Title: Façade
Chapter: 1
Fandom: Batman/Nightwing/Young Justice/Teen Titans (cartoon)
Original Concept Credit to: Icy Brownie (http :/ www. Fanfiction. net/ s/ 7222788/ 1/ YJ_Meets_Nightwing w/out spaces)
Summary: Dick Grayson is sent to the past encountering 3 of his self at different points of his life to save the future from being destroyed. A bright violet light seems to be leading the way. But for the life of all of the people involved, they can't figure out what is happening...
Pairings: Minor DickxBabs and TimxStephanie but only because it's needed in their history
Rating: T (for cussing)
A/N Hi readers! How's it going? No. I'm not hyper. (Cough.) Anyways this concept was originally done by Icy Brownie on a fic called YJ meets Nightwingand I've adopted it due to a lack of ideas. Go and read it if you like. It doesn't reveal too much because I'm DRASTICALLY CHANGING PRACTICALLY EVERYTHING…. #.# Yeah. Oh well. The whole thing's 1,990 words according to this site's word counter and it's not long, if you want to read, go to this link! (without spaces) http :/ www. Fanfiction. net/ s/ 7222788/ 1/ YJ_Meets_Nightwing It won't take too long, won't reveal much, and I think it's a bit more enlightening if you read it first. So you get a sense of where it came from?
Haha, I've adopted it. It makes me feel like I have my own ward xD Just kidding. Anyways…
Disclaimer: The original concept for this story belongs to Icy Brownie and the new ideas and new plotline belong to me. Nightwing, Batman, Young Justice, and all of the characters, places, settings, etc. belong to DC Comics and other respective owners. So there.
READ ME: Generally, when I refer to Richard Grayson as Batman, I call him Dick. When I refer to Nightwing, I call him Richard. When I refer to Robin I, I refer to him as either Dick or simply Robin. When I refer to Bruce as Batman when Dick is there, I usually call him Bruce. Awesome. I might change this but this is how it goes for now.
Why yes I am going through a Batman and Robin phase, why do you ask? c:
NOT BETA'D OR READ THROUGH. (Will be read through eventually)
Before you go an say that this has so many things wrong according to the comics and the show whatever, I'm bending some rules to shape my plot. Sorry if that bothers you.
.xX'-~-'Xx.
Her eyes narrowed at the sight before her. This was not how it was supposed to be. A hand dug into the ground, full of dust and crumbled cement. Letting the rubble slowly slip from her hand, she closed her eyes and opened them again, suddenly glowing with a bright violet light. She began to levitate in the air, light coming from every inch of her body. Her hair seemed to be flowing in the air as if under water. Suddenly, her arms rose above her head and a gust of wind overtook the town. Just like that, she was engulfed in a sphere of her light and she disappeared. The city, or rather, what was left of it, still sat destroyed, fire swallowing it.
This was not how it was supposed to be.
.xX'-~-'Xx.
"I hate you Grayson!"
"Hey, it's not my fault that you got zapped by a freeze ray." Dick said, taking a quick look at the young boy. "Actually, you should've been able to dodge it… Are you losing your touch Damian?" Although he was teasing, the young boy refused to acknowledge it as what it was. He only scowled.
"You know that I was distracted by—." Damian stopped. Dick grinned.
"Distracted by what, Damian?" He said this in such a happy, sing-song voice, that Alfred, who was standing next to Damien, had to stifle a chuckle.
"I—You—I hate you Grayson!" Dick chuckled.
"Yes, I think you've already mentioned that." Damian glared, doing his best imitation of the Bat-Glare, which was pretty good given he was 11 years old (1)
"Nice try, but you have nothing on Bats." Dick said, an enormous grin taking up half of his face. This could be the same of Damian, except the corners were turned down. As it turns out, during an issue yesterday Batman and Robin had faced a villain who had acquired a freeze ray and zapped Damian, who had been too busy trying to get a rather clingy kitten off of his face, which had jumped out of a tree as soon as it had seen him. The kitten was spared as Damian finally was able to get it off of his face, but was unprepared and got hit. As a result of him being frozen in a chunk of ice until the battle was over and Dick was able to free him, he had fallen sick. Now that it was over the next day, Damien spent the day yelling at the now Batman and sniffling. The boy all but growled at the man, which was could be changed at any given moment.
"It seems in your condition, you won't be able to do patrol tonight." The boy shot out of bed, a pile of tissues scattering around on the floor. Alfred let out a frustrated sigh before adjusting his gloves and throwing each wad away.
"You can't do this to me!" Damian shouted. Dick now looked more serious. He already had his suit on but his cowl still hung from his hand.
"I can. You're too sick to go out and if you continue moving around you'll get even more sick and won't be able to do any missions." Dick noticed his glare and dismissed it with a wave of the hand. "Would you rather I have you miss one night or one month?" Damian didn't think Dick would usually follow through with such threats as these, but this time, he realized, he was seriously thinking of taking it away from him. After several moments of long silence, Damian finally slumped back into the bed, arms crossed and frown evident (as if it weren't already).
"If you get yourself killed out there, don't say I didn't tell you."
"Hey, I am Batman, I've been Nightwing, and I was in the very same position you are right now, Robin. I'm pretty sure I can handle myself." Dick said, suddenly back into his cheeriness that made Damian want to emphasize on how much it made him want to puke. But he didn't. Instead, he raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"Tsk, tsk, so little faith in your own mentor, Damian. If you're so worried, I'll have Oracle and Red Robin on comms." At this, Damian was once again sitting straight up in the bed.
"Red Robin? Drake? Do you have a death wish? You might as well just not go." To this, Dick just chuckled and ruffled his hair.
"Now, now. Little Timmy has been doing very well and should I remind you that he has worked with many teams and has been on his own successfully for a long time now. Even as Robin he was on his own and did fine. You really shouldn't doubt him by now." (2) Damian just sulked back in his bed. Most would call it possessiveness but Dick obliviously called it a brotherly hate/love. "I'll be fine." The man put on the cowl in his hands, marveling in the way it made him feel more powerful and sentimental. It never ceased to amaze him the feelings as he put on the cowl. Bruce, wherever the hell you are, you better come back. Dick laughed to himself. If the old man really was in Hell, he'd scare Satan himself with a glare and come right back.
"Alfred." Dick said, now using a lower voice, similar to what Bruce had done when he became Batman. "Make sure Damian stays here."
"Of course, Master Richard." He smiled, which looked strange with the cowl, but did nonetheless. "Good luck out there."
"I hate you Grayson." Said Damian suddenly. Then, cautiously, and more hesitant, he added another statement to follow up. "…Be safe." Dick nodded, then swept from the room, undoubtedly to the Batmobile. He called Oracle.
"Hey Babs…"
.xX'-~-'Xx.
Richard Grayson had just finished his shift at the Police Station and decided to head home, finishing a few files, and placing them in his desk. He paused before he exited the building, staring at the wall clock; it was 11:30.
Crap, he thought, I'm gonna be late for patrol. Suddenly a mischievous grin spread across the young man's face. He waved goodbye to the few people left in the vicinity and walked into the cold night air. Casually, he continued down the street before looking if anyone was around. Not that it mattered, but being Bat-trained led him to be cautious, if not overly so. He blended into the shadows and, after a series of jumps and flips, was running along rooftops.
In less than five minutes (which in the car would have taken twenty minutes in the car; 15 on a civilian motorcycle) he was back in his humble abode. He smiled at the time. He still had ten more minutes before his nightly patrol. Looking into the fridge and grabbing ingredients for a sandwich, he made one and then did nothing short of devouring it. Two minutes to spare. Changing into his costume, he looked at a reflection of himself, bright blue eyes exposed. After a bit, he blinked and shook his head, interrupting whatever thoughts were going through the young man's head.
Carefully, he placed his mask on, using spirit gum (3) to make sure his mask stayed on. He never risked capture and having the villain peel his mask off. Grabbing his eskrima sticks, he bounded out the window.
Not a moment later did a bright violet light take him away.
.xX'-~-'Xx.
Robin, dressed in his civilian clothes, smirked as the cave's entry system called "Batman-02." Laughing as he watched his other teammates scramble to the main room, he walked casually to the spot.
He, of course, was the first to arrive, followed by Kaldur. Next came Superboy and Megan, then Artemis and Wally. They were bickering, as per usual, still walking down the corridor.
"I can't believe you ate my chocolate! That was a gift, you know!"
"Hey, I'm a speedster, remember? Fast metabolism!"
"It was my property!"
"I didn't know, it was just there!"
"Just there? Just there? What part of Property of Artemis didn't you get? It was labeled!"
The two heroes in training quickly stopped arguing at the sight of Batman staring at them. Just a glance from the Batman would've shut any criminal up, imagine what a stare made them feel (let alone the Bat-glare at that!) Robin stifled his giggle.
"I am calling you for reasons I can't explain but we do need to get to the bottom of it. Two people have shown up and we had to figure out why they are here. Usually this would be a League mission, but I felt that you should be involved." Batman stared right into Robin's eyes, whose eyebrows rose in surprise. At this point, Batman was directly talking to him. Batman signaled to the shadows with a look, which Robin knew to be "come out now." So did the people coming out, obviously meaning it wasn't directed at him. Even if they were, it wouldn't make any sense. He was already out. It worried him still, however, because no one knew those signals and Batman's communication but Robin himself. His eyes would have widened even more if they could have. If they understood Bat communication…
"Why don't we just ask them why they're here?" Artemis deadpanned. Two figures stepped out from the shadows.
"We would tell you." Said one.
"But we don't know ourselves."
Standing before them stood another Batman and an unknown man wearing a black body suit with some sort of bright blue emblem across his chest.
All of their mouths opened in unison.
.xX'-~-'Xx.
"Oracle to Batman, do you read?"
"Loud and clear." He nodded, still looking straight ahead, knowing that somehow, Barbara was watching.
"Batman to Red Robin, can you hear me?"
"Yeah." Tim blinked. Usually, he would've been out in the field with Dick, but Dick had been forced by him to rest a bit. Although Tim knew Dick could take care of himself—very well, he knew—he still didn't like him to be alone. Things in Gotham always ended up turning out to be pretty odd. Things tended to go wrong when nothing should and Tim's detective skills told him something was bound to happen. Statistically or something, either way tonight seemed off.
Oracle and Red Robin both heard the shift in Dick's movements—normal people wouldn't and even they had to strain to hear it. Dick had jumped to another building, and Barbara adjusted her cameras.
"Batman to Oracle and Red Robin; I saw a suspicious flash of light. Switching to first view cameras." This basically meant that they would be seeing exactly what Dick was seeing, a first person point of view.
"I'm switching you to night vision so we can see better and just in case we need to document anything for references. You know the drill." Oracle said this indifferently, tapping of keys filling the comms and suddenly Dick's world was tinted green. Tim's eyes were concentrated on the screen and scanned only to notice something on the left.
"Hey, Dick, off to the left there was some movement." Dick quickly darted to said direction, narrowing eyes for any other signs of movement. A bright flash went across the screen and then all they could see was static.
"Batman? Batman? Red Robin to Batman!" He panicked. "Dick!" Aliases were dropped. "Shit, Dick, this isn't funny, answer me!" He swore again. "Oracle!" She grimaced at his harsh tone, but she was also worried.
"He isn't showing up on the other camera angles. A bright light and then nothing. Nothing!" She was exasperated, and wanted nothing but to know what was going on.
"I'm going out there." Before she could say a word, he swept out the window. Tim had gotten changed as soon as the light flashed the screen. In a few minutes, he was at the last place Dick was. After an hour, they were able to determine something horrifying thanks to Tim's detective work and Oracle's computer control.
Dick wasn't in Gotham. He wasn't anywhere, universally and beyond.
.xX'-~-'Xx.
Dick frowned at the sight before him. He was in an alleyway during the daytime. He checked the computers in his glove and quickly found himself to be in Gotham still. The tough part of it all was that it was daylight. He needed to find out what happened.
This is either the work of illusions, time travel, drugging, or someone knocked me out. It can't be drugging or knocking me out—I would be feeling the after effects right now and I would probably still be in the captor's possession. He quickly jumped to the top of one of the buildings he was sandwiched between. Using a special feature in his mask, they were used as goggles and magnified his senses. He focused in on a stray newspaper, searching for the date.
Where is it? Oh found it… Hold on. He glanced at the date. Definitely time travel. But who? Or why? How? He was about to go through his mental list of villains when a bright violet light appeared in the alley he himself was in moments before. His eyes widened at the sight.
It's Nightwing. It's also the same violet light I saw earlier, and as far as I know, I am—was the only Nightwing on Earth. Only one way to find out. It was pretty reckless of Dick, pretty thoughtless for the first trainee of Batman, and extremely irresponsible for the cowl. Bruce would have frowned. Dick shook his head. It wasn't the time for this.
He swiftly jumped down from the building and deflected a wingding thrown his way by Nightwing.
"Who are you and why are you impersonating Batman?" Questioned Nightwing, still on defense. Perhaps a bit pissed that the man was able to deflect a perfect shot.
"I'm not impersonating him, I'm simply taking up the mantle." Nightwing analyzed the situation in his head, but Batman was quicker.
"I'm not here to play games so I'll get right to the point. You are me and I am you. I am Richard Grayson." Reckless, sure, but he knew no one was around and had already checked for planted bugs if any. There were none. Nightwing was caught off guard.
"Who are you to say that I'm Richard Grayson? I don't even recognize the name." If it were anyone else, Dick would have believed him, but he knew himself. He didn't know anyone better than himself.
"Don't fool around with me, I know who you are. I would peel off your mask but you're using spirit gum." Richard flinched but it was barely visible to any other person.
"Judging by the way your costume is pretty clean says that you just started patrol and this is my original concept before I started adding changes and gadgets... You're me a few months after I left Batman." Dick was silently enjoying tormenting his younger self, who he knew at that point was very serious trying to prove himself.
"Stop messing with me! You can't be me. This is ridiculous." Nightwing was itching to pull out his eskrima sticks but decided against it. He had no idea who this lunatic could be.
"Is it really? Ask me anything. I think I can tell you. It's been awhile since I was at this point of time, but still I think I'll remember most of it."
"This point of time? Time travel? You're trying to convince me with time travel. How stupid. That is the worst cover I've ever heard, and—" He stopped himself.
"You've worked with Beast Boy, who gives the worst excuses ever." He said this with a small smile. Nightwing frowned. It looked so strange under the cowl.
"If you're really me, why are you dressed as Batman?"
"I can't tell you. It will endanger the future, I'm sure." A steady gaze was held between the two men before Richard (Nightwing) blinked and turned away. Dick, after a moment of consideration and a calculation of whether or not it was safe (it was) gently took of the cowl. Piercing and distinguishing blue eyes now looked down at Richard, who now accepted it. Their silent conversation through their eyes had convinced him of the situation as it was, so having him take off the cowl was an added thing just to reassure the young detective. Richard sighed.
"What do you know so far?"
"We've been sent back in time by a mysterious force or villain for a reason currently unknown. We're back in the time when we were in YJLA. (3) I'm guessing you didn't get any warning before the events of the travel." Richard shook his head. During this talk, Dick realized he was using his "Batman voice" but decided not to care. "There aren't any sayings that could be said that there won't be any other versions of us to show up and no other dimensions have shown up. So far there aren't any others other than you and I." Said Dick, pulling the cowl back on. "Basically, I don't know much more than you do or what you could have figured out. I've only been here before you for a five minute period, perhaps." He trailed off. "You're not going to like what I'm about to say." Richard swore.
"We have to see Batman, don't we?" Dick sighed. If only Richard knew how lucky was to have Bruce still alive…
"We do. But if there's anything that needs to be settled or a solution to this problem, Bruce would know." Richard scowled but accepted it nonetheless.
"I think we have to let Robin—us in this time period, I mean—know that we're here. He's probably part of it." Dick hesitated at Richard's statement but it was logical. According to what the statistics in his head were saying, hiding it from Robin would just cause further complications.
Curse you, Tim and your stupid statistics. Dick shook his head. Tim didn't even know he was going to be what he was and wasn't even Robin yet. All he was at this moment was a kid genius that had discovered the identities of Batman and Robin. Dick smiled fondly at the knowledge that was just tapped upon. He had teased Tim about being a little stalker for weeks, teasing him by saying he could have his autograph. Dick considered the boy his little brother and was dismayed to know that Babs and Tim were probably searching for him that moment. Tim considered Dick his idol, another mentor, and a dear elder brother. They were related by everything but blood. He briefly wondered if he'd ever see him again but dismissed the thought as soon as it came.
Dick shook himself from his reverie and pulled out the signature grappling hook, turning to Richard with a grin. Richard laughed a little, pulled his out, and they soared through Gotham's shadows together.
It only took 15 minutes to get to the Wayne Manor and they used their knowledge of the one and only place in the entire house that wasn't impossible to get into to get it, which lead out to a vent shaft that opened out to the top of the main dining room's chandelier. The two master acrobats flipped down, knowing all of the blind spots and hacked as they needed. They knew Bruce would be in the Batcave and weren't surprised when Bruce, after all of their carefulness, still saw them coming and attacked.
"Bruce, we're not here to hurt you," assured Dick, while dodging a kick.
"We're here to talk." Richard finished, flipping over him.
"We just need you to stop attacking for a moment." Dick's voice was strained as he jumped over Bruce's arm, extended in a punch, and used it as a beam to grab him around his neck and flip, then pin him down to the floor. It didn't last long as Bruce used both legs and quickly retracted them back into their chest before propelling them out, causing him to lift off the ground and result in him being back on his feet again.
"Could you just stop—." Richard did a flying turning hook kick 360, which was swiftly dodged by Batman (Bruce), who used that to go and kick at Dick, who also dodged, by millimeters.
"BRUCE. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP ATTACKING LONG ENOUGH TO NOTICE OUR FIGHTING STYLES." Richard was raving. He'd already been through this enough and at his time, he was still irked at Bruce for kicking him out. (4) Dick sighed, but looked to Dick and as Bruce charged at them both, they did a quadruple backflip in perfect synchronization before pulling another back handspring and landing gracefully and silently to the ground. Dick smirked while Richard fumed. Batman was finally eased, but still tense, as the former Boy Wonders knew him too well.
"Dick?" They both nodded. "Time travel." Nods again. "Explain if you could."
Dick had to share the same half-assed explanation he had given to Nightwing, with small changes and updates from Nightwing himself.
"I'll tell you everything you need to know about the future." Said Dick. Richard was suddenly alert and angry.
"Including my timeline? That should be up to me—did you not think to consult me about this?" Dick's Bat-glare was just as intimidating as Bruce's but Richard was still used to it.
"Unlike you I've gone through everything and know what you know and much, much more. He needs to know everything if he can make a proper assessment of the situation."
"This is my time. I don't care if you've already gone through this, it should still be my right." Richard was determined to get his way.
"You know he needs to know all of this and if you don't then I can't believe how stubborn and stupid I was at that age. You know this needs to happen if we want to get back to our timelines and now is not the time to let your bottled emotions out. Trust me, you will get your time." And regret not trying to reconcile things sooner. Dick thought, regretfully. He wanted to cry but it wasn't appropriate in the situation. After a bit of thinking for the youngest vigilante in the room, he finally replied.
"If this is going to happen, I'll explain my parts." And so it began.
(A/N This isn't extremely canon, as you've noticed throughout this entire story so far. It has to do with the way Icy Brownie had written her story and the way I want to write it. Their timeline is going to be a bit strange, but it will work –somehow–. This is mostly following Young Justice, Teen Titans (the cartoon), and a bit of Dick's being Batman. The rest is mostly made up for the sake of the story. Thanks. Back to the story. (Yes it isn't over yet.) **I'm sorry Carrie isn't mentioned in this story and in the Robin timeline PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!)
Dick cleared his throat.
"After Young Justice, I felt like I needed to be my own person instead of being under your shadow all of the time. And being the shadow of a shadow isn't the best thing. I set off on my own. I went around the country as Robin and one day I happened to come across Jump City. I came across a minor crook. After somewhat of an incident, I accidentally ended up with another team. With Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, and Cyborg, who I had met during said incident… We formed the Teen Titans but after awhile we split to do certain things as duty called." At this point, Richard interrupted.
"You had called me. You said that if I were to become my own hero, you didn't want me to be Robin. You basically kicked me out of your life at that point. I was talking to Superman and he told me a legend from his home planet, which is where I got the name Nightwing." As much as Dick wanted to protest, he didn't and let Richard set his frustrations. He himself sometimes had these frustrations and was now testing Bruce. Before they left, he would wait to see if anything was done. C'mon Bruce. I know you care. Step up. Maybe not now, but later. Just step up. "I've been on my own for a few months now, but I still keep in touch with the Titans."
"Richard." He turned and looked at his older self, who had now taken off his cowl once again and now used his normal voice. Under any other circumstances, Richard would have laughed at the voice change. "I need you to step out as I tell him the rest of the future." Richard wanted to protest, but the desperate look in Dick's eyes made him leave. Dick let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
"Truth is, at his point, I was pretty miffed. You don't know this yet, but you are going to have a lot of replacements for me when I leave. Jason Todd was the second Robin. He…" Dick blinked back tears. "He was beaten to death by the Joker. He was brought back to life and was a criminal and took up Joker's first identity as Red Hood. He's the prodigal son of our little 'family'." Dick paused, looking at Bruce as he took in the information. He seemed indifferent, but Dick knew better. This might endanger the future and he might not take Jason at all, but he knew that after he told enough, he would be able to let him see that this timeline needed to happen. Somehow he'd understand. That is, if this didn't end up taking their memories from them.
"After Jason died, you were pretty much a reck. A boy named Tim Drake came." Bruce looked as if he wanted to protest, but Dick knew that Bruce knew better than to interrupt. "He is a boy genius. I think he's 9 or 10 right now. He figured out who we were at age nine because he was able to connect the dots between my fighting style and you taking in a ward and then Batman coming out with a new sidekick." Worry flashed in Bruce's eyes.
"Don't worry—he knew, ah, knows he had to keep the secret safe and never told anyone. But when you lost Jason he knew Batman needed a Robin. So he came to me." He laughed at the fond memory. "He wanted me to go back and become Robin. But I didn't. I think I was still pretty mad at you for kicking me out in the first place." Dick continued to smile.
"Tim ended up becoming the next Robin. Alfred actually trained him first but I," he said with pride, "was the one who knew he had potential. Anyways, we both knew that he would be a great Robin, and eventually you took him in. You loved him too. He stepped out of the little legacy I left behind and was his own person. Didn't stop the press from comparing us." He chuckled as he remembered the headlines. "Robin: Before and Now-What Has Become of The Boy Wonder." He shook his head at the stupid things they had said in those articles. "He was more independent and had to do lots of things on his own. He had to leave though, because his father made him.
Then Stephanie showed up. She was Tim's girlfriend and you were hoping to get him back. But she failed you so you fired her. Then she tried to prove herself to you as to regain her Robin status but failed and you said she could never do crime fighting ever again. She won back trust eventually and now she's Batgirl, courtesy of Babs. The final Robin is Damian Way—Uh…" Dick contemplated telling Bruce for a moment. It was terrible and he felt the tears come to his eyes and suddenly he wished he had kept the cowl on. He decided to continue his story.
"You died. Well, we're not sure, really. But the body matched your DNA… There aren't any clues that led us—Alfred and I—to believe you were still alive. Tim was kind of delusional about it and about proving that you were still alive but Alfred and I had given up hope and were trying to get over it as fast as we could. We were just so… sad. In your will you actually told me not to be Batman. You know that?" Dick was crying.
"You probably do. And I really, really, sincerely wanted to just stay Nightwing. You had said I needed to be my own. You were respecting my wishes and I wanted to respect yours." Dick wiped his eyes. "Nightwing and Robin protecting Gotham, as it turned out, wasn't great. We weren't getting a lot of respect and people were telling us that if Batman was out it was only a matter of time before we were too. Then Jason took the cowl by force. He stole the cowl." Dick grimaced.
"In his defense, being beaten to death by a crowbar by the Joker, then getting brought back to life, and always been living on the streets only surviving with crime does something to a person. So he impersonated you and was doing bad things to your name. Tim convinced me that Gotham needed Batman and Jason was ruining all your hard work." Dick sat back for a while, letting everything sink in. "Tim was too inexperienced to be Batman and Damian was only ten. He's eleven now, uh in my timeline, by the way. So I had to take the cowl. And then I knew that Tim needed to become his own hero so I told him. He didn't take well to it at first, since I just fired him if you boil it down, but he really needed to be his own person. I got Damian to be Robin."
He paused again.
"Damian Wayne is your biological son. With Talia Al Ghul. I know, it's crazy, but it's true. Man Bruce, he was so much like you with a certain immaturity. No matter how long you're trained, a ten year old's a ten year old. No matter how different his immaturity is, it's still there. But still, he is so much like you. He kept to himself, really sarcastic, and had a sharp wit. But he was trained to be an assassin. After we got past everything he and I were Batman and Robin, just as Gotham needed. I was on patrol when things happened. Damian was sick and I forced him to stay in bed. Oracle—that's Babs. She got paralyzed by the Joker and had to let go of her Batgirl identity to become Oracle. Tim became Red Robin as he left. Anyways I had Tim and Babs on comms and I see a bright light. I go to check it out and here I am."
Several long moments took place. After the pregnant pause, Dick's eyes filled with tears.
"It's so good to see you again Bruce... Alive. I miss you. Damian wants to be like you. I keep wishing you were alive and we keep hoping you'll pop out of the blue somewhere and say that everything was just a cover while you tracked down a villain but the body… I miss you." Dick finished, not knowing what else to say. Bruce finally left a hand on his shoulder.
"It's your past. I'm sure you are fine as Batman and I couldn't have anyone better to take up the mantle." Dick smiled fondly at the man, soaking in all that he heard.
"I hope that this doesn't make you want to prevent anything that happens. This needs to happen, Bruce and I'm sure you know it. Every little detail in this story needs to happen. As soon as I leave, I need you to forget everything. I know that if you didn't, you would never take in Jason and that would screw up everything and probably for the worse. Just do it. It's painful, but we all went through his death together. And we all moved on and he's changed now Bruce. I've been Batman for a year now and I just found out all of your burdens. I understand now."
Bruce nodded. That was all Dick needed.
"Nightwing." Called Bruce. Dick pulled the cowl back on and if it weren't for Dick's costume being so much lighter for his fighting style and him being slimmer for his acrobatics, they would have been identical in costume together.
Richard showed and looked at the Batmen.
"Are we going to tell Robin?" Nightwing deadpanned. Bruce nodded after a second of thought.
"I have a feeling that whatever brought you here will require him. The team may know as well. Right now, the Dick in this timeline is at Happy Harbor with the Young Justice League. We can all teleport there and the beam won't announce you both. You will watch and wait in the main room. Understood?" Bruce looked at the two men, who both gave firm nods.
With that, they set off to the alleyway where the Richard Graysons first arrived; heading into the telephone booth and so began this journey.
.xX'-~-'Xx.
"I knew you were there." Robin said, astonishing the team but not the strangers. "But what I don't get is who you are." The two only smiled—a site all too familiar for to the team. The fact about the familiarity made them weary that they couldn't easily place why it was so familiar.
"I am Nightwing." The man in the black body suit and the blue emblem across his chest had stepped up, adjusting his domino mask with a push.
"I'm Batman." Said the second Batman. Well no duh. His voice was low and intimidating, just like the current Batman. Were they from a different dimension or something? Only one thing Robin knew for sure.
They were messing with them.
"We're from the future." The two said together.
"The… future?" Questioned Megan. Batman spoke up. Future? Maybe it was Batman in the future, along with an associate. But the other Batman looked younger than his Batman. This made no sense.
"Yes. We will talk about everything as soon as we're done. You're all dismissed." They turned to leave. "Robin, stay here." They all sent backward glances towards their friend and the intruders but Batman was there and Batman knew all. They couldn't hurt them. They were with Batman, hell, one was Batman. They left eventually, leaving just the four.
Batman glanced at the two and they both started securing the room. They understood Bat communication as well as Robin did, even better, in fact. Weird.
"All areas are secure. No bugs or cameras are found and mental links can't be established." This would've made Robin panic, but Batman was there, which made a hell of a lot of a difference.
"This is freaky." Said Nightwing, a bit awkward, and happily noted by Dick, his former self was back to his normal personality other than just brooding over the Batman of his time. "Now I know how you felt." Dick only chuckled. The pair sent a look to the Batman.
You have to be the one to tell him that we're him from the future. If we told him, it would take several times just to convince him we really are form the future. Batman nodded.
"Robin. This is information that is complicated and beyond any of our known information. They are you from the future." The second Batman nodded and Nightwing just smirked a bit.
"Are you sure Batman? How do you know?"
"I know things."
"Why is he dressed as Batman? Is he really me? Are you sure—" Just as before, Dick took off the cowl to reveal his cerulean blue eyes while Richard pulled out the remover for the spirit gum, revealing the same blue eyes as the second Batman. Robin knew by looking into their eyes that they were his own, but more experienced. Emotions were still running through Dick so they were expressive.
"We've come to the past for reasons unknown yet we've had to come to your time. A bright violet light was the thing that captured us and transferred us here. I previously had it recorded in the goggles built into my cowl, but it got wiped out. We feel as if you need to know some things before we try and figure things out." Dick pauses, looking to Richard. "We'll tell him about the Robins for now. I'll leave out some details about the last Robin for now." Richard had been informed about Damian but not all of the information.
"The Robins?" Dick was starting to get worried again. This was extremely strange.
With determination, the two began to tell the tale of the Robins.
"So basically, I broke off from Batman and Young Justice only to land back onto another team but as the leader, then became Nightwing. For circumstances that I'm not allowed to know about," he sent a quick glare to Dick, "I have to take up Bruce's alias and take on his illegitimate son as the next Robin and have been doing so for about a year. In between that I have been replaced by Jason Todd, the future Red Hood, Timothy Drake, the future Red Robin, Stephanie Brown, the future Batgirl, and Damian Wayne, who is the current Robin for you." They nod.
"Don't sweat about knowing about the part about us becoming Batman. I'm not allowed to know either." Nightwing said. But Robin was furious.
"You replaced me just like that." Robin said, turning on the current Batman. "You just went a replaced me! You even fired me! What's wrong with you? I thought we were partners, but I guess that means nothing to you."
"No, that isn't what I meant, it sounds bad but if you knew everything—" Dick tried to protest, while Nightwing was saddened that he was exposed to the rejection so early.
"But I can't and from what I see here, it's just a load of meaningless junk that I still even be on this team."
"You have to understand that everything needs to happen and I only told you—"
"I don't care! Why doesn't Batman say anything?" Bruce stayed silent, at a loss for words. He couldn't reveal what happened.
"Four years! I've been wasting my life on you!"
Bruce could only watch sadly as his ward broke to pieces.
.xX'-~-'Xx.
"Today we're going to be investigating the underground toxic waste that's been flowing underground." Robin said, authority adding confidence.
"But Robiiiiiin…" Whined Beast Boy.
"I know it seems boring to you but haven't you noticed that whenever Plasmus breaks out, he has to chug on these toxic wastes. We need to get them out of the city so we can deal with Plasmus more easily." Robin paused to give Beast Boy a look that said "Just shut up and do it."
"Since it's not an urgent mission, we'll just go in the T-car." Cyborg grinned ear to ear, Robin giving a small smirk as well.
"A car ride? How spectacular! May we sing to the radio?" The whole team let out a smile at the alien. She really loved the radio.
"'Course, Star." Cyborg assured. "Just be quieter this time."
They piled into the car, every once in a while Starfire having Robin (who was sitting in the passenger seat) change the radio station to a song which she happily bobbed along to. Beast Boy was changing into different animals to annoy Raven. Cyborg was cooing to his "baby" at what a good job it was doing. Robin just enjoyed the company of the team.
They were so much like Young Justice… He mused. He missed them dearly, but he couldn't go back, not now. Starfire was like Megan. They both couldn't cook to save their lives, but they were friendly and hospitable. Beast Boy was like Wally, flirting around and trying to make others laugh (and failing, but at least he-they tried, right?). Cyborg in a strange way was like Aqualad. They were both capable of being exceptional leaders and trusted Robin with all they had. Raven was a combination of Artemis and Superboy. She had daddy issues, so did they. (But no one could ever match up to Raven's daddy issues… That's what happens when your dad is a demon. Anyways…) They're all aloof with the strange past and a wavering future.
He missed everyone so much.
As soon as they got to the site where they would go underground, Starfire used a laser beam to make a circle for them to go through. Raven lifted the circle and placed it to the side. They dropped one by one, Cyborg and Starfire providing the light source. Beast Boy changed into a dog to sniff out any toxic and to see in the dark. Mostly the former, though. They found a seven way intersection.
"Split up." He grabbed 2 flashlights from his utility belt and handed one to Raven. "It's a wind up battery, so you just wind it up when it dies." As they turned to leave to different spots, they see a bright violet light go off behind them. The flashlight topples to the ground. The flashlight is the only thing left of him.
"Robin!"
.xX'-~-'Xx.
"I can't believe after all of this time you—"
"Recognized. Robin-B01." The four arguing Bats went to the entrance. Since one Robin was already there fighting with them all, it meant that another timeline Robin had come.
"Uh, hello?" They stared at the newcomer. It looked exactly like Robin, but the costume was more similar to the one he had worn when he first became Robin. The traffic light colors were there, with green pants instead of underoo's, spiked hair, the yellow on the inside of the cape, and extendable bo stick out and ready to addition, he was a good 4 inches taller than him and looked to be about 16.
"Teen Titans' Robin." Nightwing whispered in surprise. 13 year old Robin looked like he was about to break down.
"What is going on here?"
"I have no idea." Robin, Nightwing, and Batman answered in unison, the four of them staring at each other.
They've come together now, they have much ahead.
End chapter one.
Edit: Page breaks fixed. For some reason they weren't showing up. Sorry about that...EDIT: I had to fix them AGAIN and just added my signature line break. It makes a hell of a lot more sense with the page breaks :P
A/N Oh geez. You know how long this took? This is more planning than I've ever done for any fic ever. I'm really into it. I'm sorry that this chapter is really wordy and probably boring but I think it'll get more interesting. Without the A/Ns and everything this is more than 7,000 words. 17 pages on Microsoft Word. Golly. That's a record for me. No first chapter has been this long for me. My fingers are aching… This is going to be a very, very long process. I hope someone liked it.
Next chapter up soon (I hope.) Soon=maybe next week.
Haha.
I'm already planning on the next chapters and I actually have a plan instead of just throwing caution to the wind. I'm a maturing a bit! :O **a BIT
Thanks for reading! Tell me what you think!
(1) In this story, he's been Batman for about a year. Somewhere in there Damian must have turned 11. It's logic.
(2)I don't know if they're still feuding in the comics and I also don't remember specifically what happened but I remember that Batman had to go somewhere and Tim had to take care of Gotham for a bit. You probably know the rest.
(3) I don't want to put the dates... It'll be more complicated. I have also decided just to use "Young Justice League of America." Take it or leave it.
(4)I think that somewhere in the comics it says that Dick used some sort of glue to keep his mask on. Spirit gum was the first thing I could think of.
(5) I don't remember by what time Dick got over this little thing with Bruce kicking him out but for the sake of keeping some of Icy Brownie's plotline, I said that he's still angry. Moody Nightwing is going to be very prominent in the story for a while.