Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The first thing Danny insisted on was a tour of the castle - though as he explained, "the castle responds to the thoughts and feelings of its inhabitants. All you have to do is think, and it'll take you where you wanna go." As he spoke a door appeared in the hall they were in. Danny smiled sheepishly, face flushing as he placed a hand on the knob. "As soon as I offered you a place on the council, the castle made you a bedroom," he said shyly, slowly opening the door.

It was made of the same material as the throne room and hall, sparsely decorated - dark wood furniture, a dark rug on the floor, a full bed with dark gray sheets - and a blanket that Tim would bet was weighted folded at the end in dark red. There was a desk with various tools Tim could use for the upkeep of his gear while he was here - and to tinker with any tech he could get his hands on from Danny's dimension, just to see how it differed from his own. What surprised him most though, were the bookshelves.

There were two, side by side in the corner. Tim stepped into the room to get a closer look. The one on the left was filled with books all about the Infinite Realms, from what he could tell. There were books on the history, the biology of different types of ghosts, the different cultures - both of the Infinite Realms in general and communities within it. It was everything Tim wanted to research, had been planning to research once Danny brought up the possibility of him joining the council.

The second bookshelf though, took his breath away. Some of his favorite books - The Silence of the Lambs, Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five, Lord of the Rings. He looked back to Danny, who was blushing even more. Danny just shrugged and said, "like I told you, the castle responds to its occupants' thoughts and feelings."

Tim blinked. He hadn't expected that to mean a room tailor made for him. "Where did…" he trailed off, unsure how to ask where it had all come from. Could the castle make things from thin air?

"The library and our work room," Danny answered, and Tim glanced back at him. "I recognize the books from the big library - which I'll show you after this, but we don't really use it much. The tools are actually extras from the room Tuck and I set up for us to work on stuff when we're here."

Tim sat on the edge of the bed, mind still racing with everything that'd happened tonight. "You stay here a lot?" he asked, voice lilting uncertainly. Even though Danny was clearly a teen like him - had confirmed it by switching to his human form and mentioning starting college next month - he was still hesitant to ask questions. Danny was the King of the Infinite Realms - and from a different dimension. Who knew the cultural differences between their earths?

Danny snorted and shook his head, "only when I wanna get away from home or end up staying here late working on paperwork and stuff." Tim nodded absentmindedly, sweeping a hand over the blankets. They were soft, just the right texture that his gauntlets didn't catch on them. When he looked back up, Danny was watching him, head tilted. "How about I get you some more comfortable clothes then we finish the tour and I can introduce you to my friends and sister?" Tim cocked his head, unsure where Danny would get clothes for him. Danny answered without him having to ask, "my clothes will probably be a bit big on you, but they should work well enough until we can get some stuff in your size."

At that, Tim's mind snapped into analytical mode, "wait, how would I pay for things? I don't have much money on me." Definitely not enough to begin a new life in a new dimension.

Danny waved a dismissive hand. "Being the King comes with perks," he answered. "My friend and the ghost I mentioned earlier found ways to legitimize moving money from the Realms to our dimension - it's how he and I are paying for college, actually." Tim hummed, already thinking of how that could work in his favor if he did decide to stay in their dimension.

"Well if I stay long term," Tim ventured, voice cautious. Danny's eyes went a little wide, but he ignored it to continue the thought, "we could also take the money I have from my own dimension."

Danny squinted. "No offense, but a couple thousand bucks or whatever won't make that much of a difference," Danny said flatly. Tim snorted, then burst out laughing at the look Danny gave him.

"In my dimension, I'm the CEO of one of the biggest companies in the world," he told Danny, whose jaw dropped, causing Tim to collapse against the mattress as he laughed. "Even if I've only been CEO for a few months, I've gotten a big salary - plus the money from my parents." He sobered slightly thinking of them. It felt like so long ago now that he'd lost them, but it'd only been two years since his dad died. God, so much had happened since then.

"Right, well we can talk about that if you decide to stay," Danny said awkwardly. He was still stood in the doorway. "I'll grab those clothes, you start taking off…" he trailed off before gesturing loosely at Tim, "all of that," which made Tim snort again. His domino was starting to get itchy from being on so long, and he'd already decided to stay for at least the night. Danny ducked out the door, shutting it softly behind him as Tim pulled his mask remover solvent from his bandoliers. He applied it and let it soak in as he removed his cape, gloved fingers clumsy on the catches.

After removing the cape he gently peeled his mask off, setting it next to his cape on the dresser. He wondered - the dresser drawers were empty. Okay, so the castle couldn't manifest things from thin air. There were no clothes for him, so the dresser was empty. It made sense, especially with what Danny had said about the books and tools. The furniture was probably in a storage space or extra bedroom, and the castle just threw it all together. Tim pulled his gloves off, flexing his hands as he went. They were sweaty from being in his gloves so long, even though summer nights in Gotham weren't too hot. His fingers slipped over his bandoliers, unlocking them with ease and piling them on the dresser with the rest of his gear.

It was only as he started to disarm the traps he'd added to his suit after the Daughter of Acheron situation that there was a knock at his door. "Come in," he called as he disarmed one of the shock traps.

"Whoa," Danny said, a ball of clothes in one hand and the other still on the knob. "What's with all the…" he trailed off, clearly hesitant to ask, but Tim could see him eyeing the traps.

"Long story," he replied flatly. Danny took the non-answer for what it was, dropping the subject immediately.

"Right, well here are the clothes," he gestured with the bundle before placing it on the desk. "I'll wait in the hall." Tim nodded and Danny shut the door. It was only at that moment that he realized Danny hadn't said anything about seeing him without the mask. Interesting. He probably realized Tim couldn't keep it on the whole time and hadn't wanted to make a big deal of it.

Or maybe he hadn't noticed, Tim mused as he finally stripped off the top half of his suit. Since it was summer he didn't have any compression gear underneath, so he grabbed the shirt Danny had brought for him. It honestly wasn't much bigger than the oversized shirts he liked to wear to sleep, falling around his mid thigh. He worked the traps off the bottom half of his suit and peeled that off as well, wrinkling his nose at the feeling. Taking the suit off was always awful, but he was glad to be out of it. And since he'd only been on a stakeout, he wasn't overly sweaty.

The sweatpants took a bit of work - he had to roll them up a few times at both the waist and ankles - but it was better than when he stole clothes from Kon or Bruce. Which reminded him - "can I talk to my friends?" he asked as he pulled open the door. Danny was leaning against the wall on his phone and startled at Tim's voice. Tim snorted as Danny pulled himself up straight and was surprised by the flush on his face. Had he startled him that badly?

"Oh uh, yeah," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck. "If you have a phone or something, Tuck and I can get it to work across dimensions so you can talk to them." Tim nodded and ducked back into the - his - room to grab his vigilante phone from his belt, as well as his shoes. While he couldn't have his regular phone on him during patrol, he'd made a point to get the Bats set up with phones for use specifically with the Justice League and various other teams. He wasn't sure if the others carried theirs - hadn't bothered to check, since he'd been back in Gotham - but he made sure he had his at all times, in case of emergencies. It rarely saw use - the occasional message for help investigating from someone, or about a mission they needed help with, but non-hero related communications always went through regular phones.

Still, it wasn't like he could carry Tim Drake's personal cell around on patrol. At least he had this, even if it was outdated. He handed the phone over to Danny, who looked at it for a moment and then pocketed it while Tim put his boots back on. "Shouldn't be too hard to modify," he stated, then gestured for Tim to follow him. He walked down the hall, another, more ornate door appearing at the end. "This is the library," Danny said, opening the door with a flourish.

And Tim understood why. There were rows upon rows of bookcases, with a second floor visible with more shelves. "It's organized, but if you're struggling to find something it may nudge you in the right direction," Danny told him, walking through the shelves. "It can be a bit of a maze, but it's honestly not that hard to learn the organization. Down here's fiction - just about any book you can imagine. If it's not here, it's in someone's room, but the castle would probably pull it back unless it was actively being used. Second floor is non-fiction, Realms related. Ghost culture, Realms cultures, biology, biographies, that sort of thing." Biographies? Before Tim could question it, Danny continued, "There's a third floor with non-Realms non-fiction, but it's a lot smaller since it's mostly non-fiction gathered from the different dimensions I've gotten things from, or that my friends and I brought. This floor is the largest - we have fiction from a lot of different dimensions, thanks to the offerings, and our own stockpiling." As Danny spoke they reached the other side of the room, which had the same ornate door.

"Like I said, bit of a maze," Danny joked as they stepped back into the hall. There was already a door at the other end, this time more plain, like the one on his bedroom. "This is the work room," Danny told him as he opened the door. This room was filled with work benches, the tops littered with various gadgets and tech. In the corner were two mostly empty tables, aside from tools. Danny chuckled as he gestured to them, "guess you like to tinker?"

Tim nodded, brow furrowed. This wasn't the first time the castle had followed his thoughts, but it was still weird for him to know it'd set up a workspace for him here in addition to the one in his room. "Yeah, I'm a big tech guy," he explained sheepishly.

Danny nodded, "you'll have a lot to talk about with Tucker then at least. Like I mentioned, he does all the tech stuff for me, along with one of the ghosts whose whole thing is technology. I'm more of an engineering guy myself."

"Oh I do some engineering stuff, too," Tim added casually, looking over some of the projects. There was some sort of blaster, partially deconstructed, what appeared to be a net launcher, and various odds and ends that Tim couldn't make heads or tails of in their current state. "Gotta be able to keep my gear in working order."

There was a moment of silence and when Tim looked up Danny was just staring at him, the star freckles from before making another appearance. Tim felt his face heat, man was that cute. He wondered what had set it off this time, but before he could think too much on it Danny was talking again, "well then we'll have plenty to talk about too!" His voice was strained, but Danny was turning to leave the room before Tim could question it, another door at the end of the hall.

"This is the greenhouse," he called over his shoulder as he pushed the door open, Tim rushing to follow. He burst into the greenhouse, surprised by the sudden change in temperature. He hadn't even realized how chilly the castle was until they were in the muggy air of the greenhouse. "My other friend, Sam is an ultra-recyclo-vegetarian," he said, and continued before Tim could ask what exactly that meant, "and a while back had a run in with this ghost, Undergrowth, giving her plant powers, so she has some minor phytokinesis skills. Even before that she always loved gardening so the castle set up a greenhouse, since anywhere else is too cold for her plants."

"Why is it so cold?" Tim interrupted. Danny whipped around, star freckles gone once again.

"Oh I have cryokinesis," he explained easily. He lifted one hand, and a small ice sculpture appeared in his palm, which he held out for Tim. It was him in his Red Robin outfit, bo staff in hand. He took it, his face heating. "The castle itself is actually made up of my ice, for the most part. The doors and greenhouse are the only exceptions." Of course. Couldn't have a green house made of ice. Before Tim could say anything else, Danny was marching on. Tim tucked the figure in his pocket and followed. "I wouldn't touch anything in here without talking to Sam first - she can be really protective of her plants."

As he said this, Danny came to another door. He opened it back to the hall, another door already at the end. "Next is the kitchen," Danny said, pushing the door open with his hip. Unlike the other doors so far it didn't latch, simply swinging open. The kitchen was plain - cabinets, stove, sink and fridge. "We keep it stocked for when we have long meetings, spend a lot of time working here, or just wanna get away from our parents for a bit - though that won’t be a problem soon - so if you decide to stay here feel free to take anything."

At that Tim paused where he'd been about to open the fridge. "If I decide to stay here?" he questioned, turning to lean against the fridge instead.

"Ah yeah," Danny said quietly. "My friend Sam, she's rich too - or her family, I guess. But they've got a mansion, so I figured you could stay here if you wanted, or in one of her guest rooms. Her parents are whack jobs but her bubbe is nice. She actually set things up so we'll have a house to stay in together when we go to college."

Tim dropped his head back in thought. He could either stay in this castle in the Infinite Realms - possibly alone - or he could stay in the mansion of a family he didn't know. "If you stay here, I'll stay with you," Danny reassured quietly, and Tim snapped his eyes back to him. He was once again flushed, eyes averted. "I'm sure Sam and Tuck would be willing to stay here too, we could make a night of it! I haven't shown you but we've got a media room set up for movie and game nights, we can make it a whole thing."

Tim smiled and cut him off before he continued to ramble, "I'm fine staying wherever, honestly. Either way it's a new place for me, so I probably won't sleep well."

Danny nodded absentmindedly before seeming to make up his mind and pull out his phone. "Right, well then we're gonna do a sleepover at Sam's," he decided. Tim opened his mouth to argue against all of them suddenly crashing her place, but Danny looked up and cut him off, "trust me, Sam and bubbe Ida won't care, and that's who matters. She's always looking for an excuse to piss off her parents, so really an impromptu sleepover with three boys is a favor for her."

God, Tim hadn't even considered the gender dynamics of it, especially considering his own growing attraction to Danny. Sleeping over with a girl hadn't been an issue for him in ages - Bruce had never said anything about his weekends with Young Justice, and later on the Titans. Before his thoughts could spiral too much Danny placed a hand on his arm to get his attention. "If it really bugs you, we could all stay here instead. Although either way her parents are gonna be mad about it, honestly. She wouldn't lie to them about who she's spending the night with, just where."

Tim nodded slowly before deciding. "Might as well go all in then," he said with a small smile, which Danny returned even bigger.

"I knew you and I would get along," he joked, bumping his shoulder into Tim's before going back to his phone. "I have a few more rooms to show you, then we'll head out." Tim nodded, relaxing back against the fridge as Danny typed - presumably texting his friends the plans. After a moment Danny straightened, heading into the hall again. "So next is the media room," he said over his shoulder as he opened the door. The room was massive - a big couch, several armchairs, a huge TV with several consoles hooked up, and three different gaming PC setups. "We can set you up a gaming computer if you want, since we do Doomed LAN parties pretty often. Do you guys have Doomed?"

Tim cocked his head to the side. "We have DOOM, but not Doomed," he said, uncertain. He'd never heard of Doomed, at the very least, and he was pretty into video games. Danny just nodded, as though this made sense.

"Right, possibly similar games but with different names," Danny muttered. Tim shrugged. Without knowing more about Doomed he couldn't be sure. Danny shook his head and then clapped his hands, turning towards the door again, "the TV is set up with streaming services from different dimensions, by the way, so if we don't already have something from your dimension, we could find it. Next up is the council room." Tim noticed a hint of agitation at that - Danny must not like the council.

At the other end of the hall was an ornate door - not quite as large as the one from the throne room, but bigger than that of the library. It opened to a relatively normal conference room - plus the addition of some more unusual seating. There were a few armchairs, stools, wheelie chairs, and at the head, a smaller replica of the throne he'd first seen Danny on. "The Observants insisted on there being a throne, but I rarely use it," Danny explained, gesturing around the table. It was dark wood, the top plain but the sides and legs intricately carved. Surprisingly, there was a projector hanging from the ceiling, and a laptop set up in front of one of the seats.

Danny snorted when he noticed Tim's fixed look. "Yeah, some of the ghosts weren't too happy about the incorporation of human technology, but it makes the meetings much smoother," Danny told him. It was interesting to see how he'd seemingly changed the inner workings of the Infinite Realms.

"How long have you been King?" Tim asked, then snapped his mouth shut. Was that a rude question? Was it too close to asking about when he'd half-died? Cause that was sure to be a sensitive subject.

Danny leaned against the table and sighed. "I bested Pariah Dark when I was fifteen," he started, and Tim's eyes widened. That meant Danny had half died at 15 at the oldest. Fuck, that was the same age that Jason died. "They didn't tell me, but the Observants spent a few months arguing over whether our fight qualified as single combat - in the end they decided it did, and that I was the new King. So I was crowned when I was 16 and had a brief period of training," the way he emphasized it showed how little he thought it mattered, "and then boom, 16 year old King of the Infinite Realms. It was rough for a while, but we managed to work it out."

Tim raised an eyebrow and Danny flushed, rubbing his neck sheepishly. It was a cute habit. "Okay, so the Observants and I still fight like hell, but it's not my fault they're so annoying," he argued, and Tim chuckled. Danny's sheepish smile turned softer. "Anyways, this is the last room of the tour, so we can head out whenever you're ready."

Tim nodded absentmindedly, thinking. He'd already given Danny his phone, and it wasn't like he'd need his gear - they were just having a sleepover. "Well, it's not like I need to grab anything," he joked.

Danny laughed to himself and nodded, "right, of course," before gesturing. A portal opened in front of him, this one vertical instead of horizontal like the last two. "My parents are probably in the lab, so we shouldn't run into them," Danny said as he walked through. Tim cautiously followed after, but it was like walking through a curtained door - the room they stepped into was a plain living room, with stairs on one side, a door Tim assumed led to outside, and an open doorway into a kitchen. On one of the couches sat a red headed girl who appeared a little older than them - Danny's sister, he assumed.

"Hey Danny," the girl called, sparing a quick glance before doing a double take and sitting up straight. "Who's this?" she asked, voice cautious.

"Jazz, this is Tim," Danny introduced, gesturing between the two of them. "Tim, this is my older sister, Jazz."

Tim extended his hand, which Jazz carefully shook. "Nice to meet you," he said politely. Jazz just nodded, looking back to Danny for an explanation.

"So you know that thing I do when heroes end up in getting dragged to the Realms?" Danny started sheepishly and Jazz glared at him.

"I told you to stop doing that," she said flatly, and he raised his hands, shoulders hunching defensively.

"I know, you said it would come back to bite me in the ass and well," he gestured at Tim. Tim gave a small wave and Danny snorted then sighed. "So Tim dropped into the throne room with his brother - both in hero gear - and I did my whole one can return thing, except Damian - his brother - said of course Tim would be the one to stay and basically called him useless, so I got mad and sent him back after calling him a kid playing dress up, then offered Tim a place on the council and also to stay in this dimension instead."

Jazz blinked for a moment, then looked back and forth between Tim and Danny. "And you said yes?" she asked Tim.

Tim shrugged, playing with the hem of his (Danny's) shirt. "I said I needed to think about it," he mumbled, suddenly shy to share his family issues.

Jazz sighed and stood, heading to the kitchen. "This seems like a fudge conversation," she said as she went. Tim cocked his head as Danny followed after her, trailing after them. He wasn't sure what exactly a fudge conversation was, but he doubted it was good.

Chapter Text

It turned out a fudge conversation was code for, "this is a sensitive topic, so we're going to eat fudge to make you feel better," so now Tim was sat at the Fentons' kitchen table, a container of fudge in the center and Jazz and Danny across from and next to him, respectively.

"So essentially you were a scapegoat, and have since been mostly ignored," Jazz summed up as Tim broke off a bite of fudge. He hummed, thinking for a second before nodding.

"I guess?" he replied, tone lilting uncertainly. "I mean, Jason and Damian definitely saw me as a problem, but they've gotten better. No more murder attempts, at least. And Dick just… he didn't realize what he was doing, how much it hurt me. I think he only really knows how to have one brother, and right now that brother is Damian."

Danny snorted and when Tim looked at him he gave a bitter smile. "That's fucked," he stated, and Tim flinched back in his seat. "You realize that's fucked up, right? Like, he should be able to be a brother to more than one person - just because Ellie came into our lives didn't mean Jazz forgot about me and moved on!" Tim cocked his head. This was the first mention of an Ellie.

"Danny's clone," Jazz cut in when she saw Tim's confusion, but that only made it worse.

"Our godfather, who was also kind of my enemy? He's chilled out now, but at the time we constantly fought - anyways, he has a weird thing for our mom and once he realized I was also a halfa also developed a weird thing for me," Tim's nose scrunched in disgust and Danny was quick to reassure, "not like that! He just really wanted me to be his kid, so he decided to try to clone me. They all ended up being unstable but he sent them after me anyways - and Ellie actually made it pretty far. I went with her to try to stabilize her but Vlad wasn't actually interested in stabilizing her, just in getting me there. I still tried and I thought I failed for a while, but eventually she showed back up and let me know she'd made it and had been traveling - which she does a lot of. I think she's currently spending some time exploring the Realms? She stays in touch, but she's a free spirit."

Tim nodded, breaking apart his fudge as he processed all of that. After a moment, Jazz spoke up, "we consider Ellie our little sister and Danny's right - we didn't forget about each other just because we suddenly had a younger sibling. We still make time for each other and listen to one another's concerns, thoughts and feelings." Tim averted his eyes.

"It's just-" he started then broke off, considering his words carefully. He didn't want this to come across the wrong way. "Things were different for me. Dick and Jason were both chosen by Bruce - I forced my way in when Dick said he wouldn't come back after Jason died. And they were good to me - but they weren't really my family. Or I wasn't theirs, whatever. I didn’t really know my parents - not till after my mom died and my dad woke up from his coma. And it was hard, for a while, because we didn't understand each other. We'd only just started getting along when…" Tim trailed off, thinking of heading back to their apartment and finding his dad with a boomerang in his chest. "After my dad died I made up an uncle so I wouldn't be put in the system, and then the fake uncle died too because the city we lived in was destroyed. I was lucky to be with my team when it happened, but it meant I was guardian-less again, and Bruce offered to adopt me. It really was a last resort sort of deal. Then his biological son came along and everything went to shit. Bruce went missing not long after and that's when Dick took Robin to give to Damian - because apparently Damian needed it, as though my life wasn't falling apart. But I was supposed to be the adult - even though I was still 17, mind you - and let this kid have what I'd worked so hard for for years, my connection to the family. And Dick didn't believe Bruce was alive - no one did. So I left. And I ended up having to emancipate myself because of a bunch of other stuff going on, and Bruce never offered to readopt me. So yeah. It's different with me. I was always an outsider, and I was just forced farther back, is all."

Tim's eyes were fixed on the table, not wanting to see the pity he was sure would be on Danny and Jazz's faces. "That's even more fucked," Danny said vehemently. Tim looked up to see Danny's eyes blazing green, startling him back a bit at the similarity to Jason's when he was mad. "You saved that man twice and he just… left you behind." Tim's eyes burned at the anger in Danny's voice - so reminiscent of his friends back home. The past few months they'd been trying to convince him to leave Gotham, but he'd been hesitant.

He was still hesitant, if he was being honest with himself, but being "trapped" in the Infinite Realms seemed like a good excuse to finally get away from the city that he'd begun to hate. And having someone else - someone who knew nothing of the situation before now - affirm that Tim wasn't wrong to be upset just. It made him really think about whether he wanted to go back.

Jazz placed a hand over Tim's on the table. "Danny's right to be upset for you, Tim," she reassured him quietly. "If they didn't want you to be family they should've set clear boundaries from the beginning. Instead they treated you like family for a while then went back on it. You can't be blamed for getting emotionally attached when they're the ones who offered a family and then went back on it. Of course them pulling away, them not listening to you, ignoring your needs in favor of someone else's wants, hurts. You're allowed to be upset about it."

Tim shook his head minutely and wiped at his eyes. "Can we stop talking about it?" he asked weakly. Jazz patted his hand and he looked up to find her giving a sympathetic smile.

"Of course," she said softly. Then she stood from the table, pushing her chair in. "I'm guessing you guys are going to Sam's?" Tim was grateful for the subject change, taking another moment to gather himself while Danny stood and stretched.

"Yeah, we should probably head out," he replied as he glanced at the stove clock. Tim looked over as well and winced slightly. 11:15 blinked back at them. It had been almost two hours since Tim first entered the Infinite Realms, and they'd likely spent at least half an hour talking here. "I'm gonna grab some stuff, then we can head out," Danny told him, leaving the kitchen. Tim cleaned up the mess he'd made of his fudge, tossing the napkin it had been on in the trash before heading to the living room. He sat on the arm of the couch, earning a chuckle from Jazz.

When he looked at her she just said, "Danny does the same thing," which didn't really clear anything up for Tim. Wasn't sitting on the arm of a couch pretty common? "You two are gonna be something else together," she said fondly, a warm smile on her face, and Tim flushed. Could she tell…? The smile she gave him said she could.

"I…" Tim started, but before he could finish the thought Danny was bounding down the stairs.

"Tucker's already there and they threatened to start the movie marathon without us," he called as he came down, heading right for the door. Tim scrambled up after him as Danny pulled the door open, yelling, "bye Jazz!" over his shoulder.

Tim followed as Danny speed walked down the sidewalk, trying to keep pace with his longer legs. He'd put on some slides and had a bag thrown over his shoulder. After a moment he looked back and realized Tim was struggling to match his strides, slowing down. "Sorry, I just don't want them to start without us," he said sheepishly. Tim nodded, not fully understanding why it was such a big deal.

The two walked in silence for a few moments before Tim asked, "so are Jazz and Ellie also on the council?"

Danny huffed, a fond smile on his face. "Ellie could never," he replied, "she finds all that stuff way too boring - besides, she's only 15, the Observants would've lost their minds if I'd tried to bring 13 year old Ellie on. They were bad enough about Sam and Tucker." A pause, Danny shaking his head in memory. "Jazz well - she's a bit of a special case. I don't want to bug her too much while she's trying to get her degree, so she really only helps when she's on break from school. Thanks to the King thing I've been able to help pay for her college too, though she insists on working and contributing too."

Tim nodded along, understanding the sentiment. His dad had always said he should have a part-time job while he was in college, and he nearly winced as he thought of how his parents would react to him having dropped out during senior year. He was so close, but finding Bruce had taken priority. "Sam and Tucker are the only other consistent human members of the council," Danny continued, oblivious to Tim's thoughts. Tim cocked his head, confused by the phrasing. "Sometimes my parents or others from town will join in but they're more like… consultants. Tucker and Sam both have permanent roles and come to almost every meeting. Your role would be whatever level you'd feel most comfortable with - you could be a full time member like Sam and Tuck, part time like Jazz, or just show up on occasion to share your experiences." Tim nodded absentmindedly, mind already whirling with the possibilities. If he went back to his dimension he definitely wouldn't have the time to participate in the same capacity Sam and Tucker seemed to - he might be able to pull off the same level as Jazz, but that was dependent on a number of factors.

Though that also implied that things would stay the same. If he returned to his home dimension, he wasn't sure he'd be staying in Gotham. He still wanted to see how, exactly, Bruce and Dick reacted to him going missing, and Damian's involvement. "Is there any way for me to see what's going on in my dimension without interacting?" Tim asked. He saw the way Danny's brow furrowed in confusion at the non-sequitur, but it was on his mind so he may as well ask.

Danny's head tilted in thought - he was clearly considering the question and taking it seriously. "I can see with my friend/mentor about taking a peek using his tower, but I can't guarantee he'll let us," Danny told him, and Tim nodded. "If he won't, we can always sneak in invisibly, but that won't let us look back on the reactions that have already happened, only what's currently happening. Although…" Danny trailed off, clearly thinking. Tim let him, stewing in his own thoughts.

Now would be a good time for him to finally leave Gotham. Whether he left the dimension as a whole or just the city, Damian so willingly sacrificing him set him up with the perfect opportunity to leave the city he'd slowly grown to resent.

The citizens of Gotham were fine, for the most part. There were always the few who argued against the existence of the vigilantes, but they were outnumbered by those who were grateful for their interference. Even the rogues and goons weren't entirely awful - some of them Tim hated to have to fight, like Condiment King, but most of them he'd built relationships with. He had an understanding with some of them.

It was mostly the Bats he'd grown to resent. Babs was fine - providing technical support without having the same close-ish relationship they'd had before. He'd expected that they'd be more distant after what happened with Dick. Whether they were together or not, Babs and Dick were close. Things with Steph were still strained - they'd never be able to get back to where they were before she'd faked her death. Everything that had happened after had driven them too far apart. Jason - Jason was actually starting to try which surprised Tim. He never thought the Bat he'd spend the most time with would be Jason - hell, he never thought Jason would be considered a Bat again, but things had changed while Tim was gone. He hadn't actually apologized or anything, but they could work cases together - which was nice, considering Tim's Nest was on the edge of Crime Alley.

Damian was better than he had been, but still antagonistic. Tim rarely spent time at the manor these days - avoided it, really - but the few times he had gone there hadn't been pleasant. Bruce hadn't really done anything to combat Damian's antagonism, and neither had Dick. Dick still made excuses for the kid - as though he hadn't learned to get along with everyone but Tim at this point. And he and Dick had yet to talk over everything that'd happened. They were allies, but Tim wasn't sure if they were brothers.

Bruce… he was still using the excuse of recovering from the time stream and putting together Batman Inc. to avoid the conversation about retaking control of Wayne Enterprises. He and Tim had talked briefly about it, but Bruce seemed content to let the 18 year old high school drop out run his company for the foreseeable future.

Cass was the one exception. She and Tim texted daily, and had weekly calls to discuss things when they could - but that was the issue. Cass was still in Hong Kong, and Tim was in Gotham - at least for the most part. Both of them travelled a fair bit, be it for missions or in Tim's case, WE work, and they worked together as often as they could, but it wasn't nearly enough. They were both too busy for that.

"We can talk about this stuff later," Danny said, startling Tim from his thoughts. He came to a stop in front of a large house, gothic in architecture. "Tonight you're gonna have some fun," he continued, throwing an arm around Tim's shoulders to lead him to the door. Before he could ring the doorbell, the door swung open.

"Finally," the girl who opened the door groaned. She was wearing a purple nightgown with a black spiderweb design and fuzzy black slippers. "You took way too long to get here, what the hell?"

"Jazz wanted to have a fudge conversation," Danny told her. Tim saw the girl wince at that. "Besides, is that anyway to greet someone new to this dimension?" With that Danny gestured to Tim, who waved.

"Nice to meet you," he said. "And thanks for letting us crash here," he added as the girl stepped back to let them in.

"Oh, it's not a problem whatsoever," she said cheerfully. "My parents hate impromptu sleepovers, especially with Danny and Tucker. Adding in another guy they don't know was like the cherry on an ice cream sundae." Tim chuckled. She seemed to like chaos, the same way Danny seemed to. He had a feeling he'd like this dimension, even if he didn't end up staying.

Chapter Text

"So this is my house," Sam said, gesturing as she led Tim and Danny down the hall. "It's unnecessarily large, but it's nice to be able to have the space to be somewhat separate from my parents. We're gonna hang out in the theater room, since Danny mentioned a movie marathon."

"It's fun to see the differences in different dimensions' media!" Danny cut in to justify himself. The interior of the house reflected the exterior - dark, gothic architecture with red accents.

Sam chuckled, stopping in front of a set of double doors. "Right, well we're showing Tim Trinity of Doom to see if it exists in his dimension," Sam said, and Danny groaned.

"Didn't we watch Trinity of Doom last month?" he complained as he pushed open the door.

"We watched it," Sam emphasized, following Danny into the room. Tim trailed after them, unsurprised to see a dark skinned boy sitting in an oversized arm chair, wearing black sweatpants and a shirt with the name Ember across the front in blue flames. He assumed that was some sort of movie or show in this dimension. "Tim didn’t - for all we know Trinity of Doom doesn't even exist in his dimension!"

Three heads turned to him, standing just inside the door. "Uh," he mumbled, suddenly unsure. "I've never heard of it? But I haven't had much time to keep up with movies lately, so if it's new I just might've missed it," he said quietly.

It was quiet for a moment, then who Tim could only assume was Tucker said, "man, that is sad."

"Tucker!" Sam hissed, throwing a pillow at him.

He held his hands up in defense and argued, "what, you're gonna tell me it's not messed up that someone our age has been too busy to even know what movies are coming out?" Tim winced slightly at that. He didn't often admit to how little free time he had, between being a CEO and Bat business, but this really confirmed for him the lack of work-life balance.

"There are nicer ways you could've said it," Sam argued back.

"Guys," Danny cut in, stepping between the two as they each reached for pillows. "We're trying to take his mind off his home dimension tonight. Tim already had one heavy talk and I promised him some fun. Now, are we starting with Nightmerica, Terminatra, or Femalien?"

"Nightmerica, obviously," Sam said, at the same time as Tucker said, "Terminatra."

Immediately the two glared at each other, launching into why they should watch their pick first. Danny crossed the room back to where Tim was still standing by the door. "Sorry about them," he said, rubbing his neck sheepishly. "They love each other, but they fight like cats and dogs. Still, figured it was a good way to get them off your back for now." Tim cocked his head. Danny started the argument on purpose? "There's always an argument over which one to watch first - and we usually end up using a random number generator to pick one of the three."

Tim nodded, following Danny over to the arm chairs and finally taking a seat. Danny kicked his slides off, and Tim took that as his cue to take off his boots - finally. They looked ridiculous paired with the oversized sweatpants, and Tim always hated wearing shoes longer than necessary. He wiggled his toes after pulling them free, then tucked his feet up under himself in his chair.

He watched as Tucker and Sam continued to argue, Sam making popcorn as she did, and Danny pulled out his phone. "Sam, 1, 2, or 3," he called, causing both of their voices to cut out and their heads to snap to Danny.

"2," she said after a moment.

"3," Tucker added immediately after.

"Alright, order tonight is: Nightmerica, Femalien, Terminatra," Danny stated after a moment, causing Sam to cheer and Tucker to groan, dropping his head back against his chair. Danny grabbed the remote, navigating through a streaming service to find their first movie of the night.

"Man, I swear my picks are always last," Tucker complained.

"Gotta pick better numbers," Sam joked, picking up two bowls of popcorn and bringing them over. She handed one to Danny before sitting in the chair next to Tucker's. Tucker reached over to grab some and she swatted his hand, "get your own."

"But Sam," he whined, dragging out the A.

Sam shushed him, "shh, movie's starting," her eyes fixed on the screen. Danny offered Tim his bowl and he took a handful of popcorn.

"Danny's sharing-" Tucker tried to argue, but Sam just shushed him again, this time adding a glare and Tim chuckled. The movie opened with a teenage boy having a nightmare, and after a few minutes Tim realized - it was like Nightmare on Elm Street, but gender-swapped. Rather than Freddy Krueger there was Nightmerica, who had the same clawed gloves Freddy used and instead of Tina, there was Toby.

The general plot was similar - Nightmerica haunting the dreams of teens and killing them in their sleep, with Toby's best friend being killed and his girlfriend framed for it, but all the characters genders had been switched. "So we don't have Nightmerica," Tim started, three sets of eyes snapping to him, "but we have a similar movie called Nightmare on Elm Street. I think the only difference is the genders of the characters - we have Freddy Krueger instead."

Sam perked up, "oh I remember seeing that! So you guys also have Terminator and…" she trailed off, clearly thinking.

"Alien?" Tim suggested, but Sam shook her head.

"Alien's a different franchise," Danny chimed in from between Tim and Sam. "Alien's the one with the xenomorph, right? And the only survivor are a woman and her cat?" Tim nodded. So some media between dimensions was the same, but not all of it.

"Femalien is about an alien stalking some military group in the rain forest," Sam added, and Tim nodded.

"Ah okay, in my dimension that's Predator," Tim told them. Sam snapped, sitting up on her knees and pointing at him.

"Yes, that!" she exclaimed, surprising him. "We wanted to do a comparison on them since they were similar but different, and we all love Trinity of Doom" Tim nodded.

"We don't have any crossover of these in my dimension," he told them, glancing between the three. Danny and Tucker's faces scrunched up while Sam looked almost distraught.

"You don't have any horror crossovers in your dimension?" she asked incredulously. Tim quickly shook his head, hands coming up placatingly.

"Oh no, we have crossovers," he reassured, and Sam leaned back in her seat with a dubious hum. "Our dimension just tends to keep them… subgenre consistent?" Sam seemed more appeased by that, humming questioningly, and going back to watching the screen, so Tim continued, "so like, instead of Trinity of Doom we have Alien vs. Predator and Freddy vs. Jason - I think there are others, but I'm not really sure." Horror movies hadn't really been his preferred genre. Although - "do you guys have Wendy the Werewolf Stalker?"

Three sets of eyes turned towards him in confusion and Tim fought not to shrink back. "What is a werewolf stalker?" Tucker questioned. Tim cringed a little.

"It's like," Tim huffed, but the only comparison that came to mind was, "okay, what about Buffy the Vampire Slayer?"

At that Sam jumped up a little. "I love Buffy," she enthused. Tim nodded eagerly, gesturing to her.

"Right okay," he started, hands fluttering for a moment before he balled them in his lap. "So Wendy is like Buffy but primarily werewolves instead of vampires." At that Sam looked between the two other boys, who both threw their heads back and groaned. Tim looked between the three, confused. Before he could ask Danny and Sam both lunged for the remote and began wrestling for it, startling a yelp from him - Tucker was entirely unaffected, reaching for Sam's bowl of popcorn before it could tip and starting to eat from it as Sam and Danny pushed at one another over their armrests.

"This is normal for them," Tucker called over the bickering Sam and Danny were doing. Tim could only make out snippets - Sam wanting to watch a new girl power show and Danny wanting to show Tim their dimension's media - and he decided to stay out of it. Better to let them settle this themselves. Even if they didn't watch Wendy tonight, they could watch it another time.

At that Tim paused. Another time. He'd barely been in this dimension for an hour, known Danny maybe two hours and he was already making plans for the future.

Fuck.

Chapter Text

While Tim was lost in thought Sam managed to win the remote from Danny, tossing it at Tim with a, "catch!" It was only his years of training that saved him a remote to the face and he was sure the surprise was written there clear as day. He looked at the remote in his hand then back up at Sam and Danny, who were still tangled together over their armrests. Danny groaned as he pulled away, melting into his chair, and Tim cocked his head in confusion.

"So what streaming service is Wendy on?" Sam asked as she snatched her popcorn bowl back from Tucker.

Tucker gave an indignant, "hey!" but Sam ignored him, grabbing a handful as she looked at Tim expectantly. Tim gripped the remote more firmly, pulling it up to go through the streaming services available - what the hell was Poob - until finally finding Netflix, farther down the line than he'd expected.

"Ooh you're a Netflix dimension," Danny said excitedly, bouncing slightly in his seat. It was cute how excited he was over the differences between their dimensions. Overall, things seemed pretty similar from what Tim could tell - no major changes to human physiology, though it was possible there were some he couldn't see. He'd have to check about history to see how things differed, especially since there didn't seem to be heroes in this dimension - at least not to the degree Tim's home dimension had them.

Danny mentioned being a hero but also that the only threats he fought were other ghosts - who had mostly stopped attacking since he ascended to the throne. And he seemed like the type who would step up if he could, so it stood to reason that if there were other threats - like aliens or metas - he'd fight them as well.

Did that mean metas didn't exist in this dimension? Were all humans just baseline? And what about aliens? There was the possibility that they hadn't made contact with earth, but how likely was it that there was sentient life that hadn't reached out? The technology between dimensions was comparable, so it was likely that roughly the same amount of time had passed between the creation of each dimension and now.

As he thought, Tim navigated through Netflix. There were a number of things he scrolled past that he wasn't familiar with - Arcane, which appeared to be an animated series for adults, and How to Train Your Dragon, which looked like a cute dragon movie. "Hm," he sighed, before clicking into the search bar to look up Wendy.

"What?" Danny asked, and Tim glanced at him before going back to the screen. Danny was watching him intently and Tim felt his face heat at the attention.

"Just looking at some of the stuff we don't have in my dimension," he replied, distracted as he pulled up the first episode.

"Like what?" Danny asked, shoving a handful of popcorn in his mouth. Tim scrunched up his nose but didn't say anything about him talking with his mouth full. At least Danny was comfortable around him?

Tim settled back in his chair as the intro started, pulling his feet out from under him and putting his knees to his chest instead. He hummed again before settling on, "well I've never heard of How to Train Your Dragon." That statement earned him twin gasps, his head whipping around in concern to be met with three sets of wide eyes. Danny grabbed the remote from the arm of Tim's chair, pausing the episode where the intro had just ended.

"You've never seen How to Train Your Dragon?" Tucker asked incredulously. Tim shrunk back a little.

"I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist in my dimension," he tried to justify. Danny, Sam and Tucker looked back and forth between each other for a few seconds before turning back to Tim.

"We're watching it after we watch some Wendy," Danny told him, unpausing the episode. Tim went to say they didn't need to, but a look from Sam shut him up. It seemed to be a movie they all enjoyed anyways, so why argue? He leaned over to steal a handful of popcorn from Danny's bowl, eyes fixed on the screen. It had been a while since he'd watched Wendy from the beginning.

The first two episodes passed by rather uneventfully. Some mild chatter about the plot and characters, but nothing Tim wouldn't have expected of his own friends. Which reminded him - "so when will I be able to talk to my friends?" he asked as the second episode's credits switched to the third episode's intro.

Danny scrambled up, pulling Tim's phone from his pocket. "I knew I was forgetting something!" he exclaimed, causing Tim to flinch a little at the sudden increase in volume. Danny passed the phone over Sam to Tucker, who was quick to begin examining it.

"Should only take maybe fifteen minutes," Tucker said after a moment of inspection. He grabbed a backpack that had been leaning against his chair, pulling out a small case which contained tools. Tim watched as he slid to the floor, laying out his tools and the phone. He began to carefully pull the phone apart, making sure to lay each part out on the floor with careful fingers.

Tim watched in fascination as he handed a few of the parts - circuit boards, the sim card - to Danny, who simply held them in his closed hand for a few seconds before passing them back, now with a faint green glow. Danny noticed his staring and offered a smile and an explanation, "the thing that allows cross dimensional communication is infusing the technology with ectoplasm," Danny paused, holding up his hand, which filled with a viscous green liquid that looked like Lazarus water - ectoplasm? After a few seconds it seemingly melted back into his skin. "Tucker takes the tech apart, and I infuse the necessary pieces with ectoplasm. There was a lot of trial and error - infusing the whole phone caused it to come to life-" what? "but infusing only the inner mechanisms has worked so far."

As Danny spoke Tucker was putting the phone back together - once again careful not to misplace any pieces. "Your phone's pretty similar to the ones we have, if maybe a little older," Tucker told Tim as he closed it back up.

Tim leaned forward as he said, "ah, this model's a few years old actually, I only use it for hero stuff." He reached to grab the phone back from Tucker but Danny smacked his hand away.

"I said no more home dimension stuff tonight," Danny reprimanded, grabbing Tim's phone from Tucker and putting it back in his own pocket. Tim pursed his lips, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes. Danny narrowed his right back.

The two stared at each other for a moment before Tim sighed and actually relaxed back in his seat, Danny's expression giving way to a bright smile that made Tim blush. "It can wait till morning," Danny told him, throwing his legs over the arm of his chair. Tim snuggled back into his more, drawing his arms closer around himself. He was starting to get cold, but wasn't sure where the blankets were kept.

Of course someone noticed though. Tucker had already been up, getting himself a bowl of popcorn while Tim and Danny had glared at each other, and once the popcorn was done he walked around the counter and pulled a blanket from underneath. As he walked back over to the seats he tossed it to Tim with a simple, "here man." No question, not a moment's hesitation - he just noticed Tim was cold and grabbed him a blanket.

Sam glanced over at him, "dude, you could've said something." Tim flushed, shaking out the blanket and pulling it up around his shoulders.

He shrugged sheepishly as he told her, "didn't wanna interrupt the episode," gesturing with his chin to the screen. The episode was important for Wendy's character development, he figured he'd be fine for twenty or so minutes.

"Pausing really isn't a big deal," Danny said, once again with his mouth full. Tim's nose scrunched up in disgust as Sam smacked him in the shoulder.

"Danny, we've talked about talking while you eat," she reprimanded. Danny just gave her a sheepish smile as she turned her attention back on Tim. "Danny's right though, pausing for two seconds wouldn't have been a big deal - hell, we wouldn't even have had to pause it! You're lucky Tucker noticed."

Tim hunkered down a little more, partially hiding behind his blanket as his ears burned. He really wasn't expecting this level of mother henning tonight - it was like when the Titans or Cass got in a mood over him, particularly when he was sick since losing his spleen. Tim sat back up a bit to look at Danny, "oh uh, we're gonna need to go back to the Realms tomorrow - or to a pharmacy or something. I have a prescription I need to take."

Danny's head snapped around towards him, eyes narrowing. "What prescription?" Sam groaned but Danny ignored her and Tim cocked his head in confusion.

"Danny-" Sam started, leaning forward, only to be cut off.

"What's the prescription for?" Danny pressed. Tim only grew more confused by both Danny's reaction, and Sam's reaction to Danny's reaction.

"Danny, do not get all weird just because he mentioned a single prescription," Sam reprimanded. Danny slumped a little, eyes relaxing back to normal, and Sam settled back into her chair again.

After a moment where no one explained Tim asked, "what was that?"

Sam glanced back at him before explaining, "Danny's whole thing is protection - he does everything in his power to make sure people are safe. It bleeds over into stuff like this - making sure someone has their medication, that we've eaten, we aren't cold, whatever. Anything that could be considered harmful, he wants to take care of." Tim wasn't sure what to make of that. It was odd to realize that that was the reason Danny had offered him a place on the council - in his dimension - and not really anything to do with Tim, though he supposed it made sense. It wasn't as though Danny had known anything about him prior to making the offer. Still, something about it didn't sit right with him, making his stomach sink a little.

It was probably just the budding feelings he was having towards Danny causing him to feel that way. Danny was cute, kind, caring, and funny, and they had a shared interest in engineering, of course Tim was developing feelings for him. That didn't mean he had a right to get upset that Danny was caring and protective of everyone. Before he could overthink it too much he let Danny know, "it's just a preventative medication." Better to let Danny make his own assumptions than let him know just how much he'd lost getting Bruce back - Danny was pissed enough about it without Tim mentioning he'd needed to get his spleen removed.

Tim tried not to let his thoughts spiral after that - the what ifs relating to the Bats, his friends in his dimension, the friends he was making in this one - but Wendy was only such a good distraction on his fourth rewatch. Still, the length of the day was getting to him - he'd had a day packed with meetings at Wayne Enterprises before going to the Cave and being told to bring Damian on his stakeout, then the actual stakeout itself and everything that had happened since - all on four hours of sleep thanks to nightmares. Even though he was somewhere unfamiliar his eyes grew heavy throughout the fourth episode, slowly migrating from being upright to laying sideways in the chair, head pillowed on the arm and curled in on himself. The last thing he remembered was the intro for the fifth episode before falling asleep.

Chapter Text

When Dick got the call from Babs that Damian and Tim's comms had both gone dark, he hadn't been sure what to expect. He and Bruce both raced to the location, showing up just as Damian fell through a portal back into the warehouse he'd disappeared from.

That Robin and Red Robin had stumbled into a cult offering wasn't what he'd expected. Damian claimed it was a sacrifice while the cult leader, who had been thoroughly freaked out by Robin and Red Robin disappearing in a glowing green portal, claimed it was an offering. While he wanted to believe Damian, the circle on the floor did match the offering circle in the book the cult leader had offered up, Infinita Regna.

Once he realized that Red Robin wasn't coming back, the leader had been fully cooperative with the Bats. He claimed that the King of the Infinite Realms was known to hate human sacrifice and that it was part of why they worshipped him - he was the King of the afterlife but respected those who were still living, even supposedly helping other dimensions. The cult just wanted to get on his good side so they'd be blessed in the afterlife - human sacrifice was a way to guarantee the opposite. Constantine and Zatanna had both been contacted to confirm, but they'd yet to hear back.

The cultists had been rounded up - most were runaways, orphans, or otherwise estranged from their families. They'd be tried for the robberies, but they'd likely be out in a few years' time given the cult leader's influence over them.

Dick was too busy internally freaking out over Tim being missing to focus on them. This was his case - as far as Dick knew he hadn't been aware it was a cult worshipping the King of the afterlife, otherwise he would've contacted a magician himself. He never would've entered the situation unprepared. Damian admitted it had been his decision to crash in on the offering ceremony since he fervently believed it to be a sacrifice, even now with evidence to the contrary.

They had very little information on the Infinite Realms. The Justice League's database showed that it was the space between dimensions - essentially the glue holding them together - and it housed every afterlife. It was ruled by a King Phantom, who had defeated the previous king, Pariah Dark, in single combat. Not much was known about King Phantom besides that and his distaste for human sacrifice.

Pariah Dark, though? He was known as the Destroyer of Worlds, the Tyrant King. For Phantom to have defeated him they must have been incredibly powerful.

And yet Damian refused to talk of his interaction with them. He merely stated an agreement had been reached and he'd been sent back while Tim had to stay, frustrating both Dick and Bruce to no end. It was as though despite all the progress he'd made the last few months, Damian didn't care whatsoever that Tim was trapped in the Infinite Realms.

If they knew more about what had happened, they may be able to figure out how to get Tim back. Dick was close to using the summoning circle for King Phantom from Infinita Regna to get some answers himself when Constantine arrived from a glowing golden portal, cigarette hanging from his lips.

"Alright Bats, you've got a cult?" he asked casually, already moving to examine the offering circle. Dick watched him pale as he got a good look at it, cigarette dropping to the ground. "The King of the bloody Realms?" he murmured in shock, head whipping towards the cultists. The leader shrunk back a bit under the incredulous stare as Constantine moved towards him, "you've got no idea what you're messing with, mate. You're lucky you went with the offering because bringing him here? You would've destroyed the bloody dimension!" Dick's stomach dropped at the words.

"King Phantom is kind-" the cult leader started, only for Constantine to cut him off.

"I don't care how bloody kind he is!" he yelled back, pulling another cigarette from his jacket. "He defeated Pariah fucking Dark, he's the most powerful being in existence! If you pissed him off, he could wipe us from existence." Dick staggered back, leaning against the wall.

Tim was stuck in the Infinite Realms, with this being Constantine was terrified of - and for good reason, from the sounds of it. Dick pulled himself away from the wall on shaky feet, moving towards Constantine. "How do we get Red back?" he asked, desperation clear in his voice.

Constantine turned towards him with a huff. "You don't," he said flatly. Dick nearly crumbled on the spot. "If the King of the Infinite Realms has decided he wants to keep Red Robin, he gets to keep Red Robin, end of."

As Constantine spoke, Dick shook his head. "No," he mumbled, then louder, "no. No, there has to be a way to get him back. He can't be trapped there forever, we have to get him back." Dick looked up to find Bruce simply watching and yelled at him, "say something, B! We have to get Red back!"

Bruce was silent for another moment before turning to Constantine. "How dangerous would the summoning for this King be?" he asked quietly.

Constantine laughed hysterically. "Not fucking happening, Bats," he replied, moving towards the book. Dick stepped between him and it. If Constantine wasn't willing he'd do it himself, lack of magical abilities be damned. Seeing his determination Constantine sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Look, we aren't summoning the fucking King of the Infinite Realms," he explained, voice tired. "But we can send an offering with a message asking for Red Robin's safe return in exchange for another offering." Dick perked up a bit at that, looking back to Bruce.

"Hmm," Bruce sighed, moving towards the supplies confiscated from the cultists. There were a number of things meant to be sent to the King as offerings - though they'd need to be returned to those they were stolen from, they offered a good starting point for finding what the King may like in exchange for Red Robin.

They were going to get Tim back.

Chapter Text

Tim woke slowly the next morning, which was a surprise in and of itself. More often than not lately his sleep was restless, riddled with nightmares - the nights he was so overworked he dropped into a dreamless sleep were a blessing, in that regard. And yet here he was, somewhere unfamiliar and waking up actually feeling somewhat well rested. As he sat up in the armchair he was surprised to see a mattress had been dragged in at some point, Danny, Sam and Tucker all sprawled across it.

Tucker appeared to be awake but on his phone on one edge, curled in on himself. Sam was on the other edge, just beginning to stir and stretch out. And in the middle Danny laid on his stomach, one arm thrown over Sam and the opposite leg over Tucker. Tim snorted at the sight, drawing Tucker's attention. When Tucker noticed where Tim's attention was he gave a fond smile and murmured, "yeah, he likes having contact with us in his sleep."

His voice seemed to be what fully roused Sam, her giving a little groan as she pulled herself partially upright. "Morning," she muttered, scrubbing over her face with a hand.

Tucker snorted at the way her hair was mussed up from sleep. "Morning sleeping beauty," he joked, earning a tired glare. Sam gently pushed Danny's arm off of her, causing him to turn towards Tucker in his sleep.

"I'm gonna make coffee and get started on breakfast," Sam told them as she stood, stretching fully.

Tucker hummed in response as Tim mumbled, "sounds good." While he felt well rested, it always took his brain a while to fully come online, particularly his ability to verbalize his thoughts. Even saying that much was a bit of a struggle for his tired brain, and he slumped back into the armchair.

"We watched through episode 6," Tucker said a moment later, and Tim cocked his head before processing fully - he'd fallen asleep while showing them Wendy the Werewolf Stalker at Sam's insistence. He remembered watching the first few episodes, but somewhere during episode 4 he recalled his blinks growing longer. It had been entirely unintentional - he fully believed he'd be awake most of the night when he'd spoken to Danny at the castle, what with the unfamiliar location and his frequent nightmares and yet he'd slept -

"Wha' time's it?" Tim muttered in lieu of a real response.

"Almost one," Tucker informed him. Tim felt his eyes widen and Tucker chuckled, "you seriously needed the sleep, dude. Your eyebags have eyebags."

While Tim knew just how tired he often looked, it was still a shock to hear he'd slept for ten hours. That was nearly unheard of for him - even on his days off from WE he'd set alarms to get up and do casework. The last time he'd slept in must've been before - before. It felt like his life was split into the before and after now, with how often he'd think of how things had changed since Bruce's disappearance.

Which reminded him, he needed to call Cass and his friends, let them know he was okay. Except -

"Does Danny still have my phone?" he asked Tucker. Tucker looked up at him from where Danny had wrapped himself around him like a koala, causing Tim to chuckle. He made a mental note that Danny was a cuddler.

Tucker sighed, reaching into Danny's pajama pants' pocket and pulling out Tim's phone. "Here, man," he said as Tim stretched out to grab it.

"Thanks," Tim murmured, cautious of waking Danny. He pushed the blanket from his lap and padded out to the hall, shutting the door to the movie room behind him before realizing he had no idea where he was going. Rather than wander he decided to just sit on the floor in the hall as he contacted his friends and sister.

The first thing he did was make a chat with just him, Bart, Kon and Cassie - they had one on their regular phones but on his hero phone it was either the Titans as a whole or individual messages.

Red Robin

So I know the Bats probably haven't said anything but I'm in another dimension for the time being

Long story short: king of the space between dimensions decided the Bats don't deserve me and I may or may not stay in his home dimension instead

Several people are typing…

Tim left the chat for the time being, instead pulling up Cass's contact. If his math was right and the time differences held up it should be around 1 a.m. so she'd be up, if maybe busy. He ignored his phone buzzing as he clicked the video call option, putting it on Do Not Disturb as he went. Cass would want to see proof he was okay - so would his friends, but they could wait.

It took a minute, but Cass did answer - in Black Bat gear. Tim saw her cock her head as she registered that Tim wasn't in his Red Robin gear despite calling from his Red Robin phone. "Hey BB, I've got a story for you," he started, and she held up a finger. Tim immediately paused, watching as Cass swung up a few buildings, getting to higher ground.

"What happened?" she asked as soon as she touched down in her intended spot. Tim smiled, happy to hear her voice, and as bad as it sounded, the worry in it.

"So N and B made me take the brat on my stakeout last night," he started, seeing her face wrinkle in distaste. He smirked a little, "yeah, that was my reaction. Anyways, those robberies I've been investigating?" Cass nodded, indicating she remembered him mentioning the case, "turns out it was a cult gathering offerings to the King of the Infinite Realms."

"Infinite Realms?" Cass repeated, confusion clear.

"It's essentially the space between dimensions, and also the home of every afterlife ever," Tim explained, Cass's eyes widening in response. "So, I realized the leader was drawing a circle and cursed, which drew the brat's attention from where he'd been doing katas instead of, y'know staking out with me, and he immediately jumped to human sacrifice - meanwhile my research showed it was an offering circle and that they were just gonna send this star chart one of the cultists was holding that they stole the other day. Of course he didn't listen either, so he went swinging in and I had to go in after him because if he got hurt it'd be my fault." Again, Cass's face wrinkled in distaste. She'd never understood Dick and Bruce's insistence that Tim was responsible for Damian's safety when Damian didn't listen to him.

"Anyways, we managed to land in the circle just as the offering went through and we got sent into the Infinite Realms," he continued, causing Cass's jaw to drop slightly. Tim chuckled at being able to surprise her. "Yeah, so we ended up in the throne room of the King, and he told us one of us had to stay."

"You offered?" Cass cut in. Tim flushed slightly at how well she knew him.

"If I came back without him N would've torn me a new one," he tried justifying, but he knew it was a weak excuse. He would've offered to stay no matter who he was with. Cass fixed him with a deadpan look, and he sighed, "look, that's not important. What is important is that the King asked if Robin was okay with that and he immediately responded about how useless I am," Cass made a noise of protest at that and Tim smiled, "that's the thing - the King got pissed he said that and said a hero was required to stay, and he only saw one hero, and a child playing dress up then sent Robin back before he could say anything else."

"What about you?" Cass asked. Tim could see her eyes scanning the background now.

"The King told me once R was gone that he was sorry about everything," Tim told her, "and that he'd never had a situation like that before. It turns out that he didn't actually need one of us to stay," Cass made an angry noise at that and Tim hurried to continue, "the King just happens to also be a teenager who decided to make a game out of heroes ending up in his dimension, and this is the first time it went wrong - he decided I was unappreciated and offered me a place on his council, and in his home dimension."

Cass was quiet for a moment, simply studying him and Tim shifted slightly. He knew she could read him like an open book, could see that he was considering the offer seriously. "You want to stay?" she asked finally and he sighed, running his free hand through his hair.

"I don't know," he murmured after a moment. And this was the main reason he'd called: to talk things through with his big sister. "It really hit me last night just how… hard things have been lately. You know I couldn't even remember the last time I had as much fun as I did last night? I haven't gotten to hang out with my friends in… I don't even remember how long because I'm always so busy with cases and missions and WE. I only see them when I work with the Titans - and it's not like B or N are asking about me outside Bat stuff or work. The last person I actually just… hung out with was Hood?"

"Hood?" Cass asked, a hard edge to her voice.

"I told you he apologized," Tim chided, and Cass hummed. "But yeah, we worked a case together since our territories run up against each other and then he invited me to his place for breakfast after. We just kinda… watched TV and shot the shit for a bit before I had to leave for work."

It was silent for a moment as Cass digested his words and thought things over. Tim watched her nervously, biting at his cuticles. "Would I still see you?" she asked quietly.

Tim melted a bit at that. "At the very least I know we'd still be able to talk like this," he told her. She nodded and he added, "I'd have to see with Danny - the King - about the possibility of me being able to visit regularly. And this isn't me saying I am staying here. Just - it's a possibility. I don't think I can go back to Gotham, Cass." His voice was quiet at the end as he finally admitted it. Gotham had become so unhealthy for him, and he dreaded the idea of having to go back.

Cass nodded, but her eyes were sad. Gotham had never been home for her the way it was for Tim - he was sure it hurt her to realize just how bad things had gotten that he no longer found comfort there. "Tell me about him?" she asked. Tim cocked his head and Cass gave a small smile, a hint of mischief in her eyes. "Danny."

Tim's face heated. Of course she'd been able to pick up on his crush from the little bit he'd shared so far. "Well like I said, he's King of the Infinite Realms," he started, and she nodded, "and he's not exactly human?" her head cocked at that. "He called himself a halfa but I haven't had time to research the term at all. I know he can float and open portals, and he has a different form, but that's it for now. He's also getting ready to start college in his home dimension, along with two of his friends - we're actually at one's house right now," Tim pulled his phone back, showing more of the hallway he was in. "Danny brought me over here so the four of us could hang out and get to know each other - he wanted to get my mind off everything." Tim sighed and Cass's smile turned more fond.

"You really like him?" it was only partially a question, but Tim flushed at being called out. Still, he nodded.

"He's an engineer, and he used to be a hero too," he told her quietly, sneaking a glance back at the door. He couldn't see through it, obviously, and wasn't sure if the room was soundproofed since it was a movie room, after all, but he couldn't hear anything from inside. "And just - I feel like I fit here, y'know? I got cold last night and Tucker - one of Danny's friends - grabbed a blanket for me without a word. It was almost like being with my friends back home." Cass hummed, still smiling fondly at him.

"You deserve to be happy," she said after a moment, and Tim was startled to feel tears welling in his eyes. Cass's look turned sad again and she added, "I love you, little brother. No matter what."

"I love you too, Cass," he replied, voice choked. Even if he decided to stay in this dimension, his sister would have his back.

Chapter Text

Once Tim hung up with Cass he took a minute to just… breath. It was really hitting him that he may never go back to Gotham, and he wasn't entirely sure how he felt about it. He looked up at the sound of footsteps coming down the hall.

Sam had gotten changed, now wearing a short black and gray plaid dress and purple tights, and she was carrying a tray that had four mugs, a stack of plates, and a ton of pancakes. Tim scrambled to his feet and hastily wiped his eyes. "Need help?" he asked, reaching hesitantly for the tray.

Sam narrowed her eyes, holding the tray closer to her body and gesturing at the door with her chin. "You're a guest," she said flatly. "You can get the door, but I've got the tray." Tim held his hands up in surrender, turning and opening the door. He held it open as Sam walked through then followed her in, shutting it behind himself.

Danny was now sitting up in the bed, clearly still blinking sleep from his eyes as Tucker snickered at him. Without a word he grabbed one of the mugs off the tray and downed probably half of it despite the steam. "Coffee?" Sam asked Tim, holding one of the mugs out. Tim took it, silently watching as Danny started to fully wake up and sitting back in the armchair he'd spent the night in. He could see the moment Danny registered him as being there, as well as the moment he remembered what had happened the night before.

"Morning," Danny mumbled into his mug before taking another, more normal, sip.

Tim snorted into his own mug, then spluttered for a moment as he inhaled some coffee. He smacked himself in the chest a few times before he could breath normally again. "Morning," he said, voice still a little strangled.

"So Tim, how was your first night in this dimension?" Tucker asked. Sam glared at him, but Tim just smiled.

"I slept surprisingly well," he replied. Tucker nodded.

"Yeah man, you were out," he joked, then yelped as Sam elbowed him. "What? It's true! Dude slept through people getting torn up on Wendy." Tim winced as he thought about it - episode 5 of Wendy was one of the more violent ones, and he really had slept entirely through it, no problem.

"I guess since you guys remind me of my friends back home my body registered itself as safe," he said after a minute. He could see the way they softened at that. Another moment of silence before Sam clapped her hands and reached for the plates.

"Alright, I made pancakes, eat before they get cold," she said, passing the plates out. She passed the tray around, letting everyone take a few pancakes (or in Tucker's case, a ton of pancakes) and asked, "so what were you doing sitting in the hall?" causing Tim to flush.

"Ah I-" Tim stammered, before taking a moment to swallow his mouthful of pancakes. "Just wanted to call my sister and let her know what was happening," he told her. Danny cocked his head.

"She didn't already know?" he questioned through a mouthful of pancakes. Sam smacked his shoulder and he smiled sheepishly then swallowed.

Tim shook his head, "she's in a different country so I figured they wouldn't have wanted to freak her out." There was silence for a moment.

"Man, they're hiding that you went missing?" Tucker asked incredulously. Tim cocked his head. He hadn't thought of it that way but-

"I guess?" he replied with a shrug. He took another bite of pancakes and hummed in thought before adding, "it's more a there's nothing they can do so why tell them? Sort of thought process. Bruce and Dick probably called in some magicians to get some advice and are planning things now. Same reason they probably didn't it mention to my team." Speaking of - Tim pulled his phone from his (Danny's, his brain reminded him) sweatpants, swiping Do Not Disturb open to see his notifications.

46 Missed Calls

98 Text Messages

He winced, then looked back up at Sam, Danny, and Tucker where they were all sharing looks. Tim cocked his head and Danny explained, "it's still weird they wouldn't tell your sister though. Even if she couldn't do anything, doesn't she deserve to be in the know?"

Tim took another bite of his pancakes as he thought that over. "It's what we both expect of them," he replied. Not quite an answer, but the truth. Tim wished the Bats communicated better, but there was no real way for him to change it. Bruce had tried to instill his own paranoia in Tim but really all that had done was make Tim more wary of communicating clearly with Bruce himself - not so much his friends or sister. Before anyone could respond Tim asked, "is it alright if I call my friends? I texted them and they've been spamming me since."

Before he'd even finished talking Danny was nodding, "yeah dude, no problem. Let them know you're okay and everything."

Tim gave him a grateful smile and a quick, "thanks," before turning his Do Not Disturb off and immediately getting a call from Bart. He answered and was met with Bart, Kon, and Cassie all squished together on screen. A chorus of "Red!" and "Rob!" came through his phone, all of them talking over each other.

"Guys!" he called over them, tone holding the same command he'd use in the field. They all snapped quiet immediately. "As you can see, I'm perfectly fine." Tim held his phone out so they could see him fully - the oversized t-shirt, the armchair he was in, the plate of pancakes in his lap. He could see as it registered with them that he really was fine, not just making excuses.

"Are those pancakes?" Kon asked after a moment of silence.

Tim nodded, taking a bite. "Who made you pancakes?" Cassie asked incredulously.

Tim snorted and swallowed his mouthful before responding. "So, I told you guys the King of the Infinite Realms decided the Bats didn't deserve me," he started, getting enthusiastic nods.

"He's totally right on that," Bart chimed in.

"Thank you!" Danny called from where he was still sitting on the mattress. Tim flushed a little.

"Wait, you're still with him?" Cassie asked. Tim nodded.

"Yeah, so after our whole interaction in the Realms he brought me back to his home dimension cause surprise - the King is also a teenager?" as Tim spoke Danny stood, coming around to sit on the arm of Tim's chair.

"High King Danny Phantom of the Infinite Realms, at your service," Danny said, bowing as much as he could while sitting. "Although in this form I'm just Danny Fenton, guy about to start college."

Silence for a second before Bart started speaking, "you're the King? But you're so young! Andyou'reacollegestudent?Whatdoyoumeanthisform?"

Cassie pushed Bart out of frame a little, getting him to stop. "Bart, chill," she chided, "one question at a time. First being: why should we trust you?" Her eyes were narrowed, clearly looking Danny over.

Danny shrugged, "you probably shouldn't." Tim blinked in surprise, turning towards Danny. "You don't know me, I'm just this random guy who kind of accidentally kidnapped your friend. I've been taking care of him! He slept for a while, he's eating breakfast now, and we're probably gonna show him an awesome movie that doesn't exist in your dimension once this call is over. He's free to go back to your dimension whenever he wants, all he has to do is ask."

Tim could feel his friends' stares intensify at that. "What exactly happened?" Cassie asked after a moment.

Tim sighed. "B and N made me take Robin on a stakeout last night," Kon groaned loudly and Bart booed, Cassie's face scrunching in distaste. Tim snorted. "And it turned out the group was a cult, and they decided to send an offering to the King of the Infinite Realms - unfortunately, Robin assumed they were going to do human sacrifice and jumped in, so I followed him and we got sucked into the Infinite Realms instead, which is where we met Danny." He gestured at Danny, who decided to pick up the story.

"So heroes getting dropped into the Realms is actually pretty common - either accidentally or as sacrifices," he started, surprising Tim. He wasn't aware of the fact that heroes were occasionally sacrificed. "And I figured why not make a game out of it for myself? Make it a little more interesting?"

"We told him not to," Sam called from her seat, glaring at Danny.

"Who was that?" Kon asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Just my friend Sam," Danny waved dismissively, "we're actually at her house right now, she made the pancakes. Anyways, the game is just to tell the heroes only one can return to their dimension and see how hard they each argue why they should stay. I've heard all sorts of reasons, I'm older, you have a kid, I've been doing this longer. The sort of stuff you'd expect of a hero, y'know? Only it turns out Damian is a little asshole." Again Tim snorted.

"Wait you know their real names?" Bart asked, head cocked to the side.

"I mean, yeah?" Danny replied, tone confused. "It's not like I'm from your dimension anyways, not much I can do with it here - and no reason to share it if I did go to your dimension. Anyways, Damian basically called Tim useless, which really pissed me off since he was the one who actually knew what was going on - if it weren't for Tim and the fact that I'm a pretty chill King, Damian would've caused an interdimensional incident."

At that, Bart weirdly perked up, "does that mean we can report him to the League finally?"

Tim dropped his head into his hands. "We have no way of proving this happened, Imp," he muttered. "As far as the Bats are concerned, I'm stuck in the Infinite Realms at the whims of the King - and sure, they'd probably take King Phantom's word, but it'd be a whole thing."

There was silence for a moment, and Tim looked up to see everyone staring at him.

"Tim, you realize this is bigger than just you now, right?" Cassie asked quietly. Tim shrunk into his seat a little, but she kept going, "Robin has attacked you before a number of times-"

"What?" Tucker cut in, voice incredulous and eyes wide. Tim winced a little - Tucker and Sam hadn't heard just how bad things between Tim and Damian were.

"-and now you're in another dimension because of him," Cassie continued as though she hadn't heard Tucker. "Who knows who else he may be willing to sacrifice for not fitting his standards? What he may be willing to do to them? I think it's time we take the evidence to Wonder Woman, Superman, and the Flash."

Tim sighed. While he hadn't wanted to escalate to this level, he'd agreed to store evidence of all of Damian's attacks against him - physical and verbal. He'd created a secure folder, hidden deep in the Nest's systems and behind multiple password protected folders that only he and his friends knew the codes for - not even Cass was aware of its existence. And Cassie made a good point - who was to say that Steph wouldn't be next? Or Jason? Any of the Titans, now that Tim was gone and Dick may try to use it as an opportunity for Damian to join the team again? Damian would need another target for his rage, and they likely wouldn't be prepared for Damian's vitriol - he'd hated Tim from the beginning, had tried to kill him the first time they'd met. No one else had experienced that level of hatred. Tim couldn't in good conscience let someone else fall victim to it.

"Bart," he started, looking back at his friends on screen. Bart sat straighter, an automatic response to Tim slipping into his mission voice. "Go to the Nest and copy the file to a hard drive. Kon, go with him and act as a lookout, make sure the Bats aren't snooping around the Nest - they don't have the codes, but that won't necessarily stop them from trying to get in. Cassie, contact Diana to set up a meeting. Let her know it's urgent. For now, the story is that I missed a planned hang out - you couldn't get a hold of me and Kon realized my heartbeat had disappeared, so you enacted a contingency of mine for if I ever disappeared without the Bats spreading word about it. Clear?"

Tim got three nods in return before Kon and Bart disappeared from screen. "Are you sure you're alright, Tim?" Cassie asked quietly, worry clear.

Tim gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm better than I've been in a while, Cassie," he told her honestly. He glanced at Danny then back at his phone, his cheeks warming slightly. "I got ten hours of sleep last night, and had more fun than I've had since the last time I was able to hang out with you guys. Danny and his friends are taking care of me."

Cassie shot a look at Danny, then looked back at Tim, face softening. "We'll call again after the meeting," she reassured him, and Tim nodded. Then, surprising him, she turned her gaze back to Danny, "you better keep taking good care of him. We have your name now, we can track down your summoning if he goes out of contact."

Danny offered her a two finger salute and a wide grin. "After what he told me about his family last night, I'm glad he has friends like you," Danny replied, and Tim saw Cassie's jaw go a little slack in shock. "You take care of things there, we'll take good care of him. I promise on the crown." At those words the crown Tim had seen on him last night flashed above Danny's head for a moment, flames flaring brighter for a second before fading from view.

Cassie nodded, a little dumbfounded at the casual display of power from someone who, despite being said to be a King, had seemed so normal, as well as the promise he'd made, before she snapped back to work mode. "With the processing speed of your computer, Bart's probably already halfway done transferring those files," she said. "Like I said, we'll call again when the meeting's done, let you know how things go and talk more about all this." Tim nodded sheepishly. He knew there was more to talk about - namely, what the hell he was going to do next. "Love you Tim, stay safe."

"You too, Cassie," he replied quietly, chest feeling tight as he hung up. It wasn't unusual for his friends to say they loved him but after everything, it hit especially hard. Cassie, Bart, and Kon were about to go against Batman and Nightwing for him. He suddenly missed them more than he'd have thought possible.

Danny, Sam, and Tucker let him have a minute before Danny casually tossed an arm around his shoulders. "Come on," he said, shaking Tim lightly. "Lets watch How to Train Your Dragon and finish breakfast."

Chapter Text

Cassie took a deep breath after she hung up with Tim - she was a little surprised by how easily he'd given in to them contacting the League. She knew though that it wasn't for him - he'd decided to go through with it because he could no longer be Damian's punching bag now that he was in another dimension.

And wasn't that something? One of her best friends, in another dimension - initially against his will but he'd seemingly chosen to stay, based on what Danny had told them. And that was another thing to consider - this teenage King, who already seemed to care for Tim if his reassurances were anything to go by.

Cassie shook herself from her thoughts, putting Bart's phone down in favor of grabbing her own - she made a mental note to make sure he put it back with his Kid Flash stuff when he came back to the Tower, where they'd all grouped up after receiving Tim's first text. She still couldn't believe he texted them first, instead of just doing a group call - and that he let them panic for half an hour before answering their calls. Pulling up Diana's contact, she steeled herself, prepared to explain the story they'd come up with.

The phone only rang twice before Diana's voice came through, confusion evident, "Wonder Girl? How can I assist you?"

It was rare for Cassie to actually call Diana - sure they worked together, but usually they'd text plans to meet up. And it wasn't uncommon for them to use their regular phones to contact one another - for Cassie to use the phone the League gave her (same as any other teen hero associated with a member, or teens associated with teams in their own right) to contact Diana was sure to ring some alarm bells.

"I need to set up a meeting with you, Superman, and the Flash," Cassie stated, allowing her voice to waver. She wanted Diana to pick up on the emotion in it - the worry and nervousness, only partially faked. Sure she was reassured by the call with Tim, but he was still in a foreign dimension with people they knew nothing about. And yes, the king of the dimension between dimensions had sworn on his crown to keep Tim safe - another wild bit to this story - but how could that reassure her when she knew nothing about him besides his name?

"How soon?" Diana asked, voice falling into the calm steel of her in preparation for battle.

"As soon as possible," Cassie replied immediately. Based on Tim's story it'd been over 15 hours since he'd gone missing, and it would be reasonable for her to be at least vaguely aware of that timeline - Tim was most likely to go missing without a trace on patrol as Red Robin, him being late to a meeting set for 10:30 California time meant he would've gone missing the night prior - and yes, the Bats tended to patrol until 2 or 3, but that still left at least 10 hours since Tim would've disappeared. 10 hours in their line of work could be a lifetime.

"What would be the purpose of this meeting? And why these specific members?" Diana asked. Cassie straightened in her seat.

"The purpose can be discussed in detail once everyone is gathered," she started. It would be best to only explain once. "But these members and these members only should be in attendance. There is reasoning behind it, but again, it will be discussed in detail once we're all gathered."

A pause. Clearly Diana was intrigued and concerned. "I'll see what I can do," she said curtly before promptly hanging up.

Cassie didn't take it personally. Diana was in work mode - she'd get the meeting set up and contact Cassie again soon to let her know when she (and Kon and Bart) could come to the Watchtower.

-

It turned out to be two hours later. 17 hours since Tim had gone missing. Superman had been hard to get a hold of - apparently he was in the middle of a fight and hadn't been able to answer the phone, so it took Diana an hour to actually make contact.

Kon and Bart had made it back to the Tower minutes after Cassie finished the call with Diana, so they spent the two hours solidifying their story - the four of them had made plans last month to hang out this morning, with Tim being the reason the plans were made so far in advance - he needed to sort things out in Gotham with cases and WE but made sure to keep that morning clear. Once the three had all shown up and seen no sign of Tim, they were immediately worried. Usually Kon and Bart were running late, so for them to arrive before Tim was basically unheard of - unless something had happened.

With Kon and Bart literally dying a few years ago they were all paranoid, so when their calls and texts went unanswered, Kon listened for Tim's heart beat - and found nothing. They checked online and found nothing about Tim Drake-Wayne being reported missing or dead, checked their League phones and found no communications indicating Red Robin had been abducted or killed in action - he'd just vanished from the face of the earth.

The lack of communication from the Bats on the matter caused them to trigger a contingency plan of Tim's for this sort of scenario - Red Robin being missing without a report to the Teen Titans, his current team. Though he wasn't as active as he once was, Red Robin was still considered an active member of the Titans, and as such any major injuries, illness or patrol incidents should be uploaded to their servers - anything that would affect his ability to attend to Titans missions.

This contingency was specifically about lack of communication from the Bats regarding Red Robin's status while Red Robin was missing - including Kon being unable to find his heart beat. They were to gather evidence from folders on the computer in the Nest - Red Robin's base of operations - and call a meeting with their mentors.

Standing in front of some of the founding members of the League in an official capacity was nerve wracking, even if she was close with one and had heard embarrassing stories about the other two. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with us," Cassie started cordially, only to be cut off by Bart.

"Red Robin's missing," he blurted out. Cassie shot him a glare, though it was performative. They wanted to get the urgency across. She could see each of their expressions shift at that - concern, confusion, but also a hint of something else in Superman's.

"You're sure this is a cause for concern?" he asked, causing Kon to scoff.

"Of course it is," he snapped back. "We had a meeting planned for this morning and Red didn't show - didn't answer his phone either, and he gave me permission to listen for his heart beat," Kon didn't expand on that, but Cassie knew it was for more than just scenarios like this. He'd asked permission to listen to hers for comfort and reassurance too, after all. "It's gone. Red Robin's heart beat has disappeared."

Cassie didn't let them fully process that before diving in, "we're enacting a contingency he set up for us. He said if he ever went out of contact without warning and the Bats didn't say anything, to download file DAW-655 from his system in the Nest and show it to you three. The file was hidden behind multiple password protected folders that no one but us knew the codes for."

Bart zipped to the computer that was kept in the meeting room, quickly attaching the hard drive and pulling up the files, Cassie continuing as they popped up. Video and audio files, incident reports, photos, and a spreadsheet - the spreadsheet being what Bart stopped on. "These are all incidents between Red Robin and the current Robin," Cassie saw the way Diana's jaw tightened at that. His time on the Titans was brief but memorable, and not in a good way. "From the beginning Robin has hated Red Robin, going so far as to attempt to kill him the first time they met," as she spoke, Bart pulled up the photos of Tim's injuries from that first attempt - taken by Bruce for the incident report. The report itself was next, then the video taken from the Batcave's security footage. Cassie didn't watch, but she still had to hold back a wince at the sound of Tim hitting the stone floor. She could see the way the Flash's jaw dropped open at that.

"And how old was Robin?" he asked, voice strained.

"Nine," Cassie informed him. "While Robin's attempts on Red's life have lessened, he still attacks Red both verbally and physically," as Cassie spoke Bart went back to the spreadsheet - scrolling for an uncomfortably long moment that caused Diana's jaw to tighten further and Superman's grip on the table to tighten. When Bart reached the end he pulled up the connected files - Damian attempting to stab Tim nearly a week ago. Tim had been able to deflect, thankfully, but the footage clearly showed the kid coming at him from behind while Tim was working in the lab in the Batcave. He hadn't mentioned it to them. Cassie swallowed harshly before turning her eyes back to the League members in front of her.

"Robin has a history of attacking Red Robin, and Nightwing and Batman have a history of dismissing and covering for these attacks," she gestured at the screen, where Dick was shown reprimanding both Damian and Tim, despite Tim not actually having done anything besides protect himself.

"What-" Superman started, only for Diana to cut him off.

"What do you believe happened, Wonder Girl?" she asked, voice grave.

Cassie wrung her hands. "All I know is that either the Bats are unaware of Red Robin's disappearance," she started, then forced her hands to her sides. She needed to appear confident in this. "Which seems unlikely given the trackers they tend to use, or the Bats are covering for Robin in some capacity. I don't know what exactly happened, maybe a patrol accident they're coming up with a cover story for, but they must not have realized Red had plans with us this morning, and that we'd ring the alarm over him not showing."

Diana nodded, sharing a glance with the Flash and Superman. "We'll need to discuss this further," Superman said, and Cassie held back a scoff.

Kon didn't bother. "What you need to do is question Robin," he argued, crossing his arms. Cassie glared at him - once again performative. Questioning Robin was their end goal. "Red's probably been missing for 12 hours by now, who knows what's happened to him in that time?"

Cassie took a shaky breath. The idea of Tim actually being in danger terrified her, and she let that show. "Red Robin has been through a lot the past few years," she said slowly, seeing how Superman averted his eyes. "When Kid Flash and Superboy came back, we promised to be there for each other and make sure nothing like his time searching for Batman, or Superboy and KF's deaths happened again. We contacted you because it's what Red told us to do in this situation. If you won't do anything about it, we will."

Another look shared between the three League members before Diana nodded. "We'll contact Batman and ask him to bring Robin to the Watchtower," she stated, and Cassie sighed in relief. As willing as she was to go to Gotham to question the brat herself, it was a relief that Diana was ready to step in once she knew how serious the situation was.

If only Tim were here to see it.

Chapter Text

How to Train Your Dragon was a great movie, and Tim was incredibly sad it didn't exist in his home dimension. Cassie, Bart, and Kon would love it - which reminded him to check his phone.

He had one text from Cassie, roughly half an hour ago letting him know they'd be meeting with the League members in an hour to discuss everything. She also confirmed that they'd gotten everything they needed from the Nest and that Bart and Kon had locked it down when they'd left, which he was grateful for. He hadn't even mentioned locking it down in his instructions but that added an extra layer of security for the Bats to try to get through - not that he was sure they would. They'd have all the information they needed on Tim's disappearance from the cult members involved.

"Everything alright?" Danny asked, back in the armchair next to Tim. The mattress had been left on the floor for now, but everyone had moved back into the chairs they'd taken last night. Tim looked up from his phone and cocked his head. "You were making a face," Danny offered, which only confused Tim further. He didn't think he'd been making a face?

"Just thinking," he replied, still half distracted. He was already thinking over how the meeting would go - was having them ask for Clark the right move? Yes he was one of the founding members and a big influence but he also hadn't always treated Kon well, and he hadn't exactly been helpful for Tim recently.

"What about?" Danny questioned, cutting through Tim's thoughts again. Tim turned towards him, knees curled to his chest as he leaned his side against the back rest.

"My friends are meeting with essentially the leaders of this worldwide hero community," he began to explain. He'd never thought he'd have to explain the concept of the Justice League prior to last night. "There are a bunch of members of it, but there are a few big ones - including my adoptive father. I told them to call a meeting with three of the others, and to show them the evidence my friends had me gathering on Damian's actions. I never thought…" he trailed off, biting his lip.

His friends had been the ones to encourage it and while he knew it had been for something like this, in his head it had been more of a research project - how was Damian progressing as he spent more time in Gotham? How often was he attacking Tim, and to what degree? There didn't seem to be any pattern to it from what he'd found.

"So your dad didn't do anything about your little brother trying to kill you?" Tucker asked bluntly. Tim winced at the phrasing as Sam smacked his arm.

"God you're the worst," she snapped, and Tucker threw his hands up.

"At least I've never tried to kill my brother!" he exclaimed, and Tim winced again.

"He doesn't really see me as his brother," Tim cut in before they could devolve into an argument. He'd rather not get sidetracked and have to come back to this conversation. Sam and Tucker's heads both snapped to him from where they'd been glaring at one another. "Bruce adopted me a little over two years ago. It was only after that that we found out his ex, who was part of…" he trailed off, trying to think of the best way to describe the League of Assassins, "a cult, of sorts, had hidden the fact that they had a kid together. By the time we found out he was 10 and had already been indoctrinated to their beliefs, including training in a number of deadly martial arts. He believed in order to get rid of the competition he had to kill me. The first time we met he pushed me from a high surface onto a glass case. I managed to stop the bleeding, but it was still pretty bad - I need several transfusions, and I was benched for a while. From there the antagonism continued, and no one really stepped in. It wasn't always to that degree - sometimes it was just verbal - but he's never accepted me as part of the family." Tim took a deep breath to steel himself.

"And-" Sam started, but Tim cut her off.

"Then a few months ago there was a situation that required I be emancipated," he said. He was picking at a loose thread on his borrowed sweats as he spoke, unable to face them. "Bruce was missing, believed by most to be dead, and the person who had stepped in to fill his civilian role to the public was going to hand over his company to Damian's grandfather - the leader of the cult I mentioned earlier. Of course Bruce had a plan for this situation - me taking over. But since I was a minor at the time, it wasn't legally possible."

"Unless you were emancipated," Tucker filled in quietly. He was the most somber Tim had seen since he'd been here.

He nodded quietly. "So I emancipated myself," he shrugged. "I'm technically, legally, no longer part of the family. Whether I was ever really part of it emotionally is up for debate, but no one has spoken to me about it. Well, other than my sister, sort of, but that was more her affirming to me that we're siblings than asking about the situation and if there was anything being done to make me legally part of the family again."

It was silent for a moment as the other three processed everything Tim said. "Would you want that?" Sam asked quietly. Tim's head snapped up, meeting her eyes. He was surprised by the hardness there. "It doesn't sound like they're good to you. Do you want to be legally tied to them?"

Tim opened his mouth, fully prepared to say of course, before pausing. Did he want that? He stared at his knees, brows furrowing.

"Look," Sam started, voice more gentle. Tim looked up to find her face had softened in sympathy and it made his heart pang, gaze dropping back to his knees. "I don't know the full story, obviously. Maybe there's more to it, more showing they care and support you. But this? They excused your attempted murderer Tim. And yeah, he's ten or whatever, but no one corrected his behavior - that's the real problem. The kid was raised with murder being normalized and never taught any different after he was removed."

Tim leaned back against the arm of the chair, mind whirling. He knew - he knew, logically, that Dick and Bruce were wrong for not trying harder to deprogram Damian from the League's ideals. But hearing someone else state it so plainly - it hit harder. Especially someone so removed from the situation - his friends always said Dick and Bruce should be doing more, but Tim thought it was them being overprotective. Having someone who had only met him the night prior flat out say they should've done more made it really sink in: they didn't care.

Not enough to stop Damian from insulting him. Not even enough to stop the physical attacks against him. Dick had reprimanded Damian more for overuse of force against goons than he had for Damian's attempts on Tim's life.

After several moments of silence Danny spoke up again, changing the subject. His voice was still quiet as he said, "there's a sequel if you wanna watch that."

"And a third," Tucker added, tone lighter than Danny's.

"Ugh, don't remind me about that," Sam groaned, and Tim felt the tension leaving his muscles.

"Yeah Tuck, Tim doesn't need to know about number three," Danny added, already navigating to the sequel.

It was exactly what he needed - a change of subject, time to process his thoughts while the other three tried to lighten the mood a bit. And it worked. He found himself getting sucked back into the world of dragons, surprised by the revelation that Valka was not only alive - but a dragon rider like her son.

It was as Valka showed Hiccup the hidden scales on Toothless's back that his phone buzzed again. Then two more times. Texts from Cassie.

Wonder Girl

They're having Batman bring Robin to the Watchtower for questioning

Not sure if they're gonna use the lasso, but Flash and WW were definitely taking it seriously

Superman seemed more hesitant, but he went with WW's call

Tim leaned back in his chair after reading them. The League took his spreadsheet seriously. And it's not like they had time to look at much - it seemed the meeting had only been around half an hour, if that. Whatever they'd seen, it was enough to convince them that Robin really could've killed Tim - whether on purpose or accidental.

And that Batman had been willing to attempt to cover it up.

Tim looked up when he realized the room had fallen silent finding Danny watching him, remote in hand and movie paused. "My uh -" he swallowed roughly. This was really happening. "My friend told me they're bringing Robin in for questioning about my disappearance. And it just hit me, that I could've reached out to the League sooner about - about everything. They - they listened. I wasn't even there, but they listened and realized it was wrong and are doing something about it."

Danny leaned over, arm crossing their armrests to rest a hand on Tim's arm. "You deserve people standing up for you, Tim," he reassured quietly, and Tim couldn't help the way he trembled. "What Robin did - what he's been doing - it's wrong. You deserve better." Tim drew his knees back up to his chest, burying his face in them as a few tears escaped his eyes. He heard shifting and was surprised when a moment later an arm wrapped around his shoulders, pulling him into their side where they sat on the armrest. He looked up to find Danny already looking down on him, face full of sympathy, but also something else, something warmer. "You've got your friends back home, your sister, and now you've got us, alright?" Danny told him quietly, squeezing him for a moment.

Tim let himself melt into Danny's side, head resting against his hip as he tried to get himself under control again. After a few moments he pulled away, wiping his face. "I'm good," he said, voice still a little shaky. He could see Sam raise an eyebrow, but he just repeated, "I'm good. Just needed a minute. Lets… can we finish the movie?"

Danny studied him for a moment before nodding slowly. "Yeah, we can finish the movie," he said softly. He moved back to his own seat before adding, "then we can get whatever prescription you need and talk about it."

Shit.