-Robin, on your left,- Kaldur warned. -We can't afford to let him get away with the device.-
Dick smirked and gave a lazy salute before flipping over the hoard of henchmen towards the leader. -You got it, boss.-
The leader of this whole thing was a sickly looking man with dark circles under his eyes and wild hair. His teeth were yellow. Everything about him screamed either 'really sick' or 'super bad with personal hygiene'. Honestly, Dick wasn't sure which was preferable.
"So, I see you're trying to get away while we're distracted. Did you really think that would work?" he asked rhetorically.
The man's lips pulled back in an ugly snarl. "You can't stop me with your Junior Justice League, Bat Brat. It's their fault for this. And they're going to pay."
Dick lunged at the man suddenly, who surprising dodged. Trained in combat then, not just some bum with enough money to hire this much protection. He rolled to his feet and whipped around to face the man again.
"What did they do that's so bad they need to pay?" he inquired.
"What didn't they do is the question!" the man shouted. "They didn't stop the Parkview Apartments from collapsing. They didn't get everyone out. They didn't save my wife! And now I'm going to stop them from saving themselves. I'm going to stop them from ever becoming heroes!"
Dick jumped at him again, this time faster and harder. Still, the man dodged, but this time it was just barely.
-We've got a seriously crazy guy here,- Dick informed the Team. -He's spouting stuff about stopping the League from becoming heroes. And I think he's planning to do it with the device he's holding. Anyone have any idea what it is?-
-I can find out,- M'gann told him. -Just give me a moment. I'm a little preoccupied.-
-You heard her, Robin. Do you think you can keep him here for a few minutes longer while we finish off the rest of his subordinates?-
-Oh, I can do it,- Dick said. -But it'll probably go a lot better and be less painful for me if I have help. This guy doesn't look, but he's really well trained.-
-Superboy, can you make your way over to Robin?- Kaldur asked.
Dick blocked the man from exiting again and threw a few punches, which were blocked and deflected easily.
-Sorry, Aqualad,- Conner grunted. How did grunting over a mind-link ever work? -I'm overwhelmed right now.-
-Robin, it appears you will have to hold out on your own,- Kaldur said. -Be careful.-
Dick kicked at the man's torso. -You got it, Aqualad. What a night for KF to be grounded and Artemis to be on vacation, huh?-
"That's it!" the man finally shouted after ducking under Dick's kick. "I'm going to get rid of you first!"
Dick watched in horror as the man pressed a few buttons on the machine and a bright light started to emit from it. He jumped towards the man and tackled him to the ground, but it was too late. The light became bright enough to burn his eyes. He squeezed them closed, and the last thing he heard was the voice of M'gann shouting: "Robin!"
Dick woke up slowly. And on a bed. Which definitely contrasted with his last memory.
"Где я!" he shouted, shooting up.
"Успокойся. Все нормально. Вы в порядке. Ты в моем доме," a soft voice said. A soft voice he recognized. He turned his head slowly. And his eyes fell upon a young woman with red hair and blue eyes.
"What?" he breathed. This was wrong. His mom-she couldn't be alive. He must be hallucinating. That was it. Because there was no way this was real. No way.
Except… the man who'd had the strange machine had been talking about stopping them from ever becoming heroes. Which would have meant changing the past. And it's possible the machine he was stealing was capable of bringing people to the past. Which mean that since Dick tackled him and was touching the machine, he was dragged along too.
"Oh, you speak English. That's good," his mom said brightly. "We found you on the grounds when we arrived yesterday morning in the strangest costume."
He was still staring at her. Belatedly, he realized that he wasn't wearing his mask anymore. Of sunglasses. Or his uniform. He was dressed in cotton pajamas.
"And then my husband and I volunteered to have you stay in here until you woke up after we saw your face."
Dick was still staring at her wide-eyed.
"Dickie, is that you?" she asked.
Dick nodded his head. There really wasn't much else he could do. She already knew the answer. His mom was a smart woman. Always had been.
"Oh, honey." She embraced him. "What happened to you, my little Robin? How are you here like this? Why were you in such a strange costume with weapons?"
Dick let her hug him and slowly put his arms around her. It felt like she would disappear at any moment.
"It's a long story, mama," he said eventually. "And I promise, you don't want to hear it."
His mother pulled back and bit her bottom lip. "Why wouldn't I want to know what happened to my baby?" she asked, then shook her head. "Nevermind. But how are you here?"
Dick shrugged. "Some crazy guy with a grudge and a time travel device. Did you find anyone else near me?"
She shook her head.
"Okay. May I have the gloves I was wearing back?" he asked. It was easier, being professional like this. Being Robin. He didn't have to deal with his emotions then. Right now, at least.
She passed them to him from a nightstand. He slipped one onto his arm and turned on the holo-screen. Then he started his search. It wasn't too hard to find the image of the man who'd brought him here, but younger and healthier looking, along with a pretty woman. Probably his wife.
"Who're they?" his mother asked.
"The man is the one who brought me here," he told her. It wouldn't hurt. If his plan paid off, then she wouldn't ever remember this. "And the woman was his wife. She died in 2009."
"That's horrible," his mom gasped.
"Yeah, cycle of crime and all that." Dick shrugged. "If I'm right, what I'm about to do should change that."
Dick typed a few fake emails quickly, hacked a few files, and Lucy Vaughn was offered a promotion from a residential nurse to an assistant nurse at a hospital in New York.
Suddenly his limbs began to feel tingly. He looked down and saw himself start to disappear. His mom gasped and reached for him, but her fingers passed right through.
"It's okay, mom," he assured. "If I'm right, you won't even remember this. And if you do, don't let John perform in Gotham." Because according to Batman, John's weight had been what caused the ropes to break. He couldn't miss a chance to save his family, slim as it was.
Then everything went black.
Dick blinked, and found himself in the cave, leaning against the counter. M'gann was pulling a pan of cookies out of the oven. Kaldur was reading a book. Conner was doing homework. He had a glass of water in his hands.
Correction: he dropped the glass of water in his hands.
Everyone's eyes shot towards him.
"Robin, are you alright?" Kaldur asked, eyebrows scrunched in worry.
"Yeah." he rubbed his temple. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just… deja vu."
Kaldur nodded, though he didn't look convinced. Dick swept up the glass shards into his hands and threw them away before mopping up the spilt water.
"Robin," M'gann began a moment later. "Don't you have to be in Gotham to meet with Falcon?"
"To meet with who?" he asked.
"Falcon. You know, your brother," she said off-handedly.
Dick was sure that if he'd been holding another cup he would have dropped it again.
"Y-yeah. Just about to leave," he stuttered. "Bye."
He rushed out the kitchen and to the zeta-beams. Credentials were the same. He arrived in the Batcave. It didn't look any different. So how did he end up with a brother? Then he noticed the case. Instead of just holding the Robin suit and the Batsuit, it held a third one, mostly black with a red bird on the front.
This was getting too weird. Dick felt like he was in the twilight zone. Except worse, because this should have been familiar to him. But everything was wrong. Just slightly off. He turned around and rushed upstairs, coming out from behind the grandfather clock.
He was caught off guard when someone scooped him up into a huge hug.
He stiffened and the person released him.
"What's wrong, Dickie? You look like you've seen a ghost," teased John. John, who should have been dead. John who fell with the rest of the family.
"John?" he asked, uncertain. "You're alive?"
John looked worried suddenly. "What do you mean? Of course I am."
"B-but you fell. You f-fell with mom and dad and uncle Rick and Aunt Karla," Dick stuttered. "You're not alive."
John groaned and ran a hand over his face and into his hair, making it stick up. "Oh no. Did you get hit with fear toxin?"
"Boys?" Bruce's head poked into the study. "Is everything alright?"
"I don't know, Bruce," John said. "Dick came up here and he's really out of it. Like, he thought I was dead."
"Because you are!" Dick shouted. "You are! I remember you falling. And I don't know if this is another simulation or-" Dick ground to a stop. "Oh my god," he whispered. "Mom remembered."
"Dick?" What's going on?" John demanded.
"I-I swear, I didn't know this would happen. The Team was on a mission and I got launched into the past with a guy named Louis Vaughn. He was mad his wife died in the Parkland Apartment collapse."
"No one died in that collapse," Bruce said.
"Now. They didn't die now. But they did… before. I woke up in the past when the circus was setting up for the Gotham show. Mom and dad saw me. I hacked a few things with my gloves and gave his wife, Lucy Vaughn, a promotion so they wouldn't live there and he wouldn't have any reason to send me back to the past. But before I left… I didn't think mom would remember. She shouldn't have! But I told her 'Don't let John perform in Gotham'."
"And the paradox sent you back to the present, where you would have been if you hadn't had a mission," John concluded. "But she remembered that bit. I remember that she said you and I shouldn't do the show that night. I was so mad."
And this was when it hit Dick. He'd saved his cousin. His brother, not by blood, but they may as well have been.
He launched himself forward and squeezed John hard.
"I'm so, so glad you're alive," he cried.
John hugged him back. And then Dick remembered something. He remembered his parents falling, but different then it had been. Because instead of being ready to jump into her arms, he remembered watching from the side.
It wasn't much, but he was remembering things the way they'd happened in this universe as well as his original. And he liked this one better.
I had way too much fun with this. Believe it or not, the original idea was to have Dick and Wally meet their counterparts from an earth without superheroes and villains. And then it spiraled into this. Which I'm not exactly mad about. At all. Basically I wanted to give John, Dick's cousin just to be clear, a chance to live and be a superhero. They were both made the wards of Bruce Wayne. At this point, John is probably around 19. I like to imagine he was fifteen when he originally fell.
I head canon Mary Grayson as speaking Russian and it being one of Dick's first languages. Translations to the bit of Russian spoken are below. Keep in mind, I don't speak Russian, so I used google traslate. I know, the horror. :)
Translation 1: Where am I!
Translation 2: Calm down. It's okay. You're alright. You're in my home.
As always, tell me what you think of this. I love getting reviews. (No, I don't have a big ego. What are you talking about?)
Enjoy!