Heya! I'm not dead. Sorry the update took so long but I was out at my cottage and we don't have wifi out there so yeah. Also super sorry about the whole perspective mix up at the end of the last chapter. I wrote that chapter at like 3 in the morning and wasn't paying too much attention to it. Anyways here's the new chapter. Also robin war never happened in this story. If you'd be interested in a story like this with a robin war setting then i might write one after I'm finished here.
Disclaimer: if I owned it I wouldn't be here writing fanfiction. I would be writing comics with this storyline.
Tim Drake stared at the main monitor of the bat computer as he looked through all of Bruce's old case files. It had been a couple weeks since the man had lost his memory, and Gotham was suffering for it. Him and the other bat siblings had been working overtime to keep Gotham in check.
Tim sighed. It seemed things just keep getting more complicated every day. He remembers back when it all started getting so complicated. It was back around the time Bruce died and when he picked up Dick.
He hadn't been around when Bruce had picked up the little acrobat, none of them had. He was off trying to track down his other little brother so he could drag Jason back and give a good talking too and then a hug, because damn it his little bird was alive and he should be allowed to hug him. Even if he wasn't always the touchy feely type.
Damian had actually been the first of them Dick had met, maybe that's why the little troll always clung to Damians side, like the kid imprinted on him or something. Who knows. Of course that was only a little bit before Bruce had died. Damian being the eldest picked up the cowl of Batman. There wasn't much argument, they all knew Damian was going to be Batman one day when Bruce retired or finally kicked the bucket, whichever came first. So no that wasn't really that much of an issue. No the issue had been Dick. None of them knew what to do with the child. So angry and grieving at the time, nothing like the happy mischievous child he'd revealed himself to be latter, having lost his family once and know lost what he saw as his second chance. They weren't going to send him back, god no, the social workers had him in juvie for pete's sake, but they still didn't know what to do with him. They were all a bunch of emotionally and mentally damaged teens essentially, with the exception of Tim and Damian being the only ones of legal age of the group.
So imagine everyone's surprise when Damian stepped up and signed the adoption papers making him Dicks legal guardian. Then turning around to the angry child sitting in the batcave, he had discovered who Bruce was not too long after he moved in and Bruce had let him use some of the training equipment for his acrobatics but had refused to train him, and tossed him a black domino mask and said. "If you're gonna help find the man who killed your parents you best use that. It's always a pain when everyone knows who you are. It also takes quite a bit of fun out of it." He'd said it with a vicious smirk and some humor in his eyes, as it turned out Dick had been going out at night trying to find his parents killer using some handmade gadgets and weapons, and been doing a pretty damn good job all things considered. Damian of course knew what the child had been up to, it had been all the proof he needed that the boy was skilled enough to survive their style of life and also had enough potential to not only survive, but flourish. He also knew that he couldn't stop the boy, so he might as well give him the means and the training to protect himself.
Besides, Batman always had a shadow following him and Jason had moved on it seemed.
The tiny boy smirked wickedly back to the older man. "Deal. But don't expect me to go running around with a name like Shadow Bird. It's not really my style."
"Heh, so what the hell do we call you then twerp." Jason said from where he was sitting on the console of the computer, he'd finally decided to come home after hearing about Bruce's death, he knew they would all need each other to get through this. Besides, he had a little brother to meet.
"Hmm, how about Robin."
And god isn't that just where it all started.
Dick as it turned out was a natural at this kind of thing. Aside from Damian he was the only one of them who'd been trained since before he could walk and was a natural athlete because of this, despite his small size. He was also very intelligent and eager to learn, though his english had needed work at the beginning. He learned quickly, and had somehow wormed his way into all their hearts.
Jason, surprisingly got along great with Dick, he was the closest in age so they should have seen it coming, the two bonded over their love for dramatics and mischief. It seemed that the only drama queen greater than Jason himself was Dick.
After they brought in Zucko Dick started to find some closure about his parents deaths. He started opening up more, and before we realised it he'd started healing.
Around the same time Dick and Damian moved to the penthouse, the manor being too big for them. Tim was off with Jason helping him work through some of his own issues, but they made sure to visit regularly.
While Damian could deal with Dick with relative ease, he didn't always have the right kind of patience needed for dealing with Jason. Luckily Tim did. So in the fall out of their father,s death the two elder brothers each took one of the younger ones and managed to keep their family together, along with Alfred of course who moved into the penthouse along with the other two and all of Damians pets.
For a while everything was perfect. Hell they'd even gotten a new dog to keep Titus company, once Dick had discovered Ace he would not let the creature go till Damian had finally adopted him, not that he needed much prompting he loved animals and ace was an ex rescue dog so his training might come in use.
Life was good, Dick was happy and learning, Jason was recovering and Tim and Damian were getting settled into the new routine of things. Two years rolled by.
Then Bruce came back. Neither Tim nor Damian had really expected him to be truly dead, but they both had more important responsibilities to their younger brothers, it's what they believed Bruce would have wanted.
Bruce was back, and that was both brilliant and amazing all at once. Because while Bruce being alive and back was great, this Bruce hadn't been here to see the growth and recovery Jason had gone through, nor had he seen Dick mature and grow into a brilliant young hero. No. He just saw Jason the insane threat that needed to be dealt with and Dick the untrained undisciplined child who shouldn't be wearing a mask at all.
And then Damian was returning Batman to Bruce and had convinced Bruce to continue Dicks mentoring. And god. Could it have gotten worse, Dick was always anxious and scared that if he didn't do well enough Bruce would send him back to Juive, and Bruce didn't understand this child and his theatrics, always demanding more of him and pushing him to be more disciplined, trying to mold him into being like Damian and Tim. It was no surprise that they both got so frustrated and Damian ended up staying at the manor to help with the transition.
Then Damian died and it all went to shit. Dick was a wreck. Bruce was cold and distant and even stricter than usual. Jason was grief stricken and was trying to both avoid Bruce while trying to comfort Dick. Tim wasn't much better, sure he and Damian didn't start out perfect or even ok but over the years they'd grown closer.
Then the crime syndicate happened and Dick died. Precious little Dick, so young and wild. Jason was inconsolable but was able to pull himself together enough to keep it together during patrol. Tim wasn't much better but years of being in this business and being a bat had allowed him to hide it better than most. Bruce was just as cold as before, which only served to anger Jason more because damn it did he even care?
It was hard to tell these days.
Then Apokolips happened and Damian was back only to find out that his little bird was dead.
And now to finish it of Bruce had lost his memory.
Tim sighed as he rubbed a hand over his face drawing himself from his memories.
He continued to scroll through different files, when he stumbled on one file in particular. It was triple encoded and was named Birdwatcher.
Tim stared at the file, it was most likely one of the cases bruce had been working on before by the look of the creation date and the date of when it was last opened.
Tim set to work on the code. Ten minutes later he was in.
There wasn't much information, it was mostly a bunch of recorded conversations that looked like they might contain some kind of report. The first few had all been received, but the ones from around when Bruce lost his memory only seemed to be recorded messages left behind by the caller. Tim decided to open one.
"Mr Malone, do you copy. This is Birdwatcher. The mission was a success the tech was retrieved and I managed to plant the bug."
The voice was young but a bit garbled so it was hard to tell who the voice might have belonged too, but they were definitely young, Tim was sure of that.
"I need to go Matron's coming, I'll contact you again when I have the chance."
The voice cut out and the message ended. Tim listened to a couple more, and with every new recording Birdwatcher became more and more desperate for a response, nearly begging for Mr Malone to pick up.
Whoever this kid was they needed help, and Tim was going to give it to them. From what he'd figured out from the recordings the kid was some kind of spy working for Bruce infiltrating something called Spyral.
-Brake Line-
It's been over two weeks since Bruce had answered the boys reports. Dick was getting anxious.
Had something happened to Bruce?
Had something happened in Gotham?
Had Bruce abandoned him?
Whatever it was Dick needed to finish his mission and he was going to. He was going to prove to Bruce that he knew what he was doing.
He was going to make Damian proud
Besides he wasn't completely alone, Dick was pretty sure he knew one or two people who'd be willing to help him take down Spyral.
And there you have it. So what do you think? Good, bad? Tell me, i always love reviews they make me write faster. Also when Damian Tim and Jason were Bruce's sidekicks they went by the name Shadowbird. And tim is still Red Robin, just to clarify. If you have any other questions or comments please leave a review. Also I know nothing about Ace so i just made up a bit of stuff for him. Also for dicks robin uniform think young justice uniform but with long black sleeves, green pants and green gauntlets. Toodles.
