face while dark bags made him look like he hand’t slept in weeks. His hair was starting to get long again- he’d never had time to cut it before being sent careening through the portal.

All in all…

“I look like shit.” Tim says bluntly. Conner snorts, but Dick is the one who surprisingly speaks up. He doesn’t even look up from where he was trying his shoes.

“I mean, you did fall from about a hundred feet in the sky into the harbor.” 

“I fell that far?” Tim asks, startled. “How am I not still bedridden?”

“Luck. Devine intervention. Take your pick.” Conner mutters as he leans against the doorframe. “Either way, you somehow only made it out with a concussion that doesn’t seem to be stopping you anytime soon and some bruising.”

Tim scrunches his face. “I thought we established that I have shitty luck.”

“Whatever.” Conner shakes his head. "C'mon, Wally and Artemis are waiting for us." Tim sighs, feeling wrung out. It felt like this day was never going to end. Tim just hoped that this Wally wasn't an asshole. 

The zeta wasn't that far from Wally and Artemis's house, but it still felt weird for Tim to walk through a quite, quaint neighborhood. Tim's only experience with neighborhoods were ones with manors and mansions- otherwise Gotham was a city full of apartments and townhouses. Tim's houseboat was an exception, but still. The suburbs always set Tim a little on edge. 

Tim closes his eyes as the California breeze ruffles his hair. Despite it being dark out, the air was still warm enough for it to be comfortable out. It reminded Tim of San Fransisco and Titans Tower, back when Tim was still a kid and the universe seemed less dangerous. He hadn’t stepped foot in California in years. 

“Here.” Dick says, pausing in front of a small house. It was about as picturesque as it could get- white picket fences and all. 

“Is Wally applying for the front page of Home Magazine?” Tim asks. “Seriously, how is the grass so green?”

“No. He simply enjoys retirement.” Kaldur sends Tim a small smile. “Perhaps maybe a little too much, but I cannot blame him.”

“He got the girl and is getting the degree. If only he wasn’t in California.” Dick complains.

Conner frowns. “What, you expected him to be in Gotham?”

“No, I expected him to not be in California.” Dick squints. “It’s too sunny here.”

“Right, thats the reason why.” Conner snorts. Tim follows him up the front steps, leaning against the porch railing as the clone raps on the door. 

The door cracks open, and a green and blue blur tackles Conner, causing the clone to stumble a few steps back. 

“Dude!” Wally West cries gleefully, grin wide on his face. “It’s been forever!” Conner pats Wally on the back.

“Yeah.” He deadpans. “I guess we’ve all been busy.”

“Apparently.” The speedster laughs, going on to hug both Kaldur and Dick.  He turns to TIm, eyes suddenly shaprening as the red-head looks him up and -down.“So you’re the guy everyone’s freaking out about.”

“Guilty.” Tim shoves his hands in the pocket of his jeans. Wally looked…the same actually. He seemed to act similar to his Wally, if a bit more chipper. It was a nice change of pace from the others Tim had interacted with so far. Artemis slides up behind the red-head, raising an eyebrow at the group.

“That bad?” 

Kaldur hums. “I’m afraid so.” Artemis turns her eyes on Tim.

“They can’t send you back, can they?” She asks quietly. 

“Unfortunately, I’m a hard guy to get rid of.” Tim tries to give her a smile, but it falls flat. Something close to pity flashes across the blonde's face, but it disappears just as quickly.

“Well, I’m sure we’ll figure something out.” She says, stepping aside to let everyone in. “I heated up leftovers.”

Dick smirks. “You didn’t even bother cooking for a us?”

Artemis scowls at Dick. “The day I cook for more than two people on a weeknight is the day Roy asks for help.”

“So never?”

“Exactly.” 

“So how’s everyone been treating you?” Wally asks Tim, heading over to the fridge. He follow close behind, eyeing the photos on the wall. It looked like Wally was still on good terms with his parents in this world. Huh. 

“About how’d you expect.” Tim answers, hovering uncertainly in the entryway to the kitchen. “Most of them don’t trust me, which is understandable.”

Wally hands him a can of soda with a frown, Tim examines it, raising an eyebrow. Grape Fanta? Tim hesitantly takes a sip and hums in surprise. It was good.

“They aren’t giving you a hard time, are they?” 

“Trust me, I’ve dealt with worse than people not trusting me.” Not like it wouldn’t have been the first time, either. Wally’s lips tighten, but he doesn’t say anything else. 

“So, you have me in your world?” Wally asks as they move to join everyone else in the living room. 

Tim snorts. “Uh, yeah. You’re a pretty big deal where I’m from.” Wally perks up, even as Dick shoots Tim a doubtful look.

“Really?” Wally asks, sitting down next to Artemis. “Why, what’ve I done?”

“You’re the fastest person in the multiverse I think. If you aren’t, you’re pretty up there.” Tim deadpans. “It draws a lot of attention. You and Barry usually are usually pretty even, but you’re faster when you want to be.” Everyone pauses as Wally chokes on his drink.

“Wait.” Artemis holds both of her hands up. “He’s faster than Barry?”

Tim shrugs. “I mean, all the speedsters from back home are fast, but my Wally is on another level. Didn’t start that way though from what I’ve heard. Why, how fast are you?”

“Not that fast.”

“He tops out at around 800, but that was a special circumstance. Hasn’t happened since then.” Artemis smirks as Wally lets out an offended cry.

“Huh.” Tim sets his drink down with a frown. “I…don’t think my Wally has a top speed. He’s run faster than the speed of light before, I know that.”

“Jesus.” Conner mutters. Tim goes to say that ‘ oh he and Barry usually run through the multiverse and time itself all the time!’ but thinks better of it. Apparently the idea of Wally being faster was already a hard concept to grasp. Instead he goes back to taking small sips of his grape Fanta. 

“Well now I’m curious about your world.” Wally groans. Tim lets out a low hum. 

“Actually, I am too.” Dick admits. “You haven’t exactly been jumping to tell us details.”

Tim raises an eyebrow skeptically. Jeeze, they bounced off each other here just like they did back home. Tim glances between the others gathered in the room. Artemis was openly glancing at him with an expectant look, Kaldur was obviously trying not to look curious and Conner…

Well. Conner was just staring with his arms crosseed over his broad chest. Looks like Tim wasn’t getting out of this one. 

“You guys really want to know that bad?”

“ Yes.” Everyone cries in unison. Dick leans forward in his seat as he points at Tim.

“Obviously things are different. Apparently your Jason never died because you mentioned him up on the Watchtower.” Oh, yeah. Tim did kind of do that. 

Wait, they think Jason didn’t die? Tim furrows his brows. “Jason died. He died like, eight or so years ago. He just came back to life randomly.”

Artemis’s mouth drops open. “I’m sorry-”

“We really don’t know how he was brought back, though. Apparently he was catatonic for a while because of the lack of oxygen he had when digging out of his grave. Jason says it’s a blur until after the pit.” Tim blinks when he sees the expressions on their faces. “Uh…sorry. Too much?”

“A little.” Conner says, looking put off. The clone glances at Dick, who just looks green in the face. “Any other fun family facts you want to share?”

“Uh, Damian- the current Robin back home- is the biological son of Talia and Bruce?” 

Dick slups in his chair with a low groan. Tim gives him a concerned look. “Is he ok?”

Wally waves Tim’s concern off. “Ignore him. What else is jacked up?”

“Jacked up? Your world is jacked up.” Tim argues. “But Zatanna isn’t a teenager for one. She’s closer to Bruce’s age. Apparently they were a thing when they were younger.” Dick lets out another sickly groan. 

“Do you have The Light there?” aldur asks, interest clear in his eyes. 

The Light? Why did that sound familiar? 

“No?” Tim gives them a weird look. “We have The Injustice League, the Legion of Doom, the Court of Owls, the Crime Sydicate of Earth-3- though I heard that an alternate Superman killed Ultraman so I don’t know if they’re still a thing, and the League of Assasins. There’s a few other groups, but those are the major ones that cause problems.” 

“Your world sounds rough.” Conner points out flatly. 

“I suppose to you all it does, but it’s home.” Tim picks at the skin of his nails. “It may be a bit fucked up, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

And that was true. Tim’s life wasn’t perfect by any means- he’s loved and lost just as much as anyone- but it was his. He loved his family, his friends and the work he did in Gotham. He loved waking up every morning knowing that he had brothers and sisters to pick him up if he fell, that he had a father that could and would do anything for him if Tim so much as asked. Tim wouldn’t be who he was without experiencing the things he did. 

“Jeeze, you really miss home don’t you?” Wally looks a bit sympathetic. 

Tim snorts. “Of course I do. I’m just lucky I broke up with my boyfriend before this shit happened.”

“Boyfriend?!” Dick’s eyes widen. 

“Boyfriend?” Conner asks, looking confused. 

“Oooh..” Wally looks at Artemis with a smirk. She grins at him, nodding. “ Boyfriend.” They say in unison. 

Kaldur just lets out a low hum. Tim…really doesn’t know him well enough to read into what it means. 

Artemis grins at Tim conspirioritally. “Tell us more.”

“He was a high school friend. We met up again after I dropped out. Started talking, dated for a while. Then we broke up.”

“He was a civilian?” Kaldur asks. 

“Yeah.” Tim mumbles. “Bernard was a civilian.” 

“Why’d you break up with him?” Conner asks, gaze intense. 

“A lot of heroes back home are able to make civilian relationships work. But with the Bats it’s…different. Our first love always will be Gotham and her people, and few people outside of the cape scene get that.” Tim shrugs helplessly. “I cared about Bernard, but I tried to focus on him so much outside of my hero work that I neglected everyone else I cared about. I thought that spending more time with him outside of Red Robin would work, but instead I just pulled away from my friends and family. I haven’t talked to some of my friends in over a year, you know? And Bernard was constantly worrying about me and I just- I couldn’t let us both keep suffering, you know?”

“Huh.” Dick says thoughtfully. “Not the reason I thought.”

“Why did you think he broke up with his boyfriend?” Wally asks, smirking. Dick rubs the back of his neck.

“I don’t know.” Dick whines. “I thought maybe cheating or something-”

“Wow.” Tim drawls. “Glad to know you think so well of me.”

“Someone’s not feeling the aster right now.” Conner says, drawing a snort from Artemis. 

“What?” Tim asks.

“It’s a thing.” Dick groans. “You  know how there's disaster, distraught and overwhelemed? Why isn’t there like, aster, traught and whelmed?” 

“...are you intentionally trying to butcher the english language?” Tim asks. Dick snorts, shaking his head. 

“Eh, we let him have this.” Wally laughs. Conner rolls his eyes.

As Tim watches the group start bickering, he feels a sharp pang of something in his chest. He doesn’t know if it’s grief for fear, but Tim suddenly knows he needs to get away. Making sure the other heroes were still distracted with themselves, Tim stands up and slips away silently. 

The Team reminded Tim of Young Justice so much here. It was a slap to the face to see the similarities. It also made Tim realize just how much of a shitty friend he’d been over the last year or so. He didn’t lie to the Team- he really did pull away from his friends because of Bernard. 

But it was also Tim himself. Maybe it was his thing, to ruin his relationships and friendships when things got difficult. He had a history of that- Steph and Kon both suffering all because Tim was a coward. And Tim couldn’t handle dating Bernard (kind, patient Bernard who was always too good for Tim) while knowing how he felt about his best friend . It wasn’t right to either Bernard or Kon, so Tim decided to distance from one.Tim chose Kon, and by extension his team. He abandoned all his friends for a relationship that didn’t even work out. 

In the end it didn’t matter, and Tim still hadn’t reached out to his team out of shame. 

Tim breathes in the cool night air slowly. The air and sky cleaner here somehow, though Tim did wonder if the amount of cities that had been broken and rebuilt had any effect on the pollution levels. 

He doesn’t turn around as he hears the back door open behind him and soft footfalls paused right behind him. 

“What are you going to do?” Artemis asks. Tim pauses for a second and thinks. The archer doesn’t rush him, content to let Tim take a second and get hids words together. 

“What I usually do.” Tim finally says. “Help people. Take down a crime lord or two. Try not to die. Profit.”

“You gonna keep the burger chain name?” 

Tim bites the inside of his cheek. The Red Robin name had been nagging at him even before he got sent here. Red Robin began as a dark part in Tims life until he made it into something else. But now it was connected to parts of Tim’s life that he was ready to move on from. In a way, it felt like the Robin moniker was a slowly tightening noose. Robin was Damian’s now- the younger teen had made the title his in every way that mattered. His younger brother didn’t deserve Tim leeching off the name simply because of Tim’s pathetic nostalgia or attachment to the title. 

Tim’s Robin had lost everything to become Red Robin. Tim had dated and broken up with Bernard as Red Robin. Tim had ruined and strained friendships as Red Robin. This entire situation happened as Red Robin. Tim wouldn’t give up the cape for anything, but it was hard to not feel like any version of the Robin title wasn’t a curse. 

Maybe he needed a new start, unconnected from the Robin name. 

“No.” He admits. “It was time for something new anyways.”

Chapter Text

“So why are we goin to this chick again?” Kon asks, leaning into the front seat, ignoring Kyle’s curses as he’s shoved uncomfortably into the door. Jason closes his eyes and counts to ten. Tim would be sad if Jason killed his friend.

“Because.” Jason grinds out between clenched teeth. “She’s a witch that Zatanna has no sway over.”

“Right.” Kon nods, like that makes sense to him when it clearly doesn’t. Jason ignores the worried look Roy sends from the corner of his eye.

“Sammy’s good.” Jason mutters defensively. “I wouldn’t risk Tim’s life by going to some shady fuck.”

“I’m sure she’s trustworthy.” Donna’s tone is carefully neutral. “But I think we can also be a little skeptical about that fact that you met her when you were…”

“A murderous dickhead?” Kyle fills in helpfully. “An utter asshole?”

Jason scowls at the soy fields passing by. “Tell me how you really feel, Rayner.”

“You’re not that bad now.” Roy snorts out a laugh from the drivers seat, biting his lip to keep from smiling. Kyle just keeps going. “Seriosuly. Character growth, man. Does wonders.”

Jason tries not to roll his eyes. “Are you all done?”

“Do you want us to be?” Kon asks innocently. “Because Kyle’s right. The current you would never use a Party City Robin suit to attack Tim.”

“We don’t talk about that.” Jason hisses. Only Tim got to talk shit about that fiasco. 

“It’s ok Jason.” Donna says, voice dripping with fake sympathy. “We all have our moments.”

“I hate all of you. Except Roy.”

“Just because I haven’t said anything doesn’t mean I don’t have dirt on you.” Roy points out.  Jason lightly punches him in the shoulder. 

“Either way, Samantha’s had more than a few chances to fuck me over and hasn’t. As far as magic users outside of the Justice League goes, she’s clean as could be.” Jason taps his fingers on the door in thought. “And she’s powerful.”

“Why hasn’t she popped up on anyones radar is she’s so strong?” Donna asks from the back, sounding skeptical. 

“She didn’t want to be found. Honestly I can’t blame her either. Last I heard she was in college trying to become some chemist to make her own alcohol brand.”

“That’s…pretty cool actually.” Kyle says, sounding surprised. 

“Yeah, don’t let the accent fool you. She’s smart as hell.” Jason glances in the rearveiw mirror. “Also, be careful with the ‘hillbilly’ and ‘redneck’ terms unless she brings them up. She doesn’t like southern stereotypes.” 

Roy, Donna and Kon nod. Kyle looks a little lost, but doesn’t say anything regardless. Good. Jason thinks. I’d fuckin hope a Lantern that deals with intergalactic politics knows better than to question stereotypes. Otherwise he’d be shit at his job.   

“How did you even meet her?” Kon asks. “No offense, I don’t see you driving through farmlands in the south like, at all dude.”

“We met in Germany. She shot a guy with a twelve gauge she snuck in through the border. We busted some people, had a few drinks and split.” 

“I feel like you’re leaving out a few details.” Roy points out, side eyeing Jason doubtfully. Jason smirks. 

Roy knew him too well. He was leaving a lot out. Like how Sammy had got him into a drug ring by sleeping with the boss’s wife- a broken down but elegant woman who seemed far kinder than the people she surrounded herself with. After the drug ring was busted, Ms. Brucheart divorced her husband not even a month later and took everything . Jason visited her ex in prison and put a bullet in his brain before leaving. Every now and then Jason gets sent expensive beers and wines from her. He didn’t know how the woman constantly found his address, but he didn’t question it. He could only imagine what Sam got. 

The cub scouts around Jason didn’t need to know the gritty details, not one bit.

“Believe what you want.” Jason sighs, closing his eyes. “Wake me up when we get there.”

Jason jolts awake a few hours later when Roy pulls down a gravel road surrounded by tall corn stalks. 

“Reminds me of Kansas.” Kon comments from the back. It reminded Jason of Children of the Corn. Jason could only imagine what could possibly be hiding in rows covering the acres around them. Why anyone would willingly live out in the middle of nowhere like this, Jason could only wonder. There was nowhere to hide other than the fucking corn which, again, was probably hiding something. 

“Where the hell are we?” Kyle’s eyes dart around. “I feel like this is a trap.”

“It’s not a trap.” Roy replies flatly. “We’re just in a rural area.”

“He’s only lived in the city, Roy.” Donna looks far more amused than she had any right to be. “You’d think with him being so isolated in space he would be used to out of the way places.”

“Space is different!” Kyle argues. “Most horror movies don’t start with a truck full of people driving into the middle of nowhere in space. ”

Kon gives him a weird look. “Uh hello, Alien?” 

Kyle mutters something under his breath the causes Kon to snort. Jason rolls his eyes. The corn eventually gives way to a large grassy yard with a few roaming chickens and some old half restored muscle cars. The house itself was well kept, an old victorian style farmhouse with a large screen porch and a garden off to the side. There were a shit ton of windchimes scattered around, and what Jason could only assume was a storm shelter had one of those iron bigfoot signs staked into the dirt near it. It was chaos. 

“Who the hell did you take us to Jay?” Roy asks skeptically. 

“Shut up.” Jason grumbles, getting out of the truck. The other quickly clamber out as Jason walks up the porch steps. He doens’t even get to the screen door when Sam steps outside with narrowed eyes. 

Samantha Conway was a pretty girl- the epitome of southern beauty except for her cherry red hair. Tanned, freckled skin, lean frame and clear grey eyes and completely unable to take shit. She was sharp, authentic and wholly Sam. When Jason first met her, he was almost attracted to her. Really, Sam was the first girl Jason had even wondered about liking since Rena- which was saying a lot because Rena was before his death. Then, she carved her way through about every lesbian bar in Berlin and any mini crush Jason had for her flew out the window. 

Jason still enjoyed his time with Sam, regardless of their differences in morals and futures. He was almost sad when they went their separate ways back when. 

“The hell you doin here?” She asks without preamble, her eyes darting to the group behind him. “Aren’t you supposed to be in that hellscape you call a city?”

“Good to see you too.” Jasn deadpans. “Gotham’s fine without me for a bit. Look, I need your help.”

“You need my help or do they need my help?” She points a paint chipped nail behind Jason. “Because I like being off radar Butcher. Off radar means peace and quiet and not risking my life every five seconds.”

“ I need your help.” Jasons stresses. “Me and my brother were dealing wiith a witch, but shit went sideways. He got sucked into a portal and the Justice League shut us out when we came to them for help.”

Samantha raises an eyebrow. “So you came to me?”

Roy clears his throat. “We can’t even find where the lady got her ritual from. The Justice League has a momopoly on good magicians, except for you apparently. We just need help finding Tim.”

“Do you have a photo of the circle?” Sam asks. Jason nods.

“Yeah, a drawing. It’s not perfect, but it’s close enough.” Jason hands Samantha the paper with the circle on it. Her eyebrows shoot up. “You know it? I’ve been trying to figure out what it is but I keep coming up empty handed.”

“Well obviously you wouldn’t find this just lying around dumbass. This is even more hush hush than the stuff Ducra taught you.” She ties her cherry red hair up. “Speaking of, you still got the you-know-whats?”

“Yeah.” Jason ignores the confused looks from everyone else. 

“Good, you might need ‘em.” She waves him in. “C’mon in. Don’t touch anything while I look in my back room.”

Donna follows Samantha, eyeing the room curiously. Kyle and Kon follow suite, their eyes trailing over the decorative pieces scattered across the room. Jason tries not to look in awe at the stacks of books piled throughout the house. Shelf after shelf was filled to the brim, and the ones not in a bookcase were piled up to Jason’s height. Roy leans over to stare at some old figurine. He nudges Jason. 

“She collects action figures?” He mutters. Jason shrugs. It wasn’t his place to question what others did in their free time. 

“She’s weird.” Kon grumbles. Roy snorts. 

“She’s not that weird. Believe me.” He steps away from the shelf, turning to look at some intricate sword in a display case. 

“No,” Kyle says, slowly turning away from the bull skull sitting on the entertainment table. “She’s pretty weird, man.” 

“Y’all ran into this how long ago?” Sam calls from somewhere deeper in the house. Kyle jolts a little. Kon chortles as he floats a few feetin the air to read the spines of the books stacked high up. 

“Four days.” Jason shouts back. He hears some rustling in the back room before a short ‘aha’ pieces the air. Sam walks back a few seconds later with a thick leather bound notebook in hand. 

“Good news. Your brother should still be alive despite this only being half a spell.”

“What are the odds?” Donna asks. 

“Eh. Seventy-thirtyish.” Sam admits. “Now the bad news. Wherever he is? The other half of the spell is there somewhere. Tells me that the person or thing your lady was trying to get in contact with operates outside what we consider the normal boundaries of the multiverse. Sure, it;s in the multiverse, but it’s not in our specific sphere you know? So instead of another earth think of it as a uh…” She snaps her fingers a few times. “An elseworld!”

“So that means what?” Kon asks, floating back down. “Is there a way to get to Tim?”

Sam snaps her fingers again. “Even if the Justice League could get to your friend, the only way to him would be through magic. There’s a good chance that universal powers like the speed force don’t even exist there. The League would’ve been useless. Not only that, there’s a chance that the magic used to make the portal affected him somehow too.”

“Great, so my brother is probably alive, but we can’t get to him and he might be a frog now?” Jason grips the edge of the table with white knuckles. Sam waves him off.

“Oh no no. He wouldn’t be a frog. A power source or battery or something like that? Yeah, maybe, but a frog?” She snorts. “This ain’t a fairytale, Butcherbird. And luckily for y’all, I’m not the Justice League. I can help a little bit. It might not be what you wanted, but I can send you in the right direction to find your brother.”

“Wait, you can actually help us find Tim?” Kon asks, looking hopeful. Sam  hums as she ruffles through a couple stacks of files.

“I wouldn’t call what I can do helping. It’s more like giving you a treasure map or something. I can point you the right way, but y’all have to do the digging.”

“Let us worry about that.” Donna crosses her arms over her chest. “How can you get those sigils ready?” Sam smirks.

“Give me five minutes and a shot of bourbon and you’ll be on your way.” Sam turns, then pauses. She glances over her shoulder. “Y’all might wanna let your families know where you’re goin. What you’re about to do is risky as hell and I’d hate to have the fuckin League knocking on my door because a group of heroes were at my house before they went missin.”

Jason tries not to groan. 

“Why are you acting like that?” Kyle asks.

“Because.” Donna sighs. “He has to tell Batman what we’re about to do.”

“Shit man.” Kon winces. “Good luck with that. I’m just callin Ma and Pa and having them tell Clark. I’m not about to deal with him.” Kon sounds more miffed than anything when talking about Clark. Jason had to give it to him, the kid could hold a grudge. 

“Yeesh. I’ve got time off, so hopefully no intergalactic wars pop up while we’re gone.” Kyle rubs the back of his neck. “I should probably tell Guy though…”

“I already told Ollie.” Roy pipes up.

They all turn to Donna, who just smirks. “You really think Diana didn’t assume somebody would go after Tim? She was betting on it.”

They all turn to look at Jason with pitying eyes. Roy looks like he doens’t know whether to laugh or cry, the ass. 

“Dude.” Kon whispers. “You have to tell Batman.” 

Jason takes a calming breath. Telling Bruce he was operating a badly planned out rescue mission was far from the most terrifying thing he’d ever done, yet somehow Jason was very reluctant to go outside and actually call his dad. 

Sue him. Jason might be emotional, but he liked to keep his emotions to anger, amusement, and the occasional familial care. Not fear. Definitely not fear of Batman. So, Jason stomps his way outside, already pulling his phone out to open Bruce’s contact. It barely rings for a few seconds before the line clicks into place. Jason doesn’t waste time. 

“I’m getting Tim.” Jason says firmly. “You can’t stop me so don’t even try.” Bruce is quiet for a second. 

“How?” He asks neutrally. Jason tries not to glare at the ground. Bruce was doing it again. The whole ‘shove your emotions down’ thing he always did when things got difficult. 

“I know a guy. I’ve got a small team together, and we’re leaving after we get our shit in order. I just…I wanted to let you know.” It was the least Jason could do. 

“Jason this is-”

“The only way to find Tim!” Jason snaps, cutting Bruce off. “This is the only way Bruce!”

“There is always another way.” 

“Dad. I need to do this. It’s my fault. Think of it as penance or something.”

“Penance for what exactly?” Bruce snaps, voice hard. “Killing? Beating up your brothers? We’ve forgiven you Jason. We know you were angry and hurting, but this is just stupid! ” 

Jason scoffs. “I don’t see anybody else doing anything. The Justice League basically threw us out on our asses.”

“Trust me, that will not be forgotten.” Bruce grumbles. “But Jason, you don’t need to risk your life for Tim. That’s my job-”

“Yeah, well too bad because sitting on the sidelines isn’t how you raised us to be Bruce.” Jason begins pacing. “And I’m not risking my life-” He totally was. “I’m going after my little brother who’s an annoying, egotistical, narcoleptic smartass. I mean, seriously. The kid can’t even use a fuckin steamer correctly but he can break code better than anyone else on earth. You expect me to leave him to the wolves? The same fucker who tried to play Tony Hawk in the hallways of the manor?”

Bruce is silent for a few seconds, no doubt turning the information over in his head. “Who is with you?”

“Roy, obviously. Rayner and Donna. Kon kind of threatened us to join.” Jason sighs. “Dad we’ll be fine.”

“Can you blame me for worrying?” Bruce asks softly. “Every time I get you all back, another one of you dies or leaves. How am I supposed to keep you all safe if you keep leaving?”

Abort, abort, fucking abort. 

“I’m not leaving.” Jason rushes out, trying not to panic at the pure sadness that Bruce was somehow conveying over the line. Shit, this was Bruce’s version of like, weeping. “We’re getting Tim and coming back. A simple retrieval mission.”

“Nothing is ever simple with Tim. How do you think I ended up with him? It wasn’t because he was a normal kid, that’s for sure.” Damn Bruce, the kid isn’t even here and you’re airing him out like this? Then again, with how smart Tim was his little escapades were probably his equivalent of enrichment. 

Either way, now was not the time for Bruce to try and show how much he cared about Jason. Maybe prioritizing his family was a good thing normally, but Jason needed mother hen Batman to back off.

“Let me guess. You think you should go get Tim.” Jason asks flatly. Bruce stays suspiciously silent on the other end of the call. “Not happening old man. You think Tim’s bad with the multiverse shit? You’re just as bad, if not worse! No, you’re not fucking going!”

“I have the experience-”

“You had an army of evil versions of you attack us! You have the experince, sure. Evil experience.”

“Jason-”

“Don’t ‘Jason’ me! You’re jumping the gun again. You’re so focused on Tim you’re forgetting the other kids in the manor, one of theim being your fucking son.” Jason spits. “What do you think is going to happen to them if you go alone, huh? Damian and Duke need you right now, so let someone else care for the family for once you colossal prick. You have a family. Let us act like it.”

Bruce doesn’t say anything for a minute, the line quiet enough that Jason begins to wonder if his dad just hung up. 

“I’m sorry. You’re right.” Bruce says quietly. Jason stops pacing, pulling the phone away from his ear to stare at it in shock. 

“I’m sorry, did you just admit that I- Jason Todd - am right?! Are you fucking dying?”

“No I am- why is your first thought that I’m dying?” Bruce asks sharply. “You know what? Nevermind. I’m going to let you do this-”

“ Let me? Since when do you let me-”

“ I’m going to let you do this. But I expect a report from every world, do you hear me?”

Jason scoffs. “And how do you expect me to do that? ”

Jason can practically hear the smirk in Bruce's voice. “I’m Batman. That doesn’t change, even in other universes.”

Jason can’t help but feel a little skeptical. Bruce expects him to what, meet up with alternate Batmans to keep him updated? 

Actually, that’s exactly what Bruce expects from him. 

“Alright, fine.” Jason rubs a hand down his face.

“Jason, I love you. I trust you, and I know you’ll bring Tim back.” Jason struggles to breathe through the lump in his throat. Even after being a better father, Bruce was still sparse with verbal affection. He was more touchy, patting his kids on the back or ruffling their hair, but Bruce tended to freeze up whenever the ‘l’ word started to pop up in his vocabulary. 

A lot of the Bats did. They were weird like that. 

“Right.” Jason manages out. “Me too. To you.”

“I know.” Bruce says, sounding far more amused than he had any right to be. “Just be safe.”

“I will.” Bruce hums, and then the call disconnects. He glances at his phone for a second before turning back to the house. 

It was time to get Tim. 

“The most important thing about this is staying together.” Sam stresses, handing each of them a pendant. “If you aren't, whoever isn’t with the rest of the group gets sent back here. When you find your brother, have him wear the last one.” She presses an extra necklace into Jason’s hand. 

“If you don’t have this, we did all of this for nothing. Do you hear me?”

“Loud and clear.” Roy says, putting his on. “Hold onto magical necklaces.”

“Use the buddy system.” Kon adds on. Sam shoots him a dry look, but moves onto drawing the circle around their feet. 

“Like I said, I can’t guarantee where you guys end up, so be aware of your surroundings no matter what.” Sam puses, muttering something under her breath before tuning away and flipping through some pages. “Otherwise, we should be all set. Last chance to book it everyone.” 

Nobody moves. Sam makes an impressed face, clapping her hands together. “Alrighty everyone. Get ready.”

“Are you gonna-” Kyle ets cut off when the circle around them begins to glow. Sam’s eyes are a deep blue now, her hair whipping around by invisible wind. She mutters words to herself, fingers twitching inhumanly. 

Then, the ground drops out from underneath their feet. 

“Shit!” Kon yelps, but all other noise is quickly drowned out by a cananophy of everything. 

Traveling through universes feels like free falling. Jason tries to focus on his surroundings, but things seem both too blurry and too clear to really comprehend. It was mind-numbing, brain breaking. He grips onto the first thing that he feels- somebody else’s hand, rough with callouses and scars. It does little to ease the chaos around him, but Jason holds on as tight as possible regardless. Someone else grabs the edge of his jacket for dear life.

Jason feels the sound of his shout leaving his throat, but they get lost in the chaos. Is this what Tim went through? Alone? Jason doesn't know how Tim could take it. He felt like he was going fucking crazy, like Jason was on a weird mix of fear gas and LSD and going through the world worst trip. 

Suddenly, it all just. Stops. 

Jason breathes heavily for a few seconds, keeping his eyes closed as he tries not to vomit. 

“Do we have to go through that every time?” Kyle moans to his left. 

“Fucking hope not.” Roy complains, sounding weak. “Good god that was horrible.” 

Jazon opens his eyes. What greets him is a Gotham unlike Jason had ever seen. Neon lights covered buildings, skyscrapers that were once covered in old stone and gargoyles were now sleek buildings. Cars were fucking flying. 

“What kind of sci-fi hell are we in?” 

Jason’s only answer? The sound of engines overhead. The three of them look up at a slightly familiar silhouette, minus the hulking frame and a cape. 

“Found the anomaly.” A young, raspy voice says from the future Batsuit. “They look a little lost.”

Shit.

“Who the hell are you?” Jason asks, already dreading the answer. The guy cackles, which was honestly horrifying coming from someone wearing the Bat. 

“Haven’t you heard?” The guy lands in front of them, body coiled to launch at them with a moment's notice. “I’m Batman.”

Chapter Text

Conner wasn’t too sure what to make of Tim. Sure, the guy wasn’t mean or rude or anything- if anything Tim seemed to be a bit too kept together. Everyone else seemed to think that was just how he was, but Conner had the sneaking suspicion that the whole ‘cool and collected until pushed’ thing was just a facade. 

There was a sharpness to him that others didn’t seem to notice. Everything from the angles of his face to the narrowing of his eyes to his carefully chosen words were sharp. Honest, even. Other’s might have been discomforted by TIm, but to Conner it was honestly refreshing. Despite what he hid, Tim also was honest. He didn’t lie necessarily. He just hid the truth. 

There were a few moments where Tim seemed to think nobody was looking where that mask slipped and a wild, lost look slipped into his eye. It was haunting, and Conner didn’t think Tim even knew he did it. It made Conner wonder if Tim was even as sane as he seemed to be.

Then again, if Conner was suddenly ripped from his home and thrown into a world where he knew everyone and noone, he would probably go a little crazy too. It was a testament to who Tim was that he hadn’t done more than snap at M’gann and have a panic attack after finding out he was stuck. 

Thankfully, Dick seemed to be slowly warming up to the idea of Tim even existing. One new Robin was one thing, but being confronted with two Robins (former or otherwise) seemed to be the limit Dick’s guilt could take. Tim definitely wasn’t helping with that either- especially after dropping the bomb about his Jason coming back to life. Conner half expected Dick and Bruce to go on a crazed spiral to see if Jason was alive again. Instead, it just seemed to knock some sense into Dick that Tim wasn’t from here and that taking Jason’s death out on him wasn’t the right thing. Hopefully, that carried over to their current Robin too. The kid was far too quiet and quick to slip from the room for Conner’s comfort.

Conner looks away from where Dick was running the younger members through some sparring lessons to glance over at Tim. His concussion wasn’t doing much to keep him down, thoug Conner wasn’t sure if that was because of his pain tolerance or stubbornness. His blue eyes were sharp as he watched every match. Conner felt like it wasn’t out of interest. Tim seemed to be picking apart every move.  

Maybe it was Bat training, or maybe it was just years of vigilante experience. Either way, underneath Tim’s unassuming facade there was someone who was undoubtably dangerous, even with the deceptivly lean frame and the general uninterested air around him. 

Somehow though, Conner didn’t feel like Tim was dangerous. Not to them, at least. He doesn’t look over as the other slips besides him silently, tilting his head as Cassie dodges a kick from Garfield. 

“You’re not going to let me join in, are you.” Tim asks.

Conner frowns. “No. Concussion protocol. And you haven’t been cleared to be active by Batman yet.”

Tim snorts, shaking his head. “Again with protocol. It’s a flimsy excuse and you know it. Batman’s just using it to keep me on a tight leash.” 

Nothing gets past him, huh. Conner thinks sullenly. Sure, Conner was concerned with following concussion protocol- the last thing he wanted was to have a hand in making the first hero with CTE- but the fact of the matter was that despite Dick’s growing acceptance of Tim’s presence, Batman still seemed reluctant to trust him. Even though he acted like he did on the Watchtower and Wonder Woman cleared him.

Actually, maybe Batman was the first hero with CTE. It certainly explained a lot. 

“Maybe you’ll be lucky and have a reason to sneak onto the field.” Conner mutters. He catches the gleam in Tim’s eye and glares. “No. Do not even think about it.”

“Wasn’t going to.” Tim says, like a liar. “Plus I’m rebranding. Doesn’t seem smart to be Red Robin when little me is still Robin.”

That was the first Conner was hearing about that. Not that Tim had to tell him. But still. 

“Got any ideas?”

“Eh. I’m floating around a few.” Dick cheers from the when Garfield pulls a successful maneuver. The green skinned kid practically glows with pride. “Artemis is kind of helping.”

“Artemis knows?” Conner asks, surprised.

Tim shrugs, a strand of his inky hair falling into his eyes. “She’s the one who gave me the idea. That and having the same name as a restaurant? Not fucking cool at all.” 

Conner tries not to chuckle. “There could be worse names.”

“Speaking from experience?” Tim asks, eyes finally turning to look at Conner. Tim looks at him with the same icy intensity that he watches the matches with. Conner doesn’t know if it’s terrifying or a relief to be picked apart like that yet. 

“Depends.” He says after a short pause. “I was literally named Superboy for a while. When we were trying to figure out my actual name, there were some pretty bad suggestions until-” He pauses. Conner was going to say ‘ until M’gann picked out my name ’ but with the conext the sentence just turns to ash in his mouth. 

Conner wouldn’t say he was angry at M’gann. He was more hurt than anything, really. How could he not be? She took things that he viewed as sacred and bastadized them until Conner didn’t know what was up and what was down. His name was barely his own. Just another thing M’gann used to make him her ideal soap opera boytoy. 

Conner didn’t doubt M’gann did love him. It just so happened that her love was painful and draining and manipulative. Maybe she’d get better. Maybe she wouldn’t. Either way, Conner wouldn’t be the one she tested that out on. 

“Well.” Tim says awkwardly. “If it makes you feel better, I’m still up for suggestions.”

“Any specific themes?”

Tim bites his lip- another tic that Conner noticed he did when deep in thought. “I’d like to stick with the bird thing, but I really don’t care. Can’t be worse than Drake.” 

Wait. Isn’t-... No.

“You picked your last name as a vigilante name?” Conner asks sharply. “How did you not get figured out?”

“There was a lot going on, in my defense.” Tim shrugs. 

Conner just stares at him. How could someone so obviously smart be so damn dumb? Tim smirks at him, lips twitching up crookedly. 

“You’re crazy.” Conner says flatly. Tim snorts, throwing his head back as he tries not to laugh. Conner’s eyes dart to the white scars now on full display on Tim’s neck. God, those had to be mere millimeters away from his artery. 

“Maybe.” Tim admits. “But you have to be a little crazy in this profession.”

Well. Conner can’t exactly argue with that. He goes to say something else whent he training room doors slide open and Batman stalks into the room.

“Debrief, now.” Batman says. He turns to Tim. “Go to your room. Someone will retrieve you when the mission is over.” Tims expression darkens. Conner swears that the temperature in the room drops a few degrees. Dick winces, and even though he has his sunglasses on Conner can almost see his eyes darting between Tim and Bruce. Robin shifts uncomfortably.

“I’ll go to the common room, but I am not going to be sent to my room like a kid in timeout. I might have been a Robin, but I wasn’t yours. Don’t assume you get to order me around like one.” He turns to Dick and Conner, his eyes warming a bit. “Good luck. Don’t die or whatever.”

Dick smirks. “The sentiment is appreciated.”

“He just back-talked Batman.” Jaime hisses, eyes wide in horror. “What the hell is he?”

“Something tells me he’s used to going against authority.” Cassie mutters. “Especially Batman’s.”

“Enough.” Batman says firmly, leveling all of them with a glare. “Briefing room. Now.” 

Conner lets the younger members follow Batman before he files in next to Dick. “Wasn’t expecting that, huh?”

Dick shakes his head, rubbing his eyes underneath his sunglasses. “No, I wasn’t. The dude’s got a spine, that’s for sure.”

“Like you’ve never gone against Batman.” Conner snorts. Dick smirks. 

“In private, sure. But in front of the Team?” He shakes his head. “I might’ve questioned him, yeah, but Tim just totally threw an order out the window. I’ve seen League members literally shake in their boots when B used that voice at them and he acted like it was normal.”

Maybe to him it was. Conner thought. Tim wasn’t exactly forthcoming about his experience as Robin- not yet, at least. Despite what a lot of people thought, Conner wasn’t just brawn. He did have a brain and could use context clues to figure things out, and from the way Robin had been treated and Tim’s own admittance it was pretty clear that Tim had become Robin soon after his Jason’s death. It wouldn’t surprise Conner if Tim’s Bruce reacted just as poorly, if not worse than their Bruce did. Maybe Batman’s sternness was something Tim had learned to ignore or overcome back home. That thought leaves a bitter taste in Conner’s mouth.  

“Surprised he’s not fighting more about being left behind.” Dick continues as they walk. “I know I wouldn’t be happy sitting on the sidelines.”

Huh. Conner feels his brows furrow. “You really think he’s just gonna sit there?” 

Dick tilts his head in confusion. “What do you think he’s going to do?” Conner tries not to give the other hero a look. The first time Conner had met Dick, he’d hacked into Cadmus’s servers like it was easy. Does he really not think the other Robin’s wouldn’t do something similar?

“He’s going to do his research and probably break some laws to look at classified files.” Conner drawls slowly. “Just like you do all the time.”

“Huh. He did agree too quickly, didn’t he?” Dick muses. 

“Glad to see your observation skills get put to use, Dick.”

“Hey, I still don’t know the guy that well.” Dick whines. “Hell, he’s technically my brother in another universe and you still know him better than I do.”

“And who’s fault is that?” 

Dick has the decency to look ashamed. “Mine, I know. It’s just- Look I still don’t like that our Tim is in the field even after knowing and training him for a year. He’s got his own parents to go home to, and it’s our job to keep him safe. But him? He’s an unknown variable. His relationship with his version of us is clearly different. He’s closer to them. After Jason it’s…it’s been hard to let anyone else fly in Gotham, much less another Robin and Tim’s told us that there are more after him.”

“His Jason came back to life.” Conner argues. “And even if he didn’t, that doesn’t mean his Bruce cared any less. It just means the circumstances were different.”

“Probably. Still doesn’t make it hurt any less.” Dick sighs. “I’m trying ok? For both of them. B is too, despite what you may think. But he’s a lot more emotional than he lets on.”

“Right. Because Batman is known for being emotional.” Conner replies flatly. 

Dick doesn’t say anything else as they enter the debriefing room. Batman already had maps and identity files pulled up on screen, two larger than the others. Conner and Dick stand in the back of the room as everyone watches with rapt attention. 

“This,” Batman gestures to the man and woman on screen. “Is Charles and Dorothy Faron. They were dead until three months ago, when they suddenly appeared at one of Lex Luthor’s fundraisers. Despite their…miraculous resurrection, they kept their heads down until now.”

“How old are they supposed to be?” Jaime asks.

“One hundred and ten years old.” Batman replies dryly. 

“Oh. Uh. They look good for their age.” 

“As of eight days ago, both Dorothy and Charles approached the Light with a proposition to work together. It seems that in the time between Luthor’s fundraiser and their meeting, they have gained quite the following.” Batman clicks something, and the map zooms in on an area in the North Dakotan countryside. “Your mission is to complete simple recon on the compound and what it contains. You are not to engage.” 

We’re going to end up engaging. It always happens. The Team cannot do a stealth mission ever. 

“What exactly have they done other than meet with the Light?” Robin asks hesitantly. 

Batman’s lips tighten. “We have reason to believe that the Farons are utilizing their followers-”

“Their cult. ” Dick mutters under his breath.

“As soldiers, either for themselves or for the Light.” Batman levels Dick with a frown. “Your sub-mission is to find out how and why.” 

Dick glances at Conner. “Fifty bucks something blows up and Kaldur gives us the stealth talk again.”

Conner rolls his eyes. “Don’t tempt me. The only good thing about you two splitting time as Team leader is that you can’t lecture us when you’re the one who blows things up most of the time.”

“Hey, at least this time La’gann’s in Atlantis. I won’t have to pull you two off of each other again.”

“You mean you won’t have to pull him off of me.” 

“Eh, schematics.” Dick claps his hands together. “Alright Team, let’s get this rolling!” Conner waits fro most of the Team to file out in front of him before he begins walking towards the Bioship’s hangar. He tries to ignore the fact that M’gann was right behind him. He fails. Miserably. Especially when she clears her throat. Conner pauses, not looking at her. 

“What.” He asks flatly. 

“We need to talk.” M’gann says, stepping in front of him. Conner tries not to get upset, really. He knew this confrontation was coming eventually. He just really didn’t want it to happen. It didn’t need to happen. He’d already told M’gann how he felt,  he didn’t need to do it again so she felt better about herself.

“No.” He says coldly. “We don’t.”

M’gann scowls. It’s a rare, ugly expression on her face- especially considering how bubbly she normally was. Did Conner bring out the worst in her? Or was she just like this around him because she got away with it before? 

“We do.” She shoots back, putting her hands on her hips. “You’re acting like I’m some…some villain. You can’t carry your anger with me over into missions.”

Oh, ok so that's where she was going with it. Not like he hasn’t had an angry outburst in years or anything. Carry his anger. Conner wants to scoff. He had evey right to be angry at her, but he was overreacting? He was bringing his personal life and emotions into the field? He’d tried playing civil. He hadn’t told anyone on the Team what M’gann did to him, not a word. He’d kept his mouth shut, his head down and pushed everything down. All M’gann had done was move on to La’gann so quick it was almost insulting and Conner was the problem?

“Oh really?” Conner asks sarcastically. “Because to me, you’re no better than Cadmus was!”

“What does that mean?” M’gann asks sharply. “I’m nothing like them!”

“You entered my mind against my will. You manipulated me to believe what you wanted me to believe, and when I questioned you you erased my memories. You cut away any part of me you didn’t like, just like they did! The only difference between you and them is the fact that I got to get away from Cadmus, but no matter what you do you get excused!” Conner breathes heavily for a second. “You named me after a fucking tv character you had a crush on M’gann! Excuse me if I question if I was anything but a build a fucking boyfriend to you.”

M’gann gapes at him for a few seconds, like she wasn’t actually expecting Conner to snap. He glares at her for a few seconds before the anger in his chest simmers down and he closes his eyes with a sigh. 

“I trusted you.” He turns away to continue walking down the hall. “And you used me. Why shouldn’t I be angry at you?”

“I just…I just wanted to be happy.” M’gann’s voice is weak. 

“What about me though? Didn’t I deserve to be happy?” M’gann stays quiet. Conner nods once.

“Yeah. That’s what I thought.” He mutters. “I’m not going to stop you for using the mind like during missions. But don’t ever tell me I’m jepordizing my Team because of how I feel.”

With that, he leaves her alone. He didn’t have anything left to say to her anyways.

The flight to rural North Dakota is quiet. Conner assumes it’s due to tension, though the cause of that tension is up for debate. Even Garfield seems subdued compared to normal, his eyes darting around nervously. He can feel M’gann’s eyes on him every now and then. Conner resolutely stares straight ahead, arms crossed over his chest. 

When they finally arrive, everyone looks down at the sprawling complex below. It wasn’t anything too crazy- a couple of warehouses, trailer homes and barns scattered across acreage. The few people below were all wearing white from head to toe. Even their hair was bleached in the attempt (some successful, some not) to be white. 

“Is a bad dye job a prerequisite to joining the club or…?” Dick trails off. Conner tries not to wince because hoenstly, the array of white, yellowed and orangey blonde hair were an eyesore. 

“It’s a white themed cult. It’s like, the millennial grey of cults.” Cassie adds on.  

“...the Light does have a type, huh?” Jaime asks slowly.

“Yeah. Crazies with crappy theming ideas.” 

“Alright everyone, focus up. M’gann, can you link us up?” Dick asks. M’gann nods, and the Gothamite’s voice fills Conner’s head. “Let’s just get this over with. Miss M, Robin and Beast Boy, go ahead and try to find the file room. Wonder Girl and Superboy,  try to figure out what’s in those warehouses while me and Beetle try to figure out where they keep their files.” Dick orders, slipping into the role of leader quickly. “Ok everyone, lets go.”

Everyone quickly splits up, rushing in different directions. Conner sticks close to the shadows as he gets closer to the warehouses- stealth wasn’t his best thing, but he could do it passibly when needed. Cassie follows close behind, checking their backs every few second sto make sure they weren’t being followed. They dart between the buildings, glancing inside of them before moving onto the next when they were empty. Nobody noticed them, though it wasn’t like there were many people in the area to begin with. 

“Why are they all empty?” She hisses after another dud.

“Maybe they’re just for storage.” Conner suggests, trying to hide his own annoyance. 

“Sure, they need ten warehouses for storage.” Conner doesn’t need to look back to see Cassie’s scowl. “What could they possibly store in ten warehouses?”

“Weapons. Military vehicles. Experiments. Drugs.” Conner begins listing off.

“Ok, ok! There’s a lot of things that can be stored by weirdos.” They pull open the next warehouse door. Conner pauses, eyes widening in surprise. Cassie peeks from around him, reeling back. “Well. At least we’ve got something now.”

The walls, beams and floor were all covered in white painted runes. Conner looks up. How the hell did they paint the ceiling? Conner walks deeper into the room, turning in a slowl circle toe xamine everything with a critical eye. No weapons, no paraphernalia. Just runes. It was creepy. Conner didn’t do creepy. 

“We’ve got something.” He says over the mind link. “Most of the warehouses have been empty, but ones just filled with sigils.”

“Anything you’ve seen before?” Dick asks, sounding distracted.

“‘Wing, these things aren’t normal.” Cassie cuts in, kneeling in front of one of the symbols. “ Wonder Woman’s been teaching me some ancient languages, but these aren’t even close to anything I’ve seen.”

Conner scowls as he looks across the room again. 

Of course that's when things fall apart. Conner hears the footsteps only a few seconds before a girl in white pauses in the doorway, a serene look on her face. The calm air about her doesn’t even change when she sees Conner and Cassie frozen in the middle of the empty warehouse. She just tilts her head curiously.

“You aren’t supposed to be here.” She says.

“We’re new.” Cassie says quickly. 

“Oh. Has Miss Dottie not helped you with initiation yet?” The girl steps in, unafraid or completely ignoring the obvosu signs that Cassie was lying from between her teeth. “You have to complete the initiation before praying in here.”

They prayed in here? The warehouse reminded Conner of the horror movies that Artemis liked to watch, not some holy sanctuary. Who the hell did they even pray to?

“Right.” Conner says carefully. “Our bad. How do we do the initiation again?” 

“Mr. Charlie has to carve the sight into you.” She pulls up a sleeve. Conner tries not to flinch at the raised scars covering her arms. She lets the white sleeve fall back down. “It doesn’t hurt, if that's what you’re worried about. If you’re strong enough, you can be more useful.” Something on the girls face went sad. 

“Maeve was strong.”

“What happened to Mave?” Cassie asks, voice gentle.

“She ascended. She was strong enough to be used in a special way. She’s been gone for a week, but we lost contact with her four days ago.” 

Conner blinks. Tim had appeared four days ago. An odd feeling settles in Conner’s chest. What were the chances of those two events being connected? How would a cult member from here even end up in Tim’s Gotham? 

Don’t overthink it. Conner tells himself. It’s probably just a coincidence. A really, really plausible coincidence. 

“EIther way, I’ll go get Miss Sarah to do your initiation. I’m sure that-” Before she could finish, Conner punches her- not hard but enough for her to get knocked out before she could go get anyone else. She collapses into a crumpled heap, blood already dripping from her nose and staining her white robes red.

“That wasn’t weird at all.” Cassie mutters. “‘She ascended’. Ugh, it just gives me the creeps.” Conner kneels down, frowning at the lines peeking out of the robe’s neckline. He nudges it down, reeling at the inked runes spanning the width of the girl’s neck. Did she have them all over her body, scars and tattoos of symbols that didn’t make any damn sense?

Conner couldn’t help but to feel bad for her. It was obvious the girl was manipulated into becoming this, either looking for something better or escaping from someone else. The idea of the Light using lost and hopeless people as weapons and canon fodder was sickening. At least when they planned on using him as a weapon, he would have been a blank slate. These people…they did have lives, families and homes. Sure, they might not’ve been the best, or had the best situations, but they had something. They were innocents. They didn’t deserve this. 

“We’ve got to go!” Robin’s voice is panicked over the mind link. “We’ve got to go now!”

“What happened?” Dick asks sharply.

“They saw us. I tried to stop them but it’s like my mental attacks were useless.” M’gann sounds frustrated. “And it’s not like they have another telepath or anything either.

“Alright, everyone circle back to the Bioship.” 

“Where are you?” Conner asks, already turning to run to help. 

“In the main circle.” M’gann says. “Hurry. We don’t know what they can do.”

“Get to the Bioship.” Conner tells Cassie firmly. 

“But-”

“Now.” He doesn’t stay to see if the younger girl listens. Instead, he runs as fast as he can to where the other group was. 

By the time Conner gets to M’gann, Robin and Garfield they’re already neck deep into the fight. Then again, it’s not much of a fight per say. It’s obvious a lot of the cult members don’t have any fighting experience and are haplessly throwing their bodies around in the hopes that somethign will stick. Conner doesn’t waste any time kicking the feet out of one member that was going for Garfield’s exposed back. The young teen lets out a grunt as he hits the ground, brown eyes widening as he looks up at Conner. 

“I don’t- I didn’t want to come.” He says quickly, holding his hands up. “My older brother got wrapped up in some shit and-” Conner sighs through his nose, glancing around to make sure nobody else was looking before nodding his head to the side. 

“There’s a town not far from here.” He says quietly. “Get out. Go home.” The kid nods, scrambling up and running away before anyone could stop him.

Someone behind Conner lets out an enraged shout. A wood plank hits Conner over the head, snapping on impact. If he was actually human, it would have probably landed him in the hospital. Instead, Conner slwoly turns to look at the man behind him. Unlike the teen, this man seemed to be just as insane as the rest. Tattoos of the same sygils in the warehouse covered his hands, and there was a wild look in his eye.

“We’ve succeeded once.” He mutters, head twitching. “We succeeded once. We sent a sister to visit. My sister sent a present back. It’s not nice to take presents.” 

Ok, what the actual hell? Conner thinks. That’s not freaky at all. 

“What present?” Conner asks. The man cackles.

“A present wrapped in red paper. I love wrapping paper. It just tears and tears.” The man scratches at his wrist. 

Ok. No more entertaining this. Conner goes to knock out the man when he suddenly stills, head tilted like he was listening to something. The man lets out a low hum, then begins peeling off his robes, leaving his scarred chest bared. Conner winces. If he though the girl from earlier was bad, this was…

The man’s chest was covered in what could only be described as a type of complex ritual circle. The scars were red and raised, like the symbols had been cut into his chest multiple times before they were truly allowed to heal. It was gruesome, sickening in a way that Conner rarely witnessed. 

“You cannot see light until you have the sight.” The man grins, the scars on his chest beginning to glow an eerie red. Conner’s eyes widen. 

“Down!” He shouts, grabbing Garfield and Robin and covering them with his body. The blast burns through his shirt, sending him skidding a few feet. He checks over the younger teens before shoving off the ground and checking the wreckage left behind. The few cultists not caught in the blast were either groaning on the ground or unconscious. 

There was nothing but a smoking crater where the man once was. 

Why did he do that? Conner tries to figure out the reason, but his mind just comes up short. It made no sense. The people weren’t protecting anything, they were just…there. There was no reason for him to sacrifice himself and countless others, especially since the Team was leaving. 

“Come on.” He pushes the kids towards the Bioship. “Leave them, we’ve got to go.” Robin doesn’t look back, face blank as he runs. Garfield on the other habd looks shaken- either from the close call or everything else, he doesn’t know. 

“What was that blast?” Dick asks as they climb into the ship. “There weren’t any explosives in the area, right?”

“This is different than we thought it was.” Conner mutters. “There weren’t any explosives. The blast you saw was a suicice bomber using magic to try and take us out.”

“You’re shitting me.” 

“Do I look like I’m joking right now?” Conner asks sharply, eyes narrowing. 

Dick winces. “You’re right. This is more than just… soldiers if they’re turning people into magical bombs.”

“Yeah.” Conner grumbles, wincing as he looks down at the remains of his shirt. “So much for recon.”

Chapter Text

The three of them stare at… Batman for a few seconds before Roy breaks.

“You’re not Batman.” Roy laughs hysterically. “Batman’s got five inches and like, eighty pounds of muscle on you kid.” The kids' stance loosens in confusion. 

“What do you- oh.” He drops his fists. “Is this another time thing?” What the hell was this guy on about? 

“Time thing?” Kyle asks. Batman waves him off, bringing a hand to his ear.

“Hm? What do you-? Really? Damn ok, chill old man.” 

“I love one sided conversations.” Roy says. 

“I don’t.” Kyle says. “I think they’re annoying, actually.”

“We know, Kyle.” Jason replies flatly. 

Batman glances at them before shrugging and waving them forward. “C’mon. He wants to talk to you.” Before they can even object, the kid rockets into the air.

Well. That’s not ominous at all. 

“I’m guessing he is Bruce?” Kyle asks, glancing at Jason. Jason sighs in response. They were in their first world and he was already getting a stress headache, good god. Jason puts his head in his hands with a low groan.

“Ooh boy.” Roy muttered behind him “We’ve been doing this for five minutes and we’ve already sent Jay into a mental breakdown.”

“Who’s we?” 

Jason takes a deep, collecting breath. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts. Don’t let a year of therapy go down the drain now. What would Wesley from the Princess Bride do? Wait don’t think that. 

“He looks like he’s trying to burn the garbage with his eyes.”

“Oh dude, you haven’t seen him mad yet. One time I shot a flamethrower at him when he was in the shower-”

“Roy what the actual fuck-” 

“In my defense I think that was after another world reset and don’t think I was really myself, you know?”

“Jesus Christ.”

“You guys coming?” The kid calls from his weird batplane. Jason sighs again before looking at Kyle. 

“Fly us up there.” He grumbles. Kyle and Roy share a look before a green glow encases both Jason and Roy. Kyle uses his ring to fly the three of them up into the batplane. Batman smirks at the three of them as they quietly find seats and buckle in. 

“Green Lantern, huh?” He says conversationally. 

“Yeah.” Kyle gives him a cautious look. 

“Cool.” The kids hits a few buttons and the plane starts moving. “So, the old man says you guys are friendly, but you also knocked out half of Gotham’s grid so…” 

“Not our fault.” Jason’s brows furrow. 

“Soo…” The kid glances backwards. “Robin, huh?”

“Has the old man not taught you how to interrogate people?” Jason asks, raising an eyebrow at the kid. “Becuase that was a real shitty attempt to get information from me, just so you know.”

“Noted.” The kid smirks. “So…?”

“Good god, yes I was Robin.” Jason snaps. “Shouldn’t you know this?” Batman scoffs, shaking his head.

“The old man doesn’t talk about his past that much. Hell, he barely has any photos in the Manor. I had to go to Commissioner Gordon-” There’s no way Jim is still alive. Does that mean…Barbara took over after her dad here? “-To get any details, and even she wasn’t exactly eager to tell me.”

“Nightwing doesn’t visit?” Roy asks, sounding surprised. “None of the Batgirls either? Tim?” Batman’s shoulders stiffen at the mention of Tim. It doens’t leave a good feeling in Jason’s chest.

“He burned a lot of bridges.” Batman replies neutrally. 

“Like that’s new. Hasn’t stopped anyone from coming back before.” Jason mutters. Batman stays eerily quiet. Jason glances at Roy. 

Something happened in this world. Something really, really bad if Bruce was alone before this kid found his way to him. 

“Yeah, well. Things change I guess.” The kid huffs. “And don’t ask me anything. Ask him when we get back to the manor.”

The manor is…not run down, but definitely worn. It’s weird seeing something so…normal in this cyberpunk-esque world. Batman lands the Batplane in the cave, which looks pretty much the same. 

It looks lonely. Soulless, even. 

Jason glances around the room, eyes catching on the cases of suits off to the side. Nightwing, Batgirl, Bruce’s original suit, and the suit Tim donnd after Kon’s death. 

“Brought a couple friends.” Batman calls, pulling off his mask. Roy flinches back, and Jason honestly resists the urge to do the same. The kid can’t be out of high school yet with how young he looks. A few years ago, it would’ve sent Jason into a fit of rage. Now it just makes him sad. It seems that even decades into the future, Gotham’s ilk still ran the streets and sent kids into a life of crime fighting. 

There’s a low hum from the computer. An old man, resting most of his weight on a cane slowly turns around. His eyes have a familiar hardness to them that has Jason straightening up. Even though he’s older, weaker and frailer, there’s no doubting who exactly the man is. 

“Jason.” Bruce says. The other man’s voice is similar enough to Jason’s dad that it sends a chill down his spine. 

“Bruce?” He asks hesitantly. Bruce grunts before turning back to the computer. 

“You’re lucky Terry found you all before someone else did.” He says. “With the energy signature you sent out, you were bound to draw some attention.”

“Uh…” Kyle shoots Jason a panicked look. 

“We’re not…from here.” Jason begins. 

“I know.” Bruce cuts him off. “It’s not the first time I’ve dealt with alternate earths or timelines. Especially since you died not long after coming back to Gotham initially.”

Shit. No wonder Bruce didn’t tell the kid much about other-me. Jason thinks to himself. Bruce turns his gaze on Roy and Kyle. 

“Last time I heard, Roy Harper was on the Justice League International’s reserves, and most of Earth’s Green Lanterns answer to Jessica Cruz.”

“Jess?” Kyle raises his eyeborws in surprise. “Huh. Ok then.”

“Kyle Rayner, I assume?” Bruce asks. When Kyle nods once, Bruce’s eyes tighten. “You died too.”

“Jesus.” Jason mutters.

“Terry.” Bruce says. Kid Batman perks up a littel bit. “Any other disturbances tonight?” The kid- Terry- shakes his head. 

“No. It’s a clear night tonight. Commissioner Gordon doesn’t even have any new cases for us to work on.” Terry sets the mask on the edge of the batcomputer’s desk. “Not that I’m complaining. It’s been a while since I’ve taken Dana on a real date. Plus Max’s been practically doing my homework for me for the last month. A few nights without crime is actually what I need right now.”

Bruce grunts again. “Did you arrive alone?” He asks Jason without turning around. 

“No. We’re missing two people we came here with.” Jason tells Bruce. 

“Who?”

“Donna Troy and Kon-El.” Terry scrunches his face up in thought. 

“I’ve heard of Troy, but who’s Kon-El?” He asks. 

“A clone of Superman.” Kyle shrugs. “Trust me, he’s not even that weird in the grand scheme of things. Supes has another kid that disappeared for a few weeks and came back seven years older.”

“Clark doesn’t have any children here.” Bruce says. He turns to them, eyes sharp. “He certainly doesn’t have a clone. Not anymore, at least.” 

“Huh.” Roy frowns. “I wanna say that's weird, but I’m sure I’ve seen weirder.”

“You have.” Jasona and Kyle say at the same time. They glance at each other. Jason is…slightly surprised they aren’t arguing as much as they used to. In fact, they seem to be agreeing more than anything. It’s weird. 

“I’ll have a program looking out for similar disturbances in the energy field as the one you made.” Bruce finally says. “Which shouldn’t be hard.”

“Hey, we’re not that easy to spot you know.” Roy complains. Bruce levels him with a glare that has Roy wincing. “Ok, maybe we are but in our defense we kind of just got dropped here.”

“Why are you here?” Terry leans against the Batcomputer console, eyes narrowing. “Not that I’m against a team up, but I know you guys didn’t drop by with an entire team for a little visit.” 

“Tim.” Jason sighs. Terry and Bruce both stiffen up.

“Tim?” Bruce asks cautiously. 

“Yeah. Dumbass got sucked into a portal during patrol. We’re on our way to find him.” Jason eyes them both. “Why are you two freaked out about Tim?”

Terry looks like he wants to answer, but when he looks at Bruce he pauses. Whatever the kid reads on the old man’s face is enough for him to hold his tongue.  

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with.” Bruce says. “Now, let's find your friends.”

“This can’t be Gotham.” Kon mutters as he and Donna weave through the crowds. Even dressed in civvies they’re out of place. People glance at them from the corners of their eyes, disgust quick on their faces. 

“Ugh.” One man mutters. “Who let the lower levels up here?” Donna glares at him, and the man squeaks as he hurries away.

“It’s Gotham.” Donna sighs. “Just not our Gotham.” She points upwards. Kon frowns up at the building they stand under. Wayne Powers looks back at him. Huh. Guess they were in Gotham. But the Gotham Kon knew was never this…bright. Neon signs and lights lit up the sky, people milled about and everyone just seemed…happier, almost. Kon grimaces. 

“Sheesh, I’m gonna guess the Joker dying did the city some good.” Kon watches as a group of young children screech with laughter as they run across the street. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a kid laugh in our Gotham.”

“You don’t know the Joker is dead.” Donna apoints out, raising an eyerow. 

“Uh, I’m pretty sure he’s dead. Last time I checked Gotham wasn’t getting flying cars anytime soon, especially with the Joker in the area.” Kon looks up at the skyscraper. “I could fly-”

“No.” 

“Oh come on Don,” Kon groans. “It’s a Wayne building. I bet you money Tim or Bruce is up there right now doing some…buisness-y thing.”

Donna’s lips pinch. “Tim doesn’t work for Wayne Enterprises anymore. Bruce took back over a little bit before Failsafe happened. Tim’s only involvement in the company now is his Neon Knights program.”

Kon blinks at her. Tim wasn’t working at Wayne Enterprises anymore except for the Neon Knights? Why hadn’t Tim told him? Donna must see something on his face because her expression softens. He places a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t read too much into it. Tim’s been dealing with a lot lately, and I’m not just talking about when he’s out at night. I’m sure he meant to tell you.”

Yeah, that’s all anyone had been telling Kon lately. That Tim didn’t mean to ignore him and the rest of Young Justice, he was just busy. Tim meant to tell him all these things, but he never did. Kon doubted that Tim meant to tell him shit, honestly. The guy was a brick wall when he wanted to be. 

“What could Tim possibly be going through right now that he doesn’t even want to talk to his best friend?” Kon snaps. Donna pauses, looking like she’s debating with herself for a few seconds before sighing. 

“Look, you didn’t hear this from me, ok?” She waits for Kon to nod before continuing. “Tim and his boyfriend, Bernard broke up. Apparently it was…not good. Bernard apparently said a few things to Tim that didn’t land well with him and he’s working through them.”

“I thought Tim liked Bernard?”

“Kon, there’s a big difference between liking someone and loving someone. Tim liked Bernard, yeah, but Tim’s first love always has and always will be helping people. For Tim that meant being a vigilante, and Bernard couldn’t accept that.”

Ok, Kon gets that. He does. Tim had a tendency to hole up when insulted, like a weird turtle. But still. 

“He could have told me.” He grumbles, crossing his arms over his chest. No. He was’t pouting. He was expressing his vast disappointment reasonably.

Donna sighs. “Come on. I’m sure the boys are at the manor. Let’s not keep them waiting.”

“Well. Looks like your friends found us.” Terry says, sounding a little surprised when both Donna and Kon land on the manor steps. He gives Bruce a nervous look. “You getting the door or am I?” Jason tries not to snort as Kon points up at the camera with a smug look. 

“Yo!” Kon calls as he waves up. “Your sound proofing sucks! Let us in.” Bruce levels the kid with a glare. Terry lets out a weak groan. Jason shoots a look at Roy, who nods once. He pats Kyle on thes houlder.

“Don’t worry kid, we’ll join the welcoming party.” He says, already pushing both Terry and Kyle towards the door. 

“But-!” Kyle begins. 

“C’mon Kyle, don’t you want to say hi to Don?” 

Bruce turns to Jason. “The clone, who is he?” 

“A friend of Tim’s.” Jason sighs. “They were on the same team for years until some shit happened and Tim had to pull away.” Bruce studies Jason froa few seconds. 

“Your Tim trusts him?” Jason hesitates.

“I think Tim loved him. He still does, obviously it’s just…none of Tim’s past ‘relatsionships’ have gone well for him. Kon’s his best friend, other than maybe Stephanie- who he also dated by the way. I don’t know. Tim’s weird.” jasn pauses, frowning. “Personally, I think he kid needs someone a bit more grounded. Someone who can see the worst in Tim and not run away, but also pulls him back from the edge without feeding him bullshit. Tim’s never done well with people who pressure him either, and Kon…doesn’t really have an off button.”

“Sounds complicated.”

“Trust me, you have no idea.” Jason snorts. “Sometimes Tim can’t see past his own nose, and it messes him up. He’s got a one track mind and he’s scarily obsessive. He’s intense to the point people can’t handle him or he scares them off.” Jason hesitates. “Tim is a lot like you, actually, when it comes to that stuff.”

Bruce just hums. “Your Tim. He…he had a good childhood?”

The question is…odd. Offputting even. Jason eyes Bruce warily.

“Depends on who you ask. To us vigilantes, yeah he did. His parents loved him, he was relatively safe as Robin until the Clench and that whole thing. He stayed in school for the most part, has friends and a safety net. I’d say he’s doing pretty good for himself.” Jason frowns. “Something happened to your Tim.”

Bruce’s expression falls. It’s the first real show of emotion Jason had seen from the man. It’s a bitter realization. Back home, Bruce was trying to be better about splitting Bruce from Batman. He wasn’t always successful, but it was better than nothing. He was trying. But here? Jason realizes that Batman and Bruce weren’t separate- at least not anymore. Somewhere along the line of this man’s life, the light that Dick and the Robins had given Bruce Wayne went out, causing Batman to take over every aspect of his life. 

And, potentially, driving away the very people that he cared about. 

“Nothing that matters anymore.” Bruce finally says as Terry finally leads the others back to them. Jason wants to argue that is always matters, but something tells him that this Bruce is set in his ways. Nothing Jason would say would change that.

“Elianna’s gonna throw a fit if we don’t tell her.” Terry tells Bruce. The corner of Bruce's eyes tighten. 

“She’s with her father in Blüdhaven.” 

“Oh great, then we can tell her and Dick. Bet he’d love that.” He mutters sarcastically. 

“I thought Dick doesn’t visit.” Roy asks, sounding confused. Terry snorts, crossing his arms over his chest as he gives Bruce a pointed look. 

“Oh Dick doesn’t. His daughter does, he just follows along to make sure she doesn’t get into trouble.” Terry gives them all a crooked grin. “Doesn’t work, obviously.”

“We’re not telling Elainna or Dick.” Bruce narrows his eyes. “And they will not find out.”

“What crawled up his ass and died?” Kon mutters to Roy, who chokes a little bit. Bruce scowls at Kon, who remains completely oblivious to the death glare the former vigilante was sending his way. 

“Ignore him.” Donna says dryly. She glances over at Bruce. “You haven’t seen Tim?” Donna asks. Terry shrugs.

“Not according to the computers. If he was, we haven’t noticed. I doubt it though, with how noticeable you all were when you got here.” He frowns. “And before you ask, no he would not be with our Tim. The guy’s pretty off grid these days. I check up on him every now and then, but he refuses to talk to anyone with a cape or cowl. I doubt that a mini-me would change that.”

“Sorry, who are you?” Kon asks. 

“I’m Batman.” Terry says. 

“He’s Batman.” Kyle and Roy say in unison with Terry. Kon blinks for a second before nodding.

“Cool. Cool, cool, cool.” The Kryptonian’s brow furrows. “Uh, how old are you again?”

“Seventeen.” Terry crows proudly. 

“Oh my god. Batman’s a teenager.”

“He’s still Batman.” Jason points out flatly. “Even if he should have a fucking bedtime, he’s gotta be doing something right if the cowl hasn’t been yanked from his hands yet.” 

“He’s right.” Terry looks suprised when Donna agrees. When Kon gives her an incredulous look, she just shrugs. “He hasn’t even picked any of our Robins to be his successor. Sure, Dick picked up the mantle when Bruce was in the time stream but Bruce has never had a set person to pass the title on to.”

“Yeah, and I tried to fight him over it.” Jason adds on. “Stupid fuckin thing too. I didn’t even really want to be Batman. I just wanted to piss Dick off.”

“You also weren’t mentally stable.” Roy mutters. 

“I wasn't mentally stable for what seems like forever.”

“No kidding.” Kyle mutters. Jason shoots him a dirty look. 

Just when it seems like Jason and Kyle are going to fall into another bickering match, a small beep fills the room. Terry looks eternally grateful to be interrupted and saved from whatever chaos was about to unfold. He walks over to the computer in the manor connected to the cave terminal and frowns.

“No new Tim’s have popped up, but there was a small energy blip that was strong enough to register on the Justice League’s radar a few days ago.”

“Could that have been Tim?” Kon asks hesitantly. Bruce hums.

“Perhaps. There’s a possibility that the energy signature was your Tim passing through our world’s barrier and into another.” Bruce wheels himself over to look over Terry’s shoulder. 

“You keep saying ‘your Tim’.” Kon complains, using finger quotes sarcastically. “You have a Tim here, where is he? The Tim I know wouldn’t quit being a vigilante if he was dead.”

Bruce and Terry share a look. It’s not a good one. Kyle must sense some emotion, because he shifts uncomfortably, brows furrowing. Jason eyes the two warily. Something was wrong here. Something had happened, and the two vigilantes in front of Jason and his group were either scared to tell them or simply didn’t want to. Something so bad that the rest of the family left, or simply never came to Bruce to begin with. 

“What happened to Tim?” Jason asks sharply. “What happened to my brother here?” Terry turns to him, all boyish charm wiped from his face- replaced with the calculating look that was almost identical to Bruce’s. Finally he sighs.

“Obviously, it never happened to your Tim.” He mutters.  “Doesn’t matter. Won’t change the past. Long story short, torture and the Joker don’t mix well.” He looks at Bruce, brows furrowing. 

Torture. The Joker. It doens’t take much to put two and two together. Even if TIm survived whatever the Joker put him through, something would have broke. Whether it was his mind, body or spirit, Jason didn’t know. What he does know is that Tim would have come out changed. 

“Tim’s father worked for Two-Face.” Bruce admits quietly, watching the rain pelt against the window. “I told myself after my Jason that I’d never take in another child. I didn’t want him joining the fight. But he was stubborn. He wouldn’t take no for an answer. When he had nowhere else to go but the streets…I couldn’t leave him to that fate. Instead, I lead him to a worse one.”

It’s a story Jason had heard time and time again. It was a story Jason had lived. Somehow, the Tim of this world’s past had the same life track as Jason. Somehow, Jason seems to have gotten the better end of the stick regardless. 

“He quit, didn’t he?” Kon asks. “That's why you won’t talk about him. He doesn’t even want to talk to you. It’s a threat to him. You’re a threat to him.” Bruce stays silent. It’s as much of an admission as a ‘yes’ was. 

“That’s why Steph, Cass and Damien aren’t here.” Jason murmurs. “Tim was Robin when they came here. He helped bring them in, wetther they want to admit it or not. Without Tim…” Without Tim the family didn’t exist. Not how they all knew it, at least. Sure, it seems like Terry had begun building something back up, but Bruce? 

He was alone, and from what it sounds like Tim was the catalyst. Whatever came after…it caused this. Bruce doesn’t say anything, even as the necklaces around Jason’s group necks begin to glow.

“They’re recharged.” Donna murmurs. Jason huffs.

“Already?” Kon asks skeptically, poking at the necklace around his neck. “Isn’t that a bit fast?”

“It’s been a few hours.” Roy points out. “But uh. Do we go outside or are we going to mess up this place?" He waves his arms around. In Jason's humble opinion, there wasn't much to mess up. There certainly weren't any family photos to ruin.

“I’m trying not to think too much about it.” Kyle admits with a wince. 

“Let's go. Tim’s not here.” Jason hesitates before turning back to Terry. “If you find yourself in our world, don’t be a stranger kid.” Terry raises an eyebrow.

“Yeesh, lets hope that never happens. My mom would kill me.” He laughs. “Thanks for the offer, though. I hope you find Tim.”

“Thanks.” Kyle says sincerely. 

"Wait!" Jason's eyes widen. "I forgot to send a message back home to-"

Before Jason could even finish his sentence, the pendants around their necks begin to glow brighter. Jason barely has time to grab onto the people closest to him before the world falls out from under his feet again. For the second time in less than twelve hours, Jason finds himself falling through the universe itself. 

Chapter Text

Tim didn’t like the fact that there was a wolf staring at him from the hallway. Tim didn’t like that there was a wolf in the hallway, period. He tries his hardest to ignore the canine as he plants himself in the most comfortable seat in the commons room, laptop in hand. 

Instead of, you know, reading the room the wolf just lumbers over to stare at Tim from a closer distance. Great. Wonderful. Tim gives the wolf (was this Wolf? Conner’s pet?) a side eye. The animal just tilts his head at Tim. 

“Shoo.” Tim waves a hand. “Go. Get. I’m doing work.” Wolf lets out a sound that almost sounds like a scoff. Was a fucking wolf making fun of Tim right now? Is this what his life has come to? Tim scowls, even as Wolf continues to watch him. Fuck it. Let Wolf watch as Tim does nothing but scour the internet for information. Maybe he’ll get bored enough to leave Tim alone. 

And boy, does Tim want to be alone. It’s felt like Tim’s been around someone ever since he arrived here. Tim, who is far from an introvert, but who also values privacy as much as the next person.

Well. For the most part. Surveillance doesn’t count as an invasion of privacy. The dull, lonely ache in his chest didn’t help anything either. Whether it was homesickness or something else, all Tim wanted to do whenever he was reminded of home was either bang his head repeatedly into a wall or try not to cry- in a manly, nighttime vigilante way of course. 

Now. Where does the timeline in this world diverge? With most major differences in worlds, there’s usually some big shift somewhere alone the timeline that causes a butterfly effect. Sometimes, it’s as small as a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Sometimes, it’s as big as people long dead not being so dead. 

Tim frowns as he looks through page after page of information. Honestly…nothing stands out to him, which means either this world doesn’t have any major timeline changes, or the change happened a long, long time ago. 

Luckily for Tim, that also meant that if there was a change in the timeline, then there wasn’t a long list of people who could have done it. Tim leans back in his seat, biting the edge of his thumb. Who was more likely to alter a timeline- Ra’s or Vandal Savage? Tim’s first guess was Ra’s. Tim wouldn’t put it past the old freak to do something crazy in another world that simultaneously fucked up a timeline, and managed to preserve it enough that he Justice League still existed. 

On the other hand, Vandal Savage was…well. Himself. While Tim didn’t run into the other immortal a lot, he did steal the manor right out from under Bruce’s grasp. So. 

“If I were an evil immortal guy with too much money, what would I do to fuck up Tim Drake’s life?” Tim mutters to himself. Tim pauses. “Wait, I’m halfway there. I have too much money, and other me’s have been evil. What would I do if I were immortal?”

Well. The obvious answer would be to either start a cult (boring, overdone) or create some sort of secret team to eventually take over the world slowly and methodically and…

Jesus. That’s exactly what fucking happened, wasn’t it? Tim resists the urge to scream. If this world was fucked up because either Ra’s or Vandal got too fucking bored with the cult shit and wanted a hand in taking over the world for the ‘betterment of humanity’ Tim would eat his own fucking hand. 

“You look like you want to kill the computer.” A voice interrupts Tim from stewing in his anger. He glances up, blinking a little when he sees Barbara walking into the commons room. 

“I kind of do.” Tim admits. “Uh. I'm Tim by the way.”

“I know.” Barbara smirks. “I’m on the Team. I get all the good gossip.” Tim raises an eyebrow. 

“Right. Say…there doesn’t happen to be a group of villains trying to take over the world on the downlow here, right?” 

“How’d you know?” Barb asks, sitting down on the couch across from Tim. 

Great. Detective Tim strikes again. God he hated being good at what he does sometimes. Not always. But sometimes. 

“Because.” He drones blandly. “It’s what always happens. One guy can’t take over the world, so he decides to form a little friend group, but the friend group is like a bunch of highschool girls so they all talk behind each other's backs and backstab each other.” Barbara barks out a surprised laugh.

“Wow, you’re right.” She grins. “Dick didn’t tell me you’re funny.” Dick apparently doesn’t tell anyone shit here. His not-brother-brother seemed intent on making his life harder while trying to make it easier. At least he was talking to Tim now, unlike most people in this world. 

Seriously. The amount of distrust in this world was going to give Tim an aneurysm. Him.The one who was most like Bruce when it came to trust and contingencies. 

“I’m a never ending surprise.” Tim sighs as he shuts the laptop. He’d seen what he wanted to anyways. Nothing was too different here other than ages, teams and some slight personality changes. Most of those could be explained by a difference in environments. The economy ran similar, stocks were amost exactly the same, and political alliances seemed normal, if a few years behind. 

What couldn’t be explained was the villains. They were the real outliers. 

“Anyways, The Light is the main group the Team goes against.” The Light. Why did that tick something in Tim’s mind? “Its members tend to change, but The Light’s core group consists of Lex Luthor, Queen Bee, The Brain, Ra’s al Guhl, Klarion and Black Manta. Apparently, the Justice League is ‘hindering’ human advancement. At least, that’s what they claim.”

What…a weird group. Lex, Vandal and Ra’s? Sure. Whatever. When Lex was more into his villain bullshit that would not have been that weird. But Queen Bee? The Brain? Hell, Black Manta? It would make more sence for someone like…fucking Ivy to be on that Team than Queen Bee. At least Ivy would try to make it so humanity wouldn’t destory the earth and, eventually themselves. What kind of stake did fucking Brain have in this?

“That is…the stupidest excuse that they could have come up with.” Tim deadpans. “Ra’s? Lex? Yeah, I could kind of see them pulling the whole ‘must do bad to have good’ schtick. But Brain? Manta?” Tim scoffs, shaking his head. 

Barbara tilts her head at Tim, eyes sharp. “Something tells me the Light doesn’t exist where you’re from.”

“No, we have the Injustice League. Or the Legion of Doom.” 

“Ugh, and I thought ‘The Light’ was a bad name.” 

“It is a bad name.” Tim says, raising an eyebrow. “It’s terrible, actually. But hey, what do I know? Every single name I’ve had as a vigilante belonged to someone else, or was so stupid it’s funny.”

Barbara laughs again. “Right, sure Robin.” Her laugh pitters off, a hesitant expression on her face. “Why haven’t you come to Gotham yet? We could always use the help.”

Tim scowls at the floor. “I don’t think Bruce likes me.”

“Well he doesn’t hate you, otherwise you’d be in a cell somewhere.” Barbara taps her finger in thought. “You’re chill in my books, if that means anything.”

And…honestly it does. Tim loved-loves- Barbara back home. When he first started as Robin, she helped hone his technical skills. When Cass and Steph needed guidance that Tim knew Bruce wasn’t capable of giving, Barbara stepped up. Barbara Gordon was one of the few people who could manage to cow Bruce down like Alfred used to.

Barbara saw herself as a liability when she couldn’t walk. Tim always secretly thought that was when she was the most dangerous- when people underestimated her.

“Plus, most of the original Team members like you.” She adds on. “I’m surprised Artemis and Conner warmed up to you so fast. I mean, Conner has a soft heart for lost things, but Artemis?” Babs lets out a low whistle. “That girl doesn’t trust easily, let me tell you that.”

“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience.” 

“Well, we did go to school together before I joined the Team.” Barbara admits. Huh. Tim did not peg Artemis for a Gothamite of any capacity. Then again, she and Dick did seemed close, but Tim assumed that was because of Wally. Guess he assumed wrong. 

“B-02: Aqualad. B-18: Lagoon Boy.” The two Atlanteans walk into the room. Barbara perks up. La’gann spots Tim and his eyes immediately narrow into a glare. 

“Oh, hey Kaldur!” Kaldur gives Tim and Barbara a small smile. 

“Hello. The Team is on a mission I assume?”

“Yeah.” Tim stretches, wincing as his bones and joints crack. “B left me out.”

La’gann scoffs. “Good.” Kaldur shoots the other Atlantean a warning look that promptly goes ignored. “I don’t know why you’re even allowed here. You should be in a cell on the Watchtower.”

Okaayy that’s a lot of animosity for a guy I don’t know. Tim thinks. 

“I’ve been vetted by the Justice League. I know that. You know that.” Tim points out tiredly. 

La’gann snarls. “I don’t trust you.” Tim sends him a dry look.

“Congratulations. Wanna gold star?” Barbara hides her snort behind a cough. Kaldur sends her a flat look. 

“You didn’t even let M’gann do a mental scan! How are we supposed to trust you if we don’t know your intentions!”

“How can I trust you Tim? You keep lying to me!” Bernard snaps. 

Tim blinks the memory away. “My intention is to get home.” He says coldly. “And did you ever think that the reason I don’t want to do a mental scan is because maybe, maybe where I’m from we’ve had problems with telepaths and psychics turning heroes against each other? Putting triggers into their minds, learning identities against the wills of others. Or, maybe we’ve had entire memories erased by people we trusted. So yeah, I’m a bit leery of a Miss Martian that’s a bit trigger happy with her powers.”

La’gann gapes at him for a moment before scoffing. 

“Whatever.” He mutters before stalking off. Kaldur heaves a heavy sigh, shaking his head. 

“I apologize.” He says to Tim. “He is…defensive of M’gann.”

“That’s more than him being defensive over his girlfriend, Kal.” Barbara points out with a worried look. “That’s…well. I honestly don’t know what to call that.”

“He’s saying what a lot of people think.” Tim mutters. “I don’t blame him for not trusting me, but seriously. Are you guys that dependant on M’gann’s telepathy?”

“Yes.” Kaldur admits with a wince. “Though La’gann…tends to leap before looking when it comes to M’gann. It’s…a problem.”

Tim lets out a sardonic snort. “Better her know he cares than not.” Barbara raises an eyebrow. 

“What do you mean?” Tim goes to answer, then pauses. 

“You don’t love me!” Bernard shouted. “You don’t talk to me, you don’t let me help you. You won’t even let me meet your friends, and you barely let me meet your family. Hell, I don’t even think you can love-” Bernard freezes, something like horror donning in his face. It’s too late to take the words back. Tim flinches. That isn’t true. That can’t be-

“She knows he cares about her.” He says through the lump in his throat. “You’d be surprised how hard that is to do in hero work.”

A noise from somewhere else in the mountain has Kaldur glancing down the hallway. 

“The Team is back.” Tim, Barbara and Kaldur all glance at eachother before walking to meet the others. Kaldur leads them both to a hangar like room with some…aircraft. It’s not like anything Tim had ever seen before, and Tim has seen a lot of different air ships at this point. The Team that went on the mission were all migling at the end of the ramp into the ship. Some of them looked better than the others, but everyone seemed to be in good health other than a few scrapes and burns. 

“How’d it go?” Tim asks. Cassie scoffs, shouldering past him without a word. Garfield sends him a surprisingly sympathetic look before following after her. 

“Not good.” Dick sighs, running a hand down his face tiredly. “Things went sideways.” 

“It’s my fault.” M’gann admits, shame coating her voice. “I wasn't able to get into their minds to stop them.”

“Stop blaming yourself.” Conner grouses. He’s covered in dirt and what looked like soot, his shirt singed and torn in places-mostly his back. He looks over at Tim from the corner of his eye, gaze unreadable. Tim raises an eyebrow. Conner quickly looks away. “We’re a team. It didn’t fall just on you.”

“I dunno man.” Jaime winces, sharing a look with Robin (Tim had to figure out something to call the kid, but calling him any form of ‘TIm felt weird). “We kind of jiffed it.”

“We did.” Robin (Timothy? Timothy.) adds on. He looks up at Dick with a frown. “And we didn’t even get any good intel.” Tim watches the group, but his eyes catch on Conner.

The clone looks a little bit uncomfortable, crossing his arms over his chest. Then, he glances at Tim before looking away quickly again. 

Alright, he knows something. Tim thinks blandly. Conner wasn’t even really hiding it. How was Dick not questioning him? 

“You all did fine.” Dick chides. “Seriously. Fieldwork goes sideways all the time. Now why don’t you guys go get cleaned up while I fill Kaldur and B in on what happened, yeah?”

Jaime and Timothy leave quickly. Conner hangs back for a second before following. Tim’s hand darts out, catching Conner’s wrist before he could leave the room. Conner looks down, brows raised before he turns to look at Tim with a resigned look.

“You’re hiding something.” Tim says firmly, but quietly enough for Dick and Kaldur to not hear. 

“It’s nothing.” Conner looks off to the side. If Tim hadn’t spent most of his time in this universe around Conner, he’d almost assume the other was uncomfortable. Tim knew he wasn’t though. In thought, maybe. Perhaps even uncertain or nervous but not uncomfortable. 

“Yeah, try again.” Tim snorts, stepping back. “Kind of hard to lie to a guy who, you know, specializes in knowing when people are lying.” 

“It’s honestly probably nothing.” Conner argues. “It’s just…one of the cult members said that one of them ‘acended’ around the same time you showed up. I’ve learned that coincidences like that don’t usually happen.”

Ok, yeah. Tim could see how Conner might want to keep this close. 

Tim thinks for a second. Yeah, it could be a coincidence, but Conner was right. Things didn’t just tend to happen like that. But until they had more proof that this cult was involved with the woman that sent him here they really couldn’t do anything. It was frustrating, but right now Tim wasn’t willing to risk anything on a whim. 

“Come on.” Tim pulls Conner out of the hangar, looking for an empty room. When he find one, he pushes them both in, turning on Conner immediately with a frown. 

“They’re working with your…Light people, right?” Tim asks. 

“Yes.” Conner admits hesitantly. “They are. How’d you know that?”

“I’m a detective.” TIm reminds Conner with a smirk. “And I eavesdropped. You all really need to update the vent system. The sound carries a lot.”

“You’re worse than Dick.” Conner sighs. 

“Thank you.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.” 

Tim snorts. “Trust me, I’ve been called worse things than ‘worse than Dick’. I’m like, ninety percent sure half the heroes in my world have either thought or said that at some point.” Conner’s’s lips twitch into a sharp frown

“That’s rude.” 

“Dick’s the reason the Justice League in my world is the way it is.” Tim says firmly. “Dick’s the reason teen heroes even existed. It’s not a diss to me. I’m not nearly as personable as Dick. I’m not as good of a combatant as Damian or Jason. I’m techy. I’m an isolationist, controlling and I can be a complete asshole when things don’t go my way. I’m worse than Dick because I’m not him, I’m me. Plus, I gained respect in my own way.” Tim shrugs. “I don’t want to be like Dick, no offense to him. I’m inspired by him, sure, but to be him? To emulate his Robin? Not only is it not what Gotham and Bruce needed, it’d mean throwing everything I added to the mantle out the window.”

Conner stares at him, eyes a little wide and mouth slightly open in surprise. He shakes his head like he’s trying to refocus befor eglancing at Tim again. “Ok.” He says simply. Tim raises an eyebrow. 

“Ok?”

Conner nods. “Ok. I can’t really question it anyways. Different universes and all.” Tim scoffs, but he hides his smile. It fades when that dull, familiar ache begins to settle in. Conner must see something on his face because he clears his throat. “Why are you asking about the Light?”

“Because, teams like the Light don’t just invite in new players without a reason.” Tim begins to pace in thought. “Either this cult has something they want, or they’re a threat they want on their side.” And if I’m involved, we need to figure out which one it is. 

“Yeah, well good luck trying to look into that without Batman knowing.” Conner grunts. “Unless you’re on the Team, you’re not getting any answers unless we find them for you.” Tim scrunches his nose in distaste. 

“I hate when people do my work for me.” He complains. “They never do it right.” 

Conner watches Tim for a second. His blue-grey eyes drill into Tim, searching for something. What exactly, Tim has no clue. Tim isn’t used to beeing looked at so intensely from someone other than his own family. If this is how it felt, then no wonder people tended to get a bit nervous any time a ‘Wayne’ looked their way. 

“You need a distraction.” Conner mutters, finally looking away. Tim feels the air fills his lungs again. He blinks, then frowns. 

“I do not need a distraction.” 

Conner rolls his eyes. “You do. Ever since you got here your only focus has been on getting home- even after you’ve been told you can’t. You need to get your mind off of that, even if it’s just for a little bit.”

Do you blame me for wanting to go home? Tim want’s to snap. Instead, he holds his tongue and counts to three. It wouldn’t do him any good to sour the one maybe-trustworthy thing he has going for him here. So, instead he asks-

“What do you guys do for fun around here?” 

And Conner just smirks. 

“I’ve got an idea. Be ready by noon tomorrow.” Conner says, walking off before Tim could even object. He just stares at the clone’s broad back in confusion.

“What the hell did I just agree to?”

“This…isn’t what I thought you had in mind.” Tim admits, watching as kids ran around the park happily. Conner shakes his head.

“It’s a small town in Rhode Island. I really don’t know what you expected.” Conner tilts his head a little like he was listening to something before straightening up again. 

“I don’t know. Maybe more than a Sonic and a playground.” Tim blinks against the sun. Maybe he should have put on sunscreen before sneaking out of the cave with Conner. Spending so much time under Gotham’s cloud covered sky did not help him in the sunburn department. “I mean, I know you can’t sneak me through a Zeta to a city, but just for the record- I am not a small town guy. Suburbs? Sure. But small towns are not on the list.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Wait.” Tim squints. “Is that a skate park?” Before Conner could even reply, Tim’s already speed walking over. Sure enough, it was. Dingy, a little small and worn, but for the first time in a while Tim felt a spark in his mind that wasn’t because of a case. 

How long had it been since Tim had his feet on a board? It was before the Battle for the Cowl, he knew that much. God, that had been almost five or six years ago now. 

“You like…skateboarding?” Conner sounds mildly surprised. Tim really can’t blame him. Actual hobbies were hard to ocme by when you were trying not to get killed by aliens every other week. Tim gives him a small shrug, not meeting the Kryptonian’s eyes.

“Yeah. I mean, I used to.” Tim bites the inside of his cheek. “Haven’t done it in a while though. If I tried now I’d probably break an arm.”

“Why’d you stop?” Conner asks. Tim hesitates. 

“I gave my board away after my dad was murdered.” Tim admits quietly. “It felt stupid to have, with everything going on at the time. I never picked it back up. Too busy too.” 

Conner’s quiet for a few moments. “It doesn’t hurt to try again.” Tim pauses, whipping his head around to look up at the other in confusion. Conner isn’t looking at him, instead watching the few teens using the bowl. 

“Never be afraid to try again, Tim.” His dad’s hand is big around Tim’s as he tries not to fall off the board for the third time that day. Tim’s knees are bloodied, but every time he wanted to cry his dad was right there to distract him before the pain really flared up in Tim’s young mind. “The moment you let that fear win, you’ve lost. We Drakes never let that fear win.”

Tim rolls his shoulders, straightens his back, and marches forward, ignoring Conner’s confused noise. One of the boarders, a kid maybe a couple years younger than Tim glances up when Tim approaches.

“Hey man,” He says, feet dangling over the edge of the bowl. “What’s up?”

“You got an extra board I can borrow?” The kid raises an eyebrow, looking Tim up and down. Tim knows what he looks like, wearing League issue sweats and a simple black t-shirt. Finally, the teen shrugs. 

“We don’t have an extra, but you can borrow mine.” Tim picks up the board, feeling the weight of it in his hand. It was familiar, nostalgic. It brought Tim back to his first years as Robin, when things were crazy but seemed so much…simpler. 

“Tim-” Conner starts, but Tim’s already standing on the board and pushing off. There’s a split second where Tim feels like he’s free falling- like his stomach is dropping out of his body. He braces when he hits the bottom, already grinning as he rolls up the other side. He goes back and forth a few times, getting used to the feel of the board under his feet again before he decides to take it up a notch. 

The others skating give him some room, calling out when Tim holds on the rim or does a simple back hold. It’s nothing crazy, definitely not anything he used to be able to do, but Tim feels…

He feels happy. Free, even. Maybe Conner was right, maybe he did need a second to just…not think and just be Tim. 

He’s moving faster now, and in a second of pure confidence Tim tries to turn the next time he goes up. He gets the trun down, but Tim can’t help but laugh as the board goes flying from underneath his feet. He laughs all the way down, covering his smile with the back of his hand. 

“Christ dude, you good?” Someone sitting on the rim calls, eyes wide. Tim waves her off.

“I’m fine. I’ve had worse falls.” The kid falters for a second before a wide grin splits her face. 

“Ok yeah. That was awesome. You almost did a backside one-eighty!” Tim just continues laughing, even as the other skaters begin their turns again. 

“You alright?” Conner asks when Tim finally climbs out. Tim’s cheeks hurt with how much he’d been smiling. He hadn’t had that much fun in…forever really. 

“I’m great.” Tim laughs. Conner watches him carefully for a second before nodding. 

“Alright.” He guides Tim back towards the park entrance. “Let’s hurry. Dick’s waiting for us back at the cave.” Tim’s smile falters. 

“Why?” 

“It’s nothing bad.” Conner says hurriedly. “Seriously.”

“You trying to tell me it’s ‘nothing bad’ doesn’t exactly ease my worries.” Tim points out. Conner scowls.

“You think I’d throw you to the wolves now?”

“You did leave your pet wolf at the mountain with me. That thing has a crazy stink eye, by the way.” Tim chuckles. 

Conner’s lips twitch like he wants to smile. “If all he did was watch you, then he likes you. He ignored Wally for three months when I first took him back.”

“Yeesh. Sucks to be Wally.” 

“He lived.” Conner looks at the corner of the park, eyes sharp again. 

“Hear anything?” Tim asks, looking in the same direction. 

“No.” Conner says, though he doesn’t sound certain. He throws a muscular arm over Tim’s shoulders, almost dragging him along. “Come on, lets get to the cave.”

Tim glances back one more Tim, eyes scanning the park. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. Despite that, Conner stays alert all the way back to the mountains main entrance.

Nothing my ass. When they’re finally in the safety of the mountain, Conner finally relaxes. The base is empty except for Dick, who was peering into the fridge with narrowed eyes. He glances up, grinning when he sees Tim and Conner. 

“There you are!” He says, eyes pausing on Conner’s arm- still wrapped around Tim’s shoulder. Something calculating slisp into the other vigilante’s eyes, even as Conner quickly pulls his arm back to himself.

“Why are you here?” Tim asks, trying not to sound too rude. Then again, could anyone blame him? Dick had been…well, a Dick to Tim for a bit now. Granted, maybe he was starting to warm up to him, if what Barbara said was right.

“Well, we’re getting you on the Team’s reserve roster.” Dick, leans back against the countertop. “My idea, by the way. Conner pointed it out to me, but we really can’t keep you from doing your own thing unless its fieldwork, and God only knows how long it’s gonna take you to break and sneak into a mission if we don’t start including you now.”

“It took you less than a day since our last mission to get him on the Team?” Conner asks skeptically. 

Dick smirks, crossing his arms over his chest with a smug look. “Reserves team. And B can’t resist his first kid.” 

“I’m flattered.” Tim responds dryly. “Seriously. I’m so happy to join a team full of people who don’t trust me.”

“Yeah, yeah, they’ll get over it.” Dick waves him off. “But seriously. We’re adding you to the roster and I’m assuming you don’t exactly want ‘Robin’ attached to you while you’re here.”

While Tim was here? No, he didn’t. Back home was one thing- Tim had earned Robin fair and square. Timothy here hadn’t really had that chance yet, and Tim was not about to be the asshole that took that from him. 

“You’re right.” Tim admits. Dick’s expression melts with relief. 

“You have a name in mind?” Conner asks, looking almost eager. 

“Yeah.” Tim says after a few seconds of thinking. “Starling.”

Dick grins. “Well, I guess we better get you a new suit then.” 

Any enthusiasm Tim feels quickly drops off. 

“Fuck.” 

Chapter Text

“Can’t I just keep my uniform?” Tim does not whine, thank you very much. Dick shakes his head. 

“Your uniform got destroyed when you got here. We don’t have the materials to repair it. The kevlar weave your uniform was made of doesn’t even exist here.” Tim slumps even further into the chair he was sitting on with a low moan. 

Artemis snorts from where she was leafing through different designs that Dick had drawn up. Tim was grateful for her presence, even if it meant that Tim’s dinner was comandeered by Wally. Honestly, Tim was surprised the two had come to help Tim out- especially since they were ‘retired’. For people who were retired from the scene, they sure stayed in the loop.

Kaldur had left the night before, congratulating Tim on joining the Team. He also gave Conner a pointed look, when he told Tim that he was available whenever he called. Tim felt like there was something going on there, but honestly he didn’t really want to dig too deep. Shocking, he knows.

“The longer you complain, the longer finding an actual uniform will take.” She says, setting a design down. “Also, your last uniform was just a Robin uniform with an extra ‘r’. We’re upgrading you.”

“My uniform was fine.” 

“It was bad.” Conner says flatly. He holds out a design to Artemis, who raises an appraising brow. Tim wants to be offended. His second Red Robin uniform was perfectly fine. It was a callback! A sign that even if Damian held the title, Tim would always be there if he was needed, and-

Ok, yeah. He’s starting to see the problem.

“I still want a cape.” Tim finally mutters, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’ve always had a cape.” Except for when he went by Drake, but he doesn’t like to think about that disaster of a hero identity. 

“You Bats and your capes.” Wally says through a mouth full of what used to be Tim’s Kraft mac and cheese. “Is it an attachment thing?”

“Gotham gets cold. Insulated capes help keep the warmth in while adding additional protection to unprotected areas.” Tim recites. He pauses, biting hip lip. “And I like the cape. People dig the cape.”

“Right.” Conner says doubtfully.

Tim gives him a look. “They do. I got my first girlfriend when I was in uniform.” And his second. And third. And…damn. The only person Tim dated as Tim was Bernard. Dick laughs. 

“No way. B would never have let you tell some girl your identity because of a crush.”

“He didn’t.” Tim looks away. “And she was a vigilante too. She wanted to put her dad in prison.

“Wait. Wait wait wait.” Tim doesn’t need to look to know Wally is rapidly waving his hands. “She didn’t know your identity. So she was just dating Robin?” The stunned silence on behalf of the others in the room almost wants to make Tim sink into the floor. 

“I was fourteen.” He argues weakly. “And you all know how he is about identities.”

“Wally knew who I was when I was twelve.” Dick says. 

“Bruce let him tell the Team halfway into our second year of working together.” Conner adds. 

“We went to school together.” Artemis taps her finger on the table. Tim gets the distinct feeling he’s being judged. 

Ok, so Steph was right and little Tim was a prick about his identity and how shitty of a boyfriend he was to her. Great, good. At least something stays consistent. Tim finally groans, hiding his face in his hands. 

“I know I was a bad boyfriend.” He says, voice muffled. “But in my defense I did try. I was even there when she was pregnant.” Tim’s mom wasn’t a mean woman by a long shot, but she was traditional. If she’d found out about Tim dating a pregnant Stephanie Brown…He sudders at the thought.

Someone chokes behind Tim. Conner makes a surprised grunting noise that comes out a bit strangled, and Artemis busts out laughing.

“Dude…” Wally whispers. Tim turns around in his chair, frowning at the shocked, borderline horrified looks on their faces. Except Artemis. She’s still laughing. Tim raises an eyebrow. 

“Why are you all looking at me like that?”

“You have a kid?” Dick asks shrilly. 

“Uh, no. She was Steph’s ex’s. And she was given up for adoption.” Tim’s eyes widen in realization. “Jesus, I was fourteen! And a major fucking dork! I was playing Wizards and Warlocks and listening to Enya, not…having dalliances in the night!” 

Artemis cackles again, while Conner mouths ‘dalliances’ to himself with a lost expression on his face. 

“God you were a dork.” Wally mutters.

“He still is.” Dick whispers back. “Enya.” Wally makes a noise that's somewhere between a laugh and a groan of offense. 

What the hell’s wrong with Enya? Tim wants to ask, but he holds his tongue. He’s lost enough cool points. He can’t lose any more. Artemis stands up from where she was sitting, walking over and holding out one of the designs for Tim to look at.

“I think this one’s the best.” She says, stepping back. Tim’s eyes flit over the page. The suit base was black, with most of the accents being a dark grey. The cape underneath seemed to be a dark iridescent teal, with the mask covering Tim’s eyes- shaped a lot like the one he had in the Ünternet- was a deep purple. The same shade of purple ran down the sides of the uniform’s torso to around mid thigh, and the boots ended right around mid thigh. 

It was a good uniform. It had enough of a Robin influence while still being original. The colors were dark enough that Tim could blend into the shadows if he wanted to, and it was just…

Well. It was honestly cool. 

Dick leans over Tim’s shoulder, letting out a low hum of approval. “That’s not bad.”

“I still don’t like capes.” Conner says, still sitting at the table. He rests his chicken on a fist, calmly watching as everyone else crowds around Tim. “But as far as uniforms go, it definitely isn’t the worst.”

“You run around in a shirt and cargo pants dude. You really don’t get to talk about uniforms and how good they are.” Wally points out. Conner scoffs and mutters something under his breath that Tim can’t hear. Tim looks back down at the paper, thinking. 

“I like it.” He finally says. Dick takes the paper from his hands, nodding. 

“I’ll get this to A.” He says. “Bruce might make the materials, but he’s the one that handles everything else when it comes to the suits. Until then you can use one of the basic ones we have in case you need to go out into the field.”

“Give him an inch, give him a mile.” Conner mutters. Tim shoots him an unamused look. 

“So,” Tim begins slowly. “What now?”

“Now,” Dick grins. “We train.”

Training, by this world's standards apparently meant a generous mix of both team and one-on-one sparring sessions, practice missions, and tactical lessons for the younger members. Dick was unashamed to admit that Tim probably didn’t need to join in on the tactical stuff, but he was a little reluctant to have Tim join in on sparring. 

“Quit looking so nervous.” Tim comaplins quietly. 

“I’m not nervous.” Dick argues, even as his eyes dart around the room. Conner rolls his eyes, but doesn’t comment. 

Dick claps his hands, gathering everyone’s attention. “Alrighty everyone! I hope you all stretched and got warmed up enough because we’re getting right into it. Who wants to hop into the ring first?”

Cassie immediately steps forward, her eyes already locked on Tim. 

“I will.” She says, lifting her chin. “I want to go against him.” She nods at him, eyes sharp. Tim tries not to wince. He couldn’t even say no. Well. He could, but Tim also liked proving people wrong. He was petty like that. 

Cassie was already in the rin, stretching her shoulders.  She smirks at him from the other end of the ring, cracking her knuckles in a way Tim guesses is supposed to be intimidating but just comes across as cringey. 

His Cassie would only glare to intimidate people. In her defence it worked, though. 

“Who did I piss off again?” He asks Dick quietly. 

“No offense, but I think everyone.” 

“Right, right.” Tim nods to himself, a sinking feeling in his chest. “Nothing like going first, right?”

“Would you rather wait until the end to prove a point or just get it over with?”

Tim winces. “Get it over with.” He mubles. 

“That’s what I thought.” 

“He still has a concussion.” Conner grumbles. Dick snorts.

“Please, it’s been almost two weeks and he hasn’t shown any signs of any major issues. He’s fine!” Dick doesn’t even sound convinced himself. Great. 

“I’m fine.” Tim agrees. “You didn’t argue about my ‘concussion’ when I was skateboarding yesterday.” Conner shoots him a look that says ‘please shut up’ but it’s too late. Dick’s eyes are already lighting up mischievously. 

“Ooh you took Tim skateboarding?” Dick grins, throwing an arm over Conner’s shoulder. Conner scowls in resignation. “Without telling anyone? Look at you, rulebreaker.” 

“Shut up. He needed it.” Conner gently pushes Dick off by the face, Dick cackling. 

Tim studies them for a few seconds before looking at the rest of the Team. They seem to be intentionally avoiding looking at Tim, either out of nerves or spite. The only one who seemed to meet his eyes was Cassie, who looked a bit eager for Tim’s liking.

Ugh. She’s gonna try and rock my shit, isn’t she. He thinks tiredly. Sure, hanging out with Artemis, Wally, Dick, Conner and Kaldur was fine. Babs didn’t seem to have a problem with him, but Tim was tired of walking on eggshells around everyone else in this world. Like, he was really tired. 

“You don’t look nervous.” Conner says quietly enough for only TIm to hear. 

“I’m not.” He replies. “I’ve faced worse than a bunch of teenagers who have personal issues with me.” Tim looks back at Cassie. 

“They’ll get over it.” 

“Yeah, after this they will.” Conner raises an eyebrow. Tim sighs. “I’m tired of being the bad guy to them.”

Conner’s lips twitch a little. “Tell me about it.” Tim pauses. Thinks. Huh. I guess he kind of does, if what Superman was implying during the Watchtower hearing meant anything. And it probably did. Clark, as TIm knew him, rarely said anything he didn’t mean. Then again, the Clark Tim knew also cared about Kon. Maybe not quite like a son, but he was family to the Kents regardless. 

Conner here was a Kent by name only it seemed. Tim almost pitied him for that. Ma and Pa Kent helped Kon so much back home, it was almost sickening to think of any version of his best friend that had never experienced their warmth. 

“Tim, Cassie. Ready?” 

“He’s dead.” Jaime mutters.

Cassie doesn’t hesitate, rushing at Tim with a wild smirk. Clearly, she expected Tim to be some sort of pushover, even though it was established just who he’d trained under. Tim can see the moment she shifts her weight to deliver what would normally be a devastating kick, but Tim slides out of the way leaving the Amazonian teen stumbling to catch herself. 

Tim can almost hear her teeth grind together as she turns to face him again, eyes narrowed. 

She’s hitting hard, sacrificing her stability to put me down quick. Tim and Cassie circle each other, eyeing the other as they wait for someone to make the first move. Cassie moves first, left side already turned slightly so she could strike with her right hand. 

Tim ducks under a punch that is definitely way too hard for training, jabing at a few pressure points as he slides behind her. Cassie yelps, stumbling a bit as Tim flips away before she could even turn around. 

“He’s not even hitting back.” Barbara whispers. 

“No.” Timothy says, something close to awe in his voice. “He’s just tapping pressure points and nerves or dodging.” He’s proving a point. Goe sunsaid, but everyone in the room seems to realize it at the same time. 

Cassie tries to come at Tim again. Tim just doges. The match continues like that for a bit, with Cassie going at him and Tim either dodging or hitting pressure points just hard enough to be painful, but not enough to incapacitate. 

“Fight me!” Cassie snaps- so much alike but so different from the one he knows. Like the Cassie Tim knows, this one was quick to anger and she made it known. Unlike back home though, this Cassie was impulsive, brash. Untrained. She flies at Tim, drawing several startled cries from the members watching. 

Tim waits until the last second, leaning to the side and grabbing Cassie by the arm. He slams her into the ground as gently as he can, standing over the dazed girl. The room falls silent, everyone frozen at the scene in front of them. 

Tim kneels, keeping his expression open. “I’m not your enemy, and if I were you’d be dead. No matter how angry you are, you have to learn to keep your cool or else it will get you or someone else killed.” Cassie stares at him, gaze unreadable. Finally she sighs, pushing herself up so she’s sitting. 

“Ok.” She mutters, sounding a little ashamed. She glances up at Tim, cheeks a bit red. “How did you flip me like that?”

“You were telegraphing your moves too much.” Tim explains helping her to her feet. “It makes it obvious what you’re going to do, especially when you’re acting on emotions.” 

“Right.” Cassie says, sounding dazed. She pauses. “You could have taken me out immediately, couldn’t you?”

Tim gives her a small smile. “Maybe. But I wanted to give you a chance.” I wanted you to give me a chance. Cassie nods, and they both step out of the ring. It isn’t until Tim slides right back next to Dick that the whispers begin filling the room. 

“Are you ok?” Garfield asks Cassie. 

“Yeah.” She says, sounding surprised. “I’m fine.”

“I think you missed your calling as a teacher.” Dick jokes, nudging Tim. Tim snorts. 

“If you think I can teach, you’re dumber than I thought.” Tim takes a sip of water. “And you’re not dumb. I don’t have the personality or the patience to teach.” 

“I didn’t think Conner did either, but here we are.” Dick ignores the offended look Conner sends his way. Dick leans over conspiritorially. “Seriously, you should have seen him fresh out of the pod. I’ve only seen Batman frown that much.”

“I’m right here.” Conner throws his arms up in exasperation. “I have superhearing. I can hear you.”

“Yup, proud of you man.” Dick claps a confused Conner on the shoulder. Tim lets out a surprised laugh. He stops when he sees Timothy nervously standing in front of him, no doubt trying not to fidget. 

“Can you teach me how you did that?” He asks quietly, gaze unreadable underneath his sunglasses. Tim blinks in surprise. This was the first time the kid had approached him, much less talked to him. Tim glances at Dick and Conner. They both give him encouraging nods. Tim turns back to his younger version, expression softening. 

“Yeah. C’mon, let’s see what you can do.”

The mountain felt calmer the moment Artemis left the zeta room. She glances around, frowning. It was moments like these where she wished Wally was with her. Her boyfriend tended to stay behind when Artemis visited the mountain. He preferred when everyone visited their place. She always just assumed that Wally felt a little bit guilty leaving the Team, but Artemis didn’t have those hang ups. They- she- made her choice. She wasn’t about to let anyone make her feel bad for it.

She knew that training only got done about a half hour earlier, but she also knew that a lot of the Team tended to do extra sparring on their own. She pauses when she hears the kids talking. 

“-the way he moved.” She caught. “I didn’t expect it. Nightwing doesn’t even move like that.  And he was right, I let my distrust get the better of me.” Oh. They’re talking about Tim. He must’ve finally jumped into sparring. Artemis knew he was hiding some hidden power beneath his lean frame. It was all in the way he moved- quietly, but confidently. No moves wasted. 

“He did that with no training for the last two-ish weeks. Imagine what he’s like at his peak.” Jaime adds. “Merde.” 

“He actually didn’t hurt you, right?” She hears Garfield ask. 

“He didn’t.” Cassie confirms. Artemis frowns. Did they have…Tim go against Cassie in training? “He could have though. He had every right to, considering how I’ve been treating him. He’s not…so bad.” Cassie finally admits in a whisper. Artemis smiles to herself. Good. The kids were finally starting to see what she, Conner and Kaldur did.  She sets down the groceries she brought on the counter before quietly slipping away again

The kids were finally learning to trust.

Tim tries not to groan as he slumps at the kitchen table. The remainder of training wasn’t anything worse than he’d done before, but after two weeks off his muscles were already sore as hell. The others were either in the showers or helping clean up the training room, leaving Tim in the kitchen alone with M’gann.

Awkward, by the way. Despite any weird feelings they had towards each other, Tim gives the martian a grateful look as she sets down a simple sandwich in front of him. She gives him a stilted smile in return. 

Despite what a lot of the people here seemed to think, he didn’t not like M’gann. He just didn’t trust this version of her, especially since it was established that she was fairly open about using her powers. In Tim’s defence, she hadn’t tried to get to know him too well either, but Tim will acknowledge that her first impression of him wasn’t…the best. 

“Is Conner happy?” She asks suddenly. Tim pauses in confusion, sandwich halfway to his mouth. It was an odd question. Didn’t they live here together? Weren’t they on a team together for the last few years? WHat did that even mean?

“As far as I know.” Tim raises a brow. “Why, did something happen?”

M’gann’s expression stays some weird mix of relief and sadness. “No. No, nothing happened.” She says softly. 

Realization hits Tim quickly. Kori had talked the same way about Dick after they seperated. Hell, Tim had sounded the same about Steph after they broke up. It didn’t take much to put the pieces together. Shit, they dated. The breakup must’ve been something else if Conner and M’gann barely talked to each other outside of missions. Though, Tim was curious. Conner didn’t seem the type to hold grudges over people he cared about, and yet he was clearly avoiding M’gann. 

Tim wants to know. But…if Tim went looking for info against Conner’s will he’d lose one of the few people that seemed to truly be on his side here. If he was back home, Tim might look into it anyways. But he wasn’t home, he was here. Being nosy was not going to help his case. 

“Alrighty then.” Tim concedes. He goes to bite into his sandwich again when some alarm starts ringing. 

“Oh no.” M’gann murmurs. 

“The League of Shadows are moving in on a lab in Paris !” Dick shouts. “All hands on deck. Even you, Tim! Everyone suit up!”

Tim tries not to grin as a spark of excitement fills his veins. Finally. 

Chapter Text

Jason lands on his feet, feeling a lot less disoriented than the last time he’d been dropped in another universe. 

“I’ll never get used to that.” He hears Kon mutter from behind him. Kyle just groans pitifully. For a man who was one step away from being a living god, the guy was basically the epitome of a wet cat when he wasn’t flying around in space. 

“You better.” Jason tells Kon firmly, even as he picks Kyle off the ground. “We’re probably going to be jumping around a lot until we find Tim.” Kon makes a semi-disgusted expression, but doesn’t argue. Jason counts the win for what it is. 

“Are we in Gotham again?” Kyle asks weakly. “I hate Gotham.”

“Why are you so affected by this?” Kon asks, giving the Lantern an exasperated look. “You literally fly through space all the time and traveling through a multiveral barrier is what does you in?”

“Fuck off.” Kyle groans. Jason raises an eyebrow. Ok, Kyle was cursing at a teenager. He must have felt really bad. Kon grumbles to himself, tilting his head as he listens to the area around him. Jason watches closely as various emotions flicker across the clone’s face before it settles on what he could only interpret as fear. 

“News broadcasts in one of the apartment buildings just said that Superman wiped out fifty people.” Kon says. “Not rouges or villains. People.” 

“Shit.” Jason hisses under his breath. “Mind control?’ Kon pauses. 

“I-no. The broadcaster keeps talking about some regime.” Kon finally turns to give Jason a lost look. “Jason, where the hell are we?” 

“I don’t know.” Jason says. “I don’t know.”

Jason makes the executive decision to lay low. Luckily, the Gotham Library was still standing exactly where Jason remembered it being. Honestly, it almost looked nicer, which was weird considering Kon had just heard that Superman killed a group of people. Maybe it was a giv eor take thing? Kon and Kyle stayed close behind as Jason led them to the computers, all of them looking over their shoulders despite the place being empty.

This world was obviously darker, especially if Superman and Wonder Woman were fucking dictators if what little research Jason did was correct. Heroes were killed by their own. Metropolis was nothing but a wasteland of iron and concrete, and somehow Gotham became some sort of safe haven for anyone not wanting to live under the constant fear of death by the hands of who were once heroes. 

Nobody had heard from his brothers in years, which meant they were either dead or sided with Clark. Someone going by the moniker of ‘Nightwing’ was a close ally of Superman, but Jason refused to believe it was one of his brothers. He didn’t know what he would do if he knew if ont of them sided with a dictator. Bruce was outed as Batman, and while he did exist there was no telling if Jason was even revived in this world. 

Kon looks more and more ill the more he reads about the atrocities Clark has commited over the years. Jason can’t blame him. He’d done his own fair share of bad things, but Jason never even claimed to be a good person. Clark did. Diana did. 

“He killed Billy.” Kon says. “Billy’s a kid.” 

“Don’t have to feel guilt when the kid is in an adult body.” Kyle’s voice is subdued. The Lantern sounds exhausted. Jason can’t blame him either. Everyone he knew was dead or evil. At least Bruce and the Kents were still alive, if in hiding.

“Think Roy and Donna are ok?” Kon asks.

Jason snorts. “No, it's Roy. Just because Don’s there doesn’t mean his luck is suddenly going to turn around.” Well, maybe. DOnna could get them out of any situation they found themselves in, and Roy could hold his own well enough no matter what Jason said. 

“Glad to know you’re concerned about him.” Kyle mutters. Jason just rolls his eyes. 

“All of us on this mission have died and come back to life. You really think I’m super concerned?” Kyle’s mouth opens and closes for a few seconds before his shoulders slump in defeat. 

Jason shakes his head as he turns back to the computer, only to pause. The hairs on his neck stand up. They were being watched. Jason doen’t turn to look, even as he subtly nudges Kon.

“Can you hear anyone around us?” He asks. Kon’s brow furrows for a second before he shakes his head. 

“Jason, is something-”

“Someone’s here.”

Judging by the fact that Kon couldn’t hear anything from them, it didn’t leave a lot of options for who. It was a Bat, or someone Bat adjacent. Someone who had the tech to disguise themselves from any super hearing, who could get close to Jason without setting any biological alarms off. 

“Shit.” Kyle hisses, shoulders rising to his ears. “Who?”

“Dunno. Probably Batman.” Jason pauses. “I’m probably going to do something stupid now.” 

“Please don’t.” Kyle gives him a kicked puppy look. “My headache just went away, and your ‘stupid ideas’ tend to be very explosive.” 

Most of Jason’s ideas were explosive, thank you very much. Jason ignores him, turning around and looking up at a shadowed part of the library. 

“You can come out.” He says, voice carrying through the empty room. For a second, nothing happens. Then, Batman steps out of the shadows. He looks to be about the same age as his Bruce, but far more weary. Tired. Jason supposes losing what’s left of your family will do that to you.

“Jason.” Bruce says neutrally. He frowns a little. “No. You’re not…”

“I am in fact, Jason.” Jason raises an eyebrow. 

“I know you are.” Bruce grunts. “I’m assuming you’re my alternate’s Jason.”

An interesting choice of words. Still didn’t clear up whether he was alive or dead here, thanks. 

“Alternate?” Kyle asks. 

“You aren’t the first people to visit this universe.” Bruce studies them all for a few seconds before sighing. “Follow me.” Bruce turns and doesn’t check to see if they’re following.

“Do we trust him?” Kon asks slowly, body coiled and ready to move at a moment’s notice. 

“I’m guessing it’s him or evil Superman, so I’m going with him.” Jason gestures to Bruce. “At least I know I have a chance of beating Bruce if it came to life or death.” 

“Fair point.” Kyle winces. “Alright. I guess we follow Batman into the unknown.”

Yeah, because following Batman always ended well. 

At least it was better than evil Superman.

Gotham was the same as back home, if a bit jaded. Bruce led them to what Jason thought was Wayne Tower, if the headquarters of Bruce’s company suddenly became a fortress in addition to an administrative building. The people milling about the lobby paid no mind as Batman led a group of young adults to the elevator. Even with the whole identity thing, Jason expected there to be…something. A reaction. Instead- nothing. Jason shoots a weird look at Kyle, who just shrugs. 

The elevator takes them to one of the sub-levels. When they walk out, Jason is quickly reminded of the Batcave with the huge monitor and various vehicles parked around the area. There were some training mats set up, an area for weights. When Jason notices the distinct lack of Dick’s acrobatic rings, Damian’s sowrds and Tim’s staffs he feels the air leave his lungs. Seeing the lack of his brothers made it more real. 

“Oh, you found them.” Dinah sounds surprised when Bruce leads them through the cave’s entrance. Both Donna and Roy jump to their feet at the sight of Jason and the others. He doesn’t like the relief on their faces. 

“They were in the library.” Bruce says, slipping the cowl off. “Barbara found them through the cameras.”

“Thank the gods.” Donna murmers, resting her hands on Jason and Kyle’s shoulders. “When you didn’t arrive with us, we were worried.”

“This place is hell.” Roy adds on, scowling. Dinah winces, but doesn’t argue.

“I’m sure there are worse worlds.” Jason sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose. 

“Yeah, but Wonder Woman and Superman are fascists here. Don’t know how much worse that can get.” 

“Don’t jinx us.” Kyle begs. “Please.” 

Jason turns to Bruce. “Do you mind if I borrow your computer for a minute? I need to send a report home.” Bruce raises an eyebrow.

“You want to send a mission report through dimensions.” The man asks flatly. Jason nods, a straight expression on his face. Bruce sighs. “Fine. Be quick.” Jason gives him a quiet ‘thanks’ before making his way over. Jason quickly types in a string of code from memory- one he remembered that Zur had somehow gotten from Failsafe to traverse through the universes to get his own fucked up army. 

He sends a simple message home. We’re fine. Safe. No Tim yet. Will report back. 

He turns to Bruce. “Now, what the actuall hell is going on in this world?” The alternate heroes all look at each other. Something tells Jason that what happened to this world was…complicated.

“It started when Metropolis blew up.” Dinah says wearily. “Well, it started before then, but the destruction of Metropolis meant there was no turning back. Not for him.”

“The bomb in the city was tied to Lois’s heart. Joker’s idea.” Bruce doesn’t look away from the various newsfeeds. Most of them were criticizing Superman’s ‘Regime’ but there were a few that welcomed the Kryptonian’s steely hand. “Clark was…influenced to kill Lois. She took anyone within twenty five miles of the city with her.”

“He killed Lois?” Kon asks weakly. 

“Not…not willingly. Not her.” Bruce’s shoulders slump. “She was preganant with their daughter. After that, Clark…lost himself. He began killing.” Daughter. Not son. That mean Jon never would have existed here, even if Lois was alive. 

“There was a prison riot after.” Dinah starts softly. “Arkham. Nightwing and Robin went with Batman to stop it. Clark and a few members of the Regime inteveined. Things got out of hand.”

“Damian killed Dick.” Bruce’s voice shakes in a way Jason had never heard before. “It was an accident, but it still happened. And then, Damian joined the Regime.”

The thought of Damian killing Dick, even on accident was unthinkable. Tim? Maybe, especially when the kid first came to the manor. But Dick? Damian looked up to Dick, practically worshiped the ground the older man walked on. The only person Damian might betray Bruce for was Dick. 

“People picked sides pretty quickly after that.” Dinah says bitterly, frowning. “Anyone not a part of the Regime was a threat to the Justice League- what remained of it, anyways. They killed J’onn, they killed…they killed Ollie.” 

“I saw him thirty minutes ago!” Roy crosses his arms. Dinah just gaves Roy a sad smile.

“The Arrow you met when you got here was an alternate that decided to stay and help our cause.” Bruce says. “There’s not many heroes left. None that are willing to stand up to the Regime, anyways.”

“Why did Diana let this happen?” Donna asks. “Diana never would let this happen.”

“She’s the one pulling the strings.” Someone new says. Everyone turns to watch as Barbara rolls herself in, computer in her lap and glasses perched on the edge of her nose. A short haired blond follows close behind, eyes darting towards Kon before flickign back to the ground. Barbara barely spared Jason and his crew a glance. “She got burned by her boyfriend during World War 2. Steve Trevor, I think? Turns out he was a nazi spy. She killed him and became the bitch queen we know today. Though, apparently she wasn’t that much better before that.”

“Steve was a nazi?” 

“What the fuck.” Kyle murmers. The Lantern runs a hand through his hair, the corner’s of his eys tight. 

“You’d think we’d be used to this.” Kon mutters.

“Any time Kal began to doubt what he was doing, she steered him away.” The blonde says. “I should have seen it.”

“Kara…” Dinah sighs. 

Wait. She’s Kara? Supergirl Kara? The quiet, almost meek girl in front of Jason was nothing like the loud, lively Kara Zor-El Jason knew. She seemed to be a shadow of herself, just like everyone else here. 

“We can’t stop them.” Barabara says. “We’ve tried. They had people break them out. The best we can do is try to minimize the damage and keep as many of us alive as possible.”

“We’ve come to a standstill.” Dinah nods. “We don’t mess with each other. They don’t kill us.” 

“Kind of a lousy agreement, considering they’re still killing people.” Barbara shoots Jason a warning look. “What? I’m right!”

“Well, if you want to try to fight all of them, be our guest.” Dinah sighs. “We don’t have the people or the resources to risk.”

“Who’s all on your side?” Roy asks.

“Hal, everyone in this room. Catwoman, Harley, Barry, Zatanna and Constantine. Blue Beetle, Starfire. Firestorm.”

“That’s it?” 

“Everyone else is dead or unwilling to risk it.” Barbara’s voice it cutting. Bitter. Everyone here seems to be. Babs was never one to be all sunshine and rainbows, but she was never cynical. Honest, yeah, but never cynical. 

“There’s no point in arguing.” Bruce cuts in, voice sharp. “Kara, bring them to one of the housing floors. Barbara, alert the others that we have guests.”

Kara startles, eyes darting over to them. Donna gives the girl a reassuring smile, but it just makes the Kryptonian wince. 

“Uh, follow me.” She waves them forward. Jason glances back over his shoulder, but Bruce, Dinah and Barbara are already surrounding the computer and talking to each other. Jason turns back around and lets Kara lead them away. 

The housing floors are unsurprisingly empty. Jason’s sure there’s a few heroes living here, but nothing compared to what could have been. Kara shows them the kitchens, the living room and a few meeting rooms with a quiet voice. She doesn’t seem too sure about them, and honestly Jason can’t blame her. From what he understood, she’d been with Clark’s group at one point or another. It didn’t take a genius to believe that Kara might have been manipulated by her cousin.

“The apartments are down that hall.” Kara gestures down one hallway. “They’re all open except for the last six. You can pick any of the open ones though. Training rooms are all down a floor or in the sub levels.”

“Where do you train?” Kon asks Kara. The girl shrugs. 

“I don’t. Why?”

“I’m a clone of ‘you-know-who’.” Kon winces. “There might be a version of me here, but I’m honestly too scared to even look in case I’m an asshole.” Kara pauses, looking Kon up and down for a few seconds before her brows rais in realization. 

“Kon-El, right? Or is it Conner? Martha and Johnathan switched between the two.” Kon’s eyes light up.

“Ma and Pa are ok?” He asks, suddenly floating a few inches off the ground. Kara nods, looking down at where Kon was levitating. 

“Yeah they’re fine.” She says, finally looking up. “You exist here, but nobody’s seen you or Wonder Girl in years.”

“Figures.” Kon groans. “You get wiped from existence for a decade and suddenly it becomes a thing.” 

“It wasn't a decade.” Donna corrects. 

“Eight years is close enough.” Donna looks like she’s going to say something else when Jason hears footsteps and quiet voices coming from one of the other hallways. Jason watches closely as Barry Allen and Hal Jordan walk into the room. They only seem to notice Jason and the others a few seconds after entering. Barry falters, frowning.

And Hal? Hal jolts to a stop when he sees Kyle. Jason watches as the older Lantern pales, eyes widening. Without another word, the pilot turns on a heel and rushes away. Barry just watches him go, a conflicted look on his face.

“What was that?” Roy mutters, brows furrowing.

“I’m guessing you lot are the alternates Bruce warned us about.” Barry’s lips tighten as he looks at their group. “Hal was a Yellow for a while. They killed the other Lanterns in this Sector, including Kyle.”

“Shit.” Kyle mutters. 

“Is there anyone here not crushed by guilt?” Kon asks, sounding a little exasperated. 

“No.” Kara murmurs. “I don’t think there is.” Kon gapes at her for a few seconds before nodding. 

“Great. Ok, cool.”

“Not cool.” Roy hisses. “Very not cool Kon.”

“Yeah, Kon. We’ve had more time to adjust to the crippling amount of guilt our universe forces on us.” Jason says sarcastically. “Not like all of us haven’t been evil once.” 

“Kyle, you ever been evil?” Roy asks. 

“Depends on who you ask.” Kyle replies honestly. Kara blinks at all of them before something close to a laugh make its way out of her mouth. 

“You guys are weird.” She says. Kon smirks.

“Thank you.” The clone does a little bow that makes Kara finally crack a smile. 

“Come on.” She says. “I’ll show you to your rooms. Bye Barry.” She waves at the speedster as she leads them away. Barry watches them pass with a nostalgic look. Jason doesn’t want to read too much into it. 

Ok, he kind of does. But unlike Bruce or Tim, he actually has boundaries. Instead of being an asshole, Jason lets Kara lead them to their rooms. A bed was calling his name anyways. 

Jason’s sitting in his quaint little room when Bruce finally comes looking for him. Bruce stands in the doorway, watching Jason scroll on the tablet left in the room aimlessly. Finally, Jason looks at him with a raised brow. 

“Need anything?” 

“No.” Bruce continues watching him. 

Jason heaves a sigh, setting the tablet down on the nightstand next to him. “Am I alive here?” He asks. Bruce pauses. 

“Yes. Last I heard, Jason  and Damian abandoned the Regime. I hope wherever they are…I hope they’re finding peace. Repetance. Something better than what they had.” Well, that’s a better answer than Jason honestly expected. 

He stares at Bruce for a few silent seconds before nodding once. “Thanks.” Bruce doesn’t move from the doorway, watching Jason closely. Finally, his shoulders fall. 

“I should have killed him.” Bruce admits, voice quiet. “I would have saved everyone a lot of trouble if I had just put him in the dirt when you asked me. Clark asked me to. He was right in front of me and I just couldn’t finish the job.”

Jason pauses. He didn’t think about the guilt Bruce might be feeling here. This Bruce, who still had some of his allies, but none of his family.

“I don’t…enjoy killing.” Jason says quietly. “I know I probably seem like it, but I don’t. It’s a means to an end, and if anyone should be the one to take that burden why not me? The one who died and came back, who was tainted anyways?”

That was the one thing people always got wrong about Jason: that he enjoyed the death he left in his wake. He didn’t. He liked that he was keeping people safe, that he took a threat off the streets, that one more bad man couldn’t harm an innocent. But he didn’t like killing. He didn’t like snuffing out a life, because that meant he was no better than the Joker. He hated it. But it was what needed to be done. 

Bruce stares at him for a second, eyes sad. “I missed you, Jason.”

Jason feels a pang in his chest. “Your son’s still out there, Bruce. So is Damian. Don’t hold onto your anger. It’s not what Dick or Tim would have wanted.”

Bruce’s lips twitch up into a small smile. “I’ll remember that. Get some rest, Jason. You look like you need it.” 

Chapter Text

Jason wakes up to shouting outside his door. He stares up at the dark ceiling for a second, wondering if not going to mass for the last eight or so years was finally catching up to him before he sighs and pushes himself up to a sitting position. The lack of sleep had caught up to him, obviously. All he wants to do is curl up into a ball and slam a pillow over his head.

“-insane!” Someone snaps. Jason rubs the sleep from his eyes. He slides off the bed, stumbling towards the door. He cracks it open, blicking away the stars in his eyes from the blinding light.

“W’as goin on?” He mumbles. Outside his door, Hal flinches back at the sight of him. Oliver Queen just raises an appraising brow.

“Christ on a cracker.” The Lantern mutters. “I thought I hallucinated you.”

“You wish, Glowstick.” He fully steps out into the hallway with a frown. “Why are you yelling this early in the morning?”

“It’s three in the afternoon.” Ollie points out. Jason squits at him before sighing. 

“Yeah, that tracks actually.” Jason runs a hand down his face. “Anyone else from my group awake?”

“Yeah actually. Kon and…I think he said his name was Roy?” 

So no Roy in this world. Got it. Jason nods. “Yeah, it’s Roy.”

“Huh. Anyways, word is that Superman’s going to try and attack Belle Reve again. We aren’t sure if he’s recruiting, or going to kill the people they put in there because they were ‘spreading anti Superman sentiments’. Bruce wants to go stop him, but the Insurgency is spread a bit thin right now.” They put political prisoners in the same jail as fucking rouges?

“A bit thin? A bit thin? Half of our members are in space trying to get allies in case Clark decides he wants to try brainwashing us to his side!” Hal sounds borderline hysterical. “Which he already did by the way- without all the extra tech from Braniac he has now. It’s suicide to try and stop them.”

“Why aren’t you in space with them?” Jason asks. A bitter look crosses over Hal’s face. 

“The Insurgency doesn’t trust him.” Ollie replies honestly. “And he burned a lot of bridges in space. I doubt Hal would ever be able to help with intergalactic affairs ever again. No offence.” Ollie pats Hal on the back with a wince. 

“None taken.” Hall mutters dejectedly.  Jason studies the two for a few seconds. Ollie seemed…weirdly upbeat compared to everyone else. Maybe it was because he was from another world too? Hal just seemed depressed. Jason could understand that. Killing your friends does that to a person. 

“We could probably help.” Jason says. Ollie blinks at him. Hal frowns, looking confused. 

“Huh?”

Jason shrugs. “I mean, we’re here. We’re trained heroes, and we’ve got our own powerhouses. Plus, the Diana we know back home would give us a verbal lashing if we didn’t at least try to stop her from killing somoene dishonorably.

Ollie hums, turning to face Jason more as he eyes him up and down. Hal just gives the archer an incredulous look. 

“You’re actually considering it.” 

“I am.” Ollie tilts his head. “I really am.” 

“Oh god.” Hal whispers. “This isn’t going to go well.”

“No.” Bruce says flatly when Jason brings up his idea. Jason throws his hands up in exasperation. 

“Oh, so you’re just going to be stupid? That’s your plan?”

“My plan,” Bruce begins, turning to shoot Jason a sharp glare. “Is to keep Superman from completely ignoring the Geneva convention.” 

Yeah, how's that been going? Jason wants to snap. He holds his tongue though, narrowing his eyes at Bruce. Bruce watches him for a few seconds before letting out a heavy sigh, sitting down in a chair. The older man puts his head in his hands.

“You’re spread thin, Bruce.” Jason says softly. “We won’t be here that much longer. Let us do this for you.”

“Your friends haven’t been asked.”

“They’ll say yes.” Bruce gives him a doubtful look. Jason sighs and leans against the desk.

“Please.” Jason asks. “Look, whatever went wrong in this world…even I know not everyone at Belle Reve is the worst of the worst.” Not everyone in that prison deserves to die. Some were there because they had no choice. 

“I’ll think about it.” 

“You don’t have time to think about it.” Jason argues. Bruce’s lips tighten. 

“Talk to your team.” Bruce says. “Then we’ll talk.”

“Fine.” Jason turns on a heel. “I’ll be right back.”

Jason stomps his way back to the kitchen, where everyone was now gathered. Donna takes one look at Jaosn before shaking her head. 

“You’re going to do something impulsive and drag us with you.” She states before taking a long sip of her coffee. 

“Superman’s going to attack Belle Reve. We’re going to help stop them.” Jason slams his hands on the table. Kyle, who was half slumped over into a pile of toast jumps up with a curse. Roy snorts.

“Jumping the gun a little bit, aren’t you?” 

Jason narrows his eyes at the ginger-haired archer. Roy pointedly ignores him, stealing a strawberry from Kon’s parfait. 

“I’m down.” Kon says, smacking Roy’s hand when he reaches for another berry. “I never get the chance to fight Clark without feeling bad about it. Now I can kick his ass? Sign me up.”

“Of course you would say that.” Donna sighs, setting her coffee down to frown at Jason. “Did you think this through at all or did you hear what was going on and automatically jump at the chance to help someone?”

Jason gives her an offended look. “I thought this through!”

Kyle squints up at Jason. “Did you? You don’t sound like you did.”

Jason scowls. “Do you all think I took over half of Gotham’s criminal empire by being an impuslive idiot?”

“I mean…” Kon shrugs. “Kind of?” Jason stares at the clone incredulously. He turns to Roy, who winces. 

“You have a track record, Jay.”

“The Outlaws was different!” Jason points at Roy. “You were just as bad as I was!”

“I mean, I’m not going to deny it.” 

“Can we get back to the point?” Kyle interrupts. “That Jason just offered us all up to fight against like, half the Justice League who are not going to hold back at all?”

“Do you want people to die?” Jason asks. Kyle pauses, then closes his mouth. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“Shut up.” Kyle mutters. “Pulling the ‘people are going to die’ card is a dick move.”

“But people are going to die.” Roy points out. 

Everyone falls silent for a few seconds as they think it through. Jason lets them, crossing his arms over his chest with a frown. He understood the reluctance- he did. But at the same time, they were heroes. Plus, their pedants showed no signs of sending them into the next universe yet. Why shouldn’t they try to help while they were here?

“Fine.” Donna says suddenly, a resigned look on her face. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Donna glances at Kyle and Roy. Roy nods in agreement. Kyle just groans, but gives Jason a nod as well.

Jason claps once. "Alright. Get ready, I'll go tell Bruce."

“I can’t believe we’re doing this.” Hal’s voice floats through the Batplane. “How did Barry and Harley get out of this again?”

“Because they’re dealing with the President, Hal. Because the rest of our diplomats are in space.” Dinah snorts, shaking her head. “We’re doing the right thing.”

“You’re not the one flying with Clark’s turncoat cousin right now.”

“This turncoat can hear you.” Kara mutters. Bruce ignores the bickering, turning to look over his shoulder. 

“You five stay together.” Bruce orders, glaring at Jason and the others. “You fall back the moment I say so. You do what I tell you to do, and you don’t ask questions.”

“Sir yes sir.” Kon gives Bruce a sarcastic salute. Jason tries not to be irritated at the demand because the rational part of his brain realized that this was dangerous and a really, really high risk. The irrational part of his brain still chaffed at the idea of following any version of Bruce's orders like a lapdog.

“Our goal is to relocate the prisoners.” Barbara says, voice distorted by her Oracle vocorder. “Away from Belle Reve, and away from where Superman can get to them.”

“Is there anyone specific he’s going after?” Roy asks, checking his quiver again with Ollie. 

“He’s going after Count Vertigo and Silver Banshee. Anyone else will be…a gift.” Bruce sounds bitter. Kyle pauses. 

“Those are weird people to go after.” 

“Perhaps. But Superman has lost any rationality. Banshee was one of his rouges once. Vertigo is a potential threat.”

“Anyone could be a threat if they wanted to be.” Jason replies. He checks his pistols one more time before holstering them at his hip. Donna shifts from next to him. Jason got why she was nervous. Diana was her sister. Nobody wanted to fight their family, even if they were evil. 

“Hey,” Jason bumps their shoulders. Donna glances at him from the corner of her eye before looking back down at her sword. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

“Yes I do.” Donna frowns. “Diana would want me to.”

“Dick would too.” Jason tacks on. “God, he’d be insufferable if he was here. Imagine getting killed by a rock.” Donna snorts. 

“That’s my friend you’re talking about.”

“He’s my brother.” 

Donna falls silent for a few seconds. “We will find Tim.”

“Eventually.”

“Eventually.” Donna repeats. “But first, let’s go fight my sister.”

Jason slips on his helmet as Bruce guides the Batplane to land. “I thought you’d never ask.”

They’re thirty feet into Belle Reve when the building shakes. The head guard that went out to meet them flinches. Kon scrunches his nose. 

“So much for relocating.” 

“Batman.” Superman’s deep voice fills the air as the ceiling collapses. Dramatic much? Clark, Diana, and Hawkwoman all land, eyes sharp as they take in the group in front of them. “Move.”

“No.”

“Bruce.” Diana steps forward with narrowed eyes. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

“Yeah. Not gonna happen.” Jason cuts in. Diana pauses, her eyes pausing on Jason and the others like she was seeing them all for the first time. Her eyes narrow. 

“Alternates again, Bruce? Was one loss not enough?”

“Who says we’re gonna lose?” Kon gives the Amazon a sharp smile. Diana snarls.

“Do not test me, child.”

“Let me test you then.” Donna steps forward, lasso on her hip and a sword in her hand. “Princess to princess.”

“Nobody is testing anyone.” Clark snaps. He turns to Bruce again. “Let us through. Let us do what needs to be done and we’ll leave.”

“You’ll never stop, will you?” Kara asks softly. Clark doesn’t even look at her. Ouch. Talk about family drama. 

“No.” Bruce growls. Clark narrows his eyes.

“So be it.” Clark turns into a blue and red blur. Kara rushes to meet him, Kon right on her heels. The three Kryptonians crash through the prison wall, sending dust into the air. Donna and Diana both run at each other, swords clashing with sparks flying. 

“Come on,” Roy grabs Jason by the arm. “Lets get as many people out of here as possible.” Jason nods, trying not to curse as Hawkwoman slams Hal intot he ground behind them. Dinah screeches, sending the Thanagarian flying.

“I should get paid for this.” Roy lets one arrow fly into the fray.

“I’m not giving you a 401k.” 

“I knew you weren’t giving your Hoodies a retirement plan.”

“My what.” They take a turn down one hall. A group of guards were standing in front of an iron door, hands shaking on their guns.

“Hey, we need you to open the doors.” Jason calls, slowing down to a jog. 

“We can’t-”

“If you don't, everyone in the prison will die.” Jason cuts off sharply. “Even the ones who don’t deserve to be here.” The guards all look at each other nervously before one nods.

“The real bad ones are on the lower floor. The people that are here just to be contained are upstairs. Go for them first.” She says, typing in a code. “Then go for the rouges.”

“Got it.” Roy nocks an arrow. “I’d get out of here, by the way.”

One of the guards scoffs, already turning to run. “Don’t have to tell me twice.” Roy and Jason run in. The prisoners on this block were all shouting and banging on their doors, obviously panicked.

“Let us out!" Someone shrieks. “He’s going to kill us!”

Jason curses to himself. He turns to Roy. “You get the ones down here, I’ll get the people on top.”

“Got it.” They split up, Jason taking the stairs two at a time. He's just about to unlock the door closest to him when he hears a gun safety click off behind him.

“Stop.” Someone snarls. Jason pauses, tuning slowly. There was a gun aimed between his eyes- familiar, if a bit old. It was the exact same pistol Jason used until he was back in the fold with the Bats. The person holding the gun? Also familiar.

Because, you know. Jason was being held at gunpoint by himself. 

“Fuck me.” He mutters.

“No thanks.” Other Jaso clicks the safety off. “Now, Jason. Why are you here?”

“To see the sights. Why the fuck do you think I’m here for dipshit?” Jason snaps. Someone behind Other Jason scoffs.

“To release the prisoners.” Someone says. Jason leans to look around his döppleganger to find…Damian. He was older, but it was so clearly his youngest brother in the Nightwing suit that it was almost laughable. Jason smirks.

“Someone has brains.” Damian narrows his eyes. 

“Shut up.” The kid snaps. 

“Jay?” Roy calls from below. He was already rushing grateful prisoners out of the block, gazing up at Jason with a frown.

“Keep going Roy.” Jason calls back down. He looks back at the two in front of him. “We’re getting these people out of here, wether you want us to or not.”

“They’re here for a reason.” Other Jason’s hand tightens on his gun. “They’re not good people. So what if Clark kills them?”

“Is that what you have to tell yourself to sleep at night?”

“It’s the truth.”

Jason scoffs, shaking his head. “What happens when there no more rouges left to kill? When they turn on the people just trying to live. Clark and his group have already killed other heroes. They’re working with villains. What happens when they don’t have people as powerful as them to take down? We were criminals once. We stole. What will you do when they start going after kids like us? Will you still be able to look at yourself in the mirror?”

Other Jason’s hands shake. For a second, Jason’s a little nervous the guy’s gonna put a bullet in him anyways, but then the other heaves a heavy sigh. The gun drops. 

“I haven’t trusted the Regime since Clark sent Zsasz to kill Alfred.” Other Jason admits quietly. “And I might not have liked Tim that much, but being locked in the Phantom Zone for five years only to get killed by Zod the moment he got out? Shitty way to go.”

“The Regime has…lost its way.” Damian mutters. “I should have seen it the moment they let Sinestro join the ranks, but I was blinded. I refuse to let their pretty words sway me anymore.”

“Great, so are you going to help me and Roy, or continue to spit on Dick’s name like you have been?” Jason asks steadily. Damian scowls, but shifts on his feet. The kid was conflicted. Other Jason glares at him. 

“Quit trying to put rainbows and sunshine into his mind.” He grunts. 

Jason raises a judgmental eyebrow at his other self. “If you’re what I was like when I first came back to Gotham, no wonder Dicking wanted to beat my ass so much. I was an asshole.” 

“You still are!” Roy shouts from below. Other Jason’s eyes flit between Roy down stairs and Jason. Finally, he lets out a low growl.

“Fine.” He stalks forward until he’s chest-to-chest with Jason. “We’ll help. But only for these guys.” He slams a fist against an iron door. The person behind it yelps. Damian scowls, but moves forward to start unlocking doors without complaint. 

One by one, the three of them begin letting out the prisoners. A lot of them were just metas- normal people who shouldn’t have been there. Were the Regime putting potential threats here? Citizens who could cause an upheaval?  Jason unlocks one door, and a girl hesitantly pokes her head out. 

“What’s going on?” She whispers. 

“You’re getting out of here, let’s go.” Jason ushers her out of her cell. Her green eyes widen in surprise. A wide smile suddenly splits her face. She pulls Jason into a tight hug. 

“Thank you.” She says before scrambling down the stairs. “Nina, Cass let’s go!” Jason blinks a little at the familiar name and looks down. Sure enough, a version of Cassandra Cain was standing calmly next to a vaguely fishy looking woman who radiated anxiety like it was a competitive sport. Cass looks up at Jason, nods once, then turns and walks into the unknown with her two companions. 

Jason watches them go. Hopefully, Cass would find her way to Bruce eventually. At least that mean this version of his dad would have somebody from the family still on his side. 

“Why are you here?” Damian asks, pausing beside Jason once everyone was cleared out. “Not in the prison. In this world.” Jason looks at his little brother, finally seeing him. His hair was long in a way Jason’s Damian would never allow. “It allows an opening for an enemy attack.” The kid would claim, sneering at Tim whenever the other teen let his hair grow out. Tim would always just rolls his eyes and ignore the youngest. This Damian was tall, but he was also thin- he didn’t lack muscle, but for a guy who looked so much like Bruce he lacked the bulk of his father. Malnutrition, maybe? His skin was paler, his nails chipped. 

Jason knew immediately why Damian looked like that. Guilt. Grief. Depression, maybe. Even as he took Dick’s title, Damian let himself lose any semblance of self care that had been trained into him by the man. Self inflicted punishment. Is that why he really joined Superman? He felt like after Dick he was no better?

“I’m saving my brother.” Jason answers honestly. “I’m saving Tim.” Something bitter crosses Damian’s face. Oh. Right. Tim’s dead here. Is there a world where Tim doesn’t get fucked by the narrative?

“I wish you luck.” Damian says. “Drake…Tim didn’t deserve his fate here. Even if we didn’t agree…he was a good man.” 

“He is.” Jason says softly. He hesitantly puts a hand on Damian’s shoulder. The other eyes it doubtfully, but doesn’t shake him off. “Don’t keep running yourself into the ground to find salvation, kid. It’s not what they would want.”

“What do you suggest I do then?” Damian snaps.

“Get out. Live the life they never got to. Put down the sword, and leave the fight. Maybe try talking to Bruce instead of trying to cut his throat out. Believe it or not, he can be pretty forgiving for a guy that holds a grudge. Speaking from experience.”

Damian’s lips tighten. He nods once. “If I must.” Damian looks towards the yard, where most of the fighting had traveled. “I’d go help them. Me and Todd won’t stop you.” 

“Bye, Damian.” 

“Goodbye, Jason.”

Jason turns. “Roy! C’mon, everyone’s out. Let’s go!”

“Way ahead of you!” Roy grabs a gun from one of the fallen guards. Jason raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t comment. Roy rolls hsi eyes anyways.

“My arrows will do jack shit against them. At least these guards are armed to take on metas.” 

“As long as you know how to shoot.” Roy sends him a flat look.

“I don’t miss.” 

“With a bow.”

“I don’t miss.” 

“You’ve literally shot me in the shoulder.” 

“Yeah, and it saved your heavy ass from going splat on the pavement, did it not?” Roy snaps. “Now stop bitching and lets get a move on.”

“You talk to Dick like this when you two ran that team together?” Jason asks, just to be a little bit petty. 

“You don’t want to know what I said to Dick when we ran the original Outsiders team together.” Jason grimaces underneath his helmet. Yeah, he really didn’t want to know what was said between those two during that time. Jason might’ve still been dead, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t heard just how much tension there was between his brother and Roy- all the kinds of tension, by the way. Which makes Jason want to gag and die again.

“Please don’t tell me.” He begs as they get closer to the fighting. Roy looks over his shoulder with a smirk. 

When they finally rejoin the chaos, it’s…overwhelming. Bruce and the other members of the Insurgency were fighting other members of the Regime- Killer Frost, Cheetah, and Hawkgirl. Jason’s crew seemed to be holding their own well enough. Kyle was the one who was the most banged up, but him and Hal seemed to join forces to fight…shit, was that Raven? 

Kon and Kara were still fighting Clark it seemed, though Clark looked worse for wear. Kon had blood dripping from his nose, but the uncharacteristic snarl on his lips was enough for Jason to want to steer clear. 

Donna was neck to neck with Diana. Jason didn’t think there was a Donna in this world, which meant Diana didn’t know her moves. But Donna knew hers. It was clear Diana was frustrated that the fight had gone on for so long- her movements were getting more brash, sloppy even. It wouldn’t be long before Donna had her on the ground.

Even with the tides in their favor, Jason knew this could go sideways quickly. He looks at Roy, pulling the magazine in his pistol out. “Get ready to run.”

Roy shoots him a worried look. “What are you going to do?” 

“Something stupid, probably. Kon,” The clone shifts at Jason’s whisper. Listening. “Make an opening for me. We’re going to end this asap.” Kon doesn’t nod, but something cold settles on his face. He pulls out a complicated move when Kara leaves an opening, feinting right before moving left and landing a heavy punch across the older Kryptonian's cheek. 

“Jon would hate you. Lois would hate you.” Kon spits. Clark flinches. It’s enough of an opening for Jason to put a new clip with Kryptonite bullets into his pistol, raise his gun and fire. The Kryptonian goes down with a cry, holding his now shattered, knee as Kon stands over him. Jasond arts forward, ignoring Kyle’s shout from above. Clark glares weakly up at him, eyes glowing red.

“No!” Diana shouts. She looks at Jason with a rage that has a bolt of fear travel down his spine. “You!” He swallows, and lifts his gun again. He hears a few people around the room stop breathing. Clark freezes, only heaving heavy breaths as Jason rests the barrel of his gun against the back of Clarks head. Jason knew the man couldn’t do anything. Even without the kryptonite slowly poisoning his bloodstream, Kryptonians weren’t too accustomed to pain like humans were. Their invulnerable skin made it so building up a pain tolerance was near impossible unless they set out to do it- this Clark obviously had not done so. 

A bullet to the knee. That’s all it took to take Superman down in this world. A fucking non-lethal shot.

“Do it.” He snarls, trying to hide the shake in his voice. “And it’s his head, not his knee.”

“You wouldn’t.” Diana says, but even she sounds uncertain. Jason smirks under his helmet. 

“Try me.” 

“Leave, Diana.” Bruce says. Hawkwoman groans underneath his boot. 

“This isn’t over, Bruce.” Diana snaps, gathering Clark into her arms. 

“It is for now.” Donna says, gripping her sword tightly. “Leave, sister. Before I make you.” Diana glares at her, but quickly takes to the sky anyways. Bruce turns to Jason.

“The prisoners?”

“Long gone, hopefully. Even the rogues booked it without trying to attack Roy.” 

“Oh thank god.” Kon groans. “I’m in so much pain right now. There’s only so many walls I can be slammed through before I start feeling it.”

“You did good.” Dinah says, smiling softly. Kon preens a little, pufifng out his chest. Kyle snorts, floating to the ground.

“Don’t feed his ego.” The Lantern sighs. “We have chicks back home that do that enough.”

“Chicks.” Roy laughs. “What is this, 2000’s California?” Kyle scowls. Roy’s laugh pitters off. “Oh, right. You’re from California…” 

Suddenly, the necklaces around their necks begin to glow. Roy groans.

“You’re leaving?” Kara asks. Kon winces. 

“Yeah…not really our choice. These things drag us around whenever they want.” He taps on his own pendant. Kara shrugs.

“That’s not the weirdest thing I’ve seen.” She admits. She falters for a second before drawing Kon into a hug. “It was nice to meet you, Kon.” Kon’s eyes widen as he freezes up. He hugs Kara back just as tightly after a few seconds. 

“Yeah.” He syas, sounding a little choked up. “You too, cuz.”

“Are you ready?” Donna asks Jason. Jason thinks for a few seconds before nodding.

“Yeah. I think we’ve done enough here.” He turns to Bruce. “Thank you for helping us.”

“No.” Hal steps forward, shaking Jason’s hand. “Thank you.” Jason blinks in surprise before stepping back with his group. He looks at Bruce, who just smiles sadly as the world begins to haze around them. 

“Good luck.” He calls. Jason nods. 

“You too.” With that, the world falls out from underneath once more.

Chapter Text

Tim didn’t like Paris. Maybe it was because the one and only time he’d been in the city was when he was looking for Bruce and subsequently got assaulted, or maybe it was just him. Either way- Paris sucked and Tim has yet to have a good experience there. 

It didn’t help that Ra’s was the one they were going to confront. The Team seemed to think the leader of the League of Assassins wouldn’t be there- but Tim knew better. It was rare for an operation in a large city like this to not have a trusted League higher up there. That left very, very few people and Tim really didn’t want to see any of them in this world. 

“I hate Paris.” Tim says aloud for the upteenth time. Conner sends him an exasperated look from where he was tying his boots. 

“You keep saying that but you won’t explain why.”

Tim snorts. “You wouldn’t understand.” Conner rolls his eyes. 

“I don’t like Paris either.” Dick chimes in. “Went there when I was little. Too crowded.”

Not exactly why I don’t like Paris, but you do you. Tim checks his belt one more time, making sure he had enough smoke pellets in case they needed a quick escape. 

“Yeah well, let's stop Ra’s quickly then we can get the hell out of dodge.” Tim collapses the staff and slides it onto his hip. “Did that alert tell you what they’re after or are we flying blind?” Please know, please know, for the love of god please know. 

“We don’t know.” M’gann admits with a frown. “With the Light, it could really be anything.”

Can something go my way for once? Tim tries not to slouch in his seat. Nothing like going head first into a battle without any intel. Not like that couldn’t go wrong in any way. No sir, not at all. The rest of the team continues to get ready around what everyone called the Bioship. Tim didn’t even want to guess the meaning behind that name.

What the hell could Ra’s possibly want in Paris? A relic, an ally or enemy? Back home, the only thing that had him truly interested in the city was Tim himself. The thing is, the fucked up respect him and Ra’s had for each other back home was nonexistent here. Hell, Ra’s probably didn’t even know or care that a new Robin took up the mantle.

“Hey, first time back in the field though!” Dick says cheerfully, spinning in his chair to look at Tim. Tim glances up, raising an eyebrow. “You excited?”

“Actually, I am.” Tim crosses his arms over his chest. “I’ve basically been sitting in the cave with nothing to do for about three-ish weeks.”

“Conner’s been giving you enrichment.” Dick waves him off. Conner gives Dick a dry look that the Gothamite ignores. 

Tim raises an eyebrow under his mask. “I had ‘enrichment’ for two days, Nightwing.”

Dick’s grin sharpens. “Don’t worry Starling, you can get that leftover energy out today.” It’s a bit weird, not being referred to anything not Robin. Did Dick deal with this when he switched to Nightwing? Did Jason? 

Sure, Tim had other aliases before- but Robin was always, always an option. A fallback. Comfortable. 

But now? Starling was new, but it felt like less of a weight then Robin or Red Robin ever did. Both of those titles were ones Tim had taken out of some form of necessity. Starling wasn’t. 

“I’ll give you ten bucks if you can flip over five people.” Tim finally says. Dick’s grin widens a little.

“I’ll give you twenty.” 

“Dick, you’re the only person flexible enough to flip over that many people in a fight.” Cnner sighs. He glances at Tim. “And don’t encourage him.”

 “I would never.” Tim says, lifting his chin. Conner snorts. 

“Sure,” He says doubtfully. Tim watches him for a few seconds before turning and looking out the window at the ocean flying by below. First mission. TImw ants to laugh. He’s had about ten ‘first missions’ in his lifetime. This one owuldn’t be much different. 

He’s dealt with Ra’s before, after all. It won’t be too hard for Tim to figure out the immortal’s hand. Tim closes his eyes and breathes. Everything would go well. It had to, for Tim’s sanity. 

The lab looks a lot like any other building in the area- inconspicuous other than the surpsiingly large parking lot for a Paris suburb with absolutely no cars in it once so ever. That was eerie enough for Tim, but when they walk in the feeling gets even worse. The place looked like it had been abandoned in the middle of the work day. Behind the receptionist desk, there was a half eaten salad and a small cup of yoghurt. Tim glances around, eyes catching on the spilled cups of coffee and energy drinks scattered around the room. 

“It’s quiet.” Cassie says, glazing around nervously. “Too quiet.”

“They left in a hurry.” Tim says, bending over to pick up a dropped phone. He taps on the screen, frowning when the ‘low power’ signal flashes. “No signs of any hostages or civillians being attacked. I’m guessing they all got out the moment the alarms got tripped.” Which didn’t ease Tim’s worries by any means. If a lab breach caused the lab’s entire labor force to drop ship and run without calling any real authorities (the Justice League, but did they really count?), then that was a giant red flag.

Dick hums, waving the Team formward down the hallway. The hallways, much like the waiting room, were full of half finished work, dropped drinks and personal items. Tim tries to look around to see if anything stood out, but was left empty handed. 

“This place gives me the creeps.” Blue Beetle admits.

“I don’t like that nobody’s here.” M’gann agrees with a frown. 

Tim shakes his head. “I don’t like that there’s no other doors in this hallway.” 

“You’re weird.” Beast Boy chirps before shifting into a green capuchin and clambering to sit on Conner’s shoulder. The clone shoots the boy with a wary look before suddering. Beast Boy lets out a little laugh as Conner marches forward.

“He has a thing about primates.” Nightwing whispers loudly. M’gann’s lips twitch like she’s trying not to smile, and both Wonder Girl and Blue Beetle hide their laughter behind their hands. Robin just shakes his head.

The hallway eventually opens up to a second large room. Light shone down from the skylight above, reflecting off the glass railing on the second story. It was almost peaceful. Key word: almost. Almost as soon as they all step into the room, a whistling sound fills the air. Tim drops to the ground, lip curling when a shurkin impales itself intot he ground a few feet away. The room explodes into a flurry of action as assassins from the League drop from the second floor. Some were wearing the green of Ra’s chosen fighters, others the creamy white of Talia’s- the rest were in plain black. Huh. Usually Ra’s and Talia’s groups worked separate from each other unless the League of Assassins were planning something big enough for the groups to join forces. 

Talia was nowhere to be seen. But that didn’t mean Ra’s wasn’t here. He was always a lot more ‘hands on’ when it came to the more dangerous ventures anyways. 

The Team (god they had to work on that too) moves to meet the assassins head on. Tim grabs his bo, snapping it to length just in time to block a swipe from a sword. Tim drives his knee into the assassin’s sternum, spinning his staff into a hard swing and hitting her upside the head. 

“We’ve got to figure out what they’re going for.” Tim says to Dick when they end up back-to-back. “Ra’s and Talia usually don’t force their sects of the League together unless they have to.”

Dick nods sharply, taseing another assassin with his escrima. “M’gann!”

“Link is up.” Tim tries not to flinch as M’gann's voice fills his head. It’s nothing like having a comm, or just shouting at each other mid-fight. Realistically, Tim could see how a mind-link could be useful in the field. But the Bat in him? Yeah, that part of him couldn’t help but to dwell on how having someone in your mind mid-fight could go sideways.

“Starling, with me.” Tim dodges a blade, dropping down and kicking the assassin’s feet from underneath themselves. Tim darts forward, falling into step next to Dick. “There should be a way downstairs around here…”

“There,” Tim points at a sign that reads ‘sublevel staircase’ in English and French. 

“I hate going down stairs.” Dick comments as they bust through the stairwell doors. He pulls out his grapple, making sure it was wrapped around the railing.  “You just can’t look cool going down stairs.” Dick drops down from the top. 

Tim rolls his eyes as he follows suit. “Out of all the things in the world, that’s the thing you complain about?”

“Pick your battles wisely, Star.” Dick calls up. 

They unhook their grapples right before their feet his the lowest level. Tim rolls with the impact, getting to his feet and running to the only door at the end of the short stairwell hallway.

“You know, people always hide weird things in basements.” Dick comments as they open the doors. He frowns when all there is in the room is an old computer system and a couple of filing cabinets. “Er, normally they hind weird things in basements.”

“Speaking from experience?” Tim asks, sliding into the office chair and plugging his flash drive that held the codes he used to hack into low security computers. All it takes is a couple of key strokes and Tim’s in.

“How do you think we found Superboy?” Dick leans over his shoulder to watch as TIm began scrolling through files. “What are you trying to find?” 

“Anything useful. What this lab was for, what they’re working on now. What type of pastries Ra’s plans on buying.”

“He seems like a canelé guy to me.” 

Tim clicks on a more hidden file. He reads through it, realization dawning. Familiar formulas and compounds flash on screen. It was one tim hadn’t personally seen in years- its creator long past using this form of weaponry against the Bats or the Justice League. 

“Shit.” Tim hisses, finally seeing what exactly Ra’s was after. “Why do they have some of Ivy’s pollen?” 

“What?” Dick asks sharply.

“There’s got to be something else here.” TIm mutters, fingers flying across the keyboard. “Why the hell does a random lab in Paris have pollen from Ivy? Hypnotic pollen specifically.”

“I don’t know.” Dick’s brows furrow. “She’s been in Arkham for the last six months. There’s no way they got a new sample unless they have someone on the inside.”

“Well, you and B better start re-doing those background checks.” 

“Hurry up down there.” Conner demands, sounding strained over the mind-link. “We’re getting outnumbered.” 

“They brought out the Kryptonite.” Cassie adds on. “So yeah, we’re kind of running out of time.”

“On it.” Tim responds. He turns to Dick.  “What exactly does the Light want? No bullshit. ”

“To get rid of superheroes and vigilantes because they think we’re hindering human progress and evolution.” Dick recites. “But I think that’s the pretty version they pedal to people. I’m pretty sure they just want to take over the world and divvy it up for themselves.”

“Sounds about right.” Tim looks back at the plans, thinking. “This version of Ivy’s pollen is impossible to shake without the antidote, but if someone really wanted to…they could probably find a way to make that mind control permanent. What better army for the Light than an innocent unwilling one that the Justice League won’t go as hard on? They won’t fight normal citizens with the same power as the Rouges or the Light.” 

“You’re a smart one, aren’t you?” That voice. The same sly, old tone that haunted Tim for months after getting Bruce home. Tim turns to sneer at Ra’s as the man walked out of the catacombs.

Dick glares, the lenses of his mask narrowing as he carefully watches Ra’s and his entourage file into the room. Tim subtly glances around the room for a camera. There wasn’t one that TIm could see, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t one hidden somewhere. He resists the urge to frown. They’d fallen right into a fucking trap. 

“I like to think so, yeah.” Tim snarks, snapping his staff to full length. Dick steps closer, escrima sticks already cracking with electricity. Ra’s lets out a low hum, eyes darting between him and Dick. The man’s lips twitch. 

“I didn’t know the Detective took in another stray.” Ra’s studies them, amusement covering his face. “Personally, I thought two was enough. But I suppose he needed to get a replacement somewhere- we all know the new one isn’t living up to expectations.” The air stills. The insult towards Timothy was bad enough- but to bring Jason up? That was a low blow, and Ra’s knew it. It was meant to hurt, to stoke Dick’s anger and cause him to lash out. Tim can hear the other’s grip tightening around his weapons.

I can’t let him get emotional. Tim panics. If he reacts, he puts everyone in danger. But Tim knew things about Ra’s that few knew. He doubted the Team knew anything about Ra’s family like Tim did- both through personal experience and Damian’s recounts. Tim knew how to flip the tables on Ra’s. Tim knew how to make him hurt. A feral smirk spreads across his face. Ra’s smug expression falters. 

“You want to talk to me about replacements?” Tim bares his teeth. “Does the name Dusan mean anything to you?” Ra’s eyes widen a fraction- the closest thing to shock Tim had ever seen from the man. Then Ra’s snarls, gaze darkening with rage.

“How do you-”

“How about Nyssa?” Tim goads, not letting up. “That two strikes, Ra’s. Of course there’s Talia, but her love for Batman makes her weak in your eyes. Not exactly ‘Demon’s Head’ material. Plus, there’s her little project.” Tim tries not to grin a little at the offhanded mention of Damian. He wasn’t sure if his youngest brother was even a thought in Talia’s mind here, but from the way Ra’s stiffens, Talia was well past thinking when it came to having Batman’s child. 

Which…meant Jason was probably also alive here. Huh. He’ll probably have to do something about that…

That’s for future-Tim to deal with. Current-Tim was busy trying to goad Ra’s into a fight. 

“Starling, what are you doing?” Dick hisses. Tim waves him off. 

“You’ve had countless ‘heirs’ and none of them have met your expectations. For all the talk about replacements, you don’t seem to have any you trust- not fully, anyways. But that’s the difference between you and Batman. He doesn’t replace his children. None of the Robins were picked by him to join his battle, to replace their predecessor. It was our choice. Nobody else's.” Tim points at Ra’s with his staff. “You could probably learn a thing or two about that.” 

Ra’s bares his teeth. “For a boy that so clearly has a sharp mind, you lack respect. But that can be taught.” With a flick of his wrist, the assassins behind Ra’s rush at Tim and Dick, blades gleaming in the low light. 

Luckily, these ones weren’t as skilled as the assassins Tim had fought with and against back home. The ones in this world weren’t near the skill level Tim expected, but they were still dangerous in their own right. What they lacked in skill was made up in numbers. Ra’s hangs back, eyes shifting as he watches Tim make quick work of his opponents. 

“We know what you’re doing here.” Tim says with a grunt. “You won’t win.” 

“It doesn’t matter.” Ra’s smirks, spreading his arms wide. “All I need to do is collect a sample to take with me back to Nanda Parbat.” 

Shit. Ra’s was right. But…if they didn’t give Ra’s an opportunity to even get his hands on this version of the pollen…That left incineration. Luckily, Tim was good at blowing up Ra’s stuff. Tim smirks, watching as Ra’s face fall in confusion. 

“I’ve always beat expectations.” Tim says as Nighwting manages to sneak up behind Ra’s and tase him with the ends of his escrima. 

“We’ve got to get back up with everyone else.” Tim says, already turning to run.

“Whats your plan?” Dick asks, moving to catch up. 

“We need to blow up the place. The fire will burn the pollen to ash, leaving Ra’s empty handed.”

“That’s…not a bad idea.” Nightwing admits. “Might be the first time the Team intentionally blows a place up, though.”

“Can someone tell me if there’s any combustibles up there?” Tim asks.

“We’ve got benzoyl peroxide.” Robin replies quickly. “A lot of it, actually.” 

“Wait. Isn’t that the stuff they use in face wash?” Dick gives Tim a confused look.

“Yeah, in small amounts it works as an anti-bacterial. Larger quantities of it are flammable and explosive.” He tunes back intot he mind link. “That’ll work.”

“What are we doing?” Wonder Girl asks.

“For now, you all are going to keep the assasins distracted. We’re going to try and get them to draw back, then we’re going to blow this place sky high.”

“If they don’t draw back?” Conner asks.

“Don’t give them a choice.” 

The mind link is silent for a few seconds. 

“We can do that.” M’gann finally says. 

“Good.” Tim says. “Get everything ready. We’ll be up soon.”

Tim doesn’t even want to know what M’gann did to send the few assassins left standing running, but he wasn’t going to complain. The younger members were already getting the explosives ready, with M’gann and Dick watching over them.Tim tries his hardest to hide his stress form Conner, but he was obviously failing. 

There was a fifty percent chance that Tim’s plan would work. Honestly, he was surprised the Team let him take charge like he did- especially since they didn’t trust him at all a couple of horse ago. He wasn’t complaining or anything. It made his life a lot easier if these people trusted him. Conner raises an eyebrow as Tim continues pacing, tapping his finger on his cheek anxiously. 

“They’re taking too long.” He says. 

“It’s been five minutes.” Conner points out. 

“Exactly. For Ra’s…that’s not fast enough.”

“Everything’s in place, Starling.” Robin says over the mind-link. Tim sags in relief. “Is there anything else we need to do?” 

“Make sure the exits are open. Get out, and get the bioship ready to move. Ra’s will be mad if he wakes up before we’re out.” The shadows around Tim shift. Conner tenses, fists raising. 

“About…that.” Assassins dart forward, blades drawn. They all have a bright green glow to them that has Tim grimacing. Kryptonite edged blades. A suprisingly well thought out move on Ra’s part. 

Well. Maybe not here. Tim got the impression that the League of Assassins and Kryptonians clashed more often here than Tim was used to. 

“Go.” Tim pushes Conner. “Go!”

“No.” Conner growls, even as he pales from kryptonite exposure. Tim shoves him again. 

“I’m not having you get skewered because you’re stubborn. Get. Let me handle it.” He snaps. Conner growls, eyes darting between Tim and the green glow before he shakes his head and runs.

“Assasins on ground floor. Time to go.” Tim spins his bo around, gritting his teeth as he hits a masked man in the leg hard enough to hear the bone crack. He spins around, uppercutting another in the chin before sweeping the feet out of the last one. Tim drives his knee up into the falling assassin’s head, knocking him unconscious before he even hits the floor. Tim glances up at Ra’s and promptly nopes out. 

That…doesn’t exactly work though. Tim tries not to yelp when a blade sinks into his thigh not even fifteen feet into his escape. It hurts, but it does little other than slow him down. Regardless, it’s enough of a pause for Ra’s to catch up and knock Tim to the ground. 

“Detective.” Ra’s grins. 

“Hey, nice to see you again.” Tim grunts. He looks down at the knife in his thigh. It wasn’t near any arteries, and he wouldn’t be able to fight with it in his leg. Fuck it. He breathes heavily as he yanks the blade out. He throws it off to the side, the metal making a screeching noise as it slides across the concrete. “Didn’t take you long to wake up. You feeling ok?” His only answer is a sharp kick to his face. Ow. 

“Starling, where are you?” Conner asks sharply.

“A little caught up right now.”

“You have got to be-” Tim tunes out, glaring as Ra’s slowly approaches. 

“Your plan isn’t going to work.” Tim says, gritting his teeth up at Ra’s. 

The older man scoffs. “I’m sure you believe that.”

“I mean, you picked a building filled with an explosive material. I’d believe me too.” Tim shrugs, shifting his weight a little to his good leg. “So much for that sample you wanted, right?”

Ra’s’s eyes flash. “Hm. No matter. We’ll have our army soon enough.” His lifts a boot, resting it on the knife would. Tim grimaces as he slowly puts his weight down. “But you won’t be there to witness it.” Just as the immortal goes to deal a finishing blow, Tim bucks up, knocking Ra’s off of him. Tim rolls, grabbing his staff and jumping back a few steps. Ra’s sneers at him. Before he rushes forward, eyes blazing. The knife wound on Tims thigh throbs as he runs to meet the Demon’s Head. He lifts his staff to protect himself for a downswing, but befhore he could attempt to get a hit in Ra’s is already trying to parry. Ra’s doesn’t waste his movements, pushing Tim further and further away from the exit. He’s making sure that I won’t be able to get out before this place blows. 

Tim ducks under a swipe of Ra’s blade, thinking quickly. The man wasn’t going for the kill- not yet anyways. He was playing with Tim, landing hard hits on places left open and jabbing already forming bruises and scrapes. Tim hisses to himself. He had to end this before the other actually got the upper hand- or worse, got tired of playing with his prey. Ra’s movements were starting to look more familiar to the ones he remembered the immortal using back home. Was the man holding back earlier with Dick? Huh. That’s…insulting. Tim strikes forward with the end of his staff, hitting Ra’s in the chest and pushing him back a few feet. The assassin glares at him, baring his teeth. 

He leads with his left when he’s angry. Tim remembers. Followed by a high strike, a feint and then a finishing draw cut. Meant to be quick and effective against lesser enemies. But I’m not lesser. Ra’s tended to forgo his smaller weapons when he wanted to deal with someone personally too. Thank god, because Tim really didn’t want to be stabbed again. Ra’s begins to go left, and Tim follows, sliding under Ra’s first swing and using him momentum to try and kick the older man’s feet out from underneath him. Ra’s managed to step out of the way, but TIm doesn’t hesitate to swing his staff up to collide the metal with the underside of Ra’s chin. Tim doesn’t even feel bed when he hears Ra’s teeth slam together from the force of his swing. Tim stands to his full height, wincing as his wounds pull. 

“You might want to get out of here.” Tim breathes out. “Can’t exactly get revived when you’re burnt to ash.”

Ra’s glares at him for a few seconds before the expression melts into reluctant respect. “Well played, child.”

“Not a child.” Tim huffs, eyes darting up to the assassins making their way to Ra’s. The assassin scoffs. 

“Everyone is a child to me, boy.” Ra’s lets himself get picked up by one bulky assassin. “Rest assured, you have captured the Light’s attention now. You will not win so easily next time.”

Tim sighs, holding his side. “Yeah, sounds about right.” Ra’s hums again before giving a signal. More assassins drop from the shadows, grabbing their fallen and leaving without a sound. He limps his way to the waiting room, where the bittersweet scent of the peroxide fills the air. I asked them to just pour a bit in here, not the drench the damn place. Tim takes a takes a deep breath, lights the match and books it. Well. He tries to, at least. 

“Shit, shit, shit.” Tim hisses, doing a weird half limp-half jog thing when his leg doesn’t cooperate with him. “Are you fucking kidding me right now.” Tim wanted to be original if he was going to die, thank you very much. Going out in an explosion was was not how TIm wanted to die. Jason would never let him get over it if he came back. Tim gets outside. Dick and Conner both look relieved, but the expression turns to confusion when they notice Tim wasn’t slowing down.

At first, he didn’t feel the heat- just the concussion wave from the explosion. Tim heaves a little as he gets thrown head over heels by the blast, landing on his shoulder. It pops out of the socket with a sickening pop, but the pain from his limb is nothing compared to the searing heat on his back. 

“Son of a bitch.” Tim hisses. 

“Damn it Starling!” He hears Dick shout. He hears a small ground run over to his prone form. Anything he was going to say to Dick immiedialtly turns into a strnagled yelp when careful hands roll him over. Someone- Jaime, from the sounds of it- lets out a low curse. 

“Oh my god!” He hears Cassie hiss. “What is-”

“Uhh. I don’t know actually.” Dick sounds lost. “Hey Star, buddy? You didn’t happen to wander into a tattoo parlor when you went out with Conner, right?”

“What?” Tim asks sharply, turning to try and look at his back. Conner pushes him down, using his strength to prevent Tim from moving. “What the fuck are you saying?”`

“Shut up. Stay down. Your back is burned pretty bad. Forget about the other stuff.” Conner says, sounding a bit worried. “We’ve got to get him back to the mountain. M’gann do you-?”

“What other stuff?” Tim snaps. “Hello?!” 

“I can move him to the Bioship.” M’gann confirms gently. Tim scowls when his questions go unanswered. M’gann looks hesitant, eyes darting between him and Conner. “I can…I can put him to sleep, if you want. To stop the pain for a bit.” Oh thank god, his back was killing him. 

“Please.” Tim bites out. At least when he got stabbed, he could ignore the pain for a bit after because he was used to being stabbed (a bit of a sickening thought, but what can he do?) but being burned? It was newer to Tim and he was not a fan. “Knock me the hell out.”

“Wait,” Conner says sharply. Tim wants to groan and complain, but the moment Conner bends down to look Tim in the eyes the words fall from his mind. Conner sure looks unaffected, but there was one thing that Conner had in common with Kon- his stress tells. The tightness to the clone’s eyes and the incessant tapping on his fingers on the side of Tim’s bed was enough for Tim to figure something was wrong. At least he was trying to pretend things were normal and semi-succeeding, because everyone else sucked at it. “Did you hit your head at all?”

“No I didn’t hit my head.” Tim snaps. Conner stares at him flatly, unaffected by Tim’s pain fueled ire. Tim glares at him.

“You just came off concussion protocol and immediately went airborne because of an explosion.” Conner says dryly. “So I think I have the right to ask you if you hit your head again, Tim.” 

“I didn’t hit my head.” Tim repeats. Conner looks relieved. The expression quickly turns to irritation when TIm manages a pained grin. “But my shoulder popped back out of place, and I’m pretty sure the muscles have already tensed around the joint, so good luck with that.”

Conner stares at him for a second before turning to M’gann. “Knock him out before I do it myself.” 

M’gann glances at Tim for confirmation. He nods, and theres a slight invading sensation in his mind before the world darkens and the pain fades. 

“Our choice.” One murmurs. “The boy said ‘It was our choice’ about being Robin.”

“You think it actually worked?” Another asks, sounding skeptical. “You think they-”

“I do. But in the process, it seems they brought a Bat back.” The tone turns cold. “An experienced one, at that. This could cause problems.”

“How do we know he’s a Bat?”

“Nightwing seemed particularly protective, even if he tried to hide it. They are closer than allies, wether they’ll admit it or not.” Everyone falls silent for a few seconds. Finally, the original speaker begins again. 

“The boy, Starling. He was caught in the explosion that they used to destroy the gas. He will be out of commission for a while yet.”

“Good. Then we have time to plan.”

“Yes. We do.”